Authors are a dime a dozen. Authors of good books and novels, though, well, those are a bit like trying to find a contact lens in a swimming pool…unless you know where to look…like some of the major publishing houses and a few select small presses, avoiding, of course, the vaunted and flaunted…for the most part, anyway. (I’ll admit there are a few of the vaunted that make my personal “okay” list, but nowhere near the number that vie with each other for the list top.) Still, in the midlist, there are some real gems. Heck, even at the top and the bottom of the list there’s gold in them thar catalogs (…and a lot of schlock). And all the necessary “stuff” is there for the picking so I can easily feature the book in just a few minutes. (Professional publishers KNOW that, to sell their books, they must provide as much “promo stuff” as possible, you see…so they do. )

Then there’s the indies….

In truth, I’d like nothing better than to consistently favor independent authors by featuring their books on The Deepening. But. And here’s the problem. They just don’t seem to want to be featured. They want me to find them (as in track down and tackle, maybe lasso and hog tie, maybe even make use of one of those S. American bolo things used to nab Rheas). Then these same authors, once I do get their attention, seem to want me to beg them for their book’s promotional materials like book descriptions, author bio-, good-sized cover art, reviews, and excerpts. They seem to want me to work at it, spending innumerable hours just collecting and soliciting them (again, the word “begging” comes to mind) for the “honor” of featuring them and their books on TD.

It’s exhausting, and, well, um, I’m sorry. I just don’t have that much time or energy. (It takes a LOT of energy to chase down the fleet of foot once you flush them from their hide, you know.) I mean, if an author doesn’t want to provide me with a nice, high-quality, bigger-than-a-postage-stamp book cover, a description, some review links, a nice excerpt, then, well, obviously, I do get the hint that they’d really rather I go away so they can keep their tome all to themselves and a select few friends and associates, that they really do not want me…or anyone else with whom they’re not on intimate terms to feature their book. Have I got that right? I do? Ah, okay. Sorry for intruding. Go on back into the Facebook fray, and the hollering and waving of hands like crazy for individual notice, then disappearing when someone actually says, “Sure, I’ll take a look. Where’s the goods?” when they find that the “goods” aren’t there like they’re supposed to be.