Publish

Today, My Joy Journey with Amy, is available for purchase as a book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and thousands of independent bookstores across the country. Click Here to Purchase Book. In the months leading up to its release, I have struggled with the concept of promoting the book. It is a very personal account of our family’s loss and exposes the many raw emotions we processed as the months continued to tick by. I can only speak for myself, but for me time is now measured into two periods. With Amy and without. I doubt I will ever segment my life differently.

What agonized me so greatly was my fear that it might be interpreted as promoting myself as opposed to the message of joy, love, and kindness that so epitomized Amy’s life. For those that know me, I have faith you all know that not to be the case. Nonetheless, I worried that it might give that impression to those who are only acquaintances or total strangers.

I struggled for a couple of months on whether to just print a couple hundred books for our friends and family or to fully promote it in hopes that others may find strength and comfort in its message. I knew intuitively that without someone working to make the book known, its’ reach would be limited to a small circle of friends. Since the book is self-published, I surmised that any effort to expand the reach of the book would be an investment of my time as well as additional expenses I would need to bear.

In early July, my friend Joe and I commiserated over a couple of beers after business brought him out to my small piece of Milwaukee. I shared with him my trepidation. He walked me through the decision and addressed my fundamental concerns. In the end, we concluded that Amy’s life and example to the world in the face of her terminal diagnosis, was one worth sharing. Shortly after this discussion, I made the decision to go all-in on promoting the book.

Turning a bunch of disparate stories that did not adhere to any chronological order into a book was a challenge. In the end, my book designer, Becky, was able to design a cover that perfectly captured Amy’s joy and my unending love for her. The subtitle, a love story through life, loss, grief, and healing, was a collaboration that I feel captures the essence of the book. Adding the dates published and miles hiked since her passing (Joe & Jackie’s idea) sought to bind the stories together. She formatted the reflections into no less than seven different formats, all different, for the various sizes and distributors.

In early summer, I released an electronic version of the book to approximately one hundred friends and family. Becky indicated that I would need to have a group of individuals who had read the book ready to leave reviews on Amazon a few days before its’ official release on August 19^th. This would help build algorithms in the various search engines so people could find the book. Known in the industry as an Advanced Reader Team or ART, most of these individuals had downloaded and read the book by early August as I had requested.

The totality of the reflections in one place was more impactful than I anticipated. I was touched and encouraged that readers viewed it more as a love story than a diary of cancer and loss. Their reactions left me grateful and fortified my decision to keep moving forward with plans to promote the book.

As July came to a close, I belatedly learned that self-publishing a book presents unique challenges in gaining acceptance from Independent bookstores (known as Indie Stores). They are reluctant to carry self-published books due to the large quantity of them released every month. Daniel Goldin, a principal of Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, joked with me that there are more authors than readers in today’s marketplace. So, at the last minute, I decided to order a large quantity of the books to become my own distributor.

I then began mailing review copies in hopes of gaining some traction. Even then, some stores either cautioned not to mail unsolicited books or required you to fill out a form before submitting the work. Their criteria were to have it professionally edited, the print quality and format met their standards, and the book adhered to industry standard discounts. Thanks to my team, I met all of those criteria. I converted one of the bedrooms into a warehouse and shipped off more than 100 review copies to Indie stores in the Midwest.

I would like to thank everyone who encouraged and supported me in this initiative over the past year including my Advanced Reader Team. My writing continues to be cathartic and offers me a healing outlet.

It is my hope that My Joy Journey with Amy inspires all who read it to follow Amy’s example and approach life with joy, love, and hope. My friends, please choose and spread joy every day.