A good friend has her first book coming out next month (a memoir which I will scream and shout about) and she asked me "what happens on the release date"? I was rather pleased with my response:
On the release date, the hordes of masses that have been anxiously awaiting the release of your book rush to their local indies, causing great mayhem and anxiety, and purchase multiple copies of said book for friends, family, coworkers and random strangers, forcing the stores to reorder and the initial print run to run out, forcing the publisher to realize they have a mega-hit on their hands and they'd best order a six digit print run pronto as the New York Times is beating down their door to make it front page news......
So's a girl can dream....
This probably won't happen...unless you're Laurie Halse Anderson. (Have you seen the hype for Wintergirls!? Woosie - that's how it's DONE!)
It's a funny business. We set all these hurdles for ourselves thinking "when this happens" or "when that happens I will have made it and it will be time to celebrate!"
The reality is, the successes are more like jumping speed bumps...lots of them, to the point that you don't really notice when the big things have happened. They come quietly as you work alone in your office day in and day out. And as my writer friends and I often say, we're always moving the bar, so we never truly feel like we've jumped it. I wonder if we ever will.
At least, that's been my experience. What do you think?
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