Book Events... - Rebecca Fjelland Davis

I have to say thank you to so many friends, readers, family members, cousins, and buddies who have been so supportive with Slider’s Son being out in the world.

The Cambridge, Iowa Library yesterday was an absolute blast. So many members of my family — my brother and sister-in-law, niece and her husband, great-nephews and great-niece, and SO MANY of my cousins came! It was much fun to have you there and get to read to you. Janet Thorson, sister of my sister-in-law Cathy, is the librarian in Cambridge. She did a beautiful job setting it up and publicizing a lovely event. Cambridge is a very small town–population under 1000–but a cozy, welcoming, cute town with a great sense of identity (plus it’s part of Ballard School District, my alma mater). I am quite simply, grateful. What a good event.

The Arts Center of Saint Peter on Thursday was fun, too. We had a small crowd. I feel that I’ve sort of exhausted any following in the Mankato area, so it wasn’t a big shock, but those friends and readers who were there were fully engaged, and we sipped wine and had a good discussion (I read, too). I got to talk writing with a couple friends I hadn’t seen in ages, too, and I met a few new people, too.

This past Tuesday, I was at the Muir Library in Winnebago–also a small town with a small library, but a VERY active library with all sorts of terrific programming. Heidi Schutt does a wonderful job getting people involved and READING! We also had a great time. Picture below is of me reading in Winnebago.

This reminds me that I do love doing book events. That’s good, because let me say that by the time my novel has been out in the world for five and a half weeks, I am sick of trying to be my own promoter. The other morning, I woke up overwhelmed, and wondered if it’s all worth it. I was downright tired, and had nearly a hundred papers to grade for school, and needed to do paperwork for book events. I was wondering if it’s all worth it. Writing a book is not enough. It’s only about one-third of the work of having a book out. You HAVE to be your own promoter in this world and market. Nobody else is going to do it. If all I had to do was write, edit, write, edit, and read aloud what I write, and talk about stories, it would be a cinch. Well, almost. It would still be a lot of work. But the promotion–that’s what I hate.

And I am so sick of myself posting yet another book event on Facebook, hoping people will show up and listen, and maybe buy a book. But yesterday, one of my cousins said that I shouldn’t think of it as promoting myself–but rather as promoting my book. True. Okay, I guess I can keep doing that.

Truth be told, I really do think most everybody would enjoy Slider’s Son. I think middle-aged people may like it the most. But the few kids I know of who have read it have seriously liked it. They don’t have to like baseball to like it, either. It’s adventure, mystery, and growing-up stuff. I think it’s a good story, and after all this work (ten years since I started writing it), it better be at least a decent read. I’m shutting up now. I do have to go grade papers.

But thank you, readers and listeners, for coming. And thank you for reading.