Really excited about author coming to talk to our bookclub!

[rebelmum72]

Has anyone else had an author visit their bookclub? We've got one coming next month - not very famous, but a "proper" writer ie makes a living from writing, and his latest book has got excellent reviews, so we are rather excited!

I haven't read the book yet - am still waiting for amazon to deliver it, but the couple of members who've already started it love it and cannot wait to meet him.

Any tips on what sort of questions to ask / not ask etc?
But really I just wanted to share my excitement with people who'd understand (dh was like "oh, that's nice dear" when I told him)

How did you arrange it - did the author contact you or did you approach them?

oh i am so jealous! its like you are meeting someone famous isnt it. You just cant believe that you are meeting the person from whom all of these lovely words came from!

I would love to meet my fav authors, love to.

We just decided to see which authors were visiting Germany and would be near us (should mention that we are an English bookclub in Germany for that to make sense!) and then invite them. First one we asked - a Canadian author doing a 3-month academic residency here - accepted!

We can't pay him anything, so we're taking him out to dinner instead - not sure if he's yet realised that, as with most book clubs, we're all women!

That sounds really good. It has crossed my mind to invite authors to my book group. Im sure they would enjoy it as we are a rather wine and food focused group . I just wasnt sure if they would think it was a bit presumptous. Will maybe give it a go!

Hi rebelmum - sounds really exciting - who have you got? There is definitely a huge thrill from meeting a real author. I am always so surprised at how articulate they are 'in the flesh' (somehow you - or at least, I - think that someone that spends that long communing with the page must be socially a lost cause). And often, how modest too.

The bookshop I work for has recently posted several recordings of its past events programme online, including the audience Q&As, which might give you some ideas of what sorts of things make good questions. I just tried to CAT you the URL as I'm a bit hazy on the MN rules on linking of this sort (since it is technically, in a way, advertising) but looks like you're not set up that way.... let me know anyway if it sounds like that might be handy and we can figure out a way for me to pass you the link

If they're not hugely topsellers and live reasonably nearby, they'd probably be delighted - you don't generally make much money from writing so every bit of publicity is good!

Some questions I've found really interesting answering at book groups are:

How do you research your books?

Are any of the characters at all like you? (Usually not but sometimes I find they are...)

Did the book turn out differently than you expected it to? (usually!)

What have you enjoyed reading yourself? (Sparks interesting discussions)

A question I find hard to answer is:

Where do you get your ideas from? (God knows.)

Your author will probably just really like being with people who are interested in his/her books! I know I do.

Well I can talk from the "other" side of the fence too as I have done the odd book club visit. Just give me plenty of wine, be interested in my books and ask questions and be generally adoring and I'm fine. Things that piss me off: "Where do you get your ideas from?" and "Do you write under your own name?" and people who obviously haven't read anything by me.