I don’t have to tell you this but you and I are still in thrall to my publisher. [ORIGIN: Old English thrǣl‘ slave’, from Old Norse thræll .] The final, correct (I hope it’s correct!) draft is at the printers now—and isn’t it about time?—and I was sent a Marketing Questionnaire, which involves you and me directly, eventually, because one of my answers about how I propose to gain readership for my book was that I intend to put one of my chapters into a blog for you to read. Then I will hope for word-of-mouth promotion for it—I should say, word-of-eye. Pass it on.
Anyway, the Questionnaire took time. Now, I must wait again for a Consultant to consult with me. One of the questions (5-part) required me to list 5 influential person who might recommend my book or help shill it for me.
shill N. Amer. informal, noun: .an accomplice of a confidence trickster or swindler who poses as a genuine customer to entice or encourage others. I used to be a shill in a Reno gambling club. figurative : the agency is a shill for the nuclear power industry • a person who pretends to give an impartial endorsement of something in which they themselves have an interest. a megamillionaire who makes more money as a shill for corporate products than he does for playing basketball. verb [ no obj.] act or work as a shill. “Your husband in the crowd could shill for you.”
I have never used that word but the late, much-loved, Canadian writer, W.O. Mitchell, said it to me when he offered to shill for me. And he’s the reason I mention him now. because he is one of five influential people I know— knew—who could help me. Yeah, him and June Callwood and Pierre Berton and Jane Rule and Janet Lunn and Tiff Findlay and Robertson Davies—no, not Rob; he didn’t approve of my theatre work (I wrote a Canadian adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People he didn’t like). James Reaney didn’t like my work either; he didn’t think I was serious. (It doesn’t pay to have a sense of humour in this business. Well, it’s a difficult business to be funny about.) But my answer to the question (List five influential people who could help me) is that they’re all dead. No help.
The only influential person left that I know and she’s a super-star who might have trouble remembering me, is Margaret Atwood. Though we are both former chairs of the Writers’ Union, I have never had the temerity to call her Peggy. I will say for her that she knows me well enough to call me Bettyjane, not Betty, which I hate.
Anyway, here I am on the brink of another blog, which brings me to my folders of potential blogs, and here’s one sort of related to my Marketing Questionnaire, about blurbs.
blurb noun: a short description of a book, film, or other product written for promotional purposes. verb [ with obj. ] informal, chiefly N. Amer.: write or contribute a blurb for (a book, film, or other product). this is the first time I have blurbed a whole line of books. ORIGIN early 20th cent.: coined by Gelett Burgess, American humorist. Wikipedia.
So, of course, I looked up Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) and yes, he coined the word blurb, BUT he wrote this, which anyone my age or younger might have committed to memory at a tender age.
I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one,
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one!
(This poem is in the public domain.) Burgess tried to get over it, but it’s what he is remembered (or forgotten) for. Sigh.
So what does it matter whether I market my book? I’m certainly not going to make any money, never enough to recover what it has cost me to self-publish. Another Question: why do I want to publish this book? Answer: because I want to see it in print before I die, and there’s not that much time left.