In the past couple of months, I've experienced a great sense of pride when seeing my books in stock at two of my favorite local book stores. There's nothing like seeing my work sitting on the same shelves with other writers or cartoonists I admire. But yesterday I experienced my own little nerdy rock star moment. My books are currently catalogued at the Wells Branch Library. And I can see your reaction now (insert sarcastic eye roll). But let me tell you something, dear reader. Librarians know how to treat a writer.
Now, having my books in a store is fantastic, no doubt. But the reality for a small fry writer like me is that since I am a small fry writer, my books do not get any preferential treatment at all in book stores. As far as the publicity machines go, I'm not Stephen King. I'm not Dan Brown. Shit, I'm not even Terrell Owens (He wrote a children's book, by the way. You didn't know that?). Not so at the Wells Branch Library. Once my books were catalogued there, they created a large display for me and placed it at the front of the library. Would the book stores do that for me? Hell no. But the librarians were cool like that. They gave me the preferential treatment. And you know where books by Stephen King, Dan Brown, and Terrell Owens were? They were in the back of the library. Oh wait... They didn't have any books by Terrell Owens. Score for me!
But the best part of all was seeing the look on my daughter's face when she realized the display they created was for me. She ran up to the display, pointed at my books, and looked at me with a combination of excitement and confusion.
"Daddy, those are your books," she said.
"Yes, they are."
"Why are they in the library?"
"So people can check them out and read them."
"Oh!"
She sprinted circles around the display, giggling. And she smiled while watching the staff take photos of me next to the display. It was my own little nerdy rock star moment. Thanks Wells Branch Library. You rock! Who is the man now, Terrell Owens?
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