Taking Your Writing Life Into Your Own Hands by Eden Unger Bowditch

Sometimes, it feels like we wait for others to guide our careers. We wait for our publishers to release our books, for our publicists to procure reviews; we wait for someone else to call someone else to get us into a bookstore that has never heard of us. Sometimes, however, we have untapped power we should consider and take our lives into our own hands.

When the first Young Inventors Guild book, The Atomic Weight of Secrets… was released, I was in the middle of a revolution, living in Cairo. I could do nothing until the following summer. I had ‘book release’ parties months after the book was released! It was a bit chaotic. I had sporadic events booked, sometimes in different parts of the US since I was only there during the summer. It was impossible. After we returned to Cairo in the fall, Bancroft Press, my kind and generous publisher, hired a publicist exclusively to book and take me on very short, intensely packed, book tours. I’d fly into NYC, take a train down to DC and meet my publicist. We’d visit twenty bookstores, shops, libraries, and schools. I’d have visiting author events booked and, in between, we’d visit a ton of bookshops and libraries as a collection of meet-and-greet events just to get the word out. I did three of these four-day adventures. It was exhausting but incredibly helpful. When the second YIG book, The Ravens of Solemano… came out last fall, there were bookstores waiting for the second book, who knew about the series because of our short visits.

Sharing with kids is always a pleasure

I learned that I could do this myself. Since I was in the US last year, I called libraries and bookshops, drove to places I had visited before and new places who were thrilled for the personal touch. I visited science museums and spoke to science and history teachers. I combined a family visit with a library visit in Chicago. I didn’t wait for someone else to do the work. I went out and made contact. When I return for the winter holiday this year, I am visiting two schools that have purchased YIG books, one for the entire 5^th and, the other, for the 7^th grade. Three libraries in Chicago have asked for author visits in the late spring when we come back for summer. As I work on the third book, I sometimes send notes to bookstore proprietors and librarians who have been kind. I hear back from them and they are always enthusiastic. Sometimes I hear back from their bookstore and librarian friends who are now enthusiastic, too.

So, my suggestion:

1. Make a list of who would be good to alert, considering the nature of your upcoming book. Be creative and consider museums and shops and conventions and fairs, in addition to libraries, schools, and bookstores.

Be prepared for bumps in the road.

2. Send an email. Then make a call. Speaking to people makes a big difference. Let them know about the book (s) and find out policy about visiting authors and/or signings.

3. Map out places nearby, places receptive to your calls or places that might be great for a visit. A visit is great. Provide a complimentary copy and/or other items like posters or cards, things to be placed in the store to alert customers.

4. Follow through and stay in touch. Many authors are silent and only make contact through their agents or publishers.

5. Be sure to keep that list for the next book release. Even if someone else is promoting, your name will be on the minds of the book people who are now your friends.

IN CELEBRATION OF THE LOCAL BOOKSHOP by eden unger bowditch

This is truly the era of push button shopping. We can peruse the virtual shelves of AMAZON and find recommendations and even peek into books and, with the flick of a finger, have that book in hand in as little as day or two. Or, quicker yet, immediately on a e reader.

But if we only hunt for books from our armchairs, the wonderful bookshops that invite us for signings, create worlds of magic on their shelves, and provide a home for our writing…will disappear.

I want to devote this post to the celebration of the independent bookstore. What a loss to us all if the corner bookstore closes its doors. Think of your  own childhood and the great offerings from the local bookstore. Libraries and bookstores are the gateways to magical worlds.

(from Reuters & International Business Times)

This is not to say the AMAZON does not play a big role in our modern writerly lives. The ratings, the sales info, the author pages…these are important and give us reach. And I, too, have been an AMAZON book buyer. While living in Egypt, sometimes the only option for getting books is ordering from AMAZON. For us, through the American University in Cairo, we can get books sent through the New York office. I was thrilled to find new bookshops opening in our neighbourhood in Ma’adi, Al Kotob Khan: http://cairobooklore.blogspot.com/2013/11/image-by-mpm-cc-by-al-kotob-khan-book.html  and Diwan:  http://www.diwanegypt.com/  but if the book I need is not on the shelf at Diwan or Al Kotob Khan (where I had the honour of attending a reading by poet Thomas Healy), I have to press that button at AMAZON since there is no way to be sure it will arrive otherwise. As a family,we try to plan ahead and, for books not immediately needed (or needed within a few weeks since delivery to Egypt is not a rush job) we send a list to The Children’s Bookstore in Baltimore   http://www.thecbstore.com/  and they hold those books for us until we come back for summer leave. We bring bags of books back to Cairo with us at the end of every summer.

Al Kotob Khan (from CAIRO360)

So what can we do as authors and readers? We can think of that brick-and-mortar bookshop first. Call and see if the book you want is there. I figure, yes, it often is a small percentage more costly, but I think of it as a gratuity to the bookshop folks who are there to talk books with those of us who love them.

If you have books on shelves out there, make sure you’re listed with Indiebound.

http://www.indiebound.org/

It’s easy to register and find your bookshop, for readers and authors, both. And, when you do school tours, find a nearby bookstore (or ask the school) and have them supply the books for sale, either for signing, while you’re there, or to be available before you come. I am supporting my new Young Inventors Guild book (The Ravens of Solemano…) and, at a recent school visit in Westchester, NY, The Voracious Reader   http://www.thevoraciousreader.com/    supplied the books, at the school and then at the public library where I spoke in the evening.

Let’s celebrate our local bookshops. What is your favorite place to peruse? Share a name, a memorable event, a ‘thank you’ for hosting a signing, or simply a link!