Oh, wow. So, last night I attended the monthly Writer’s League of Texas meeting. This one was  a very good panel, with authors Varian Johnson (a good speaker, and not so hard on the eyes), Stephanie Klein (a hoot!), and some other guy who writes terribly serious non-fiction about oil and energy and seemed very, very intense about the whole thing.

Also, there was a publicist. Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m sure she is a very good publicist. She mentioned Oprah a few (dozen) times, and seemed passionate about her work. But the thought of paying between $2,ooo – $10,000 a month to promote a novel is so far out of my realm of perception, it’s like trying to imagine the national deficit.

Yep, you read those numbers right — 2 to 10 THOUSAND a month. (If you clicked the deficit link, you probably didn’t read those numbers right. What comes after a hundred trillion? A squintillion?) When pressed, Probably Very Good Publicist shared that really, anyone can do this whole publicity/social media thing. “It’s common sense,” she said.

On that note, I would like to share today’s post on a favorite website with a cussword in the title. If you read romances, check out their “Best Of” list. Hilarious. Definitely check out their post on social media today, but be prepared to hear a whole lotta cussin’ going on.

Yes, lots of bad language. But I imagine that would be the same kind of language running through my head if and when I ever consider dropping $10,000 a month on promotion.

Never say never, though, right?