How can I get Augusten Burroughs to like me?

I can’t imagine. In fact, if you do send him an email, you’ll probably receive a reply from a minion, anyway. I don’t know how large his entourage is, but apparently one of the things that they do for him is to answer his emails, along the lines of:

[your name here]
thanks for your note, i’ll pass it along.
best,
stewart (augusten’s helper)

You can’t make him like you. Tell him your truth. I bet he likes you.

Whatever you do will be something he sees or hears all the time. If it’s really different and original, it will probably sound crazy. There’s a reason we don’t get to know celebrities in person, because there are thousands of people just like you and celebrities really don’t want to get to know every one of them.

@Snarp this is very true… but you do know that they’re only like…normal people don’t cha? they all need love and friendship ;-) and some of em even like sad, lovely, adoring, little bit quirky and know how to write an email type of fans..

I wrote to an author once and he replied personally and he is a (little) friend of mine… he sometimes comments on some of things I send him… he studied philosophy and so helps me with that sometimes…

There is NOTHING wrong with trying… but make it honest,

Tell him want you want to tell him…see what you get back..you might be surprised and you might not… but it’s better to do what comes instinctively than to regret contrived nonsense that other people have conceived for you… xxx

If all you have to offer is that you like him, you are a fan. Which is cool, but not what you are going for.

One option is to write a book. Maybe it will be a NY times bestseller. The point is to put your soul on the page the way he does. Then you will be equals, which is conducive to friendship.

Another way is to help him. If you know him so well, then you know what he needs. Send him an email offering him that, because that’s what friends do.

@judyprays I have thought of writing a book. It would be all of my dating experiences because some of them are so outrageous…a friend actually suggested I do so. And while I haven’t gotten the courage to write him yet, I have requested his mother, a poet on facebook. :)

Do a little research and write him about something that you may have in common. There are some interesting things out there about his daily life.

How do you know you’ll like him? He could be a complete jerk. Not that I would know, but just be careful not to get your hopes up if he does write you back. I’ve met a couple people whose work I really admired, only to find out that they – as individuals – were not the type of people I would consider worth knowing.

I don’t know about getting him to like you, I can only tell you to be polite and offer your support as one of his fans; he’ll like you for that but anything more is asking for a bit much.
I actually met Augusten Burroughs this past fall. He was cool.

Writers have big egos (I know :-) So just tell him that he’s the best writer ever! and that nobody writes as well as he does, etc., etc…

But don’t tell him that you have an idea for a story and you’re giving it to him for free. That’s actually a turn-off to a writer. Most writers have more ideas for stories than they’ll ever have time to write, and that’ll just put him in the awkward position of saying, “Thanks, but no thanks!”