Two Questions 2018

Three Authors, Two Questions

Here we asked a few of our favorite queer, debut authors two questions to give us some insights from lessons learned on their recent book tours. Enjoy!

Before you went on tour, were there behaviors of authors you'd seen
that you either wanted to emulate or be sure to avoid?

Chelsey Johnson:
I've seen too many authors who stare into their books and read with no pleasure or verve. If people are going to take an hour of their precious lives to come see you read, make it worth it! Make it better than just reading it themselves. Role models for me are those authors who turn me into fans when I see them live--authors who treat readings like performances, who prepare, who practice, who step up to the mic and treat it as storytelling, not just a recital. And that goes for the Q&A too--I admire people who are able to take a simplistic or even offensive question and redirect it into a thoughtful, intelligent answer.

Matthew Griffin:
Instead of standing in front of us and reading for forty-five minutes, my friend T. Geronimo broke his reading into smaller chunks with lots of talking in between. It made the reading so much livelier and engaging. After I saw this event, I knew that one of the things I wanted to do was, as much as I could, turn my book events primarily into conversations with the audience, with as much openness and actual human interaction as possible, instead of my just standing there, reading. I also wanted, in those discussions, to be really candid about how much I'd failed as a writer before I started Hide, and about how murky so much of the creative process is, and not to sound too much as though I ever knew what I was doing.

Hilary Zaid:
Funny. Generous. Smart. The writers I've most admired bring those qualities to their readings. At bottom, it's confidence. Right before my tour, I saw a veteran author I greatly admire read with an MFA classmate of hers, who had just published her first novel. Or was it a novel? That writer spent a great deal of time talking about how it wasn't a novel but the publisher said it was. When someone in the audience commented about the reticence of the writing, the novice writer said "You're right. I shouldn't do that." No, no and no! Don't apologize for your work or doubt it when you're up in front of that crowd. That's totally different than humility and so, so awkward!

What surprised you most during your book tour/launch?

Chelsey Johnson:
What surprised me was how much it meant to me when people I knew showed up to my readings. Old friends, coworkers, long-lost acquaintances, people from my hometown--I was astonishingly grateful for every familiar face that appeared, especially those I wouldn't have expected. It really mattered. I'll never again take for granted how much it means to be there for another writer, in real life.

Matthew Griffin:
Honestly, I was always most surprised that people were actually showing up to hear me talk about this thing I'd written and by the number of older gay men, especially, who came up to thank me for telling this story. You work on this thing for years in utter solitude, with absolutely no idea if anyone will care, and then when it turns out that people do--that they've read it and cared about it enough to come out at seven on a Thursday night talk to you about it--it's pretty disorienting, and miraculous. I never quite got used to it. I hope I never do.

Hilary Zaid:
Book tours are full of surprises! Your mom is in the front row! Your college girlfriend's parents are sitting right next to her! Throwing up into a bag before while down in Salt Lake City wasn't exactly a surprise, but finding out five minutes later that the bookstore forgot to order the books: surprise! That was still a great reading because I was doing it with a friend who invited me to her town where we had a great time "in conversation" in her favorite bookstore. Book tour is the best opportunity to see writer friends all over the country. Invite them to participate in it with you! Don't lose your shit when shit happens, because it will. And stay hydrated!