Day: June 10, 2008

Yesterday morning Howard blogged about Hold on to Your Horses. This was it. This was the big moment when people would either plunk down money, or they wouldn’t. The first order came in and I almost cried. Someone who I’ve never met or even heard of before liked the book enough to spend money on it. It was a small piece of proof that I’d helped create something that people could love even if they didn’t know or love me. Over the course of the day lots more comments and orders came in. There were many emails, some from friends, some from strangers. Each one brought me joy. I am so grateful for each and every one of these messages.

I need them all very much because not as many orders came in as I’d hoped for on that first day. A couple of days ago I talked about feeling like a sky diver who had already jumped from the plane and not yet pulled the parachute cord. I talked about hoping for a solid parachute. Deep inside I was actually wondering if I’d pull that cord and have a jet plane pop out. That’s what happens for Howard’s books. His pay for themselves in less than 24 hours. But he has spent 8 years carefully building a fan base. Not all of those people are going to be interested in my project just because I’m married to Howard. They’re his fans, not mine. (Except for a few of you. Hi! Thank you!) Hold on to Your Horses still has a long way to go before it pays for itself. It has an even longer way to go before I could feel good about investing time and energy into another self-published project, which I’d dearly love to do. I guess what I really want is a hang glider rather than a parachute. I want this project to have wings. I think it can, but I’m going to have to put even more work into it. I’m going to have to get that free PDF out there. I’m going to need to arrange blog book tours. I’ve got other ideas as well. Mostly I need to feel good about where we’re at, instead of whining “Are we there yet?” before the car even gets out of the driveway.

So here is the request for help. If you read this blog and you have thoughts or ideas about how I can further market my book online, please comment. I can’t do any physical appearances until after I have books in hand. Right now I just want to get the pdf out there to as many people as I can so that they can fall in love with the book and come buy it.

Edited to add: If you have friends who would be interested in Hold Horses, I’d love for you to tell them about it, but PLEASE do not perpetrate spam on my behalf. Thanks!

Addendum: My sister reminds me (and she is right) that what I need to be shooting for is “sleeper hit” status, not “blockbuster” status. This lets me see that things are going really well. We’ve already had more than 3000 downloads of the free pdf.

Two last things. I hope that no one feels obligated to buy my book, particularly if finances are tight. Bills before books. I hope that no one feels obligated to blog or email people about my book. If you don’t want to for any reason, no excuses are necessary. Thanks again.