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01/13/2016 06:00 AMThe local authors event at R. J. Julia Booksellers on Tuesday, Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. at the store at 768 Boston Post Road in Madison is not only just one of several the store has planned this year, it’s just one example of local booksellers and libraries supporting local authors.
Liz Bartek, the events manager at R. J. Julia, says it’s a natural fit.
“The local authors are usually so great when it comes to supporting us,” she says. “We’re thrilled to have such a generous community, it’s our way of giving back. We know that for independent and self-published authors, it can be hard to get attention. So this is a way for us to give them an opportunity to share their work with others.”
Bartek says she enjoys doing events with up to five authors, because the authors not only have a chance to get to know audience members, but also each other—”And each author usually brings one or two or three family members or friends, so it’s usually well attended, and fun,” she said.
Other area bookstores that often do local author events include Breakwater Books, 81 Whitfield Street in Guilford (www.breakwaterbooks.net); Harbor Books, 146 Main Street in Old Saybrook (www.harborbooks.com); Burgundy Books at 1285 Boston Post Road in Westbrook (www.burgundybooks.com); and the Griswold Inn Store at 47 Main Street in Essex (www.griswoldinn.com).
Grahame A. Burton, the owner of Harbor Books, says winter is a slow time of year for his store, but that the active promotion of local authors is an ongoing effort, and that it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.
“They are the only ones we hold book signings for,” he said. “Whilst we stock quite a large selection of local author books, the ones that sell are those that are promoted by the authors and where the authors spread the word that the book is available in our store.”
The Blackstone Library in Branford is one of many local libraries that supports local authors and is planning a Local Author Expo Saturday, May 21 at 1 p.m. at the library, located at 758 Main Street in Branford, with author, entrepreneur, and television news anchor Ann Nyberg of Madison as the featured speaker. Nyberg just wrote her first book, Slices of Life: A Storyteller’s Diary, which was published by Homebound Publications in Pawcatuck in 2015, and is available in many local bookstores.
Whitney Gayle, the head of programming at Blackstone, said the event is still in the planning stages and that she has about 19 authors signed up. She hopes to have as many as 20 to 30. She says she is particularly interested in having shoreline area authors participate. Authors interested in participating should sign up as soon as possible at www.surveymonkey.com/r/DCJSM33 or they can get more information by emailing programs@blackstonelibrary.org.
“We want to have a mix of fiction and non-fiction. We’ll also have some YA [young adult] and children’s authors. We want to do a little bit of everything. Depending on how many authors we get, we might do author panels,” she says.
The library also will create a Blackstone Author Trail map, showing the locations in the library of each author.
“We have so many wonderful writers in our area, and want to support our local writing community in a fun and vibrant way,” Gayle said in an email publicizing the event.