I Won’t Back Down

In 1989, Tom Petty released his first album with a hit song, “I Won’t Back Down,” which subsequently became an anthem for people who want to signal that they will put up a good fight. Political campaigns and sports teams use the song.

I may cry and moan, but I won’t back down

As far as my book goes, I won’t back down either. I might whine and moan, and cry in my beer, but I’ll keep on going, despite all the signals and unsolicited advice that the smart thing to do would be to stop now and cut my losses.

The thing about writing books is that just when you think you are done, you have accomplished your goals, and the book is finally available for sale, then you discover that there are still many trials ahead. I am still running the gauntlet.

Author running the gauntlet

I finally finished the six-month book tour of the lower 48 states in the first week of April, after driving 30,000 miles, and averaging one state every three and a half days. That’s a lot of miles per day. Then the print book finally went live last week. The e-books are nearly done but never quite available online. It has devolved into a game of tug-of-war between me, as the author, and my book designer who does wonderful work, but who is seemingly loathe to let go of the book. He keeps finding new things to do.

And I am tired. There is a feeling of a letdown after the end of the book tour, which was an enormous challenge. There were days and sometimes weeks when I didn’t know if we would ever be able to finish it. I would ask my dog, Mr. Bones, what to do. He would just look at me, and say, “Why are asking me, I’m just a dog!” He would lick my hand or wag his tail and take me for a nice walk.

Mr Bones was always there for me

Now that the tour is over, life is back to normal, or my version of normal. We still have a mountain of work to do. Just getting the book out on Amazon does not accomplish anything. Books do not sell themselves. I learned that a year ago when I put the first version on Amazon. I waited for the orders to pour in and the money to start flowing into my account. Weeks passed and very few books sold.

Now we have to figure out how to launch the book, officially, and then plan and execute a marketing plan. The launch should be something dramatic. I was thinking about sending a huge copy of the book out to sea, christening it with a bottle of champagne like they do when they launch an ocean liner.

My image of the book launch

I’ve already done a couple of book events. A library in Indianapolis organized a local author book event in mid-April. I had to put in a rush order for the books, resulting in a hefty express delivery charge that made the books cost me a hefty $18.50 each, against a sale price of $20. So, I made $1.50 per book. I sold eight books, netting $12, but had to pay a dog-sitter $50 for five hours of work. I lost $42 for the day.

That was better than the book event in Falls Church VA, a suburb of Washington DC. The library decided to put me and another local author in the back of the room where they were holding a used book sale. On their website, they did not mention us, just the used books. I asked them to add us. They put our names in rather small print on the webpage right below the big, bold sign announcing their used book sale.

As I feared, people arrived in droves for the used book sale. I saw them standing outside long before the doors opened. There is a sort of frightening look in the eyes of people who are desperate for used books. They came with their empty cardboard boxes and canvas bags. They jostled each other sullenly as they waited for the doors to open, each one sizing up the others, trying to figure out the competition.

People rushed madly into the used book sale

When the doors opened, they rushed in and started to grab books off the shelves, stuffing them in their boxes and bags. No one looked at us. Once or twice a person brought their book box or bag to us to check out. They thought we worked for the library. When we said we did not, they looked at us like we were just useless, and wandered away, without bothering to ask about our books. It was a freak show.

In the end, I sold two books, made a total of $3, and once again, had to pay a dog $50 for five hours. So, I lost even more than I did at the first book sale. This one hurt, because I had alerted all my “friends” and former colleagues in the DC area. In my fevered imagination, I thought they would all come support me. I had daydreamed about the lines of my enthusiastic fans snaking out the door and had worried that the other author would feel bad because so many people had come to see me and get a book signed.

I imagined a long line of supporters would show up at the author event…

The delusion was dashed when, out of hundreds of possible supporters, a total of three showed up for me. (The other local author, who was young and handsome, seemed to be very popular with young women).

The DC area has always been like that: my impression is that most people are always busy. Overbooked. Few seem to have time for frivolities like a friend or a former colleague who wrote a book. I had told myself at one point not to let my expectations get out of check, but in the end, I had been utterly unrealistic.

I am not alone in being let down at book events. I have read accounts of famous authors showing up at a bookstore at an event that was supposed to be well-advertised, only to have two customers show up. One learns pretty quickly that the life of the author is full of painful ironies that will someday be funny. I live for the day when my book is actually selling, all the trauma fades into the past, and we can finally laugh about it.

In the meantime, I need online reviews, even very short ones, from anyone and everyone who has bought the book on Amazon. There is a curious phenomenon in which no one wants to be the first to buy a book. The entire world is waiting to hear from a few brave souls who took the plunge into the icy waters of the unknown, read the book, or even just skimmed it, and reported back with favorable first impressions. “Admiral Perry has survived his trip to the pole.”

Admiral Perry’s trip to the Pole was nothing compared to my writing a book!

To get the ball rolling, I wrote my own book review on Amazon, as follows: “I wrote the book, and I really like it.”

To my amazement, Amazon actually printed the review.  I hope that review has some company soon.