Meet the Author w/Reading

[BobbyBrandt]

I'll be doing another meet the author event with a reading that has been arranged for me next week. I thought that it might be useful to reach out to my fellow writers to get your input on a couple of questions about the "reading" aspect:

1. If you have done an event like this, do you typically read only from the first chapter or do you select a scene in the story that you feel is most compelling to readers? (I tend to find specific scenes myself, but I know some prefer starting at the beginning of the story.)

2. If you have attended an event such as this as a reader, what do you prefer the author read to the audience?

If it helps, for this event, I know that the audience will be comprised almost entirely of retired "Snowbirds", predominantly from Canada. This will be a solo event for me with 20-40 minutes allocated for the reading and a Q&A session after.

 

[alohadave]

I've been to one reading, for a non-fiction book. The author read an excerpt of one or two chapters and did a Q & A.

Most likely, the people attending will have already read the book, or are familiar with your writing, so pick something interesting to you, or that illustrates something you want to discuss.

 

[KeithD]

I'll be doing another meet the author event with a reading that has been arranged for me next week. I thought that it might be useful to reach out to my fellow writers to get your input on a couple of questions about the "reading" aspect:

1. If you have done an event like this, do you typically read only from the first chapter or do you select a scene in the story that you feel is most compelling to readers? (I tend to find specific scenes myself, but I know some prefer starting at the beginning of the story.)

2. If you have attended an event such as this as a reader, what do you prefer the author read to the audience?

If it helps, for this event, I know that the audience will be comprised almost entirely of retired "Snowbirds", predominantly from Canada. This will be a solo event for me with 20-40 minutes allocated for the reading and a Q&A session after.

When I give a reading I try to find a succinct passage that makes drama out of some aspect of the book and gives some meat but (hopefully) makes the listener want another helping of meat.

When I go to a reading, I want the author to do the same and to keep it relatively short. I want to find out more about them beyond the specific book.

The best book signing I can remember going to? Alexander McCall Smith. The man's both fascinating and hilarious.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

When I give a reading I try to find a succinct passage that makes drama out of some aspect of the book and gives some meat but (hopefully) makes the listener want another helping of meat.

When I go to a reading, I want the author to do the same and to keep it relatively short. I want to find out more about them beyond the specific book.

The best book signing I can remember going to? Alexander McCall Smith. The man's both fascinating and hilarious.

Thanks. That's been my typical approach too, but this is my first solo event, with a longer reading time allocated so I was curious how others would deal with that variable.

 

[KeithD]

Given longer reading time, I would pick a couple of passages rather than one long one. I'd probably also give time for QandA (if there were going to be questions readily voiced) between the readings.

 

[Duleigh]

The only published author I've ever met was Steven King, he was sitting in the lounge car of a cross country Amtrak train and he told me that he was observing the people on board. He sat there for the entire journey to Chicago. I don't think this counts, but if I become a big time author I want to do the same thing - ride the train and claim it as a business expense.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I'm a few days late but I wanted to provide an update in case it benefits others:

The event had fewer participants than I had been told to expect, but there were still eight couples (16 people) who were very attentive. All were retired "Snowbirds" from the northeast US or Canada. Many had read one or more of my books, or at least were familiar with them.

I decided to showcase my first published novel with a reading of selected scenes lasting just under twenty minutes. I think this worked better to spur interest in the book, and the comments from participants seemed to validate that assumption. I followed this up by providing a brief synopsis of my other published works and discussing characters and their progression through the various books.

The material I presented was all of my mainstream published works which contain very little erotic content. There is one book I have published which has some scenes that most on Literotica would consider "tepid" at best, but it was interesting to hear these older couples referring favorably to it as my "HOT" book.

The interest in erotica from this crowd was expressed much more than I expected it to be, so don't be discouraged or reluctant to participate in a similar event if the opportunity presents itself. You might need to be more selective in what you read to a mixed-gender audience, but go for it.

I ended up selling 51 assorted paperbacks to this group and autographing most of those. I expect several e-book sales from this group as well.