Why I Want You to Read My Book (A Message to Non-Writers)

So, you all know I’ve been on a marketing tirade recently. I’ve been blasting the message about my book, Affected, on social media, in newspapers and on online news sites, on blogs, on the news and radio, at public speaking engagements—pretty much everywhere there is to be heard, I’m putting my voice out there. I want you, my reader friend, to read my book. I want it more than anything. I want my book to be at the top of the charts. I want it read on busses and I want it read in airports. I want people to see it in a bookstore and pick up a copy. I want Randi Lee to become a household name.
“Well, Randi, that’s quite the frank answer,” you may say. “So, what’s the reason behind this passion of yours? Why do you want me to read your book so badly? Well, since you’ve asked…
To begin, as writers, I think what many of us do not understand is that non-writers do not know what goes into composing a book. I say this because I see it: writers growing frustrated because their friends and family aren’t as excited about their latest plot idea as they themselves are; writers hurt because people aren’t mentioning their book on Facebook or Twitter as much as they’d like to see; writers let down by low book sales; writers discouraged because no one seems to like their antagonist as much as they do. What writers fail to recognize is that non-writers don’t act this way to be insensitive. They don’t ignore your latest Facebook post about your book because they want to hurt or alienate you or because they simply don’t care. As much as it feels personal, it really, truly, isn’t. What it is is simple.
Non-writes just don’t know what goes into composing a book.
And that’s the purpose of today’s post: to fill non-writers in; to bridge the gap between non-writer and writer; to alleviate those writers frustrated with people who do not read their book posts on Facebook; to alleviate those non-writers frustrated with people who post about their books on Facebook; to unify us in the togetherness that is storytelling; and, quite selfishly, to hopefully sell one or two more of my books.  
It took more than two Sunday afternoons to write.
My latest novel is approximately 80,000 words, and that’s on the lower end of word counts for full-length fiction novels. Think about it: even if you typed 100 words per minute, with no typos, no adding/deleting and no relocating of words—if you typed 100 words per minute with no alterations or distractions, that’s fourteen hours worth of typing. Now add in distractions, and typos, adding/deleting and relocating words, sentences, paragraphs, even pages of writing. Add in the time it takes to think up those words and lines and paragraphs and pages and then add in the fact that this is only the rough draft—that there are probably two or three more drafts to come before the final draft, which is stillonly a draft—and then add in the fact that much more typing and deleting and re-typing is to be done before the story can actually be deemed “complete.” That is many, many hours spent typing—and typing, friends, is only one of many parts of composing a book.
I spent a lot of time researching.
I am not a woodworker. Ethan, my main-character, is. This posed a problem. I had no idea how tools worked: how was I going to write the story of a modern-day carpenter? When I wrote a scene in which a character launched a nail across a room at another character by shooting a nail gun at him, only for Tim to label the scene ridiculous as a nail gun needs direct pressure on its head in order for it to fire, I knew I needed to invest some time in understanding how tools work before I could write even this onescene. 
Many of the places in Affected, even local venues, are places I have never been to. I spent a lot of time on Google Maps researching street names. I visited many different websites looking up pictures of hotels, diners and train stations. My browser history includes check-ins at a dozen or so sites about boats and how long several different types of boat would take to make a trans-Atlantic voyage. I spent a month’s worth of ice-cream money on various detailed books about Rome and The Vatican. I do not know how it feels to have the sand gather between my toes while standing at the very tip of the Nova Scotia shoreline, just close enough to be touched by the ocean, but far away enough so that it does not lick my heels. My main character knows this feeling, though, because of the time I spent on travel forums asking about it.
I cannot tell you how many hours I spent researching the various people, places and things that appear in Affected—even on fact-checking things I already knew—but I can tell you that after doing so I’m ready to write extensive thesis papers in several different areas.
I people watched. A lot.
As an adult white woman living in North America, there’s no way for me to know how a militant Irish man is going to react to a particular situation. I can’t definitively tell you what a ten-year-old boy might think if he were to be lost in a crowded place. And how should I know how that old man sitting alone by that duck pond feels about sitting alone by a duck pond? I shouldn’t, because those life experiences aren’t my own. However, it is the job of the writer to become his or her characters and to understand what his or her characters would understand. It is the job of the writer to know his or her characters’ life experiences as well as they know their own. So I people watched: I read conversations on social media sites; I perused forums that I thought my characters would visit and posts threads in; I sat in eateries by myself and listened in on the conversations patrons had with their waiters and waitresses; I read screenplays about characters that were similar to mine to learn dialogue patterns; I kept my ears open in every possible place I could so that I could understand how different people code and decode messages and situations. It’s one more invisible aspect of writing that took a lot of time and effort and always goes unseen. 
