Sheldon Cashdan's Blog: Traveling Through Book Country

I’m sitting at my computer, surprised that I’m even writing these words, having previously told myself that I wasn’t going to write a blog. Blogs just weren’t my thing. Articles on the web as well as writer friends of mine nevertheless urged me to give it a try, claiming that no one else was going to promote my latest work, a self-published novel about Freud’s affair with one of his patients. The book, my friends insisted, was destined to languish, no matter how good it might be, if nobody knew it existed.

In spite of their good intentions, I didn’t feel comfortable hawking my book on line even though I was convinced it was the best thing that’s come along since sliced bread, something I suspect most writers believe is true about their books. What’s more, the book not only was readily available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble but had received glowing reviews so what more was there to say or do?

But then I wondered whether there was a back story to my book, one that might be worth talking about. Though my novel was self-published, I had also gone the traditional route, publishing with Prentice-Hall and W.W. Norton among others. In the process, I’ve been treated royally and not so royally, been told truths and been lied to, and got to know editors who deserved the title and others who were better suited to sell real estate. In short, I’d been around the block.

Why not blog about these experiences, I thought. Writing about my travels through book country might offer aspiring writers some idea of what lies ahead, steering them away, for one, from ersatz publishers and promoters who are less interested in advancing a writer’s career than making a buck. I’ll talk about agents, editors, and occasionally some technical matters such as fonts, formatting and even “guttering” a word I had never come across until I entered the world of self-publishing. I wasn’t sure where all this might lead but I thought it could be fun.

Before going on, you probably deserve to know a little bit about who I am. I received my Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina, and subsequently went on to teach at Indiana University and the University of Massachusetts. At both institutions I taught undergraduate courses in addition to training graduate students to do psychotherapy. During my tenure as an academic I satisfied my itch to write by publishing a couple of books on psychotherapy as well as a small volume on abnormal psychology. But what I really longed to do is write fiction so after many years of standing before thousands of students in large lecture halls, directing dissertations and supervising student therapists, I decided to kiss academics goodbye and devote myself to writing full-time…which is where I’m at now.

I’m happy to answer any questions readers have about anything I’ve described up to now – or will bring up in future blogs -- which I guess is how blogs work. In fact, I’d be happier answering questions and kicking off discussions rather than just pontificating. I’ll sign off for the moment and in my next post I’ll tell you about the first book I ever wrote, and how my publisher tried to weasel out of his contract by telling me an out-and-out lie. Not an auspicious beginning.