Back in June, I was worried I wouldn’t get enough media attention to fund the book Kickstarter. When a hail Mary post on Facebook caught the attention of an LSJ journalist, I was ecstatic! Eric Lacy did a wonderful job bringing the details of my project and the books to life. But the real miracle was all of my friends and family who grabbed that post and shared it, over and over and over! Without that, I am certain, I wouldn’t have made it.
But it did!
Then my friend Melik made a gorgeous video, embellished with my very own photographs and he and I chatting it up. It was laid back, it was sweet, and it was really relevant. I love Melik! He’s such a talented and generous soul in this Lansing community. If you haven’t met him yet, you should! He operates Lansing Made, which hosts the 517 event each year, sells merch, and all around supports all #LoveLansing events. He is also a very talented photographer.
I was so thankful when I reached goal. The stress was gone, but I didn’t want to have the whole thing disappear from notice. I had booked a few news interviews earlier in the summer and was hoping the timing would be perfect.
I had a really nice interview with Chris Buck who not only is the Economic Development Director at Meridian Township, he also is the host of Michigan Reimagined podcast. We actually had two interviews; one in early July and one at the end of the month. He felt the story was so compelling it needed two parts!
The very next day after meeting Chris, I was invited to visit the Hatch podcast crew in East Lansing. I met three wonderful people there, and had a marvelous interview with them. I was one of three artists brought in to speak on the subject of art, entrepreneurial spitit, and how it could all work together.
In August, I had an interview with Cassidy for CADL and also Jack Robbins with LCC’s Coffee Break radio broadcast.
I joined Lansing 5:01 for a college back to school event and then began the process of delivering the books! I was really excited to get those books into readers’ hands.
By the last week of September, I had both books (100 of the memoir and 70 of the photo book) and was starting book signing events. My very first was at City Hall in downtown Lansing and then I headed over to Blue Owl in Old Town, where owner Nick Berry graciously allowed me to use his cool, new coffee house.
Annie Signs with Cedar Street Art Collective invited me to an artist mixer and I set up my little book stand with bookmarks and photos. I really enjoyed speaking to people about the book, the process, and the City Saunter project.
WILX News 10 did an amazing interview with me and put out a nice video a week later. Then at the end of October, I did an interview with my good friend Michael McCallum, who hosts The Magic Hour on Michigan Business Network. We did six roughly six minute interviews. And finally, yesterday, I found the paper version of the article M3 Group did for their Women’s Lifestyle magazine. I was listed under Local Women.
Having all these groups and people interested in my work is amazing. It really does make it seem worth all the trials and frustrations of learning how to write a book in this day and age of Indie book and self publishing. It took me almost a full year just to learn the publishing process that would work for my needs. Today, I even was able to upload my “manuscript” and create an ebook for Kindle and table on Amazon’s platform. My next step will be creating a paperback version of the memoir. I will most likely not convert the photo book, as I feel it is best represented as a hard cover photo book. Both books are available on my website, and now on Amazon.
If you’ve read the books, I would love to know what you’re thinking, how you liked it, and anything else you’d like to share.
City Saunter 