Things Take Time

     I'm not selling a whole lot of books right now, so it is easy to think not much is happening.  At the same time there is progress.  I tried distributing fliers again, this time in my neighborhood of Riverdale, New York, and found it to be a rewarding experience.  I went out with a big sign, early afternoon on a week day and the people who came by were quite receptive.  I think the flyer's provide a good introduction to the book and the Riverdalians who took one read it as they were walking away.  I'm not sure that always happens on the Internet.  A few people came by a second time for a chat. Once it got personal.  An older woman told me her grand daughter had taken her own life. The woman took a fliers and asked me why I didn't have any copies on hand to sell.  Another young African-American woman came by twice and explained that she worked in the mental health field.  As she was walking away the second time she said,
     "I'm looking forward to reading it."
A young man took a card for the web site and said he wanted to read an excerpt.  That web site is http://www.cuttingthroughtheknot.com.  An old retired New York City Police Detective was looking for a ghost writer to write his biography.  He stopped to tell me some stories.  All of this happened in an hour and a half.
     It takes some hutzpa to position yourself alone on a street corner.  At the same time I left feeling that my book has a role to play.  These people seemed genuinely interested in a humorous and direct look at the subject of mental illness.  I also felt like going public with this story is actually a good deed that has the power to make others feel less ashamed.  It is possible to feel that the gesture is too small and insignificant to really matter.  How can an hour and a half on a street corner really measure up in the mighty world of book publishing?  But, I suppose, you have to start somewhere, and in my case putting a friendly human face along with the book seems to be a plus.
     On other fronts, I left a couple of phone messages for the managing editor at the Cornell Daily Sun, and e-mailed him copies of my two reviews.  Here I must be patient.  Managing editors and newspapers have their own schedules and priorities.  One nice thing is that the second edition of the novel, Cutting Through the Knot, is now available as a Kindle edition on Amazon.com.  I publicized this fact on Facebook.  There may be additional marketing possible around the advent of a Kindle edition.  The price on Kindle is a mere five dollars.  This may actually be a bit high, by Kindle standards, but that is where I set it.
     The bottom line is that there an awful lot of self-published books out there.  It is not at all easy to get noticed.  I'd like to reach the people who have concerns about mental illness and tell them there is a positive story here.  How to do that remains a challenge.