I just want to be grateful for a hot minute.
I’ve been writing a long time, and it’s an isolating affair, and often writers feel like they are writing into voids of rejection and futility.
Level Best Books, my current publisher, is not about to let that happen to their authors! Case in point: More than Malice, my publisher’s answer to the pandemic-exhausted populace. Instead of postponing the typical Malice Domestic Writers conference, which they’ve been involved with for twenty years; they pulled out all the stops and produced a virtual conference that defied the odds, and had a lot of fun doing it. (Well, in addition to the blood, sweat, and tears of the learning curve and all the technological nuances and stumbling blocks). Now up to 90-something authors, give or take, Level Best Books is growing! And they still try to make sure every author is given attention in some shape or form, on this wonderful but terrifying journey called publishing.
Little did I know.
How much…WORK. IS. INVOLVED.
Like now. I’m sitting here, trying to catch up, because I took time off to love on two of my granddaughters, ages five and eight. Two, whole, days without one single ounce of marketing, writing, or deliberating plot twists. Two whole days, stiff-arming the desire to troll local bookstores in search of an author-signing venue, or create a FB ad, or do an edit on the first draft of Book Two of the Olivia Callahan Suspense series. (Which actually, I should be doing right now, but noooooo…I felt that my blog needed some attention.)
At Dolphin Point with my granddaughters, on Hilton Head Island
I repeat: Work. Is. Involved.
What makes it much easier to swallow this harsh reality is Level Best Books. My fellow authors are so supportive, I am, admittedly, stunned…and one of them, a gregarious, Italian, dark-haired bundle of bubbling optimism and generosity named Tina, has started a monthly Zoom call. My gosh, there are upwards of fifty authors on this call every month, plus the publishers/editors! These are so much fun, and a way to connect and be (gasp! dare I say it…) ENCOURAGED.
Encouragement is often in short supply for up-and-coming novelists, of which I am one. Encouragement, the up-and-comer figures, is only for the multiple-published, award-winning, A-listers. For the up-and-comers, we sit in self-flogging misery, pecking away at our manuscripts, with scant-burning embers of enthusiasm. For us, a compliment tossed in our direction is a bright sun on a cloudy day…a long drink of water in a wasteland. And a five-star review? You’d think heaven had opened its arms and christened us with crowns. (Please give your favorite books reviews on Amazon, in case you missed the huge, huge dose of guilt I just heaped upon you, dear reader).
I want to shout out a heart-felt THANK YOU, to Level Best Books and its ever-growing stable of authors, for the generosity of spirit, the support, the great marketing assistance, and the willingness to share time, author events, and information to help fellow authors. It’s been…and still is…an excellent experience.
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