Marketing Dead and Not Dead

Cape Smokey

There I was, in Baddeck, on a sunny spring morning, sitting on a box of my books. I was watching the tourists and the non-tourists driving by, and I was thinking, “Here I am sitting on a box of unsold books. How many people have spent so much effort, for such a long time, to get the chance to sit on a box of their very own unsold books?” 
I suppose more than I could count. 

However, they were comfortable to sit on and I didn’t have to worry about my perch collapsing. There are cheap lawn chairs that aren’t as strong. Yes, my unsold books were strong and true, because they were many, and as I sat on them, I came to another conclusion, which I will also put into quotes.
“I am a decent writer, but I am not a good marketer.”

Cape Smokey

Now, the novel's title, ‘Dead and Not Dead’ did cause a stir for a little while. One reason is because some folks thought it was about my partner, who disappeared. It wasn’t. Sue liked the title. She was alive when she liked it.
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Catching Some Rays

The readers’ comments have been varied. Some readers liked the novel very much, and said they hoped I’d write a sequel. Some found it difficult getting through Part one. Some said the sexual scenes were too much for them. One woman wanted me to read one of those scenes to her. Another person, who didn’t like those parts of my book, said, “I’m a nun because I get none.” That was funny.

​Some readers found Dead and not Dead too intense to read at night. One fella said it was very difficult to read the descriptions of the characters’ residential school experiences, specially the perverted sexual molestation sections. 

Dominic and Me-Pepsi in Cup

Some have said nothing. I think that some reasons for this could be because it is different, they didn’t like it, never thought to say anything, or they didn’t read it and only bought it to be kind. That was nice of them. 

Some people, in this age of machine gun fire social media pictures, don’t find reading a book easy, if it isn’t flashing pictures and tiny kernels of shocking news clips. 

​I think a few folks, didn’t get it. That’s okay. The novel’s main point is based on something that many folks can’t intrinsically get their heads around. Hell, I don’t get lots of things. I don’t get how to market my book.

Getting His Daily Calcium

Let me tell you a story. 

An Indigenous fella was sitting next to a Non-Indigenous fella. When the Indigenous man was asked what he did, he said that he was the Chief of a community.

The other fella said, “I guess I pay your salary.”

​The Indigenous fella then gave the man a economic’s lesson. He told him about where money comes from, and that access to land is the basis of the economy that our society gets its wealth from. He went on to discuss the sad abuse of the Indigenous People, the many broken treaties and the theft of their land.

Morning Hiking Trail

A lot of my novel was about the oppression of the Indigenous People. Much of it had to do with the effects of the Residential School on these people. It was also a speculative novel in that it offered a very different solution to the theft of their land. 

​As I once commented, “Truth hurts, but it’s still truth.

Hugging a Friendly Tree

I’m proud of my book. Sure, I might’ve changed some things. I might have taken another look at Part one, but overall, the novel said what I wanted it to say. If it wasn’t liked, or read, or whatever, well I’m still proud of it. It was to some degree inspired. I won’t go into that.

It was good enough for a national organization for the blind to pick it as one of the ten books chosen last year to be published in braille. I saw the braille version. It’s about three feet high. Maybe more. The braille version is mostly accessible by computer.

Let Me Out

I have one more little story. 

​I was walking Dominic, my super dog, who is now outside hiding in his squirrel hunting blind, and I was troubled. Grief affects people in different ways. I find mornings the hardest. That’s the time when my mind is turning like a hamster running on a wheel. Maybe it’s my mind’s way of looking for existential equilibrium. This morning was not one of my better ones. Some mornings I will talk to Dominic or to Sue or to the big power that many of us suspect is everywhere or some believe is only in their church. 

I suddenly thought. “I’m going to take one of my novels and give it to the high school in Eskasoni.”

​As I said, I’m not a marketer. It’s not easy for me to push anything, and if it’s something that came from the vicinity of my soul, then it’s even harder. However, I decided I would.

Soon Won't Have tp Paint Trailer

On the way to Eskasoni I had to get gas. I stopped at a self-serve gas station on another reserve. I was about to get out and pump gas, when the security guy came over to my truck. I said, “Is this full service?”

​“No. I just felt like doing it for you.”

It was on the way to the Eskasoni Reserve that it struck me. The universe is amazing! It brought a tear or two. It was probably a coincidence that this day, a day when I decided to deliver a book to Eskasoni, that an Indigenous fella chose to pump my gas for me. However, my book came from numerous coincidences. 

​On the way, I stopped at a friend’s house, and while there, only coincidentally, an Indigenous person dropped by and bought one of my books.

Foggy Rush Hour Morning

I plan to go around the Cabot Trail on Sunday and put a few of my books in some of the establishments. A friend is going with me and she is going to try really hard to also be a marketer. That way, we may, be able to, together, be one good marketer.  

​And the irony doesn’t escape me. I will, on the Canada Day weekend, be marketing my novel, Dead and Not Dead. When I will be trying to punch through the veil and see what happens.

Taking Photo of Peace Tree