Join the Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball.
by Risa Green (Tales from the Mommy Track)
I saw the wretchedly awful Sex and the City 2 a few weeks after it came out, and while there wasn't much I could find in it to relate to (Personal Maybachs? Private butlers? Harem pants??) there was one scene that resonated with me; it was when Carrie gets the advance copy of her book in the mail, and says that there's nothing better as an author than seeing the fruits of your labor in print for the first time. For a passing moment I smiled, then went back to grimacing over how unkind the lighting was to Kim Cattrall's wrinkles.
I had my own such moment about two weeks ago, when I received a box on my doorstep, and opened it to find ten advance copies of my new book, The Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball. Like Carrie, I sat down and paged through it excitedly, admiring the cover and reading the blurb on the back. Unlike Carrie, however, my best friend is not a high-powered publicist getting me reviews - unflattering or otherwise - in The New Yorker, and taking me to the top of the best seller list in a matter of minutes. And so after my excitement waned, the reality of my situation set in: it's time to go out and promote this thing.
Let me just say that I am not a natural when it comes to talking about myself. In fact, I would venture to guess that many of the people who know me on a casual basis have no idea that I'm a writer. Even some of my good friends have no idea that I write this blog every week. It's not that I'm not willing to talk about it - I am - it's just that if it doesn't come up naturally in a conversation, I'm not the type to try to steer the conversation around to it. I always figure that it will come up eventually, or that someone else will tell them sooner or later. Writers, by nature, I think, are reclusive and introverted. We're great at getting inside the heads of our characters, but we do it alone, with nobody there to judge us until after the fact. If we wanted the limelight and the instant gratification, we would have become actors. So it's ironic then, that in the book business, where budgets are tight and national book tours have been eliminated for all but the most famous authors, us shy, modest writers are expected to go out and hawk our wares to everyone we know, like door-to-door salesmen. Because honestly, the thought of having to announce, unsolicited, that I've got a new book out, or worse, of asking people to buy it - well, frankly, it makes me want to vomit.
However, queasy or not, it needs to be done. Thankfully, I have some friends who are naturals at this. Within seconds of walking into a room, everyone in it knows that they've got a project they're working on or a new product they're rolling out, and when they leave, their phones are full of new contacts and people willing to help them spread the word. So I've sucked on a few of those anti-nausea lollipops, and I've listened to their suggestions. The first of which is that if I want people to know that I have a new book out, I need to tell them. Ah.
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Tales from the Mommy Track is a weekly column about the daily life of a part-time working mom. Risa Green is a critically acclaimed author who lives in Los Angeles. Her previous adult novels, Notes from the Underbelly and Tales from the Crib were made into a television series. Her latest novel, The Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball, is a Young Adult book that will be released in September, 2010.
