Starting in September 2023, I put on a full-court press to promote my first book, My Fighting Family: Borders and Bloodlines and The Battles That Made Us. I plastered my social media feeds with photos of the cover, and clips from audiobook recording sessions. Then I sent Advance Reader Copies to selected media allies, and even scored a pre-publication interview in Chicago’s South Side Weekly. A week after the article ran, a LinkedIn follower messaged to let me know he’d read it, then ordered my book online within minutes.
Which was the point.
Could I have continued saturating my IG feed with memes and workout videos that fall and early winter?
Sure.
But the goal was to generate buzz for, and sales of, my debut memoir. I had worked hard to complete it. Blew several deadlines and a few thousand dollars on self-funded writing retreats so I could finally drag this thing across the finish line, but I was more than happy with the finished product. My editor, Jordan Ginsberg, read the mansuscript and said my memoir was an “Absolute Heater.” I needed more people to feel its warmth, so from September through the New Year I kept book promotion on the front burner.
Turns out I should have started in June.
A little post-publication research showed me that book launches benefit from a six-month runway. The further word spreads beforehand, the more pre-sales you accumulate, and the better retail placement your book receives in the real world. Readers can make your book a bestseller when they buy it at the store, but if you can juice your pre-orders, you can make the bestsellers list before your title even hits the shelf. I didn’t know that two years ago, but I know it now.
So with My Fighting Family’s paperback publication date creeping over the horizon (U.S. readers click here), I’m reminded of an aphorism from the celebrated American philosopher George W. Bush:
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice? You’re not gonna fool me again.
When the paperback goes public — June 2, 2026… *exactly* five months from *today* — I’m treating it as though I’m launching a brand new book.
New cover… one that foreshadows the border-straddling family epic unfolding in the pages that follow.
New markets… because, for reasons I won’t detail here, few U.S. retailers even got word that the hardcover existed, even though, technically, it’s been available south of the border since publication day.
New readers… whom we’ll meet when we bring this paperback to new places.
Why all this newness?
Because it’s a very good book that deserves a broader audience.
If you don’t believe me check out Goodreads, where a recent 5-star review pushed my average back above 4.0 stars. In baseball terms, it’s like raising your batting average from .298 to .300. A minuscule difference but a huge distinction. We’re all beholden to the algorithms, and the algorithms like 5-star ratings. The higher your average, the better your chance that the almighty algorithm will bless you with some precious attention.
Now if you don’t believe Goodreads, I won’t hold it against you. We’ve all been to that site and seen some certified bangers rated 3.8, alongside outright duds with the same score. But literary prize juries enjoyed My Fighting Family, which is why the paperback cover will also include a series of award shortlist logos from both sides of the border.
So the relaunch aims to close the gap between readers’ enthusiasm and the market’s indifference, but people who follow me on social media or know me in real life realize I’m already working on it.
As a non-famous author, you also have to be your own publicist, hype man or woman, and sales rep. It’s not anybody’s fault. Just the way the industry is set up. Some events will fall into your lap because the publisher has pitched you to this festival or that library. That’s how I wound up in Vancouver in 2024, and at the Festival of Literary Diversity in Brampton last May.
Other opportunities pop up because you created them.
This time last year I pitched myself to the NABJ Authors Showcase, and walked away with an NABJ Outstanding Book Award, and a chance to bring my book to Ohio, for a presentation moderated by the Shohei Ohtani of sports journalism, Coley Harvey of CBS Sports.
The bookseller for that event was the Third Space Reading Room in Cleveland, so add them to the list of U.S. retailers who are aware that My Fighting Family exists. The roster is small but growing, and I’m working to expand it well in advance of Paperback Publication Day.
Between now and then, I’m doing the leg work I wish I had started in June of 2023. Previews, reviews, interviews… I’m after it all. If you’re a media friend, or a friend of one, you might hear from me directly if you don’t hear from the publisher.
June 2026 feels like a long way off, but a proper book launch takes six months. I didn’t realize that the first time, but you’re not gonna fool me again.
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