Welcome to episode 40 of From the Front Porch, a collection of conversations on books, small business, and life in the South.

I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia.

And today, I'm joined by writer Prissy Elrod.

Prissy is the author of Far Outside the Ordinary, a beautiful memoir we happen to carry and

love at the bookshelf.

And today, Prissy and I will be chatting about self-published authors, how to best market

your book, and navigate the publishing industry.

Before we get started, I did want to let

local listeners know about an upcoming event at the bookshelf. Part of the reason I decided to have

Prissy on the podcast today is because we are hosting our annual Authors Fair. We co-host this event

every year with the Thomas County Public Library.

The event is called Reader Meet Writer, and it is designed specifically for self-published

authors or locally published authors, and it's a chance for them to kind of get their work out

there.

This year, Prissy will be our MC, and we will be meeting this Saturday, September 19th, from 9 to

noon at the Thomas County Public Library.

From 9 to 10, that's just for the authors participating.

This year, we have 15 local authors who will be present.

And then from 10 to noon, the event will be open to the public.

We'll be doing a gong show style, Q&A and interactive kind of segment with the local authors.

And then we will have an opportunity for those authors to meet and greet and sign copies of their books.

And it's just a really fun, low-key way for authors to kind of get their work notice,

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