On Monday 25th May, Sarah J Maas was doing a book signing in a bookstore as close to us as possible, so we rounded up our best friend, and fellow ‘Throne of Glass’ lover, Sarah and jetted to Waterstone’s for the signing and release of ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’.

Because Bee and I had already read the book, (check out our review!) we only bought one physical copy, and then gathered our Throne of Glass collection to have signed.

The ride over was super fun. We just screamed, I mean sang, along to Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood in the car, before arriving. The signing was meant to happen from 4pm-6pm. It had just turned 3pm when we arrived, and people were already queuing! Luckily, it wasn’t a Disney World sized queue, but it was enough to snake outside the store. I’d say we were in line for about half an hour to forty minutes before we were close enough to see Sarah J Maas.

Overall, it was a good experience, but over in a second. We got our books signed. Bee got Crown of Midnight made out to her because that was her favourite one, and I got ACOTAR, while our copy of TOG just got a signature, because the policy was one dedication and one signature per person.

I always wonder what to say to authors. I wanted to say I liked her writing, and that fairy tale retellings are my favourite genre, but when the time came, I just smiled and said hi. Thirty seconds really isn’t enough to say anything more profound than hi, or convey how much I liked the series so far, and where I hoped ACOTAR would go.

It got me thinking about the author experience, and, if I were an author, how I’d want my fans to feel after meeting me. I’d want them to feel like meeting author me was special. I’d want to ask them questions like “Who was your fave character?” or “What was your favourite setting?” rather than “So, how far did you travel to get here?” which doesn’t really give shy fans like me the opportunity to say how much I admire an author.

It just all felt a little impersonal. Other authors I’ve met have written cute stock messages in my book that fit the story, like Cathy Cassidy wrote ‘Life’s a beach!’ in ‘Driftwood’ and that level of story intimacy was absent from Sarah’s dedication. But, I’ve only met three authors in my life so far, two of which have happened this year, so I never really know what to expect. At least Sarah was giving out badges at the signing. Plus, she had a first edition of Throne of Glass, the US edition, all library bound, that she wanted us to sign. That was a cool touch.

It was definitely interesting and great to meet such a high profile author before she jetted off to BEA, but perhaps not as memorable as my other author encounters…