Where does it end?

PJ Nunn

Where does it end? Don’t you wonder that sometimes? I’m a person of lists. I don’t really like making them, but I love crossing things off of them when the deed is done. It’s like proof – to myself at least – that I accomplished something even in the midst of chaos. I don’t make little lists, either. I don’t write things like “clean the den.” I write:

 

Clear off the coffee and end tables

Dust the lamp shades and ceiling fan

Look under the cushions on the couches

Sweep the hearth

Dust the shelves and tv/vcr

Vacuum the floor

 

I used to say I did that because my kids’ definition of “clean the den” is nowhere near the same as mine. But my kids are mostly grown and I still do it. I think sometimes it feels like I accomplished more if there are more things to cross off.

 

Remember counting the days until school was out? That’s kind of like a list to me, too. No matter how I despised Earth Science, no matter how bad I was at the hands-on homework, it was finite. There was an end. Once I’d crossed off the last assignment or the last day, whichever came first, it was over.  Never to be done again. Finito.

 

Probably that’s why, as an adult and a teacher, I preferred teaching math to English, even though I love writing and reading. English can’t be finished. There’s always another rule, always another exception. All things are relative, nothing is carved in stone. Math is math. Once you learn that formula, it will work the same way every time.

 

So how the heck did I wind up in book promotion? True, there are tons of lists. But for every item I cross off, I might add five more.  For every task I finish, there’s another (or ten) waiting for me to start. For every phone call I make, there'll always be one more call. For every package I complete, there are 85 more to finish.  When does it end? When can I go home and say, “I’m done”?

 

Even if I narrow it down to one author and one book, when can one really close the door on promotion? There are a lot of answers to that, all of them with some credibility. Some think that any promotion done after the release date of the book is too little too late. Others swear the window of opportunity closes with a bang about a month after the book comes out. Still others say maybe six months, or a year. Die-hards say you don’t stop promoting until the book goes out of print. That’s a fairly logical assumption, in my opinion.

 

But you know what I think? I think in one form or another, an author will keep promoting as long as there’s one more book and one more person who hasn’t read it. Where’s your line drawn?