I'm not one to be completely selfless (don't get me wrong), but I'm not one to walk around tooting my own horn either. I'm more one of those people who thinks I shine more if I stand next to someone great and reflect off (and on!) their great qualities.
And, honestly, I get really sick of people who do nothing but toot their own horns. To me, there's little worse.
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| Take One |
of my little book accomplishment here,
and, moreso, to do this endless promotion thing that I'm supposed to do,
without making myself (or you) puke.
It's definitely that old conundrum:
Enough about me, let's talk about me.
Times infinity.
I mean, the truth is, it's been a long, long road to get here. And, I'm excited. And I've worked hard. But the bigger truth is, if I ever want another book deal again, I have to. I have to get the word out there.
It's a dog-eat-dog bookworld out there these days, with everyone scrambling to figure out how to stay in the game when the game has sprouted octopus legs jiggling and waggling everywhere.
So, I'm leaving you a barf bag, and I'm taking one myself.
Let me know if you need another.
Otherwise, I'm hoping you'll hang on for the flight.
- gae
I'm actually paying a lot of attention to how you're managing your promotion, Gae, because I think your methods are working extremely well. I hope that I can achieve a similar measure of success if I get myself a deal. I'd love to see you write up an in-depth post about your marketing plan from a methodology and critical analysis perspective, because you seem very much to me to be a real success story. :)
ReplyDeleteI understand, Gae, but you absolutely MUST DO IT. Remember something: it's not only for your own career. Most importantly, it's because your book will bring pleasure and provocative thinking to people. That's why you wrote it, and that's its purpose. Perhaps it would help, now, to consider your book as separate from you?
ReplyDeleteYou are awesome Gae. Keep doing whatever you're doing, because it's WORKING! Hello, NY Times!!?? How did you land that? We all have so much to learn from each other, and the great thing about the YA community is that we toot each other's horns!
ReplyDeleteYou are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!
Man, I think you are handling it like a rock star... a COOL rock star that gets to shine based on talent and is being gracious to her adoring fans by letting us bask in her presence. You are NAILING this. freaking New York Times article... we should ALL be so puke worthy!
ReplyDeleteThink of it this way--I get you feel ready to puke, but this is for an EVENT... this is your ONLY debut, and I figure ANY book release you earn the right to do this. The people who do it for months on end get annoying. The people that do it for a month for their book release, but otherwise are friendly, cool, give back, spread the love (as you do)--that is how to earn the permanent crowd love and admiration.
(and if at ANY point you want to do a guest blog, interview, anything--just shout--my page is open)
ReplyDeleteThe trick to self-promotion is to not come across as being overly-enamored with your self - and based just on your title alone, you are safe from falling into that trap!
ReplyDeleteDoes it get annoying? Hell yeah. Months later, I'm still singing that damned "Give me that Filet-o-Fish, gimme that fish..." song - but dammit if I don't want one every now and then
Gae, From my point of view, which I bet is pretty much the norm, I'm happy and a little bit honored to be along for the ride. It's fascinating, it's educational and, best part, it's clearly someone reaping the benefit of many years of toil and sweat. So good on you...From what I've seen, you're incredibly diligent about extending a helping hand and paying it forward so forget about doing anything but savoring this incredible experience. And don't worry about whether or not it's all too much...Leave that to the universe. Things will unfold they way they should. It's not like you're Snookie appearing on Letterman mangling the King's English...now that's cause for a barf bag. :)
ReplyDeletelol! Just read all the comments and I want to "ditto" each one of them. For the record, I have been at the receiving end of Gae's enormously generous helping hand (er, that doesn't sound right...) and I can confirm that she giveth way more than she taketh (and if a bit of attention is all that you "taketh" I'd say it's moot). And PS, let's hear it for the nice guy finishing first!!
ReplyDeletexoxo B
Wait -- you wrote a book?
ReplyDeletegosh, people, thanks for all the sugary nice comments (maybe I'll need that barf bag after all ;)). No really, I love you for it. But really, if only the Mets would play better we could talk about them instead. :)
ReplyDeleteSadly, it's grunt work in the end. All the fun people are easy... and then... you have to contact strangers. Over and over and over again. I feel sorry for strangers. Don't get me wrong, I feel sorry for "my" strangers. Not yours. But enough about that, let's talk about you. I read a book on promotion and it said to pitch out book to people standing in line at Starbucks. What? That coffee they're about to throw on me is HOT, buddy. Now, where do I go to be anonymous??? Oh yeah, home. :-)
ReplyDeleteP.S. I just got Sammy Hagar's autograph!!!! Yay!!!! and for a whole day or so I don't care about my book at all. And then it's off to the Kentucky Derby at the end of the week. I ownder what I can come up with to ignore all this next week and just watch your book rocket out of the starting gate. CONGRATS!!
ReplyDeleteThere is no shame in self-promotion, especially when it's on YOUR blog. You have to work to get it out there, so what better way than by your already faithful readers? Good luck and congratulations!
ReplyDeleteAva
You can be a total recluse and be successful. It worked for Salinger and, in some regards, Vonnegut, but you'd be damn lucky to get that gig. The truth is, in EVERY business, you have to go looking for your customers. You have to advertise, you have to knock on doors, you have to step in the way of a speeding train of ambivalence.
ReplyDeleteYou have to sell books. As much as we'd like our books to sell themselves, they just can't.
Here. Enjoy some light reading.
http://flavorwire.com/102538/in-defense-of-privacy-the-20th-centurys-most-reclusive-authors