Being Read

While writing, I am not a sharer. I have to completely write, and then re-write, and then re-write some more, and then extensively copy-edit before I’ll show anything I’m working on to anybody at all. And, even at that point, I will very carefully choose the person I first show it to.

There was a time when I thought nobody, other than me, would ever read Objects in Mirror.

But, of course, now it’s published and quite a few other people are reading it, and I’d like to tell you what that’s like.

Long ago, before I had a publishing contract, I used to think about what it might be like to have other people reading my work. I imagined 100 people reading something I’d written. That seemed like quite a few. I dared to imagine 500 people – I pictured what that many people would look like standing in one place together – and that felt like really quite a huge crowd to read something I’d written.

When OIM was first published, the success of my book launch (thank you all, again, for your support!) meant I knew many of the people reading it. Lots of them told me they enjoyed it. While, of course, I feared they had to say that, there were enough concrete references to certain characters or situations, and enough people asked me about a sequel, that I dared to believe them – they did like it.

It was important to me when the first riding people I knew read the book. It was lovely when my doctor told me she’d read the book, and liked it. This book, in case you don’t know, has quite a bit of horse content, and also details the main character’s struggle with an eating disorder. I had tried to get both right – I was as sure as I could be that I’d been accurate – but when people who knew about these things confirmed it, that was great.

The next thing that happened was reviews started to come in. Each review was – and is – a treat. I’m fascinated to learn what other people think about the book; what strikes them and stays with them after reading it. So, I loved knowing these reviewers were reading the book, however, it wasn’t a total surprise. My publisher and I sent out copies of the book hoping it would be read and reviewed.

And now we seem to have entered a new phase – the phase of the unknown, surprising reader. This is very exciting! These are my Readers – the ones I pictured in that 500-strong crowd of my imagination. These are people who find me on Facebook, or rate my book on Goodreads (thank you for that!). These are people whose names I’ve never heard before, and who live in many places I never imagined my book being read. I’ve already learned my book’s been read in Nova Scotia and Tennessee and New Mexico and Missouri. Knowing this makes me wonder who else out there is reading it, and where they live. For somebody as private as I am with my work in the early phases, it’s amazing how much this widespread reading by complete strangers means to me.

So much.

And, for the record, it’s been less than six months, and my readers have passed that 500 crowd of my imagination so, Wow! Onwards and upwards.

Thanks so much. Thanks for reading. Thanks for connecting. It’s really and truly appreciated.