Dear #Writingcommunity,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a first-time author, I\u2019ve looked over the industry checklists and prepared for pretty much any challenge I might face leading up to my book launch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A global pandemic wasn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first picture book, The Voice That Won the Vote: How One Woman\u2019s Words Made History<\/a><\/em>, hits store shelves in two days. I\u2019m sitting here staring at a stack of stickers and bookmarks and pencils and pipe cleaners. And yellow tissue paper, for the craft portion of my cancelled event. We were going to make yellow roses, the symbol of suffrage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To be clear, the majority of my colleagues are dealing with far worse scenarios than one cancelled launch event. So many of you, including members of my Soaring 20s<\/a> group, have had to cancel cross-country tours and dozens of school visits that you count on for income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bookstores like my\nlocal indie<\/a> have not only had to make the heartbreaking decision to cancel a\nmonth\u2019s worth of events, but also to face the fact that this disease outbreak\ncould destroy their business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And we creatives tend to be an empathic bunch, so it\u2019s easy\nto feel self-conscious and maybe even a little guilty for thinking about our\ncancelled launches when, in the larger scheme of things, it could be so much\nworse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hi there, mom who is my target audience, I know you\u2019re panicked\nabout who\u2019ll stay home with your kids if their schools close and you have to go\nget a paycheck, and I see you scrambling to find toilet paper for your family\nof seven, but hey, here\u2019s my new book\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, I\u2019m feeling sad. But I am also feeling awe. And\ngratitude. Because just as soon as signings and launches and conferences\nstarted getting cancelled, this community started coming together to support\none another. Like the literary equivalent of delivering casseroles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, I saw a twitter post by author Alli Brydon<\/a>,\noffering to do a \u201cmassive\u201d order from her local indie of kidlit books coming\nout this spring. Last I checked, she was up to 45 books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Author and 12×12 founder Julie Hedlund<\/a> made sure to add those of us with March\/April releases to Alli\u2019s growing list. Julie also rallied 12×12 members to brainstorm ways to help their fellow creators facing event cancellations. In less than 24 hours, that led to social media flyers promoting March books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From there, the support snowballed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Authors Christina\nSoontornvat and Ellen Oh<\/a> began organizing a virtual book festival for\nMarch\/April new releases, to replace cancelled events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Agent Kathleen Rushall<\/a>\nwrote an encouraging post full of ideas about how we can \u201clift the tide to\nraise all sails\u201d by creating online content for parents and teachers to share\nwith, amid disrupted schedules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Authors like Kelly Mangan<\/a>\nbegan boosting authors with new releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My publicist at Sleeping Bear Press<\/a>, Julia Hlavac, who I’m sure is super swamped with reshuffling and rescheduling, emailed me asking about my event and if there was anything she could do to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n