When writing is promoting is networking

Plus the airborne toxic event

Happy Pride Month! I’m thrilled to see that Business Insider, BookPage, and Professional Book Nerds are all recommending Endpapers! And Bookshop.org is offering 20% off on copies for the month of June :)

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Hi friends,

Well, this has been an unusual week. On Sunday I headed downstate to spend the night in Tarrytown, have dinner with my brother-in-law, and prepare for a mysterious luncheon for authors and editors in NYC that I’d been invited to by Zibby Owens — whose podcast I’d been on in April. I’ve never received an invitation like it, and I didn’t know what to expect. It turned out my editor didn’t either. I was intrigued! So I went. But I also worried I was out of my league.

I met my editor at Algonquin HQ and we walked together into a fancy ballroom full of tables, many of them displaying books! There were people schmoozing everywhere, looking confused and happy, while bags were checked, drinks were passed, and finally we were ushered to our assigned tables. Zibby took the microphone and explained that her daughter’s bat mitzvah happened during the pandemic and they couldn’t have a party. She still had credit for the space and it was about to expire, so she threw us a party instead. The whole thing was starting to feel more comfortable, and even delightful!

Lunching!

It was my first opportunity to meet my editor in person, which was wonderful. I also got to meet a few authors that I’ve only interacted with online, and I made some new author friends as well. It was a surprising and welcome relief to be in an environment that allowed me to chat with a room full of editors as people instead of gatekeepers to an opaque world I wish I had access to. In fact, despite the fancier atmosphere than I’m used to, the gathering really humanized the world of publishing, if only for these two hours, when everyone was on equal footing and sharing the same space, with no agenda other than to enjoy ourselves.

Before I published a book, I had this idea that a book would increase my confidence, cure my imposter syndrome, and make me feel more like a member of the writing community. Don’t get me wrong — there are many wonderful things about publishing a book, but it didn’t do any of those particular things. If anything, it magnified my insecurities. It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle, whether you’re just starting out and haven’t published anything or you’ve published multiple books. There are always authors who are more successful and editors who reject your work. You might even receive mysterious invitations and doubt whether you deserve to accept them.

I think my point is this: ever since I signed with an agent back in 2019, I’ve had many reminders that publishing professionals and authors are people above all else. We’re all out here trying to live our lives and be successful and find some joy and meaning in our careers. The industry runs on human beings and human interaction. We write and read to connect, after all.

There’s a lot of networking and promotion to do for a book release, and it’s not easy. But over time I’m learning to think of it as another form of relationship-building, just like I did before the book. At the end of the day, it’s about forming connections with interesting and kind people, being open to adventure and not knowing what to expect, letting excitement about other people and their work lead the way instead of insecurity and self-centeredness, making noise about the work you love by other writers. When I’m able to do that, it doesn’t feel like a race to succeed or achieve. It feels like I’m part of a community of friends who support one another and their art.

I drove back upstate from my quick trip to NYC on Monday night as the sun was setting. The light colored the landscape with a lovely orange glow and the sun looked like a little red ball in the sky. I thought I was witnessing some special astronomical phenomenon, the perfect ending to a lovely trip. Instead, I learned it was the beginning of our air pollution problem from the wildfires in Quebec.

View from my front window on Wednesday

Over the next few days, as I hunkered down and tried not to breathe any air, I was still grateful to be back in my small town, comfy on my couch, alone, getting back to my novel-in-progress. Just as I’d been grateful for the opportunity to come out of my shell.

With a full time job, a family, and a book to promote, do I wish I had more time to write? You bet. But what is writing without readers? And, honestly, what is life without other writers?

Which is why I love writing to you every week.

If you have any thoughts or tips about networking and promoting your writing, feel free to leave them in the comments for everyone.

Meanwhile, please stay safe out there.

Yours,

Jen