It’s not easy being an independent author. Most of us don’t have agents or fan clubs, and we consider ourselves lucky (I know I do) if our work gets published by a small press. We may have dreams about seeing our books picked up by Random House, HarperCollins, or Macmillan, but dreams are likely all they will ever be. While J.K. Rowling and John Grisham tally thousands of book sales everyday, an independent author may be happy selling a few books now and then through an online distributor or at a book fair.

None of this is meant to suggest there aren’t rewards for independent authors. They have opportunities to make public readings, to network with fellow writers, and to contribute to programs that promote reading and literacy. And every so often they’ll hear from someone who read their book and really liked it; someone who found it enlightening, inspiring, or just exciting. I was fortunate enough to hear from such a person several weeks ago.

Elizabeth, who lives in a small town in Connecticut, won a copy of The Bullybuster through a drawing sponsored by a popular girls’ magazine. In a beautifully hand-written thank-you letter she sent me shortly after finishing the book, Elizabeth let me know in no uncertain terms how much she relished the story: “I enjoyed how the book featured romance, likable characters, relatable topics, and descriptive settings.”

Elizabeth went on to describe the excitement she felt as she went deeper into the story, finding it “hard to put down” the book and “hard to stop at each chapter.” She seems to have particularly liked the romance between Owen and Erica and the date they had at the Center of Science and Discovery. Toward the end of her letter, Elizabeth demonstrated her appreciation of the issue underlying the plot: “Bullying can have such lasting impressions on people’s lives, and affects so many people….I know many people who have suffered from various degrees of bullying and the scars it has left on them.”

I wanted to let Elizabeth know how much her letter meant to me. However, given the times in which we live, I wondered if it might be wiser to write to her parents and ask them to extend my gratitude to their daughter. After the sponsoring magazine’s advertising manager confirmed that Elizabeth was a minor, I knew this was the proper approach to take. My letter to Elizabeth’s parents, like the one I received from her, was hand written.  Words created the old-fashioned way, with pen and ink, seem so much warmer, so much more personal than those printed out of a computer.

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates…or making friends,” Stephen King declares in On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. “In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well.” I’m glad I enriched the life of one reader at least a little; she certainly enriched mine.