Public Appearances: A Writerly Coming-Out
Showing up to read and talk to readers is part of publishing a book. So naturally, I joked to a friend about needing to start a talent agency for author lookalikes. Our body-double business would hire actors who can give well-modulated readings and soundbites about the writing life, signaling ease and intelligence in front of audiences. What a boon it would be for writers who don’t already teach! Ones who might have spent their entire career at home, writers like, ahem, you know… a lot of us.
It’s good that this service doesn’t exist. Appearing in front of groups regularly means getting comfortable talking without oodles of rehearsal. And after all, isn’t your book a topic you already know something about? A publicity team works hard pitching appearances to book fairs, bookstores, podcasts, and more, which means saying yes to dream invitations and also hearing some rejections. It makes for a lot of ups and downs, but because it is the nature of work we want to do for many years, it’s worth searching for a more fluid state of mind.
When you hear no to a pitch, try hearing, “Not yet.” When saying yes to an invitation that makes you nervous, you can reframe it as, “Go for it, it’s good practice.” The thought of any event might give you the jitters, but it helps to think of each one as on-the-job training. This shifts it from being something to fear toward being a task that requires preparation and will yield a muscle memory for future events.