Reading Habits
By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin
Whether we are conscious of it or
not, we are creatures of habit. It is certainly true in my life in publishing.
Since a small child, I have loved reading books. Yes I have a reading habit and
I encourage every writer to read in many different areas and styles of
books.
In my case, most of what I read
is nonfiction. It seems natural because I've written over 60 nonfiction books. I
listen to audiobook—all nonfiction. I do most of my reading in a comfortable
leather chair in my office. I have a once-a-year indulgence (which I wrote about several years ago) reading the current
Daniel Silva book. The latest book, The Cellist
launched last week and is the 21 Gabriel Allon book. In early May, I ordered my
signed copy (still available as of this writing follow the link) because I
receive his email newsletter and knew it was available. The signed copy costs
exactly the same as the regular book but includes a page called a tip-in. On a
Facebook Live, I heard Silva say it took him several days to sign all these
pages and return them to his publisher for the printing process.
Each of these sales are pre-sales
and count toward the sales of the first week of release. Daniel Silva made
several television appearances like on The Today Show plus a Facebook Live interview. The Cellist will be the #1 fiction
book on the New York Times bestseller list this week.
In my office bookshelf, I have a
number of signed Daniel Silva books but only one of them was actually signed
with my name on it: The Rembrandt Affair. For the release of that
book, I lived in Scottsdale, Arizona and attended a signing at the Poisionous
Pen Bookstore and Daniel Silva spoke and signed books. Before the pandemic, he
regularly traveled to various key cities when his book releases. Hopefully this
pattern will return in future years but this year he handled the release with
virtual events and still landed on the bestseller list (which shows his strong
fan base—including me).
From listening to different
author interviews, I learned Silva's parents were schoolteachers and reading has
always been a part of his life and habits as well. He loves The Great Gatsby and
said that 1984 by George Orwell was his favorite novel. I enjoyed the Facebook
Live interview and learning his writing routine on a legal pad with a pencil on
his office floor. Plus he is already working on the next novel with about 65
pages in the works on that book.
I'm currently reading The
Cellist. I love the storytelling and find it a page turner
(hard to stop reading). I often do this sort of reading in the evenings. What
are your reading habits? Do you have a particular type of book you read? Where
do you read? Let me know in the comments below.
Tweetable:
Labels: Daniel Silva, habits, novelist, publishing, reading, Reading Habits, The Cellist
3 Comment:
I follow my mom's habit of reading in the afternoon, often right after lunch. When my children were small, we read books and then they napped. I read in an oversized chair in my bedroom, mostly fiction since I'm a historical fiction writer, but also biographies and memoirs. I often add Christian non-fiction--devotional or self help--to my nightly Bible reading.
In the daytime I read nonfiction life stories--partly for the story and lots for the art and craft. At night I love to get into bed with murder and mystery :)
Rebecca and Marcia,
Thank you for telling me about your reading habits. Each of us have a different pattern but the important thing is to continue reading, growing and learning.
Terrty
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