Before I actually signed the publishing contract, before I found an agent, and before I finished my first novel I had come up with clever ways in which I would help sell my book. Okay, I'm lying. I'd never thought about that stuff -- didn't even consider it, in fact. Beyond a little concern about how terrible my handwriting is and how I would ruin the books people wanted me to sign, I hadn't really allowed myself to dream of what I would do when my first novel finally came out.
Then, after signing a contract with that same goofy signature, I discovered I actually had a ton of work to do before the novel came out. If I wanted people to read my book I would need to work on publicity, of all things! Develop a platform, a website, start a blog, Twitter, and even start a Facepage (which is my mom's endearing name for Facebook).
In the depths of writing my novel I spent an enormous amount of time pondering the apocalypse. To be honest, the self-promotion and salesmanship I would need to partake in sounded worse than the end.
Which brings me to the end of this posting --- as I flounder and bungle my way towards the next few months of publicity prior to my book coming out, I am realizing that this isn't the end of the world. A writer can actually have a little fun with this nightmarish idea of actually working to share one's writing with the world. One might even be surprised about how excited people are to help and share their knowledge and time, even in today's over-saturated media crazy market!
My book doesn't come out until January 25th, 2011 --- last week I spent three days in the Amazon Canada top 100 list. Surely this is a sign of the apocalypse, or I just have friends and family who really love me, or just maybe this publicity stuff won't kill me after all.
(This post first appeared on 8/26/10 on 49 Writers.)
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