That's what my publisher said: The ball is rolling. For the past six months, I've been sitting on my hands to keep me from pestering her via quirky, impromptu (but carefully crafted) emails. Like the bad trenchcoat guy from The Iron Giant: Hey Scout! Where you going? Whatchyou up to? Hey now! Want to talk? What's up?
Sometimes I toyed with the frightful possibility that she'd lost interest. I worked myself into a fit of doubt one evening, and the only way to get myself out of it was, you know, to do what I should have been doing all along: keep writing the next darned novel. I kept telling myself that she was just busy because she's a publisher. Publishing books. And tonight, she thanked me for my patience, attributing it to my professional background. I felt like dancing.
She's given me a little "to do" list, and I couldn't be more thrilled. What does a novelist with a small press do? Think of all the ways to publicize the upcoming book. It's all about dissemination, getting the book into the hands of the person who will love it. Because let's face it: not all books appeal to the tastes of all people. My book is literary fiction from a small press. Publicity is a tall order for a debut novelist. I wonder if I can rely on the seven degrees of separation. Surely someone I know knows someone who knows someone at Publisher's Weekly...
By the way, if anyone's interested in what a successful fiction book proposal looks like, I can post mine. Now I have to stop blogging and do more research. Anybody know magazines that publish excerpts from novels?
