Wish Me Luck!

I'm in Miami now, visiting my son, on the way up to New York tomorrow to speak at the Jewish Book Council on Monday afternoon. The objective will be to get as many of the coordinators of the Jewish Book Fair coordinators as possible to invite me to their cities to speak and sell books. I've also sent out  requests to a few authors to read and provide blurbs for the rear book jacket. But it turns out, and I never would have guessed it, that some agents tell their authors not to give any more quotes if they've already provided a certain number of blurbs. In fact, I got a lovely email to that effect from Gary Shteyngart (The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan -- worth reading), and David Benioff's (City of Thieves -- also great) lawyer declined on his behalf because he's busy working on an upcoming HBO series. I have 2 other letters out to authors I respect who write 'Jewish' fiction, and have sent the book out to four publications that might review it. At least, though, I have a commitment from Elie Wiesel to provide a blurb for jacket, but I'm hoping to have a few others. I've also contacted the owners of a few independent bookstores in NY and Miami, whom I hope will read the book and consider carrying it in their stores. So this stage is, surprisingly, a little more difficult than I had expected, but I'm positive that when people read The Accidental Anarchist, they'll love it.

So wish me luck next week, and I'll update the blog afterwards.