TEN WAYS PUBLISHING A BOOK IS - AND ISN'T - LIKE HAVING A BABY . . .

Back in April, as I was waiting for my second book GRAY IS THE NEW BLACK to come out from Otis Books, I wrote a  blog post that compared the months-long wait for pub day to being very pregnant.

Here's from  How Publishing a Book Is Like Giving Birth:

“I feel pregnant, uncomfortably so, though at 65 and with no hormones left to speak of, I know that's not what ails me. The publication of my second book, a memoir, is imminent. The current due date is June 1. My symptoms are a lot like those I experienced when I was nine months pregnant with my last child, twenty years ago. I'm in a limbo state, alternating between excitement and anxiety, ravenous hunger and digestive stupor, spurts of productivity and longer spurts of twiddling my thumbs waiting for something, anything, to happen.”

---

The book was birthed. It arrived on it's due date, emerged from the printer and found its way to Small Press Distribution, the distributor that my publisher, Otis Books, and dozens of smaller, independent presses use. GRAY IS THE NEW BLACK, with its distinctive plain black cover, was packaged in bundles of four books apiece, shrink wrapped in plastic and placed into boxes, 32 tomes to a cardboard box. 

Now that the waiting is over, I'm into a strange new land of promoting (or attempting to promote) my baby book. Like any new mother, I’m caught between caring for this hapless newborn and worrying (no, knowing) that there's a lot of life passing me by. 

Which got me thinking, again, about the ways in which publishing a book is, and isn't, like having a baby. There are likely infinite comparisons and contrasts to be drawn. Here are my initial ten and ten.

TEN WAYS PUBLISHING A BOOK IS LIKE HAVING A BABY

• When pub day arrives, it’s a HUGE relief
• You verify book baby has the right cover, all its pages in the correct order, and exhale - WHEW
• You celebrate, pass out party favors, like bookmarks and buttons no one knows what to do with
• You flood social media, posting about every clever thing book baby does and says
• When people coo and chuck book baby under the chin, you flush with pride
• When they do anything less than coo and chuck, you’re crushed and defensive - HOW DARE THEY
• You begin to imagine everyone is sick and tired of hearing about book baby
• YOU become sick and tired of hearing about book baby 
• The world seemed a much safer place when book baby was still inside you
• Post-book-partum depression hits; you take to the bed with a box of red licorice and the remote

TEN WAYS PUBLISHING A BOOK IS NOTHING LIKE HAVING A BABY

• ​No one asks if you’re breast-feeding, or for how long
• When you take to the bed with the red licorice, no one shoves a crying baby into your arms
• You can be an awful book parent and the effects on society are negligible 
• If you lose interest and stop its care and feeding, CPS won’t come knocking
• Your book baby is going to cost you, but not for nearly so long as a child
• An author of nineteen, or even ninety, books isn’t likely to have a reality TV show
• Social media won’t remind you of friendship or other book-baby milestones
• On social occasions, friends and relatives will soon stop asking what book baby is up to
• With a book baby, post-partum depression may be eased by making another
• You can set book baby on a shelf, turn out the light, close the door, and walk away . . .

NEXT UP: How difficult it is for writers (I know I'm not the only one) to promote our work out in the real world. It requires shifting into a different, and often foreign, head space, one that demands skills and an outward-focussed energy that can be a challenge, and mind-numbing, and creativity-sapping.

Not that I have answers, but the hope is that writing about the dichotomy will shake loose something helpful. For myself, and, ideally, for others in the same boat.

Thanks for reading. Comments welcome. 

buttons no one knows what to do with - want one?

next book, gestating, very slowly

subliminal advertisement . . . you are not seeing this, reading this . . . you are compelled to click the blue button and buy GRAY IS THE NEW BLACK . . . and when it arrives in the mail,  you will open its matte black cover, turn the pages one by one and be glad . . . 

click the button