The Key Ingredient: Enthusiasm
To some of you this may sound like some rah-rah, Pollyanna-esque piece of marketing fluff, but the bottom line is enthusiasm is the fuel for self-promotion. Without it, your self-promoting vehicle (that would be you) will find itself sitting in the driveway, possibly looking pretty, but going nowhere.
I speak from experience –engaging my own enthusiasm and experiencing and observing others’.
Case-in-point: Book Expo America.
I am not being biased when I say that everyone of us from DPP was on their own wave of enthusiasm at BEA—excited about being at the event itself, passionate about our company and the services we provide, and eager to meet with all the different people we could help, or could help us, or who we could cross-collaborate and/or network with.
It showed in our faces, in our voices, and in our body language. Of course we all have different styles, different ways we approach people and talk about the company, our services— different ways our personalities come out and come across. But the commonality was every one of us was enthusiastic. And it paid off.
We came away from the show with an amazing number of contacts, and a good number of contracts.
We were also told by several of the vendors exhibiting around us how much fun we were to share a “row” with, what a great working environment we must have on a daily basis! Our enthusiasm shone through, caught on, and caught the attention of a number of people. Many, potential clients.
Most people like to be around enthusiastic people. There are people whoever, who don’t. No matter how excited, passionate, and open-hearted you are, there’s always one (or two, or three) who will not join in your delight. However, I have learned that you can’t let these people burst your bubble. In these cases, I try to maintain my enthusiasm and move on to the next person.
The cool thing is, I never know when the good energy I put out might just come back to me through those unlikely, seemingly- non-respondent people.
Even those that seem less than excited to talk with you and hear about your company (or, in most of your cases, your book), are often carefully listening, and if they respond later (by contacting you, or coming back to visit you) then your enthusiasm was not for naught.
At BEA we had an opportunity to speak with a great many authors. There were many authors who had rented booths to promote their books (expensive, but I believe most of them got their money’s worth), and there were many who simply walked around from booth to booth touting their book(s) to the myriad of publishers and agents.
For the most part, their enthusiasm was contagious as well. Those authors spoke passionately about their book(s) made a lasting impression on each of us. Some used gimmicks (and please, think of “gimmick” in a positive context here, as I know it can conjure up negative reactions) and some simply talked about their book.
One children’s book had a Western theme to it and was being heralded about the Expo floor by the author and her friends dressed in 19th century Western wear, passing out “sheriff badges” with the name of the book inscribed on them.
A family-run small publishing company had a booth on our row, and they used all kinds of marketing paraphernalia: really big book bags in a bright color that matched the color in their company’s name – those were the hit of the Expo! Everyone was walking around with one of their bags! They also had some amazing marketing paraphernalia to get the word out about their newest book, written by the father and one of the daughters.
The main thing about the two cases mentioned above (the family-owned publishing company and the children’s author), was that they were all so gung-ho. Incredibly friendly, excited to talk about their book and engage – with everybody!
The motivational speaker and author, Zig Ziglar once said: “For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.”
For many of us, self-promotion is a loathsome thing. How do you put yourself out there without coming across as boastful or grandiose? How do you “plug” yourself and your book without being pushy or even obnoxious? The answer, I believe, is genuine enthusiasm.
In her book The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard), Jill Badonsky channels the Muse, Audacity, who encourages, “if you’re not having fun, reconsider what you’re doing.” Let’s be honest – not everything about marketing is enjoyable, however, approaching marketing with a sense of fun, with enthusiasm, is going to bring about far better results than not.
E = MC².
In other words: Enthusiasm equals Marketing Conductivity Multiplied!
Call it Nicky’s Theory of Marketivity, if you will (and if you won’t, then call it something else). But use it!
You can think about this theory in a couple of different ways:
1) Think of yourself as the conductor of your very own marketing orchestra: you decide what instruments (marketing tools) are going to play when - which ones will lead, which ones will follow; which ones are going to be featured and which ones will take a backseat; which ones will play the ongoing rhythm, while others may be jazzing it up – improvising. Add a tuba-full of enthusiasm. Or…
2) Think of yourself as a conduit for marketing – through you: what you say, how you act, who you reach out to, where you go, what you’re willing to do will determine how much exposure and sales come your way. Pave your path with gusto and zest.
3) Mix these two up: Conduct your conduit! Use one, two, or all the marketing tools in your arsenal and put yourself in contact with, and places where, you can get the most possible exposure. Add mirthful fervor to each and every step.
There are actually more ways to approach your marketing – but as long as you add enthusiasm you will always wind up with E = MC². Theory that it may be, I’ve seen it put to practice time and time again, and proved the theory true. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Author! Author!
Paying Attention
by Fredric M. Ham
I cannot count the number of times that I heard my high school history teacher say, “Not another word out of you, or you’re off to the Principal’s office. You’d better pay attention.” However, I could have probably blamed my situation on Marsha who sat next to me in history class. She was very distracting. But that’s another story.
So what does this have to do with writing? I say everything. I think the best writers are those who pay attention to everything that’s going on around them no matter where they are or what they’re doing, and they can shut off the world around them when it’s an absolute necessity (this is also paying attention, but introspectively).
I will begin with the former premise, and cite an example. Let’s say I’m sitting on a wood and wrought-iron bench in a small park somewhere in New York City. Fall is in full force, there’s not a cloud in the sky, and the leaves have changed color. What was once lush, green foliage topping the trees is now yellow and crimson clusters everywhere I turn. There’s a nip in the air and I am so deeply engrossed in a novel that I’m off in another dimension. However, out of the corner of my eye I notice two men, probably in their early twenties, plop down on an identical bench opposite mine. They begin speaking, and it’s my trained mind that tells me to stop reading and start paying attention to them. Now I pretend that I’m still reading, but really I’m listening in and peering over the top of my paperback that I’m holding chest high.
I sense that there is going to be something said that will be of interest to me. So I tune in. I’m paying attention for the sake of building my DIALOGUE database for writing fiction. I believe that listening to others engaged in conversation (I’m not suggesting eavesdropping; face it, I was on my park bench first.) can truly serve to improve the writing of realistic and gripping dialogue. The exchange between these two individuals is so rich in dialogue potential, it’s like being in Häagen-Dazs conversation heaven.
It goes like this:
One of the men on the bench is leaning backwards, his hands are locked behind his head and he’s peering skyward (he is Mr. Upright), the other has his elbows planted on his thighs and his forehead resting on the palms of his hands (he is Mr. Uptight).
“What’s up with you, Man?” Upright asks.
“Man, I don’t know,” Uptight says, then exhales heavily.
“What’s it been, a couple of months now?”
“Yup, I quit about three months ago,” Uptight explains. “Haven’t had a crack attack for weeks now.”
“Then why are you so uptight?”
“I don’t know, I’ve been off everything for months and I’m still disturbed.” Uptight straightens up, leans back on the bench, and then runs his right hand through a mop of thick black hair. “Damn!” he moans.
Upright’s eyes sadden. “That’s messed up, Dude.”
I overheard this conversation in a park in Greenwich Village three years ago. Even though this is a very sad situation, it’s rich in true-to-life dialogue. For me it reinforces the importance of realism that must be at the core of any dialogue that I write. I have never directly used these lines in anything that I’ve written, but I certainly recall the conversation (among others that I have written down over the years) when crafting dialogue that I want to ring true with titillating and intoxicating realism. I try to listen in and write down what I hear. I carry a small spiral notebook and an ink pen with me wherever I go and jot down what I think are interesting snippets of conversation.
Then when is it time to stay in my own world and shut out the real world? When I’m writing, of course. I climb into my story and experience it, and in some cases even discover it, as I’m writing. What do the following cities have in common?
Maeva Beach, Tahiti San Francisco
New York City Chalkida, Greece
Hudson, Florida Seattle
Montreal Washington, DC
San Diego Cancun
Honolulu Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Paris Indialantic, Florida
These are the various locations where I have had the opportunity to write, and in many of them I wrote parts of Dead River. When I wasn’t enjoying the sights, sounds and conversations around me, I was in my hotel room (or my study at home) writing, in my world.
Fredric M. Ham was born and raised in a small Iowa town. After graduating high school, he served in the U.S. Navy which included three tours of duty in Vietnam. After the Navy, Fred attended Iowa State University earning B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical engineering. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States and around the world. He has explored the Far East and studied various cultures. His many years of research and writing experience have led to over a hundred published technical papers, a textbook on artificial neural networks, and the holding of three United States patents. He is currently an Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology where he has been on the faculty since 1988. Dead River is his first novel. He has written several short stories and is currently working on his second novel. He resides in Indialantic, Florida with his wife.
Dead River, by Fred Ham: Adam Riley’s world is suddenly shattered when his seventeen-year-old daughter, Sara Ann, mysteriously vanishes from a small Florida beach community on a sweltering afternoon in late summer. Three days after her disappearance the abductor calls the Riley home, and when he doesn’t demand ransom money it quickly becomes apparent to everyone that his sole motive is to torment the family. The horror is only beginning.
With no clues evident to the local authorities they turn to the FBI for assistance. The clock is ticking and the kidnapper must be found. Who is this person? What motivates him? Who could be next? The FBI profiler tries to answer these questions, but the terror sweeps through the beach community like a hurricane and soon it spreads to a near-by town.
What happens to a man whose daughter has been kidnapped? To what lengths will Adam Riley go to ensure justice is served? Can his religious beliefs provide a moral compass and guide him in the right direction? Only time will tell.
Dead River, by Fred Ham and published under the PulpBytes Imprint (2006) is available in eBook format at the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com) for $8.95
Please visit Fredric Ham's website: www.fredricmham.com
by Fredric M. Ham
I cannot count the number of times that I heard my high school history teacher say, “Not another word out of you, or you’re off to the Principal’s office. You’d better pay attention.” However, I could have probably blamed my situation on Marsha who sat next to me in history class. She was very distracting. But that’s another story.
So what does this have to do with writing? I say everything. I think the best writers are those who pay attention to everything that’s going on around them no matter where they are or what they’re doing, and they can shut off the world around them when it’s an absolute necessity (this is also paying attention, but introspectively).
I will begin with the former premise, and cite an example. Let’s say I’m sitting on a wood and wrought-iron bench in a small park somewhere in New York City. Fall is in full force, there’s not a cloud in the sky, and the leaves have changed color. What was once lush, green foliage topping the trees is now yellow and crimson clusters everywhere I turn. There’s a nip in the air and I am so deeply engrossed in a novel that I’m off in another dimension. However, out of the corner of my eye I notice two men, probably in their early twenties, plop down on an identical bench opposite mine. They begin speaking, and it’s my trained mind that tells me to stop reading and start paying attention to them. Now I pretend that I’m still reading, but really I’m listening in and peering over the top of my paperback that I’m holding chest high.
I sense that there is going to be something said that will be of interest to me. So I tune in. I’m paying attention for the sake of building my DIALOGUE database for writing fiction. I believe that listening to others engaged in conversation (I’m not suggesting eavesdropping; face it, I was on my park bench first.) can truly serve to improve the writing of realistic and gripping dialogue. The exchange between these two individuals is so rich in dialogue potential, it’s like being in Häagen-Dazs conversation heaven.
It goes like this:
One of the men on the bench is leaning backwards, his hands are locked behind his head and he’s peering skyward (he is Mr. Upright), the other has his elbows planted on his thighs and his forehead resting on the palms of his hands (he is Mr. Uptight).
“What’s up with you, Man?” Upright asks.
“Man, I don’t know,” Uptight says, then exhales heavily.
“What’s it been, a couple of months now?”
“Yup, I quit about three months ago,” Uptight explains. “Haven’t had a crack attack for weeks now.”
“Then why are you so uptight?”
“I don’t know, I’ve been off everything for months and I’m still disturbed.” Uptight straightens up, leans back on the bench, and then runs his right hand through a mop of thick black hair. “Damn!” he moans.
Upright’s eyes sadden. “That’s messed up, Dude.”
