Anna Richenda

I (heart) book bloggers :)

Thank you to all who have posted reviews of The Saint and the Fasting Girl. As a writer, it is so wonderful to hear from readers who like the book. What a joy to get my email this morning and get to read such a nice review! A great start to my day.

Brand new! Thank you to the Bookworm at Campy Swampy for their terrific new review

New: Check out David Morton’s review

Kay’s Bookshelf review

Blodeuedd’s review

And I am oh, so lost!

I was browsing bookblogs.ning and came across a thread discussing the difference between LibraryThing, Good Reads, and Shelfari. I’ve been a longtime LibraryThing user, but they made Good Reads sound so fun, I joined, lol!

But now I’m hopelessly lost! And I don’t have any friends. :( If you’re a Good Read-er, take pity on me: pop over to my Good Reads page and add me?

Oh—and if you know how to import books from LibraryThing, I’ll be your best friend forever!

Chunky and good!

My copies of the book arrived this week, and don’t they look magnificent in the box?

Some of these are actually mine. I got a shipment on the 29th, but those were all earmarked for a bunch of awesome book reviewers. Look at the lovely pile of envelopes, now speeding their way to places like Mafra, Portugal; Kingston, Ontario; and Philadelphia, PA.

And look, I had bookmarks printed, too!

I cannot tell you how nerve wracking it is to have the book in my hand. Nerve wracking and amazing, too. This is the culmination of years of effort. This project started with a dream in 2002. It endured through my sister Charlie’s cancer and her death. It endured through revisions and workshops and, although the book isn’t about me, writing it became a kind of process of self discovery.

Who knew the girl who read ‘Wrinkle in Time’ over and over again would end up so fascinated by fasting girls and anchorites? lol. Um…okay. Maybe that one makes sense.

Anyway, what’s done is done.

And don’t they look wonderful!

A Cynical Rant…

Okay, lol, warning, warning, rant! Because, well, I’m really not big on marketing.

I remember picking up a book of historical fiction (the author shall remain nameless) and reading the marketing blurbs on the back. By the effusive praise I found there—including a blurb from Deepak Chopra!—I was sure to love it. I bought it and choked through the first vulgar chapters before complaining bitterly to my friends. I think it was my friend Kat who coined the term ‘sword porn.’ And that about summed it up. And I wondered, what is Deepak Chopra doing recommending a book that like that?? The answer? Marketing.

Not every reader loves every book. In fact, readers are picky about what they like. (As I reader, I applaud this pickiness. It makes for lots of kinds of wonderful books!) So, did Deepak Chopra really like the sword porn book? Maybe so.

Anyway. For me it was like getting bit by a snake. I didn’t want to read even part of a book like that again. And if I couldn’t trust Deepak’s blurb, I probably couldn’t trust any blurb at all. Fool me never again.

To the blurb problem add the money problem. Most books sell less than 5000 copies. Even good books. Many are never intended to sell wider than that. Book publishers want to sell the familiar to readers, and I like the familiar, too. I want a book I know I’ll like and I’m fairly grouchy about it. I’ve been burned for $20 before and $20 is still $20! So…trouble is, how do you sell the familiar while differentiating your grain of rice from the sticky wad at the bookstore and so sell more copies.

Marketing!

I got this great offer in my e-mail inbox a couple of days ago. I could get my book showcased in Publishers Weekly for the bargain price of….$19,000! Wow. What an opportunity! Considering I may sell 5,000 books, and so earn about 7,000 before taxes, I absolutely want in on that deal!

Um. Not really.

But how, the industry wants to know, will I manage to sell books if I don’t get the word out? How will I manage to pry $20 from the public without resorting to smoke, mirrors and chicanery? (Yes, I’m still being cynical.)

But seriously, on the realistic side of things, if you don’t spend money on marketing, how will the reader even know you exist?

(Sigh)

Yeah. That could be a problem. Because I’m certainly not Deepak Chopra. I’m a nobody who lives in a smallish town with cats and rhododendrons. I’m a regular person in a regular world. According to the number crunchers, without Publishers Weekly, my book is toast.

But here’s where I am NOT cynical.

I believe in the reader. I think the reader dis likes being tricked into spending good money on books they won’t like. I think the real force in the ‘marketplace’ is when one reader says to another: I’m reading this great book! And that’s how I want to be judged. Did I write a good story? Or not? What does the reader think.

So in my innocence and naivete, I’m letting the reader decide if they want to buy the book or not. And I am hoping that their neighbor will suggest that they might like it.

—And delivered by my husband!

The book has arrived!

After…how many years?…it is now printed and bound and 330 pages. It showed up on my doorstep on the 18th via UPS (the postal service). Unfortunately, I wasn’t home. I was at UPS (the university) for Annual Conference. So—what does my wonderful husband do? He decides celebration is in order. He then drives almost 3 hours to bring me the book and take me out to dinner.

Wow. He’s a keeper.

Plus, he called my boys in Bellingham and they decided to drive down to join us. Surprise!! The boys hid in the back of Jon’s car and popped out to greet me!

So, here’s some photos for you. Here’s me, opening the box.

And here’s me with my youngest son,

and with my oldest.

(Here’s a cropped version for you younger ladies. And yes, he’s single. :)

We opened the book on the campus, but then went out to find a good dinner spot. We ended up at a super-yummy cafe and, in addition to celebrating having the book in-hand, the boys had a chance to wish Jon a happy Father’s Day as well! (Happy Father’s Day!)

It was over all too soon, but what a fine celebration it was! I hated to say good-bye (Group Hug!). Yet good-bye it was,

and off they all went again, leaving me feeling very blessed, indeed.

It was very cute to see their enthusiasm. I mean, this is the same group of folks I drove crazy with my plot spinning (What if…?) and history lectures (Did you know…?). There was a point where there was a family joke about being trapped in a car with me, because, like it or not, with no escape but the open road you emerged after 20 or 30 minutes with a good working knowledge of what the kitchen staff did at a medieval monastery. lol!

Yet now, with the book published, it seems the journey has shifted.

It is said that for writers, publication is actually a deflation. For writers have been immersed in the wonder of their stories. They have spent so much time in the story world. We’ve been there as our characters go in and out of harms way, we’ve forced them to deal with carnage, crisis and Love, all so they can undergo larger-than-life struggles and be transformed.

I spent years with The Saint and the Fasting Girl, and cried plenty, I can tell you.

But for my family (who only saw my prickly bad-tempered side as I was scribbling), with publication comes their turn to jump into the world and see it for themselves. It is their turn to be caught up in crisis and catharsis.

And so, the publication of the book that marks the end of the writers journey also marks the beginning of the readers’. As such, I sincerely hope that you all find as much joy, as much agony, and as much to tussle with, as I did.