Oh, validation, you sweet siren, always sucking me in and making me feel special again…

After my complete failure at the last Author Event, I had extremely lowered expectations about this one. To make it worse, a friend of the Hubby’s popped into town to socialize, so I had to arrive to the shindig all by myself.

I was expecting no one when I called the librarian. She said two people for sure were very excited. By the time I started reading, there were 5 including the librarian (The librarians don’t always come to these things, which is fine. They have lives, but I’m elated when they do stick around). Hubby came late to round it out to an even half dozen. Hey, I’ll take it.

It’s not the number so much that’s important to me. It’s that wonderful question: “So when are we gonna get to read the next book?”

It was barely above zero last night, but these people came to my Author Event specifically to ask that question.  Their only agenda is to find something to read. My only agenda is to give them something to read and maybe make a few bucks doing it.

It’s a simple relationship on the surface. The problem is my delivery system is stunted. I know there are multitudes of other veracious readers out there looking for books exactly like mine. I just need to make sure they can find me. I need to become known to them.

Marketing is my ugly dealer. I only get my fix through her.  It’s a tawdry system.

On the bright side, Milltown Public Library pulled out all the stops on the spread again. Their small village library is on the cusp of a very ambitious (and very necessary) expansion project. If you’ve got some loose change laying around, or maybe a rich old uncle looking to make amends for his wicked life, think about dropping off a few bucks for the cause.

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