Atwood, King support writer Chelsea Banning after book signing no-shows

“Only 2 persons arrived to my writer signing, so I was rather bummed about it,” she posted on Twitter. “Kind of upset, actually, and a tiny humiliated.”

The fantasy writer did not come to feel down for way too extended, having said that, as celebrity authors swiftly chimed in to share memories of their possess e-book signings that experienced flopped — illustrating how it can be a very long road to results and to filling up rooms.

“Join the club,” wrote “The Handmaid’s Tale” creator Margaret Atwood in response to Banning. “I did a signing to which Nobody arrived, except a person who required to obtain some Scotch tape and assumed I was the enable.”

Greatest-marketing horror writer Stephen King also replied: “At my initial SALEM’S Lot signing, I experienced one particular buyer. A unwanted fat child who explained, ‘Hey bud, do you know in which there is some Nazi textbooks?’”

Neil Gaiman shared a memory of a signing in New York with fellow author Terry Pratchett that “nobody came to at all. So you are two up on us,” he wrote.

“One Day” author David Nicholls extra his memories: “Ooh, boy, as well quite a few to share. The 1 where the bookshop workers kindly pretended to be consumers so I would not come to feel much too poor, that stays with me,” he tweeted.

“My Sister’s Keeper” author Jodi Picoult said she had “sat lonely at a signing table a lot of situations only to have a person approach…and inquire me where by the lavatory is.”

“We’ve all been there,” stated British creator Malorie Blackman, offering comfort and ease. “I when did a converse at a library and 5 people today turned up, which include a mum who planted her two infant university kids in front of me and then strategically ‘withdrew’ to get some peace for a even though.”

Korean American writer Min Jin Lee, who wrote “Pachinko,” extra that she experienced the moment attended a reserve studying where only “my husband’s cousin showed up.”

“You know, a whole lot of individuals imagine of writers and authors and imagine the glitz and glamour of events,” Lee told The Post. “Actually, however, there’s a good deal of having served humble pie.”

In excess of the past decade, Lee explained she’s experienced hundreds of e book signings and linked gatherings. “Sometimes you fill venues. Other situations, you are fortunate if your mom demonstrates up,” she included. “But what’s critical to retain in mind is that someone cared plenty of to exhibit up and read through what you had to say.”

Under no circumstances in her “wildest dreams” did Banning ever envision her attempt at “literally venting into a void” would convert into a viral instant of world literary assistance — being shared about 7,000 times and garnering much more than 77,000 likes on Twitter. On Wednesday, her debut novel, “Of Crowns and Legends” — the very first of a Camelot-set trilogy — rose to the No. 1 bestseller in Amazon’s “Dragons & Legendary Creatures Fantasy” class. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Put up.)

The “spark” for Banning’s Arthurian novel came to her in a superior university British literature course. She’s also a normal at Renaissance fairs and a whole-time librarian, who once dressed up as Disney’s Queen Elsa from “Frozen” for an function with kids.

“I necessarily mean, I like fantasy. So I try to make it as much of a fact as I can, I guess,” Banning said.

Now, Banning claimed she is hoping additional magic will stick to as she will work on the trilogy’s 2nd ebook. But, in the meantime, she stated she can’t enable but feel as if her higher school self — the a person who first received the “crazy idea” to create the book — would be in awe of how the storyline has unfolded so significantly.

“She’d faint,” Banning reported. “I’d want to convey to her to by no means quit creating mainly because it is heading to pay back off — even if the to start with drafts of the ebook ended up so cringey.”