Blog No. 175
Clearly since this is my 175th post, the 200 doesn’t refer to this blog. That said, 175 posts is not bad (and rather close to that other wonderful number). As should be clear by now (given the topic of my last bunch of blogs) in January No Light Tomorrow was release. It is my first book and Christian’s second. It was a lot of hard work and took a super long time to make. We’ve been promoting it like crazy, starting with the launch, hitting some comic-cons, signing at some signings, and we have a bunch more on the way. So far, as of this week, we have currently sold over 200 books. Considering we started with an initial run of 500 (and we’ve given away a few to family, etc) that’s a heck of a start for three months.
There is a problem on the horizon though. Every artist faces it. Even with all the support we’ve received (and it’s been tremendous, thank you) and the reviews and articles, everyone ends up in a saturated market eventually. Luckily some of our upcoming events are out of town, and we have plans to continue spreading like the literary virus that we are. Plus, 200 books is a fraction of the local population, so we have some time before everyone is sick of us pushing No Light.
Speaking of upcoming events, we have three in April that I’m going to tell you about (or remind you) now. On April 8th and 9th, we (Christian and I) are joining travel and crime/mystery author Ed Gagon at his booth at the Fogolar Flea Market. The event is Friday Night and Saturday day. Our books, along with Ed’s will be available, and I’m sure a bunch of other stuff at the Market. The Facebook event info is here: (facebook.com/events/1648472182072900). I have no idea what to expect, but I’ve heard a few good things. If you haven’t gotten a book from us yet, that’s a good chance to do it and get both our signatures.
On April 16th, we will be at Phog again for a reading. This time we are bringing a few more authors and making it a night of poetry and prose. It’s titled Shadows of Thought (because we needed a title and it sounded cool). More information is on Facebook (facebook.com/events/341631315960602). Tell your friends and the major media outlets. Our last Phog event was amazing, and we expect this one to be as well. The location is great and while we don’t have a musician this time, we do have some wonderful and established writers who are known for their readings. I’m going to have to step up my game just to keep from being blown out of the water.
Finally, we have been invited to take part in another reading, this time in Essex at the super cool and historic train station. There isn’t an event page set up for this one yet, but it’ll be coming soon. It’s going to be on April 23rd from 2-4 and will be featuring Christian and myself alongside a very talented writer, director, and actor, Joey Ouellette (of Purple Theater). I’m excited to read with him and see what kind of secrets I can steal to use for myself. Plus the town and the station specifically are super cool.
As a cure for the saturation issue, I am still working on my next book. I’m breathing down the neck of the half way point and still expect it to be released in the summer. (That is, if I can get the funds together to get copies printed). I may do an update for that next week (if I’ve gotten anything worthwhile done). Until then, I’m looking forward to seeing all of you at one or more of this month’s events. Otherwise you’ll break my heart and make me cry.
Ben Van Dongen 