I overheard this conversation in a park in Greenwich Village three years ago. Even though this is a very sad situation, it’s rich in true-to-life dialogue. For me it reinforces the importance of realism that must be at the core of any dialogue that I write. I have never directly used these lines in anything that I’ve written, but I certainly recall the conversation (among others that I have written down over the years) when crafting dialogue that I want to ring true with titillating and intoxicating realism. I try to listen in and write down what I hear. I carry a small spiral notebook and an ink pen with me wherever I go and jot down what I think are interesting snippets of conversation.
Then when is it time to stay in my own world and shut out the real world? When I’m writing, of course. I climb into my story and experience it, and in some cases even discover it, as I’m writing. What do the following cities have in common?
Maeva Beach, Tahiti San Francisco
New York City Chalkida, Greece
Hudson, Florida Seattle
Montreal Washington, DC
San Diego Cancun
Honolulu Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Paris Indialantic, Florida
These are the various locations where I have had the opportunity to write, and in many of them I wrote parts of Dead River. When I wasn’t enjoying the sights, sounds and conversations around me, I was in my hotel room (or my study at home) writing, in my world.
Fredric M. Ham was born and raised in a small Iowa town. After graduating high school, he served in the U.S. Navy which included three tours of duty in Vietnam. After the Navy, Fred attended Iowa State University earning B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical engineering. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States and around the world. He has explored the Far East and studied various cultures. His many years of research and writing experience have led to over a hundred published technical papers, a textbook on artificial neural networks, and the holding of three United States patents. He is currently an Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology where he has been on the faculty since 1988. Dead River is his first novel. He has written several short stories and is currently working on his second novel. He resides in Indialantic, Florida with his wife.
Dead River, by Fred Ham: Adam Riley’s world is suddenly shattered when his seventeen-year-old daughter, Sara Ann, mysteriously vanishes from a small Florida beach community on a sweltering afternoon in late summer. Three days after her disappearance the abductor calls the Riley home, and when he doesn’t demand ransom money it quickly becomes apparent to everyone that his sole motive is to torment the family. The horror is only beginning.
With no clues evident to the local authorities they turn to the FBI for assistance. The clock is ticking and the kidnapper must be found. Who is this person? What motivates him? Who could be next? The FBI profiler tries to answer these questions, but the terror sweeps through the beach community like a hurricane and soon it spreads to a near-by town.
What happens to a man whose daughter has been kidnapped? To what lengths will Adam Riley go to ensure justice is served? Can his religious beliefs provide a moral compass and guide him in the right direction? Only time will tell.
Dead River, by Fred Ham and published under the PulpBytes Imprint (2006) is available in eBook format at the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com) for $8.95
Please visit Fredric Ham's website: www.fredricmham.com
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Response to Limerick Prompt
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Publisher's Prompt
Limerick Day falls on May 12. For fun and for kicks, write a limerick about anything you'd like...or, if you are so inspired and propelled to do so, write several. Post 'em here on the blog or send 'em to me: nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com and I'll post 'em for ya!
Author! Author!
Innerview
With John Bourne
In your essay, Law & Grace, you said that you don’t really have a “particular system of writing”, but do you have a particular time of day or a set amount of hours that you adhere to, or do you simply write when the spirit moves you?
I have a leisurely breakfast and try to sharpen my mind with a Su doku quiz. Then I go to my study and begin work. Sometimes the writing flows, and sometimes it is a real struggle. If I can’t work, I go for a walk along the seafront, always good for the mind and the body. I stop for lunch, a quick lunch if the writing is working or a longer one if it isn’t. At one time, I would work on through the evening and into the early hours. Now I discipline myself to stop by 6 pm. I write 6 days a week. I have just finished writing another novel, ‘The Depths Within’, and will start the next book very shortly.
Which makes this next question “iffy” – contingent on the first: What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?
As the previous question really. I do have a good imagination and live the stories as I write them, that does help in avoiding ‘writers block’, at least it does, so far. It also makes me change the plot as I go on, because sometimes I become so upset as I am about to kill off a character, that I change it!
What is your ideal writing environment?
I use a laptop computer so I can be flexible. However, I am most comfortable in my study, the cat alongside me and a radio playing quietly in the background.
What authors inspire you most?
I guess my favourite author is Bernard Cornwell. He writes historical fiction and is very talented in bringing to life whatever he tackles, from Alfred the Great to the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War. I read as much history and historical fiction as I can find. I will read any author who deals with the subject. I love history and it has so much to teach us.
What I really appreciated about The Death of Innocence was that I never felt conked over the head with what was morally “right”…it was left to Mark Green, the protagonist, and me the reader to decide. I’m wondering if you conduct your sermons the same way…?
One of the first things I learned as a Prison Chaplain was “There but for the grace of God, go I”. If I approached people from a position of assumed superiority, I would never be able to relate to them. We all make mistakes, and have no cause for smugness. In the parish, I quickly learned not to talk at people but with them. To preach to myself as much as to anyone else. So I guess that I want people to reach their own decisions, I try to put up metaphorical sign posts pointing to the right decisions and hope and pray that people will arrive there by themselves.
Temptation is a fascinating subject. Do you plan to explore it again in future books? Any ideas you can/would like to share with us?
Temptation is a fascinating subject that I will undoubtedly return to. I have a plot in mind when one of the hero’s of ‘Death of Innocence’, succumbs to the temptation to employ illegal violence, resulting in far-reaching consequences. The more I think about temptation, the more far-reaching it is. Every day is full of temptations, big and small. Their effect on us varies, for we are all open to some temptations more than others. For the effect of succumbing, look at the quote I offer in answer to the last question.
Is there ever a temptation that is worth succumbing to?
I don’t think it would be a good idea to answer that one? If I was forced to I would say no. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t succumb, but I would try not to.
Favorite quote?
I don’t know where it comes from, but it is a good pointer to think before we speak or act!
Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
With John Bourne
In your essay, Law & Grace, you said that you don’t really have a “particular system of writing”, but do you have a particular time of day or a set amount of hours that you adhere to, or do you simply write when the spirit moves you?
I have a leisurely breakfast and try to sharpen my mind with a Su doku quiz. Then I go to my study and begin work. Sometimes the writing flows, and sometimes it is a real struggle. If I can’t work, I go for a walk along the seafront, always good for the mind and the body. I stop for lunch, a quick lunch if the writing is working or a longer one if it isn’t. At one time, I would work on through the evening and into the early hours. Now I discipline myself to stop by 6 pm. I write 6 days a week. I have just finished writing another novel, ‘The Depths Within’, and will start the next book very shortly.
Which makes this next question “iffy” – contingent on the first: What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?
As the previous question really. I do have a good imagination and live the stories as I write them, that does help in avoiding ‘writers block’, at least it does, so far. It also makes me change the plot as I go on, because sometimes I become so upset as I am about to kill off a character, that I change it!
What is your ideal writing environment?
I use a laptop computer so I can be flexible. However, I am most comfortable in my study, the cat alongside me and a radio playing quietly in the background.
What authors inspire you most?
I guess my favourite author is Bernard Cornwell. He writes historical fiction and is very talented in bringing to life whatever he tackles, from Alfred the Great to the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War. I read as much history and historical fiction as I can find. I will read any author who deals with the subject. I love history and it has so much to teach us.
What I really appreciated about The Death of Innocence was that I never felt conked over the head with what was morally “right”…it was left to Mark Green, the protagonist, and me the reader to decide. I’m wondering if you conduct your sermons the same way…?
One of the first things I learned as a Prison Chaplain was “There but for the grace of God, go I”. If I approached people from a position of assumed superiority, I would never be able to relate to them. We all make mistakes, and have no cause for smugness. In the parish, I quickly learned not to talk at people but with them. To preach to myself as much as to anyone else. So I guess that I want people to reach their own decisions, I try to put up metaphorical sign posts pointing to the right decisions and hope and pray that people will arrive there by themselves.
Temptation is a fascinating subject. Do you plan to explore it again in future books? Any ideas you can/would like to share with us?
Temptation is a fascinating subject that I will undoubtedly return to. I have a plot in mind when one of the hero’s of ‘Death of Innocence’, succumbs to the temptation to employ illegal violence, resulting in far-reaching consequences. The more I think about temptation, the more far-reaching it is. Every day is full of temptations, big and small. Their effect on us varies, for we are all open to some temptations more than others. For the effect of succumbing, look at the quote I offer in answer to the last question.
Is there ever a temptation that is worth succumbing to?
I don’t think it would be a good idea to answer that one? If I was forced to I would say no. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t succumb, but I would try not to.
Favorite quote?
I don’t know where it comes from, but it is a good pointer to think before we speak or act!
Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
John Bourne was born in 1949 in Brighton, on the south coast of England. In 1970 he and his wife settled in Kent where John joined the Kent Police. In 1990, Bourne resigned to study for the Christian Ministry. He was ordained at Canterbury Cathedral in 1991 and became Vicar of Marden, Kent, and Chaplain of Her Majesty’s Prison Blantyre House. He retired in 2003 and has taken up writing, a long held ambition. In the last two years he has published one book, “Coppering the Cannon”, and two short stories. His novel, The Death of Innocence, is available at the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com).
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Publisher's Prompt
April 29 is the 93rd anniversary date of the Zipper Patent. Write a short story, poem, or song using zipper as the subject, or by simply using the word zipper somewhere in your piece.
Would love it if you'd share your writing. Either post it to the blog or send it to me and I will: nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com
Write on,
Nicky
Would love it if you'd share your writing. Either post it to the blog or send it to me and I will: nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com
Write on,
Nicky
You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!
Email: Expense-less, Easy & Effective!
Birds do it. Bees do it. Well, no, they don’t. But we do – email that is! Most of us do it as a routine form of communication – to send back and forth quick quips of information, to make plans, to submit manuscripts to ePublishers…At least [pretty much] anyone who is reading this newsletter does.
And, I bet, many of you have used email to promote yourselves and your book. If you have, keep reading for kicks (and maybe you’ll find a little tid-bit that you hadn’t used before). If you haven’t, read on and be dazzled beyond belief (well, perhaps not dazzled, but you might glean some good ideas to promote yourself and your book).
What I am about to reveal is no big secret. In fact, it’s pretty elementary. But the main thing about email marketing, and the thing that should drive you to utilize it, is that it’s expense-less, easy & it’s golly-gosh-dang effective! Can’t get much better than that!
Let’s start with the fact that email marketing is expense-less. It doesn’t cost one extra dime to send an email no matter how simple or how fancy, how short or how long, and no matter if you send it to one or one thousand people. It will cost you zip-zip-zippo in dollars to create and send. Which means that anyone with a computer and email access can afford to email market.
It’s Easy. You don’t have to leave your house or office to email market. You don’t have to speak to anyone. You can do it anytime you want – early morning, mid-afternoon, late at night, dusk, dawn – whatever works for you. You don’t have to worry about paper – grade, color, or whether it’s matte or glossy - packaging, or postage.
And last, but definitely not least, and probably best of all: email marketing is effective! Email reaches people. It gets to whomever you send it to and it gets there in a more than timely manner: it gets there immediately.
[Most] people read their email, especially if the subject line peaks their interest. This is in contrast to being handed a paper flyer or postcard on the street, which usually gets looked at (momentarily, if that), and either, a) dropped directly into the nearest trash receptacle, b) dropped (ecologically incorrectly) on the ground, c) folded up and put into a pocket of later-to-be-washed pants that come out of the dryer with bits of freshly-laundered paper everywhere, or d) into a purse, never to be seen again until…oh, maybe the following year.
Recipients of email marketing tend to respond more readily than to snail-mail paper marketing. Unless someone specifically wants a product or service – and wants the product or service you’re providing at the moment they receive it in the mail, the flyer/brochure/letter usually gets a) looked at briefly, then thrown in the trash, b) thrown in the trash, unopened; c) looked at briefly and put in a pile that sits for about a month and then gets thrown away, or d) not looked at all, put in a pile for about a month, and – you guessed it - thrown away.
Just as a sidebar, because I definitely feel that one is needed here: I am still a big believer in paper marketing, because depending on the venue and how it’s utilized, paper can do the trick. However, with paper comes cost: the paper itself, the printing, and the time (and often money) it takes to distribute. And right now we’re talking expense-less.
I’ve digressed (I know that shocks you). Stick with me: I promise I am getting to the meat.
