David Fingerman

Thrilled and exhilarated.  Nervous and scared as hell.   On paper, marketing ones self doesn’t look all that tough.  Make some phone calls, send some emails, knock on a few doors.  But when you’re an introvert and normally shy away from people, it’s a taxing experience to say the least.  Still, if you want more than family and friends to read your book (not that there’s anything wrong with family and friends reading your book), it must be done.  So far, I’ve been extremely fortunate.  Everyone that I’ve met has been amazingly friendly and receptive.  And now – here comes the self promotion:  As stated in my last blog, Common Good Books is now selling “Edging Past Reality.”  Since then, Magers and Quinn (a great discount bookstore in Uptown Minneapolis) will also be selling EPR, and the Dakota County library has kindly agreed to carry my book.  (Authors!  Don’t forget the libraries – they’re a great source to get your book out there.)   As hard as it was walking into bookstores and ask to please sell my book, that was easy as compared to asking about readings and signings.  Okay, asking to do them wasn’t any harder (actually, easier because a lot of it was done by email or over the phone), it was when they said yes that my nerves started jumping.  So here goes – My first signing will be on March 7th at a marvelous little bookstore called Lake Country Booksellers in White Bear Lake.  In the past  I have walked in a B&N and seen non-celebrity  writers sitting all alone at their table, their pride and joy and years of labor stacked at their side,  smiling at people passing by, and shoppers (even employees) avoiding them like they’ve got a disease.  People do that enough to me in real life so here’s what I’m asking – if you live anywhere near White Bear Lake, please stop by and see me.  I’ll be there from 10:30 until noon.  I won’t even care if you don’t buy my book (okay, I’ll care a little bit).  But show your support for the independent bookstore.  Next up is March 20th at DreamHaven Books (a mecca for Science Fiction/Fantasty/Horror/Speculative Fiction – and they got some great toys, too).  I’ll be doing a reading starting at 6:30pm.    Reading in front of people should not be that big of a deal.  I do it almost every week in my writing group.  But there it’s fellow writers listening to critique.  At an open reading I think I’m expected to entertain people with my stories.  Yikes!  Oh, the horror stories I can think up just on that.  Okay, maybe the masochistic side of me is really looking forward to it.  Have I talked about masochism?  Another time, maybe.

All that being said, I really haven’t talked much lately about publicizing on the web.  Obviously, there’s still the blog.  I’m making more friends on Facebook and My Space (making friends when you don’t really have to meet anyone is easy) all the time (and what the hell is twitter?  I gotta check that out).  But I’d really like to thank “Authors Promoting Authors” and its webmaster, Tina-Sue, for spotlighting EPR.  Writers, check it out.   It’s a great site to get your name out there.  Readers, check it out.  You might find some wonderful gems that would otherwise be overlooked. (http://authorspromotingauthors.blogspot.com)

Well, somewhere in all of this marketing frenzy an unfinished novel has been calling, “Hey A-hole, first and foremost you’re a writer, remember?  Now get back to work.”

Gotta go.

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