Change in the Time of Corona

I have a few writer friends whose books were released right as the Corona virus was spreading its tendrils across the United States. The tours they had planned, big and small, were canceled. Yet their books still needed to be publicized. After all, a country full of housebound people need something to do besides Netflix, and reading fits that demand very well. The usual social media, blogging, and podcast outlets remain as viable as ever, but some authors sought other options.

Thus was born the virtual tour, reading events held on platforms like Zoom, with readers logging in from the safety of their kitchens and bedrooms to hear authors read their work and answer their questions. Not perfect, and no books can be signed, but it is still a chance to meet the author nearly in person, and for some readers, whose town the author would have visited, an experience in normal times that would have been denied them.

This same rejiggering is occurring with writers’ conferences around the country. Some, like the Willamette conference in Portland, will be going entirely virtual; others, like the PNWA’s in Seattle, may do a hybrid conference, part live, part online. Regardless, like the authors forced onto Zoom to simulate bookstore appearance, the virtual conference offerings will allow writers who can’t or won’t travel to learn from other writers and pitch to agents and editors.

I read that the plague that devastated Europe in the middle ages had an unexpectedly positive result. So many peasants were killed by the disease that the landholding nobles looked up to realize the people they depended on to work their land were suddenly in short supply. The men and women they viewed as rather worthless and disposable were now valuable, and a few, tentative reforms in their treatment began to take place.

I hoard stories like these – as well as stories of virtual book tours and writers conference – the way some people currently hoard toilet paper. I know we are suffering, are dying, are out of work. I know the economy is probably going to be in the tank for a while after the pandemic has passed. But I also know that sometimes it is the circumstances thrust upon on us to that compel us to grow, to see something differently, to think more creatively and compassionately than we thought we could. When this has finally lifted, when we creep back out of our houses, know that all the changes that greet us have already begun to take shape.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence.
You can find William at: williamkenower.com