By Brendan O’Meara
Become a Patron!I tend to overthink things. Like … if I start blogging, which I love, I get into my head that it needs to be on a regular day and it has to be this repeatable thing otherwise nobody’s gonna read it. That puts pressure on myself and I inevitably crash after doing it for a couple days or weeks. The exception being ye ol’ CNF Pod.1
But I do love a good Sunday reading experience. Harkens back to my childhood when my dad would unpack The Boston Globe and chuck the comics at me. This was back in the day when you could legit throw your back out picking up the Sunday paper if you didn’t lift with your legs.
All this is to say — without putting that aforementioned fucking pressure on myself — I’d love nothing more than to write a Sunday blog post, something I can link to in the Rage Against the Algorithm Newsletter, or something you can elect to bookmark (as I do with my “newsstand” in the right margin).
I tried, and failed, to do the podstack to see if people would be into a podcast-specific newsletter that had some extra spice than the usual show notes, which was basically mush. Certain things started to cannibalize each other. Like, what was the point of the show notes if you’re just putting all the best stuff in the podstack? People already get enough email. I already ask a lot of this audience: subscribe to the podcast, to the newsletter, to the Patreon. I now understand why I didn’t get an audience boost when Longform sunsetted: People were relieved of having to listen to something. There was no longer any pressure.
In any case, that’s why I killed the podstack2 and just moved all that shit over to the show notes, so now the show notes are outta control with material. But you have to visit the website. You’re not gonna get it in your inbox.
So this week was pub week. It felt more akin to a restaurant’s soft opening. There wasn’t a mad rush of media. I had one event on Wednesday that was wonderful, if sparsely attended. Maybe 25 people, sold 16 books. Not exactly the big rush you hope from a launch, but our feeling is this book will be a charcoal burn, not a flash fire.
The following day, I went over to J. Michael’s to sign and stamp all his stock.
Someone bought the book while I was there, so I even personalized it for the guy.
As of today, there haven’t been any reviews, no lists, no excerpts. I’m not sure what to make of this because it’s almost like there’s been no buzz at all. It’s one of the myriad books that publishes that nobody knows about. I didn’t expect a bunch of reviews because I’m not famous, but I sorta thought there’d be quite an outpouring in Eugene, of which there hasn’t been.
That’s a whole lot of “nos” and “nots.” And it might sound as if I’m not appreciative. Believe me, I am. I have received texts, Instagram shoutouts, and DMs from podcast listeners and friends who are excited about the book, really enjoying it. Ultimately, this book will succeed when those people who are loving it tell their friends, “Dude, you gotta read this.”
This week I’ll be heading up to Portland to do an event at Powell’s at Cedar Hills.
On Friday — the actual 50th anniversary of Steve Prefontaine’s death — I’ll be doing some TV and I think one podcast in Portland.
I’m working on trickling out one or two book events a month over the summer, thinking of this more as a summer rollout than flash flood. Then, hopefully, let word of mouth carry the day.
- Rate, review, subscribe! ↩︎
- Though something else is in the work. I can’t help myself. Sorry not sorry. ↩︎
