C'est Fini?
So I’m one Ala-non and two therapy sessions into the New Year and none the wiser as to what the future holds. But I’m hopeful.
Having a project like DDN under my belt as a writer and a person and a sister is an accomplishment. Despite the struggles I’ve had as a writer and a person and a sister in the process. Publishing is part of that process. Getting it out there, connecting with others, packaging and promoting deep feelings about our experiences is the goal for those of us compelled to confess. Memoir: Everybody’s doing it. Technology has lifted the curtain into our living rooms. Open, honest discussion on the trials and tribulations of life is a mere click away and a seamless divide between author and audience exists. But ten years ago, for Death-Defying Nina to be an Ebook wasn’t an option my agent could’ve volleyed back after a lengthy list of editors/publishers nicely passed on the project. That with the times has changed.
At the onset of this shift in the industry to be “available online” rendered one less valuable than those set in ink. And though the critical debate on this continues the climate has warmed. Those in support of the change praise the pros. For one, portability. Ebooks are much easier to pack and the fact that readers can access DDN on a bus or a train or a plane is a tribute to the gal who inspired them, Nina. Flitting about the globe in her tailored United Airlines uniform she was not to be stopped in gobbling up information and embracing new ideas, so I’m sure she’d not complain in our story being packaged “to go”. Besides her stunning beauty, Nina was also a geek. In the eighties, with great import, she sent me a list of domain suffixes to memorize. I did .net not much care about such things, yet the fact Nina did makes it doubly okay that I’ve utilized the digital medium in her memory. So, to have distilled her heroic fight and our sisterly sarcasm into a downloadable document I felt my job was done. Yet that was just the beginning.
To quote my agent: “Discoverability is the huge hurdle for both large publishers and indie authors in attracting potential readers to your book.”
Nowadays authors must be marketers and solicitors, cyber hawkers and stalkers of fans, commenters of comments, twittering twats. We must “thumbs up” and five-star our friends and fellow artists to a point that ultimately levels the ranking system to equal—congratulations on freakin’ finishing something! I understand there are critical complexities to the rating debate, but to have received even a smattering of applause after laboring thousands of hours on a project that I imagined would end up gathering dust on a shelf is a welcome reward. A pat on the back goes a long way in making it all worthwhile. And in gratitude to all those folks who sacrificed time and energy into putting DDN out into the world, I will continue to flog, blog, post, and celebrate being an author in a blossoming borderless age of ideas.
