You never want to let people think you don't know what the heck your doing. That's, like, one of those cardinal rules. I'm flat-out stating for the record that I have never had a blog, never really thought about starting a blog, and don't know the first thing about maintaining a blog. So, yeah. No idea what I'm doing.
But my friend says, now that I have a book coming out, I need a blog. (And a Facebook page and a Twitter account and maybe even a Tumblr thingy, too.) This friend says I have to be committed to pimping my book, just like I was committed to writing the whole thing down and forcing her to read it and tell me how clever I was. (This is a pretty direct quote. My friend is nothing if not brutally honest in her detached, deadpan Janeane-Garofalo-in-Mystery-Men sort of way.)
In all honesty, I have a reflexive hatred for people who obviously have no idea what they are doing but continue doing it anyway. There are enough people in the world who know exactly what they're doing and exactly how to do it and exactly how to do it well and have a hard enough time as it is getting the attention and recognition they deserve. The last thing I want to do is add to the problem.
But it occurred to me that, if anything, I could share with anyone interested how I went about getting my book published in this oft-labeled "stagnant" publishing era -- it was such a confusing journey, and I will be eternally grateful to the authors and agents who took the time to type up their knowledge and share it for free on the Internet. I cobbled my plan of attack together from multiple sources; I figure the least I can do is put that mashed-up-tangle-of-information all in one place, in case it proves helpful to somebody else.
And it occurred to me that I could blog about the publishing process, from that distant, ignorant beginning through the (still semi-ignorant) present, and right on up to publication. Just so a current depiction of a book going to print is available to anyone looking for that sort of information.
Naturally, I will err on the side of discretion. I think that's respectful of everyone involved (agents and editors and publishing houses). Not necessarily going to provide numbers, stats, that sort of thing. But I don't think the minutiae is too relevant, anyhow.
And, lastly, I thought I could answer questions people might have. I always felt too insignificant or noobish to pipe up and question the people responsible for the blogs I so gratefully gleaned knowledge from. But I'm more than happy to share what I've learned, and to refer people on to those other blogs that I found so helpful.
Because, in the least "official" capacity of this blog-to-be-produced-forthwith, I would like to have the opportunity to meet and talk to likeminded individuals. The Internet is so vast, so densely populated, but I feel sometimes that I under-utilize it. That I only "friend" people I know (or sort of know) on Facebook, only pipe up and post in strange forums under a total pseudonym. Here, I am publicly identifying myself and introducing myself to a crowd of total strangers. It's intimidating, but the prospect of forging connections that would otherwise be inaccessible to me . . . is exciting.
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