Sometime during summer 2019, while I was traveling and not paying much attention, the sum in my “book bank account” for my China travel memoir Where the Great Wall Ends topped $1,000 for the first time. I realize this does not qualify the book for best seller status. Still, it was gratifying to me that enough online and in person purchasers had bought copies to put me into four figures.
So I ordered more copies for my in-person marketing efforts, which I’ll need to ramp up as the winter holidays approach. This book, published in 2017, is one American’s evolving perception of a huge, populous, diverse, rapidly changing country at the other side of the northern hemisphere. A distillation of nearly forty years of study and of intermittent travels and extended stays in China, Great Wall profiles many of China’s regions and large cities, including both ends of the Great Wall. The book also includes vignettes of previous stays in two areas recently much in the news: the special administrative area of Hong Kong along China’s southern coast, and, in its far northwest, the “autonomous region” of Xinjiang.
Now a whole litany of “if’s”:
If you or a family member or friend are interested in learning more about China and some of its fascinating people and creatures (pandas among them), please consider buying a copy or two.
If you have already purchased a copy, thank you! If you are a member of a book club, please consider having me speak to your group, either in person or virtually. Also, I could really use additional publicity via online reviews, emails, and/or social media.
If you do not yet have a copy and would like an autographed one, I encourage you to contact me via this author page to arrange a way I can get a personalized copy to you from my low-tech, cash-or-check-only operation.
No matter where you are geographically, I encourage you to buy books from your local independent bookstores. They typically provide a range of titles and services that you are not likely to find in chain operations or mammoth online operations like Amazon.
Thank you, and best holiday wishes to you and everyone on your gift list!
Author Jinny Batterson 