Each year, authors par­tic­i­pat­ing in the JBC Net­work pro­gram gath­er at the annu­al con­fer­ence to pitch their book to the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of over a hun­dred Jew­ish insti­tu­tions, in hopes of being invit­ed to speak at book fairs and com­mu­ni­ty pro­grams through­out North Amer­i­ca over the fol­low­ing months. It is an event that delights our mem­ber sites and ter­ri­fies our authors. Delia Ephron dubbed it ​“the Jew­ish Hunger Games”; oth­ers have likened their expe­ri­ence to com­pet­ing on Amer­i­can Idol. A cou­ple weeks ago, 2014 – 2015 JBC Net­work author David A. Kalis saw it as his per­son­al Goliath. He shares his expe­ri­ence with Jew­ish Book Coun­cil’s online read­er­ship here:

Jews have a spe­cial place in their hearts for the under­dog. The sto­ry of David and Goliath imme­di­ate­ly comes to mind. Who would ever root for Goliath?

Last week, I had my own David and Goliath expe­ri­ence. I was at the 2014 Jew­ish Book Coun­cil Net­work Con­fer­ence, pro­mot­ing my new mem­oir on Jew­ish iden­ti­ty and her­itage, Vod­ka Shot, Pick­le Chas­er. If you don’t know the details of the JBC Net­work Meet the Authors event, let me explain. Over 250 authors sub­mit their work and attend the con­fer­ence in New York. Each is giv­en a 2‑minute oppor­tu­ni­ty to present their book and them­selves to Jew­ish orga­ni­za­tions from around the coun­try, hop­ing to be invit­ed for a speak­ing engage­ment at some point in the upcom­ing year. It’s stress­ful, and to top it off, the two min­utes are just that: no more, no less. Well, less is accept­able, but more is not. 

So, there I was with my heart rac­ing, palms sweat­ing, and thoughts swirling. About an hour into the pro­gram, the JBC coor­di­na­tor called my name. I was on deck. I got up from my chair locat­ed in the cor­ner of the syn­a­gogue and walked toward the 300 pairs of eyes feast­ing on the upcom­ing speak­er, know­ing I was to fol­low. Sit­ting in the on deck chair, I sat motion­less, try­ing to run through my com­ments one last time. I had spent end­less hours prepar­ing my speech and then mem­o­riz­ing it, only to find out an hour pri­or that using notes was actu­al­ly accept­able. Hold­ing my marked-up rough draft as my secu­ri­ty blan­ket, I glanced at it know­ing there was noth­ing more I could do. 

I tried to review my speech, but instead, I thought about how I got here and ques­tioned whether I belonged. Yes, I wrote a book and it had strong Jew­ish con­tent, it received a strong review from Kirkus Reviews, and thus far, peo­ple who read it, loved it. But, the qual­i­ty of the writ­ers and their expe­ri­ence here at the JBC Net­work was unmatched. The evening start­ed with a uni­ver­si­ty pres­i­dent, who was fol­lowed by a writer from a nation­al­ly renowned mag­a­zine, and then pro­gressed with best­selling authors, pro­fes­sors, and acclaimed activists. Their pre­sen­ta­tions were pol­ished, their sto­ries were com­pelling, and their qual­i­fi­ca­tions were impec­ca­ble. To top it off, most were pub­lished by large pub­lish­ing houses. 

Thir­ty more sec­onds and it was my turn. I kept think­ing: David vs. Goliath. This was my first book, I was self-pub­lished, and I had nev­er even been a con­tribut­ing writer to my local news­pa­per. But here I was, which meant I had a chance. 

When my two min­utes arrived, I took a deep breath, gazed out at the audi­ence, and spoke from the heart. My notes lay still, unused, allow­ing the pas­sion for my cre­ation to come through. 

Fol­low­ing the speak­ing por­tion of the event, I attend­ed a wine recep­tion where a mid­dle-aged man rep­re­sent­ing a JCC from Penn­syl­va­nia approached me. ​“I liked your mes­sage, well done. Tell me more about your sto­ry and if you’ve already been in front of audiences…”

A new under­dog was on his way.

David A. Kalis is the author of Vod­ka Shot, Pick­le Chas­er: A True Sto­ry of Risk, Cor­rup­tion, and Self-Dis­cov­ery Amid the Col­lapse of the Sovi­et Union. He will be tour­ing his book through the JBC Net­work pro­gram for the 2014 – 2015 year.

Relat­ed content:

• Why Self Pub­lish? by Pni­na Jacob­son and Judy Kempler
• Essays: On Writ­ing, Pub­lish­ing, and Promoting
• Online Resources for Writ­ers Look­ing to Self Pub­lish by Stephen Witt