Smile please! Hold the books up! Move just a little to your left! Just a few of the instructions I have heard recently. It’s all in a day’s work when you want to publicise your books. It’s the side of being an author I hadn’t really thought about too much whilst I concentrated on writing and getting the books published. How my life has changed now the books are physical products available to sell.
I was recently invited to go on my local BBC radio station for an interview. It was a great feeling to be talking about my books and childhood bereavement. Answering questions such as “We are good at talking around the issues, aren’t we?” and “Is it fair to say that children are sometimes better at being open with their feelings than adults are?” It gave me the opportunity to speak about how to support bereaved children and young people when they experience the death of a significant person in their lives. It also gave me the chance to pass on some tips to those listening in case they were helpful.
The radio interview led to an online article The Norfolk author helping 'forgotten mourners' navigate grief - BBC News which then promoted an email from Talk TV. They had seen the BBC article and invited me to join Penny Smith on her Sunday morning show. Initially I wasn’t sure it was real, but one phone call with the Producer and the interview was set up. It was a great experience and for 10 mins I answered questions that I didn’t know in advance, which was slightly nerve wracking! Despite this, I was able to talk about the needs of bereaved children and chat about giving them choice and empowering them to make decisions around their own grief.
Before too long the interview was over, and I started to consider all the things I could’ve said instead of my actual answers. I realised I was being critical of myself, even when others praised my performance. Why do we do that? I needed to remind myself that I had just been on national TV highlighting childhood bereavement and giving a plug to my books. Wow – what an opportunity.
It is always good to get some feedback on your performance – good and constructive (I just don’t want to type ‘bad’ here!) as you always learn from it. It got me thinking about getting feedback about my books too, as this is another new task I need to undertake. It takes an element of courage to publicise your work and be critiqued by others. Asking people for feedback on the books and getting open and honest responses. I’m always telling adults to be open and honest with children when talking about death and grief – I need to take heed of my own advice. So, please reach out and contact me
lornavyse.author@gmail.com if you’ve got any feedback for me.