Resource Alert: The Same Editor as a "Readalike" Suggestion

On my Ten Rules of Basic RA Service page, one of my 5 Resources You Cannot Live Without is the following:

Authors recs of other authors: There isn't a single place you can go per se, but do not forget that many patrons will love trying an author or book that one of their favorite authors recommends. Try searching for a patron's favorite author on Twitter [don't need an account to view] and then see what authors they are promoting there. Most established authors do this. Also the back of a book a patron liked-- does it have blurbs by other authors? Those can be readalike author options. And Fantastic Fiction tries to catalog as many of an author's blurbs or recs that they can. Search an author in the site and scroll to bottom of record for examples. Then use Novelist or Goodreads to find out more about any titles or authors you find.The point here is you are using resources and need to know nothing about any of the authors involved, just that the patron in front of you likes them.

This is one of my tried and true tricks to use with patrons. Earlier this month, I wrote here about why author recs of other authors is a great RA resource [please read it for the nuance of "why"]; however, yesterday I saw this interesting post on Book Riot- "How to Find the Editor of a Book," and it got me thinking about using the same editor as a readalike, and I realized that it is a great option because I already do this with horror editors I know and trust- both for novels and stories.

Read the article for the great reasons why readers may like multiple authors with the same editor and learn how to identify and follow editors on social media. 

I will also catalog this post on my Ten Rules page so it can help more people going forward.

If you give this a try, let me know.

Remember, we want to use resources to showcase how important we, the human staff members, are in helping our patrons find their next great read. We do not want the process to look seamless; we want people to know a person did the work to find them a great story. We want to help them in ways they wouldn't think of or be able to do themselves so that when there are talks of cutting budgets, our staff are deemed invaluable.