photo by Donna Van Horn of her mother

Writ­ers write to con­nect to peo­ple who are affec­tion­ately referred to as Readers. 

I learned ages ago that if I intend to write for pub­lic dis­play then I must remem­ber I am not only writ­ing for myself (that would be a diary) but I am writ­ing for oth­ers who have hon­ored me by giv­ing me their time and their atten­tion.  This is why writ­ers and blog­gers like me gush about our read­er­ship with pride and gratitude.

So when I wrote my first book, Unla­dy­like: Resist­ing the Injus­tice of Inequal­ity in the Church,   I expe­ri­enced the typ­i­cal fears that most writ­ers endure : Will any­one read it?  Will read­ers like it? Have I con­veyed my mes­sage with enough clar­ity?  Will my book cat­a­pult me to fame and for­tune?  (every writer secretly hopes this with every book!)

I have been priv­i­leged that yes, folks are read­ing my book. I’m not exactly sure how many peo­ple have  read it –in the many hun­dreds at the very least– but Unla­dy­like is being read. This is grat­i­fy­ing.  What is even more grat­i­fy­ing is when a reader takes the time to post a review on Ama­zon or their blog, or when they email me to tell me how the book has spoke to them.  Some read­ers who live nearby even invite me out to cof­fee. Like last week. I was so hon­ored to have a young woman invite me to get together after she read my book on a week­end get­away.  Besides hear­ing her thoughts of how Unla­dy­like res­onated with her, I also got to know her and some of her story, of how it is she arrived to the place she is right now that my book was a timely read for her. It is a bless­ing on so many lev­els when I am afforded this kind of oppor­tu­nity with a reader. I left my time with her glow­ing with thank­ful­ness that my book does have a voice.  I have a voice, and though I don’t have the Big Pub­lisher advan­tages,  my lit­tle book is find­ing it’s way through the byways and high­ways of the read­ing world.

Next week I’ll be Skyp­ing with a book club in Cal­i­for­nia. My first book club ever!  I am giddy with excite­ment to meet not just one Unla­dy­like reader, but a whole gag­gle of them!  (which reminds me, if you have a book club and would like to set up a phone or Skype talk time about Unla­dy­like, shoot me an email and let’s get it on the calendar).

Read­ers make my day. They affirm me with their kind atten­tion and encour­age me that I am not writ­ing just for myself.

Read­ers Are Why I Write.

How about you?  Have you ever con­tacted an author?  Skyped with a book club? What should writ­ers remem­ber about readers?