BOOK (in screaming capital letters)

I’m laying in bed this morning thinking, BOOK. Last night I reviewed the timeline for this whole thing and so, of course, this morning, there they are, the various tasks, and that whole half truth/half lie you tell yourself that it matters or alternately doesn’t matter. The timeline is like a guide for a pregnant woman, it really is. Four months ahead. Three months. Two weeks. Like that. I’m three months ahead and looking at the four month suggestion: arrange your launch and/or book signings now.

I’m remembering my last launch and feeling the changes of the last ten years. The first launch was for The Grace Trilogy which I’d written collaboratively with two friends. The publisher was Hazelden. I had two of the three books to edit and an editor for each. Both lived less than five miles away. One came and sat at my dining room table and told me he probably couldn’t get through the editing without crying. He’s still a friend. We had a beer not long ago when I was feeling desperate to see pencil scratches on my manuscript and to have a fellow human being I could look at tell me my BOOK was okay.

I’m not without friends, only feeling bereft when I think of a book launch. With my first I was still working and had more of a social network. I had my two co-authors and all their friends and family. We had the largest launch at the largest Barnes and Noble in town. My husband threw us a party at the Loring Café, about the coolest place to eat in Minneapolis (that it’s been gone a number of years will give you a hint, if you’re from the area and know the place, of how long ago this was – 1997). I was still a regular church goer and my priest was there and a bunch of church lady friends that we arranged a bus for. I’m wondering, this time, if I can get 15 people there. I read that bookstores are pretty content to host you if you’re going to sell 30 or more books. I start counting family members and friends on my fingers. The list has shrunk considerably. My Dad won’t be there for one thing.

We had a publicist.

Don’t have one of those this time. Don’t have collaborators. Don’t have editors. Don’t have a single face or even a voice to put with a long-distance name. Don’t have a phone number. Don’t even have many e-mail addresses. What I have is a database.

My publisher is O Books. It’s different. Possibly the new wave of publishing. The one that might emerge, at least, if the big name publishers keep telling new authors (and the formerly published who didn’t reach successful sales figures) that they’re only taking the big names right now – what with the state of the industry and the economy.

Minnesota has one of the most vibrant publishing communities around and you always get the feeling that if you say anything about publishing as you experience it, you’ll get a bunch of flack that says, “Hey, if you write a good enough book you’ll get published.” You figure that any mention of difficulty will be taken as sour grapes. So I’ll just admit that if you’re really literary and you write a certain kind of really literary book, you can probably still find a small traditional publisher that will take a chance on you.

For the rest of us, there are likely going to be more places like O Books.

The basic philosophy of O Books (byline Change Your Thinking Change Your Life) is that if you have a competently written book that you’re willing to stand by, they’re willing to give you that opportunity of seeing it in print and taking your shot. O Books is located in the UK. I’m in the US. This isn’t a problem since all the communication (presumably even if you lived next door) would still be done via e-mail and database. They don’t even keep phones on their desks. (Who knows if they have desks?) There are still supporters and “experts” that help you through the process, but “You” are expected to be the primary expert and tons of information (the database) is provided to assist you in being your own authority.

Which is why you wake up in the morning with the BOOK in your head and butterflies in your stomach.