The best way to demonstrate that email marketing truly is effective is to provide you with a “case study”. I am going to use one of my own experiences as an example.
My job at DPP is three-fold: To advocate and serve as liaison for our authors, to write and edit the bi-weekly periodical, NewsBytes, and to market the patooties out of DPP and get it as much press and exposure as possible.
There is a local radio talk show here in Palm Springs that airs daily called The Joey English Show. What I know about Joey is that she likes fun and she likes chocolate.
At the end of February I sent her an email. In the subject line I wrote: “A Great Recipe!”
I began the email with something catchy:
What do you get when you mix a local eBook publisher and
Small Press Month?
A great recipe for a segment on the Joey English Show
(with a dash of chocolate, of course)!
I got the fun and chocolate in there, I added a “hook” (Small Press Month, which BTW, is observed every year in March), and that we are local (that’s worth support in itself), and what we do (a little out of the ordinary – eBook publishers). I made it stand out with a different fonts (though the fun fonts in my email don't come out in my blog) and different colors. Following that I gave my pitch about who we are, small press month, and that we’d love to be on her show.
Know what? She emailed me back that day and said she’d love to have us on her show, BUT March was too busy, would I check back next month? Bummer, I thought. So much for Small Press Month! But, not to be defeated, and still left with an opening, I resolved to contact Joey again in April.
April brought to Palm Springs the Palm Springs Book Festival, and, by way of a solicitous email, I contacted the Palm Springs Writers Guild about getting table space at the Fest to display our paper materials (brochures, cards, postcards, flyers). I also let them know that we were available to speak about eBooks, marketing, and technology at any of their meetings.
Low and behold, we were given table space and we got Genene (co-founder and CEO of DPP) a speaking gig on one of the Festival panels.
There was my new hook! I sent the following letter to Joey English (yes, it’s long, so read the whole thing or skim it…the important parts are in red anyway, so look at those):
Hi, Joey!
Here I am again…Checking in the week of probably-one-of-your-favorite-days to eat chocolate (is there ever NOT a favorite day for you, I wonder?!): Easter!
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
I sent you an email at the end of February and you told me to get back to you this month. So just to remind you…
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
I represent DigitalPulp Publishing (DPP), an eBook publishing company located in Palm Springs. Founded just over a year ago, with new office space right in the heart of downtown (a hop, skip, and a jump away from you – we’re right above Jamba Juice), DPP was created to help authors, self- publishers and independent presses open a new distribution channel via eBooks by providing a free service that offers opportunities for increased exposure, sales and profits.
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
When I contacted you last time, it was coinciding with Small Publisher’s Month (March)…This time around, we have the Palm Springs Book Fest coming up and Easter! The PS Book Fest is pretty exciting, for all the obvious reasons. Easter is exciting because it sounds like the newly created holiday: eStir ! eStir was created to “stir up buzz about all things eWorthy…This is a great day to take time to email friends, family, and networking contacts about the new eBook you’re reading (or writing, or publishing, or selling); It’s a day to check out all the new eproducts on the market(or that will soon be on the market) – like the new Sony eReader; It’s a fabulous day to just explore and appreciate the positive benefits of all things e!” (For the origins of eStir, please open the attached newsletter and read the first column) (I had sent her an attachment).
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
With that all said, we at DPP would love the opportunity to guest on your show. The eBook and the small publishing industries are growing in leaps and bounds. Though many people are aware of eBooks, many people are not. There are many myths surrounding eBooks (i.e. they are going to replace traditional books. They’re not), and there are a great many benefits to them (i.e. you can carry 100 around with you at a time and the most it might weigh you down is a pound). Besides – how great to have some local yokels on your show who are in the publishing business when a big local event like the Palm Springs Book Fest is on!?!
Come, on, Joey – help us create a STIR: Have us on your show!
In the above email I
- Made it fun
- Made it current (used “hooks” – The Book Fest and “eStir”)
- CLEARLY asked for what I wanted
- Used multi-colors and multi-fonts
It was
- Expense-less
- Easy
- And Effective…
Joey phoned me that day (it was a Friday) and Genene was on her show the following Monday afternoon (we brought her chocolate, BTW). I sent a very short email out to the DPP emailing list that included Joey’s radio station logo and announced that Genene would be on air with the time and day. I also followed up the next day with an email “thank you”. None of it cost a dime (except the chocolate, which was, of course, optional)!
You can do the exact same thing with your book(s). Find a “hook”, don’t be afraid to have fun and ask for what you want.
My emails were simple. But I’ve seen all kinds of email marketing: beautiful flyers, photos, and MP3 offerings. They can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish or as you think they need to be. But they’re all expense-less, easy, and effective.
Add in a dash of creativity and repeat (if you can recall from the last marketing tip, persistence and repetition are key).
Email market. The bottom line: you have nothing to lose and only exposure (and perhaps, profits) to gain!
Birds do it. Bees do it. Well, no, they don’t. But we do – email that is! Most of us do it as a routine form of communication – to send back and forth quick quips of information, to make plans, to submit manuscripts to ePublishers…At least [pretty much] anyone who is reading this newsletter does.
And, I bet, many of you have used email to promote yourselves and your book. If you have, keep reading for kicks (and maybe you’ll find a little tid-bit that you hadn’t used before). If you haven’t, read on and be dazzled beyond belief (well, perhaps not dazzled, but you might glean some good ideas to promote yourself and your book).
What I am about to reveal is no big secret. In fact, it’s pretty elementary. But the main thing about email marketing, and the thing that should drive you to utilize it, is that it’s expense-less, easy & it’s golly-gosh-dang effective! Can’t get much better than that!
Let’s start with the fact that email marketing is expense-less. It doesn’t cost one extra dime to send an email no matter how simple or how fancy, how short or how long, and no matter if you send it to one or one thousand people. It will cost you zip-zip-zippo in dollars to create and send. Which means that anyone with a computer and email access can afford to email market.
It’s Easy. You don’t have to leave your house or office to email market. You don’t have to speak to anyone. You can do it anytime you want – early morning, mid-afternoon, late at night, dusk, dawn – whatever works for you. You don’t have to worry about paper – grade, color, or whether it’s matte or glossy - packaging, or postage.
And last, but definitely not least, and probably best of all: email marketing is effective! Email reaches people. It gets to whomever you send it to and it gets there in a more than timely manner: it gets there immediately.
[Most] people read their email, especially if the subject line peaks their interest. This is in contrast to being handed a paper flyer or postcard on the street, which usually gets looked at (momentarily, if that), and either, a) dropped directly into the nearest trash receptacle, b) dropped (ecologically incorrectly) on the ground, c) folded up and put into a pocket of later-to-be-washed pants that come out of the dryer with bits of freshly-laundered paper everywhere, or d) into a purse, never to be seen again until…oh, maybe the following year.
Recipients of email marketing tend to respond more readily than to snail-mail paper marketing. Unless someone specifically wants a product or service – and wants the product or service you’re providing at the moment they receive it in the mail, the flyer/brochure/letter usually gets a) looked at briefly, then thrown in the trash, b) thrown in the trash, unopened; c) looked at briefly and put in a pile that sits for about a month and then gets thrown away, or d) not looked at all, put in a pile for about a month, and – you guessed it - thrown away.
Just as a sidebar, because I definitely feel that one is needed here: I am still a big believer in paper marketing, because depending on the venue and how it’s utilized, paper can do the trick. However, with paper comes cost: the paper itself, the printing, and the time (and often money) it takes to distribute. And right now we’re talking expense-less.
I’ve digressed (I know that shocks you). Stick with me: I promise I am getting to the meat.
The best way to demonstrate that email marketing truly is effective is to provide you with a “case study”. I am going to use one of my own experiences as an example.
My job at DPP is three-fold: To advocate and serve as liaison for our authors, to write and edit the bi-weekly periodical, NewsBytes, and to market the patooties out of DPP and get it as much press and exposure as possible.
There is a local radio talk show here in Palm Springs that airs daily called The Joey English Show. What I know about Joey is that she likes fun and she likes chocolate.
At the end of February I sent her an email. In the subject line I wrote: “A Great Recipe!”
I began the email with something catchy:
What do you get when you mix a local eBook publisher and
Small Press Month?
A great recipe for a segment on the Joey English Show
(with a dash of chocolate, of course)!
I got the fun and chocolate in there, I added a “hook” (Small Press Month, which BTW, is observed every year in March), and that we are local (that’s worth support in itself), and what we do (a little out of the ordinary – eBook publishers). I made it stand out with a different fonts (though the fun fonts in my email don't come out in my blog) and different colors. Following that I gave my pitch about who we are, small press month, and that we’d love to be on her show.
Know what? She emailed me back that day and said she’d love to have us on her show, BUT March was too busy, would I check back next month? Bummer, I thought. So much for Small Press Month! But, not to be defeated, and still left with an opening, I resolved to contact Joey again in April.
April brought to Palm Springs the Palm Springs Book Festival, and, by way of a solicitous email, I contacted the Palm Springs Writers Guild about getting table space at the Fest to display our paper materials (brochures, cards, postcards, flyers). I also let them know that we were available to speak about eBooks, marketing, and technology at any of their meetings.
Low and behold, we were given table space and we got Genene (co-founder and CEO of DPP) a speaking gig on one of the Festival panels.
There was my new hook! I sent the following letter to Joey English (yes, it’s long, so read the whole thing or skim it…the important parts are in red anyway, so look at those):
Hi, Joey!
Here I am again…Checking in the week of probably-one-of-your-favorite-days to eat chocolate (is there ever NOT a favorite day for you, I wonder?!): Easter!
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
I sent you an email at the end of February and you told me to get back to you this month. So just to remind you…
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
I represent DigitalPulp Publishing (DPP), an eBook publishing company located in Palm Springs. Founded just over a year ago, with new office space right in the heart of downtown (a hop, skip, and a jump away from you – we’re right above Jamba Juice), DPP was created to help authors, self- publishers and independent presses open a new distribution channel via eBooks by providing a free service that offers opportunities for increased exposure, sales and profits.
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
When I contacted you last time, it was coinciding with Small Publisher’s Month (March)…This time around, we have the Palm Springs Book Fest coming up and Easter! The PS Book Fest is pretty exciting, for all the obvious reasons. Easter is exciting because it sounds like the newly created holiday: eStir ! eStir was created to “stir up buzz about all things eWorthy…This is a great day to take time to email friends, family, and networking contacts about the new eBook you’re reading (or writing, or publishing, or selling); It’s a day to check out all the new eproducts on the market(or that will soon be on the market) – like the new Sony eReader; It’s a fabulous day to just explore and appreciate the positive benefits of all things e!” (For the origins of eStir, please open the attached newsletter and read the first column) (I had sent her an attachment).
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
With that all said, we at DPP would love the opportunity to guest on your show. The eBook and the small publishing industries are growing in leaps and bounds. Though many people are aware of eBooks, many people are not. There are many myths surrounding eBooks (i.e. they are going to replace traditional books. They’re not), and there are a great many benefits to them (i.e. you can carry 100 around with you at a time and the most it might weigh you down is a pound). Besides – how great to have some local yokels on your show who are in the publishing business when a big local event like the Palm Springs Book Fest is on!?!
Come, on, Joey – help us create a STIR: Have us on your show!
In the above email I
- Made it fun
- Made it current (used “hooks” – The Book Fest and “eStir”)
- CLEARLY asked for what I wanted
- Used multi-colors and multi-fonts
It was
- Expense-less
- Easy
- And Effective…
Joey phoned me that day (it was a Friday) and Genene was on her show the following Monday afternoon (we brought her chocolate, BTW). I sent a very short email out to the DPP emailing list that included Joey’s radio station logo and announced that Genene would be on air with the time and day. I also followed up the next day with an email “thank you”. None of it cost a dime (except the chocolate, which was, of course, optional)!
You can do the exact same thing with your book(s). Find a “hook”, don’t be afraid to have fun and ask for what you want.
My emails were simple. But I’ve seen all kinds of email marketing: beautiful flyers, photos, and MP3 offerings. They can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish or as you think they need to be. But they’re all expense-less, easy, and effective.
Add in a dash of creativity and repeat (if you can recall from the last marketing tip, persistence and repetition are key).
