lane switch

This book has been like a slow train coming down the track. For a while I thought it had BESTSELLER written across the top.

The train seemed to have made its way around every bend on the way to Bestseller land, seemed to be chugging up all the steep hills.

But in the last week it's been rerouted. And now it seems more like one of those rickety old pump-cars you see in the old cartoons.

The snags?

First, the New York Times Book Review has opted not to review it. Apparently this is an especially crowded fall season, with heavy hitters like Charles Frazier throwing new books into the mix. Then I found out that the early nibbles we got from the TV talk shows have all apparently ventured off for bigger prey.

So I'm in full-on hand-to-hand-combat marketing mode. I'm sending out dozens and dozens of personally written, unique e-mails to any and all people I can think of -- bloggers, news reporters, activists.

Agent Lydia said yesterday that she always believed this would be a "grassroots book."

Well, I'm not at all scared of yardwork...

(metaphor overload, I know, but it's a blog for Godsake.)