You do, Brenda. I think that’s our problem here in the States. We line. We don’t queue. 🙂

Thanks for a wonderful post.

Good for you and the owner, Colleen. One of our local indy booksellers put up a sign that said “Good Fiction” over the mainstream/literary part of the bookstore. My books weren’t there, of course. So I walked him over and said, “Does that mean my books are bad fiction?” He took the sign down, and really apologized. He hadn’t realized how insulting that was.

There was a lot of badmouthing romance customers, etc and it infuriated me. At all of 23 years old they were universally convinced that they were the most well read people in the world.

There is no excuse for such rude behavior and I was always happy when our owner made it clear that they either put a happy face on and helped the customers or quit. I just told them to grow up – and wondered just what on earth possibly made them be so impressed with their obnoxious selves!

Oh, what a great book that would be, James, esp. in this market. You should propose it to someone at a publishing house. 🙂

Great posts, Jeremy. I too have bought books from writers I “met” on Twitter, because the writers were nice or interesting or both. I think Twitter and Facebook are like a giant convention, so I try to treat them that way, and love it when others do too. (I have unfriended more than a few folks for politics, mostly, because I want to keep on reading their books.

In the past year, I’ve connected, albeit on a limited scale, with dozens of writers, some of them bestsellers. Some interactions have been better than others, of course, but I would characterize none of them as having been bad.

One stands out, however. This man has had numerous bestsellers, movie deals, and even a movie made from one of his books. He is active on the internet as a way to interact with his fans because he feels it helps him be better. He interacts with people so excessively that he has to force himself offline to meet his goals. But he treats everyone with nothing but courtesy and respect.

If you tell him you liked his book on Twitter, you will get back something like, “Thanks! What specifically did you like about it?”

I didn’t know his name in June last year, and I’ve since bought, read, and loved two of his books. After learning of him, I went to the bookstore one day to buy a book by another author, and literally turned my head to the shelf and saw one of his. I bought it because I knew his name and because of his positive interactions with people. If he had been an ass, I wouldn’t have bought either book.

When I read his most recent book, I tweeted that I had read it and I found it very interesting, for lack of a better word. Within a few hours, I had the reply, “Awesome! What interested you about it?” I told him, and he said, “Thanks!”

That’s a bit of an extreme amount of interactivity for many writers, I’d assume, but this man treats his fans the way they ought to be treated, that’s for sure.

But given the craft, it surprises me that an author, meeting a person for the first time, wouldn’t ask tons of questions about the other person, just from the habit of observing his surroundings in order to improve his writing.

Maybe I’m just naturally curious, but while I can easily dominate a conversation about anything (not just writing), I make a conscious effort to direct the conversation back to the person with whom I’m speaking, particularly if I’ve never met that person. I tend to ask question after question, trying to get a feel for their culture and background. I never go and base a character off of someone I’ve met, but small elements of people I know end up in my characters.

A wise man once said to me, “You know, Jones, if you spent half as much time listening as you do talking, you might learn something.” This was after I’d said something stupid in my youth. Specifically what, I don’t recall. But I remember his chiding me, and I try to use that now.

Of course, I’ve spent this whole comment talking about myself, ironically.

I don’t even understand that kind of rudeness toward fans, or anyone else. Even if you are a rude person, that’s lousy business. If a writer treatedme that way, I’d be sorely tear up a copy of his or her book right there on the spot. I definitely would not buy another book that writer wrote.

Now, on the other hand, I’ve had nothing but good experience with surgeons. I’ve only had to deal with two, but both were courteous, friendly, spent a lot of time with me before and after the procedures, and answered every question I had in depth.