Needle in a haystack

Thank for the bolstering, guys. This book really is a tough one. I sure chose a tricky story to tell, clever me. I don't mean to whine, but as I'm using this blog to in part describe the writer's experience, I want to make sure I'm being honest and describe the low times as well as the high.

Some people have asked me why it's so hard to get established as a new writer or to get your book out there. I thought this might be interesting to you, to put in perspective. Here is a photo of our graphic novel rapunzel's revenge on display in a booth at Comicon in NYC last month. Our beautiful baby! Out in the world for all to see!

Here is a photo of the booth where it was being displayed, along with dozens of other books from this publishing house (including American Born Chinese, which was awesome). We were very lucky to be here at all.

And here is a map of the exhibitor's hall for the con. If you can even see it on this map, look for one of the tiniest squares--that was our booth.

Now imagine the dozens and sometimes hundreds of other graphic novels, comic books, and novels on display in all those other booths. Those don't even come close to representing all the books out there, just the ones being shown at the con. You begin to get an idea of how tiny one book can be in the marketplace, how hard it is to make a noise. This is a tough business. Be under no illusions as you go forth, intrepid writers. It's tough to write a book, it's tough to publish a book, then it's tough to sell it.

Which is why those things cannot matter to us, or we'll go crazy. It all comes back to the story. Just tell the story.