I had been “visiting” book groups by phone for years. I’m always happy to do this—it never gets old hearing that people who are unrelated to me and don’t owe me favors chose one of my books over millions of others to read and discuss.
Also, it’s usually really fun. It’s interesting to hear different takes on something you poured your heart and years of your life into, there are always questions you haven’t heard before, and let’s face it—book group people are generally down for a good time. It’s pretty easy to make them laugh.
Last spring a book group wanted to “visit” using Skype, a video-conferencing software program.
“Sure!” I said. “I’d love to!” Then I turned to one of my in-house computer experts—also known as teenagers—to set it up for me.
Everything seemed to be going well, and it was so much nicer to chat face-to-face rather than respond to disembodied voices over a speakerphone. Then my 11-year-old burst into the room.
“Mom,” he said. “Can we get a trampoline?”
I did what I usually do when one of my four cherubs interrupts me on a work call: I gave him the mean-mom-don’t-bother-me-now face and waved him out of the room.
Then I turned back to the computer screen, ready to continue. That’s when I truly got the downside of Skype: when you’re making the mean-mom face … THEY CAN SEE YOU.
Here are some tips on Skyping for both authors and groups:
- Confirm the meeting time, time zone and Skype account name the day before. Schedule your session at least 15 minutes after the group is planning to gather, so they have time to arrive, catch up with each other and settle in before starting.
- Set the expectations: will the author give a talk, or is it just questions and answers? I tell people to expect me to be with them for 30-45 minutes, but I’ll stay longer if they still have burning questions.
- Do a sound/video check just before the meeting. There’s nothing worse than working out tech issues while people are waiting.
- Adjust the height of your camera so it’s level with your eyes, not sitting on your desk and pointing upward. No one wants to look up your nose! For book groups, position the camera and the group so everyone can be seen.
- Position lights so you look lit, but natural. Make sure the background is pleasant—not the open door to a closet full of old sports equipment or stacks of haphazard files.
- In case the Skype connection gets lost or frozen, authors should get the phone number of the house where the group will be meeting, and groups can set up a speakerphone as back up.
I asked some of my author pals for their Skype-related stories:
Randy Susan Meyers: “Before doing my first Skype I practiced by having Skype conversations with my sister, daughter, husband … anyone who’d sit still for it. Of course, even with that I made a total fool of myself by craning my neck to see members who were out of screen view.”
Julie Buxbaum: “When I used to Skype with book clubs from London, it was almost always in the middle of the night my time. So I would get up, put on a nice shirt and some lipstick, and pretend like I wasn’t actually wearing hot pink pajama pants. Actually, those were some of the most fun meetings I’ve had, because I was always just a tiny bit delirious. On at least one occasion, I had my baby asleep in my lap.”
Melanie Benjamin: “I once had my picture taken in a Skype session—the book club all gathered behind the laptop they were using, so that my face was on the screen in the middle of them, and they took my picture! I felt a bit like Max Headroom.”
Heidi Durrow: “I tell them in advance that I’ll likely wear pajamas or a hat if I’m coming from the gym. I also like to show them stuff on my desk, like the blue bottle I found in a thrift store the day after writing that image into the book.”
Cathy Buchanan: “Sometimes I feel so much a part of the book club that I need a glass of wine. So here’s another tip: have wine on hand.”
Here’s a list of Great Book Club Suggestions by the Fiction Writers Co-op, an author’s group I belong to. All of these authors are happy to phone or Skype with book groups … but now you know—they might be wearing their pajamas.
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