We're eight weeks out from Pub Day of The Long Run. The marketing campaign is heating up. The publicity campaign is on the move. I've got a signing set for the last weekend in April at my local B&N. It's happening.
I even did something this morning that I haven't done in ten years: went out for a run before dawn. Normally I'm a midday guy because I like my sleep and I like the trails. But for some reason I got up at five, got dressed in the dark and went out for a slow trot. No coffee. No reading the paper or planning my day on the yellow legal pad. Straight from bed, down the stairs, laced up the shoes and headed out the door. I even dropped down on my driveway to do 25 push ups once I was done. Call this my celebration of the Tough Guy Book Club's nine years of existence or maybe just call it celebration. Bottom line is that I'm definitely being pulled in a positive direction.
I don't know if that predawn run will happen again for another ten years, to be quite honest. But I'm loving the serendipity of it all. Consider: The Set the Pace podcast announced that the New York Road Runners Club announced this week that there are big plans for the 50th anniversary of the 1976 inaugural five boroughs marathon. That pivotal moment in the running revolution is a major moment in The Long Run. No better place to relive that long ago marathon. Hopefully, people will buy the book to read more about it.
I think what you're hearing from me is that immortal line from Dumb and Dumber:
So you're telling me there's a chance?
If you write books for a living, there's a vast awareness that dozens of other books are being published on the same day as yours. Walk into any bookstore during the writing process (I don't recommend this, by the way) and gaze at the thousands of books filling those shelves. You're left wondering how in the world anyone will find and purchase your magnum opus in that vast sea of ink and hardcovers.
I can't really take credit for the success of the Killing series. When your co-author has a nightly national television show to promote the books it's almost a slam dunk. The Taking series was well written and sold just fine but they never became the big breakout books I was hoping for. If I'm being brutally honest, the market for World War II nonfiction is much smaller than it was 35 years ago for Band of Brothers.
But I think The Long Run has a chance. It's an offbeat story. My writing is better than it's ever been. And the world has a whole bunch of runners and marathoners who like to read about their sport. So here we are, 57 days to go. Can't wait for everyone to read it. My friend Marty Smith (whose vignette about worst author signings is an all-time classic) reminds me that I once made a comment to the effect that I don't want to be on my deathbed regretting the books I didn't write. The Long Run is quite the opposite — a book that makes me so very happy that I found a way to tell this complicated and amazing story.
Do I need to say it? Share the love. Pre-order your copy today.