Launching Today: Goodreads Q&A! Ask Your Favorite Author or Fellow Readers Questions on Goodreads!

Posted by Patrick Brown on May 21, 2014


If you could ask Margaret Atwood, Khaled Hosseini, or James Patterson anything, what would it be? Maybe you want to know their writing inspiration, what they read as a guilty pleasure, or you have a burning question about one of their bestsellers. Now's your chance because these three are among the 54 major authors who are helping us launch an exciting new program on Goodreads—Ask the Author!

Ask the Author allows readers to ask questions and get answers from their favorite authors. At Goodreads, we believe the relationship between authors and readers is very special. Authors tell stories and create worlds that spark the imaginations of their readers. Now readers can deepen that connection by asking questions about the new worlds, ideas, and people they've discovered in books.

Starting today, you can submit your questions directly to any of the 54 authors participating in the Ask the Author launch. (Full list below!) If an author answers your question you'll be notified, and every answer will be shared on the author's page so that other readers can enjoy them, too. In the coming weeks, all of the 100,000+ authors in the Goodreads Author program will be able to opt in to the feature. (To check whether an author is participating, visit his or her author profile and look for the "Ask the Author" section.)

We asked international bestselling author Dan Brown a question of our own about his thoughts on Ask the Author. His answer: "One of the most rewarding things about being an author is hearing from readers. I love engaging in dialogue with them, and I'm excited to have a brand-new way to stay truly connected with my fans. I'm looking forward to discussing writing, secret codes, ancient mysteries, and anything else that comes up with the Goodreads community. Then, of course, I will need to get back to writing because the most common reader question I get seems to be: 'When is the next book coming, Dan?'"

Reader Q&A

Of course, fellow readers are an endless source of book knowledge, too! So, we're also starting to roll out Reader Q&A over the coming weeks to provide our passionate, opinionated, and curious community with another way to connect over the love of books.

Reader Q&A for The Goldfinch


Reader Q&A for The Power of Habit


Reader Q&A for Night Film


Once Reader Q&A is activated for you, you'll find a new Reader Q&A section on every book page, just below your friends' reviews. When other readers start responding to a question, Goodreads members can click "like" on the answers they find most interesting, and the best ones will rise to the top.

To try out Reader Q&A, go to the book page for your favorite book or a book you've just read and submit a question for the Goodreads community. You can also look for questions to answer! If Reader Q&A is not yet showing for you, it will be coming shortly!

We'll be opening up Ask the Author to all Goodreads Authors in the coming weeks, but right now you can ask a question of any of the following authors:

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERS
Isabel Allende
Author of The House of Spirits
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Margaret Atwood
Author of The Handmaid's Tale
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Dan Brown
Author of The Da Vinci Code
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Deepak Chopra
Author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
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Khaled Hosseini
Author of The Kite Runner
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James Patterson
Author of Kiss the Girls
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FICTION
Michael Cunningham
Author of The Hours
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Kristin Hannah
Author of Firefly Lane
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James McBride
Author of The Color of Water
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Liane Moriarty
Author of What Alice Forgot
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Jojo Moyes
Author of Me Before You
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B.J. Novak
Author of One More Thing
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Robin Sloan
Author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
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Jeff VanderMeer
Author of Annihilation
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Ayelet Waldman
Author of Red Hook Road
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Jesmyn Ward
Author of Salvage the Bones
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NONFICTION
Mark Bittman
Author of How to Cook Everything
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Geoff Dyer
Author of Another Great Day at Sea
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Tim Ferriss
Author of The 4-Hour Work Week
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Daniel Goleman
Author of Emotional Intelligence
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Arianna Huffington
Author of Third World America
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Anne Lamott
Author of Bird by Bird
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Frances Mayes
Author of Under the Tuscan Sun
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Michael Pollan
Author of The Omnivore's Dilemma
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Gretchen Rubin
Author of The Happiness Project
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YOUNG ADULT & CHILDREN'S
Laurie Halse Anderson
Author of Speak
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Holly Black
Author of Tithe
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Sarah Dessen
Author of Just Listen
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Rebecca Donovan
Author of Reasons to Breathe
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Susan Ee
Author of Angelfall
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Gayle Forman
Author of If I Stay
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Jeff Kinney
Author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid
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E. Lockhart
Author of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks
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MYSTERY & THRILLERS
David Baldacci
Author of Absolute Power
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Joseph Finder
Author of Paranoia
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Douglas Preston
Author of Relic
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S.J. Watson
Author of Before I Go to Sleep
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ROMANCE
Bella Andre
Author of The Look of Love
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Kresley Cole
Author of A Hunger Like No Other
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Sylvia Day
Author of Reflected in You
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Barbara Freethy
Author of Just the Way You Are
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Christina Lauren
Author of Beautiful Bastard
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FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION
Kevin J. Anderson
Author of Jedi Search
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Jim Butcher
Author of Storm Front
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Warren Ellis
Author of Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1
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Lev Grossman
Author of The Magicians
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Laurell K. Hamilton
Author of Guilty Pleasures
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Brian Herbert
Author of The Butlerian Jihad
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Hugh Howey
Author of Wool
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Sherrilyn Kenyon
Author of Styxx
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Bob Mayer
Author of Lost Girls
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Richelle Mead
Author of Vampire Academy
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John Scalzi
Author of Old Man's War
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Michael J. Sullivan
Author of Theft of Swords
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Is your favorite author missing from the list above? Let us know which author you'd like to ask a question of in the comments below and we'll pass on the message!


