How to make an author happy

1. Read her book.
2. If you enjoyed it - tell her. Tell her what you liked and why. Ask questions.
3. Review the book - maybe here or maybe there.
4. Tell your friends about it.
5. Tell booksellers about it
6. If you are a bookseller then put it in your window. Or on your display table. Or on that recommended shelf. Or any combination of the above.
7. If you work for a large chain of booksellers then tell everyone in the company about it.
8. Tell librarians about it. Especially school librarians.
9. If you are a school librarian invite her to your school. Promote it to your pupils. Sell lots of books during the visit.
10. If you're a pupil at her school visit, ask lots of intelligent and interesting questions.
11. If you're the Education Secretary, make sure school libraries are funded and schools have the cash for new books, librarians and author visits.
12. Tweet about it.
13. Like its Facebook page. Write on the Facebook page's wall. Share the Facebook page's post.
14. Write about it on your blog. Interview the author. Ask her to write guest blogs.
15. Do clever and funny things with its cover...like this
16. Tell your friends that they have to buy their own copy…
17. …or buy them a copy for their birthday. Or for any other reason.
18. Pre-order the sequel at your local bookshop. Or even here.
19. Tell other people that the sequel is out in September.
20. Tell her that you're so excited about the sequel that you can't sleep.
21. Borrow it from the library - even if you've read it already.
22. Oh and if you hated the book…errr…keep it to yourself.

I wrote this list as a jokey post, and then I realised that people have done every one of these things for me and my first book...except for number 11, which is possibly too much to hope for. Even (I assume) number 22. And I got a bit choked up, and I wanted to say thanks to everyone. This week it was Alison, Alana, Ingrid, Gabriel and Amna in particular. But over the six months since When I Was Joe was published, it's been so many more people. I really appreciate it. And it does make me very happy.