Sometimes Authors Need An Emergency Landing

 

 

“We’re making an emergency landing in ….”

Not the words that you want to hear coming out of the mouth of the Delta pilot flying the plane that is carrying you and your family. But that is exactly what my wife, teen daughter, and I heard yesterday while in route from Atlanta to New York (JFK).

Apparently, one of the electrical systems failed and Delta had to land immediately. Richmond, VA was nearby and became our new destination.

Fear did not grip the plane, though there is always concern for a plane not flying at its optimal capacity, but more of a hum of inconvenience filled the air. We safely landed, but we all wondered how long we would be stuck there.

Our trip on Jet Blue to Atlanta days earlier from NY was met with a delay due to mechanical failure. Our intended plane was shafted; we had to wait an hour and a half to get a replacement plan. We were so excited not to be on Jet Blue for our return flight.

Jet Blue, who completely cancelled our flight to Atlanta in August, also due to mechanical issues, left us stranded without an available plane for four days. We ended up overpaying to fly Delta last minute, in order to avoid missing why we were going there in the first place.

Anyway, I don’t mean to digress on the poor state of flying these days. But I can’t help it. Never mind the whole flying experience is punctuated by inconvenience and annoyance: understaffed security lines, frequent traffic to the airport, higher fares, costlier ubers, and narrower seats. The airlines don’t even make up for your troubles. Getting compensation for stress, loss, and inconvenience is getting much harder.

Delta finally scrounged up a plane and we ended up leaving nearly three hours after we touched down in Richmond. It was a lousy experience, to say the least, but what we needed to do. The alternative was to possibly perish in a colossal air disaster. Landing here was the right call.

Sometimes authors need an emergency landing, to stop what they are doing and where they are doing it. We need a fresh start and to simply relaunch our book marketing efforts.

Sure, it is a major disruption to your life, and a clear admittance that you had been on the wrong path, but to just keep flying as if nothing were wrong will not get you to where you want to go — and it could otherwise turn into something worse.

Like the plane’s system, authors have mechanisms to alert them to any problems that may arise. The key is to not avoid or ignore the alarms that go off.

If your book marketing is not jetting off to where it should be going, take a pause and turn the engine off. Chart a new course, load up new supplies, and get a new flight crew.

You don’t have to fly through the sound barrier to succeed when marketing books, but sometimes you do need a new map to get you where you need and hope to be.

 

Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on LinkedIn. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.4 million pageviews. With 4,600+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.