Teenage Renaissance
The further I go into my journey of an author, the more I realize I'm locked in stress. Everyone seems to believe something new is the same as exciting but I beg to differ. Not only am I no longer a girl typing at home when I feel like it, I am now an author. With my first book underway, I have to market and register things I haven't even heard about. How did I go from a teenager wishing to see tan lines after a summer of tanning to a woman wishing to see sales after a summer of working? This is why I'm here. For everyone out there saying this is exciting, I want to show you what this really is.
First, I spent $1,000 to get the darn thing published. This is a four-digit dent in my bank account without the "30-day satisfaction guarantee". Some asshole, pardon my French, is sitting in some office making my book beautiful. Now comes the question of "why not traditional publishing?" Well, that's because you have to send money to make money. I want to wow my city before I wow the world. I'm still researching agents and the novels their responsible for to write in my query letters. I'm still looking up publishing companies. The first printing is for me to get a following.
Second, I need to fill out mountains and mountains of forms. Never did I know anyone wanted to know so much about me until I reached the questions a self-publishing website asks you. I'm realizing I'll be wasting more time on dictionary.com defining business terms than making my cover beautiful.
Third, I have to write stories and poems for my own city. I have multiple events scheduled for weeks and weeks to come all of where I need to sell myself and ideas. Maybe, just maybe, someone in the crowd will fall in love with me and off my career will go. If not, at least another soul heard me nervously spit out my book title.
Fourth, never have I ever been so hot. I plan to spent an additional ten hours on top of the already wasted three hours wandering through the concrete jungle of Downtown Denver finding stores where I can market my book. Did you know you can form blisters on your toes? Well, I learned that very quickly. I also learned how to phrase my sales short and sweet so a manager can't just shoe me off as "another solicitor" because there is no way I will buy something from the hundreds of stores I plan to visit. That would be another four figure blow to my wallet.
So after countless emails and sales pitches, I sit here following the advice of a man who genuinely wants to help. His name is Phil and he lives in New York. This man, after forty five minutes, gave me more information than my designated marketing agent. This is my blog for my book. Unfiltered, for life is too short to pretend to be perfect.
First, I spent $1,000 to get the darn thing published. This is a four-digit dent in my bank account without the "30-day satisfaction guarantee". Some asshole, pardon my French, is sitting in some office making my book beautiful. Now comes the question of "why not traditional publishing?" Well, that's because you have to send money to make money. I want to wow my city before I wow the world. I'm still researching agents and the novels their responsible for to write in my query letters. I'm still looking up publishing companies. The first printing is for me to get a following.
Second, I need to fill out mountains and mountains of forms. Never did I know anyone wanted to know so much about me until I reached the questions a self-publishing website asks you. I'm realizing I'll be wasting more time on dictionary.com defining business terms than making my cover beautiful.
Third, I have to write stories and poems for my own city. I have multiple events scheduled for weeks and weeks to come all of where I need to sell myself and ideas. Maybe, just maybe, someone in the crowd will fall in love with me and off my career will go. If not, at least another soul heard me nervously spit out my book title.
Fourth, never have I ever been so hot. I plan to spent an additional ten hours on top of the already wasted three hours wandering through the concrete jungle of Downtown Denver finding stores where I can market my book. Did you know you can form blisters on your toes? Well, I learned that very quickly. I also learned how to phrase my sales short and sweet so a manager can't just shoe me off as "another solicitor" because there is no way I will buy something from the hundreds of stores I plan to visit. That would be another four figure blow to my wallet.
So after countless emails and sales pitches, I sit here following the advice of a man who genuinely wants to help. His name is Phil and he lives in New York. This man, after forty five minutes, gave me more information than my designated marketing agent. This is my blog for my book. Unfiltered, for life is too short to pretend to be perfect.
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