FAME!

FAME – is that really what I’m after with my book, My Two Centuries in Africa? Not really. If I wanted fame, there are faster ways to get it, either as a person or a writer. Commit a horrific crime. Write an expose of a famous person. Say outrageous and indefensible things in a book and then get sued for it.

In 1975, when I was a junior in high school, David Bowie released the song “Fame.” It was a big hit. At the time, I didn’t understand the lyrics. The song made fame sound like a pain in the ass, something to be avoided. It confused me, because David Bowie seemed to seek fame like a moth seeks the light.

David Bowie released the song “Fame” in 1975

But the song pointed out some of the disadvantages of fame, such as its ephemeral nature, and a dependence on your fans, without whose support a top musician would soon cease to be a star.

Fame (fame) what you get is no tomorrow
Fame (fame) what you need you have to borrow

After writing a book, I found myself on the horns of a dilemma. I did not really want to be famous, but if I wanted people to read my book, I would have to do something to attract attention to the book and to myself. Why? If no one read the book, it would be as if I’d never written it. All that work for nothing.

A tree falls in a forest but no one is there so no one hears it crash. Does it make a sound or not?

Our society is infatuated with fame and with the famous. It seems that it is better to be a famous idiot, or a famous criminal, than to be a well-adjusted, happy individual no one has ever heard of.

We adulate people who have behaved and spoken boorishly in music videos. A former president continues to rant and rave about the unfairness of being prosecuted for the crimes he committed. Large numbers of otherwise law-abiding citizens continue to support him despite his many crimes.

Trump was melodramtic

There are two basic options for me. One is to spend a lot of money – much more than I can afford – to advertise and market the book – in order to attract attention to it. Since a million people a year self-publish a book on Amazon, the only way to make your book known is to pay for people to click.

The other option, in my view, was to DO something unusual that might attract attention and allow me to market the book directly to bookstores. What did I do? I visited independent bookstores in the lower 48 states to tell them about the book. I learned that is not a great way to sell a book. Why?

The reason is that idiots walk into bookstores every day with a book they have written. Booksellers have no easy way to discern instantly which books are good and might sell, and which books are bad and will just sit on the shelf. A bad cover suggests a bad book, but a good cover does not guarantee a good book. On top of this, I wrote a memoir, but most people read memoirs about famous people.

It’s a Catch 22. You need to be famous to sell books. People need to know who you are before they buy your book. But no one starts life being famous, except perhaps members of the British royal family. Princy Harry wrote a book complaining about how hard it is to be #2 in line for the throne. He wants us to feel sorry for him. Predictably, his self-serving sob story is one of the year’s top sellers.

Prince Harry wrote about how hard it is to be #2 in line for the throne. Sob.

But if you are not famous, even if you have a great story to tell, people will hesitate to buy or read the book. In America, we learn to distrust our own taste and to rely on other people to tell us: what book to read; what movie or show to watch; which songs to listen to; what clothes to wear, etc. We follow the latest trends. To do otherwise is to risk ridicule by friends for not being “in the know” or a “loser.”

Now, I’m starting to write my next book. I have to decide how much time and energy to invest in the first book, and how much to dedicate to the next book. On one hand, I don’t want to abandon the first  book, but in reality, I think it’s already dead. An old saying advises us not to beat a dead horse. So, I should focus my time and effort on the next book, in the hopes it will do better than the first one.

Beating a dead horse is such a horrible image.

The smart way is to find an agent who will get me a publisher. The publisher is responsible for promoting the book. If I have a publisher, major publications may agree to review the book. If the reviews are positive, it leads to better sales. Without a publisher, no one will review the book unless I pay them to do so. And paid reviews are always looked upon with suspicion if not with open ridicule.

So, I’m right back where I started with the first book: hunting for an agent who will get me a book deal. And my chances of finding an agent are not good. I don’t write books in the most popular genres, like romance, fantasy, sci-fi, or young adult. I don’t write crime novels.

I write nonfiction, which is about reality.

But people who read don’t want reality. They want to escape from reality. I want to write about a nonfiction book about the tour to the 48 lower states. I drove 30,000 miles in six months. I had two near-death experiences. I found a dog who has the mysterious ability to charm most young ladies.

But if I write a nonfiction book, it won’t sell as well as fiction. So, maybe I should fictionalize my own experience and create a character like me who decides to take a trip similar to the one I took. What? Many writers actually fictionalize their own stories, resulting in better book sales. True.

But – this is crazy! Why would people be more willing to read a made-up story than the real truth?

Sigh. The smart way forward is probably to make shit up instead of telling the truth. Fiction is all bullshit, basically. I don’t mean to insult fiction authors, but they make up stuff that didn’t happen. When we were kids, if we made things up, that was often called lying. And we got punished for it.

In our culture, if you make shit up, inexplicably, people adore you. We have an ex-president who acted like a temperamental reality TV star while in office, saying and doing outrageous things day after day. Half of the country hated it,  but the other half seemed to love it. The media were horrified but also fascinated and soon realized that crazy behavior translated into good ratings. They lapped it up.

Prosecutor Jack Smith has indicted Donald Trump for election fraud

Maybe our ex-president believed the lies he told us, in which case, perhaps it’s his truth. Maybe he’s not living in the reality that I know. It seems clear that acting outrageously wins you a lot of fans.

Such is the nature of fame. I am so confused about what to do. Can anybody please explain it to me?