<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.pngDante/Danteshow.html" target="_blank"><img style="float:right;padding-left:4px;" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.png" alt="Screen shot 2010-01-04 at 08.32.39.png" width="220" height="177" /></a>Every author has to do public events. They made me very nervous in the beginning. Now I've done so many they don't bother me, and I even feel bold enough to handle them in Italian in Italy so long as I warn everyone in advance that I'm going to murder their much-loved language.

Meeting readers is important and enjoyable. But I wondered long and hard for years what it was they actually expected of an author at a public event. They want different things sometimes. A few like to hear an author read from their work. Personally I hate reading and avoid it if possible, partly because Saul Reichlin does such a good job with my audio novels I hear his superior voice in my head every time I pick up a book and start to speak out loud.

But most readers don't know what they want really, except to be entertained, which is fair enough. Here's how I tackle this problem -- and you can see a little of my solution for yourself by clicking the image above, though later please, after I've explained a little more.

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I don't think readers come to book events wanting to know much about me. I tell them a little, in a short bio, of course, and fill them in on the background to the series, again briefly. After that it's the current book. And you know something? I'm not sure readers want to know that much about that either. Audiences at book events are, it seems to me, essentially curious in a very general way: curious about books and the people who write them. They want to look at you and think, 'So that's what a writer looks like.' They want to know why you write books and they don't. Where all this comes from.

So here's what I do these days. I take them through the thought and research process that led up to the book that's just come out, and I do that wherever possible visually, using the original photos I took when I was putting the book together. This demands a slide and projector, of course, but many book stores and libraries have those already. It also demands you don't look like some product manager coming along with a slideshow presentation for the latest version of Microsoft Widget. To this end I use Apple's excellent Keynote presentation package which is a lot more personal somehow, and lets me insert video easily too.

You can get a little of the flavour of what this looks like in my export of the presentation of the <a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.pngDante/Danteshow.html" target="_blank">slideshow for Dante's Numbers here.</a> This takes the audience through locations in Florence, Rome and San Francisco, and some of the threads in the story, such a Dante's <em>Inferno</em> and Hitchcock's <em>Vertigo.</em>

Pictures always go down well with people. Better than listening to me drone on about how I always wanted to be a writer. At least I think it is. Also it means I'm talking about something that's very natural for me -- the actual process of writing the book. I don't need to prepare much once these photos are put together. No need to get nervous about forgetting my lines or running out of something to say. You can see the slides I use as a web presentation here and by clicking the image at the top. Unfortunately this won't show you the notes I use as prompts on some of the slides. For that you need to download the pdf export of the presentation at the foot of the page (but we warned - it's 27 MB I'm afraid).

I hope this approach succeeds. I find it a lot more fun than wittering on my own anyway. I'm currently putting together my slideshow for this year's book, <em>The Blue Demon</em>. It will work in various locations around the world and for the US all I need do is a separate version showing the cover there, not the UK one.

Finally... always leave room for questions, which are usually excellent, though you may have to prod to get them, particularly in the UK where audiences can be more than a little shy. My next event is in Venice at the Mondadori book store (which will be just a talk by the way, no pretty pictures). After that I'll be on the road with my good friend Ann Cleeves in the north east at the end of February. To find out where I'm appearing just go to the <a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.pngblog/calendar/" target="_blank">Calendar page</a> here. The first showing of my new slideshow will be <a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.pngblog/calendar/" target="_blank">in Wigan</a> on February 25.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-04-at-08-32-39.pngdanteuk.pdf" target="_blank"> Dante UK.pdf</a> (presentation including notes - 27 MB in size)