How Can I Help a Writer?

The first time a friend asked me what she could do to support me in my writing, my answer was incoherent. I was so surprised, I stood there with my mouth hanging open, struggling to process what the question meant. Since that day—many years ago—I’ve come up with a better answer. Now when friends ask me, “How can I help a writer?” I point them to a few specific actions that can have the most impact:

Buy your friend’s book.

This may seem obvious but it bears pointing out. The best way to promote sales of a tome is to buy it. Not only are book sales the bottom line for most authors, but by buying a book, you encourage both brick-and-mortar stores and online outlets to throw in more of their own marketing. Plus, you encourage your friend to keep writing.

Read your friend’s book.

How many books sit in a stack in your home unread? Pick one and read it. Let your friend the author know. Writers write because they want to be read. Having a book and not reading it is like walking away from a free vacation.

Write a review of your friend’s book on Amazon (or other bookseller website).

If you have read a friend’s book and liked it, consider writing an honest review on Amazon or wherever the book is sold electronically. Five-star reviews drive the Amazon marketing algorithm, which provides extra exposure for the book beyond its Amazon page. Your review encourages Amazon to list the book as “recommended” when customers view other products. However, beware: since the average book rating across all Amazon books is somewhere between four and five stars, reviews that award fewer than five stars actually bring the book’s average rating down. Likewise, a review that mentions that you know the author personally is not likely to influence buyers to buy the book.

Recommend your friend’s book to a friend.

My mother frequently requests a unique Christmas gift. When I ask her what she wants, she nearly always says, “I like a good story.” This may be part of the reason why I’m a writer. I get her a movie I’ve seen or a book I’ve read that I think she’ll like. She reacts as if I’ve given her a cruise! A personal recommendation can do more to persuade a reader to read a book than an Amazon review can.

Post about your friend’s book on Facebook.

You can post a friend’s book to your Facebook wall. Find the Amazon URL of your friend’s book listing and copy it. Then, on Facebook, paste the URL into your status box, and you should see the book appear in the preview. Tell your Facebook friends how good it was, and encourage them to repost it. This can provide more exposure for your friend’s book than a signing at a bookstore.

Tweet about your friend’s book or blog.

If you are on Twitter, you can reach thousands of people with your recommendation, even if you don’t have thousands of followers. Tweet about your friend’s book, using the URL of its Amazon listing. Including a few well-chosen hashtags can cause your tweet to show up in the feeds of the book’s target audience. Some examples: #amreading, #scifi, #historical, #kindle, #ebook, #mystery, #memoir, #poetry, #romance, #GreatReads. A good place to find more is at TagDef.

Be a beta reader or participate in a critique group with your writer friend.

It can be hard for a writer to find readers willing to offer good, constructive criticism of a manuscript. Many writers belong to groups like WAG’s own critique pods, but these gatherings are usually composed of other writers with a different perspective from readers who aren’t writers. I personally avoid having close friends and family critique my work on the grounds they can’t be objective, and I value the relationships more than their criticism. But if the writer is more distant than your cousin or grandchild, you may be in a unique position to offer a reader’s perspective.

Post a comment on your friends’ blog.

Blogging can feel like a solitary activity to a writer. Are people reading your posts? Is anyone out there? Most writers’ blogs include a feature where a reader can leave a comment in response to a post. Find a link that says, “Leave a comment.” Or, scroll down to below the post to see if there is a box into which you can type a comment. Discuss the material in the post. Your comment will encourage other people to comment, and those people might be future readers of the writer’s work.

Like and participate in your friend’s Facebook writer page.

Many writers, even those who aren’t yet published, maintain a Facebook page for their writing pursuits. If you haven’t seen your friend’s Facebook page, ask about it and, if possible, click the like button when you get there. This will ensure that you see at least some of your friend’s posts. You can also visit the page frequently (whether or not you “like” it). When you like and comment on your friend’s posts, Facebook then will identify those posts as something people like to see – so it will cause the posts to show up in more feeds of people who also like your writer friend. When you participate on a writer’s page, you are actually providing more publicity for the page.

On Amazon, upvote the five-star reviews of your friend’s book.

One way you can help your writer friends on Amazon is to upvote the existing five-star reviews of your friend’s book by clicking yes to answer the question, “Was this review helpful?” that appears below each review. This encourages Amazon to display those reviews first. Reviews that are unhelpful are pushed to the bottom.

There are so many ways to help your writer friends; these are only a few things you can do. Most don’t cost anything except a little time and effort. As a fledgling writer myself, I can say from personal experience that it gives me a great boost anytime one of my friends supports me in these ways. Even though I have a sense that I’m doing a good thing, when someone shows her support for my work, it says, “Hey, your writing is important!” I encourage you to do one thing today to help out—and tell us about it in the comments.