My new favorite analogy

courtesy of Laurie King, talking about book promotion:

The funny thing is, nobody really knows what works when it comes to selling a book. Because everything publicity-wise is done simultaneously with publication, when they do a NY Times ad or a New Yorker crossword puzzle or a country-wide flying banner, there’s no discernible bump in the numbers to show the result of that particular action. Who knows, the book might have sold just as well without the extra event?

In the end, after sixteen books, twelve years of being published, and thirteen book tours, I’ve decided that promoting a book is a bit like parenting: The main thing is showing up. (ed. bolding mine.) In parenting, the idea of “quality time” is a delusion of busy adults, who imagine that there is any short cut around the quantity of time it takes to raise a kid. In publishing, writers like to imagine that there’s a short cut around the well-worn path to establishing a writer, if only they can find it, or their publisher would let them in on it.

An earlier installment of her thoughts on the subject appears here.