Email market. The bottom line: you have nothing to lose and only exposure (and perhaps, profits) to gain!
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Author! Author!
Law and Grace
by John Bourne
For more than 18 years of my life, I served as a Police Officer in Kent, in southeast England. In that time I saw many dreadful sights, I saw the depths that human behaviour can sink to, I saw and experienced hatred and violence. I also found comradeship, courage and human decency in adversity. As part of the self-discipline that being a Police Officer requires I kept a diary of those years, and learned to be a student of human behaviour in all its many forms.
After 18 years of service, I experienced the call of God into the Christian Ministry and left the Police to begin training for the ministry.
During this time, I had the opportunity to visit one of the world’s poorest countries. We live a privileged life in the West compared to so many of our neighbours in the so-called Third World. We have all been touched by television and newspaper reports of starvation and drought and its terrible consequences for millions of people. Most of us have seen so many images that suffering has less impact on us, we become tired of requests for help and our hearts can become hard and our purse strings closed. However, if we actually went to a poor country, walked among the poverty, saw the suffering, smelt the decay; surely then the effect would be life-long. That was certainly true for me, when I visited Bangladesh in 1989 with four friends. It was for all us, a life changing experience, an experience that we desperately wanted to convey to others. One of the ways we sought to convey something of our experience was by means of a diary. I kept notes during the visit and produced a 60-page diary on our return. The diary sold over 1000 copies and attracted many comments about the writing. The reaction to it struck a chord with me, I had always enjoyed writing and hoped to have the time, one day, to do some more.
The following year I completed my training for the Christian ministry and was ordained into the Church of England. Over the next dozen years, I managed to revisit Bangladesh twice more, cycle 300 odd miles from Kent to Cornwall to raise funds for the Church, go on a mercy mission to Romania and form a link with a disadvantaged parish in inner city Liverpool. After each adventure, I wrote and produced a diary. They circulated within Church circles and were all well received, and each one kept my interest in writing alive.
One of the things that worried me about being a Vicar was the requirement to preach at least once, and often three times or more every week. What could one say that was different, week in and week out? I liked the story of the new Vicar who delivered his first sermon on how Christians should show the love of Christ in their lives. It was a great sermon and warmly received. The next Sunday he preached exactly the same sermon, and the Sunday after that, and the Sunday after that. A Churchwarden was given the task of challenging him about this, which he duly did. The Vicar replied; “When you are all living out the love of Christ I’m preaching about I will move on to another subject!” I found that the way to prepare a different sermon every week was to continue with some of the discipline from my police days; to be a student of human nature, an enthusiast for current affairs, an observer of life and nature. From those sources there would be endless material to build a sermon on, applying the word of God to everyday circumstances.
Ill health forced me to retire in 2003 and I moved to the Sussex Coast. Finally, I had some free time. I now spend my days in writing. My first book Coppering The Cannon was about my first 6 years in the Police. Death of Innocence followed, together with quite a few short stories. I am just completing another novel before embarking on the task of finding a publisher. I have the plot for another novel in note form and I want to write some more biographical books, including my journey into the Church. I have much to learn, I am far from the finished article, but they say ‘practice makes perfect’. I do not believe that perfection is attainable but improvement and proficiency are. I have no particular system of writing. I try to have an outline prepared and then work to it. I am not the most disciplined of writers so I do meander away from my plan. I like to imagine the scene and I live the story and sometimes feel led in another direction or the idea does not work. In the novel I am working on now, I had plotted out the story, which involved the death of a group of people. When I came to write it, I lived the story and became so upset at the deaths that I changed it. The power of being a writer!
The idea for Death of Innocence came from my experiences in the police, where temptation is something often encountered. It comes in many forms but always has consequences. In my story temptation arises which seems to have no consequences, but of course it does. If one thinks about it, nearly every time anyone succumbs to temptation they do so believing that they will get away with it. Prisons are full of people who made that mistake, and for every one in prison there are many others who avoided that penalty, but have to live with disgrace or shame, the pointing finger, the reluctance to trust again or any other of the myriad consequences of yielding to temptation. In my story the consequences of temptation are awful, the discovery of unsuspected depths of evil shocking, and the call to reassess life’s values compelling. I enjoyed writing it; I hope you will enjoy reading it.
John Bourne was born in 1949 in Brighton, on the south coast of England. In 1970 he and his wife settled in Kent where John joined the Kent Police. In 1990, Bourne resigned to study for the Christian Ministry. He was ordained at Canterbury Cathedral in 1991 and became Vicar of Marden, Kent, and Chaplain of Her Majesty’s Prison Blantyre House. He retired in 2003 and has taken up writing, a long held ambition. In the last two years he has published one book, “Coppering the Cannon”, and two short stories.
The Death of Innocence by John Bourne is available in eBook format at the DPPstore, www.dppstore.com
by John Bourne
For more than 18 years of my life, I served as a Police Officer in Kent, in southeast England. In that time I saw many dreadful sights, I saw the depths that human behaviour can sink to, I saw and experienced hatred and violence. I also found comradeship, courage and human decency in adversity. As part of the self-discipline that being a Police Officer requires I kept a diary of those years, and learned to be a student of human behaviour in all its many forms.
After 18 years of service, I experienced the call of God into the Christian Ministry and left the Police to begin training for the ministry.
During this time, I had the opportunity to visit one of the world’s poorest countries. We live a privileged life in the West compared to so many of our neighbours in the so-called Third World. We have all been touched by television and newspaper reports of starvation and drought and its terrible consequences for millions of people. Most of us have seen so many images that suffering has less impact on us, we become tired of requests for help and our hearts can become hard and our purse strings closed. However, if we actually went to a poor country, walked among the poverty, saw the suffering, smelt the decay; surely then the effect would be life-long. That was certainly true for me, when I visited Bangladesh in 1989 with four friends. It was for all us, a life changing experience, an experience that we desperately wanted to convey to others. One of the ways we sought to convey something of our experience was by means of a diary. I kept notes during the visit and produced a 60-page diary on our return. The diary sold over 1000 copies and attracted many comments about the writing. The reaction to it struck a chord with me, I had always enjoyed writing and hoped to have the time, one day, to do some more.
The following year I completed my training for the Christian ministry and was ordained into the Church of England. Over the next dozen years, I managed to revisit Bangladesh twice more, cycle 300 odd miles from Kent to Cornwall to raise funds for the Church, go on a mercy mission to Romania and form a link with a disadvantaged parish in inner city Liverpool. After each adventure, I wrote and produced a diary. They circulated within Church circles and were all well received, and each one kept my interest in writing alive.
One of the things that worried me about being a Vicar was the requirement to preach at least once, and often three times or more every week. What could one say that was different, week in and week out? I liked the story of the new Vicar who delivered his first sermon on how Christians should show the love of Christ in their lives. It was a great sermon and warmly received. The next Sunday he preached exactly the same sermon, and the Sunday after that, and the Sunday after that. A Churchwarden was given the task of challenging him about this, which he duly did. The Vicar replied; “When you are all living out the love of Christ I’m preaching about I will move on to another subject!” I found that the way to prepare a different sermon every week was to continue with some of the discipline from my police days; to be a student of human nature, an enthusiast for current affairs, an observer of life and nature. From those sources there would be endless material to build a sermon on, applying the word of God to everyday circumstances.
Ill health forced me to retire in 2003 and I moved to the Sussex Coast. Finally, I had some free time. I now spend my days in writing. My first book Coppering The Cannon was about my first 6 years in the Police. Death of Innocence followed, together with quite a few short stories. I am just completing another novel before embarking on the task of finding a publisher. I have the plot for another novel in note form and I want to write some more biographical books, including my journey into the Church. I have much to learn, I am far from the finished article, but they say ‘practice makes perfect’. I do not believe that perfection is attainable but improvement and proficiency are. I have no particular system of writing. I try to have an outline prepared and then work to it. I am not the most disciplined of writers so I do meander away from my plan. I like to imagine the scene and I live the story and sometimes feel led in another direction or the idea does not work. In the novel I am working on now, I had plotted out the story, which involved the death of a group of people. When I came to write it, I lived the story and became so upset at the deaths that I changed it. The power of being a writer!
The idea for Death of Innocence came from my experiences in the police, where temptation is something often encountered. It comes in many forms but always has consequences. In my story temptation arises which seems to have no consequences, but of course it does. If one thinks about it, nearly every time anyone succumbs to temptation they do so believing that they will get away with it. Prisons are full of people who made that mistake, and for every one in prison there are many others who avoided that penalty, but have to live with disgrace or shame, the pointing finger, the reluctance to trust again or any other of the myriad consequences of yielding to temptation. In my story the consequences of temptation are awful, the discovery of unsuspected depths of evil shocking, and the call to reassess life’s values compelling. I enjoyed writing it; I hope you will enjoy reading it.
John Bourne was born in 1949 in Brighton, on the south coast of England. In 1970 he and his wife settled in Kent where John joined the Kent Police. In 1990, Bourne resigned to study for the Christian Ministry. He was ordained at Canterbury Cathedral in 1991 and became Vicar of Marden, Kent, and Chaplain of Her Majesty’s Prison Blantyre House. He retired in 2003 and has taken up writing, a long held ambition. In the last two years he has published one book, “Coppering the Cannon”, and two short stories.
The Death of Innocence by John Bourne is available in eBook format at the DPPstore, www.dppstore.com
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!
Guerrilla Marketing: Go Bananas!
Chase’s Calendar of Events © cites April 12 as “Walk on the Wild Side Day”. On this day we are encouraged to do the unexpected, such as going “to work dressed like a gorilla”. This idea sent my head spinning: Why not go to work thinking like a guerrilla?!
Coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, guerrilla marketing is “unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.” In other words, it’s getting creative with what you’ve got, what you can get, what you do, what you can do, who you know, who you can meet— it’s out of the box thinking and out of the box doing!
For most authors, self-publishers, and independent presses, time is short and money tight. Most [traditional] advertising is way out of our realm and hiring a publicist is something we would do...if we won the lottery (see Nicky’s Narrative above—there is always hope!). So what do you do when you don’t have all the resources available to you that you would like? As an old acting teacher of mine used to [repeatedly] tell me: “Work with what you have; not with what you want.”
Without using the Levinson terminology, all the previous marketing tips that have found their way into these newsletters have been types of guerrilla marketing. So don’t let the term, itself, scare you. In this issue, were just giving it some focus.
What gets me going about guerrilla marketing, first off, is simply the name. “Guerrilla” makes me think action. It sounds exciting…and off the beaten path – which is good. It’s like taking the road less traveled…which makes all the difference, doesn’t it?!
The name also makes me think : “Gorilla” – which leads me to think of all the things that go with it, like swinging around from vine to vine, beating my chest - “going ape”, “going bananas”, “it’s a jungle out there”, “monkeying around”….You get the picture: Fun. Wild. Reckless abandon.
At this moment you might be saying to yourself…”There she goes again – what is her point?” I’ll tell you: part of the point is getting to the point. It’s the excitement and enthusiasm that comes from the fun of conceiving new ideas and then having the moxie to implement them! The gusto to network and make contacts and the zest for building relationships are key principles when all is said and done.
Tenacity, persistence, and repetition coupled with out-of-the-box thinking – are all key, key, key and key components when it comes to guerrilla marketing. gmarketing.com has this posted on their site as the “Guerrilla Marketing Tip of the Day”:
When people request and receive more information, what happens? 59% file the information for future reference; 20% buy the product or service; 12% pass the information along to others; 9% buy a competitive product.
Continuing to get your book - and information about your book - publicized, and by repetitively targeting the same audience over and over puts your book and keeps your book in the eyes and minds of the people you’re marketing to. More typically than not, the name recognition, the subject recognition – the familiarity – will either, a) eventually get one of these people to buy your book, 2) lead them to tell someone else about your book, and this someone else will buy the book, and/or, 3) this someone else will tell someone else, and…or maybe the worst case scenario: someone might tell someone about your book. This someone else visits the DPPstore (or your own website, or wherever else you have your eBook posted). They may not buy your book, but perhaps they buy someone else’s. This would be “good book karma” (yes, I just made up the term – but I like it, and it makes sense).
