I was in a Barnes & Noble this evening after watching that movie Julie & Julia -- you know, the one about publishing -- and I noticed that all the posters for book signings and readings were for celebrity authors. (Seriously, Juliette Binoche, Wallace Shawn, and Daryl Hannah.) It's just so distressing. I don't tend to stop into big bookstore chains anymore...they make my skin crawl and they dash my hopes to the ground every time. It's kind of like believing that if you write a good book, it will get published, only to learn that it's just too late for you. And yet, there it was in living color, 4 stories of shelves jam-packed with other people's books for sale. Honestly, sometimes I just don't get it.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
I Had To Use the Rest Room
I was in a Barnes & Noble this evening after watching that movie Julie & Julia -- you know, the one about publishing -- and I noticed that all the posters for book signings and readings were for celebrity authors. (Seriously, Juliette Binoche, Wallace Shawn, and Daryl Hannah.) It's just so distressing. I don't tend to stop into big bookstore chains anymore...they make my skin crawl and they dash my hopes to the ground every time. It's kind of like believing that if you write a good book, it will get published, only to learn that it's just too late for you. And yet, there it was in living color, 4 stories of shelves jam-packed with other people's books for sale. Honestly, sometimes I just don't get it.
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2 comments:
For a while after I published my book, I couldn't go into any bookstore -- if my book was there, I was like, Why has no one bought it? And if it wasn't, I was mad they didn't stock it. Craziness!!!
Quite a relief when the thing went out of print.
Now when I go into those stores, I try to think: one year from now, most of these books will be sold or remaindered, and NEW BOOKS will have to take their places. If you think of every book as representing an agent and an editor who has already moved on and is looking for the next thing, you'll feel better.
haven't seen j&j yet (how criminal of me) but whenever i start getting down that people as random julie powell have a book out, i remind myself that it's a onetime occurence and it hasn't catapulted them into a whole new life. maybe that's more depressing, i dunno, but it works for me.
i have to believe that talent will be rewarded. that's assuming i have some ;)
i think your book will find a way out there.
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