Writers Gotta Write
I am a writer.
I gotta write, so I did.
I wrote a book. The Ninth Child is my memoir. I am telling my story about adverse childhood experiences and how those events resulted in a cluster of mental illnesses. I found hope and healing and I share my entire journey in my book. It was hard work, but it was good work, and it was writing. I can do that.
Know what else is hard? Marketing. Social media. PR campaigns. Sending countless emails with my manuscript attached to a list of people who I hope will be kind enough to read it and provide me with a review, or at the very least, a short endorsement. Following up on those people because life is busy and I’m not the only one who needs something from them this week — that’s hard too.
I have this nasty little sneering voice in my head that tells me when they see my email they are going to roll their eyes and say “Oh no — there she is again, asking if I’ve read her book”. I have to ignore that mean, snide voice because it’s a liar. Well, most of the time it’s a liar. Even if it is true, it’s mean, so it doesn’t get to stay in my head. I spend way too much time duking it out with that voice. Sometime I lose, but most of the time I win.
I have to learn how to make memes. Thank God for a merciful publisher who made some for me. Here’s my favorite so far:
Please God, have mercy on this tech-challenged grey-haired lady who is winking at 60 and trying to jump start this new writing career. Send. Help.
Because this meme/marketing/promotion/please-like-my-new-book-enough-to-buy-it world is unpredictable and scary and hard to navigate sometimes, and my hair is getting greyer by the day. If only I could afford to color it.
Nope — spent all my money on the book.
But…
I have this new baby book I just birthed. She’s so pretty. She has an important story to tell. Given the chance, she can bring hope and healing to a lot of people who are still struggling with mental illness. She gives permission for the reader to tell their trauma story so hope and healing start working. That matters.
That is worth all the brain traffic that won’t let me sleep at night, the endless scribbling of ideas down on scrap paper that might work for my marketing plan, and the panic that threatens to overtake me when I wonder if I will be able to sell my first print run, and what if I don’t? Oh, but what if I do…
Check it out here — maybe you’ll like it. You’ll never know if you don’t buy it… ;-)
Lisa LeBlanc is the managing editor of Words On The Wing, blogger, and memoir writer. You can find more of her work at Words On The Wing and her blog. Her memoir, The Ninth Child, published by Siretona Creative, is scheduled to launch July 2023.
