Wut

My wife is pretty active on BookTok, checking out other authors and supporting them. She suggests books and we get them and her taste is perfect. She saw that one of the authors she followed, L. E. Harper, was having a book signing near us. Awesome! Let’s go.

And we entered the bookstore (Cincy Book Rack—if you’re in the Cincinnati area, you really need to check this place out) –so we enter the bookstore, and this person I’ve never seen before explodes. “You came!”

I figure it’s just her excited to see people to buy books. Cool!

…no. This fellow author actually recognized me. We’re on TikTok, and I post a story a week there. Well, really, I record a story a week, and my wife posts them. And she knew me from there.

I was recognized.

Wut.

(To be fair, I think she may have surprised the other author doing signings, MJ Pankey, whose book we also picked up.)

And then… another person there recognized me. Now, this was a person I’ve met a handful of times. I’ve supported her on Kickstarter and enjoyed a few of her books. J. S. Bailey‘s worth checking out! But… she remembered me?

Weird.

First off, I’m honored. People know about me? People recognize me? I don’t know how many authors I would recognize. I know their writing, not their faces.

It’s not part of writing I ever really thought of. I want to see my books on bookstore shelves. I want to see people talking about them online. It’d be amazing to see one of my novels in the wild in the hands of someone I’ve never met.

But to be recognized? That’s incredible.

But then again, this ain’t the 90’s. Many authors are active on social media as a way to connect with fans. Hey look! Here I am, writing to you! My face is on the main page of my site. Here! I’ll post it again!

All right. Now that I’m done scarring you–

Well, you tell me. Would you recognize a favorite author? Have you ever been recognized?

I’m blown away. It’s so cool. And I’m excited to read the new books I got. So… I guess I should get reading!