I’ll post my query for Down to a Sunless Sea shortly ; apparently it has done the trick. It is a mixture of quotations from reviews of the book, my past credits or dumb luck in how it is phrased. Probably it is my citing that my first short story ever published was listed with Mailer, Oates and Singer. Couldn’t hurt? Perhaps Sondheim may write one of his sophisticated songs called, “Who do you know?”
Some observations as I go about marketing in my own way. It seems that one has to probe magazines more than once; in fact, after a month passes I forward the same email again, and often I do get a response. The mags most be unbelievably inundated by all the books generated for review and publicity. So be anal and obsessive — hit them more than once, but at least allow a month to pass. I also observe that some editors or blogggers are menschen and some are real pricks. One dilettante wrote me in a coy and smartly shrewdish way that he simply can’t acclimate himself to reading short stories as he feels the real worth of literature is in novels. Hemingway, Conrad, Kafka are not his metier, I concluded. I almost asked him to provide his address as I was prepared to send him a tin of snuff and a handkerchief signed by The Scarlet Pimpernel.
I have gone to the Poets and Writers website because they list contests in a systematic fashion. I think it is a good idea to do that and I prepare by trying to send out my entry for each of the months. I know full well that some are scams and some charge inordinate amounts for entry fees — not all, mind you, but if you are a winner there is the publicity. I did that with Allbooks reviews, Shirley Roe, editor and CEO, and I won for best historical fiction. It is also wise to go to a stationery store and order round stickers to put on the book cover — “Allbooks Reviews Editor’s Choice Award,” to wit. So, fellow writer, try contests. Google that word or a variant of “literary contests for fiction” and see what comes up.
At times we must push ourselves, cross into areas with trepidations. I use Shirley Roe and Norm Goldman (Bookpleasures.com) to kick off my books. It is now a tradition with me. These are reviewers who will provide a review for a fee, but they also advertise your work across the web and with Roe ( see her review of “Sea” on this site) and especially Goldman, we are beginning to share personal data, which is nice. Both Roe and Goldman have done interviews with me as well, no fee for that. See the interview with Goldman at Bookpleasures.com as an example of what a good interaction provides. The interview then becomes part of your publicity mailing. Whenever I send out a book for review I include a bookmark and in some instances, I supply interviews and salient reviews. On that bookmark use both sides; on the back cite an selection from your book and on the front your ISBN and Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
All this is endless; i view my book as a year’s effort. If I can generate, on my own, sufficient publicity that is just fine; but I do not drive myself crazy, which all of the above can do to you. I must focus on the fun of it, the rewards when they do come in. I try to give myself breaks, particularly the week-end. I view the book as an hour’s work each day. After all, I will be remembered by family and not by you dear reader. And there is no guarantee that family will remember you. As I age I remember individuals in my life and pay them a mental homage — my deceased and dearly loved wife and eldest daughter; my loyal and kind dog, Oedipus, and the hounded Jews who endured throughout the ages. About six or seven months ago I was in that morally dead society of Spain which now finds it fashionable to have Jews in their family. I recall in one town whose name eludes me I came upon the Jewish quarter replete with a statue of Maimonides. I observed the winding, spiraling streets in that place and I teared up, for I could easily imagine how the Jews were driven through the streets like the bulls of Pamplona. Memory. The gift of the Jewish people to civilization.
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