Do you support authors or do they support you?

One of my favorite authors is a fantasy writer named Brent Weeks.  His first books The Night Angel Trilogy were the first I’d ever read in the fantasy genre.  Prior to this, I had a misplaced belief that most fantasy readers spent a lot of time living in their mother’s basement.  However, these books opened a whole new world for me and I have since enjoyed dozens of fantasy books.

Last year Brent released his latest title, the first in a new series.  I preordered it as soon as it was available and, once it was released, neglected my family and responsibilities to read it cover to cover.  I loved it.  Can’t wait for the next one.

Now let me ask you something.  Why did I read that book?  Was it for the author?  Was I focused on supporting him in some way?  Was it my obligation?  Did I feel like I needed to support the struggling publishing industry with my money?

Of course not.  I bought and read the book because I got a lot of enjoyment out of it.  Sure, I like the author and am thankful that the publisher brought his work to the world, but that wasn’t enough for me to pull out my wallet.  I read books because I love them.

The funny thing is, I only knew about Brent Week’s new book because he told me about it on his blog.  Otherwise, I would never have known that I could preorder it.

This “marketing” tactic of Brent’s with his blog and writing publicly about his work wasn’t some smarmy thing he did to trick me into buying something I didn’t want.  Instead, he gave me a way to easily find out about something that would make my life better.

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