(A note: Norman Mailer once wrote a book titled Advertisements For Myself. Self-promotion doesn't come easily to me--I lack Mailer's ego--but below is an advertisement not for myself, but for my books. My self and my books are linked, but like so many writers, my books are better creatures than I in various ways. At any rate, if I don't promote the poor things, then who will?)
Self-publishing one book is an act of ego. Self-publishing four books in three years might be regarded in some quarters as the act of an egomaniac.
Just call me Mr. E.
Once upon a time, when life seemed a marketplace of possibilities, I secured an agent in New York who trotted my writing round to various publishers. In those days, I dreamed of one day passing a bookshop in a city strange to me and seeing my latest novel stacked for sale in a shining window. Only later would I realize just how far I had yet to go on my journey as a writer.
In my late thirties, another writer, Lewis Green, offered me the chance to write a column for The Independent Torch, a local political rag—to call it that is a kindness—published by Lewis and used mostly as a weapon to attack the town’s mainstream paper, The Asheville Citizen-Times. “Write anything you want,” Lewis told me. “Book reviews, movie reviews, anything you want.”
I began in trepidation, wondering whether I could come up with ideas and whether I could put those ideas into prose fast enough to meet deadlines. For years I had tried my hand at fiction. What did I know of essays and reviews?
By the end of that year, this fear had disappeared. I had fallen heart and head in love with writing essays.
Lewis paid me nothing for my work and later fell out with me, as he did with so many people, yet I nonetheless owe him a great debt. That column sparked in me the joy of writing essays and reviews, a joy that has only grown stronger in the last twenty-five years.
I went on to write similar articles for a variety of publications, most notably The Smoky Mountain News, its sister The Smoky Mountain News Magazine, and Chronicles Magazine. For The Smoky Mountain News, with a couple of exceptions, I wrote—and still write—book reviews, and expect that the number of those reviews has by now surpassed four hundred in number. For Chronicles I wrote pieces about the Catholic Church (under the name of Joe Ecclesia), the family, education, and contemporary politics.
Meanwhile, I was approaching sixty, and a desire to see my recently finished novel, Amanda Bell, gain an audience grew within me. I considered looking for an agent again and then a publisher, but I then decided to put out the book myself for three reasons. I wanted control of the format and design of my book, the creation of such a book was within my budget at that time, and the new methods of publishing ensured fast delivery to my readers. Given my previous experience with an agent and publishers, whose response time make molasses a sprinter, I was also afraid I would be stiff in my grave before my book was born.
So I started out my publishing ventures with Amanda Bell, which was a sequel to a novel I’d written earlier. Amanda Bell began as a short story, a Christmas tale, written for a Catholic newspaper. The newspaper lost the story before publication, which I didn’t know until much later, and that loss was my gain. Had the paper published the story, I would have let it go. Instead, after learning of this mistake, I picked up the story, reread it, and saw that it was the beginning of a novel. To read more about Amanda Bell, click this link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Amanda-Bell-Jeff-Minick/dp/1482390132/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475846842&sr=8-1&keywords=amanda+bell
With the publication of Amanda Bell, I vowed to try to put out a book a year. This course of action was then affordable to me, and so next came a book of essays, Learning As I Go. I felt more comfortable touting this book than I had with Amanda Bell, as all but a couple of the articles had already passed the perusal of an editor and appeared in print. Putting that book together was sheer pleasure, even though I knew ahead of time that fewer people read collections of essays than they do self-published novels. https://www.amazon.com/Learning-As-Satirical-Containing-Conjectures/dp/1491298103/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1475846897&sr=8-2&keywords=learning+as+I+go
Three summers ago, I was sitting on the front porch of my apartment in the early morning. I was tired of writing essays and reviews, and wanted to take a new direction for a while. What might people read? What did they like? I had no idea. The previous evening I’d read of a poll claiming the majority of Americans believed in angels. For a few moments I contemplated our human interest in the rank-and-file of the heavenly host. Recent popular stories and films about angels nearly always depicted an angel coming to earth and falling in love with a human being. Well, I thought to myself, what if two angels came to earth on a mission and fell in love with each other?
So I was off and running with Dust On Their Wings. (The original title of the book was Angel Dust, which I liked until someone reminded me that this was the nickname for PCP, one of the most dangerous drugs on the planet). Max, a sophisticated veteran who has many times visited earth to help suffering humans, and Maggie, a novice on her first mission, team up to help two errant souls fall in love. See https://www.amazon.com/Learning-As-Satirical-Containing-Conjectures/dp/1491298103/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1475846897&sr=8-2&keywords=learning+as+I+go
Finally, this past year I put out Movies Make The Man, a guide to popular films, old and new, offering life lessons for young men. This book I wrote nearly six years ago, before putting together Learning As I Go and before dreaming up Dust On Their Wings. Movies can serve as a great guide for young men in work, love, and faith. For Movies Make The Man, follow this link: https://www.amazon.com/Movies-Make-Man-Hollywood-Guide/dp/1530623901/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1475847003&sr=8-1&keywords=movies+make+the+man+minick
So what’s my point here?
