The Writer’s Moral Book Dilemma
As an author, writing a book is one thing. Promoting it? That’s a whole other ball o’ wax.
I was talking to another writer yesterday, and he made the interesting comment that I agree with: when you finally get a book published, it’s a lot like having a child. You usually poured a TON of hours into the effort, to FINALLY produce something you can live with (I dare not use the “P” word, because a book never really is perfect…) but anyway, that first copy comes, and you’re happy, but EXHAUSTED. But wait! That’s not all! Then…a whole other level of exhaustion occurs…someone’s got to PROMOTE it!
If you have a traditional publisher, maybe they’ll do a press release for you and arrange a book signing or two, but honestly? There HAS to be a better way to spread the word. After my 5th book launched as I’ve shared, I threw a book launch party. While it was a blast and all 150 copies of my first order are officially gone, and I LOVED sharing the launch with the city of Indianapolis, now I still am responsible for promoting the book. No one is writing any press for me, I have to do it on my own.
Last but not least, the other curse of the writer who does her own promotion is that if she loves to write (as I do), we’re already thinking ahead to our NEXT book. This is tough because we just finished this new book and technically, we should be promoting it, not moving on to writing the next one. Then comes the writer’s moral book dilemma: should I be promoting my last book, or writing my next?
Well, this time, while I’m cooking on my next book idea in my head, I promised not to write anything until I finish summer school this year. That forces me to not write and instead channel my energy into figuring out creative ways to get this latest book into the universe. (That and study for law school finals…ick.)
The curse of the writer’s moral book dilemma – agh!
