Song of Myself

Hey Terry--I've written a novel.

(I am presuming no other readers, since only you have the patience to check up on my increasingly rare entries).

But perhaps you, with your myriad blogs and Internet connections can spread the word. But first buy the book! It is called "Yo, Tyrania" and is available on-line at Amazon and Barnes & Nobel.
I even have a website: www.outskirtspress.com/tyrania. There you can read more about the book, and about me, and even hear my mellifluous voice read an excerpt.

There. Done. Whew. I hate trying to sell myself. But I haven't had a literary agent in a decade so it's my responsibility. And my publisher--well that's another story.

Full disclosure, "Yo, Tyrania" is self-published. I know, the reputation of self-publishing, or more dismissively "vanity press," is checkered at best. However, there are reasons I pursued this approach. It has nothing to do with the quality of the work. If you've been reading this blog at all (an obvious supposition since here you are), you know that I am a capable writer with an ample vocabulary, a broad knowledge of world facts and affairs, and the knack of assuming the proper ironic tone. All of these assets are apparent in the book.

But "Yo, Tyrania" is an unusual book to categorize. It is a mash-up of several genres, including young adult novel, fairy tale and political satire. It comes closest in approach to such classics as "Gulliver's Travels" or "Animal Farm" of "Cat's Cradle," all of which use narrative detachment and distancing of setting to score comic and satiric points about domestic culture. Of course it is not of their class, but these were my inspirations.

Its hybrid nature has made it a difficult sale to literary agents and publishers who need a more staightforward genre to market. Who is the audience? The major characters are a 30-year-old black teacher (the audience surrogate,) and a 12-year-old Queen of a backward foreign principality who's an idealist and a spoiled brat at the same time. So who would be the audience for this novel? Teenagers? Their parents? African Americans? No, I intend to reach a universal audience that can appreciate all aspects of the story, from coming-of-age to a lampooning of democratic traditions.

But of all my work I've loved this one the most, and it has been in development for over ten years, so it was time to reveal it to the world. The Internet has provided the means, through the fairly successful unit called Outskirts Press. But this route requires that I perform most of the marketing, an arena in which I am neither comfortable or familiar. So I am staggering through the world of search engines and bloggers and links, as well as the old-style book reviewers, who will help to generate some knowledge, if not interest in my work.

So far I have sold, to my knowledge, seven copies. Though it pleases me to actually see a completed novel on my desk with my name and picture (and I must say, an attractive cover), I'm less amused to discover that my novel is ranked 1,200,000 or so (literally) on Amazon's sales chart. Which reminds me, obliquely, of the line actor Edmund Gwenn used in his final breaths, "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." Or in my case, "Writing is easy. Selling is hard."