David Fingerman

As mentioned in earlier blogs, I’ve been spending a lot of time talking about marketing my book “Edging Past Reality” (does the phrase ‘beating a dead horse’ come to mind?).  As much whining as I’ve done about it, it has been a blast – really.  A couple of weeks ago I did a reading and signing at Common Good Books.  The turnout was good (thank you to all my friends who showed up and supported me), I got some nice compliments at the end, and the staff treated me like I was a best selling author.  Thank you Jonathan.  I’ve mentioned them before, but they really are a great independent  bookstore.  Anyway, I’m sure that I’ll schedule more readings and signings in the future, but for now that was the last one on my list.  This past Staurday, Rochester, MN had it’s First Annual Writers’ Festival.  Anna Matetic put it together and did an outstanding job.  Approximately 80 people (give or take a few) attended.  Not bad for a first try.  And I was privileged to speak at one of the sessions.  The conference started at 9:00 am and I wasn’t scheduled to speak until 3:00.  The first session that I attended was “From Manuscript to Published Book” led by local author Patricia Cumbie.  Pat has published a young adult novel “Where People Like Us Live.”  It’s a novel about child abuse (I just started it this morning, and I’m guessing that I’ll probably finish it by this evening – a very well written and compelling read thus far).  Pat did a great job speaking.  Unfortunately for me, she covered a lot of the same topics I had planned to talk about.  I had no idea how many people who had signed up for her session had also signed up for mine, but I guessed there would be more than a few.  On the plus side, I had a lot of hours between her session and mine so I was able to do some rearranging, and if there was overlap – what the hell – it means that it’s probably important and bears repeating.   While waiting I did some networking, sold a few books, and met a lot of writers and aspiring writers.  Life was just hunky-dory until it was my time to speak.  When I got up to the podium, my nerves kicked into high gear (nothing like feeling your sweat soak into your shirt).  I was supposed to speak for 30-35 minutes with 10-15 minutes for q & a.  The subject – dealing with rejection (from publishers – get your mind out of the gutter – this is a writers’ blog).  It’s a subject I am very knowledgeable about.  I had written an outline, took some of my favorite reject letters over the years (you bet I save ‘em) and practiced speaking all day Friday, and even in the car, driving from Minneapolis to Rochester on Saturday.  It’s amazing how smoothly it goes when you’re talking to no one but yourself.  But put a few people in front of you and it all goes to hell.  When I get nervous, I tend to talk fast.  I lost my outline in the shuffle of my rejection letters and omitted probably twenty-five percent of my planned speech.  I finished my talk in just over twenty minutes.  But every once in a great while, the gods are smiling down.  I asked if there were any questions (please, please, please let there be questions) and there were. In fact, there were enough that it pretty much covered my 45 minute time slot.  I even got a nice round of applause at the end.

After the conference, I drove down to Peterson (southeast corner of MN) and stayed the night with friends whom I hadn’t seen in too long.  As I was driving home the next day i realized how much I missed just writing.  I have been writing off and on between researching on more marketing techniques and following up on those techniques, but not the consistent writing that I need to do.  I still haven’t finished the novel where my goal was to complete the first draft by the end of 2008.  Health problems derailed the end-of-the-year goal, then EPR came out and I concentrated on selling that.  Now that I’ve got nothing scheduled for the near future, I think it’s time to finish writing that novel, and maybe a few short stories in-between and let marketing take a short snooze. It might not be the smartest idea considering I really do want the book to sell, but it’s something that I need to do.

Before I end this week’s blog, I just have a couple of thank-yous and references for the writers who read this.  In my last blog I mentioned Jodi Chromey and her website www.minnesotareads.com.  If you’re a writer (especially if you’re from Minnesota) and you want your book reviewed, this is a great site.  Equally, if you’re a reader looking for a good book, check it out.  The reviewers don’t sugar-coat their reviews.  If they think the book stinks, they’re not shy about saying so.  If they think it’s good, they’ll say that too.  I’d also like to thank Marta from martasmeanderings.blogspot.com for reviewing EPR.  The same holds true for Marta – if you want your book reviewed, get in touch with her.  If you’re looking for a good book, read her reviews.  And for writers, check out Anastasia Cassella-Young’s www.authormeetingplace.com.  It’s a great site for networking with other authors, along with many helpful links.  And lastly, I’d like to thank Deb Walker, a friend who I met on MySpace, who has been kind enough, along with her daughter Charlotte, to advertise EPR on their pages.  Much thanks to you all.

Next blog, I won’t talk about marketing. Promise!

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