My Heart Leaked a Little Over This

I am having so much fun with this book thing.  I mean, yeah, collecting all those posts and editing them and getting Alice Bradley to sign anything and getting dumped by my agent and spending 3,487 hours at night e-mailing and editing and updating my 24-page spreadsheet and wishing and reassuring myself and crying had its wearying moments, but BOOK TOURS, those are fun.

Some people have wondered how I'm funding all this travel. And because I want to pull the curtain back on this publishing business, I will tell you! I'm spending my own money, which was given to me by Chicago Review Press under the title of "advance."  My publisher is not paying for me to do these events.  In fact! They didn't even plan them for me.  But once I planned them, they have been killer with the support.  Events sometimes go really well, sometimes don't go well, and let's face it, this is a first book.  So my husband and I talked about travel when Lisa Stone and I were discussing doing some book events to generate some publicity and sell some books, and Beloved and I agreed I should use my part of the advance to buy plane tickets.  That it would be Worth It in the grand scheme of life experiences (especially since my part of the advance was not going to buy us like a trip to Europe or anything). And then I spent approximately 1,000 more hours surfing discount travel sites and taking some of the world's worst flight times in order to get to Atlanta, Brooklyn, DC, Chicago and San Francisco.  Also, remember when I yelled at American Airlines?  They sent me a $300 flight voucher, which is getting me to San Francisco.  And I'm staying somewhere in Brooklyn that Liz is convinced will get me mugged. (Don't worry.  I'm SO FINE.) And I'm staying with friends in almost all the other cities. All in all, I've been able to fund all the travel between the small advance and the money I earn from paid blogging.  I don't know if these book events will sell so many more books, but I have found it's much easier to generate publicity for an event than just a book.  So I personally think events are worthwhile for that factor alone. People will put you on the radio!  Yay!

So I hate to burst any bubbles, and I do know other authors, even first-time authors, who have had a budget from their publisher for travel, but it doesn't always happen.  It's a personal decision how to use the advance, but I love the way I'm using mine.  I'm having a ball and creating some amazing memories for myself that I'm sure I'll be drawing on for years as I struggle through future writing projects.

This is all an extremely long intro to say the downside of all this travel is being away from my family.  The Atlanta trip was just overnight, but man, hanging out with Kristen's daughter Quinlan, who's also four, also a lover of dressing up, princesses and striking ballet poses at inopportune moments, nearly killed me.  When I got home, the little angel had somehow grown an inch overnight, and the next morning when I was taking her to school, she looked at me and said, "I'm glad you're home, Mommy. I don't like it when we're only half a family."

My mouth actually dropped open.  And my heart leaked a little bit of goo.  And then I told her we're always a whole family, even when Daddy or I goes on a business trip, and that I have to go to New York this weekend, but I'll be back on Saturday right after lunch and we'll still have Saturday and Sunday together.  I was on the verge of tears, until she hit me with her follow-up:  "Mommy, will you bring me a present from New York?"

I'm such a SUCKER.