So another author makes a sale – good for them! If their book was found and purchased this way, then there is the fabulous possibility that the same scenario can happen for you at some point!
But let’s get back to repetition. Here’s a great illustration: I was surfing through some guerilla marketing sites on the web and I came across this story about a car salesman. This car salesman used to attend his town’s high school football game on Friday nights. Every Friday evening he would stuff his coat pockets with hundreds of business cards. Whenever one of the teams (it didn’t matter which) scored and the fans cheered, the car salesman would throw a bunch of his cards into the air like confetti. Obviously, a lot of them were lost to the ground. But over time, many people picked them up, and some picked them up many times. Also, because the guy kept going to the games, he met people, he talked to them. People got to know him, to like him, and to trust him. At some point, people called this guy about a car. The man generated business for himself through fun, by creating relationships, and through persistence/repetition.
By the way, business cards can be made or ordered for an incredibly low cost these days and you can get an incredible amount of information on those things. What’s also great about business cards is that they are easy for you to carry and non-cumbersome for the receiver – they can be slipped into a pocket, purse, or wallet without taking up any real amount of space. It’s much easier to get someone to accept a business card than a paper flyer, and they’re easy to “recycle” – meaning whoever you give it to can more easily, and will, more readily pass it along.
Business cards can be tucked under windshield wipers - if you want to get into nitty-gritty urban guerrilization (yes, I made up that word too), and lots of merchants will allow you to leave a stack or card holder of your cards in their shops and cafés. You can use ‘em for many, many more ways than this – but I’ll let you research that or come up with some ideas on your own (or, if you feel really stumped, email me and ask me for more ideas – then I’ll know someone actually read this posting!).
I will let you in on one more thing (okay, maybe two more things) you can do with business cards, postcards (which can also be created on a tight budget), and paper flyers of various shapes and sizes: you can “blanket” all kinds of public places that have bulletin board displays or wall spaces that offer individuals and businesses free space to advertise. Coffee houses and grocery stores (particularly the independents) usually have such a space.
Also, if your book has a “hook” you can promote it in non-book store kinds of places. For example, let’s say you’ve written a book about boats, or a boat or boats are featured in your book, then you can see if a nautical store, sporting goods store, or novelty store would be willing to display your business cards and/or whatever promotional materials you are providing.
For the sake of time and space, I am simply going to list some other ideas to guerrilla market your book in the public jungle: If your city/town has any social gatherings, such as street fairs, weekly, monthly, or annual festivals, river walks or boardwalks – take yourself down there with your promotional materials and hand them out to anyone who will take them. If you’re not shy, and don’t mind looking silly for the sake of sales, wear a “sandwich board” that promotes your book as you hand out those materials.
Send a continual or periodic email and/or eflyer to ALL of your contacts about your book; Create a contest of some sort (contact me if you want ideas for this), offering a free copy of your book to the winner. Someone might read it who wouldn’t necessarily otherwise. They may love it and tell one to a hundred people about it – voilá: you have made an impression (and possibly some sales)!
“Outsider” artist, Lee Godie, used to stand outside of the Art Institute of Chicago with one of her canvas paintings yelling out to visitors of the museum, “the real art’s out here!” She sold many paintings that way, and since her death, her paintings and sketches are highly sought after and worth a lot of money. I am, in no way, suggesting death – I am simply saying that you can do a lot with an inexpensive gimmick (and a lot of moxie).
If you’d like more ideas, contact me, contact me, contact me - I am happy to be your personal guerrilla-marketing-brainstorming-gal. But I’d also highly suggest you check out any of Jay Conrad Levinson’s books, Lee Silber’s Self-Promotion for the Creative Person, and surf the web for sites that offer guerrilla marketing ideas. Have fun with it – go bananas!
Chase’s Calendar of Events © cites April 12 as “Walk on the Wild Side Day”. On this day we are encouraged to do the unexpected, such as going “to work dressed like a gorilla”. This idea sent my head spinning: Why not go to work thinking like a guerrilla?!
Coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, guerrilla marketing is “unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.” In other words, it’s getting creative with what you’ve got, what you can get, what you do, what you can do, who you know, who you can meet— it’s out of the box thinking and out of the box doing!
For most authors, self-publishers, and independent presses, time is short and money tight. Most [traditional] advertising is way out of our realm and hiring a publicist is something we would do...if we won the lottery (see Nicky’s Narrative above—there is always hope!). So what do you do when you don’t have all the resources available to you that you would like? As an old acting teacher of mine used to [repeatedly] tell me: “Work with what you have; not with what you want.”
Without using the Levinson terminology, all the previous marketing tips that have found their way into these newsletters have been types of guerrilla marketing. So don’t let the term, itself, scare you. In this issue, were just giving it some focus.
What gets me going about guerrilla marketing, first off, is simply the name. “Guerrilla” makes me think action. It sounds exciting…and off the beaten path – which is good. It’s like taking the road less traveled…which makes all the difference, doesn’t it?!
The name also makes me think : “Gorilla” – which leads me to think of all the things that go with it, like swinging around from vine to vine, beating my chest - “going ape”, “going bananas”, “it’s a jungle out there”, “monkeying around”….You get the picture: Fun. Wild. Reckless abandon.
At this moment you might be saying to yourself…”There she goes again – what is her point?” I’ll tell you: part of the point is getting to the point. It’s the excitement and enthusiasm that comes from the fun of conceiving new ideas and then having the moxie to implement them! The gusto to network and make contacts and the zest for building relationships are key principles when all is said and done.
Tenacity, persistence, and repetition coupled with out-of-the-box thinking – are all key, key, key and key components when it comes to guerrilla marketing. gmarketing.com has this posted on their site as the “Guerrilla Marketing Tip of the Day”:
When people request and receive more information, what happens? 59% file the information for future reference; 20% buy the product or service; 12% pass the information along to others; 9% buy a competitive product.
Continuing to get your book - and information about your book - publicized, and by repetitively targeting the same audience over and over puts your book and keeps your book in the eyes and minds of the people you’re marketing to. More typically than not, the name recognition, the subject recognition – the familiarity – will either, a) eventually get one of these people to buy your book, 2) lead them to tell someone else about your book, and this someone else will buy the book, and/or, 3) this someone else will tell someone else, and…or maybe the worst case scenario: someone might tell someone about your book. This someone else visits the DPPstore (or your own website, or wherever else you have your eBook posted). They may not buy your book, but perhaps they buy someone else’s. This would be “good book karma” (yes, I just made up the term – but I like it, and it makes sense).
So another author makes a sale – good for them! If their book was found and purchased this way, then there is the fabulous possibility that the same scenario can happen for you at some point!
But let’s get back to repetition. Here’s a great illustration: I was surfing through some guerilla marketing sites on the web and I came across this story about a car salesman. This car salesman used to attend his town’s high school football game on Friday nights. Every Friday evening he would stuff his coat pockets with hundreds of business cards. Whenever one of the teams (it didn’t matter which) scored and the fans cheered, the car salesman would throw a bunch of his cards into the air like confetti. Obviously, a lot of them were lost to the ground. But over time, many people picked them up, and some picked them up many times. Also, because the guy kept going to the games, he met people, he talked to them. People got to know him, to like him, and to trust him. At some point, people called this guy about a car. The man generated business for himself through fun, by creating relationships, and through persistence/repetition.
By the way, business cards can be made or ordered for an incredibly low cost these days and you can get an incredible amount of information on those things. What’s also great about business cards is that they are easy for you to carry and non-cumbersome for the receiver – they can be slipped into a pocket, purse, or wallet without taking up any real amount of space. It’s much easier to get someone to accept a business card than a paper flyer, and they’re easy to “recycle” – meaning whoever you give it to can more easily, and will, more readily pass it along.
Business cards can be tucked under windshield wipers - if you want to get into nitty-gritty urban guerrilization (yes, I made up that word too), and lots of merchants will allow you to leave a stack or card holder of your cards in their shops and cafés. You can use ‘em for many, many more ways than this – but I’ll let you research that or come up with some ideas on your own (or, if you feel really stumped, email me and ask me for more ideas – then I’ll know someone actually read this posting!).
I will let you in on one more thing (okay, maybe two more things) you can do with business cards, postcards (which can also be created on a tight budget), and paper flyers of various shapes and sizes: you can “blanket” all kinds of public places that have bulletin board displays or wall spaces that offer individuals and businesses free space to advertise. Coffee houses and grocery stores (particularly the independents) usually have such a space.
Also, if your book has a “hook” you can promote it in non-book store kinds of places. For example, let’s say you’ve written a book about boats, or a boat or boats are featured in your book, then you can see if a nautical store, sporting goods store, or novelty store would be willing to display your business cards and/or whatever promotional materials you are providing.
For the sake of time and space, I am simply going to list some other ideas to guerrilla market your book in the public jungle: If your city/town has any social gatherings, such as street fairs, weekly, monthly, or annual festivals, river walks or boardwalks – take yourself down there with your promotional materials and hand them out to anyone who will take them. If you’re not shy, and don’t mind looking silly for the sake of sales, wear a “sandwich board” that promotes your book as you hand out those materials.
Send a continual or periodic email and/or eflyer to ALL of your contacts about your book; Create a contest of some sort (contact me if you want ideas for this), offering a free copy of your book to the winner. Someone might read it who wouldn’t necessarily otherwise. They may love it and tell one to a hundred people about it – voilá: you have made an impression (and possibly some sales)!
“Outsider” artist, Lee Godie, used to stand outside of the Art Institute of Chicago with one of her canvas paintings yelling out to visitors of the museum, “the real art’s out here!” She sold many paintings that way, and since her death, her paintings and sketches are highly sought after and worth a lot of money. I am, in no way, suggesting death – I am simply saying that you can do a lot with an inexpensive gimmick (and a lot of moxie).
If you’d like more ideas, contact me, contact me, contact me - I am happy to be your personal guerrilla-marketing-brainstorming-gal. But I’d also highly suggest you check out any of Jay Conrad Levinson’s books, Lee Silber’s Self-Promotion for the Creative Person, and surf the web for sites that offer guerrilla marketing ideas. Have fun with it – go bananas!
Author! Author!
Innerview: Lewis James
Describe your writing routine…if you have one.
I have two writing styles: one romantic and one pragmatic. In the romantic style I use a pen and notepad and physically place myself in an environment (café, park, hotel lobby) that is a novel break from the norm. In the pragmatic style I go to my office, sit in front of my computer, and begin typing.
I know you were in Calcutta when you finished writing Beating Kings, Burning Angels. Where did you write when you were abroad?
I wrote in cafes and youth hostels mostly.
What is your ideal writing environment?
I have found that being in a café or writing in a place surrounded by people, usually moves me into a more flowing creative state. I also know that the flowing creative state is an illusion and that to write, you must simply take the time to write. Then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Perhaps it is the beer that can be ordered while in a café that is important because it numbs the monotony of rewriting.
What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?
Grin and bear it and keep writing. I’ve written junk while thinking I was inspired and I’ve written good stuff when feeling unconnected to the moment, myself, or any wellspring of mystical union.
What authors inspire you most?
Steinbeck, Heller for Catch 22.
In your essay, Journals in the Attic, you discuss your obsession with Pulp Fiction and that Beating Kings was, in part, inspired by the film or your reaction to the film. Can you elaborate on that?
I got into a funk in writing, thinking it was important to try and just reflect reality for reality’s sake. Pulp Fiction snapped me out of this by making me realize that trying to reflect reality for reality’s sake really doesn’t really mean anything and is pretty boring. Would someone want to watch some random video taken at a street corner or footage from an ATM surveillance camera? This is reality but damn boring. Pulp Fiction made me realize that a novel is about the story stupid.
You wrote Beating Kings, Burning Angels pre-Crash. What was your reaction to the parallels in the two stories?
About 10 years pre-Crash. The parallels in the story are setting (LA), content (characters working through their individual dramas with race relations as a backdrop), and style (individual story lines with intersecting threads). My reaction was enjoyment and envy. Enjoyment of a well-crafted movie and envy that it made to the big screen and I haven’t.
