I Attended a Book Signing -Accidentally!

Yeah, it’s exactly how it sounds like XD.

You see, in Ecuador, authors don’t come very often. I’m sure plenty come, but not the kind that do panels and book signings and smile and interact with readers. o.o I love my country but I hate it’s so behind on culture. I see it’s making progress, though. Progress I’d been unaware of. And it’s something that makes me unbeliavably happy. It means there’s hope that one day, non latinamerican authors might come by our libraries.

Last Weekend,

My dad and I were killing some time at the mall until my sister finished with her english classes. So, what were supposed to do for four hours at the mall? Umm… Read of course.

We went into Mr. Books and each picked a book. I was pleased to see the place had been remodeled recently. It was much bigger. So, with a smile on my face, I sat cross-legged on the floor, since all the chairs were taken.

Then, the library staff started lining up plastic chairs right in front of where my dad and I were sitting. I had the feeling that soon we’d be kicked out of our reading spots. The chairs were all facing us, so I assumed we were sitting right where the ‘thing’ whatever it was, would take place. Next thing I knew, people had taken their seats on the plastic chairs. I loooked at dad and said, “Uh, shouldn’t we do that too? I think there’s gonna be a thing.” He shrugged and we went to sit too. The library was steadily becoming crowded.

Teens were wearing shirts that said ‘Pie de Bruja’. There was a banner that said ‘Pie de Bruja, Carolina Andújar’. And everywhere I looked there were these books with back cover and *gasp*, titled ‘Pie de Bruja’. I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to squeal. I had never in my life heard about Carolina Andújar or her book, ‘Pie de Bruja’, but who cared? I was in a book event! The stuff that I only heard about, or read about in Twitter.

The author arrived, followed by applause from her loyal readers. I was flabbergasted. I listened enraptured as the colombian YA gothic author explained the plot of her book.

Yes, that guy over there, the one facing forward? That’s where I’d been sitting. Haha.

After awesome explanation of her book -which I suddenly really wanted to read-, it was time for questions. And, this was another surprise for me. There actually were questions. It wasn’t a

“Any questions?”

*OMINOUS SILENCE* moment.

Amazing. I could only think about how amazing that shit was.

I did ask a question too, and was crazy nervous, but I did it. I asked Carolina how hard it’d been to publish her books, being a latinamerican writer, and considering the market for genre fiction in latinamerica was dominated by books by american authors.

Her simple answer was: Easy, and difficult at the same time.

She told us she’d never intended to get published, which why it’d been easy, but by a friend’s recommendation, she tried it, and never got a response. Then, almost two years after that, came the hard part too. A friend of hers had submitted her manuscript to an editor, who happened to like what she wrote, and from then on, she had a publisher’s support, which helped share her stories with all those people.

She might’ve said some other things, but one thing I learned is that not all is lost here. And maybe some day, big publishers will at least consider sending authors down here on tour.

This is for you, publishing houses:

We do read. We’re not many, but we’re more than what you think. And the flight here IS worth it. We have libraries, and we have air conditioning, don’t worry. We’re not savages, except when we drive. Someone has to take the first step. Authors don’t come here because it’s expensive and there’s no readership. Teens here don’t read because they don’t know about these authors. These authors aren’t marketed here. Teens don’t know about them, therefore, don’t read them. Authors don’t bother marketing here. Teens don’t know about them, therefore, don’t read them.