Thursday, 13 March 2025
Literary Citizenship is Open to Everyone and How to Be a Solid One
I agree that the concept of literary citizenship is about supporting endeavors and people involved in writing, but it can also be viewed as anyone from writer to publisher to librarian to reader because the eco system of publishing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens in some way, shape, or form everywhere you look because everywhere you look there is something to read. Something that someone had to conjure from thin air to make sense of something else.
Signage. Labels. Instructions. Emails. Texts. Art. Social media. Calendars. Books. Magazines. Newspapers. Billboards. You belong to the literary world because you can’t get through a day without reading something. Sometimes I think that might be why people don’t read books. They’re already reading everything around them. Why read more in a book?
Citizenship implies membership in a community of persons with goals that are at least similar. And it implies responsibilities. As a no-dues-here member in good standing, each literary citizen should contribute to the greater good. Contributions range widely. Obviously, I’m extending on the idea of supporting writers because writers NEED readers. Plenty of writers don’t make their work public, but most writers want to and that can’t happen without a reader to receive and possibly respond to the writer’s words and ideas.
Not all support means money. Time and effort are just as valuable even as they can also equate to money. Here are some ideas on how you can support the literary world we all live in with just time and effort and be a solid literary citizen.
- Check in with a writer. You don’t have to talk story with them, just let them know you know they write and that you appreciate that.
- Ask for their books at the library and the book store. Not all stores are going to be able to get some books, but that’s okay. It’s on their radar now and that helps. Every library takes requests from patrons about buying books. Librarians will at least take a serious look if you make a serious recommendation.
- If you own the print book, get caught reading it in public. If you don’t own it, check it out of the library. Even if no one asks you about it, they might take a look at the book cover. Ahem, you may want to be considerate of others when choosing a book cover to go public with. Just sayin’.
- Free. Little. Libraries. Give if you can.
- Attend book readings. I could be wrong, but I’ve never seen anyone charge money to people who show up at a reading. Readings are usually free. Go. It would be nice if you could buy the book and get it signed at the reading!
- Stop at least once a day and say to yourself, “I wonder who wrote that?”
Literary citizenship is an important element in the world of writing and publishing. It’s the give-and-take part of belonging to any worthwhile group. It is the juicy stuff that binds us to one another to be supportive, respectful, and helpful as we journey through the world. Within the literary citizenship concept lies opportunities to enrich and be enriched by a diverse group of writers.
A good literary citizen actively and purposely gives as much as they take. The good stuff. It can be gently used, which sometimes makes it advice, but a place to toss refuse it is not. That isn’t to say that the writing community won’t listen when you have an elephant to shove off your chest. They will.
When I say that everyone can be a member of the literary community by virtue of reading, that isn’t to denigrate those who seize the ideas, write them down, and either share them or hide them under the bed. We’re all literary citizens, and we should support each other.
One of my ways of demonstrating literary citizenship is to post a regular feature in my newsletter focusing on books. It’s called “Books By My Friends” where once a month I tell you about the books from my author friends. Email me if you have a book published in the last year and want it considered for BBMF! It’s free:)
writerwellness at gmail dot com
In what ways are you a solid literary citizen?
Be well, write well!
~Joy
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JOY E. HELD is an author, educator, editor, entrepreneur, and literary citizen responsible for this site and its contents. She is the author of
Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2020)
Writer Wellness Workbook: A Guided Workbook and Journal to Accompany Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2023)
The Mermaid Riot (Fire and Ice YA, 2024) Young Adult Historical Fantasy
She writes spicy historical fiction under a pen name.
She is the winner of multiple writing and book awards:
West Virginia Writers, Inc. Annual Writing Contest, Honorable Mention, Novel, 1998.
New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention, Writer Wellness, 2020.
Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Finalist, Writer Wellness, 2021.
Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, Member of the Year, 2020.
Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, First Book Award, 2020.
She is an adjunct faculty member in the Southern New Hampshire University Online MFA Creative Writing.
She is a proud graduate of Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA with an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction.
She is a member of The Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Joy is the founder and CEO of My WRITEDAY Subscription Box for writers and readers.
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