I believe in these books. They are the children of my imagination, my intellect, and my passion. They walked out the door and into the world with little fanfare, clothed only in my high hopes they might find readers. This hope for them remains.
If you’re looking for a book for yourself or for others—remember there are only 79 shopping days until—I encourage you to consider one or more of these orphans in search of a home.
Good reading to you!
I began in trepidation, wondering whether I could come up with ideas and whether I could put those ideas into prose fast enough to meet deadlines. For years I had tried my hand at fiction. What did I know of essays and reviews?
By the end of that year, this fear had disappeared. I had fallen heart and head in love with writing essays.
Lewis paid me nothing for my work and later fell out with me, as he did with so many people, yet I nonetheless owe him a great debt. That column sparked in me the joy of writing essays and reviews, a joy that has only grown stronger in the last twenty-five years.
I went on to write similar articles for a variety of publications, most notably The Smoky Mountain News, its sister The Smoky Mountain News Magazine, and Chronicles Magazine. For The Smoky Mountain News, with a couple of exceptions, I wrote—and still write—book reviews, and expect that the number of those reviews has by now surpassed four hundred in number. For Chronicles I wrote pieces about the Catholic Church (under the name of Joe Ecclesia), the family, education, and contemporary politics.
Meanwhile, I was approaching sixty, and a desire to see my recently finished novel, Amanda Bell, gain an audience grew within me. I considered looking for an agent again and then a publisher, but I then decided to put out the book myself for three reasons. I wanted control of the format and design of my book, the creation of such a book was within my budget at that time, and the new methods of publishing ensured fast delivery to my readers. Given my previous experience with an agent and publishers, whose response time make molasses a sprinter, I was also afraid I would be stiff in my grave before my book was born.
So I started out my publishing ventures with Amanda Bell, which was a sequel to a novel I’d written earlier. Amanda Bell began as a short story, a Christmas tale, written for a Catholic newspaper. The newspaper lost the story before publication, which I didn’t know until much later, and that loss was my gain. Had the paper published the story, I would have let it go. Instead, after learning of this mistake, I picked up the story, reread it, and saw that it was the beginning of a novel. To read more about Amanda Bell, click this link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Amanda-Bell-Jeff-Minick/dp/1482390132/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475846842&sr=8-1&keywords=amanda+bell
With the publication of Amanda Bell, I vowed to try to put out a book a year. This course of action was then affordable to me, and so next came a book of essays, Learning As I Go. I felt more comfortable touting this book than I had with Amanda Bell, as all but a couple of the articles had already passed the perusal of an editor and appeared in print. Putting that book together was sheer pleasure, even though I knew ahead of time that fewer people read collections of essays than they do self-published novels. https://www.amazon.com/Learning-As-Satirical-Containing-Conjectures/dp/1491298103/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1475846897&sr=8-2&keywords=learning+as+I+go
Three summers ago, I was sitting on the front porch of my apartment in the early morning. I was tired of writing essays and reviews, and wanted to take a new direction for a while. What might people read? What did they like? I had no idea. The previous evening I’d read of a poll claiming the majority of Americans believed in angels. For a few moments I contemplated our human interest in the rank-and-file of the heavenly host. Recent popular stories and films about angels nearly always depicted an angel coming to earth and falling in love with a human being. Well, I thought to myself, what if two angels came to earth on a mission and fell in love with each other?
So I was off and running with Dust On Their Wings. (The original title of the book was Angel Dust, which I liked until someone reminded me that this was the nickname for PCP, one of the most dangerous drugs on the planet). Max, a sophisticated veteran who has many times visited earth to help suffering humans, and Maggie, a novice on her first mission, team up to help two errant souls fall in love. See https://www.amazon.com/Learning-As-Satirical-Containing-Conjectures/dp/1491298103/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1475846897&sr=8-2&keywords=learning+as+I+go
Finally, this past year I put out Movies Make The Man, a guide to popular films, old and new, offering life lessons for young men. This book I wrote nearly six years ago, before putting together Learning As I Go and before dreaming up Dust On Their Wings. Movies can serve as a great guide for young men in work, love, and faith. For Movies Make The Man, follow this link: https://www.amazon.com/Movies-Make-Man-Hollywood-Guide/dp/1530623901/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1475847003&sr=8-1&keywords=movies+make+the+man+minick
So what’s my point here?
I believe in these books. They are the children of my imagination, my intellect, and my passion. They walked out the door and into the world with little fanfare, clothed only in my high hopes they might find readers. This hope for them remains.
If you’re looking for a book for yourself or for others—remember there are only 79 shopping days until—I encourage you to consider one or more of these orphans in search of a home.
Good reading to you!
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