Stephen King said in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft that all writers must begin their work writing with the door closed. After it's done, write with the door open. Basically, he means at some point we have to let the world in to read what we spend so many hours on, scribbling away. For the naturally introverted, opening that door is one of the hardest things we do as writers.

I am not a social person. I'm a writer. I do this all day long with only my dogs as company, and even they spend the majority of that time ignoring me. I pound away at my keyboard, sip tea, try to pay attention to the clock so I remember to eat, and literally do not hear another human voice until my teenage son comes home from school (and even then it depends on if his hormones are in control that day. A grunt is the best I can hope for most of the time.).

But, if we want to sell books, we have to be social.

I recently had my second book signing at Barnes & Noble. And I'm here to tell you it was nothing but anxiety from the get-go. You see, my first signing was mostly people I knew and begged to come buy my book. This one? All strangers (save for two wonderful angels who always come prop up my pathetic excuse for confidence and give me a well-deserved foot in the rear.). The pressure was on.

I put on my best I'm-a-good-writer-really smile, and commenced selling. And I was SOOOO bad at it. If someone made eye contact with me, I offered up a timid "Hello." If their eyes looked at my book for even a second I asked, "Do you like ghost stories?" Most people ignored me. A few asked where my restroom was. Another asked me if I knew where I kept the AP Bio books. Evidently, I was sending out my "I work here" vibe, even though I do not nor have I ever worked there. Not the greatest selling strategy, let me tell you.

I did, despite my horrible lack of social skills, manage to meet quite a few nice women and one gentleman. He was convinced to buy my book as a Sweetest Day gift for his lady love. He asked me what it was about, how long it took me to write it, and various other questions. And a strange thing happened.

I talked.

And I didn't die.

Whew.

You see, I learned something about myself that day. If you are looking for me to be a dynamo of a conversation starter, you are knocking on the wrong door. If, however, you are looking to ask me about what I do, pull up a chair. We're gonna be awhile.

I never would have known that I have an actual comfort zone when talking to strangers if it weren't for pushing myself to ask for a book signing.

So, I guess, dear reader, that my advice is simple. Whatever it is that you do, whatever your passion, if it requires you to be social and that's not your jam, do it anyway.

Open that door.