Warning: this is a self promoting post.  It’s about me and my new book, COURAGE & CRAFT, Writing Your Life Into Story, about to be published by John Wiley & Sons next month.  This is the part about writing that feels – well, icky. You write a book, and if you’re very lucky (let alone have worked for years on it) the book gets published, but then you have to sell it.  If you write a really hot book, your publisher will arrange local readings for you, a book tour, and you’ll give interviews and have your picture in the paper.  We’re talking here about maybe one percent of all books published.  My book is in the other 99 percent. Since all my books have been in this category, I have a lot of experience in hustling my own books though I’m not very good at it. I once gave a reading at a bookstore in Pasadena and was so desperate for an audience that when some poor fellow sat down just to rest I refused to let him go. In another bookstore I gave a reading once in competition with a snoring dog.  (FYI: to give a successful reading send postcards to every human being you have ever met in your entire life and mention that wine and cheese will be served at the reading. It took me awhile to figure this one out.)

As for my book, shown here all dressed up in its jacket (Brooke, designer of this blog, did the photography and cover design), is available through the Wiley website, Amazon et al. But I have to warn you – Wiley has published it as a text book (because I teach at UCLA Extension), therefore it’s a very limited printing and has a text book price.  My beloved students have assured me that the price is simply the cost of a good tee shirt, but you out there, if you want to buy it be prepared for sticker shock.