News Summary

• Tom French is a lifelong mountaineer, cross-country skier, and lover of the outdoors.
• A blog for family and friends went viral and led to his new memoir, The Gap Years.
• French: As a first-time author, pretty much everything about the publishing process has been new.
• His advice would not be about the craft of writing itself, but on the process of reaching a robust audience..
• Authors bear an increasingly large personal responsibility for marketing their work.
• While this may fall outside their comfort zone or may not be where they naturally find fulfillment, it is an inescapable part of the process.
• Everyone has capabilities and assets to draw on in this regard.
• It is just a matter of tapping into them.