I appreciated that you shared your fantasies about winning a Best Screenplay Oscar for Beating Kings, as I always have fantasies about the fame and glory of publishing something extravagantly spectacular. What’s your earth-bound, bottom line hope for your novel?
My hope is that I make money, lots of money, off my novel because I would like to live a life where I have the financial resources to do whatever the hell I damn please. Once I have enough money in the bank, I will change my position and preach that writing for money is crass and destroys the integrity of the artistic impulse.
Favorite quote?
“Seek simplicity and distrust it.”
Lewis James lives in Monrovia, CA with his wife and three children. His writing reflects his diverse experiences. Lewis has been a dairy worker in Israel, a mortgage broker in Southern California, an Alaskan fisherman, a Beverly Hills nanny, and has even paid his dues as a solar sunscreen salesman. His travels have taken him from the top of Norway to the bottom of Chile and around Australia by van. He has traveled into the remote jungles of Borneo by way of a handmade raft, to monasteries of Tibetan Buddhists and to the bazaars of the Afghanistan Mujahidin.
Interwoven vignettes, in the style of Crash, explore the racial tensions of Los Angeles in the days just before, during, and following the Rodney King Riots. Beating Kings and Burning Angels follows the lives of five Angelinos, lacing together their personal stories and views on race relations. Unpredictable revelations bring each story to a provocative and compelling resolution.
The eBook is currently available at the DPPstore under the PulpBytes Imprint, for $8.95. The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), offers the best in eBooks from new and lesser-known authors, just as DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) promotes works by self-publishers and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The dppstore – reinventing reading.
Describe your writing routine…if you have one.
I have two writing styles: one romantic and one pragmatic. In the romantic style I use a pen and notepad and physically place myself in an environment (café, park, hotel lobby) that is a novel break from the norm. In the pragmatic style I go to my office, sit in front of my computer, and begin typing.
I know you were in Calcutta when you finished writing Beating Kings, Burning Angels. Where did you write when you were abroad?
I wrote in cafes and youth hostels mostly.
What is your ideal writing environment?
I have found that being in a café or writing in a place surrounded by people, usually moves me into a more flowing creative state. I also know that the flowing creative state is an illusion and that to write, you must simply take the time to write. Then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Perhaps it is the beer that can be ordered while in a café that is important because it numbs the monotony of rewriting.
What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?
Grin and bear it and keep writing. I’ve written junk while thinking I was inspired and I’ve written good stuff when feeling unconnected to the moment, myself, or any wellspring of mystical union.
What authors inspire you most?
Steinbeck, Heller for Catch 22.
In your essay, Journals in the Attic, you discuss your obsession with Pulp Fiction and that Beating Kings was, in part, inspired by the film or your reaction to the film. Can you elaborate on that?
I got into a funk in writing, thinking it was important to try and just reflect reality for reality’s sake. Pulp Fiction snapped me out of this by making me realize that trying to reflect reality for reality’s sake really doesn’t really mean anything and is pretty boring. Would someone want to watch some random video taken at a street corner or footage from an ATM surveillance camera? This is reality but damn boring. Pulp Fiction made me realize that a novel is about the story stupid.
You wrote Beating Kings, Burning Angels pre-Crash. What was your reaction to the parallels in the two stories?
About 10 years pre-Crash. The parallels in the story are setting (LA), content (characters working through their individual dramas with race relations as a backdrop), and style (individual story lines with intersecting threads). My reaction was enjoyment and envy. Enjoyment of a well-crafted movie and envy that it made to the big screen and I haven’t.
I appreciated that you shared your fantasies about winning a Best Screenplay Oscar for Beating Kings, as I always have fantasies about the fame and glory of publishing something extravagantly spectacular. What’s your earth-bound, bottom line hope for your novel?
My hope is that I make money, lots of money, off my novel because I would like to live a life where I have the financial resources to do whatever the hell I damn please. Once I have enough money in the bank, I will change my position and preach that writing for money is crass and destroys the integrity of the artistic impulse.
Favorite quote?
“Seek simplicity and distrust it.”
Lewis James lives in Monrovia, CA with his wife and three children. His writing reflects his diverse experiences. Lewis has been a dairy worker in Israel, a mortgage broker in Southern California, an Alaskan fisherman, a Beverly Hills nanny, and has even paid his dues as a solar sunscreen salesman. His travels have taken him from the top of Norway to the bottom of Chile and around Australia by van. He has traveled into the remote jungles of Borneo by way of a handmade raft, to monasteries of Tibetan Buddhists and to the bazaars of the Afghanistan Mujahidin.
Interwoven vignettes, in the style of Crash, explore the racial tensions of Los Angeles in the days just before, during, and following the Rodney King Riots. Beating Kings and Burning Angels follows the lives of five Angelinos, lacing together their personal stories and views on race relations. Unpredictable revelations bring each story to a provocative and compelling resolution.
The eBook is currently available at the DPPstore under the PulpBytes Imprint, for $8.95. The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), offers the best in eBooks from new and lesser-known authors, just as DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) promotes works by self-publishers and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The dppstore – reinventing reading.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Author! Author!
Journals in the Attic
By Lewis James
I mailed my first draft of Beating Kings and Burning Angels home for safe keeping from the colossal British-Colonial Post Office in Calcutta. Or was it from Varanasi and was the post office in Calcutta really colonial in construction and colossal? In the winter of 1996, or perhaps it was eleven years ago in the summer of 1995, somewhere in India, I completed the novel Beating Kings and Burning Angels.
I’d better go find the journals. I’ve looked in the closet and armoire and under the bed and behind my wife’s three colossal shoe racks and in the garage, but couldn’t find the journals that I wrote during my three years of wandering the globe and writing. Nor could I find the three backpack-worn notebooks containing the penciled-erased-penned-crossed-out first draft of Beating Kings and Burning Angels.
I don’t know why I feel the need to review my journals to explain what prompted me to write a book covering six days in the lives of five fictitious people during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. If you would have asked me after I had written my first draft of the book, I would have known what inner forces compelled me to spend hundreds of hours with imaginary people. I would not have mentioned the neurotic obsession that came over me upon seeing Pulp Fiction at a movie theater in Sydney Australia, nor the stack of books on American race relations purchased in Singapore while recovering from hepatitis (acquired from a chicken I ate on an adventure with Crazy Johnny on handmade bamboo rafts through Borneo rainforests), nor that in a moment of creative desperation, during a bumpy ride into Kashmir, I used the name of the bus line (Saxena) for the last name of a minor character in the book.
I most certainly would not have mentioned the fantasies that overcame me on that bumpy bus ride into Kashmir -- fantasies of having a dry throat as the eyes of billions watched me accept a Best Oscar award for my screenplay adaptation of Beating Kings and Burning Angels, fantasies of reading glowing reviews of myself in Time Magazine, fantasies of being a famous wealthy somebody based on the literary genius of my first published novel.
Ten years ago I would have known why I wrote what I wrote, would have erupted in a spasm of literary-correct musing, would have waxed existential over the reality of race relations in Los Angeles. Ten years ago, when I was thirty-two and knew, I wasn’t back working in the very business that becoming a famous wealthy novelist was going to save me from, wasn’t watching the Best Picture Oscar go to an ensemble cast exploring race relations in LA.
I am now 42 and can’t find the backpack-worn original Beating Kings and Burning Angles notebooks, can’t find the journals of frantic writing in search of philosophical truth and spiritual meaning, can’t quite grasp why a human would create an alternative world of intricately woven plot lines involving pretend people. Why did I write Beating Kings and Burning Angles? Why did I chronicle the daily events of my traveling life in mundane detail over a three year period of time? Why did I fill notepad after notepad with philosophical speculation, contemplation, and graphs illustrating the union of “Is” with “is” as filtered through personal and collective reality within the “poles of possibility”?
I need the journals to conjure up ghosts hidden within my neurons, to open an ephemeral gateway to the past so that my conscious mind can explain why I wrote what I wrote.
What was the purpose behind penning Beating Kings and Burning Angels? Was it a shout into the void, a wail into the grave that I was here and alive, an attempt to document the angst and concerns of humanity in LA in 1992? Was the driving force non-spiritual and devoid of poetry; more an attempt to prove myself through creating a work that could sell like Pulp Fiction, a neurotic obsession of an under-skilled artist blinding himself to his own mediocrity through the hubris of self-proclaimed creativity? Did a subconscious bourgeois compulsion drive me towards literary accomplishment in order to mask three years of hedonistic globetrotting?
Perhaps the journals are in the attic. I need to know the answer.
Lewis James lives in Monrovia, CA with his wife and three children. His writing reflects his diverse experiences. Lewis has been a dairy worker in Israel, a mortgage broker in Southern California, an Alaskan fisherman, a Beverly Hills nanny, and has even paid his dues as a solar sunscreen salesman. His travels have taken him from the top of Norway to the bottom of Chile and around Australia by van. He has traveled into the remote jungles of Borneo by way of a handmade raft, to monasteries of Tibetan Buddhists and to the bazaars of the Afghanistan Mujahidin.
Interwoven vignettes, in the style of "Crash", explore the racial tensions of Los Angeles in the days just before, during, and following the Rodney King Riots. Beating Kings and Burning Angels follows the lives of five Angelinos, lacing together their personal stories and views on race relations. Unpredictable revelations bring each story to a provocative and compelling resolution. The eBook is currently available at the DPPstore under the PulpBytes Imprint, for $8.95.
The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), offers the best in eBooks from new and lesser-known authors, just as DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) promotes works by self-publishers and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The dppstore – reinventing reading.
By Lewis James
I mailed my first draft of Beating Kings and Burning Angels home for safe keeping from the colossal British-Colonial Post Office in Calcutta. Or was it from Varanasi and was the post office in Calcutta really colonial in construction and colossal? In the winter of 1996, or perhaps it was eleven years ago in the summer of 1995, somewhere in India, I completed the novel Beating Kings and Burning Angels.
I’d better go find the journals. I’ve looked in the closet and armoire and under the bed and behind my wife’s three colossal shoe racks and in the garage, but couldn’t find the journals that I wrote during my three years of wandering the globe and writing. Nor could I find the three backpack-worn notebooks containing the penciled-erased-penned-crossed-out first draft of Beating Kings and Burning Angels.
I don’t know why I feel the need to review my journals to explain what prompted me to write a book covering six days in the lives of five fictitious people during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. If you would have asked me after I had written my first draft of the book, I would have known what inner forces compelled me to spend hundreds of hours with imaginary people. I would not have mentioned the neurotic obsession that came over me upon seeing Pulp Fiction at a movie theater in Sydney Australia, nor the stack of books on American race relations purchased in Singapore while recovering from hepatitis (acquired from a chicken I ate on an adventure with Crazy Johnny on handmade bamboo rafts through Borneo rainforests), nor that in a moment of creative desperation, during a bumpy ride into Kashmir, I used the name of the bus line (Saxena) for the last name of a minor character in the book.
I most certainly would not have mentioned the fantasies that overcame me on that bumpy bus ride into Kashmir -- fantasies of having a dry throat as the eyes of billions watched me accept a Best Oscar award for my screenplay adaptation of Beating Kings and Burning Angels, fantasies of reading glowing reviews of myself in Time Magazine, fantasies of being a famous wealthy somebody based on the literary genius of my first published novel.
Ten years ago I would have known why I wrote what I wrote, would have erupted in a spasm of literary-correct musing, would have waxed existential over the reality of race relations in Los Angeles. Ten years ago, when I was thirty-two and knew, I wasn’t back working in the very business that becoming a famous wealthy novelist was going to save me from, wasn’t watching the Best Picture Oscar go to an ensemble cast exploring race relations in LA.
I am now 42 and can’t find the backpack-worn original Beating Kings and Burning Angles notebooks, can’t find the journals of frantic writing in search of philosophical truth and spiritual meaning, can’t quite grasp why a human would create an alternative world of intricately woven plot lines involving pretend people. Why did I write Beating Kings and Burning Angles? Why did I chronicle the daily events of my traveling life in mundane detail over a three year period of time? Why did I fill notepad after notepad with philosophical speculation, contemplation, and graphs illustrating the union of “Is” with “is” as filtered through personal and collective reality within the “poles of possibility”?
