[From the Eye of the Storm] Jon Skovron's Newsletter #19
From the Eye of the Storm #19
Here we are at last. The official launch day for Hope and Red. Well, in the US, anyway. AU and UK readers will have to wait two more days.
I've always found launch days a bit anticlimactic, since not a lot actually happens. It's mostly just that the book is no longer yours, but the world's. If they want it. There's some relief in that, but also anxiety, like the first day you send your kid off to school, albeit with significantly less crying. Your book is out there in the big bad world to be lauded, or reviled, or, worst of all, ignored. And at this point, there isn't really a whole lot you can do about it. Perhaps some guest blogs and interviews, perhaps a reading and some panels. You do whatever you can for as long as you can to help your book into the world. But these are only minor contributions, and ultimately, you must accept that the book will succeed or fail on its own terms.
Hope and Red was meant to be my passion project. Something I worked on when I needed to take a break from the Young Adult books that were supposedly going to get the big advances and allow me to finally quit the day job and fulfill a decades long dream of being a full time writer. The prevailing wisdom was that people didn't really make much money on fantasy for "grown ups". My agent was tremendously supportive of this project, as were friends and colleagues. One friend bluntly told me, "This is the book you were meant to write". But everyone pretty much agreed, including me, that this bizarre pirate kung fu gangster mash-up would be my passion project, and I'd write other things for money.
Funny how things work out.
I'm thinking this now because just like I had no idea how well Hope and Red would be received by the industry, I have no idea how it will be received by the public. And while I feel a lot of trepidation and anxiety and self-doubt, I also have actual hope that it might do well. That's not something I admit to lightly. They're calling this book a debut because it's a different market, but I'm not some starry-eyed rookie. I've been digging in the ditches a while, as Mur Lafferty would say. With four books under your belt, about the only thing you've really earned is some stoicism. "Well, we'll see how this one does," you say with a steely eye and a hard set to your mouth. Then if it doesn't do so well, you've already sort of hedged your bets and it doesn't sting quite so bad.
But I'm saying to you, my dear newsletter readers, that I really think this one might have legs. It might reach people. Maybe not in the first day or first week or even in the first month. Maybe I won't even see a ripple for the first year. But perhaps this book--my passion project--will make a real impact.
Whatever happens, I want to thank all of you for accompanying me on the journey so far, and I hope you'll all stick around to see what comes next.
Now I need to make sure the boys practice their instruments, and then get ready so we can drive down to Arlington, where I'll be reading from Hope and Red at One More Page Books tonight. Looking forward to seeing a few of you there!