If you've spent any amount of time here at all, you'll know that I'm a shameless, PT Barnum style person who has no qualms about promoting my forthcoming book. I'm more than happy to climb atop the nearest semblance of a mountain and let forth a mighty yop, and I'm frankly looking forward to contacting librarians, booksellers, bloggers and other folks. (Still just waiting for those cursed ARCs, which has become something of a lesson in patience for me. Can't really approach folks and tell them much about the book without, well, the book.)

For a while now, one of my first priorities in the morning, just after my feet hit the floor, has been to research potential media and review sources. As of this morning, I have a spreadsheet with roughly 180 media contacts (these are mostly regional and niche media, as my publisher will focus on "bigger" sources), 120 potential reviewers, 100+ blogs, and 46 authors receiving Review Copies. On top of that, I also have lists of 300+ independent bookstores specializing in mystery/fantasy/horror, at least 500 CBA bookstores, and more than 500 libraries. All told, that adds up to something in the neighborhood of 2000 contacts--and I do plan on contacting each of those sources at least once.

And yet, it's just a blip. A fraction of a blip, really. Current estimates say something like 200,000 books are published each year. And really, that's just the smallest number in this whole numbers game. Think of all the newspapers, magazines, radio shows, and television shows you know. Now multiply that number by a hundred to account for the 99% of mass media you've never even heard of. Add in web sites, podcasts, online communities and blogs. According to Technorati, there are more than 23 million blogs tracked (and remember, these are just blogs tracked by Technorati) with nearly 2 billion links. Yes, I said 2 billion.

How many messages are out there in the ether, in the newsprint, in the radio frequencies, begging for people to pay attention?

And here am I, a debut novelist in Montana, hoping to get some attention with a contact list that represents an atom in the entire, vast, media universe. Intimidating or overwhelming? Yes, and yes. And yet, also exciting.

After all, even if that mighty yop I let forth is but a brief hiccup in the grander media landscape, it's something unlike anything else out there in the universe: it's my yop.

Now, go work on yours.