I need the journals to conjure up ghosts hidden within my neurons, to open an ephemeral gateway to the past so that my conscious mind can explain why I wrote what I wrote.
What was the purpose behind penning Beating Kings and Burning Angels? Was it a shout into the void, a wail into the grave that I was here and alive, an attempt to document the angst and concerns of humanity in LA in 1992? Was the driving force non-spiritual and devoid of poetry; more an attempt to prove myself through creating a work that could sell like Pulp Fiction, a neurotic obsession of an under-skilled artist blinding himself to his own mediocrity through the hubris of self-proclaimed creativity? Did a subconscious bourgeois compulsion drive me towards literary accomplishment in order to mask three years of hedonistic globetrotting?
Perhaps the journals are in the attic. I need to know the answer.
Lewis James lives in Monrovia, CA with his wife and three children. His writing reflects his diverse experiences. Lewis has been a dairy worker in Israel, a mortgage broker in Southern California, an Alaskan fisherman, a Beverly Hills nanny, and has even paid his dues as a solar sunscreen salesman. His travels have taken him from the top of Norway to the bottom of Chile and around Australia by van. He has traveled into the remote jungles of Borneo by way of a handmade raft, to monasteries of Tibetan Buddhists and to the bazaars of the Afghanistan Mujahidin.
Interwoven vignettes, in the style of "Crash", explore the racial tensions of Los Angeles in the days just before, during, and following the Rodney King Riots. Beating Kings and Burning Angels follows the lives of five Angelinos, lacing together their personal stories and views on race relations. Unpredictable revelations bring each story to a provocative and compelling resolution. The eBook is currently available at the DPPstore under the PulpBytes Imprint, for $8.95.
The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), offers the best in eBooks from new and lesser-known authors, just as DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) promotes works by self-publishers and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The dppstore – reinventing reading.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!
The Borrowers: Not just a book, but a way to market yours!
A reviewer once said about Mary Norton’s children book, The Borrowers (©1952), that it was “a book that begs to be shared.” Well, so does yours. At least you must believe it does -- you wrote it, got it published, and now it’s out there for sale in the big, big world of cyberspace.
The Borrowers in Norton’s book are tiny, little people who comfortably live below the floorboards of the homes of human beings. They live by “borrowing” things – all kinds of things. One of my favorites is they “borrow” postage stamps to use as art work to hang on their walls (I love that: using an object meant for one purpose and creating a totally new use for it).
I am sure that you have heard the saying that there are no new ideas, just old ones in new forms (I am paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of the saying). Just as the characters in Norton’s book “borrowed” objects meant for one purpose and used them for another, we can “borrow” marketing ideas and tweak them to suit our needs.
The truth is, we “borrow” ideas every time we sit down to write. But we add in our own experience, our own perspective, and/or a dash of our own imagination. We “borrow” from styles we like, genres we’re drawn to, subjects we know about or are interested in, and characters we’ve seen, known, or read about. Then we mix all those up to create our very own concoction: the story we own -- our own story.
Thus, it would behoove us to do the same when it comes to marketing our book(s). I know I “borrow” marketing ideas every time I read a book about how to market and self-promote; I “borrow” whenever I see someone else use a specific technique that renders results; I “borrow” whenever someone says, “hey, here’s an idea for you…” And, then, it becomes my idea in the way I utilize it and implement it.
My point being that the only way to get ideas is to “borrow” them…take what you like and leave the rest; take one small idea and blow it up into a bigger idea; take a seed of an idea and grow another idea from it; Take someone’s idea, give it a spin and make it your own. That’s how I write each and every one of the marketing tips that get published in these newsletters and on the blog (and, of course, when warranted, giving full credit where credit is due).
I was reading Dan Poynter’s online newsletter the other day, and I came across a really great article about book marketing and self-promotion. I thought it so worthwhile I went to the author’s website to check out who she was and what other bits of information I could glean. I thought a great deal of the information on her site, and the initial article that prompted me to investigate, was definitely worth sharing with you. So much so, that I thought, “I’m not going to borrow and make this my own. I’m going to just ask if I can publish Ms. Cullins’ piece and use it as part of my marketing tip."
With permission granted, the following article is posted here for your perusal. There’s some real gems in here, so take ‘em and tweak ‘em, and use ‘em to help promote your book! Also be sure to visit Ms. Cullins’ website for more ideas to “borrow”.
Remember, like The Borrowers, your book is just begging to be shared – if it has people who know about it. So off to market you go --
And to borrow, and to borrow, and to borrow…Just channeling my inner Shakespeare! Enjoy the article:
DISAPPOINTED IN BOOK SALES?
By Judy Cullins, 20-year bookcoach, http://www.bookcoaching.com
If other book marketing and promotion campaigns have brought few book sales, left your wallet thinner, wasted your valuable time, and left you with a garage full of unsold masterpieces, you may now be ready to set up your book's virtual marketing machine-the Internet with Free Online Promotion Methods.
Example:
a. Write articles and submit them to thousands each week through other opt-in ezines and top 20 Web sites that either want articles or have their own ezine. You'll find top sites in your field in any search you do with google.com.
b. Exchange Web site links with like-minded entrepreneurs. This win-win approach will bring you willing business people who want to be listed higher on the search engines. Create your longer and shorter version of your link and keep in a computer folder. After you search in your category, submit your link with a note saying you want to exchange with 10 or so other sites.
c. Write a powerful signature file that you send out with every email you write. Check your email service to install this. In 4-7 lines, put your name, title, benefit-driven headline such as "Helps entrepreneurs manifest their book dream," phone number, email and Web addresses. Make the lines no more than 65 characters across.
You can start right now, even if you don't have a Web site.
These "Non-Techie Email Promotion" techniques can jump start your lifetime book promotion journey. Like you would eat an elephant, just one bite at a time! Watch your sales grow!
Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people's lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 11 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, "The BookCoach Says...," "Business Tip of the Month," at www.bookcoaching.com and over 216 free articles.
Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.com
Phone: 619/466-0622 -- Orders: 866/200-9743
A reviewer once said about Mary Norton’s children book, The Borrowers (©1952), that it was “a book that begs to be shared.” Well, so does yours. At least you must believe it does -- you wrote it, got it published, and now it’s out there for sale in the big, big world of cyberspace.
The Borrowers in Norton’s book are tiny, little people who comfortably live below the floorboards of the homes of human beings. They live by “borrowing” things – all kinds of things. One of my favorites is they “borrow” postage stamps to use as art work to hang on their walls (I love that: using an object meant for one purpose and creating a totally new use for it).
I am sure that you have heard the saying that there are no new ideas, just old ones in new forms (I am paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of the saying). Just as the characters in Norton’s book “borrowed” objects meant for one purpose and used them for another, we can “borrow” marketing ideas and tweak them to suit our needs.
The truth is, we “borrow” ideas every time we sit down to write. But we add in our own experience, our own perspective, and/or a dash of our own imagination. We “borrow” from styles we like, genres we’re drawn to, subjects we know about or are interested in, and characters we’ve seen, known, or read about. Then we mix all those up to create our very own concoction: the story we own -- our own story.
Thus, it would behoove us to do the same when it comes to marketing our book(s). I know I “borrow” marketing ideas every time I read a book about how to market and self-promote; I “borrow” whenever I see someone else use a specific technique that renders results; I “borrow” whenever someone says, “hey, here’s an idea for you…” And, then, it becomes my idea in the way I utilize it and implement it.
My point being that the only way to get ideas is to “borrow” them…take what you like and leave the rest; take one small idea and blow it up into a bigger idea; take a seed of an idea and grow another idea from it; Take someone’s idea, give it a spin and make it your own. That’s how I write each and every one of the marketing tips that get published in these newsletters and on the blog (and, of course, when warranted, giving full credit where credit is due).
I was reading Dan Poynter’s online newsletter the other day, and I came across a really great article about book marketing and self-promotion. I thought it so worthwhile I went to the author’s website to check out who she was and what other bits of information I could glean. I thought a great deal of the information on her site, and the initial article that prompted me to investigate, was definitely worth sharing with you. So much so, that I thought, “I’m not going to borrow and make this my own. I’m going to just ask if I can publish Ms. Cullins’ piece and use it as part of my marketing tip."
With permission granted, the following article is posted here for your perusal. There’s some real gems in here, so take ‘em and tweak ‘em, and use ‘em to help promote your book! Also be sure to visit Ms. Cullins’ website for more ideas to “borrow”.
Remember, like The Borrowers, your book is just begging to be shared – if it has people who know about it. So off to market you go --
And to borrow, and to borrow, and to borrow…Just channeling my inner Shakespeare! Enjoy the article:
DISAPPOINTED IN BOOK SALES?
By Judy Cullins, 20-year bookcoach, http://www.bookcoaching.com
If other book marketing and promotion campaigns have brought few book sales, left your wallet thinner, wasted your valuable time, and left you with a garage full of unsold masterpieces, you may now be ready to set up your book's virtual marketing machine-the Internet with Free Online Promotion Methods.
Example:
a. Write articles and submit them to thousands each week through other opt-in ezines and top 20 Web sites that either want articles or have their own ezine. You'll find top sites in your field in any search you do with google.com.
b. Exchange Web site links with like-minded entrepreneurs. This win-win approach will bring you willing business people who want to be listed higher on the search engines. Create your longer and shorter version of your link and keep in a computer folder. After you search in your category, submit your link with a note saying you want to exchange with 10 or so other sites.
c. Write a powerful signature file that you send out with every email you write. Check your email service to install this. In 4-7 lines, put your name, title, benefit-driven headline such as "Helps entrepreneurs manifest their book dream," phone number, email and Web addresses. Make the lines no more than 65 characters across.
You can start right now, even if you don't have a Web site.
These "Non-Techie Email Promotion" techniques can jump start your lifetime book promotion journey. Like you would eat an elephant, just one bite at a time! Watch your sales grow!
Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people's lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 11 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, "The BookCoach Says...," "Business Tip of the Month," at www.bookcoaching.com and over 216 free articles.
Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.com
Phone: 619/466-0622 -- Orders: 866/200-9743
Author! Author!
Innerview: Kathy Pratt
What is your ideal writing environment?
I am fortunate enough to have an extra bedroom in my home that I have converted to an office/library. It’s painted sunflower yellow and I have a red overstuffed chair for reading, red print curtains at the windows, and lots of bookshelves filled with my favorite books. My first published article is framed and hanging on the wall, along with other favorite things. I’ve hung bird feeders outside the window over my computer desk and I have a lovely view of plants and trees. It is all very serene and relaxing.
Describe your writing routine…if you have one.
I write on Wednesday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday during the day. These are my usual days off from the job that pays the bills. I usually start writing after 11:00 in the morning. My brain doesn’t wake up until then, so I do all my mundane chores and exercising in the early morning. I also try to write for an hour or so a couple of evenings during the week.
What do you do when you’re not feeling inspired or motivated to write?
I write anyway. I make myself sit down at the computer and start typing. I figure I can always changes and edit later, and if it’s lousy just delete it. Usually it gets me going and I end up being productive. I’ve also found that it helps to start the next few lines after I’ve finished a scene or a chapter. That way I don’t have to think about the direction I’m going in.
What authors inspire you most?
John Steinbeck is the first author that comes to mind. I’ve read everything he wrote, sometimes over and over. I also am inspired by Ernest Hemingway, Wallace Stegner, and Larrry McMurty. Rosamund Pilcher is one of my favorite female authors. I also enjoy reading Elizabeth Berg’s books—especially since she is also a Registered Nurse.
Is there a difference between how you approach writing the non-fiction works you’ve published vs. how you approach your fiction writing?
I write more from an outline when writing non-fiction. I plan the entire work out first, including research, so by the time I start writing things don’t change much. In my fiction, I write from a general story idea and synopsis, but sometimes my characters will take over and take me in a completely different direction. Many times I find them wanting to do things that I’d never imagined they would want to do. That’s probably the biggest difference. Fiction is much more character driven.
What made you decide to publish your book as an eBook?
