You’ve placed the last period, closed the door on some of the noisier characters inhabiting your brain, found an agent and a publisher, and now you’re eagerly awaiting the moment when your book greets the world. Life inevitably intervenes and puts a stamp on that moment, but this year, authors’ publication plans took on new meaning and challenges in the midst of a catastrophic global pandemic.
On June 23rd, WNBA-NYC hosted an online panel featuring Barbara Solomon Josselsohn and Linda Rosen, who shared their experiences of publishing novels during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Poet, Writer, and WNBA Academic Liaison Harriet Shenkman moderated the event.
Josselsohn’s second novel, The Lilac House, which describes a woman’s search for her new identity after the death of her husband, came out on March 13th, coinciding with the beginning of the shutdown. Emphasizing her perspective that the pandemic’s “devastation was more important than my book,” Josselsohn described her “feelings of uncertainty” as a big party at her local bookstore, library talks, and other in-person promotional events started to be canceled: “I thought that I was sunk.”
Rosen, whose debut novel, The Disharmony of Silence, tells the story of a “clandestine love affair” via a dual timeline that spans 80 years, explained that she was luckier because her book came out a week before Josselsohn’s. Soon after her successful launch party, however, her in-person events also got scratched.
Both writers credited their publishers’ handling of the complex process and talked about the necessity to participate in marketing their own books via social media. One “silver lining,” according to Rosen, has been her new relationships with podcasters, bloggers, online groups, and radio shows who have helped promote writers during the pandemic. She also benefited from the collegial, cross-promotional culture of the 2020 Debuts platforms on Facebook and Instagram. Josselsohn said she has even become friends with some of the bloggers who have been “altruistically” championing writers.
The two books, which are available in paperback and digital formats, are selling well. Josselsohn, whose third book, The Bluebells Girls, is scheduled for publication in September 2020, said that she still finds it difficult to be “celebratory,” but she is happy that people are appreciating The Lilac House as an escape from day-to-day reality. Rosen, whose second book will be coming out in March 2021, emphasized that she is excited by the success of her first novel and pleasantly surprised by the connection she feels with her readers.
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Pamela J. Davis is a freelance editor and proofreader, who has a PhD in English and American Literature from New York University. Born and raised in Springfield, MA, she currently reads, writes, and walks around in New York City.
