Book reading at Easy Library, March 16, 2013

I am preparing for an event to take place on March 16. It’s a book reading to be held here in Bangalore at Easy Library.

Here are details of the event. I shall be reading extracts from my second thriller, “Lucky For Some, 13” and speaking about the book. As you might know, this was my NaNo Novel for 2010 which means the first 50,000 words of this novel were written for NaNoWriMo in November 2010.

What exactly happens in a book reading event? As is obvious, the author reads extracts of his/her book. The challenge is to choose such extracts that are interesting and give the audience some idea of the book’s story or main theme. It is important for the author to devote time for this and not land up there ready to read a few random extracts. I see such occasions more as an opportunity to interact with readers and potential readers, I would therefore restrict my reading of extracts to a bare minimum and spend more of the allotted time in answering questions from the audience. Here of course one assumes there will be questions, after of course assuming there will be an audience!

There is a certain amount of promotion one has to do, both for the event and your book. Don’t expect people to roll up in large numbers to hear you speak. These things happen only in dreams. Make it a point to share information about the event with those who are genuinely interested in hearing about your book or buying an autographed copy perhaps. If you invite all and sundry, the chances are high that you may go home quite disappointed.

I plan to start with a book trailer video because I feel this will grab the attention of your audience more effectively than anything else you can say. I have one on YouTube which you might like to see, if you aren’t making it for this event.