Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Warm fuzzies

As a first-time self-published author I don't have much clout or knowledge when it comes to the vast world of sales and marketing. I'm finding it out as I go along, but at the moment I'm mostly pushing sales of Lilac through my personal Facebook friends and my (very small) blogging connections.

I've sent copies to a couple of major distributors in Ireland, which is the way to get it into bookshops and libraries, but so far I haven't heard back from those. (Note to self: follow up with distributors.)

But the lovely thing about a book is that it's always there. I don't have to sell it now this instant or forever hold my peace. Even if there was only one copy out there, even if it was only read by a new person every couple of years, it might find its way to someone who really liked it. If there are two copies, that's twice as much chance of that. (There are more than two copies out there. Just a few more.)

When we were in Ireland for Christmas I met a friend and her kids, who hadn't met me before. In explaining to her daughter who they were meeting up with, she said "Oh, she wrote that book you read, Lilac." I'm told that the reaction couldn't have been more over-awed if she'd announced they were meeting JK Rowling herself. I think I met my biggest fan that day, though I'm not sure she said more than a couple of words to me. (I signed a Christmas card for her, since we didn't have a copy of the book to hand.)

Since then I've heard nice things from a few other friends whose daughters (and sons) have read the book, and every one of those gives me a little warm fuzzy feeling and steels my resolve to keep writing. When you're nine or ten or eleven and you love books, the books and the characters you really connect with have a place in your heart forever and become an indelible part of your childhood and the way you view the world.

If my book can be one of those books for just one or two readers, I'll have accomplished everything I wanted.
view over Dublin bay
A Lilac-ish view

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