There are a lot of things nobody prepares for you when you start a career as an author.\u00a0 Going on my first book tour years ago, my publisher and editor didn’t ask if I knew how to do a reading.\u00a0 Luckily I had some acting experience and my spouse was on sabbatical, so after every reading I got “director’s notes.”\u00a0 What worked, what didn’t work, where did I need to slow down, how did I need to engage my audience better–and much more.<\/p>\n
It was invaluable, like taking a one-person seminar, and it made each successive reading more successful.<\/p>\n
That tour was when I first discovered how amazing it is to encounter fans.\u00a0 People who haven’t just read your work, but have absorbed it and want to thank you.\u00a0 One person told me she actually had read my book half a dozen times and kept it by her bedside.<\/p>\n
I was blown away.\u00a0 Writing is so solitary, and discovering the impact your work might have shifts you out into the world so differently than when you sit there reading a review.<\/p>\n
The other day I was at the gym chatting with a trainer.\u00a0 She’s used to seeing me wear blue but I was once again all in black and she asked what was up. I joked about going to Paris and wanting to fit in.\u00a0 A woman nearby asked when I was going and we go into a talk about travel and learning language.\u00a0 She was studying Italian for a big trip to several cities.<\/p>\n
I told her about my last trip to Florence and that I’d done fine ordering meals, asking directions, and buying things, but that was about it.\u00a0 She asked how many languages I spoke.\u00a0 French and German were my mains, with side dishes of Swedish and Dutch.\u00a0 Then I had to explain how I’d gotten involved in studying the latter two and we traded more travel notes.<\/p>\n
I asked her name and introduced myself and she said, “Oh, I know who you are, I see you here a lot but haven’t wanted to bother a celebrity.\u00a0 I’m a big fan of your mysteries.”<\/p>\n
It made my day, made my workout.\u00a0 And reminded me once again how lucky I am to have people reading and enjoying my work.<\/p>\n
Lev Raphael is the best-selling author of a guide to the writing life, Writer’s Block is Bunk<\/a>, and 24 other books in genres from memoir to mystery.\u00a0 You can study creative writing with him online at writewithoutborders.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are a lot of things nobody prepares for you when you start a career as an author.\u00a0 Going on my first book tour years ago, my publisher and editor didn’t ask if I knew how to do a reading.\u00a0 Luckily I had some acting experience and my spouse was on sabbatical, so after every … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[592,307,497,113,292,5,95,165,166,504,192,496,242,290,214,787,380,1219,495],"class_list":["post-3497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-author-book-tours","tag-author-readings","tag-authors","tag-book-reviewers","tag-book-tours","tag-books","tag-creative-writing-2","tag-inspiration","tag-motivation","tag-promotion","tag-publicity","tag-publishing","tag-teaching-creative-writing","tag-the-writers-life","tag-the-writing-life","tag-writers-block-is-bunk","tag-writers","tag-writewithoutborders-com","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3497"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5539,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497\/revisions\/5539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}