Rejection

My upcoming memoir, 99% True, is finally getting to the point of release. According to my publisher, the launch date is now set for Tuesday, June 4th. And in the meantime, I have been learning about modern book publishing and its inner workings. How different than in the past. Would be authors once approached publishers with their manuscripts in the hopes of getting published. Some were able to afford literary agents that would personally approach publishers for a better shot at getting noticed but for the most part, going from manuscript to printing and distributing a book was an exercise in gathering rejection letters. In one of the more famous rejections, J.R.R. Tolkien received the following letter from Random House publishing: Things are different today. Instead of pitching one's work to a publisher who would then print the work and put it on the shelves of booksellers, the world of books has moved to authors doing the work to get it on Amazon. Hardcovers, softcovers, E-books, and audiobooks are mostly bought online through this 600-pound gorilla. And this is what I have been learning about, how to get noticed and feed the gorilla without getting my fingers nibbled off. I'll explain what all that means (and what you can do to help if you're interested) tomorrow.