Public Relations...and Bill.

So, since my current publisher is a relatively small company, I'm getting a very unique opportunity to do most of my own public relations! Exciting!
Okay fine, so I'd rather have an agent and a publicist, and huge posters in Barnes and Noble advertising my coming book. The best I can do right now, however, is have posters made (or make them myself), send lots of emails, make some phone calls, and possibly mail some copies. Not to mention leave them around. Oh yes. They will be around campus, around town, and if I travel, they'll be around Europe and South America too!

What I've been doing tonight is sending emails and bugging friends about blogs and other news sources. Not a lot of luck so far, but I'm emailing just about anyone I can think of, so I have to get at least ONE response about something! And on Monday, I can call newspapers, news stations, radio stations...well, we'll see what happens.

One author's journey into the wide and highly sought world of advertising!

As for reading, which I'm doing in an effort to hold onto my small amount of relative sanity, I've gotten into Sherlock Holmes thanks to my mom the Librarian and the amazing movie that's just come out. Good stuff. I definitely have big plans for Bill to be Sherlock.

Oh, Bill? He's a character in my book. He has a bit of a psychological disorder combined with a film obsession; he spends all of his time watching movies and then taking on personalities of movie characters. You'd think this might be harmful at times, you know, if he watches The Silence of the Lambs or The Shining. But luckily Bill is very limited by his surroundings and what must be the real person inside him, and he's never hurt anyone. Quite the opposite in fact. He's a lot of fun to write, probably because I get to sort of steal other peoples' characters and write them in my own way. That might be worrisome in terms of copyright laws at some point, but I'm not going to concern myself until enough people start reading the book to notice. This may never happen, so there's nothing for me to fret about!
Bill's characters aren't always set to coincide with the chapter's situation or anything like that. They're random, the way I imagine they would be if someone really were to act this way. This is not to say that I don't throw in favorites here and there. My very favorite person to write Bill into so far is Clark Kent. Here's a teeny tiny excerpt:

Just then, the front door opened again.
“Hey guys!” It was Clark Kent, or Bill with Clark Kent glasses. He must have watched a Justice League DVD at some point. Taylor’s DVDs often somehow ended up at my house for long periods of time.
“Hey Clark,” I greeted him. “Chasey made spaghetti.”
“Oh that’s great, I love spaghetti!”
“Clark, this is my friend Mary,” I introduced them.
Bill extended his hand. “Clark Kent, great to meet you Mary!”
Mary didn’t seem to notice the Superman’s secret identity thing. “You too,” she said, shaking his hand.
“How was work?” Sid asked him.
“Oh it was fine. You know. Nothing I couldn’t handle.” He winked at Sid and me. Apparently we knew he was really Superman. “Well, I’m gonna’ go get some of that great spaghetti.” He went to the kitchen.


I don't think I'm supposed to randomly post huge parts of the book around (I probably will anyway) but I figure this gives the idea of how a movie character can casually sneak into the book.

I got my very first copy of the book just recently (after a whole lot of waiting) and I've already found a typo in it. Oops, better work on that. Maybe the next time I get published I'll HAVE AN EDITOR. That would be a big help...

No, my published novel is not a glamorous affair, just a small start. One author's journey and all that. But in a way, it's better this way. I'm slowly learning the publishing process, as well as the editing process, the advertising process, and pretty soon, the selling process. Because I'm the one who's going to sell this book, really. I'm not expecting much, but if I can sell, say, 100

My closing note-
A House Afire comes out on Barnes and Noble and Borders' websites in February!