Introduction

It is no secret to my family and friends that I love author events. St. Louis has a thriving book community, which allows so many authors to come to my hometown. In four years, I have accumulated 88 signed books from author events. (Yes, my bookshelves are overflowing at the moment.) Author events serve so many purposes. They foster community between readers. They bridge the physical gap between the author and the reader. They allow us to express our love directly to the writer. I argue that the best author events should teach you something. From my favorite author events, I always walk out learning something new about myself or the book community. Today, I want to share some of my favorite lessons I have learned from author events with you all in hopes that it encourages you to attend an author event in 2025!

Rachael Lippincott

When Five Feet Apart was published in November 2018, my mother bought me a copy the moment it hit the shelves. When I met Rachael Lippincott last year, she told me that she donated all of the first editions to Five Feet Apart that she was given by Simon & Schuster to a local independent bookstore because the owner’s daughter had cystic fibrosis. We laughed about how she signed my first edition copy without owning one herself. She asked me if I had any connection to cystic fibrosis. I talked about my family friend – my Uncle Pete – with cystic fibrosis and my advocacy work with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Rachael Lippincott’s author event taught me the important role that novels have in wider society. I told her that a huge reason why I love Five Feet Apart is because it explains the condition so well. So many more people knew about cystic fibrosis. I did not have to explain to my friends why I spent so much of my summer preparing for ten-minute meetings in Washington, D.C. I also saw a clear difference between my advocacy work before and after the book (and movie) came out. Congress members understood what cystic fibrosis was from the novel, which made it much easier to explain how they could help people like my Uncle Pete.  Everyone I talked to in the Gateway Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation was so excited about this book when it first came out because it raised awareness and helped fundraising efforts. Like so many diseases, Five Feet Apart paints one representation of cystic fibrosis. Think of what five novels could do. Rachael Lippincott encourages us as writers to broaden our horizons beyond the book community and to the wider world. She encourages us as readers to embrace novels that represent the reality of autoimmune diseases. Sometimes, the stories that we need to hear are difficult to swallow because we realize how ignorant we are. However, we have the power to challenge our ignorance. I believe that one of the best ways to do this is by reading. 

P.S. If you want to read more about Five Feet Apart and cystic fibrosis, check out this article that the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation published when the movie came out!

Soman Chainani

In a past blog post, I talked about how I read 50+ books every year (currently sitting at 93 books… if you want to learn how I read so much, go check that blog post out!). One of my tips for fostering a love of reading is to reread a book or a series that you loved as a child. For me, that series was A School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani. I remember devouring those books one right after another in middle school. Last year, I had the opportunity to meet Soman Chainani at an author event. While he was signing my books, we chatted about a couple of topics, including our shared love of St. Louis. He asked me about my love of reading, and I talked about how it came from reading his series. As we get older, we sometimes lose that love of reading because other things become “cooler”. I think that is especially true with this next generation because they have grown up with technology being at the center of everything. Reading then becomes redundant. Why spend all that time reading when you just read the summary online (or generated by AI like ChatGPT)? I remember reading becoming less cool in high school. The focus switched from doing things because you love them to doing things because they help you get into a good college. (I am a perfect example that you can get into a good school just by doing what you love.) Soman Chainani’s author event taught me the importance of not caring what other people think about me. The School for Good and Evil still holds a very special place in my heart. Why should it matter to other people what I love? I am not ashamed of my love for this young adult series. I don’t care if the books I like are not considered cool by other people. If someone judges you for the things you love, that is a reflection of them and their insecurities. All you can do is continue to love what you love. 

M.L. Rio

It was pure luck that M.L. Rio was holding an author event in London through Waterstones during my study abroad! This author even came at exactly the right time. I felt extremely homesick for my family, friends, and book community back in St. Louis. I was stressed out about finishing all my assignments by the end of Reading Week. I was applying and interviewing for jobs back at WashU. However, I felt a certain kind of peace the moment I sat down at M.L. Rio’s author event. My friends are probably tired of hearing about M.L. Rio and her novel If We Were Villains because I recommend it to everyone. It is one of my favorite novels of all time, and it was seriously a dream to hear her speak and get my books signed. While I was waiting in the signing line, I started up a conversation with the girl next to me. Because she was from London, we began chatting about our experiences with our respective book communities. M.L. Rio’s author event taught me that a book community is not static; it is constantly growing to accommodate new members. Since it has been almost five years since I joined the book community in St. Louis, I forget that everyone I now call a friend used to be a stranger who I struck up a conversation with. At some point, we grow content with the friends we have and stop reaching out to new people. This truth struck me hard at this author event because I was an outsider as a non-native. However, this kind stranger welcomed me into the book community even though I would only be in London for four months. M.L. Rio is the perfect author to talk about this lesson because she is coined as one of the authors who truly developed the dark academia genre (also known as the college novel). When I get back to St. Louis, I want to continue to reach out to fellow readers and build my relationships inside the book community. 

Amy Tan

Let me tell you: this was a hard event to get tickets for! I would describe the process as one akin to fighting in the trenches. After the fighting finished and the smoke cleared, I had two tickets for Amy Tan’s author event. My mom and I went together, and the first thing I noticed when we walked through the doors was that we were probably the youngest people there. I found this strange. One of the reasons that I believe there was this large gap between the ages of participants was because my generation views older authors differently. When we encounter novels in an academic context, we tend to see the authors as figures or symbols, not people. We forget that their personal lives are not there for us to pick apart for our analytical papers. So many of the older audience members probably picked up Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club on their own instead of being forced to read them in a classroom. Amy Tan’s author event taught me that we have to know our roots in the book community. My generation needs to attempt to engage with novels by older authors because no book just pops out of nowhere. There is a reason that so many well-known writers were readers first. They were inspired by the books they read to be authors. Legacy is a powerful word. It is something that I continually come back to because it is an important value of mine. Not only because I want to create a legacy of my own, but because I want to know where I came from. I know the authors that have inspired me to become a writer. I am now a part of their legacy. I hope to be someone else’s inspiration. In this age of mass media, we can forget the importance of legacy in the book community. I encourage all of you to dive deeper into this generation of authors who will not be around for much longer. They created the foundation we build upon now. 

Conclusion

It can be kind of scary to attend your first author event. The author who started my love of author events was Veronica Roth. She was one of my favorite authors growing up, and I was a little nervous to meet her. I promise that they are not actually that scary. After meeting so many authors, I realized that they are just people like you and me. Author events have given me so many things. I have met so many dear friends at author events. I have made countless memories with my mom (and created some amazing inside jokes between the two of us). I have read so many books that I never would have read if I did not go to the event. I encourage everyone to go to an author event in 2025 because you will learn so much from them. If you are in the St. Louis area, check out The Novel Neighbor because they put on fabulous author events. If you ever see me at an author event, please come up and say hello to me (and share what you learned from that author event!).