Okay, so you’ve just published your first novel, and you’re telling everyone you know about your accomplishment. If you live in a small, rural town like me, you probably know, or are acquainted with, 95% of the people who live there. And, whenever one of those people strikes up a conversation with you about your book, you’ve probably wished you had a dollar for every time you’ve heard one of these…

The Impressed Non-reader

Person: “You wrote a book? Cool! I’d buy it, but I don’t read!”
Me: *Eye twitch*

The Almost-Sale

Person: “You wrote a book? You’re so young! Oh my goodness, you’re a prodigy! I’m gonna go buy it tonight and tell everyone about it!
Me: *Continues to look at CreateSpace and Kindle sales for a week to see if the numbers rise…. and nope.*

The Referral Gone Wrong

Person #1: “Hey, did you know she wrote a book?”
Person #2: “That’s awesome! It’s so cool to have a local celebrity around ol [insert small town name here]!”
Person #2: *To Person #1, thinking I can’t hear them* “Let me borrow it.”

I kinda love this next one to be honest…

The Series Question

Person: “I loooooved your novel! Are you gonna write a sequel? Please tell me you’re going to write a sequel!”
Me: *Thinks about the trainwreck of a sequel I attempted to write for it eight years ago* “Sorry, but I’m not planning on it!”

And this one that happened a lot around two months ago…

Local Celebrity Status

Person: “I saw you! I saw you in the newspaper! With your book!” *Freaks out*
Me: *Totally forgotten about the author interview I did in the county paper* “Yay!”

But this has been my absolute favorite so far…

Every Author’s Favorite Question

Person: “Will you sign this copy for my daughter/cousin/family member/me?”
Me: *All the writer feelings well up* “Of course you can, you lovely person!”

Even though that’s technically not a direct quote from me. XD

Side note: So far, I’ve signed two copies of Can’t Beat the Heart of a Carolina Girl in the bowling alley where my boyfriend bowls league, on two separate occasions. It was awesome! 🙂

What other repeat conversations do you have with people in your town about your novel? I’d love to hear about them!

-Allyson 😀