Launch Day!
Launch Day!
The Life of an Unknown Author: An Anthology on Writing and Publishing from Some of the Best Authors You Haven't Yet Read
Her face was huge. Giant. Massive. I don’t know if you’re quite getting the picture — her bright, unnaturally-white teeth took up an entire window, her faultless coiffure was sprayed to such inconceivable heights it had to wrap over onto the roof, and her brilliantly-blue eyes that perfectly coordinated with the well-chosen suit were as big as my head.
This well-known author whose name, I will not tarnish by mentioning, arrived at the very gates of the National Booksellers Convention in a 45-foot Class-A motorhome with her image plastered across the side. Larger. Than. Life.
As she alighted, there may or may not have been a cloud of rock star fog pulsing around her before she was quickly surrounded by a phalanx of payrolled-personnel ushering her through an admiring crowd that parted like the Red Sea before her glittering presence. I’m not sure how long she graced the hoi polloi who sold her books with her exalted self, I had my own job to do.
You see I, in a difference, minor enough to be negligible, arrived at the back door of the National Booksellers Convention in a beaten-up Class-C RV named Bertha that I’d barely managed to nurse up the road as white smoke barreled out the backside from a busted transmission. I’d left Bertha in a distant parking lot with other members of the unwashed masses too broke to afford a conference-affiliated hotel. And even though I turned on the generator to run the air conditioner for an hour to pre-cool myself and my staff (cat) from the sauna masquerading as summer in Atlanta, by the time I’d hoofed it 20 minutes to the conference center fighting my slightly off-kilter wheely bag full of books to hand out, I was drenched. My poorly-chosen t-shirt was wet, my Supercuts hair stuck haphazardly to my forehead, and I don’t think anyone even held the door for me, let alone paved the way with rose petals, asked for my autograph, or invited me on a national press junket.
That, my friends, was one of the many differences between being a known and an unknown author twenty years ago — the entrances…
That’s right, I’m gonna ruthlessly leave you hanging right there. If you want to read the rest of my essay, Being an Unknown So-And-So, you’ll have to buy our book which launches today! 😁
But it’s not just my essay that might interest you — fourteen other unknown authors contributed a piece around the topic of being unknown. Some write about why they continue when their mother is their only fan, some about the tension of wanting to be authentic without dancing on Tiktok for views, and the themes of waiting and passion and keeping hope alive thread throughout most of them.
Today is the day we at The Unknown Authors Club have been working toward for a year. It’s just a first step in our growing plans and dreams, but it’s a big one!
We’d love to have you join us in celebrating this milestone, and so appreciate your support of our book and our mission to highlight great writers with little to no platform (somewhat like myself 😜)!
To help us, simply:
Purchase the book (maybe even TODAY). You can find out more information and purchase here.
Write a review on Amazon. A positive review is one of the main ways to help other people find out about our book.
Share on social media. Take a picture of the book and share it on your social media with a link to the Amazon page. Be sure to tag us @theunknownauthorsclub so we can reshare your post!
Email your friends and family. If you have friends or family who you think would enjoy the book, please let them know! Simply email them about the book with a link to our book launch page.
Thank you for your continuing interest in and support of my writing. It is very meaningful to me.
jodi
