“The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow.
Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character.
Sow a character and you reap a destiny.”
– James Allen
Harvest Celebration: a time of merriment, ample food, music, and a reprieve from the hard work done in the fields during the growing season. A time to reap the fruits of your labor, a time to celebrate the coming to life of what were just a few months ago mere seeds being pushed into the soil.
As an author, you know the feeling. A seed of an idea that you invested hours into watering; you weeded out the grammatical errors; you kept it safe from the cold bouts of dwindling motivation; and you watched it grow from a sapling of a paragraph into a full grown manuscript. The celebration of creativity, of growth, and of life is one that farmers and writers alike can share.
Harvest Celebration focuses on the tradition of communities coming together. You can use this time of year as a platform to host an event that showcases local authors and that celebrates the creative members of your community. Perhaps showcase the history of authors in your community, or writing that showcases the history of your community itself. Host a reading where people can stand up and share excerpts from their favorite books or poems by local authors or about local history. Collaborate with local farmers, wineries, etc. and try to get food donations to provide those who come to your event.
Another idea: ask local farmers to share some of their favorite poems or stories about farming, or perhaps ask them for samples of their own writing if they have it. If that’s too much socializing or too much of a hassle to collaborate for you, find agricultural writing on your own or with the help of a few close friends. Put together a small book that can be given away at a harvest festival in your area to showcase written expressions about the relationship between human beings and their environment. Authors and poets like Wendell Berry, who was a farmer in Kentucky for much of his life, would make for terrific samples in a piece like this.
“We have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it.
And to take good care of it, we have to know it.
And to know it and to be willing to take care of it,
we have to love it.”
– Wendell Berry
Celebrate what farmers have reaped healthy crops from their harvest, celebrate writers who have reaped wonderful stories and poems from their lived experience, and celebrate your community, and communities around the world, who have allowed for these people to flourish. This Harvest season, may your bellies be full of good food, and may your bookshelves be full of good stories.
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com. And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠
ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com
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