Today, I went over to Shakespeare and Sons in Mala Strana, a lovely, touristic area which is equally as picturesque and all as Old Town, but slightly less overrun, to put a couple of copies of my most recent book, “Wild Pigs of Fukushima” on their shelves.
I was quite pleased that they’d sold 3 copies of my other books since the last time I was in there, which I think was about March. One of Poems of Prague, which was my first one and quite possibly the most popular. Isaac Asimov once said in an interview that it bothered him when people said their favorite short story of his was “Nightfall” because it was his first one, he wrote it when he was 17, and the implication was that he hadn’t improved since then. Well, I looked it up to read it and, sure enough, I recognized it withing a paragraph or two and it’s definitely one of my favorite Asimov stories. Bummer for him. Anyhow, I know how it feels. I definitely feel that “The Meaning of Life in Easy English,” “4 Syllables on Water” or “155 Sonnets” are better work. But, I’ll take what I can get.
One of the other copies sold was 155 Sonnets. I didn’t catch what the 3rd one was. It’s a long way form the millions of copies I’d hoped to sell by now but, I must confess, I’m not promoting them very well. My business plan is just to keep churning out books and eventually, if I write something that clicks, that captures the public’s eye, there will be plenty of stuff out there that people can buy. It’s not a good business plan, but I enjoy the writing, and I don’t enjoy self-promotion, so it’s the plan for me.
Three is better than zero and I know that my words have made contact, however slight, with people in the real world. And that makes me happy. And encourages me to write more.
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