Month #6

“You’re starting to show,” says webmd to the woman beginning the sixth month of pregnancy.  So it’s just perfect that I can keep the birth parallel going in Month #6 with a pretty big reveal of my own.

Drum roll…………………………………..

It’s pretty darn exciting when you first see the cover of your book, makes the fact that your written manuscript will actually be a book feel a little closer to real.  As I’ve indicated in earlier posts, it wasn’t all smooth sailing with regard to the cover, but I couldn’t be more pleased with where we’ve arrived.

Simply put, as someone who buys books, I didn’t think the initial cover that the publisher and marketing people proposed was an image I would be drawn to in a bookstore. Remember them: those places where we used to duck in from the cold, or heat, and browse the shelves, and book covers – in addition to familiar authors and preferred genres – really did have a hand in drawing our attention? Technology has co-opted the word, “browse,” but many of us still think of it as something that involves our feet in leisurely movement. And of course the truth is that readers at online venues will be similarly attracted or not by that proverbial image that we are not supposed to judge a book by.

Back to what I was saying about the odyssey of the book cover for A Tale of Two Citizens, I am happy to report that my opinion was actually taken seriously and back to the drawing board they went.  Now I believe they’ve come up with a cover design that is not only appealing, but one that captures the story and atmosphere of the novel.  The two citizens of the title - two men with opposing points of view, needs, and objectives – confront each other head on.  Their nearly silhouetted images along with the high-contrast vintage-style New York skyline locate this as an historical novel.  And the title presented in individual words reflects the narrator’s discovery of  snippets of information that she shapes into a story. 

Kudos to the cover designer, who read the book sensitively and translated text into image with insight and imagination. 

While we’re in this “showing” mode, another thing I can reveal to you this month is my Amazon Author Central page.  Well, I can give you the link, and “show” it to you that way. 

amazon.com/author/elyce-wakerman

If you decide to visit me there, please let me know you stopped by in the area to the left that is provided for “discussion.”  Oh, likes, follows, comments, shares, discussions: how many ways are there to seek endorsement.  A rhetorical question, and you know what I’m talking about.  But it is the way of our world, n’est-ce pas, this constant solicitation of approval, along with self-branding, and self-promotion?  Remember when the entire Western World tittered after Sally Field dramatically proclaimed, “You like me; you really really like me!”? Little did she or any of us know that the actress addressing the applauding audience at the Oscars while she baldly exposed her need for approval was actually giving us a glimpse into the future. 

But also into the past.

Yes, back in Cicero’s day – we’re talking BC here – artists needed and sought manifest approval as vigorously and unabashedly as we like-seekers do today. Here’s how a wonderfully informative essay in the October 11th issue of The Economist describes literary self promotion back then:              

[A]uthors ready to launch their newest work would gather their friends at home or in a public hall for a spirited … reading. Audiences would cry out when they liked a particular passage. [Even more brazen than asking for a thumbs up, right?] Nervous authors enlisted their friends to lend support, and sometimes even filled seats with hired “clappers.” [We in social media, while asking for support, likes, follows, etc. would never ask friends to throw an extra like our way, would we?  Well, at least not for money!] They were keenly aware [the essay continues] of the importance of networking.

The article, “From Papyrus to Pixels,” gives an all-together sunny appraisal of the current state of publishing – if assurances regarding the staying power of paper and print evoke sunshine for you – and was called to my attention by my nephew, Ari. People continue to like their books, is the basic message of the piece, and I thank Ari for knowing that that message would brighten my day.

So dig it: could you like me on Facebook, follow me on tumblr, start a discussion with me on my Amazon page, become a friend on Goodreads, and, oh yes, while you’re over there on Amazon, even order my book?  Hey man, like Cicero, just sayin’.

Of course, I write this just days after the ultimate approval-granting exercise: Election Day in the U.S. Perhaps some of you are wildly satisfied with the results of November 4, 2014, while others are still finding it difficult to function.  The pundits are telling us that it’s going to “get ugly,” while the President says that he continues to be optimistic about the country.  Immigration, everyone agrees, is going to be the tell-tale issue over which the sides either meet or intransigently diverge.  A good and decent person comes to this country in search of a better life.  A good and decent person already here feels threatened by the newcomer’s presence: A Tale of Two Citizens.

                                                  ~

COMING NEXT MONTH:

Not unlike the physical preparation that parents begin in the months leading to arrival – setting up a room or a space for the baby, slowly gathering supplies and provisions, the process sometimes known as “nesting” – I am starting to think about how I can assist the book in settling comfortably in physical space.  I’m talking here about lining up bookstores and readings, presentations and signings, so that ultimately the novel finds itself comfortably nestled in the palms of interested readers. 

I’ll have more on this next month, when the baby’s eyes are open and the focus shifts from pregnancy to delivery.