Author's Notes

May 27, 2009
Two months since the pub date of Well Read and Dead and I’m exhausted. Dear reader, I must say the easiest part of this job is writing the book. And that is not easy. But once the book is written, edited and brought to fruition, the hard work for an author begins. We lie in wait for reviews, praying first that they will be good. Then we pray that at least there are reviews if they aren’t good. Because in this media hungry world of ours with shrinking sources for review, if one has no reviews, one simply doesn’t exist. A bad review beats no review any day. Happily Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal were good to me. Kirkus? Oh well, they’re so snarky anyway.

That aside, after the reviews, the book tour begins. That is the scaled down book tour in today’s economy. Like everyone else, publishers are pulling back and so it is up to the author to do the bulk of the work that will help to differentiate her from the other 200,000 books—plus or minus-- published this year. So that’s what I’ve been working on, visiting bookstore after bookstore to say hello, sign copy and get to know some staff. Though my character, Pauline Cook, eats primarily gourmet food, her creator has eaten more Taco Bell in the last months than I care to admit. Thank God for the GPS or my husband and I would be divorced. I’ve also worked at setting up library appearances and book group appearances in addition to the traditional bookstore signings. Reaching out to readers is key. In fact, if you are reading this and part of a book group, I’d love to come talk with you at one of your meetings if it works out geographically and timewise. Otherwise we could do it by phone.

Anyhow, if I sound crabby, it’s because it’s been a long two months. But am I happy to be working like this in this profession? Yes, I am. In fact, I’m ecstatic. For a writer, there is nothing to compare with seeing one’s name in print, no matter the sacrifice. And so, I must thank you, my readers, for buying my books, and I will forge on writing the perils of Pauline in book form just as I continue to blog the trials and tribulations of the writer’s daily grind here on my blog.