Yesterday, I was in the middle of sending emailing a client's article to weekly newspapers when the first reports of the Virginia Tech Massacre came across the wire. It didn't immediately hit me, but within a few minutes, I realized that book promotion efforts put forth that day would be a waste of time and energy.
My mind wasn't on book promotion. My mind was on what was going on in a school community, and what it meant. My mind was on the students and teachers who were involved, and on their family members, and on their friends. My mind was all over the place, but it wasn't on book promotion.
The media's attention, I knew, wouldn't be on book promotion, either.
In times of national angst, we do a lot of things. We cry, we struggle to understand, and we beg whatever higher powers to whom we subscribe to take it all back. We bargain, we become furious, we argue, and finally -- I hope -- we come to some sort of resolution. We do a lot of things in times like these, but book promotion isn't one of those things. Nor should it be.
