Sunday, May 06, 2007

Deep Breath

I have been busy with rebuilding my website. It will look the same, pretty much, but more features and fun stuff. More interactive.

It’s a good, nonthinking project for where I am right now, writing-wise. I have never been so prolific in these last few years and this year, in just one year, I have published 1 book, written two, completed a collection of short stories, and continue to add more stories to that collection.

Toot, toot.

Okay, enough of my-own-horn-shit.

I wish I had a BIG BIG book deal for all these pieces.

Okay, enough of wish-I-had-a-book-deal shit.

So, what’s left to blog about?

I have a lot on my head, in my brain, personally. So I dumped all that on my more private blog…see if you can find it. : )

Oh, well, I could vent the usual guilt I feel about neglecting my self-published babies, MY SISTER’S WEDDING and MY SUMMER VACATION. I feel like a negligent mother. I don’t take them out enough, give them fresh air…which translates to: I don’t do the PR machine thing enough. My “my space” page is so boring and I hate working on it. I wasn’t disappointed recently when a book fair was canceled. I don’t miss book signings.

Really, there has to be a better way, right?

But of course I go back to the STRUGGLE of well, I have an agent and she is trying to get things happening and so maybe I should just lean back as I am and let her take care of that end of it and I can just keep on doing what I am doing…teaching, speaking, coaching, writing, and letting the books sell naturally.

Oh, and they do, by the way. I probably sell a few a week still. I think that’s pretty good!

Struggle. The life of an artist. Or maybe just the life of someone who has trouble letting go.

And really, that’s why I write. To let go.

So, deep breath, I LET GO!!!!!!!

P.S. Don't forget to read my short story that was published by Amazon! The Day After

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What exactly has your agent done for you? Sounds like you are having to do the shlep work. Isn't that what your agent is for? Maybe your agent isn't cutting it?

Hannah R. Goodman said...

My agent has done a tremendous amount for me, including helping me market my self-published books and get me speaking gigs and private clients, all this in addition to submitting my work to, at this point, over 50 different publishers. Currently, she has my work with about 15 publishers. She is in constant contact with me and patiently answers all my millions of questions. Gina is more than an agent to me, she is a teacher. She has taught me the realities of submitting work, the reality of expectations. Most of all, she has not given up on me. She also has taken on more than one of my manuscripts, she is helping me push a collection of short stories as well as all the Maddie books. I don't know how much Anonymous knows about agents and the mainstream publishing world, but it is harder than trying to climb the highest mountain. It does not have a set of rules that, if one follows, one will be met with success. The key to making it is having an agent who is by your side, helping you weather all the storms and all the rejections. To answer the question, "isn't that what your agent is for", for the "schlep work", yes, but only for the manuscripts. I have to two books I self published, niether of which she represents. She represents the manuscripts, not the actual books and that's the difference. Besides, no matter what, self-published, regular published, agented or not, an author must self-promote in order to meet with any kind of sales success. That's just reality. Anonymous should pick up Writer's Digest to learn more about agents and publishing.