Friendship with Your Reader

Friendship with Your Reader Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one. ~ C. S. Lewis Whether you write poetry, scripts, freelance features, nonfiction, memoir, or novels, your goal is to touch minds with a reader. And if the stars align, and you write like an angel, you connect with many readers, making them think you are of like souls. Think of yourself as a reader, and remember that special book that touched you once upon a time. The author reached across the void with characters, storytelling, and voice, and made you believe they understood you as a human being. The author deemed you credible, and you felt the same in return. But friendship with your readers means more these days. Once your writing passes muster, you are expected to be readily available online. You are also expected to respect the reader, because they invested time into the reading of your words. Not only do you want to feed them the words they want to hear, but you want to let them know you appreciate them for giving you attention in return. Its a personal relationship. Someone with my publishing house asked me why I still did face-to-face appearances when everyone did online events these days. I told that to a room of twenty ladies this week at a book club, and their faces expressed a combination of shock, disagreement, and dismay. Rumblings went around the room as everyone discussed how they appreciate a writer who dares make appearances, giving to the reader in return for reading the book. One lady even came up to me afterwards and said that she was about to give up on coming until she heard me, and I convinced her to stick with her book club, all because of the experience I gave her that night. So, if you think its about selling books, youre wrong. If you think its about your Facebook numbers, youre wrong. Its about becoming intimate with your readers, embracing them, thanking them for choosing your work to read when the world is flooded with choices. You owe yourself to your readers. Thanks Hope TWITTER http://twitter.com/hopeclark FACEBOOK facebook.com/chopeclark GOODREADS goodreads.com/hopeclark BOOKBUB https://www.bookbub.com/authors/c-hope-clark