24-hour Read-a-Thon

I'll be participating in a 24-hour read-a-thon October 17-18 to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hall Book Exchange in Gainesville, Georgia (50 miles north of Atlanta).

Truth be told, since "The Sun Singer" has been out for four years, I haven't done one of these in a while. I'm out of practice and I really don't like talking to groups of people.

But, maybe I'll actually sell a copy or two and meet some other regional authors. That's the plus side of putting up with stage fright.

Malcolm

How much of this 24-hour affair do you actively participate in? It sounds like it could leave you weary.

Dick, I only signed up for an hour. I don't know why got stuck with 3 a.m.

Malcolm

3 a.m. - you have my deepest sympathy.

Oops, that was a typo. I meant to say I don't know WHO got stuck with 3 a.m. I'm actually reading at 6 p.m.

Malcolm

Read-a-thon? Do you have to read to an audience for 24hrs, or is it authors reading their works, or ... ? And who would be up listening at 3 a.m., anyway?

(Remember, I live in the 'sticks' and am not always up on this type of thing.)

Zada, read-a-thons are the most popular when they're used to celebrate a famous author's birthday, say Joyce or Emily Dickinson. Libraries and colleges and archives do this all the time. They sign up famous people as readers during the best hours (evening) and sign up teachers and students for the worst hours.

They always have more volunteers than they need.

For our read-a-thon, authors sign up to read and/or talk about their book for an hour, and then they sign and sell copies. These usually work best if the store has the clout to bring in some hot authors with big books as drawing cards.

(I also live in the sticks.)

Malcolm

I think the West Coast is way behind the East Coast in some things, as I had never heard of this before. Great idea, too.