In the run-up to AWP, we got an email from a very nice person in the ad department at Boston Review.

BR describes itself as “A magazine of ideas, independent and nonprofit. We cover lots of ground—politics, poetry, film, fiction, book reviews, and criticism.” The very nice person, whose name was Jeanne, wondered if we might want to place an ad in the upcoming issue, which would be handed out liberally at AWP.

The question was intriguing, and placed a finger square in the middle of one of the great tensions of our work: whether to spend time and resources making stuff or selling stuff. Almost always, we err on the side of making. The sheer volume of our output necessitates it. Plus we really like making stuff and don’t really enjoy selling, marketing, networking, etc.

But we realize that, at some point, we might be shooting ourselves in the foot by making so much stuff that falls into obscurity because we never did the work required to give it a chance to find an audience.

All this is a long-winded way of saying that we decided to go for it. The price was right, and we had an idea for the ad.

The first day of AWP, Jeanne came by to hand us a copy of the issue that contained our ad.

And here is a closer look.

The above graphic (Marilyn/George/Emily) is a panel from one of my very favorite of our books, Avoid Disappointment and Future Regret. It was, incidentally, the only title of which we completely sold out at AWP.

I like the ad. It’s fun to see our name in something we did not have to print ourselves.

Though perhaps it is a sorry statement that the only way we can draw attention to ourselves is by poking fun at poor, defenseless Emily Dickinson.

We shall see if the masses come rolling in. In the mean time, we intend to keep on making.