MEG CABOT'S BOOK SIGNING DO'S AND DON'TS FOR WRITERS:

1) DON'T BE A SLOB

Writers, I recognize that you are sensitive artists who want to be known for your creative writing, not your fashion sense. But for the love of God, people, you are at a book signing. Your readers are seeing you live and in person for the first time. SO WHY DIDN'T YOU BRUSH YOUR HAIR?????

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2) DON'T BE A WEIRDO

If there is anything that burns me up more than an author who makes no effort to look nice for his or her readers, it's authors who act all weird because they think people in the "creative arts" are "special."

I am not talking about throwing on a tiara and a feather boa, either. I am talking about authors who pretend their books aren't written by them, but by their characters. As in, "I didn't want to kill off So-and-So, but Name of Main Character insisted on it! There was nothing I could do!"

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...I fear that some authors say things like this so often, they are actually starting to believe it. I know this because authors are saying it to ME, in private conversations, with no readers present. And I find myself going, "Uh-huh. Really? Your characters actually talk to you? That's so interesting, because you know, I made my characters up, so they can't talk to me, because they ARE NOT REAL."

The truth is, authors, characters cannot act and think independently of you because they are FIGMENTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION. When your character says or does something, it is because YOU MADE THEM DO IT. Your characters DO NOT ACTUALLY EXIST except on paper and in your head.