By Barbara Falconer Newhall
The San Francisco chapter of the Women’s National Book Association has published a very nice interview with me in their spring newsletter. It lays out my latest thoughts on writing, publishing and promoting a book — including how I might just maybe promote “Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith” a little differently if I were just starting out today.
This is an interesting organization, btw. Very lively. It’s got a pitch fest coming up on March 25 in San Francisco, for example. Also a Women, Wine and Books Mixer in SF on March 16.
I don’t know about you, but one of the things I enjoy most about the writing life is talking to other writers about writing — especially the craft of it. So, if you are looking for fellow writers in the Bay Are, maybe you’d like to join . . . .
Sure wish I lived in your area — it sounds like a wonderful organization. (Nice interview, too!) Like you, I’ve been a newspaper columnist for many years, but writing, publishing, and promoting a book is an entirely different universe. It’s very rewarding — but a lot of work. When my column collection came out in 2005, I worked very hard to promote it and keep sales going. I really enjoyed the process, though.
Cindy, As you know, the great thing about writing for newspapers is, they have a diverse readership — more so than, say, a magazine like Good Housekeeping or Vogue or books like ours. Magazines and books typically have a niche readership so you have to write to and then find that readership. Writing for a newspaper for me was wonderful, because I could investigate and write about any topic that caught my attention — and somebody in our circulation area would find it interesting. Also, of course, it was up to the marketing and advertising departments of our newspaper to sell those newspaper. All we had to do was write, write, write. I sorely miss that luxury.