I would be willing to bet a significant amount of money that at least 92.7% of all middle-class to upper-class white women in America have at one time or another watched an episode of Sex and the City, or seen one of the two movies based on the original series, or at the very least could pick Carrie Bradshaw out of a lineup of curly-haired fashion icons. In the fourteen years since the show began its six-season run on HBO, it’s epitomized the bitchcom (that’s a word I just made up from a combination of bitch and sitcom to mean any TV show predominantly preferred by women over men — not that all women are bitches, obviously, it just seemed catchy) and has been a comparison point for all similar television programs to follow. Perhaps its most current and notable comparison is HBO’s currently running estrogen-fest, Girls.

First, there are the most basic characteristics of the show: location (Manhattan), main characters (four gal pals), occupation of the leading protagonist (writer), and theme (love/sex/friendship/self-actualization/sex/romance/sex/alcoholic beverages). So, in comparison, Girls takes place in the borough of Brooklyn (which is the new Manhattan … right?), follows four twenty-something friends, but particularly a singular protagonist working to establish herself as a writer as they deal with love, sex, friendship, self-actualization, sex, romance, sex, and consuming alcoholic beverages. And one brief encounter with crack cocaine. Pretty similar, eh?

Even the specific characters are re-embodiments of Sex and the City predecessors. There’s Hannah, the young writer, chasing desperately after the affections of a man who may or may not end up satisfying her emotional desires at the end of the day. She’s a slightly less well-dressed, but equally as independent and neurotic version of Carrie Bradshaw. The Miranda to Hannah’s Carrie is Marney, suffering from significant control issues in her friendships and relationships, has a problem with over complicating simple conflicts, and takes life maybe just a little bit too seriously. The friendship foursome is finished off by Shoshanna and Jessa, who fulfill the same less prevalent roles of Charlotte’s classy naiveté and Samantha’s free-spirited, less than grounded nature, respectively.

But what Girls does that Sex and the City never will, is speak to a generation with very specific ideologies, wantings, and expectations of society. It explores what happens to well-educated young women, who have been told their entire lives that if they go to college then they’ll get a job and that finding a husband is necessary to finding happiness, don’t get the lives they expect. To anyone outside of that worldview, they’re just over privileged white bitches complaining about problems that aren’t really problems. But to anyone within that same reality, it’s an embodiment of just how fucking scary the real world can be to a class of people raised and educated within a proverbial bubble.

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It was my husband who persisted, “Finish your book. You can self-publish.” And with that, a project that I started years ago (back when I blogged for Keith at TV Squad) was revisited and completed … finally. Writing a novel couldn’t be more different than blogging. The latter is a fast-paced process: draft-edit-tag-upload. And you get immediate feedback from readers via comments. Novel writing is much longer: draft-revise-draft-revise-stress out-revise. You get the idea.

But I finished North Shore South Shore this summer. I crafted a great query letter that resulted in positive feedback from agencies (both big ones and boutique agencies) and got me several requests for manuscripts. I thought for sure that I’d be agented and on my way to a book deal by Labor Day. I’m even toying with the idea of writing a pilot and registering my book with the WGA.

And then the responses started coming in. The writing is “excellent,” and “the story pulled me in,” and “I read this with real interest.” Clearly I had something but … not quite enough. No one knew who would buy North Shore South Shore. According to agents, the book falls between YA and Adult fiction. The book has too much adult content (don’t worry — it’s no Fifty Shades) to be considered appropriate for young adults. Yet, the characters are college-age, making them appealing to younger readers. Because it can fit neatly, the agents felt that they couldn’t sell it. And if an agent can’t sell it, they’re not interested. I was so frustrated. And it was hard to separate my confidence in the book’s quality from agent feedback about the book’s marketability. How could North Shore South Shore be well-written and compelling and yet no one wanted to try to sell it? It seemed to me like there was a strong opportunity to do something new that no one wanted to jump on. (This realization was also frustrating.) All the kids who grew up obsessing over Harry Potter were now entering their college years. Many of them still love reading and would probably love my book. The 20-something characters lead very adult lives but are burdened by leftover angst from their teen years. I felt like I had something special that was just waiting for a market (or a brave agent).

Labor Day came and went and I had no offer of representation. So I improvised. My blogging experience came in handy here as I embarked on an interactive marketing campaign. In a few weeks I had fans on my Facebook page, North Shore South Shore was being retweeted, my Pinterest page was filled with pictures of character’s clothing and cars, and I launched my Kickstarter project.

Kickstarter — aside from being a hot web property right now — provided a great platform for me as an author (and possibly as a publisher). I used the incentives application to create fun rewards for possible backers. And, thanks to my husband, I have a great video, replete with a guest appearance from my two-year-old son and a gag reel. Moreover, even if my Kickstarter campaign isn’t fully funded, I’ve harnessed a popular site to build awareness about North Shore South Shore.

The campaign ends this week, so go check it out. Check out the rewards. Pledges can be as little as a dollar but a thousand bucks gets your name in my book. Yes, you can be a character in North Shore South Shore! Contribute if you can. Kickstarter’s partnership with Amazon makes pledging easy and safe.