While it would be unfair to say that nobody showing up at your [insert event name here] is the worst feeling in the world—believe you me, there are far worse—it’s still definitely somewhere up there.
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You see, it’s more than just having wasted time, effort and money on making things happen. It’s also nobody caring, and that hits deep in the feels. Remember that one little girl whose party was completely empty despite her mom inviting over 20 kids? Yeah, that kind of upsetting.
But, also, remember that the internet can sometimes be kind and supportive. Because it always takes one to know one.
An up and coming author recently hosted a book signing for her debut novel, and only 2 people showed up. But then the rest of the internet—namely a bunch of authors—showed up in her Twitter comments.
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Having nobody show up at an event you're hosting isn't the worst thing in the world, but it definitely sucks regardless
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So, Chelsea Banning, author of Arthurian fantasy novel Of Crowns and Legends, recently hosted a book signing. One that was supposed to amass quite a crowd—37 people responded to the event as “going.”
Chelsea was quite pumped for the event. In an interview with Bored Panda, she said that she had been talking about the event and had even told the bookstore owner to expect a “small crowd”. Well, much to her surprise, it was definitely small, and nowhere near a crowd as only 2 people showed up. Now, sure, 2 people are better than no people, but it was still upsetting and embarrassing for Banning.
A new author recently hosted a book signing where only 2 people were in attendance, so she felt like venting
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Well, it seems the internet would have probably loved coming to her book signing, as loads of people started showing support for her
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This in turn led to her going to Twitter to vent a bit. In a video she posted after it all, she explained that she uses Twitter to vent her feelings “into the void.” She doesn’t actively use it as a business tool, so it seemed like a harmless little burst of catharsis.
PLOT TWIST! What started off as a tweet to just get it off her chest turned into a rally of netizens—quite famous ones, mind you—in wholesome support of the author. The likes of Neil Gaiman, Margaret E. Atwood, Stephen King, Dr. Julia Baird, Peter Sagal, and many other notable names started tweeting at her, sharing their own stories of misery and disappointment as authors.
Big names in the writing community—the likes of Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Margaret E. Atwood, Dr. Julia Baird, Peter Sagal, and others—all shared similar experiences
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In particular, they shared experiences of their own signings, debuts and other events that were supposed to gather a crowd, but ended up being busts. Min Jin Lee, for example, “reminisced” how only her husband’s cousin showed up. And that’s it. One person, and not even her husband.
Stephen King shared how at his Salem’s Lot signing, he had one customer who approached to buy a book. It was a kid who just flat-out said “Hey bud, do you know where there's some Nazi books?”
The event for Looking for Alaska by John Green also had just two people. One of them was his boss, but he was a good sport and pretended to be a stranger. He also pointed out that for the first 50 signings he did, he never had more than 8 people show up, and also gave a book recommendation for Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame, which details author touring stories.
Banning was left speechless after seeing her tweet go viral, elaborated that her intention was to just vent "into the void". But folks online had another plan
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Banning was left speechless after all these amazing writers showed up at her Tweet-step to reassure her that this is normal. Throughout several of her tweets in the thread, and in the already mentioned video, she shared her surprise, noting “this thread has 600 comments of people being wonderful and encouraging. It just reiterates how freaking amazing the writing community is.”
Since then, numbers grew to over 3,400 retweets, 4,200 quoted tweets and a whopping 80,000 likes. And given the general experience among writers, Banning agreed that it is a sort of rite of passage for many writers: “Yes definitely! Author signings are hard for everyone, so we are not alone.”
Soon her tweet amassed over 80,000 likes with thousands of retweets
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But wait, there’s more. Banning also said that sales started climbing on Amazon since tweeting. In fact, as of this article, Of Crowns and Legends is #2 in the Arthurian Fantasy category.
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To top it all off, here’s a little bit more wholesomeness: Banning has tweeted how folks on her Facebook are being nice and kind, buying each other’s artwork, inviting one another to collaborate and the like. “This is how humanity should be. Always helping each other. It takes a village all,” Banning said in the tweet.
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Lastly, we’ve asked Banning to share some advice with future writers in hopes of helping them with the situation that many writers go through. And she said this: “That it happens and to not let it discourage you! It seems all in-person author events are a hit or miss, so onward to the next one!"
“[Know] that it happens and [don't] let it discourage you! It seems all in-person author events are a hit or miss, so onward to the next one!" said Banning
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