To Hop Or Not To Hop by Mariam Kobras

“And we’ll have to do a blog hop.”

Sinister words, delivered over lunch at a Jersey City café.

I look around.

The place is nice. Light, clean, not too crowded, and they have free wifi. The food is good, too. In fact, the salad dressing is fabulous. Everything about that lunch has been fabulous so far, but now that dreadful phrase has been spoken: BLOG HOP.

My publisher looks at me over the rim of her glasses – she has a way of doing that; it’s the kind of glance that makes you sit up straight and think really hard before you reply.

“Must I?” My question comes out a little querulously, and I sound like a school kid.

A young one, too.

She thinks for about half a second, and then, with a short and very decisive nod, replies, “Yes.”

I think there’s an instant when she actually considers letting me get away, but it’s no more than that, an instant.

Blog Hop.

Blog hop, which means writing, and a lot of writing, but not really what I want to be writing.

Blog hop, which comes in the way of my routine, and at a time when I should be digging  into the new novel since I just got signed for it and have a deadline!

But, no, she states, the blog hop is important, it’s a way to get the word “out there”, and it has to be done. People want to know how I wrote the book, and why, and what made me write it in the first place.

That’s where I start to grumble.

Not even the cheesecake they serve us for dessert is enough to lighten my mood.

Carefully, kindly, she asks what the problem is.

“I don’t want to write about writing,” I say, and poke into the crust of the cake, “I don’t want to think about it.”

She waits, politely, patiently.

“Maybe, if I think about it, the magic will go away, and I won’t be able to write anymore at all. So, I don’t want to think about it, or write about it.”

Grumble.

“Ah.” She puts down her spoon. “I understand.”

“Because, you see...” The cheesecake is good, but not the best I’ve ever eaten. “I don’t know how the writing works. It just happens. I start in the beginning, and when the story is finished, I stop. Now if I start thinking about it, and even write it down, then what will happen? I’ll start second-guessing myself, and then maybe I’ll never write a book again.”

“Silly. You are silly. That won’t happen.”

Really?

Now, eight months later, the book is published, and the blog hop is over.

We did it.

My original querulousness about it has vanished, too. It was a great thing, and a lovely experience. Granted, I had to be kicked into doing it, and at times actually dragged to writing by my hair, but I’ve learned some very cool things about myself and the world in general.

Lesson One: my publisher is always right. This may not be a general rule, and certainly not apply to all publishers, but it works for mine. I’ve learned to trust her. She knows me so well by now, she can tell what will work and what not. We are a great team.

Lesson Two: It’s okay to write about writing, even if I think I have no idea how it works.

Because, you see, I DO know how it works. Only I’m one of the few very, very lucky writers who don’t have to waste time thinking about it, it’s like a natural process for me. Which doesn’t mean I can’t say so.

Lesson Three: It’s never too late to learn. Thing is, I wasn’t balking at the additional work the blog hop would bring, but... at the additional work. That doesn’t make sense, does it? Yes, it does. I was afraid to step out of the novel writing, afraid the door would close behind me and I’d never find my way back into it. Well, I did. The door never closed. Which is proof to me that yes, I am indeed a writer, I can put away a WIP for a couple of weeks and slip back into it. Easily, too.

Lesson Four: I have many friends. There are a lot of people who love my writing enough to promote it on their blog, who help spread the word. I’ve found new friends, too, other authors, who celebrated with me, and I’ve met reviewers, book bloggers, avid readers who wanted me to write about my story.

It was cool to see people comment on my guest posts, strange people, and not only friends. People who knew NOTHING about me, who had no reason to be friendly or show interest, and yet they did.

So yes, the Blog Hop helped spread the word. It helped tell the world there’s a new author, with a new book, and please go, buy and read it.

But it also brought home to me that this is real. It’s not just a game my publisher and I play, it is a real book launch, and a serious business. “The Distant Shore” is out there, for better or worse. It’s no longer my book, it belongs to the world now.

So far, the world has been kind to it. All the reviews were more than kind, even glowing.

They carry me.

And they teach me one more lesson: I’m an author.