Dear Editor…
A former teacher of mine is teaching a creative writing class to high school seniors and invited me to speak to them—basically offering that they would read a few chapters of my ms (which has an agent offer) and then we could have a discussion. While a part of me would love to do a school visit (and start building my reader platform), I’m not sure if the timing is right since I don’t have published book yet. What do you think?
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous…
First, congrats on the offer. Second, visit the class. It’ll be great experience for you. When you do have a published book, you can do another visit with that teacher’s class—which will be full of entirely different students anyway. No need to turn down this opportunity because the book isn’t pubbed yet. You can expose this group to the writing/publishing process and to your work . . . and it would sure be inspirational to them. Bonus: You would get in some presentation practice when the stakes don’t feel so high. You’ll have plenty of events in the future for which you’ll worry about having books on hand; for now, get your speaking feet wet in a friendly setting.
Happy writing!
The Editor