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I Pray Hardest When I'm Being Shot At

by Kyle Garret

Giveaway ends December 04, 2011.
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The Title

While I cover this in "Pray," I don't think it's really much of a spoiler: the title of my book is a quote from my grandfather.  He said it after my grandmother finished saying grace.


The title is insane on many levels.  For one, I never believed it would actually end up as the title of the book.  I told my grandfather, as soon as he said, that I was going to make it the title, but I figured any publishing company who actually wanted to put the book out would make me change it.  I guess I figured it wasn't literary enough.

Hellgate, to their credit, never even mentioned it.  But, you have to figure any publisher willing to take a chance on such a book probably wouldn't be put off by a title, no matter how crazy.

I've gotten a lot of comments about the title, all of them positive.  I've sold copies of the book based on the title alone.  It might actually be my best marketing device.

It's also emblematic of the book itself.  My grandfather was a man of faith, so having "pray" in the title had meaning.  This wasn't a quote from a non-believer who only prayed when he needed help.  This was from someone who valued prayer.  And in his lifetime he was shot at -- a lot.

I had someone tell me they liked the title because, initially, it made them laugh, but then when they really thought it about it, it wasn't so funny anymore.  It is a funny phrase -- my entire family laughed after my grandfather said it.  But then you realize that it's a statement coming from a man who was in a position where he had to pray because he was being shot at -- and he was in that position more than once.  There's almost a surreal element to it.

It's such a genuine reflection of who Papa was that I couldn't be happier it's emblazoned across the cover of the book.  I think he would have gotten a kick out of that.

The Making of, Part 5: Almost Famous

The main complaint I got from both agents and publishers about “Pray” was that my grandfather wasn’t famous, so the book wouldn’t sell.  They said there was no market for it.

                

Since I’m at the point now where I’m actively trying to sell the book, I’ll admit that they had a point.  I think, also, there was some subtext to the rejections: a book about an unknown person by an unknown author won’t sell.  Because, really, if I was Toni Morrison writing about my grandfather, that book would probably do pretty well.

                

This is an interesting statement on the non-fiction market and, to a certain extent, the health of contemporary fiction.  Non-fiction makes up the majority of the books sold in the U.S. these days, while the Young Adult category makes up the majority of the fiction sold.  To take it a step further, the majority of non-fiction is either about or by someone famous (or infamous, as the case may be).  Our bookshelves are currently dominated by fame and fantasy.

                 

It makes sense, if you look at pop culture these days.  Reality TV dominates.  Genre shows are praised to the heavens.  Why read a fictional story about the real world when it’s entirely possible to read something similar that actually happened?  Why read about the real world when you can read about magic and vampires and aliens?  It seems like we want our stories either as true as possible or as false as possible.

                 

This presents a challenge for those of us who work in other areas.

                

The advent of self-publishing has made this even more difficult.  I’ve had book store owners assume that my book was self-published, and thus brush me off, until I name drop my publisher and our distributor.  Since “Pray” isn’t marketable by publishing standards, they assume I must have used a vanity press.  They assume that I just put together some quaint little book that only my family will ever read.

                 

Because these days everyone thinks their life is important enough to be the subject of a book.

                 

And why wouldn’t we?  Again, look at television.  Look at the people who get on reality TV.  Are they all that different than us?  Are they better?  More interesting?  And, if not, then why aren’t we on TV?  Our stories need to be told.  We’re just as important.

                 

Which is true, of course.  The people on reality television are often, in my eyes, the least interesting people I’ve ever seen.  They’re usually chosen because they can make a spectacle of themselves, not because they’re interesting.  It’s the same as talk radio hosts.  Most of them are just wind bags who rant and rave and who would actually be totally harmless if people just ignored them.

                

I suppose there’s the solution: I need a talk radio show or a reality television show.  If only I’d thought of that while I was writing the book, I could have hired a documentary film crew to follow me around.  Sadly, instead of focusing on becoming a spectacle, I focused on writing.

