The Smallest Part of Being a Writer Is... Writing

A Literal Literary Loser Lets Loose

Writing is easy. Multiple people have been quoted as saying, “Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed.”

That’s true. And it’s also still the easiest part.

Writing is easy because, in writing, everything is still within your control. You pick the story, you pick the characters, you pick the words. Heck, you even pick the font. Now that I am 53 years old, I also pick the font size. Large.

It’s everything outside of the actual writing, the being a writer part, that’s hard… because it’s out of your control.

Finding an agent is hard, finding a publisher is hard. And, as I’ve demonstrated, constantly, losing agents and publishers is hard. Because that part is out of your control.

But, finally selling a book to a publisher is also the easy part. Compared to selling that book to readers.

My 18th novel, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region,” will be officially published on November 15, 2022.

I’ve spent the past year since its acceptance by History Through Fiction not just making the edits my editor requested - again, that’s the easy part - but wracking my brain, trying to figure out how to get the word out about it.

I’ve written guest blogs, I’ve submitted to reviewers, I’ve done interviews. I’ve generated a mailing list (let me know if you want to join!), and I’ve done book club talk after book club talk for my previous title, “The Nesting Dolls,” while also plugging the upcoming book.

But now comes the really and truly tough part: The book launch.

I am super-fortunate. The book launch for “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” will be the Kick-Off Event for United Jewish Appeal’s FSU (Former Soviet Union) 2023 season! (Come! Join us! I promise to be delightful!)

The hard part for me won’t be the public speaking.

Public speaking, I can do.

The hard part for me will be finding something to wear.

Dressing myself, I cannot do.

OK, let me amend that: Dressing myself so that my 15 year old daughter doesn’t feel compelled to cringe in horror, I cannot do.

Mostly, because I don’t care.

But remember how I said writing was the easiest part of being a writer? The hard part is selling books?

One of the hardest parts of selling books is presenting the image of a person who people want to buy books from.

And that includes how you dress.

So for my book launch, I am letting experts - namely, my mother and my daughter - dress me.

But I’m also asking you, the most important people, potential readers, to weigh in.

Please watch this video (note that my daughter is very concerned by my inability to twirl gracefully) and let me know which outfit makes you want to run out and buy a copy of “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” the moment it’s available?

We thank you in advance for your service.