One of the most interesting things about publishing my book so far has been reading CUSTOMER REVIEWS. For the most part, they’ve all been positive, even the ones that aren’t from friends and family who want to coddle you and make sure they don’t damage your ego. Independent reviewers have praised my book, and that makes me very happy on one level, but a bit suspicious overall.

I know my book is good. But I also know not everyone will feel that way. Where are the bad reviews?

You can't prove I didn't write this book on an old typewriter!!

Hey folks. I got a few interesting responses about my Foer post last week, but none more interesting than the e-mail I got from a friend this morning. He prefers to go by MD, and he’s quite an amazing poet, but for now, I’ll respect his wishes and keep him anonymous.

Here’s his feedback on my post, followed by my brief response to him.

I think it’s time we talk about Jonathan Safran Foer.

If you haven’t heard of him, do a quick google search and read about his books, his publishing career, and the amazingly polarized views of his status as a prominent post-modern writer. Anyone who has read his books has an opinion, and it’s likely to be a strong one. Personally, I’m a fan, but I can see how others would be put off. That’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk instead about writing as a life rather than a craft.

Just a quick one to show you a cool picture from our trip to Antelope Canyon on the Navajo reservation just outside of Page, AZ:

Antelope Canyon

It’s worth the trip if you’re ever in the area. Really beautiful, strange, a little frightening…

Hey folks, today I’d like to introduce Denise Whelan, a writer from Connecticut. She recently published a children’s book called “In The Land of Six and Seven” and it’s worth checking out. Take a look at her WEBSITE.

WRITERS UNITE

—Denise Whelan—

Writers Write, Writers Unite. This is the name I’ve been tossing around for a mini-class I’m proposing for a local group. We’ll do some creative writing, some sharing and critiquing, then talk about ways that writers can get their work published and how social media is so important to that process in today’s world. But for today, as a guest blogger, I’d like to pose a prompt, of sorts, for you to follow up on and post your own piece below.

When people find out I write books, sometimes they tell me they are trying to write one themselves. When I ask how far along they are, the most common response is a tap to the forehead. “It’s up here,” they say.

That’s not a book. That’s a thought. Books go on paper. If you’re not moving your pen across paper, you’re not writing a book, nor are you trying to do so.

I’m going to try this out for a few weeks and see how it goes. Here’s how this will work: I will publish either a full story here on the blog, or half of one. If I reach ten comments on each story, I will A) post the rest of the story if only the first part was shown; or B) post another full story.

In other words, if you like my writing, you’ll get more of it. So tell your friends to stop by and make a comment. Ten comments—of anything! Tell me you love it, tell me you hate it, tell me you just ate waffles for breakfast—gets another story posted.

Here’s the first story.

They say the key to this whole self-publishing thing is getting people to notice your book. That’s tricky, since there seems to be an endless quagmire of books out there, great ones and bad ones, and it’s not always the good writers who get noticed. So how does one get noticed?