{"id":4497,"date":"2012-11-11T04:35:14","date_gmt":"2012-11-11T12:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/?p=4497"},"modified":"2012-11-11T14:32:03","modified_gmt":"2012-11-11T22:32:03","slug":"confessions-of-a-first-time-picture-book-writer-one-year-later-and-it-aint-all-pretty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/11\/confessions-of-a-first-time-picture-book-writer-one-year-later-and-it-aint-all-pretty\/","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of A First-Time Picture Book Writer One Year Later (and it ain’t all pretty!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eleven.Eleven.Eleven.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u201cIll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

11.11.11.\u00a0 The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. That\u2019s today.\u00a0 It was the day and time in 1918 that World War I \u2013 you know the war that was to end all wars (Right!)-ended.\u00a0 It was formerly know as Armistice Day, but was changed to Veteran\u2019s Day because it was easier to spell and WW I did not end all wars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

11\/11\/18 Wall Street, NYC<\/p><\/div>\n

11\/11\/11 last year is also the official day that Tom Hachtman and I decided would be the publication date of our book GERTRUDE and ALICE and FRITZ and TOM<\/strong>.\u00a0 We liked the way it sounded and considering all of the alliteration in the book seemed right. By the way, have heard from Tom and there is lots of post-Sandy cleanup in his home in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ.<\/p>\n

Now one year after the publishing of our book on 11\/11\/12 some thoughts about the book on its first anniversary.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

First, I am still very proud of the book and how the illustrations brought to life a simple story of two young American boys dumped, so to speak, by a well intentioned aunt in a boarding school outside of Paris run by a Rasputin-like mystic! \u00a0Some elements of Peters\u2019 memoir\u00a0BOYHOOD WITH GURDJIEFF<\/strong>\u00a0and its sequel\u00a0GURDJIEFF<\/strong>\u00a0REMEMBERED<\/strong>\u00a0contain scenes very much like the hit TV series\u00a0American Horror Story<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 take your pick season one or two!<\/p>\n

But it was GertrudeandAlice who did all they could, taking Fritz and Tom under their wings (in Gertrude’s case quite a well-padded wing and in Alice’s case, one that promised good eats for all!) to make life more pleasant for these transplanted chaps.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gurdjieff, the Institute, and Fritz at about the age he is in our book.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the most heartening comments that I received once the book came out and she had a chance to read it, came from Fritz\u2019s daughter, Katherine, who thanked me for recounting a few moments of joy in the lives of her father and uncle as much of their lives were filled with sadness and tragedy.<\/p>\n

The book has sold well, but I still have plenty of copies available for this year\u2019s Holiday giving season.<\/p>\n

There are some things I\u2019ve learned this year about the unpredictable and often fickle \u00a0world of book marketing:<\/p>\n

– \u00a0sending out review copies does not necessarily generate orders;<\/p>\n

– friends (some of them in bookstores) generate sales;<\/p>\n

– \u00a0sending out review copies to bookstores seldom results in a thank you note or email;<\/p>\n

– sending gift copies to well-known people including fellow writers, also rarely results in a \u2018thank you;\u2019<\/p>\n

– \u00a0sending gift copies to friends usually results in\u00a0 \u2018thank yous\u2019 and positive, supportive comments;<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

– \u00a0people really appreciate it if you personalize their copy of the book by writing something in it;<\/p>\n

– in addition to numerous states in the U.S. (I should do a count), there are now copies of the book in Canada, Australia, India, Germany, France, Norway, and Austria;<\/p>\n

– \u00a0amazon.com does sell books, but it certainly takes a large chunk of the profits, so order directly from me or Tom!<\/p>\n

On this Armistice Day, I vow to make peace with all of the nasties in the world of book marketing; set aside petty disappointments about how ‘thank yous’ are a remnant of an era of letter writing that now seems centuries ago; realize anew that book selling is about as tough as book writing and publishing; that real friends are to be treasured and a great sales force; and that if I had it to do it all over again, I would!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

…with pen in hand, thank you!<\/p><\/div>\n

Love and Peace!<\/p>\n

PS<\/p>\n

There will be an ad for the book in the December 5th Holiday issue of the New York Review of Books. Sorry, I slipped and gave in to the Book Establishment in this instance since they do support self-published works and the price was right! \u00a0I’ll keep you posted on this effort.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eleven.Eleven.Eleven. 11.11.11.\u00a0 The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. That\u2019s today.\u00a0 It was the day and time in 1918 that World War I \u2013 you know the war that was to end all wars (Right!)-ended.\u00a0 It was formerly know as Armistice Day, but was changed to Veteran\u2019s Day because it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[33,77,86,298,224],"class_list":["post-4497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boyhood-with-gurdjieff","tag-fritz-peters","tag-gertrude-and-alice-and-fritz-and-tom","tag-gurdjieff-remembered","tag-tom-hachtman"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4497"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4629,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4497\/revisions\/4629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}