Photo by Yuris Alhumaydy on Unsplash
I have a little story for you.
When my last book launched it was supposed to be a Big Deal.
I got a decent advance. Every one was excited. There was buzz.
I’d been through having books released that didn’t sell very well and I was pretty sure that this was going to be different. It sure felt different.
Only my agent just called to let me know — not so much. She knows me well enough to call me, because if she’d emailed that to me I would have had a complete breakdown.
Here’s what she told me: There was a lot of excitement when my book launched. Lots of orders. But they didn’t sell through the way the should have. Turns out that teachers and librarians have felt weird about recommending a middle grade book where a parent is in prison.
Right. Because that never happens in real life.
Nothing to do with me or the book or the quality of the work. It’s just quieter than it should be.
Too bad the book wasn’t banned, I said. Then at least there’d be some press.
It wasn’t banned though. Just not recommended. And middle grade readers don’t read books that the adults in their lives don’t give them.
And so it goes.
I have another book coming out in March. No parent in prison this time — but the dad does impregnate his 23-year-old girlfriend, so . . . it might turn out that I’m little bit too real to be a mainstream middle grade author after all.
I guess we’ll see.
Bottom line: disappointment sucks. But when you’re playing a long game, which being a novelist certainly is, it’s nearly unavoidable.
Here are some things I think might help. I hope they’ll help me today, too.