I was so excited to share on social media earlier this week that my book is now available through The Strand, my favorite New York City bookstore. I used to frequent the iconic landmark when I lived in the city, as it was just down the street from The New School and NYU. One of my favorite author events there featured Sandra Cisneros. It’s such a dream that Girl, Unemployed is part of The Strand's story now, too.
However, when I logged onto The Strand website for the first time to see Girl, Unemployed—not gonna lie—I was extremely bummed that the thumbnail image looked a little beat and pixelated. My designer and I already knew about the issue and are still updating images across platforms, a slow process with the worldwide distributor IngramSpark.
The disappointment of the pixelated Girl, Unemployed thumbnail at The Strand almost killed my momentum; I almost didn’t share the good news, even though my book isn’t the only pixelated cover on the website. Being an indie author has been such a humbling experience because, on the one hand, you feel like you worked so hard for so many years on this one manuscript that everything about the process, including the book cover, better be perfect. But on the other hand, perfectionism is a fool’s errand because perfection doesn’t exist.
There are myriad parts of the author-publishing process to manage, many of them out of our control. Even more so when adding a full-time job, students, a family, community commitments, social media marketing, book events, and other writing projects.
When we’re young and reflect fondly on our future dreams, we think they’re going to come to us all shiny and polished. But the reality is that pursuing dreams takes consistency, resilience, and grit, and we’ll need those qualities just as much once we’re living them.
Perhaps most comforting is that this life lesson plays on some of my book’s themes and especially my chaotic book cover: all those failures and mistakes are just rough drafts and rewrites on the way to something great.
So here’s the official landing page for Girl, Unemployed at The Strand. While she isn’t high-res, she’s perfectly imperfect in her low-resolution state. I hope she motivates you to pursue your dreams instead of waiting for those polished, unpixelated, and perfect moments to unfold.
