For one thing, it is a book blog. It exists because there is a book called Subconsciously Single, still in manuscript but now substantially complete, for which a crude dummy cover created by yours truly (JK #2) can be seen over on the right.
It also exists because, having listened to a tele-seminar about book marketing for more than an hour, I am simply incapable of doing anything more useful. I know from experience that any attempt to even look at the manuscript will lead to disaster, and I am too tired to keep researching agents.Which brings us back to "Hello, world!" Unlike the many things I've written over the years primarily for my own pleasure, this book was written because my colleague, JK #1, had these characters in her head and wanted very much for their story to come out in print.
One year and seven months into our collaboration, we're still not there yet, though we are well on the way. The writing is substantially done and we've begun the far less amusing process of looking for an agent who will like it enough to sell it for us. It can't be too soon for our tastes but, in the real world of publishing, that can be a long and tedious process in itself.
In the meantime, as novelists without a record of excellent previous sales and no paparazzi-worthy activities to make us famous, we are obliged to do something to create what people in the business call a "platform"--meaning we must somehow establish a following (the bigger, the better) of people who might buy our book when it comes out.
It's a doubly awkward proposition given that the followings we do have under our real names have nothing to do with this type of novel, and both of us value our personal privacy. That pretty much rules out the more obvious self-promotion techniques like posting a strip-tease act on YouTube or making a public scene that ends with us in rehab.What we can't do may relegate us to the slushpile (another meme) for some time. With the mainstream of North American publishing down to the "Big Six" conglomerates and the profit margins paper-thin except for guaranteed bestsellers, we rank well below Snooki and the other celebrities.
But one never knows in this business, especially with first novels. The odds seem grim but every now and then a J.K. Rowling or E.L. James (memes amongst writers) unexpectedly finds herself with not only a book deal but also a runaway hit. It doesn't necessarily happen quickly, but it does happen if one is persistent enough. Tired as I am, I am also cheered by having heard Jack Canfield explain that his first book, the immensely popular Chicken Soup for the Soul, received 144 rejections before it was accepted and he attributes its success to a) the fact that people love good stories, and b) relentless promotion.
We can console ourselves with the thought that, however hard it may be to market ourselves and our book, people do love a good story and it's really just a matter of getting our story out to the right readers. That tradition of authorship predates the Internet by a few thousand years. The methods change over time and I fear that blogging is already somewhat obsolete but who knows? Any word on this page could become an Internet meme at any moment...
