Two Weeks to Publication
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
For more than thirty years at MEIER, I’ve seen my commercial work reproduced in magazines and newspapers or broadcast on television or radio. I’ve gotten a lot of attention and I’ve won a slew of awards. And that’s great. But I never set out to create ‘Art’. If people didn’t like what I’d designed – if they hated the typeface, wished the picture had been brighter or darker, or didn’t understand why I mentioned truffles in an ad for a watch, I honestly didn’t care. A long history of hitting goals for clients gave me that confidence. What I looked for was not approval, but resonance with the very specific target market I’d made those creative decisions to reach. In other words, the tools that moved commerce along were never confused with the more ephemeral, subjective aspects of ‘Art’. Not to say that the work we made didn’t have to be creative, artistic or even beautiful or moving, to do its job. But it wasn’t going to be judged according to its beauty. My work was going to be judged according to its effectiveness. And that I could live with.
But this – this countdown – this waiting for the launch of my first novel… This is another kettle of fish.
Now, it seems, the work itself has to appeal to people. Not the watch, not the call-to-action, but my book. And I’ll only know if it’s really fulfilling its mission, by whether people actually appreciate the book, buy the book, recommend the book - and want to spend time with its characters. I’m not so comfortable with this.
I remember seeing Neil Simon discuss comedy. If no one laughs, he said – it’s not funny. I thought that I’d never have the heart for that kind of brutal feedback. And I still don’t. But – here goes.
The Season of Second Chances is two weeks away from launch. We’re an Indie-Bound Choice for April. And Leah, Evelyn and Ben, here at Meier are working away to tray and create buzz – online, in-print and otherwise. The stars would appear to be aligned to give this book as good a birth as possible. But that’s all we can do. Now I have to sit back and face the fact that someone (and more than one someone) is going to actually have to like the work, itself. Scary.
