And Now I am a Published Book

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My book “Losing It All” is now a hardcover, a paperback, and, of course, an eBook. Not just at Amazon globally, but also at Lulu and Barnes and Noble. What an exciting week it has been to see it all come to life. Fly, little book, I’ve set you free.

My book already has eight reviews. Four on Amazon and four on Goodreads, which surprised me endlessly. I can be found on Goodreads, who would have thought? I claimed my own author page. Oh, what a feeling!

The first review came from a blogger. Thank you, Debbie!

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The other reviews are a gift from the universe. I took a bit of a gamble because I just had to. (You know I can’t help it, right?) The sad truth is, these days, you can’t even sell a lump of gold without star ratings and reviews. But how do you get them? Who to ask?

One thing I knew for sure. I wanted HONEST reviews from ‘real’ people, not from best friends or family (which fell through anyway, because we don’t have a functional family left).

I thought about it and sent out twenty emails to former customers. People I am not friends with, but worked for—perhaps not always to their liking? Risky business (so me.)

Some might even have forgotten all about me and my work.

Firemen and teachers, doctors and nurses, housewives and trophy husbands, students or retirees. No telling. I seldom ask what my customers do for a living. I am more interested in their furniture, the project and the story that surrounds the pieces.

Twenty former customers got the finished manuscript for free and were asked to consider leaving an honest review after reading. Some delivered, some didn’t have the time, which I suppose is normal. Who in the right state of mind publishes a book at the busiest time of the year between Thanksgiving and Christmas? Well, I did.

One of my former customers is a proofreader. Goodness, how did I not know that? Three missing punctuation marks were found, and a double word, a typo was pointed out. Last-minute changes could be made. “Thank you, proofreader.”

Losing It All by Alexandra Lynn is a gut-wrenching true story of a personal financial crisis that truly captures the desperation of so, so many who are suddenly plunged into poverty when our economy flounders. Though we refuse, perhaps, to think about it, recessions cause many people to lose jobs, businesses and their homes. Sometimes even their beloved pets.

This very intimate account makes abundantly clear how very complicated our social system has become and the extent to which our lives are controlled by the workings of economic forces over which we have limited influence. Our free market system, for all its virtues, can be brutal. Even the most well-meaning, hard-working people can find themselves in dire straits. To make matters worse, as interdependent as we have all become, we cling to the old belief that we should each be somehow “self-made.” We have been conditioned to endorse an “Every man for himself” approach to life, however naive the idea.

When personal financial crisis hits, it can leave us feeling hopeless, ashamed, trapped, and alienated like outcasts. Reading this book, I had to wonder: do we, as citizens, truly take to heart our duty to care about our country – as a whole – and at least try to sustain an adequate social safety net for all. Right now, when many Americans are struggling to find housing and put food on the table, this memoir reaches out with deep sympathy and compassion.

The author has dedicated “Losing it All” to “all the houseless and homeless and to all the landlords who love dogs.” She adds, “May this society one day see people (my italics) and not just numbers.” Can we really do such a thing? Are we up to it?

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No worries, I won’t write about my book every day. Maybe once a week? Like updates and a bit of advertisement?

Also, there is a lot I learned about Amazon and eBooks, which I will share. It’s a bit (a lot) like highway robbery. The publishing business, it’s a shark tank, a snake pit, a wonderland.

I am a book!