My significant other recently brought me home a copy of Neil Gaiman’s The View from the Cheap Seats from the library, which is a collection of speeches he’s given or essays he’s written on various topics, because he was listening to the audiobook version and thought I would like it.
This book is massive. I am not getting through it terribly fast.
But what’s currently hitting me is that not only is Neil Gaiman asked to talk to people on a fairly regular basis, he can seemingly do so while being profound and not suffering from a nervous breakdown or imposter syndrome or crippling self doubt.
That sounds very lovely.
Of course, maybe once one has several decades of successful career behind them, it gets easier. Who knows?
Not me. I’m participating in my library’s local author showcase on Sunday (for City of Hope and Ruin) and 5 minutes in which to present myself and the book, and I’m a nervous wreck. 5 minutes! In front of probably not that many people, because I did one for Shards and, like, 10 people came. It’s not the end of the world if it goes badly.
But still…
It doesn’t help that my notes from Shards (which I was going to copy the formatting on) have disappeared into the nether. Oh well. But a little confidence boost would be a huge help.
Done talks? Have suggestions?
When I was doing in-person promo for CoHaR last year, I found to my utter surprise that Q&As were MUCH less stressful for me than presentations, and readings were somewhere in the middle. (IMHO, YMMV, etc.) You don’t have a lot of time, but maybe plan to do two different things in case you find one easier than the other.
Also, it might help to think of it this way: your audience for this event isn’t there to judge you or wonder why you’re not a Real Author. They’re there because they want to support local authors and find new (good) books to read, and you have a book they might just love.
(Also also, if it helps, I’m *still* getting questions about sequels, so we must have done something right!)
Good luck!!
Yeeeaaaah, we should probably write one. <_<