Being an Author? Awesome! Meeting a Reader? Priceless!

So many emotions rise from the depths of your soul when you meet a reader of your book for the first time. Excitement. Anticipation. Happiness. Even fear. Will they like my book? Will they like me? Will they get the book’s theme or message? Will they tell their friends about my book? Will they share, tweet or shout about it? Stop. Pause. Hold it. It’s not about the author. It never was. It’s about the reader. And it always has been.

Once the publishing contract is signed, your book is revised, edited, formatted, and given a beautiful cover, it doesn’t belong to you anymore. It belongs to your reader. At least that’s the way this author’s eyes see it. Every author dreams of meeting his or her legions of readers and signing stacks of books for them. It’s an ego boost for sure, but this feeling of meeting someone who actually wants to read a book you’ve written is so primal, so euphoric, it rates up there with having a baby, but with less pain. Unless, by chance you have carpal tunnel syndrome! Ouch!Recently, I had the chance to meet with three fantastic readers wanting a chance to sink their eyes into the paperback version of my book. It was a surreal moment for me, meeting these young girls, signing whatever it was they instructed me to write on the virgin inside cover of my book. It was humbling. Until you’re in the shoes of an actual author, signing the actual hard copy book, you can’t imagine the emotions, the feelings that bubble up from the vat of rejections and realizations you go through as a writer. Luckily, through fate, or opportunity, or just plain hard work, I got to experience these emotions and feelings first hand, and I’m blessed that I did. Meeting your readers isn’t a job, it’s a privilege. And to me, that’s priceless.

FYI: I will be part of the Euterpe YA Event over on Mera’s YA Booklist next week! The Event runs from August 13th to 17th, with plenty of other talented YA authors for you to check out and add to your reading list. I’m doing a character interview slated for August 17th. Please leave a comment below to tell me which character from The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis you’d like me to interview. Cheers, all!