Susan L Markloff
What is it?
Being awarded an honorary citizenship to Agerius is something I've always wanted to do. Since I approach everything from the mindset of, "If I were the reader, what would I want?", this is something that I would love to see an author do if I were a fan of their world.
In all truthfulness, it's a piece of paper that gets mailed to those I appoint as "honorary citizens".
How do I Become an Honorary Citizen?
This is something I do for fun, and it isn't meant to be a contest. Every year, I choose five people to become "honorary citizens", and I'll mail them the certificate stating that they're now considered citizens of Agerius.
You don't have to be someone who always buys my books or spends a ton of money on merch or anything like that. I choose people who, I think, have been most supportive of me and my writing endeavors throughout the year. The people who are quick to share posts, scream their excitement whenever a new title is dropped or a reel is shared that features something surrounding the books or characters. The people who slide into my DMs and offer encouragement when I'm struggling. The people who squeal with me in DMs about their favorite moments from one of my books, or who scribble fan art and send it to me. Yes, it's about consistency. No, it's not about being my "favorites". The people that get awarded this are the people that made the year fun. They supported me and rallied around me and my projects, and that means so much more than I can articulate.
How is it Announced?
It really isn't announced. 2023 was the first year I chose to do this, and I decided to just quietly send the citizenship letters to the five selected. They each chose to post about it in their own way, which spurred a lot of people asking about what it meant and how they could go about getting one. I make the decisions in late November, and mail out the letters in mid-December.
Why Choose Only Five People?
At first, I had a list of 10, but since this is something I wanted to do yearly, it means that I have to be a little more selective. Trust me, the two years I've done this, I've found myself yearning to add more people to the list. Because lots of people deserve to be honorary citizens. But I want this to be something special for the people that receive it, and I want it to be a yearly thing. So all those people who deserve it will, over time, become citizens.
Longterm Plans
Eventually, I really want to turn this into something much bigger than what it currently is. There are a lot of things that will have to happen for it to reach the dream I have in my head for the citizenship awards. But for now, it's just a fun thing that I want to do to give back to those who have been such a wellspring of encouragement to me throughout the year.
The Honorary Citizenship is a very small way of me saying "thank you" to some of my biggest supporters. I say "some of" because, like I said, there are many, many more than five (especially this year, in 2024), who deserve the title. I have a running list of the people I plan to award in the coming years. And if the list grows too long, I'll definitely be reevaluating the number of people to be selected.