Just like with anything, I suppose, authors have varying degrees of enthusiasm when it comes to promoting their works. I've seen writers who have published picture books that contain only slightly embellished stick figures. We all have our own opinion about what is good and what is not good art. Personally, I probably wouldn't have published books like that, but they did.
Wednesday night I had the incredible experience of participating in a book fair at a local elementary school. I don't attend a lot of these type events. In fact, it was a first for me. I had no idea what to expect. Okay, that's not completely true. I knew there'd be kids and parents and other authors. All of that happened. I didn't expect the students to make me an adorable poster.
I met some amazing local authors that I hadn't met before. As they unpacked their books it became obvious my books were not quite tailored to the age group (especially my copies of Redneck Eldridge...). And my book Chaser was written for jr. high schoolers.
I wondered if I would sell any books. I ended up doing pretty good. Plus, I met parents who were invested in getting their kids to read--that's a great thing.
After the parents and their children all had left and us authors had all our books packed and loaded into our cars, I thought about my night. With all the options our society has these days--streaming videos, movies, sports events--it felt good to be part of an event that celebrated the written word, and that, in a small way, I was part of that world.
Yes, I need to do more self-promotion. And if that means doing more events like the one this past week, what a wonderful way to do it...
Even if it's embellished stick figures.
I wish my kiddo's elementary school would do this for a book fair instead of scholastic. Always the same books, most of which I don't think are worth buying, or reading once, let alone taking precious space on my bookshelf and reading twice. I think this is awesome!
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