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Blogs by Michael Tyler
Reality Bites! (2007) 5/22/2007 6:53:28 PM
2007 Blog Okay, the initial excitement at having my first novel in print has faded a touch, and the reality of my situation has set in: the truth is, not much has changed.
Yes, The Vendetta, a novel I started more than six years ago, is a contracted, ISBN issued, real-thing-in-print book, but will it reach John/Jane Doe at the local bookstore in Podunk, Alaska or Wherever, Idaho?
Probably not, I think.
Do I want it to?
Of course. We write to be read, don't we? We want to hit the big leagues, see our book on the New York Times Bestseller list, feel the glow of our target audience's appreciation, or at least I do. I want Dennis Hopper to read V and make it a smash movie.
Will these things come to pass? One can hope, dream, and fantasize, but ugly old Mr. Reality says "probably not."
Why?
Because for I.M. Writer, the unrecognized American author, it's hard to break from life's realities to market our work.
But won't the publisher help?
Of course they will, but smaller publishers can't flood a market with a hundred thousand printed copies of whatever-book. They can send out fliers for you, put it on the big book list, post it on their websites, and help the author as much as they can with advice and author's marketing kits, but it still falls to the writer to market their books, schedule the book signings, make the calls, send fliers, buy the bookmarks, buttons, pens, posters, or whatever, and find time to actually attend the book signings.
Now there are people who can do this, who make it all happen, sell books, hit the big leagues, but what their secret is, I don't know.
I work six days a week managing a small business. My wife attends college full-time. My youngest children, 8 & 10, go to school, wrestle, and play baseball, or whatever other sports are in season. Sundays, fo me, seem to be about catching up on the things I don't get done at home during the week, with extra time squeezed in to do something with the boys, whether that be fishing, basketball, baseball, or just sharing the chores-time with them. Can I quit work? Of course not. Can I work less? Nope. Gotta do the job, or the family doesn't eat, mortgage company get's cranky, and dad's in the doghouse.
So what to do? I don't know, I really don't. I am open to suggestions. Drop me a line. Let me in on the secret, because I want to know. I want to write all day, every day. I want to sell books, see Vendetta and Reaper and whatever else on the shelves at the bookstore, but I just don't see the path to making that happen.
Reality truly does bite.
Okay, I have whined enough. Maybe I've got it out of my system now. Drop me a line, if you feel like it, and thanks for listening.
Ciao for now.
MT
PS--I still have a couple free e-copies of The Vendetta, if you feel like giving it a read. Personally, I can't read from a screen, I need a book with pages I can dog-ear and flip through, but if you have the stamina, give me a yell.
