Publicity
Yes… The one word that makes even the best of us cringe…
And, of course, when I say us, I refer to writers, artists, and other such creative souls…
And we are, in general, not the most extroverted members of the society. We tend to devote all of our time and energy to our craft. Mundane terms like sales and revenue are beneath us. So this aversion does seem quite natural…
And basically, we just tend to be a special kind of crazy.
Notable among these is the case of Vincent van Gogh, who, for some reason, cut his own ear off! He later died at the age of 37, as a consequence of a failed suicide attempt. At that stage, he had only succeeded in selling one painting. He did, of course, posthumously earn the reputation of being one of the greatest painters of his time, but he had definitely been one crazy guy.
I had, however, been looking forward to this very phase of the publication process. After all, I had been preparing for it, and had already succeeded in coming up with some inspired ways to go about it.
It was, however, not long before I realised just how naive I had been… While the lull itself is tough enough to bear, watching your best efforts yield just splendidly lukewarm results can be just soul-crushing…
However, we’re not going to go down without a fight, are we?
Yes, I cannot wait for this to end, so that I can just dive into my next project, but my work here isn’t done yet, is it? Not even nearly, I would say…
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep…– Robert Frost, in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
The Writer Guy 