In the writing business, it's all about getting the word out--the word about your books, to those who might be interested. I know, I know. It sounds enormously egocentric, blatantly self-promoting, and maybe even whiny, but it is unfortunately true.
It wasn't always like this. Used to be, if you were lucky enough to be published by a New York publisher, you figured the marketing monkey was on their backs, and you sat back and let them do whatever it was they did to get the word out.
But not anymore. It's not only the writer's job to put the words on paper, but to bring them to the world's attention--or to that little corner of the world that is likely to want to read what you've written. Your publishing house does what it can (sometimes), but it actually can't do a lot except to ensure that books are on bookstore shelves (in case anybody comes to the bookstore looking), or put an ad in a magazine or newspaper (in case anybody is reading). These days, a big part of the writing business involves promoting what you've written. You don't have to like doing this, of course, although that certainly helps. And if you don't want to do it, you'd probably better get into another line of work.
I happen to be one of those crazy people for whom the promotion part of the business actually seems like fun. Which is one of the reasons I created the new weekly eletter that will be going out every Monday morning. All About Thyme is all about herbs--well, okay. I won't explain it here. You can click on the link and read all about it.
But I will say that I am enjoying doing it: working with Peggy (webmistress extraordinaire) to create the design/layout and iron out the distribution wrinkles; getting back into the research material I used for The Book of Days; and doing the actual writing. To me, the eletter feels like an online extension of Days, which is really interesting. In fact, it will have a great many more resources than Days, because I can include links to other sources, which I can't do in the book itself. The Web is a broader, more comprehensive publishing medium than a book can ever be, which may eventually (and sadly, for those of us who enjoy the feel of a book in our hands, the adventure of the turning pages) lead to the demise of books. But not in my lifetime, so I'm not going to worry about it. And anyway, I'm in the writing business, which is larger and more inclusive than the book business, isn't it?
Go check out the eletter. I've got all kinds of ideas for ways to make it more interesting, more informative, more fun. Who knows what it will grow into?
Reading note. You write a book and it's like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it in the ocean. You don't know if it will ever reach any shores. And there, you see, sometimes it falls in the hands of the right person.--Isabelle Allende