I write this on Thursday morning of my “launch week,” so I can’t report with total confidence that I made it through without losing my mind. After all, I still have to get through my first book signing event and launch party this afternoon and evening. But I can tell you about some of the intense moments so far, and I can report, that I am still standing!
We write our books for lots of different reasons, but for me – and I’d wager that for lots of authors – it’s not so much a choice as a calling, a compulsion, something we feel we just had to do. Okay so you write the book and if you’re extremely lucky, you might even get it published. And then we live happily ever after … the end. Because most of us don’t ever think about what happens next. How could we, since that’s a road we’ve never been on?
So here’s what happens (or at least what happened for me): people love your book and they tell you that and you feel so incredibly validated! And some people don’t like your book and they tell you that – often in ways that aren’t helpful – and you feel awful. Hopefully, more people like it than don’t like it and you feel good far more often then you feel awful. But you learn that people can sometimes be hurtful and you wonder what purpose that serves. You vow to grow a thicker skin, to not read your reviews and to be more careful about being critical of other writers. And you learn that there is an enormous pool of readers out there who adore books and authors and who are incredibly generous in their praise and in sharing their blog space and in spreading the word about your book. And though you’ve never met any of these people in person, you think of all of them as your new BFFs and you want to invite them over for a giant Margarita-fest!
You fall back often on the incredibly soft and supportive hammock of a group called The Debutante Ball and you wonder how you ever got so lucky as to be part of a strong, resilient sisterhood of debut authors. And you know your journey through launch week would have been hell without their support and their kind, kind words.
You talk to radio interviewers and you worry about your voice and you worry about them being mean. But they are kind and friendly and enthusiastic and one of them (a kind of famous one at that!) tells you that your hoarse voice sounds sexy and suddenly you feel like you CAN do this!
You drink a lot of champagne (you realize with glee that champagne can be purchased in six-packs!) and feel slightly tipsy even when you haven’t drunk any champagne. You get phone calls and cards and sometimes even flowers from dear, dear family and friends. And they love the book (or at least they say they do) and they are happy for you and proud of you and ask when you will be on the Oprah Winfrey show and you realize for the umpteenth time how incredibly lucky you are – book or no book.
You get reports of book sightings from excited friends. You walk by your local bookstore a zillion times a day just for the thrill of seeing your book in their window and they all smile at you each and every time you walk in for no apparent reason (just as cheerful and happy to see you the fifteenth time that day as they were the first time) and you are grateful once again for local bookstores. You non-chalantly mosey down to the big box bookstore in the mall and find your book prominently displayed on their shelves and you get giddy. They ask you to sign their stock and you get giddier still!
You recant on your earlier vow NOT to read reviews although you try to read only the nice ones. You are moved to tears (still!) when you realize through what your readers have written that they GOT your book. That yes, they laughed and enjoyed the story, but that more than that, they came away with a feeling of connection to people in places so far away from their everyday lives that they might never have known them otherwise. And you feel, with certainty, that you have made a teeny, tiny contribution to making the world a better place by bringing it closer together.
And now you finally know why you were compelled to write this book.
~Deb Eve
Great post — very heartfelt. I just started this book last night and I must say I am hooked. I love your writing style and humor and can’t wait to read more today. Congrats!
This book is going to find it’s way into so many people’s hearts.
I want to get invited over for the margarita fest okay?
Oh, Eve, congratulations! Count me as another one who would be positively LOST without my sister Debs!
Congrats, Eve–and enjoy the ride. And if you were here (or I were there) I’d offer up this toast . . . Here’s to Eve, a published author. No matter what else happens, no one can ever take that away from you!
A nice snapshot of the emotions of debut week. Congratulations! Best of luck to you!
Thanks all. It has been an amazing ride this week! Tiffany, I know you know what I’m talking about! And Katie – get ready!!!
Last night was my launch event and I am still floating! It was amazing and I truly felt like a rock star!
Julie, I hope you continue to enjoy the book! And Judy … that’s exactly what my grandmother used to say about getting your education (no one can ever take that away from you) and I think she might also say it about being published if she were here to share this joy with me.
Eileen – you are soooo invited to the Margarita-fest!
Eileen aptly said: “This book is going to find it’s way into so many people’s hearts.” And that’s SO true, Eve, because it was written with all your heart…and what you did for love! 😉
“and feel slightly tipsy even when you haven’t drunk any champagne…” I’ve felt like this since my book sold, actually!
You ARE a rock star, Eve. Congratulations! Live it up!
Congrats on a wonderful launch week! It’s so exciting to see your book finally get out to readers everywhere, and I just know it’s going to be a great success.
What a lovely, honest and heartfelt description of your launch. One thing I forgot to mention in my praise of FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MALARIA is the vintage movie-poster/Fay-Wrayish flavor of the book jacket. Did I get that right?
OK, Debs…I know you were waiting for me…weren’t you???
After a good nights sleep, I am still on a “high” from attending my daughter’s book launch at the World Eye in Greenfield, which is 5 states away from me. Yeah, a mother would travel that far for a child…in case you were wondering.
After reading Eve’s (Evie to me) post, I think I too was in some kind of daze at all the hoopla (deservedly might I add)…because it seemed so unreal that this idea actually became a reality. Does this happen often…I don’t know. But it was fantasmagorical.
OK, so here’s the funny part…Eve did not have a book for ME!!! “Oh, ma, they are all gone, I will mail you one…!” “I am not going back to my office without a book, I don’t care where you get it!!!” So St. John had to run over to Barnes and Noble and purchase one of the last 3 they had…full price…so Eve could personally sign a book for me to show off to my “peeps”. But I did get 3 dozen book marks and a lovely necklace without pouting.
Anyhow…how does a mother answer…”You must be very proud of her?” over and over again? Of course. But this I can answer without hesitation…”Did you know Eve would publish a book one day?” “You betcha’!!!” I always knew Eve was a special talent, would be first in everything…I named her EVE, didn’t I? And wasn’t she the first?