Promoting My Book...And Myself

I'm a little more than halfway through editing and then a small thought wormed its way inside my head. After I finish with all this, change what needs to be changed, and then put it up for sale...what then? I guess I always had that fantasy where I would put my book out there and people would scramble for it, and then it would sell just from word of mouth. Of course, I was about nine when I had that fantasy, and I haven't really thought about promotion since I started writing for real. Now, the question is all I can think about, and I have no idea what to do. There's the normal route of sending it out to publishers and praying that you hear back from them. Then there's the shameless self-promotion on other websites and anywhere else you can think of. The problem with those choices are that I hate being like...

Don't get me wrong: I love talking about myself. Well, I love talking in general. But I hate talking about myself when I have to talk about something that I've done. I'm more of a, oh, what, me? Of course I know everything about Harry Potter! You know, the important stuff. But whenever someone asks me what my book is about, I suddenly get all, oh, well, you know, there's this thing and she has to do this other thing and then...you know, things happen. I sabotage myself and I can only hope that people will pick up my book out of sheer pity for the simple girl who doesn't know what her own book is about.

But, luckily, I don't have to worry about that for another...18 days? Are you serious? Who's decision was it to make May so short!? Sigh. I should go pretend to work on my story while I soak up as much air conditioning as possible before I have to turn on the hair dryer. I hate warm weather.