Geppetto Comes to Life
Geppetto Falls Off the Wagon has gone up for purchase, and I didn't even notice. April was a hard and hectic month with lots of reviewing, job applications, editorial work and, worst, the suicide of a dear friend. So somehow Geppetto's launch passed me by. Belatedly, I've notified everyone I know by email, Facebook and Twitter (sending out the emails and not clicking on the address for my late friend was awful) but so far, while a few people have congratulated me, there's been a distinct lack of shows of interest in buying the thing. A couple of people reposted my notice, which has me wondering about the social dos and donts of publicizing your own work. Would I look desperate if I posted a reminder on my Facebook page every day? Or would it look like I was bragging about a publication overmuch? Would people tell me to shut up about it?
Also wandering through my head - how do we know if anyone buys our stories, and would we want to? Perhaps the author page could include a counter of sales. But if it did, imagine the horror and sadness of logging in to check it (which I would do compulsively every few minutes) and seeing no change. Though - how could anyone resist that amazing cover art?
Anyway, while I was here I purchased copies of a bunch of other stories, ones I expect will also appear in the Forbidden Fairy Tales volume. I haven't gotten to read them yet but I'm looking forward to it.
- Errant Nights - Matthew Nadelhaft
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Comments
#1 Don't fret too much about
Don't fret too much about responses. It is sellng and will sell even more when the collection is released. Give it time. Work on more stories.
I'm sorry about your friend. I've been there, having lost several people in my life to suicide.
#2 Thanks...
... for the response. I'm looking forward to seeing the collection.
I'd never lost a friend in my own age-group before. Fingers crossed for a better May.
Matt
"The song sleeps in the machine"
- Einsturzende Neubauten
#3 Congratulations
... on the release, Matt. Writing more is good. Do you have any more on the burner?
#4 Bittersweet
So sorry to hear about your friend.
Congratulations on the release! In my experience, people are fine with being asked to buy or look at your work, especially if you are polite and grateful and don't treat them like cash machines. Feel free to enjoy having put your work out there. :)
#5 The good and the bad
Sadly, as I have found in life, good news is often accompanied by bad. My sympathies for your loss. Having gone through it too, I understand how it feels.
But we must also celebrate the things that make us smile and this is good. Our stories bravely going out there into the world, burrowing into other minds. So congratulations, and I will be having a splurge on all the yummy fics once Lon has finished with me :)
If they ever added a fic counter, I would be right there next to you, compulsively clicking, locked in despair, so mostly I pray they never do.
#6 Geppetto Tries to Stay Busy
Thanks for the congratulations and sympathies, everyone. It's always good to be part of an encouraging and sympathetic community.
I've currently got a bunch of stories out at a variety of different publications, receiving a variety of different rejections. I'm going to be reworking one story for use in FF's "Taken" anthology.
Matt
"The song sleeps in the machine"
- Einsturzende Neubauten
#7 I picked up the story
I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. Depression is a very dangerous disease, and as a culture we generally fail to take it seriously enough. That's a horrible thing to see happen to a friend.
Hey, I bought the story, but have to sleep soon. I sometimes feel the same way about worrying whether or not people are interested in my stories. But then I feel like the right people will find it, sooner or later. By putting it out there, you know you've done your part. As long as people post about things on Twitter about how they ate a sandwich or breathed air today, I feel no shame in promoting my own stories. I don't mind looking desperate.
#8 excellent advice
Ha - good point. Posting about something you've written has to be more exciting than posting about coffee, doesn't it?
Very true about the lack of seriousness with which depression and pretty much all mental illnesses are treated by most people and most cultures. When people respond to the idea of depresssion with "you just need to snap out of it/a kick in the ass/to choose to be happy" I despair.
Thanks.
Matt
"The song sleeps in the machine"
- Einsturzende Neubauten
#9 Where the news fails us
And for all the talk of homicide in the news, in most countries suicide takes more lives than murder. In the United States, suicide is listed as the third leading cause of death for people age 15 to 24. Also, at least here, it is grossly under-reported and often officially listed as accidental death. I also wonder about what I think of as passive self-destruction. That is, those who consciously or otherwise do things to destroy themselves slowly with drugs and/or recklessness. We really cannot come to terms with the reality and magnitude of the problem. We talk about everything else, but we cannot deal with the enemy waiting in the mirror. Our society hides from the problem, and I think largely because if everyone faced it, we would be forced to change the way we live and the things we value.