My buddy, Tom, started a Fans of Something Missing group on Facebook last week. It’s already got about forty members, even though most of them have yet to read the book. Yesterday he assigned me a title: President of the Writing and Publishing Department.
He is the President of the Shameless Promotion Department.
It’s good to have friends.
Actually, it’s been surprising to experience the excitement and investment that my friends have had in the book. Because I had about a dozen or more people reading Something Missing while I was writing it, many of their suggestions, ideas, and thoughts were eventually embedded within the text. Whether it was a specific idea for revision or just a comment or thought that altered my way of thinking about the book, each one of my readers left an indelible mark on the story and its characters. Some of them even began to speak of the main character, Martin, as a real person, and even to this day, outsiders and strangers are sometimes confused when listening to one of my friends speak about Martin as if he were included in our circle of friends.
So as I went through the process of finding an agent and selling the book, my readers came along with me, celebrating my achievements, but in a way, also celebrating their own, since they each had a hand in shaping the story to what it has now become.
Including Tom.
If you have a Facebook account, check out the group. Once the book is actually available for purchase, perhaps these much-appreciated fans will actually have something to chat about!
