Sitting on the Other Side

Sitting on the Other Side

Guys.

It happened.

This actually happened!

I did something this week that I did not think I would ever do. I sat on the other side of an author panel. Instead of being someone in the audience, I was the host of the event and asked the authors the questions. It was one of the scariest things I’ve done in a long time but I actually really enjoyed myself and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It definitely helped that the authors I had on the panel with me were all wonderful and brilliant too!

Before the event, I tried to read all of the books by all the authors so that I had a good feel of their work but unfortunately due to life I wasn’t quite able to complete this task. I did, however, manage to read the first few chapters of all their books and I think this really helped with asking the questions and absorbing the answers. It also made me itch to get back to the books so I could greedily finish them.

Fortunately, the authors had some questions readily prepared for the event and a nice schedule where there were a mix of questions and short extract reading and it all just flowed really nicely. I also added in a few of my own questions and put them on the spot and they all answered incredibly well! I think it also helped that the audience wasn’t too big and it just felt very informal and lovely and I was really pleased and happy with how it all went.

So being on the other side of the panel was nerve-wracking but I’m so glad I did it. It’s made me feel a little bit more confident now and I’m hoping that I’ll get the chance to do it again at another event.

Of course, the ultimate dream is to be on a panel as an author but one step at a time, eh?

Would you ever want to host a panel?