I’m going to admit that there are tons of things I don’t know. I’m not even going to begin listing them because then this paragraph would never end. One particularly topical thing I don’t know, however, is how to effectively promote myself and my wares. Part of the reason is that I have never before had any wares. Now, though, I do. I have a book! It’s (tentatively) titled Direct Translation Impossible – Tales From the Land of the Rising Sun. It’s a short (115 page – with pictures) memoir filled with (hopefully) amusing anecdotes from the 14 years I have spent studying Japanese and the 5 years I spent living in the country. It will be available for purchase on October 1st, through the Amazon Kindle Store (but you don’t need a Kindle to read it (!). More on that later).
Now that I have wares, I’m interested in learning how to promote them. As such and because trying and failing at things is perhaps what I do best, I started this blog. Feel free to laugh at any and all of the stupid things I do here.
Making a ton of money isn’t the reason I wrote and am now selling this book. If I made a ton of money writing and now selling this book, would I be unhappy? No. I would be ecstatic. But is that honestly a goal of mine? No. It (the book) is going to cost like $2.99 and I’m not anticipating selling 100,000 copies (or even 1,000 copies (or even 500 copies ( or even 250 copies ( or even 100 copies (or even … OK, I’ll stop))))).
The question then becomes, what is the reason I wrote and am now selling this book? Well, it occurs to me that there are different reasons for those two things, but a) because I wanted to, and b) because it is both easy and free to do so.
Alright, sorry, that was a little flippant. I am doing it because I want people to know what my life in Japan was like. It was amazing. It was at times hilarious, at other times challenging, at times very fulfilling, at still other times somewhat awkward and uncomfortable. It was a whole lot of things that living in America is not (for me). And it (in part) made me who I am today.
I’m assuming that almost everyone who buys this book will know or at one point have known me personally (though if the book achieves the sort of velocity necessary to escape those spheres, then things get interesting (and frightening)); if you don’t read this book, you don’t know me as well as you think you do. And that’s a shame, right?
It occurs to me that that might be a terrible sales pitch. It occurs to me that I might not be cut out for this. I hope I am, but that’s what this is all about, right?(!)(?) Making mistakes and learning from them? (?) Right?
Maybe my next book will sell better.
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