By the time you read this, Meet Me: Writers in St. Louis, will be at the publisher's, in production. Curious writer friends now ask why I didn't interview THEM for the book (since it's a book of interviews with St. Louis writers). The men ask jokingly but directly. Miffed women give me reproachful looks and won't congratulate me on publishing the book.
Look, writers: If you want press, if you want to be interviewed, you will have to:
1) write something and make it available.
2) alert the media. They won't come looking for you. I know you think they should. But they're media. They have to hear buzz.
3) do some publicity on your own, such as scheduling a book launch, sending postcards, press kits or other. That may be beneath you, but it is rather like going to the bathroom -- you can't deceive yourself that you're above all that. Get a publicist if you can pay for one. College students majoring in marketing are a good option.
My interviewing-writers days are over, but remember the above, because somebody else someday is going to be seeking out and interviewing writers about their processes and secrets.
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Waytago--your book at publisher's. Yes, indeed! Shine a little light on you...
ReplyDelete...and me. I have a chapbook of poems and art just now available: "pale leaf floating" (Cherry Pie Press). I shall not look at you askance because the book is so new that you ran out of time to interview me. Instead I'll smile broadly at you, give you some sort of hug because YOU KNOW what a thrill it is to have a book out. And, a thrill to announce one is at the publisher's--that't my next one: "MYnd mAp" (Agog Press STL) Isn't this fun?