Learning Curve

My long-incubating Science Fiction epic is scheduled for release on October 15. But this essay isn’t about that, or at least not about hyping it. Today I want to share an aesthetic that I am passionate about; the learning mindset.  

I’m ready to meet my book baby. The first draft of this what-if-alien-abductees-were-right story emerged almost thirty years ago. I have never been able to let it go, until now.

More than one seasoned author has cautioned me that absolutely nothing in my life will change, even if people like the book. As Claire Dededer said when her second memoir was published, “It’s the calm before the calm.” 

But Claire’s life did change, I suspect dramatically, with the publication of her most recent book, Monsters. The last time I saw her, she was on stage with Roxane Gay. Not too shabby. Still, I take her point. She’s not a viral sensation, or a celebrity. She’s a writer, someone who lives in an unseen world made of language. 

I have several literary fiction manuscripts in my files, waiting for their turn to be born as books. It gives me immense satisfaction to apply myself to putting them out in the world. At the end of my life, I will know I took my own ambitions seriously enough to risk falling flat. I wouldn’t want to have settled for less.  

I often speak to people who wish they could self-publish, but don’t know how, or who labor under the delusion that conventional publishing offers them legitimacy, if only they could get noticed.

Listen. You have a 1 in 6000 chance of landing an agent. Just a few of the manuscripts that go to market sell. Of those, only a handful will be successful.

The calm before the calm, indeed. 

I am not done learning. As someone who went to graduate school in my late fifties, I highly recommend immersing yourself in the messy pool of life. Let go of your ego and risk a belly flop. I dare you.

Everything I know about Indy Publishing, I learned on YouTube.

You can help my launch by pre-ordering here. I am thrilled and humbled by the number of people who have already done so. (It helps move the title up the algorithmic ladder to where readers can find it, in the vast wasteland that is the marketplace.)

Thanks again to all who the many people who have helped me on this journey. One of the best things I’ve found is that I can ask for and receive support. Another late, but powerful lesson.