Reading is the Key to Smart
- jasonleewillis
- Mar 20
- 4 min read
I saw it coming in the classroom a generation ago. Five minutes before class would start, students would huddle up around the ONE KID who’d read the story, and the classroom hero would then share the entire story to several clueless students, who’d nod and take mental notes. Between good guessing, good peripheral vision, and the instincts of the classroom hero, these clueless students would fake their way through a quiz.
Then things got even more audacious.
During discussion, the same clueless kids who huddled around the desk would raise their hands and bluff their way through the discussion.
So it’s no wonder that so many adults are fake-readers.
Now I’m out in public on a weekly basis, and there are many times that I fear the dream is dead. People just don’t read. It’s a post-Cell Phone natural disaster. I missed my window.
I tease, but the reactions I get are pretty common. I like to attend a diverse array of event types, which can vary from Arts and Craft shows, fine art shows, book festivals, comic cons in event centers, QuadCons in malls, book stores, town festivals, and libraries. So I see a lot of the public. Obviously, folks that go to author events, book stores, or libraries are readers, but at a town festival or large arts and craft show, you’re getting thousands of regular folks walking by your table.
Some have no idea where books come from: Oh, you wrote these?
Some put books up on a pedestal and extend a hand: Congratulations!
Others will lean in with squinted eyes and mumble to themselves: Oh, these are books.
Now I fully understand that readers are finicky and prefer to “stay in their lane” with certain styles and genres. I can’t pitch my books to every Tom, Dick, and Harry, so I ask: What kind of book do you like to read?
Histories? Mysteries? Fantasy? Thriller? If they say any of these, I set the hook and start reeling. Horror? Oh, I can work with that. In fact, I can usually find a decent fit from any of my 14 novels on the table. Asking them for a genre makes them plant a flag.
It’s a big improvement from other prompts like: Do you like to read?
Oh, that one is scary. That one hurts. You’ll get person after person shaking their heads at this one. I stopped asking that question because it lets them get right off the hook. The math becomes frightening. Let’s say 1,000 people attend the arts and craft show (a typical number), and you throw in a couple of other authors with different genres (5). Selling 100 books to 1,000 people is impressive (20 per author). Finding readers is still a needle in a haystack proposition of about 1 in 10. You think dating was tough, try 90% rejection.
Even those 10% readers are still a tough crowd. I’ve been actively selling for five years now after dabbling the previous decade. With that 10-1 ratio, a large event will usually bring me back to the same event, especially large events (10,000 people=50-100 books). I’ve found the active book buyers usually fit into the following categories:
Book (w)Hoarders
Nate Bargatze Readers
Followers
Real Readers
Book (w)Hoarders are easy marks. When you see them walk up with sagging bags of books from every other author in the building, you’re happy to join the club but deep down inside you know what they are. Your book is about to join a room full of thousands of other books, never to be read. Or, maybe they’ll be read, but by the third book that week, they’ll also be forgotten. I’m glad these buyers exist, but for me (read Authorship and Autism), I’m inviting the reader to visit my mind and my creation. I want to share my creations with you in order to have a human connection and to share philosophies and ideas. I am a jealous God.
Nate Bargatze Readers are quite common. These are the types that will shake your hand without ever looking at the blurb. An author! They throw $20s at me like I’m a literary stripper. Once again, they help keep the dream alive, but these books are likely going to a lonely coffee table or decorative living room shelf where the buyer can pretend to be sophisticated but will never actually read the book. Sigh.
Followers are a more recent development. With Facebook having existed for 20 years now, there’s an entire segment of the population that simply follows social media personalities. I happen to know a Gen-X woman who will talk to me about her goat-farmer friend or an adventurous Mormon family from Utah like they are our real-life neighbors. Who? I don’t know these people? Yet as an author, I find a bunch of people who buy my book because of what I represent. My “personality” platform is a commodity. So in 2025, I’ve decided to market myself as much as I market the book. After all, I don’t just write about the Seven Fires migration, the Canadian Rockies, or Romanian castles…I go there too. Some come follow me down some rabbit holes.
Real Readers are needles in a haystack. Honestly, I’d write for an audience of one. Yet when I go to an event and see 90% walk on by, it can be tough on the ego. So it’s quite uplifting to have 1 of those 10%ers come back to buy the “next” book in a series. Such a thrill. Heck, I got a hand-written letter from a fan last fall that fueled me through the next several events. The “imposter syndrome” is a major issue for authors, so it's really gratifying to return to an event and have someone make a connection to your work.
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