Adding a Splash of Willie Loman Into Your Character by Darin Strauss:

Book writing has become more and more about sales; you need to add a splash of Willie Loman into you character.

Yesterday I spent the whole day emailing people I know; I mean everyone I could think of. All the people who are attending my upcoming high school reunion. All my Facebook friends (which includes a lot of "friends"). All the students I've had in the last few years - I teach creative writing at NYU. So, I sent out well over a thousand emails. Which feels like donkey work. It's the odd dichotomy of being an artist in America: you work, not to sound pompous about it, as seriously and as virtuously as you can, trying to swim in that part of the stream that's pure and fresh. You need to be humble, and have a seriousness of purpose -- and then you have to market yourself, which is the opposite of all that. And the truth is, most people who get into writing are not good at marketing themselves. So you feel a little sick after. But here I go again: I'll be on the Craig Ferguson show on June 17^th, and on This American Life July 11^th, and blogging about my 22-city tour all through late June and July on Newsweek. The Ferguson thing is fantastic - great show, very funny guy, and I'm truly grateful to be on there - but I'm nervous. My book is not a humor book, and so how do I be funny without betraying the book? And, more important, how do I be funny on national TV?

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Darin Strauss, More Than It Hurts You, family, drama, doctor, accident, literary, Penguin Books, books