My title character of my novel, “Whizzer” McCall, is finding the sales of my book to be as slow as his years-long pursuit of the largest lottery prize in history was. But, as he says on the cover of “Whizzer Wins It All,” “But It Wasn’t Easy, Folks.”
But he eventually got there. And so will my novel, available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and, I’m told, in a number of book stores around the world.
I knew that my retirement laziness had held up publication of the book for five years after I’d completed it. But as I’d never had a book published before, I guess I figured it would go flying off the shelves and make the New York Times 10 Best Sellers list in no time at all.
HA! As you’ll no doubt guess if you’ve read this far, I was badly mistaken about that. I suppose I could have spent hundreds more dollars than I already had, to advertise the book here, there and yonder (can you say book signings, radio interviews, ads in magazines, etc.?) But I decided, “Why do that? Just to stroke my ego?” And there’s no guarantee that, after my spending a bunch of more money, it would result in a huge rush of people to buy my book, who hadn’t bought it before.
After all, I paid to have it published more for the publicity that I hoped it would give me, than to — supposedly — make a bunch of money from it.
But I will say this, good friends: If you buy a copy, my royalty for it will be $2.15. Not much. But, I will be SO happy to know that my book, and, hopefully, my name, will have spread further and further around the world, with every new copy that’s sold. Maybe that’s why I’ve been a writer, ever since I learned to read, and write, down in grade school. I love that recognition that a person gets when they’re written something, with their name at the top, and people read it and say, “Hey, man, that was a good novel!” Or short story. Or series of news stories about a murder trial. Or an exciting sports story about your favorite high school’s basketball team.
I’ve written them all, folks, in lo these many years. And many other kinds. And I hope that God will let me continue for at least a while longer. So, if you’re interested, why don’t you buy a copy of “Whizzer Wins It All”? It sure won’t make me rich; but I doubt if $13.95 will break you, either.
Who knows? You might really enjoy ole Whizzer.
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