I’m happy to report that for those of you who missed my launch party, but were curious about Woman King, I’ll be giving a reading at the San Francisco Public Library on June 5. While there, I will also discuss some of the lessons I’ve learned from my year-long quest to self-publish.
No big surprise to the other writers out there reading this blog post, but I am a big fan of libraries. For more than a decade, a big part of my day job, the one that pays the bills right now, has been spent working to help libraries—through campaigns and PR programs.
Beyond the obvious that libraries are fun, they’re also important. In a city like San Francisco where everything is becoming new and shiny, high-tech and expensive, libraries remain fabulous public institutions that allow everyone—regardless of their income, education, color, sexual orientation or immigration status—to have access to the same information. It may seem simple, but think about the equalizing power of everybody being able to read Walt Whitman or Harry Potter. That is democracy in action and in San Francisco, it’s funded by our tax dollars.
As a young girl, I feasted on the banquet that my local library provided. From elementary school to college, I was known to simply plop down on the floor and pull the books off the shelves. Stephen King, Hemingway, T.S. Elliott – there was no end to my appetite and, thankfully, no end of my supply of books.
To be returning to the library as a published author is a dream come true for me, so I’m grateful to the folks at the SFPL for hosting me. While there, I’ll review my experiences as a self-published author, discussing my decisions to hire a professional editor and a graphic designer. It was not an inexpensive endeavor. And yet when I look at my book sitting out there on Amazon and Smashwords, looking every bit as polished as the other books in my genre, I feel that my investment was worth it. If you’re in town, I hope you will come and join me. I think it’s going to be a nice evening.