Friends, I’m traveling for spring break, culminating yesterday with Easter with family. So we’re on Low Power Mode for the week. Today’s newsletter is “evergreen” as they say, but it originally ran in 2023, and I think it applies today as well. Enjoy!
If you’ve been on the Internet in the last 10 years, especially if you’ve been on social media—and especially Twitter—I suspect you’ve seen the “This is fine” meme.
It involves a comic with a dog sitting at a table with a cup of coffee as the entire room is engulfed in flames. He says, “This is fine.”
People like to post it as a commentary on things that are decidedly not fine in their eyes, but that we’re all living through anyway: political stuff, weather, sports teams, the fact that final exams are coming up in college and they’re not prepared, whatever.
Anyway, the creator of the comic that spawned the meme, KC Green, realized it was now a decade old, so he posted about its legacy: “I made it vague on purpose. Like any good piece of art, people interpret it how they want to.”
It’s kind of serendipitous for me that we have this anniversary, because I’ve had this image pop into my head repeatedly over the past few weeks, based on an author’s description of a common experience.
Her name: Chelsea Banning (not to be confused with Chelsea Manning, by the way), who admitted in a cathartic middle-of-the-night tweet:
“Only 2 people came to my author signing yesterday, so I was pretty bummed about it. Especially as 37 people responded ‘going’ to the event. Kind of upset, honestly, and a little embarrassed.”
Anyway, things worked out for Chelsea. A who’s-who of big-time, successful (wealthy? I think) authors weighed in on Twitter, saying they’d had the same thing happen and even praising her for admitting it to the world:
Cheryl Strayed: I’m sorry that happened to you, Chelsea. I know how awful it feels, as it has happened to me too. Almost every author I know has had this experience at some point in their career. It isn’t a reflection of you or your work!
Stephen King: At my first SALEM’S LOT signing, I had one customer. A fat kid who said, “Hey bud, do you know where there’s some Nazi books?”
Margaret Atwood: Join the club. I did a signing to which Nobody came, except a guy who wanted to buy some Scotch tape and thought I was the help. :)
Now, Chelsea Banning’s book was self-published, and she would end up hearing agents and publishers as a result of her viral tweet that she likely never would have known otherwise.
For what it’s worth, here are a few of my own sad book signing stories. Most of these had to do with the tour for my book about West Point in 2008. If I had known big-name authors would have come to my side, I would have posted about them then!
Somebody got the idea to put me at a table outside the PX at Joint Base Lewis–McChord. I was between a star wrestler from the WWE who had a book, and the Seattle Seahawks cheerleaders, who had a calendar.
I did a live event on Georgia public television, but there was a big storm, and only two people showed up to a 200-person theater. My speech was fine, but the scheduled Q&A was awkward with almost no crowd. I wound up posing questions to myself.
This one has a happy ending. Nobody showed for my reading at a Barnes & Noble near Boston! Then, just before kickoff, my parents walked in. Then, a handful of guys from my old reserve unit showed up. Eventually, “nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd” kicked in, and the room filled up with passers-by.
I know I’m mixing two Internet themes, and sprinkling it with my own experience. But sometimes life gives you a burning house, or a guy who only wants Scotch tape, or a Seattle Seahawks cheerleaders calendar, and you just have to act as if everything were going the way you wish it were:
This is fine. Then, sometimes it is!
Got more examples? They’re welcome in the comments. And, if you ever see an author putting on a brave face at an empty bookstore signing, remember: an angel will get its wings if you sit down for a minute and listen. You don’t even have to buy the book!
Other things worth knowing …
During Low Power Mode, we usually skip this section. Hope to be back tomorrow. Thanks for reading. See you in the comments.
I sooo needed to read this terrific piece this morning. Right now, I'm hanging out in my renovated shuttle bus camper, waiting for clock to strike 8 a.m. so that I can call my mechanic (who is an hour away). After a few days in the woods, I tried to start her up yesterday (Easter) to go home and join family for dinner; she didn't start. Long story short, I will be having her towed home this morning to the tune of $$$. I share all of this because, somehow, I'm feeling okay this morning. Reading your piece only solidified that feeling. This is fine. Thanks!
I believe Rob Henderson had a similar story, & now he's quite successful! I bought his book.
His book, Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class (2024), he faced notable difficulty getting it properly recognized after publication, including being omitted from the New York Times Bestseller List despite selling enough copies to qualify
The Economist investigated political bias in the New York Times Bestseller List and found that Henderson’s book sold enough copies to rank at least #4, yet it was excluded from the list.