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I am so glad to be writing and illustrating much more this week (working on a Halloween story!) along with celebrating. My son just turned six, and now our living room is littered with large model trains, including one that is too big to run indoors! We’ll be setting up an outdoor railroad this weekend in the backyard.
It’s also finally autumn today as this comes out and at long last it is rainy and chilly. I’m recording this in a new comfy sweater with a pumpkin coffee. Really getting in the mood for my witchy Halloween mystery.
But let’s move on to your challenge for this week to stretch your author self out of your comfort zone: If you don’t find what you want, make it.
There are many ways that authors can promote their books and/or coordinate with other authors, and probably there’s something that’s caught your eye, something you’d like to participate in…but you’re not finding opportunities. Maybe that’s an anthology with a bunch or other authors in your genre. Maybe it’s a roundtable discussion on a particular topic or theme. For me, last year it was a multi-author online holiday party.
I’d seen a few of these. They are often called author takeovers where one author “takes over” a page or group belonging to someone else for usually an hour or two, and they spend that time posting about their books, characters, settings, etc. There are often pictures, questions, games, and prizes, something to get group members engaged and excited. It’s a chance for authors to meet readers and readers to meet authors in a very Covid-safe and location-independent way. Sometimes it’s just one author, but sometimes there are many authors in a big event.
I’d wanted to participate in a Christmas or holiday-themed event, because I have a book set at Christmastime, but I wasn’t finding much opportunity. So I organized one myself. It made it free for any author who had a winter holiday cozy mystery to join, and we relied on the power of our combined audiences to make the day a success. Not everything went perfectly, but we had a great time. I’m probably going to do it again this holiday season, taking the lessons learned from last year.
So whatever the thing is you want to do but aren’t seeing, ask yourself if you could get the ball rolling. Not only will you create the thing you want to see in the world, but you’ll make connections with others along the way.
It won’t necessarily be hiccup-free. I certainly had a few missteps, folks who were confused about the time they went on. Authors who signed up enthusiastically… only not to give me all the information I needed or disappear. And a big gap in the event posting schedule. I should have made the event shorter, giving fewer choices so that that there wouldn’t be big gaps between authors where nothing was happening. But if you find the process worthwhile, you can roll with the punches as they come and be ready for them next time. I’ll be prepared this year with more communication, clearer instructions, and some in-between content ready to post so I can fill any dead time.
This week ask yourself what you’d like to do that you aren’t seeing. If you make it happen, you might just find a number of grateful folks who were waiting for someone to take the initiative.