I enjoy speaking to crowds. I like the immediacy of it, the direct interaction with the audience. I’ve previously shared tips and insights on how to deliver more memorable presentations (memorable in a good way–not the way we remember Uncle Henny’s drunken wedding toast). Today, I want to address a specific and mostly painful corner of every author’s public speaking life: the live reading.
Personally, I don’t get the attraction of readings. As a consumer of books, I’m much more interested in learning about the author and his process than I am in hearing him give what is almost always a bad performance of words that I’m going to read for myself anyway.
Said bad performances fall into two major categories for me:
- The dreadful, droning monotone of an author who seems somehow surprised by the words he’s projecting to either his feet or his lap. If he’s been given a microphone, he’s holding it in the hand that is also holding the book, rendering it useless. If they’re only moderately bad, they’ll be done in 10 minutes, but because Murphy rules the world, the really bad ones will mumble on for 20-25 minutes. When they’re done, the always polite bookstore audience will reward them with a golf clap.
- The pretentious literary author who took elocution lessons from Henry Higgins himself and over-enunciates every syllable of his golden prose that may or may not tell an actual story. When he’s done, his students in the audience will reward him with cheers and a standing O.
There’s a fundamental difference between delivering a speech vs. delivering a live reading.
When I deliver a speech or teach a workshop, I get to be myself. As the subject matter expert for the duration of the gig, I deliver my information my way. The only role I play is myself.
Live readings of fiction require a level of acting which I don’t possess. I feel silly raising my voice to sound like a woman or a child. Acting and writing are related yet entirely different skill sets. Given that this is the entertainment business, nothing makes an audience more uncomfortable than an uncomfortable performer.
When the game doesn’t suit you, cheat.
Remember Kobayashi Maru? In the Star Trek universe, Star Fleet cadets are faced with an unwinnable simulation called the Kobayashi Maru test, in which the cadet has to choose between risking near certain death to rescue the crew of a fuel ship, or leaving the fuel ship crew to die. Captain James T. Kirk made history by being the first cadet ever to solve the dilemma. He did it by changing the program. He cheated because he didn’t accept the inevitability of losing. I always admired that about him.
When I am left with no choice but to read from my book, I do not, in fact, read from my book. Instead, I read an original work that is closely based on my book. That means never reading from Page One. If I did that, people in the audience who already had a book in their hand would be confused as they tried to read along, and they’d miss everything I was presenting.
My specially prepared piece is engineered to be 5 minutes long, give or take ten seconds, and it will end with a cliff hanger. The piece will include within the text all the introductory information needed to know who the characters are, and I will have excised all elements of backstory, and all unnecessary foreshadowing. It’s a stand-alone performance piece that parallels the book’s events and hopefully whets the appetites of potential readers who are on the fence about buying the book.
Because it will be the same piece every time I read for that particular book, I’ll have it largely memorized, so I’ll be able to make eye contact with the audience. Even if I can’t do the acting, I’m still communicating.
What about you folks? What are your secrets to surviving the live read-aloud?
Don’t miss the launch of Burned Bridges–the first book in my brand new thriller series!
Morning, John. Preordered and looking forward to Burned Bridges. Great title.
At many readings I’ve gone to, the rule seems to be the most monotonous, monotone, mumbling authors read the longest.
What a great idea to read a summary rather than the actual text. And end on a cliffhanger. Smart strategy. Thanks for terrific tips.
I was recently asked to read my book to a SALSA group. I was grateful to be asked and remembered that it is a performance, not a lecture. A sense of humor and humility go a long way to entertain folks. My memoir is written in several small vignettes, so choice is easy for me. I chose three and read as slowly and clearly using a hand held microphone.
(SALSA stands for Sight and Limited Sight)
A week later one of that group bought the book and told me that she could hear my emotion-filed voice as she read with her special book viewer.
I’ll be doing a “meet the author” talk later this month, and I don’t intend to do a ‘reading’ although the bookstore owner said many authors do. I recall when a fellow author invited me to her event and said, “take about 25 minutes.” Yikes. Her writings were poetry, and her audience loved listening to poems. Not my fiction. I muddled through, but it was more like 10 minutes, max, and at that point in my “career” I had only one book released, and it was from a digital first publisher, so I read from Chapter 1. Too bad I hadn’t read this post back then.
I never understood the reasoning behind a book reading, especially not in today’s world where I can just read the first part of the book on Amazon. I agree with you, John, that it’s much more interesting to hear about the author’s process, the characters, and the reason the author decided to write that particular book.
I liked the trailer for Burned Bridges. Best wishes for the book.
Sounds like I’m the outlier this morning. I love giving readings, have done so at a number of conventions. The secret for me is preparation. I practice the piece before hand, make notes to myself on points where I want to emphasize something. And I time myself.
At con reading, you usually have 30 minutes scheduled to you, but that includes people filing in and you also want to wrap at least 5 minutes early for Q&A, 10 minutes is better. So, I usually plan on 15-20 minutes. Flash fiction is perfect for that amount of time. Reading an opening scene of one of my novels works too. Longer short stories are hard because even 4000 words takes more time than I’ll have, so I usually don’t read one.
I work to look around the room as I read, and be animated. Mostly, I try to share the fun of fiction 🙂
If I ever have to do a reading, I mean, if a wicked genie popped up in front of me and said, “Read or die”, I’m going to do it your way, John. I really like this idea.
In another life, I directed plays, so acting appeals to me. With a scaled down, backstory-gone piece, and just the cool parts added, it’d be way more enjoyable for the audience.
Question: Do you, in any way, prepare the audience so they know you’re not reading a complete scene?
Have a great day! 🙂
I generally don’t prep the audience because I don’t know how to do that without it sounding like an apology. If someone asks why I’m reading from a printed sheet, I give a truthful answer, albeit to a different question. I tell them that it’s easier to read aloud from a page with large type.
…without it sounding like an apology.
Understood. I think you’re right–that’s exactly what it’d sound like. Thanks!
I enjoy hearing authors read from their works, and in some cases it’s convinced me to buy their books, if I’m unfamiliar with it/them.I think about 10 minutes of reading is enough, and then there’s room for questions etc. But John, that’s a genius idea to create a standalone piece to read instead!
Maybe it’s my acting background, but I love reading a portion of a book, ending with an appropriate cliffhanger. Less is more. Five minutes is enough.
Readings have never bothered me. I have training as a teacher as well as some music training so I know how to use my voice. During college, I gave poetry readings. I also spent years telling bedtime stories. I do individual voices and emotions.
When asked to do a reading, I don’t read from one of my books. I read my short story called “The Werewolf Whisperer” which is light and humorous with just a few voiced characters I’m very familiar with. It’s short enough to fit into the half-hour I’m usually given, and it has an incredible spit-out-your-coffee surprise at the end. Leave them laughing.
To be truthful, I’ve always been embarrassed to read aloud my own work. I don’t like to reread my writing after I’ve finished editing it for the last time. Nor do I listen to the audio versions. A few times I’ve read a short excerpt during Facebook live launch events. Usually something with dialogue between the hero and heroine, but not generally the first page. Comments have been good. But I do enjoy it when readers, especially poets, read from their works. I’m still a kid that way.
No profound writerly thoughts to share but thank you for mentioning my favorite movie of all time – Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. 😎
I intend to produce the ‘as read by author’ audio version of my novels – a short piece wouldn’t be all that hard, though I don’t have one picked out at this point.
I read aloud to my kids – many different kinds of books – that’s what I’m aiming for, not a performance.