Four months ago, after thirty years of hoping and trying,  I finally published my first novel, Dreaming the Marsh. This is for those who yearn to transition from Writer (unpublished) to Author (published).  A year ago, in “Happiness,”I described the early pre-publication work: joining the Authors Guild, hiring a publicist and website designer, editing the manuscript, struggling to get blurbs. https://elizabethmccullochauthor.com/happiness/

In the months that followed, Emma, my publicist, taught me how to use Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads. She arranged interviews on radio, TV, blogs, and print media – for an unknown author from a tiny press I had a lot of interviews. The website designers, Jennifer and Kat, guided my decisions in website design and patiently taught me how to maintain the site.  Unlike many publishers, Joan Leggett consulted me on every detail of cover design. I was very pleased, until suddenly I wasn’t. I panicked and decided the cover was terribly wrong. Joan was calm and soothing; I suspect every one of her authors has a gut-wrenching panic episode before the book launch. She told me I should wait to see the ARC( advance review copy), and then we could consider changing the cover if I didn’t like it. I loved it, and many people praised it without prompting. We didn’t change the cover.

Two early cover image ideas

There has been some frustration, some anxiety, but there has been so much happiness in this year.  As soon as I received the ARC, I went over to my friend’s house for a cup of tea in her garden. I handed her the book and pointed her to the dedication, which I wrote when I finished the first version, and kept secret for thirty years: “To Mary Anne Hilker, friend and first reader.”

My book launch was in September at the Matheson History Museum. My gang of friends, the Muumuus, served refreshments of homemade cookies, coffee, and lemonade. Another friend, John Polkowski, made a music mix to play before and after my talk. Sandra Lambert, my writer-friend and mentor, advised me to tell about my work as a writer, and about the book. I looked out over the audience – it filled the hall and spilled into the next room. I knew many of them, and I felt their love and support as I talked about the long years that had finally brought me to this place.

It’s Yuuuuge

Twisted Road’s Joan sells books

Aside from interviews and blog reviews and word of mouth, I planned to promote my book with presentations at retirement communities. I had contacts at two of these, and arranged to give an hour presentation with a slide show about Payne’s Prairie, which inspired the book.

The first slide

It was a lot of fun, and the audiences were large and enthusiastic. I arranged another one in Gainesville, and one in Palm Beach, and I intended to drive around Florida giving my talk. However, I am having second thoughts.

On the one hand, I enjoy it, and I’m spreading the word, which may spread further to residents’ families and friends. I’m providing entertainment, which gratifies the do-gooder in me. On the other hand, at each presentation I only sell a couple of books; few people bring their wallets, though I believe some may later buy on Kindle. My do-gooding has always been aimed at the poor rather than the prosperous, and there are no poor people in these communities. I’m still figuring this out.

I spoke at a retirement community in Sleepy Hollow, NY

Another target I’ve chosen is book clubs. My publisher gives an extreme discount to book clubs for a purchase of ten or more copies, and I’ve offered to visit in person or virtually. I have visited one book club and have five more lined up. I’ll know more when I’ve done those, but so far it’s way too much fun to forego, regardless of whether it results in sales. A small group of engaged readers who want to talk about my book – what’s not to like? And three of the coming engagements involve wine and food.

Finally, there was the presentation at the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings homestead at Cross Creek. Mary Anne is a docent there, and she introduced me to Geoff the ranger. Geoff had been wanting to bring writers to the park, since Marjorie wanted it used to nurture writers, and he arranged this as the inaugural event.

I asked Lars Andersen, a kayak and nature guide who wrote Payne’s Prairie, the source of most of my knowledge, to join me. It was a beautiful sunny day, the park volunteers had made cakes, cookies, and roselle tea, the Front Porch Backsteppers (Eli Tragash and Virginia Carr) played fiddle and guitar. Geoff, introducing me, spoke of the long history of writers reading their work when Marjorie lived there, and welcomed me into that group.  And Lars described how the ancient people of the Prairie revered the story-tellers who preserved their history, and said I was carrying on that tradition.

Lars and me

The day after Thanksgiving I went to Paynes Prairie. It was a blue-sky-fluffy-clouds afternoon, with lots of people walking the boardwalk, families visiting from out of town, awed by alligators and birds. I was leaning on the railing watching the limpkins when a family approached and the woman said, “I know you from somewhere.” We stared at each other, trying to figure it out, and then she said, “You’re the author! We heard you at Cross Creek.”

‘You’re the author.’  What lovely words to hear. Yes I am, after all these years. I hoped to get some press for being so old when my first novel was published, but nobody considered that interesting. I‘ve just read that Delia Owens is 70, and has sold 4 million of her debut novel, Where the Crawdads Sing.  Whenever I yearn to be a bestseller too, I remember what I wanted through all those years of writing and trying to be published: I wanted people to read and like my book, and they do. I wish there were more of them, and of course I’m aware that I only hear from fans – people don’t go out of their way to call me up and say, “I read your book and I didn’t like it.” But my long dream has come true, and I believe I am happier than I have ever been.