Reading at Book LaunchAt last, I have a new book coming out, the suspense thriller Watch What You Say. And my publisher is throwing a launch party!

Saturday, October 19, 2019

4:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Georgia State University Perimeter Campus

2101 Womack Road, Dunwoody, GA 30338

Building NB Student Center, Second Floor

 

SFK Press will serve appetizers and beverages and display their entire fall 2019watch_thumb catalog of books, including mine. I’ll be on hand to sign and personalize a limited run of the paperbacks—which SFK is selling at a discounted price—before the print version of Watch What You Say goes on sale to the public on November 5. “Get it sooner and get it cheaper” is the pitch, with some free goodies thrown in.

I’ve planned my speech, but I’d love your advice about whether and how much to read from the book.

Here’s my conundrum: I hate book readings. To me, there’s nothing more boring than staring at the top of authors’ heads while they read aloud. Even the ones who do it well bore me. I’ve done it at numerous book launches because it seems to be expected, but I even bore myself.

If you’re going to my book launch—and every one of you is invited!—you already know me and presumably like me, or you wouldn’t waste your time battling the traffic to show up, even with free food and drink on offer. Are you only going to decide to buy my book once you hear me read a bit of it? Probably not. Most likely, you already made up your mind to do so, otherwise why come out for the event?

If those argument align with your thinking, why do we expect authors to read at their book launches, and why do I do it even though I hate it? My theory regarding expectations is that besides wanting to hear the story behind the story, the audience wants to sample the tone or mood of the book. They hope that hearing a bit of the text will make them even more excited about reading it. Many writers are such bad public readers, though, I’ll bet I’m not the only one who’s regretted my purchase as the book’s author droned on.

I must confess to some ego-involvement, too. After spending years on a book, through countless drafts and editorial input and the leadup to publication, writers naturally want to share some of those hard-won words with their audience. “Listen, my friends, and be transported by the power of my prose, the sophistication of my syntax!” While I dislike the sound of my voice, I do get a little buzz giving an audience a sample of what I’ve created.

But how much is too much? I remember one book launch where the author read 20 whole pages. With an average of 250 words per page, that was 5,000 words we had to sit through. It took nearly a half hour to satiate his ego-involvement. I’ve never read more than a few paragraphs to my audience, scared that I’d look up and face a sea of empty chairs. This would be fitting: authors who overdo their readings don’t deserve to get Raptured.

A wise author suggested that I preface the reading by saying why I chose that particular passage, which seems obvious in retrospect but I’ve never attended a launch where somebody did this.

I hope you’ll use the Contact page and let me know (A) whether you enjoy hearing authors read a sample of their book and (B) if so, how much do you really want to hear to satisfy you that it will be a book you’ll enjoy?

Thanks for your feedback!