The fun part of writing a book is when you're thinking about it, learning, meeting people, doing research. The unpleasant part is the actual writing. Some people say they "like" writing. To me, that's crazy talk.
The awkward part is promo mode, right when the book is published, because every day you're walking the fine line between wanting to make sure you get your message out, and becoming a bore.
I enjoyed the fun part of preparation for my latest book over the past few years in China. The unpleasant part took much of last year, including the few months when my wife and I were back in Beijing. The promo part begins right now, and let me explain how I intend to handle the awkwardness that inevitably goes with it.
On the one hand, I don't want to convert my little part of the Atlantic's site into mainly a marketing / promotional vehicle. Also I know, from long experience, that just as people have a finite appetite for hearing about the achievements, cuteness, smartness, and success of other people's children, so too you can quickly wear about your welcome talking about your own book (movie, song, performance, startup idea, etc). But on the other hand, I'll be going to a lot of sites around the country in the next couple of weeks and would like to get out information on where and when, for anyone who might be interested.
So here's the plan: Most of what will be on this site in upcoming weeks will be "normal" material. You know -- "false equivalence," boiled frogs, TSA adventures, beer, flying cars, China Daily, re-election strategies, the bomb-Iran watch, that sort of thing. But I will also be doing book-related announcements, and I'll flag them in two ways. I'll have a standing headline of "Book News"; and I'll illustrate them with a thumbcut of the book's jacket, as in this post. So when you see those signals, you'll know what's coming -- and my goal is to have a consistently labelled source of info about tours, appearances, and related events. Also, as an inside-baseball detail, I will flag these as "Personal" posts in our system, which means that they won't show up in one of our standing channels -- International, Technology, etc.
That is all.
