A Day in the Life….Book Release

The first time I released a book, I took the day off from work. I decided to go for a quick run while Amazon was publishing it on Kindle. Intent on only going four miles, I stopped at the end of the run to take a call from my friend Melissa Brown. “It’s Live!” she exclaimed, “your book is live!” I quickly hung up the phone and ran in the other direction. By the time I realized how far I had gone, I was ten miles away from home.

Today’s book release felt a little different. I am calmer, more in control of what I want my day to be like. I take the same train to work, check my emails on the train, and read through the posts that have started flooding on FB and Instagram.

Still, I succeed in pretending that it’s just a normal day.

And then my friend sends me a message. “You’re number 28 and it hasn’t even started!” I break down and cry. Right on the corner of Clark and Lake Street, under the L tracks in front of the Walgreens.

I compose myself after a few seconds, stop by my Starbucks for my daily TNSCM and continue on to the office. I need to prepare for a three hour meeting with who else, but my boss, the Agency CFO. Of all days, I know. It had to be today.

And then this happens.

http://www.clothedcaption.com/creator-innovator-threat/ (Tarryn Fisher’s article about me on Clothed Caption). My phone begins to beep and vibrate and ring in the middle of our flowcharting process.

And then this:

By now, I’m glancing at the phone, tucking it under my legs and praying for this meeting to be over with. It is over in two hours.

And then, one by one, more wonderful things start to happen.

Reviews keep coming in, mostly 5 stars, posts and pages and messages of support from friends and even other authors. I am just overwhelmed by their kind words, I cry again. I laugh, I smile, I cry in the middle of meetings. People are looking at me, I nod my head. They say, “so you agree? We should do this?” And I say, “what? can you repeat what you said?”

Finally they leave me alone. My friend calls again. This time she does a play by play of who’s posting what, which groups are sharing what. Work peers come rushing in. “Look, we have it on our Kindles!” All three of them. I think to myself, “there are a three thousand of you, and only three of you have them on your kindle?”

And then I remember. I haven’t told anyone here I’m an author. Oh yeah. No wonder. Okay. I remember.

My French friends call. “Felicitations!” The one, the one who counts, says, “what do you mean you wrote to me in the back of your book?” I don’t answer. I just laugh and tell him I have to go.

My friend calls again, you know, the reporter.  She says, “do we have to keep pretending to work when we should just go home? We’re not getting anything done.” I agree with her. I pack up and go leave. Of course by this time, it is 6:00 in the evening.

At home, we have left over spaghetti for dinner. Not because the boys don’t care, but because I’m exhausted and want to get out of my extra tight jeans. I sit at the computer and begin to respond to messages. Pretty soon, I get caught up in posts, conversations and in 300 words of my new book.

I decide to call it a night. “Gosh,” I think to myself. “If only Amazon went to bed like we did.” That way I can hold on to this a little longer. Because I know that the reading world is fickle and that everyday is someone else’s release day.

But because of you, dear readers, dear authors, dear friends. Today, was MY day. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Oh, and this. As of 11:08 PM CST, we, dear reader, are still at #10.