Saturday, November 13, 2021
Monday, November 8, 2021
I'm deep into the "read for reads" method of publicity, where you, one at a time, get new readers by offering to read something you might like. Of course prolific reading gives us a better view of what's out there, but it takes time; this is a slow way to gather up an audience.
It's not a slow way to gather up author friends, though, and I feel better connected than I have for years, with an identity as a writer and a certain population of writers, or mostly writers, who know what I am and what I do. Sure, those writers will not follow me here, or want to read what I say about it. They're busy - they're in the same game I am. They read, and we read theirs in return.
One good thing about it is that we writers are about as critical an audience as one can find. We don't belt out that criticism, sure, we're sensitive to each other's effort and labor and, not willing to hurt someone who has worked so hard, are often likely to just be polite and not tell the whole truth. OK so one finds out slowly how good one really is at this stuff, and sometimes it's a disappointment. But the other end of it is this: when they like it, and they tell you honestly and enthusiastically, that's a good point. You can tell. You know they wouldn't go that far if they didn't want to.
It wears me out, hustling leads and then reading like crazy. I read a lot of good things, though. At a time when I'm switching genres it's good to get a wide-ranging view of genres just on general principle. I'm pretty sure of where I'm going, though.
I have this curious relationship with my ancestors. I can tell a good story about them, then I can get people to read about them, and then i can give them slightly more fame in this world. This happened to my first cousin, three times removed, a famous geologist who died about ten years before I was born. I wrote his biography. It was hard not to fictionalize or put words in his mouth. I tried to stay true to the facts and still I felt him up there somehow, looking down at me, knowing way more than I did, and unable to straighten me out when I went astray. But I also feel him up there even now, saying way to go Tom, for every person I get to read his story. It's 2021, and all of a sudden a few people know who he is. They'll forget, I'm sure. But the book will remain on the shelf, or on some shelf, and hopefully it will be read, possibly several times. I've put him out there, and I get a feeling from promoting family that is like I've returned the favor. He was, after all, a family hero, who collected names and birthdates and passed them along, who did his best to keep up relations even as the country spread out to the various coasts.
That's something non-fiction has over fiction. You can look at it and say, these are the facts, they're incredible, and it's something you really should know and appreciate. And if you write it well, they will know and appreciaate it.
It's not a slow way to gather up author friends, though, and I feel better connected than I have for years, with an identity as a writer and a certain population of writers, or mostly writers, who know what I am and what I do. Sure, those writers will not follow me here, or want to read what I say about it. They're busy - they're in the same game I am. They read, and we read theirs in return.
One good thing about it is that we writers are about as critical an audience as one can find. We don't belt out that criticism, sure, we're sensitive to each other's effort and labor and, not willing to hurt someone who has worked so hard, are often likely to just be polite and not tell the whole truth. OK so one finds out slowly how good one really is at this stuff, and sometimes it's a disappointment. But the other end of it is this: when they like it, and they tell you honestly and enthusiastically, that's a good point. You can tell. You know they wouldn't go that far if they didn't want to.
It wears me out, hustling leads and then reading like crazy. I read a lot of good things, though. At a time when I'm switching genres it's good to get a wide-ranging view of genres just on general principle. I'm pretty sure of where I'm going, though.
I have this curious relationship with my ancestors. I can tell a good story about them, then I can get people to read about them, and then i can give them slightly more fame in this world. This happened to my first cousin, three times removed, a famous geologist who died about ten years before I was born. I wrote his biography. It was hard not to fictionalize or put words in his mouth. I tried to stay true to the facts and still I felt him up there somehow, looking down at me, knowing way more than I did, and unable to straighten me out when I went astray. But I also feel him up there even now, saying way to go Tom, for every person I get to read his story. It's 2021, and all of a sudden a few people know who he is. They'll forget, I'm sure. But the book will remain on the shelf, or on some shelf, and hopefully it will be read, possibly several times. I've put him out there, and I get a feeling from promoting family that is like I've returned the favor. He was, after all, a family hero, who collected names and birthdates and passed them along, who did his best to keep up relations even as the country spread out to the various coasts.
That's something non-fiction has over fiction. You can look at it and say, these are the facts, they're incredible, and it's something you really should know and appreciate. And if you write it well, they will know and appreciaate it.
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