I felt every emotion in the book while I wrote my book.
People often tease me for wearing my heart on my sleeve as I do. However, I’m the type of personality who feels. Most writers are. It’s not only the time and physical and mental energy that goes into writing a book—it’s the emotional energy, as well. We writers are so emotionally connected to and invested in our characters and stories that they are an emotional extension of us, regardless of genre or content. What we experience emotionally pours out of our pages and that makes those pages infinitely important to us. They become our children, in a way. What parent isn’t emotionally connected to and infinitely proud of their child? 
It’s my job.
Someone asked me, “If you want people to read your stories so badly, why don’t you give them away for free?” Most doctors get into the medical field because they want to help people—when was the last time your co-pay was waved for a medical visit? I do, sometimes, give my stories away for free via submitting them to free websites and trade-journals. Other times, I charge for them because writing is my profession and I need that profession to be at least somewhat profitable in order to keep shoes on my feet and a roof over my head. It isn’t out of greed or pride or for that new sports car, no. It’s to afford those same essentials we all should be able to afford for sharing our talents. In fact, if you look me up on any site where my books are available for purchase, you’ll find my works quite reasonably priced. I’m no glutton. I’m no crook. I’m just doing what all of us do for a living: trying to get by—my trade is just one that’s less understood than most, that’s all.
I seek validation.
Come off it, you know you do, too. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be peddling your wares. Publishing is an exceedingly difficult trade in which to succeed. There is a lot of rejection. There are a lot of doors slammed in your face. There is skepticism and bullying in spades. After receiving countless rejections and being told ‘no’ so many times the word became a ubiquitous sound effect, I can tell you that the writing world is not for the sensitive. It’s ironic, really, because writers are the most sensitive people I know.
A purchase of my book is someone saying to me, “You’re good enough.” It’s someone saying, “All those hours you spent typing, re-typing, thinking, plotting, perusing, people-watching, researching and re-writing, they show. Good job, you. You put a lot of work into this. I can tell.” People like being validated. They like knowing they’ve done a good job and that others appreciate and admire their work, especially after being told “no” time and time—and time again. What child doesn’t like a pat on the back after achieving a solid report card and what employee doesn’t like a raise and a good review for their hard-earned efforts. Well, we writers want that, too. A book purchase is our pat on the back. It’s our raise and good review for our hard-earned efforts.
I spent three years on this thing, damn it!
I did. Three years. Affected began in 2012 and was published mid-2015. Plain and simply, wouldn’t you want to share three year’s worth of effort in the world?
I am, in the end, a story-teller.
What good is a story-teller without an audience? Story-telling is inherent to us as a people. We’ve been telling stories for as long as we’ve had an evolved language-structure, for as long as we’ve been able to paint stick-figures on the walls of caves. Stories are complex metaphors of the messages we wish to share. That’s what Affected is, a complex metaphor, as are all my stories, no matter the word-length. I want to share that metaphor, that message, with you. I want that message to travel as far as it will go, for as long as it will go.
I am sure, as it goes, that there are elements of this that I am missing. My writer friends can undoubtedly tell you more reasons why our stories are so important to us. However, I have chatted your ear off for quite some time and my meatball grinder is getting cold. There are so many reasons why I want you to read more book, these are just some of the more prominent reasons that come to mind. So, friends, now that I’ve been frank, now that I’ve put myself out there and told you all about what I’ve been pouring my heart into for the past three-plus years, now will you read my book?
There’s an interview featuring yours truly up over at BooksChatter. Check it out here! I’ll be guest-blogging while featuring my own guest-bloggers throughout the month of October—keep an eye out! And don’t forget to mark your calendars for October 6th at 7pm, when I’ll be interviewed on Artist First Radio. As always, thanks for reading, thanks for commenting and thanks for giving me someone to write to. Stay Classy, Blog-o-Sphere!
Best,

—R