.... BUT WILL IT SELL?
The first entry of my journal when I was a very confused 19 year old is: Plato said "The unexamined life is not worth living" however I can add that the overly examined life is incapable of being led."
Among other meanings this journal entry highlights two themes that dominated my life for the next fifty years: I declared myself an active author but one who would be self conscious about being self conscious.
Although I wrote a great deal I never thought of myself as an "official" author. Among my projects were: doing a major paper on Pragmatism in the 11th grade; intiating and maintaining a 35 year journal of surprising breadth and depth; conducting original research attempting to disprove the validity of astrology but surprised by my results; doing more research on aspects of the esoteric occult; comparing and contrasting heroin addicts who stay and drop out of selected treatment programs for my dissertation topic; and a number of original papers summarizing my findings in working with selected patients in my paychoanalytic psychotherapetic practice. Others followed but you get the point.
Additionally I have written three unpublished manuscripts including: Understanding Meaningful Coincidences (Synchronicities): The Phenomena, The Awe Response, Implications, Explanations, and Uses; Climbing Mountains In Inner Space: A Defense of Long Term Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy; and a thirty five year preoccupation with adequately writing, editing, publishing, and marketing SMACK IN THE MIDDLE: My Odyssey Treating Heroin Addicts in the Sixties: A Memoir.
I mention these works to validate to myself that whether I have consciously idenitifed myself as an author or not - I have no other choice but to declare I am indeed an author. This awareness has been relatively slow in coming but as a man of nearly 70 years old {hard to believe} it is far better it come now than never.
So what has this to do with marketing?
On the cusp of my agent sending My Odyssey to 4 publishers - phase two {getting an agent/editor} is completed issuing in phase three: marketing it.
Until this year I have had a marketing phobia. This is probably the reason why I have been reluctant to identify myself as an author. Examining the roots of this attitude I think it is related to exposure anxiety coupled with some extreme notion that to be a person of integrity one should avoid the "market" or one will become tainted.
Trust me, I am not so personally pure that the idea of fame, fortune, recognition and all the rest that goes with widespread publicity is beneath me. Quite the contrary. I think my attitude of relatively self imposed isolation - up to this point - goes way back to my early development.
I grew up in the shadow of two parents who were anything but shy about promoting themselves. Additionally I was "wierd" - not ever fitting in and treated as such. I grew up with a conviction at the core of me that I would be better off on the fifty yard line at the top of the bleechers than to get onto and into the active field of action.
Well - that is all over.
My Odyssey about my Odyssey over these last 35 years has forced me to finally come to terms with the indisputable fact that I am an author. More, I am an author who wants very much to be read because I have an important message to share. And the only way to get my message heard is to plunge headlong into the world of marketing.
As I write these words and declare them publicly I am excited that I have openly broken psychological chains that like Gulliver have held me bound to my personal "Lilliputia" all of my conscious life.
So at the risk of jumping the publishing gun by anticipating that my reception for my memoir will eventually be a positive one - I am proceeding full measure into the fascinating and challenging world of marketing.
My conclusion is: under certain occassions it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks.
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 7
Getting in the game of life take courage. I congratulate you, again and look forward to the unfoldment of your continued journey that is reflective of us all, in some small or perhaps, enormous way.
"Additionally I was "wierd" - not ever fitting in and treated as such. I grew up with a conviction at the core of me that I would be better off on the fifty yard line at the top of the bleechers than to get onto and into the active field of action."
I think that this is pivotal -- I say that based on my experience as a lifelong weirdo. As a kid, I suffered from the dual popularity-killing traits of obesity and significant intelligence. (My IQ scored in the genius level in school, although currently, I think it's dropped about thirty points thanks, I'm convinced, to the vicissitudes of motherhood.) I learned early to keep my head down and (if I wanted to remain unwounded) my mouth shut. Isolation became a way of life but, as you well know, no life of significant contribution is going to occur unless you come out to play.
My only advice is to focus on your work as a contribution to others and use THAT as a justification for promotion! Really, all of your book titles sound fascinating -- I'd love to read ANY of them, the non-published and the (fingers crossed) soon-to-be-published.
Good luck and please continue to keep us up-to-date on your process, both internal and external.
If you don't believe this, say Pet Rock, at least 100 times.
I appreciate the courage you showed yourself and us in making this public declaration. After two books and three albums that died on the vine because I couldn't figure out how to market them, I understand exactly what you are saying and I suspect that I may learn quite a bit if you'll keep us posted on your odyssey. I believe that what you've done here is a good step on that road and that it will help you move forward. If you should find yourself stuck somewhere along the line, why not let us brainstorm with you?