Hey all,
It’s me. Inferno Girl. And I’m waiting. Waiting in the hell pit. Spend enough time in the pit, and you’ll start getting weird in the head. If there are other writers out there, you know all about getting weird in the head.
It’s not pleasant. Not one bit. However, apparently it is to be expected and is the way of the new publishing model I have chosen to live in.
Greg Ioannou, my publisher, told me (via Emily) that the fine line copy editing has to be done before promotion begins. (I’m very lucky that Greg is a stickler about language and takes great pride of any book he brings to market.)
No dog’s breakfast of typos for me. A huge phew in this day and age.
Alas what this means is that I can’t start lining up old style promotion like interviews etc. because I don’t have a firm date for publication and I don’t have anything to show them yet.
This got me to thinking, I might not have a hard copy to sell, but thanks to years working as a broadcaster for CBC Radio, I do have a set of pipes. If Iguana agrees, I’m going to see about broadcasting readings on their site and I’ll also post them here and at thesniffer, a trends and tech podcast I do with Nora Young.
And then if you like ‘em, you’ll tell two friends, and she’ll tell two friends, and so on… and so on… and so on.
Another thing I’m mulling over is to possibly do some readings of Night Town at City Park, my co-op in downtown Toronto. I see this as serving two functions. One is that sadly there a great many lonely people in our complex and this might get them out for an hour or so.
We have a decent sized community hall. I’m going to contact the board and see what they think. What if I do a shortish reading, 15 minutes tops, and then have tea or cookies and a bit of a chat? People wouldn’t have to read anything in advance. They just have to show up and listen and then we can all talk.
The other function the readings serve is to promote my novel. Is this too self-serving or is it a 21st century solution? Branding your work and promoting yourself is expected of writers today.
I think this might have legs, but as always, I could use your feedback.
c
PS I’ve been having a conversation about how to reduce loneliness on my FB site. Feel free to scoot over there and join in the chatter.
1. “Greg told me (via Emily) that the fine line copy editing has to be done before promotion begins.” I’m really gald to hear that. I recently read two books in a mystery series by Miles Corwin (2012). The books were great, but I was constantly distracted by typos. In fact I just wrote the publisher to say essentially “wtf?”
2. “how to reduce loneliness on my FB site” I continue to ignore facebook, however, I found a very interesting site (www.hubski.com) where I post my blog. My recent blog on marriage generated a huge discussion. so I go there to relieve any blog loneliness I occasionally experience. They are an interesting mostly educated community of scientists and musicians and writers. I will post your first Adventures in the E-Book Frontier there at some point if you like. but check it out. Here’s the marriage discussion that ensured: http://hubski.com/pub?id=67242
Cathi, I would love to attend a reading – that is a FABULOUS idea. As much as online forums may connect people, it does not replace the richness of physical presence and immediacy of a gathering; in my old skool view, reflections via discussion together about text from differing POV is also a benefit. I’m not on FB, but wondering if there’s any way of seeing your conversation as mentioned in your post-script. Cheers, Sasha