How to Give a Good Reading

Top Ten Tips on How to Give a Good Reading

1. Go short, not long.

 Choose a short passage you can read slowly instead of a long passage you’ll feel compelled to rush through. This will help you to relax, but it will also show respect for your host and audience. Reading for ten to fifteen minutes, twenty max, usually does the trick. Then you’ll have more time to chat during Q&A or your book signing, which is what your audience really wants anyway.

2. What you read matters as much as how you read.

Choose a passage that showcases your strengths as a writer and allows us to care for your main character and your story. Many authors read a dynamic scene with a lot of dialogue, but when I go to a reading I find that I am more drawn to the narrative voice of the work, and to the writer’s portrayal of the main character, than to the plot.

3. Be like Amanda.

Everyone will remember Amanda Gorman’s reading at President Biden’s Inauguration, not only because of her beautiful and inspiring poetry but for how she presented herself—including her stunning outfit and her well-rehearsed delivery. When you present yourself with care, you feel good, and your host and audience will be flattered that you took the event seriously. If you come across as slovenly or unprepared, they might feel insulted—and they won’t bother to buy your book.

4. Be “in your body.”

Before arriving at the site of your reading (because once you arrive, you may not have a second to yourself), eat a good meal and take some time to walk, stretch, or exercise. Then, at the beginning of your reading, “feel your feet,” straighten your shoulders, and take a deep breath before beginning. A reading is as much a physical event as well as a creative/intellectual event.

5. Love your words as you read them.

As I wrote about here, you should read your own words with at least the same emotional investment as you would read the words of your favorite author or favorite book. Because if you don’t love your words as you read them, then why would you expect your audience to love them?

6. Style matters.

 Modulate your voice naturally, both in volume and pitch. Project out to the rear of the room, as if you didn’t have a microphone in front of you. Keep your voice engaged, but don’t overdo it. Let your words do their work. Don’t laugh at your own jokes, emote with your characters, or imitate their voices or accents—you’ll sound like a Monty Python skit—but do alter the cadence and tone so as to match the character’s personality and situation. In other words, be emotionally engaged but not theatrical—it’s a bookstore, not a stage.

7. B e. Prepared.

Don’t just show up, open your book, and read from it. You’re not that cool yet. Plus, you don’t know if the lighting will be good enough for you to read the small print of your book very well, and it’s easy to lose your place on a single-space page of a paperback. Instead, always have a marked-up “reading copy” of your book with you, with explanatory notes and markers for where you should start and stop, where you’ll allow the audience to “digest” an important sentence, or laugh at a funny line, or signal the end of a scene. Also, use your finger to follow the text, as children do when they learn to read, or print out a double-spaced version of the book chapter in large font, in order to decrease the odds that you will lose your place while reading.  And for heaven’s sake, Don’t read from your phone. The optics are terrible, and the message it sends to your audience is that you’re unprepared.

8. It’s a relationship, not a lecture.

Before, during, and after the reading, make sure to “read the room.” Obviously, for you, it’s an important event, but it is for them too. They’ve taken the time to show up for it, to demonstrate their support for you, or to enjoy a date with a friend or loved one, or because they’re fans of your work and they finally get to “meet the author.” And for your host, this is important as well. It’s taken a lot of time—more than you think—to plan this event and to publicize it, and they’re hoping it will bring them some revenue, bring new people to their store for the first time, and add to their reputation in their neighborhood as a place that contributes to the local arts scenes. So begin your reading by expressing your gratitude to your hosts and to the audience. Acknowledge the importance of everyone’s time. And a week or two later, send your host a thank-you card. It may seem trite, but it actually means a lot. And they’ll remember you as a nice author they would welcome to their store again, when your next book is published.

9. How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

My advice on how to practice for a book tour may be found here.

10. Have fun! 

Hey, you’re giving a reading! Isn’t this a dream come true? So enjoy it, and if you do, everyone else will enjoy it with you. And privately remind yourself that whereas you might be nervous about your “performance,” they’re very happy and excited to be there, excited to replicate as adults that wonderful childhood experience of sitting on the library floor and being read to. Think about it—have you ever heard anyone boo after a reading, or say something critical afterwards? So enjoy the experience. In other words, don’t bury your head in your book and come up for air at the end. And don’t worry if only a few people show up; those few people will be your fans for life, and in the long run, it’s better to give a great reading to three people than a bad reading to a hundred people.

Bonus Tip–The Contents of My “Reading Backpack”

The “reading copy” of my book, marked up for pauses and timed readingsFive additional copies of my book (just in case the bookstore sells out); plus a box of books in the trunk of my carReading glasses, in case the lighting is dim, and for the same reason, a small ‘reading flashlight”Credit-card reader (for when I sell my own books)Five good pens with black ink (for signing)Printed-out hard copy of my reading excerpt (double-spaced, 14 font) on 8 x 11 paperMy “writing credit card” that I used solely for gas, accommodations, book purchases, food, and any other expenses to and from the reading, so I can deduct all expenses from my taxes. (Alternatively, bring a pouch for all receipts.)An 8”x11” cardboard custom-made printout (I used Vistaprint) and stand, in case I have a signing table and my host doesn’t have a sign or posterA box of thank-you cards (again by Vistaprint), with an image of my book cover on the cardsHard copies of my own introduction. (Because sometimes the person who introduces me simply reads from a google search, whereas mine includes more detail and more recent information, like quotes from reviews of my book).Business cards with my book cover on the front (by Vistaprint).Water bottle.