                 

I like to think that the latter will allow for a longer shelf life.

The Waiting Game

"I am a patient boy, I wait I wait I wait I wait..."

-Fugazi, Waiting Room

I am sure that this comes as a surprise to no one, but I'm not famous.   I'm not even well known.  My life long misanthropic tendencies have probably made it so that fewer people actually know me than, say, the average person in America. In other words, the number of people who are going to hear my name and become interested in whatever it is I'm doing is going to be pretty low.

My grandfather isn't famous, either -- not yet, at least.  This was my biggest problem when shopping "Pray" around.  Publishers and agents didn't want to invest in a book by an unknown writer about an unknown person, because that combination equals no sales.

All of this means that I have to build a reputation from the ground up, and the only way to do that is by word of mouth.  I need word of mouth and positive reviews in hopes that the audience for "Pray" grows.  And so far I feel like I'm moving in that direction.  But it's going to take time...a lot of time.

It's going to take time for those who have my book to read it, and for those who care enough after having read it to review it.  It's going to take time for people two, three, four degrees of separation away from me to discover the book, and then even more time for the aforementioned reading and reviewing.  Getting the book to professional reviewers doesn't help much, either, as they have piles and piles of books to read.

Perhaps more frustrating is the fact that this throws a wrench in going out and promoting the book, other than doing it online.  Book stores agree to have you make an appearance if they think you can bring people into the store, and right now the only people willing to go into a store for me are those who already know me, and I've tapped that well dry.

Even if doing appearances was an option, I'd still find myself in the position of trying to sell complete strangers on a book they know nothing about.  Granted, I can be pretty personable from time to time, but it's going to take more than that.

I need that one good review to come in, that one person to discover "Pray" who can spread that message far and wide.

In the meantime, I have to wait, and hope that slow and steady pays off.

(X-posted to kylegarret.com)

Home is where the heart is (and where they buy your books)

A few weeks ago, I returned to my home town of Kent, Ohio.  I moved away from Kent, initially, when I left for college almost 17 years ago (wow), but left for "good" when I moved to Atlanta in 2000.  I go back once or twice a year.

My entire family lives in Kent, more or less, and I still have very good friends there.  So when the release date was set for "Pray," it was clear that I needed to have a book release party in my home town.

Since this was going to be fairly early in my life as a self-promoter, I decided to step outside my comfort zone, and set up not just a book signing at the book store in Kent (Last Exit Books), but also a reading at the library.  That was putting myself out there an awful lot, but I figured if I couldn't do it in a town where I knew a lot of people, then I probably couldn't do it at all.

The start of the book release party.

So on Saturday, June 11th, I arrived at Last Exit with a few boxes of books in tow.  The local paper had run a feature on me that morning, so word had gotten around.  Coincidentally, there happened to be an event going on downtown, which is where the store is located, so we probably got better foot traffic than normal.

The signing only last two hours, but there was a strange kind of ebb and flow to it.  I would say that the first half an hour and the last half an hour were not unlike a ghost town, while the hour in the middle was just a constant stream of people -- most of whom I hadn't seen in probably over a decade.

Nicole and I got so caught up in things that we actually forgot to take any pictures, something of a theme for our trip.  She managed to take a few here and there, but we never got a good shot when things were really busy -- so you'll have to take my word for the adoring throngs!

That night was the release party, again in downtown, but this time in a bar, because that's how I roll.  This was for close friends and family, mostly, and went on long into the night, and into the early hours of the next morning.  While I'd been pretty focused on the signing earlier in the day, this was the first time I was able to really spend time with those closest to me to talk about the fact that I had a freaking book published!  Honestly, just typing that is still surreal.

