September and Early October Front Runner Events

• September 20, Author Discussion and Presentation at the Coos Bay Public Library, 2 p.m.

• September 21, Author Talk at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, 2 p.m.

• September 27, Florence Festival of Books, Author Conversation, all day, but conversation is from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

• October 4, Legends Never Die 55k race and and expo, Ketchum, Idaho, time TBD

• October 6, Book Talk and Signing, Fleet Feet Boise, 6 to 7 p.m.

• October 7, Oldspeak, Boise, time TBD

The Riff

Hello, hi, how are ya?

September … crazy … I usually have something to say, and I’m kinda sorta comin’ up empty, the newsletter gas light flickered on, but we might have something in the reserves to reach a rest area for a fill up.

So I was on this panel for Hippocamp, great little online conference. Used to be in person, but it’s online these days. Shoutout to Donna. I was, as the featured reader. I was under the impression that I was part of the panel discussion that involved four debut authors. There was some miscommunication with the moderator. They emailed asking to provide some talking points to contribute to the conversation, but I was never asked anything of worth. I was asked about photos and how the title of my book came to be as time was running out. Only after did I realize I was, apparently, only there to read. Again, a communication error. No bigs.

I bring this up because someone on the panel said their job wasn’t to sell their book, it was to write it. I may put my Zoom hand up but nobody called on me …

This is all well and good and maybe in a perfect world your only job is to write and let other people sell. But make NO fucking mistake. Your No. 1 job is to the write the book, but jobs 2-99 are to sell the fucking thing.

It is your job to take this thing you planted, nurtured, fertilized, pruned, and harvested and bring it to market, to celebrate it. Because if you don’t, I’m here to tell you that nobody will. If you think your publisher is coming to save the day, they are not. Oh, you have a Big-5 deal so you’re all set? 100% false. You will get a press release on publisher stationery but if you expect them to bend over backwards and sell for you, nothing will happen. And who can blame them? They are working with dozens of other authors.

Now, if you’re satisfied just writing books that get no attention and that’s your jam, then fine, definitely don’t sell. But let’s not kid ourselves, every single person who writes books cares about selling the most possible copies to the most people. If you say otherwise, you are lying.

So when I hear someone — a debut author speaking largely to aspiring authors — saying it’s not their job to sell, that is malpractice.

There is a LOT of unpaid work around the work we have to do.

Take a look at those events I booked for myself, with the help of my pal Kim H. Cross for the Idaho events: There was no publicist involved. That was all us. And, with the exception of the Florence Festival of Books, I’m getting no stipend. I’ll be beating the shit out of my own car, my own time, and, in some cases, selling books by hand (big ups to Square and my phone) because, yes, it is the author’s job to sell their book. These events will cost me several hundred dollars and will likely dip into a thousand, and I don’t make any scratch. Maybe future readers and the chance to write another book.

It’s what comes with the turf: If you’re an author, you’re QB1.

Quarterbacks are obligated to meet with the media. They are essentially middle management (though one of the highest paid people in the entire org chart), and it’s part of the job. I’m sure they’d just like to quarterback and let other people do the talking, but that’s not how that works. They are the face of the organization. The author is the face of the book, while also representing the publisher as well.

I’m not saying you have to live on social media — I'm telling you right now please do not live on social media! That’s a way of seeming like you’re working. But the real work is writing columns and essays and newsletters and appearing on podcast after podcast, of celebrating other people’s work, of leaving 5-star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads for your peers whether you loved their book or not. 90% of this game is unpaid work, unpaid effort that hopefully gets you paid. But if you sit back and think your only job is to create, you’re setting yourself up for steaming pile of resentment.

It’s also a way of passing the blame if the book doesn’t do as well as you’d hoped. You can point to your PR team, or your publisher, or you favorite bookstore and say they didn’t do their job. It’s a way of not taking accountability for the success or failure of your book. If The Front Runner doesn't sell — and it isn't, not really — that's 100% my fault (Please Rate and Review!).

In a perfect world, we get to publish our books and let someone else broadcast it. But that hasn’t been the case for ages.

If someone tries to tell you that as the writer it’s not your job to sell your book, smile and nod at some of the worst advice you just heard.

As you know, this newsletter starts here and goes up to 11.

Issue 4 of Pitch Club with Cassidy Randall

Issue 4 of Pitch Club is coming … a day late! I know … Scheduling got wonky, so the next Pitch Club should arrive Sept. 2. In the meantime, please subscribe at welcometopitchclub.substack.com. Leah Sottile, my good pal, said of it, “Honestly, Brendan O’Meara is providing a full master class on being a successful freelancer for free, and we should all be playing him for it. Pitch Club is brilliant.”

The Books

1. Street Journalist: Understand & Report the News in Your Community by Lisa Loving. Community news is more important than ever, and with the rise of newsletters and the erosion of local newspapers, it’s on us to be citizen reporters. Pod TK

2. Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur by Jeff Pearlman. Jeff is a longtime sportswriter, so turning his eye to Tupac was a challenge, to say the least, on a number of levels. Pod TK

3. American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback by Seth Wickersham. Working on getting Seth to Eugene for a live podcast for this book. This brilliant book reads like a tragedy to me. I wouldn’t wish quarterbacking on anyone.

4. Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization by Tim Queeney. Eager to dig into this one. And Tim wrote a nice review of The Front Runner on his blog. Very kind of him. Pod TK.

The Other Stuff

5. The Terry Gross, the host of NPR’s Fresh Air, shares how she reads and marks up the books she features on her radio program. I do something similar. I like to be in dialogue with a text, so I write all over the pages.

6. Sometimes I write things. This for Short-Reads.org. Can we get this into Rachael Ray’s hands?

7. Thanks to CNFin’ Patreon member Peter Bryant for sharing this column on ambition by David Brooks. It gets you thinking about that tension between wanting to achieve more vs. the cost of achievement for all the wrong reasons.

8. No wasted writing.

9. If you drive around with your dogs, this seat cover is the best we’ve ever used. It’s got a hard bottom, great pockets, and you still strap them in.

10. Been going through old bookmarks in my browser and found a doozie with Henry Rollins.

11. Interviewing, listening, and note-taking, a nice little reminder from Roy Peter Clark.

That’s it, fellow, CNFer. If you want to support me or the podcast, you can leave ratings and reviews for The Front Runner on Amazon and Goodreads (still haven’t looked!). Or you can leave a rating and review for the podcast on Apple. There’s also Patreon, which can earn you face time with me to talk some things out. On Thursday, Sept. 4 at 4 p.m. PST, I’m doing the first AMA for all paid tiers. That’s patreon.com/cnfpod.

Have a great September, and say hi to your mothah for me,

b.r.o.