Reading Time: 7 minutesWhenever I’m being interviewed, or teaching a workshop or panel, the question invariably comes up about what I’m reading. “What’s on your nightstand?” The interviewer (or an audience member) will ask me. If you’ve ever been in this position to be asked this question, and didn’t know what to come up with – you’re not alone. Many authors I speak to make little or no time to read other books, which always surprises me. In some unfortunate cases, when asked what books they are reading, authors can only cite their own, which is a mistake. While I realize that book promotion likely takes up a lot of your time, reading will not only help you broaden your horizons, but help you sharpen your writing skills, too.

Stephen King once said: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time (or the tools) to write.” So why does this matter? Well for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that we always need to be learning and growing in our genre – when we don’t, our book promotion suffers, even at times growing stagnant. But also, it’s just good business. As a business owner, I am always getting to know my competition. Sometimes I network with them or support them in some other way.