Thankfully, I had Sunday to recover before the reading at the library on Monday.  The reading...well, the reading didn't end up being much of a reading, to be honest.  Only a few people showed up, so instead of standing at the front of a room and reading to them, we formed a circle of chairs and I took questions.  It was actually an interesting experience, which hopefully prepares me to do it again some day.  I really hadn't expected many people to show up -- after the previous events, I didn't think there was anyone left who hadn't already been to see me!  Regardless of the turn out, it was a good experience.

Anyway, it was a good trip and a nice way to start this new part of the "Pray" journey.  We'll see how it goes from here...

Book Release Party in the Bay

That's me in action. Note the liquid courage on the table next to me.

For those of you who don't know, the majority of my in-laws make their homes in Northern California.  So when I started planning book release parties in places where I actually knew people, the Bay area seemed like a good place to start.

The event itself was a great success.  Aside from selling a fair number of books, I also got some wonderful feedback from a lot of different people, absolutely none of whom are in the book.

It was a little strange, signing my name so much, and I'll admit that, after two straight weekends of such events, I've started using a go-to comment for a lot of books.  It's surprisingly hard to be witty or insightful when signing a book.

These book release parties have been a nice way to ease into this new chapter in the publishing adventure.  So far, I've mostly interacted with people I already know or people who are only a degree or two away from me.  I have common ground with most of them, so it's easier for me to engage.

The real challenge will be when I start doing this type of thing in front of complete strangers, many of whom will probably have no idea who I am, and of the few who do, some of them will no doubt think I'm a horrible writer.

Baby steps.

I'll post some bits and pieces from my trip to Kent, Ohio in the next blog entry.  That's where my side of the family lives, not to mention where I grew up.  That was actually even more of an event, as I had my first signing, another release party, and my first reading (which didn't go as you would think).  It was all "Pray," all the time!

The plan now is to head out and conquer Southern California at some point during the summer.  Living in Los Angeles means there's no shortage of book stores around here; I'm also only a few hours away from San Diego...and, now that I think about it, I have a brother-in-law-in-law (my brother's wife's brother) who just moved thee, so there's my in!

If you attended the Danville release party (and I would be willing to bet that a fair few of you reading this did), thank you.  I couldn't have done this without you.  The fact that so many of you were willing to travel so far just to celebrate the release of this book was incredible.

Writing is a solitary act, at least the writing I do is.  I spend hours and hours in a room alone and it's easy to forget that there are others behind you.  It's easy to forget that, in the end, you're not writing in a vacuum.  Regardless of who reads the work, there are going to be people who support you.  I think it's essential for anyone to succeed.  I'm not saying everyone needs a large group of people cheering them on, but even a single person offering some kind of support means a lot.

I know how lucky I am.

And hopefully  this will give me strength when the audience isn't quite as friendly!

This was my "thank you" speech. I'm not sure I really did the moment justice.

"Pray" is out today!

             After the attack on Pearl Harbor, eighteen year old Robert Stuart had a decision to make: keep working at the steel mill in Warren, Ohio, or volunteer to serve his country.  Stuart’s father had served in the first World War, and service was in his blood, so he enlisted in the Marines.

            Ann Davis had a decision of her own to make.  The girls in her high school were going to send letters to alumni who were going off to war.  She looked at the list of soldiers and saw a familiar name: Robert Stuart.

            The letters Ann sent would mark the beginning of a relationship that would span sixty years, two marriages, two children, and three wars.

            Over half a century after those first letters were sent, the Stuarts’ grandson, Kyle, began chronicling their life together.  He would discover pieces of a family history that only he dug deep enough to learn.  But in the back of his mind, one concern lingered: the story of a person’s life can only have one ending, and his grandfather’s health was deteriorating.

            “I Pray Hardest When I’m Being Shot At” is a true story of love and war.  It’s the story of three generations and two romances, one of sixty years, the other of just a few months.  “Pray” deals with one generation trying to connect with another and how it affected both of them.

"I Pray Hardest When I'm Being Shot At" is available everywhere today!