Hardships beyond the book

By my usual East Coast standard, I'd be posting this late... but as I am in Arizona right now, I'm still somewhat timely in getting my Monday blog in... so nyahh!

I've been a bit absent the last few weeks, mostly due to book touring stuff or book stuff related to my day job in publishing. I'll try to be a bit more regular with my posts here and all...

If being a published author is an iceberg, seeing your book go out onto the shelf is just the tip. These past few weeks I've been experiencing the rest of the iceberg, which is to use a technical term, gigantinormous!

The love of writing and sharing it is the big reward, but all the support of it is EXHAUSTING. I'm trying not to sound whiny about it because I know how fortunate I am to see my words in print, but until you've lived it, you just never really know how fully draining an experience it is. Perhaps my other Leaguers will chime in on their peeves as such, but the surprise hardship beyond the book for me is doing signings.

Most of them have been fun and managable. Small pockets where I'll sign maybe 60 max at a time. You get to spend a little time talking to everyone, be personable, and that's that. But last week...

350+ copies were signed in a period of three hours as giveaways for B&N College Managers as I was asked to be a guest at their annual Back To Campus show. I loved doing it, but it was perhaps one of the most exhausting things I've ever done. For three hours, I was "on", talking to everyone, signing, watching the line stretch off... never ending...

It flew by in a blink, but by the end, my voice was shot, my hand had gone numb and since I had been sitting for three hours, making my legs work too awhile. It was a brief, if insightful, taste of what it would be like to be a top list author... I now have a slight inkling what it would be like if every signing was like that and I have a newfound respect for all those authors out there who can do it, and do with with ease... and with a smile.

And yes, I know you'll all going "Oh boo hoo, published author, poor you," but really my point is that there's always something to keep an author on their toes. First it's the hurdle of getting an agent to look at it, then finding an editor, then getting to publication, and now... this. I wonder what the next fun hurdle will be? I do know this, though... I will Chariots of Fire my ass through it!

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