{"id":3871,"date":"2018-08-15T09:54:56","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T13:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/?p=3871"},"modified":"2018-08-15T10:01:41","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T14:01:41","slug":"6-mistakes-authors-should-avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/6-mistakes-authors-should-avoid\/","title":{"rendered":"When Should Authors Say “Yes” To A Gig?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s really hard to say \u201cno\u201d to a gig when you\u2019re a writer, even when you\u2019re not a newbie. There\u2019s nothing more precious than your time at home writing, but there\u2019s always the chance that saying \u201cyes\u201d might make you a valuable personal or professional connection. And then there\u2019s the simple reality that doing anything out there in the world can ease the isolation that every writer feels. It\u2019s a strange profession: the world is what we write about in one way or another, but we need to retreat from it to reflect and create.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve done hundreds of talks and readings now on three different continents and I\u2019ve had to learn the hard way how to figure out when I should say “yes” to a speaking invitation.\u00a0 Here are my personal guidelines.<\/p>\n

1\u2014Are they paying enough for my time, whether it\u2019s an evening reading and Q&A, or something more involved like a college visit with multiple events? Any time I spend away from writing is precious, even though I\u2019m an extrovert and love sharing my work with new audiences.<\/p>\n

2\u2014Is this an audience I haven\u2019t reached before? Can I do something new and different? Will I read from a different book or do a different kind of talk? Or can I put a new spin on something I\u2019ve done before?<\/p>\n

3\u2014How much prep time will I need? I practice all my readings several times, and when I do a talk, I don\u2019t read it, but work from talking points which I prepare very carefully. All that advance work is connected to #1 above.<\/p>\n

4\u2014Will it be fun or maybe even exciting? Is the group or the venue or the city enticing in some way? I like to go places I\u2019ve never been to before, or if I have, return to cities I enjoy, like when I was an instant \u201cyes\u201d to keynoting an Edith Wharton conference in Florence.<\/p>\n

5\u2014Am I confident that whoever is inviting me will do adequate publicity? There\u2019s never a guarantee about turnout, but it helps to know how much time and effort the host will put into publicizing the event.<\/p>\n

6\u2014Is there any chance that after I say yes I\u2019ll regret it? That takes a lot of contemplation and weighing the factors above. It also involves gauging how far I am in any current project, and how disruptive the time away will be.<\/p>\n

None of this is foolproof. I\u2019ve had 75 people show up to an event that wasn\u2019t publicized very much and fewer than a dozen come to one that was furiously advertised with emails, posters, and postcards. And events I was ambivalent about turned out to be wonderful experiences. The key for me when I get there is to give the audience 100% no matter its size. That takes more work if fewer people show up, but when you\u2019re an author, everyone deserves to hear you at your best and best-prepared.<\/p>\n

Lev Raphael is the author of twenty-five books in genres from memoir to mystery.\u00a0 He’s escaped academia to teach creative writing online at http:\/\/writewithoutborders.com.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s really hard to say \u201cno\u201d to a gig when you\u2019re a writer, even when you\u2019re not a newbie. There\u2019s nothing more precious than your time at home writing, but there\u2019s always the chance that saying \u201cyes\u201d might make you a valuable personal or professional connection. And then there\u2019s the simple reality that doing anything … 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":[63],"tags":[292,1484,1259,1482,1483,758,380],"class_list":["post-3871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-tours","tag-book-tours","tag-gigs","tag-http-writewithoutborders-com","tag-speaking-engagements","tag-speaking-gigs","tag-writers-life","tag-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871","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=3871"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3907,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871\/revisions\/3907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}