Let’s recap, why don’t we. I do not have a history of being a very capable or enthusiastic self-promoter. I have difficulty asking people, cajoling people, insisting that people come to see my band play a show, for example, or buy our records. It’s not that I don’t think we’re worthy of their patronage, but that I feel somehow like I’m imposing on people. It’s awkward. It’s immodest. It’s uncomfortable telling people how great you are. But now I am turning over a new leaf. I am so pleased to be publishing a novel and feel perhaps more confident in myself as a fiction writer than I do in myself as a musician, I hereby vow to shout my barbaric yawp across the rooftops of the world, to impose a little, to tell people how great I am in order to get people interested in my new book, Monster Talk.
In part one of this two-part blog entry, I established three initial reasons why you, dear reader, will love my novel. I gushed about the cover, the art, the artist who created it, the lovely picture of myself on the back and the flap, the effective, succinct, and tantalizing synopsis on the other flap, and the engaging sample on the back cover of the hardback. Reader, you are too smart to believe that a cover makes a book good, but you are also wise enough to know that good cover art and compelling cover text are both important aspects of the successful marketing of a novel, that, in fact, we judge books by their covers all the time. Okay. Monster Talk has a nice cover.
I also insisted that if you love Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, you will also love this novel, as its premise comes from that beautiful and so often misrepresented English classic. And finally, I argued that whatever your predictions or preconceptions about a novel by me about a subject like this might be, you would probably be pleasantly mistaken. In other words, I think, dear reader, that you will be surprised.
So for what other reasons will you love my novel?
#4. You like smart children and like them as main characters in stories. You like novels that are respectful of the wisdom, intelligence, and perspective of young people. And you like your child-main characters to be believable. They don’t have to have magic powers; they don’t have to be wizards in training; they don’t have to be vampires–and they don’t have to be monsters.
#5. You may not be a huge science-fiction fan or a lover of what we call fantasy fiction, but you love stories in which the super-real crosses over or connects with the fantastic. You might enjoy magical realism as a genre. And why is it, exactly, that this kind of thing turns you on whereas interplanetary travel, space aliens, dwarves, elves and schools called Hogwarts leave you feeling unsatisfied? It might be, dear reader, that you read often for a higher purpose; you distrust literature that is purely escapist. And while you know that ALL fiction to some extent allows us to momentarily escape the confines of our daily lives, you have an expectation that the fiction you read reflects or illuminates some aspect of reality, some issue that is relevant, something that you recognize and can identify with. And you know that real life is often fantastic–the journey you’re taking in this life on this planet is often remarkable in the way that even a fire-breathing dragon can’t equal. So you’re totally down with the metaphoric power of magical, unnatural, supernatural elements in an otherwise realistic piece of fiction . Monster Talk is a realistic novel with a fantastic premise–and you’ll love that.
#6. You love serious fiction that makes you laugh.
#7. And finally, you love the fact that you are supporting an independent publishing venture. You understand that small press and independent publishing is often where our literature is richest, and you value the democratizing effect that new technology has made possible in the world of the word. So, for all these reasons, you will love my novel. Thank you, in advance, for your support.
And here are some quick links to on-line retail channels:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/monster-talk-michael-jarmer/1110919984?ean=9781475915969
http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000540199/Monster-Talk.aspx
michael jarmer 