Looking for something to read or gift this holiday season? Here are my book recommendations for the best of 2017. None of these titles are written by my clients. Each one of these books is something I’ve enjoyed as a reader during the last year and give you my best word-of-mouth recommendation. I read four or five books a month for pleasure and these are at the top of my list for 2017.   Fiction The Twelve Mile Straight: A Novel by Eleanor Henderson It was her first novel, Ten Thousand Saints, which hooked me on Eleanor Henderson’s writing and I liked the book better than the movie. But this novel is exquisite. An American classic novel. Good to the last page. Set during the Depression in rural Georgia, this story of two young women, one white and one black, is captivating for the way it explores and exposes relationships between men and women, blacks and whites.  The creative way she carries threads of the story through the entire manuscript is worth noting. For the central plotlines, they are mythic and epic. No spoilers here. Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig This debut novel stars a young female autistic protagonist for the reader to champion. Ginny Moon tells her own story in her own words. When Ginny was taken from her birth mother, she left baby doll behind and is desperate to get it back and make things right. The Moons adopted Ginny and she is in a much less dangerous…

August is a reading month. Summer reading is for everyone, though it’s essential for developmental editors, agents, and acquisition editors. Some take their books to the beach. Editors to the porch. I have a handful of new client projects to read this month. So what am I reading? Sherman Alexie, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir, Little, Brown & Company, 2017. Having read his poetry, essays, and novels, I’m eager to read Alexie’s memoir. At Untitled Town Literary Festival this past April, I heard Sherman Alexie read an excerpt from this tribute to his mother. Recently Alexie pulled back from his book tour schedule to deal with his grief. If you haven’t read his Facebook post explaining why, you can read more here. Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do, Abrams, 2017. I have a weakness for graphic memoirs and this one is an incredible work of art. The story of a family’s immigration during the Vietnam War. Global warming. Automation/AI. Eating disorders. Business Strategy. Rock & Roll history. I’m reading about a lot of interesting topics these days. And I confess to reading the Washington Post and New York Times religiously. What have I read that I recommend for your August reading pleasure?  Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give, Balzer & Bray, 2017. Not since Jessamyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones have I read such a compelling account of the real world through the eyes of a black teen-age girl protagonist. Starr Carter attends a suburban…

More than 1.7 billion people are active on Facebook. Fifty-three percent of them are female. The average Facebook user in the U.S. was 40.5 years old. These statistics help explain why it is one of the most popular social media platforms used by authors to engage with readers. But what happens when Facebook explodes with news about political scandals, natural disasters, celebrity deaths, or sports? Cutting through the noise with a status update about your new book isn’t easy. And sometimes you need to recognize it isn’t the time to even try. Knowing when it’s the wrong time is as important as knowing when is the right time to use Facebook for building your audience platform. Having a strategy for your social media efforts as an author will get you a greater return on your investment of time and energy. When is the best time to post a status update on Facebook? It’s helpful to know 50% of the U.S. population is in the Eastern Time Zone. Eastern and Central time zones combined represent almost 80% of the U.S. population. It might surprise you, but you will find most people online during business hours, 9 am – 7 pm ET. The best time to post is Saturday and Sunday at the noon hour. You will get 32% higher engagement than any other time online, according to 16 studies. Thursday and Friday afternoons are the next best time with 18% higher engagement. And Friday afternoons post funny or upbeat content for…