Good mothers will do anything for their children. (Even mediocre mothers will do some things. I know this for a fact.) My mother is really good and will do anything and even somewhat questionable things for her children. She reads my books in airports and on subways, making sure her fingers cover neither my name nor the title of the book. She nearly cripples herself with hand cramps in order to strategically hold the book for best possible sighting. She also keeps a stash of my books in her trunk and sells them to whomever she can push them on. My mother does equally loving things for my sister, lest I’ve falsely led you to believe she plays favorites with her children. Chief among them was the time she sewed a penis costume with removable foreskin for an anti-circumcision rally my sister—a midwife—was attending. There’s no pattern for that kind of thing, people—you have to make that shit up from scratch. My mom possesses many talents and a deep, deep (seemingly bottomless) sense of adventurism.
Last month she attended a wake for an elder from her church. This woman was very kind, very involved in the church and parish school and was known and loved by many. My mother sold 6 of my books. At the wake. Also, this woman was a nun. A mother’s love knows no boundaries. It’s a singular, beautiful thing.
(As my social skills are somewhat less advanced than my mother’s, I can only imagine the boundaries I will cross to benefit my children over the course of their lives ... )
Me and Mom and Sister. Mom made those vests. (Disclaimer: Not a recent photo.)
Book marketing and publicizing is difficult and time-consuming and comes with a huge learning curve. I’m not good at it in the least, I never, ever have enough time for anything and I’ve not yet mastered the curve. I’ve not yet really made it onto the curve. I’m at the very edge of the curve sort of looking at it sideways from a long distance. So I’m grateful for my mom’s efforts. She’s better at this than I am for sure.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this riddle lately. I mean, I have 2 books out there, so how to get them found in the haystack that is the literary world? There is a deluge blogs and books to help a writer with this challenge and honestly, so many of the ideas require ample time commitments that I simply don’t have to give. And many of the other ideas have to do with social media and Amazon algorithms and things that seem math-y. Math is horrible. It is one thing I will NOT do for my kids. I make them do the math. (Similarly to my mom and book-pushing, they’re much better at it.)
I’ve been chatting with a publicist of late and she’s going to help me get a game plan together. I like blogging and I like interacting with people, so I am going to keep my eye on that. It takes a village to get a book found. And it feels a lot more authentic to me to focus on relationships than algorithms or tweeting. (Also I do not understand Twitter. It seems math-y. It probably isn’t but I’m taking no chances until my kids check it out.)
Happy Wednesday, and I hope you are not having to do anything math-y today! Unless you want to, although I don't know why you would. You can just make your kids do that. And if you like, say hello right down there in the comments—it's less math-y than tweeting!
Find my novels, THE MOSQUITO HOURS and TALKING UNDERWATER, online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And don’t forget your local independent bookstore! I’m curious about something: would you like to stay up-to-date on news about my books as well as have my latest blog posts conveniently delivered to your inbox? Then subscribe to my newsletter! Click on that little box right over there on the right. See how easy I made that for you? (You’re welcome.)