Page 5 - 2021.1221.The Passionate Plotter Guidebook Four.Marketing Matters

Diana Kathryn Plopa
THE PASSIONATE PLOTTER: MARKETING MATTERS

You’re an author. Your book was recently
released, or it will be soon. Congratulations!
Now is the time to begin scheduling reading and
signing events at libraries, bookshops, schools,
festivals… but it can be an uncomfortable thing,
reading in public. Far
removed from the coziness
of holding a child on your
lap and reading aloud…
this is high-stress. Except, it
isn’t really… or at least, it
doesn’t have to be.

With the little ones, it
doesn’t matter if you
fumble over words, or
become animated and
make silly sounds and
voices. Kids don’t judge, right? They just enjoy
the story. But don’t skip pages… the wrath of a
child who missed out on hearing the whole story
is not a small consequence.

But seriously, it’s the same for older readers,
too. We love story time. From our infancy, we’re
taught that when someone tells us a story or
reads aloud from a book, that is how love looks
and sounds. Without realizing it, we’ve carried

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