J. K. Rowling and ME!

 

 North Woods Journal

 

I’m blaming it on the pandemic. My wife would probably argue with that, but I’m sticking with that rationale since I can’t muster any other argument as to why a perfectly sane man would spend so many hours in writing a new book. The writing is not the only challenge; the publication of my literary work is also problematic. Let me give you the details in the faint hope that you may be interested.

In the early spring of this year when I, like most, had virtually no knowledge of the corona virus and even less information about Covid 19, I was surprised when our Michigan governor had the knowledge and wisdom to order me not to do the things I most enjoy: Eating out, visiting with friends and family, playing games and exercising at our local gym. “What am I to do?’ I whispered to myself since there was no possibility of me increasing my share of the housework or taking on some other responsibility for which I am not suited.

Since writing is a solitary activity, it dawned on me that I could devote my suddenly endowed cascade of free time toward writing a new book. It wasn’t like an epiphany, rather a creeping realization that simply stroking keys on my beloved keyboard with no end game wasn’t particularly useful. Slowly, painfully, I came to the realization that I needed to put some goal in place to justify all my hours in my favorite easy chair with my laptop perched on my expanding lap. So I did. Decide to write a new book, that is.

Almost immediately, a question loomed large in my psyche – what is my intended audience and will they like a new book from me? The answer to these questions has never been totally revealed to me, but I decided to forge ahead using the pattern of J. K. Rowling and other successful authors, to wit, I would base my new book on an earlier literary work that has enjoyed a measure of success. In my case, that means at least one person told me they liked an earlier book of mine. Besides, I reasoned, the commercial success of a book has little to do with its quality, rather it is a measure of the notoriety of the author.

For some reason, the world’s best-selling author J. K. Rowling (author of the Harry Potter series) decided to publish a new book with a pen name that was unknown to most readers. She convinced the publisher not to divulge the name of the real author at her new book’s release and initial offering. The book was a success by some measures, winning praise from critics after it became widely available. The new release sales were typical for unknown or little-known authors. It sold slightly more than 1,500 copies after its release and promotion, a volume that would produce a yawn for most publishers and would yield similar reactions by most successful authors when royalty results were calculated. The new book was ranked number 4,709 on Amazon’s bestsellers listing.

And then the secret was revealed. It became known that J. K. Rowling was the secret author behind the pen name. Suddenly, buyers everywhere were demanding copies of the new book and they wanted it today, or at least before any of their friends. There was an immediate sales bonanza, and the publisher was unable to keep up with the sudden demand. The book set a new record with a 156,866% increase in sales over just one day. The book rapidly moved from its secure spot of 4,709 to the top of the sales charts! Nothing about the book had changed in that one day except that the author’s identity was revealed.

I believe Ms. Rowling could re-write day-old news from a daily newspaper and set new sales records.

Following J. K. Rowling’s example, my new book is a follow -on to a 2013 book that I titled “Letters From Roscommon”. I recall that one afternoon early in the pandemic as I was thinking how Rowling used the name Harry Potter to identify each of her subsequent books in a series, a brilliant idea came to me. My new book title is “More Letters From Roscommon.”

Publication of a book is a difficult task. Mainstream publishers want only established authors who have a solid sales record before they are willing to offer their services. Some years ago, I read a book that explained a new technology at that time called Print-On-Demand (POD). This technology used the latest printing technology to print books at low cost because virtually all of the work was done automatically at the direction of computers. I tried it and after prodigious effort on my part, their computers and mine were finally able to work together and the result was a paperback book attributed to me.

The company responsible for that miracle of my first book was a small tech firm known as Create Space. Their success and profitability did not go unnoticed such that by the time of one of my later books, the firm had been sold to another larger company. Of course, the new company just had to put their stamp on the little firm which they did by way of new software. I had to face a new learning curve before I could manage to produce another book. By the time I got to “More Letters From Roscommon” a 3^rd iteration of the book software was required. For this work I got to know the Help Desk engineers by their first names. But I persisted and so, finally, the book is now available without me printing each page and sending it you.

I am not sure exactly how Amazon got involved in making/selling my books, but I think it had something to do with Jeff Bezos’ divorce and his subsequent need for more cash to pay his bills. All I know is that the first POD company, Create Space, suddenly became Amazon/Create Space and that name keeps popping up on my computer whenever I want to stare at one of my old books that are for sale on their site. Whatever the facts are, I’m sticking with my story that it is a consequence of the corona virus pandemic.

Stay safe.