BEHIND THE SCENES OF BOOK PROMOTION
By Greg Sauter
Amanda’S NOTES
Apparently, when you have a book out, you need to write about it all the time. This is a new kind of exhausting. So, I am turning over this third musing to my husband. You may recognize him from It Will Have Been So Beautiful..
Hello, everyone! Greg here!
When Amanda taught high school, I used to compare the final weeks of a school year to a Formula 1 race.
On Monday morning, she’d take off from the starting line, all systems go. By Wednesday, the tires were fraying, the suspension was shot, and the gas gauge was perilously low.
On Thursday, the wheels started to detach, and the exhaust was smoking. There was an ominous odor of burning rubber — surely, all was not right.
By Friday evening, I could only watch helplessly as she careened across the finish line in a fiery apotheosis. The once-sturdy chassis was now scraping the ground, leaving gaskets, springs, and a catalytic converter in her wake.
But those were sprints. It’s said a book of poetry has a two-year promotion window, not including pre-sale. If launching a book is a 26-month marathon, we’re only now approaching mile 5.
Amanda has been great, but I think the gearbox is a little worse for wear. She’s weathered AWP, two book launches, countless readings, reviews, and interviews, not to mention establishing this website and a social media presence in 0-to-60 seconds. The fact that I’ve been recruited to write a blog post is evidence of the relentless pace she’s been keeping since all this began.
So, here are a few things I’ve learned from my new job as a factotum, personal assistant, part-time publicist, occasional guest blogger, and biggest fan of a newly published poet. I hope these will be helpful to others in a similar supporting role!
DO…
– Try to find ways to both compliment and complement your poet’s abilities. (See what I did there? Amanda would be proud.) Odds are they’re having trouble keeping track of stuff like emailing bookshops, organizing readings, catering a launch event, etc. Also, consider becoming an amateur accountant to maximize the silver lining of any risky financial endeavor: tax write-offs, baby!
– Be ready to work hard to persuade your reclusive poet that getting out of the house is good for them. Fair warning: this may involve sacrificing the occasional evening to attend readings and other get-togethers. But nothing beats seeing your little introvert-in-the-headlights wow the crowds with their verse. It’s like going to a school play, but better! (Says the guy who doesn’t have kids.)
– Set clear boundaries on what you will and will not do to help (see above: catering, emailing, accounting). Otherwise, you’ll end up writing guest blog posts like yours truly. Though it can work in your favor, too! Try volunteering as an official event photographer/videographer — isn’t it time you treated yourself to some new gear? (See aforementioned tax write-offs.)
DON’T…
– Stare up blankly from a new poem you’ve just been offered, or meagerly offer the less-than-helpful “It’s good!” as your only feedback.
– Repeat the same error after her fourth practice round of reciting a poem ahead of a public reading.
– Volunteer helpful tips for reading poems aloud by following your “It’s good” with “but…” They. Will. Only. Hear. The. “But.”
– Volunteer poem ideas when they wail that they’ve forgotten how to write.
I had this great idea for an ode to a particularly unwelcome side effect of the stress of public readings: “Fell Zit.” (“Fell” as in “terrible,” “cruel,” or “dreadful,” in Middle English.)* You can’t get any more poetic, right?
Amanda even came up with the first line, right then and there: “By the tickle of my nose, something wicked this way grows!” A Macbeth call-out, no less! It had all the makings of a classic.
Nope. Believe it or not, it did not make the cut.
– Try to help them edit a guest article by using the phrase “spread like wildfire.” Turns out, poets do not appreciate “your tired similes.” Who knew?
A useful corollary: DO add “writing guest articles” to your list of things you won’t do to help promote their book. But — perhaps — help them find a friend or pro (or, better yet, a friend who’s also a pro) to help them instead.
Finally, DO remember to say, as often as possible, that their work is uniquely beautiful and that even you are getting better at reading and enjoying poetry. The thing is, this time, you mean it.
Hey, wouldn’t that be a good idea for a poem?
Amanda’S NOTES
* This is NOT Middle English. Even if you read it on Wikipedia.