Comments Showing 301-320 of 320 (320 new)

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message 301: by Colleen (new)

Colleen Debbie Macomber


message 302: by Elise (new)

Elise John Green, Cassandra Clare, Veronica Roth, Kami Garcia, basically any Young Adult Author


message 303: by Nita (new)

Nita I would really like to ask some questions to Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene.


message 304: by Helen (new)

Helen Vanderberg John Le Carre ? Our Kind of Traitor

Wonderful idea. Hope John Le Carre is on the list soon. Not that he needs to be--he's so popular and famous, and incredibly witty.
What puzzles me is: how would a hard-working full-time writer, ever find the time to answer quaestions??


message 305: by [deleted user] (new)

I think a big part of writing is PR and marketing so I think they would make time in order to keep fans and broaden fan base.


message 306: by Aru (new)

Aru Hito I would like to talk to HARUKI MURAKAMI, IAN MCEWAN, and PAUL AUSTER. (I know, they are super stars and way too busy for this, but still, one can dream....)


message 307: by Aru (new)

Aru Hito I like what is called "serious literature" or "literary fiction", but amidst all the whodunnits, sword and sorcery, who-loves-whom-how, which-acronym-is-trying-to-kill-which-dictator (etc., etc., ad nauseum), it is pretty hard to find. Ian McEwan, Paul Auster, Haruki Muramaki, James Wood, John Banville.... it's hard to think of many more.... (If this list sounds biased, it's because I can relate mainly to white or Asian male authors: so sue me!)


message 308: by Del (new)

Del Lobo Short story writers - Alice Munro especially.


message 309: by Peter (new)

Peter Crowell Are those first six questions actually from readers, or are they just standard seed questions?


message 310: by Liz (new)

Liz Brown I would love to ask john irving when he be writing another book. I love his books. thank you. liz


message 311: by Magie (new)

Magie Dominic Newfoundland memoir, "STREET ANGEL", just received an amazing review on Amazon.

http://amzn.to/1Ca8g51


message 312: by Gabriel (new)

Gabriel Smith I would like to talk to Emmy Laybourne


message 313: by Janice (last edited Mar 11, 2015 05:44PM) (new)

Janice Aguilar Aditi wrote: "Is this even real? I mean seriously the authors will reply to us? I can't believe my own eyes."
Hi, a friend of mine was reading "Eat, Pray, Love" & in honor of a chapter about best food in Italy(I think), she was eating spaghetti. She showed her finger with a strand of spaghetti,red sauce & all, turning the page. The post read something like ,Wow, I'm so into this book, look what I did! Little while later she writes ,"AWESOMENESS! The author wrote back that that was the best book review she had ever gotten in her whole career"...so they are interested in us &your input, opinions, etc


message 314: by Tayler (last edited Jan 01, 2016 04:15PM) (new)

Tayler K Please institute some more guidelines and moderators for Reader Q&A. Substandard punctuation and grammar are bad enough when these questions are placed relatively high on a book's page, but I also keep seeing repetitive questions and so-called questions such as "favourite book!(?)" "Should I buy this book??" and "i want to read it"


message 315: by Charlotte (new)

Charlotte When's Rick Riordan and John Flanagan on this list?


message 316: by Molly (new)

Molly Rabish Hi, I'm trying to find a book I read awhile ago without the title or author...
It's about a girl who is sent to a private school by her father who has been cold and distant to her ever since her mother died and a rule about the school is don't be there at night but she accidentally falls asleep in the library and boy who she eventually falls in love with escorts her home but later on he shows her his world and his people are sort of like vampires but they eat meat.
Please if u have any idea of this books title or author tell me please thanks


message 317: by Christine (new)

Christine Hatfield Harlan Coben


message 318: by Sharmyn (new)

Sharmyn (Lumsden) Lilly Can anyone recommend a really good biography of Frederick Law Olmstead? There are several, but I've only read negative reviews of them.


message 319: by Ghada (new)

Ghada I want to ask an author a question, can anybody help me!
It would mean a lot.


message 320: by Nita (new)

Nita Janice wrote: "Aditi wrote: "Is this even real? I mean seriously the authors will reply to us? I can't believe my own eyes."
Hi, a friend of mine was reading "Eat, Pray, Love" & in honor of a chapter about best f..."


Ha ha!


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