If you read this blog often, you know I am a full-time writer. Apart from the Advice Sisters web sites and freelance articles for other publications, online and off, I’ve had the honor of being a published book author a few times. My first book, which I co-wrote with my twin sister, Jessica Blackman Freedman, was Recruiting Love – Using the Business Skills You Have To Find The Love You Want (Cyclone Books, 2998). I have also been a contributing author to: How To Survive Dating by Mark W. Bernstein (Hundreds of Heads Books, Inc., 2004) and: The Last Job Search Guide You’ll Ever Need – How to Find and Get the Job or Internship of Your Dreams (Astonishing Job Search Secrets Of The Most Experienced…Most Knowledgeable…And Most Respected Career Experts In The World) compiled by Steven J. Rothberg (CollegeRecruiter.com Books, 2002). I’ve also written and published a number of self-help E-books on social behavior, singles & dating, and job hunting.
I’ve done book signings, speeches and other events, but it never ceases to thrill me when I walk into a bookstore and see my book on the shelf with my name on it!
Everything Dating Book
My latest book, The Everything Dating Book 2nd Edition (Adams Media, December 2005) written by yours truly, Alison Blackman Dunham of The Advice Sisters, has finally hit the bookstores shelves this past week. I walked into a large bookstore in New Jersey (a Barnes & Noble, I think, or perhaps it was a Borders). Anyway, they were in the self-help/relationships section, a bunch of them with their spines facing outwards and Blackman Dunham on the spine.
A man came over and pulled on down to check it out. Another thrill.
Yesterday, I was on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and wondered into another bookstore. I went to find my book and couldn’t, so I asked the “info” guy if there were any copies in the store. There were, but I couldn’t find them. I told him that I was the author and just wanted to be sure that they were in the store.
Perhaps presenting yourself as an author when you are in a bookstore isn’t that significant. After all, I am just one of literally thousands of men and women who have accomplished the same, thing and whose books reside in the shelves. But, it feels so wonderful to know that what I created will be helping others to live better, happier and more successful lives – it’s a bit of immortality to have a book in a bookstore.
Some day, the Everything Dating Book 2nd Edition will be a dusty addition to a box of books at a yard sale, perhaps decades from now. Hopefully, someone will look at the cover, pick up the book, and make it come alive again for a new generation of men and women looking for the same thing human have always craved – someone to love them, and someone to love!