"How's Your Book Doing?"
People are marvelous. They're interested. They're supportive. They're excited to hear about your progress. It's one of the perks of living in the community that I live in. Most of the people I interact with know me (to a degree), and they know that I've published my first book. It's a very cool thing to watch them get excited about what I've accomplished so far. Hell, when I take a minute to breathe and acknowledge it, it's a pretty cool accomplishment, so it's fun to share in that excitement.
The question I've gotten most frequently, though, (four times today in fact while getting breakfast) is "How's your book doing?"
*Tires screech, car crashes, cat yowls* (My inner sound FX guy is super on point.)
"Uh, well, ya know... pretty good for the first book..."
For those of you who have been following this Blog (bless you, you brave, brave souls), I think it's been established that I'm generally honest to a fault. As such, this question poses a particular complication for me. As a professional author, part of my job is to promote my work. Part of the role of promoter is to be insanely positive about the book and how it's doing. (You'll understand my issue if you have a generally great kid who randomly decides to stop doing their homework.) The book is great. I love my book. I love the characters, the story, the humor... it's a fantastic book. More to the point, other people love my book, which is even better because it's not just me being biased. The sales of the book, however, I'm not loving so much right now. Amazon sales have screeched to a halt. Kindle sales have dropped dead (even the borrowed book version). My event sales, while not terrible, aren't what I was hoping they would be, and I haven't done that many events to begin with.
So how do I answer that question both honestly and positively?
At home I do it with a lot of maladaptive crying and a bucket of Häagen-Dazs. (Just kidding. I'm super cheap and mildly lactose intolerant.)
In public (read here as out in the Real World (tm)), I have to scramble for a good PR response. "Well, you know as a first book it can be challenging to get a good run at the market, but we're looking at ways to get our book into the right hands!" Or how about, "Sales have slowed since the release, but we're doing well overall! Just have to keep at it and keep people talking about the book!"?
The truth is, it's exhausting being your own cheerleader; especially when you're already the quarterback, the entire defensive line, the tight hiney, and that guy the quarterback fondles intimately at the start of each play. (I don't actually know football, it just seems like a good time of year to make the comparison.) My point is, sometimes it's really hard to stay in good spirits when the report you have to give isn't the best it could be. But we keep trying, we do our best, and we keep looking for opportunities to do better. If that's the best response I can come up with, it's still better than, "What was I thinking?!? This was a terrible idea! I'm Doomed, I tell ya! DOOMED!"
Tomorrow (Saturday, October 21) I go to Free State Comicon in Lawrence, KS. It runs 10 am- 5 pm at the 4-H fair grounds, 2110 Harper St.
Tomorrow is, quite literally, a chance to do better! So I hope to see you there! Bring your books to be signed (any of them, I'm not picky)! Buy Ash to Ashes and I'll sign that one too! Let's make it a great day together!
