The Rules Of Keeping Kyra Sane

I was going to write a post about Ryan Coogler’s Sinners which, at its heart, is a thrilling and beautiful tribute to the power of Black music and the way it ties us to both our ancestors and future generations.

I also considered writing about Loren Miller, the Black lawyer I feature in The Great Mann, who spoke up for Japanese citizens during WWII when most were too scared to do so, a man who also won some of the most important civil rights cases of the 20th century, a man who despite all his accomplishments secretly wished he could be a writer instead of a lawyer.

Then I thought maybe I would write about politics and how the rhetoric of American idealism holds power and promise even when we don’t live up to it and how turning away from that rhetoric presents new dangers and the prospect of a darker future.

Well I have a newsflash for you, I’m not going to write about any of that today. I can’t. I’m too distracted.

At the risk of sounding self-centered in a world that could use a little more selflessness, I am distracted by the June 10th release of The Great Mann.

These last five weeks before a book’s release are the weeks that drive author’s to madness.

There is so much to be done. Emails start rolling in, inviting you to be a guest on podcasts, on panels, maybe speak at a bookstore, prepare a presentation for this group and then another for that one, come up with book club questions, contribute an essay on this, then another one on that. And all that is actually kind of fantastic. I’m incredibly honored and genuinely delighted by all the interest The Great Mann is generating.

But I still don’t know if it will be a success. I don’t know if many will actually chose it for their book clubs. I don’t know if readers will listen to the podcasts I’m on or, if they do, if listening will be enough to send them to a bookstore.

I also know reviews are coming in. But I don’t know if they’ll be good.

Except for the one early review that’s just recently been published in the Library Journal:

Being told your work is “nearly as brilliant” as a book that is widely considered to be one of the best in American history isn’t just a rave, it’s…honestly, I don’t even know what it is. I’m still trying to gather myself or at the very least pick myself off the floor. After years of research, and writing and trying to convince gatekeepers that I, the author of sexy romances and pink covered mysteries, should even be given a chance to write a literary novel…for me, that extraordinary review is such an meaningful validation.

So is it enough to settle my nerves?

Of course not.

Because now I’m asking myself, is this a harbinger of good things to come or an anomaly? After several family members and author friends asked me if I knew where else The Great Mann might be reviewed I worked up the nerve to pose the question to my publicist at Crown. The list of critics who have the book on their radar is storied and extensive. That doesn’t mean they’re all going to review it, but they might.

Which is why I shouldn’t have asked my publicist about it. By asking I was breaking one of my rules.

These are The Rules of Keeping Kyra Sane:

1. Search for “The Great Mann” on social media once every Sunday, Monday & Thursday, but no more than that

2. Only check Goodreads once a week

3. Never, ever check Amazon rankings.

4. Only ask my publisher questions if the answer might be actionable

It would be easy, too easy, for me to plug “The Great Mann” into every social media search engine, every day, every hour, every minute to see if anyone new has posted about it. Same goes for refreshing Goodreads to see if a new reviews have been posted (in fact I’ve told my husband he’s no longer allowed to even say the words “Goodreads” in my presence let alone tell me what new reviews/ratings are up for my book). And Amazon? Amazon has always been crazy making. One minute you look at your ranking and you think you’re doomed, the next you have momentum and then the next you’re doomed again. No thank you.

As for asking my publisher questions? I definitely ask them about the merits of pursuing this or that event or podcast, I’ll ask them for advice on how to approach a particular panel or interview etc. etc.

I have not asked them what the print run is on The Great Mann. I don’t know and I don’t want to know. That’s not because I think the print run is going to be small but because I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it if it was. And if it’s a really big print run that will overwhelm me and I’ll start worrying that I won’t be able to sell enough books to prevent bookseller returns. Later, after the fact, I’ll look into these questions, but not now. Now I’m just trying to keep my head down and stay sane. Maybe if F. Scott Fitzgerald had set some How To Stay Sane rules of his own he wouldn’t have become a self-destructing alcoholic and die at the age of 44 while stressing about his Great Gatsby sales numbers.

I don’t want to be a self-destructing alcoholic.

I want to be a functioning alcoholic.

Unfortunately I don’t think I even have the skill set for that so I’ll have to settle for the occasional cocktail and a set of rules that might keep me out of a straight jacket.

Right now the one review I have for The Great Mann is amazing. And if you go to my site you’ll see that the list of author events is ever growing. Last time I checked the Goodreads response was great (I’m not linking to Goodreads because that would require seeing what’s there now and I simply can not deal with it).

In other words, many signs point to success for The Great Mann.

Are there warning signs out there too? Maybe. Probably.

But I’ll be damned if I’m going to look for them.

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