I hadn’t even thought about publishing an eBook until I met Catherine Hodge at the Palm Springs Writer’s Conference last June. We met at the end of the conference, just as I was leaving. She stopped me and asked what I was working on and then told me about the new publishing venture. Several years ago, Ellora’s Cave came to speak at my Orange County Romance Writer’s meeting, and I checked out their web site when I got home from Palm Springs. I was amazed at how huge they’d grown to be in just a few years. I don’t write erotica, so I wouldn’t submit to them, but it made me think about the changing publishing industry. I decided I’d like to “get in on the ground floor”, so to speak. I think there’s going to be a huge market for eBooks in the future.
Got an inspiring quote you’d like to share?
“CARPE DIEM”
What is your ideal writing environment?
I am fortunate enough to have an extra bedroom in my home that I have converted to an office/library. It’s painted sunflower yellow and I have a red overstuffed chair for reading, red print curtains at the windows, and lots of bookshelves filled with my favorite books. My first published article is framed and hanging on the wall, along with other favorite things. I’ve hung bird feeders outside the window over my computer desk and I have a lovely view of plants and trees. It is all very serene and relaxing.
Describe your writing routine…if you have one.
I write on Wednesday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday during the day. These are my usual days off from the job that pays the bills. I usually start writing after 11:00 in the morning. My brain doesn’t wake up until then, so I do all my mundane chores and exercising in the early morning. I also try to write for an hour or so a couple of evenings during the week.
What do you do when you’re not feeling inspired or motivated to write?
I write anyway. I make myself sit down at the computer and start typing. I figure I can always changes and edit later, and if it’s lousy just delete it. Usually it gets me going and I end up being productive. I’ve also found that it helps to start the next few lines after I’ve finished a scene or a chapter. That way I don’t have to think about the direction I’m going in.
What authors inspire you most?
John Steinbeck is the first author that comes to mind. I’ve read everything he wrote, sometimes over and over. I also am inspired by Ernest Hemingway, Wallace Stegner, and Larrry McMurty. Rosamund Pilcher is one of my favorite female authors. I also enjoy reading Elizabeth Berg’s books—especially since she is also a Registered Nurse.
Is there a difference between how you approach writing the non-fiction works you’ve published vs. how you approach your fiction writing?
I write more from an outline when writing non-fiction. I plan the entire work out first, including research, so by the time I start writing things don’t change much. In my fiction, I write from a general story idea and synopsis, but sometimes my characters will take over and take me in a completely different direction. Many times I find them wanting to do things that I’d never imagined they would want to do. That’s probably the biggest difference. Fiction is much more character driven.
What made you decide to publish your book as an eBook?
I hadn’t even thought about publishing an eBook until I met Catherine Hodge at the Palm Springs Writer’s Conference last June. We met at the end of the conference, just as I was leaving. She stopped me and asked what I was working on and then told me about the new publishing venture. Several years ago, Ellora’s Cave came to speak at my Orange County Romance Writer’s meeting, and I checked out their web site when I got home from Palm Springs. I was amazed at how huge they’d grown to be in just a few years. I don’t write erotica, so I wouldn’t submit to them, but it made me think about the changing publishing industry. I decided I’d like to “get in on the ground floor”, so to speak. I think there’s going to be a huge market for eBooks in the future.
Got an inspiring quote you’d like to share?
“CARPE DIEM”
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Publisher's Prompt
For those of you who'd like a little inspiration or jump start to get your creative juices flowing, here's a writing prompt. Use it however you like...to begin, end, or put in the middle of a poem, short or long story, jingle, haiku or any other kind of piece.
Patrick was a saint.
If you'd care to share your response to the prompt, please post it on this blog. We'd love to read it!
Write on,
Nicky
Patrick was a saint.
If you'd care to share your response to the prompt, please post it on this blog. We'd love to read it!
Write on,
Nicky
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Author! Author!
How I Came to Write
By Kathy Pratt
My interest in books began early in my life. I was read to by my parents and grandparents, and we didn’t have a television until I was around ten years old, so I listened to stories on the radio until I was able to read. I still don’t watch television, preferring instead to curl up on the sofa with a good book while everyone else is tuned into the TV.
I grew up in Indianola, Iowa, and got my first library card in the second grade. The library in our town was a red brick Carnegie library. As a little girl, the ceilings looked so tall to me that they seemed to stretch up to the sky. The first book I checked out was Tom Sawyer, followed in a few days by Huckleberry Finn. I’d tried to check them both out at the same time, but the librarian wouldn’t let me, thinking it would take me weeks to read them. I quickly became a voracious reader and would read everything I could find written by authors I discovered. I was in the fifth grade when I read every book the library had by Edna Ferber.
I spent my last Iowa summer curled up in an old wing back chair reading Gone With the Wind over and over again. We moved to California when I was fourteen and I started high school that year. One of my first classes was American literature, and I discovered John Steinbeck. I’ve read every book and short story he wrote at least once, some of them several times. My uncle lived in Northern California and we’d make the drive up the San Joaquin Valley several times a year. I’d pass the miles by staring out the car window and making up stories about the people and places we passed along the way. Many of those stories were inspired by something I’d read in a John Steinbeck novel.
My interest in writing started in junior high school when I began to be assigned creative writing lessons. Those classes were some of my favorites all through school. In college, my instructors encouraged me to write but I didn’t begin to seriously pursue writing as a possible career until the last five years. Prior to that time I’d written articles for nursing journals, travel logs for the newspaper, and short stories. Initially I made all the mistakes a writer can make. I figured all you had to do to write a novel was...write it. So, that’s what I did. I wrote the novel of my heart, and once it was completed, I promptly sent it out to a couple of houses and was just as promptly rejected. Thoroughly discouraged, I found an agency that charged ME to read my book and consider whether to represent me. Three hundred dollars later I received another rejection letter with a small paragraph of suggestions on how to edit it. Discouraged, I put that manuscript away and gave up on becoming a writer. Instead, I returned to college with the goal of getting a degree in English Literature.
I am a Registered Nurse and have worked more years than I care to admit to, in just about every area of nursing from rehabilitation to drug detoxification, to ICU/CCU, and now hospice.
This has provided me with a wealth of first-hand knowledge on human behavior under extreme circumstances. I draw from these experiences when I am creating my characters and situations in my works. In planning for the second half of my life, I returned to school to become a teacher. A couple of years into my post-graduate studies I decided that wasn’t really what I wanted to do. I really wanted to be a writer--I just didn’t know how to go about it. That’s when I discovered extension programs in colleges, writer’s conferences, writer’s organizations, and critique groups. I’ve taken writing courses at UC Irvine and California State University Fullerton, and am a member of Romance Writer’s of America. I’m also an active member of the Orange County Chapter of RWA. I find my Monday evening critique group meetings invaluable.
My brothers and my mother are also writers. Mom has been published in retirement magazines and Chicken Soup for the Soul books. My two brothers are newspaper columnists, following in the footsteps of my uncle, who was also a newspaper columnist.
I prefer writing women’s fiction. Medicinal Remedies is a medical thriller with romantic elements. The protagonist, Kristy, is a Registered Nurse.
Kathy Pratt is a registered nurse who holds a BSN degree and PHN (Public Health Nursing) certificate. She spent fourteen years working the night shift in an Intensive Care/Coronary Unit in a Southern California hospital, where MEDICINAL REMEDIES was born. She returned for post-graduate studies in English Literature and transitioned into studying fiction writing at both Cal State University, Fullerton and UC Irvine. Pratt is the co-author of CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH (published by Gummerus Publishing in Finland) and has been published in The American Journal of Nurses, the Sacramento Valley Mirror, and in the Whittier Daily News. Married with two adult children, Pratt currently resides in Fullerton, CA where she works part-time as a hospice nurse and pursues her writing career during the rest of her waking hours.
Medicinal Remedies by Kathy Pratt is available for purchase at the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com)
By Kathy Pratt
My interest in books began early in my life. I was read to by my parents and grandparents, and we didn’t have a television until I was around ten years old, so I listened to stories on the radio until I was able to read. I still don’t watch television, preferring instead to curl up on the sofa with a good book while everyone else is tuned into the TV.
I grew up in Indianola, Iowa, and got my first library card in the second grade. The library in our town was a red brick Carnegie library. As a little girl, the ceilings looked so tall to me that they seemed to stretch up to the sky. The first book I checked out was Tom Sawyer, followed in a few days by Huckleberry Finn. I’d tried to check them both out at the same time, but the librarian wouldn’t let me, thinking it would take me weeks to read them. I quickly became a voracious reader and would read everything I could find written by authors I discovered. I was in the fifth grade when I read every book the library had by Edna Ferber.
I spent my last Iowa summer curled up in an old wing back chair reading Gone With the Wind over and over again. We moved to California when I was fourteen and I started high school that year. One of my first classes was American literature, and I discovered John Steinbeck. I’ve read every book and short story he wrote at least once, some of them several times. My uncle lived in Northern California and we’d make the drive up the San Joaquin Valley several times a year. I’d pass the miles by staring out the car window and making up stories about the people and places we passed along the way. Many of those stories were inspired by something I’d read in a John Steinbeck novel.
My interest in writing started in junior high school when I began to be assigned creative writing lessons. Those classes were some of my favorites all through school. In college, my instructors encouraged me to write but I didn’t begin to seriously pursue writing as a possible career until the last five years. Prior to that time I’d written articles for nursing journals, travel logs for the newspaper, and short stories. Initially I made all the mistakes a writer can make. I figured all you had to do to write a novel was...write it. So, that’s what I did. I wrote the novel of my heart, and once it was completed, I promptly sent it out to a couple of houses and was just as promptly rejected. Thoroughly discouraged, I found an agency that charged ME to read my book and consider whether to represent me. Three hundred dollars later I received another rejection letter with a small paragraph of suggestions on how to edit it. Discouraged, I put that manuscript away and gave up on becoming a writer. Instead, I returned to college with the goal of getting a degree in English Literature.
I am a Registered Nurse and have worked more years than I care to admit to, in just about every area of nursing from rehabilitation to drug detoxification, to ICU/CCU, and now hospice.
This has provided me with a wealth of first-hand knowledge on human behavior under extreme circumstances. I draw from these experiences when I am creating my characters and situations in my works. In planning for the second half of my life, I returned to school to become a teacher. A couple of years into my post-graduate studies I decided that wasn’t really what I wanted to do. I really wanted to be a writer--I just didn’t know how to go about it. That’s when I discovered extension programs in colleges, writer’s conferences, writer’s organizations, and critique groups. I’ve taken writing courses at UC Irvine and California State University Fullerton, and am a member of Romance Writer’s of America. I’m also an active member of the Orange County Chapter of RWA. I find my Monday evening critique group meetings invaluable.
My brothers and my mother are also writers. Mom has been published in retirement magazines and Chicken Soup for the Soul books. My two brothers are newspaper columnists, following in the footsteps of my uncle, who was also a newspaper columnist.
I prefer writing women’s fiction. Medicinal Remedies is a medical thriller with romantic elements. The protagonist, Kristy, is a Registered Nurse.
Kathy Pratt is a registered nurse who holds a BSN degree and PHN (Public Health Nursing) certificate. She spent fourteen years working the night shift in an Intensive Care/Coronary Unit in a Southern California hospital, where MEDICINAL REMEDIES was born. She returned for post-graduate studies in English Literature and transitioned into studying fiction writing at both Cal State University, Fullerton and UC Irvine. Pratt is the co-author of CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH (published by Gummerus Publishing in Finland) and has been published in The American Journal of Nurses, the Sacramento Valley Mirror, and in the Whittier Daily News. Married with two adult children, Pratt currently resides in Fullerton, CA where she works part-time as a hospice nurse and pursues her writing career during the rest of her waking hours.
Medicinal Remedies by Kathy Pratt is available for purchase at the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com)
You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!
EXPOSURE
Get out there and kick some book -- yours!
Exposure, is exposure, is exposure. I just channeled my inner Gertrude Stein and I’d like to encourage you to channel yours. In all the previous newsletters from this past winter, every marketing tip has centered around exposure in one way or another. Albert Sterner said, “There is art – and there is advertising.” And that’s true…to an extent. But unless you’re writing in a vacuum (see Newsletter from December 2, 2005), art and advertising must share the same path.
Advertising, public relations, marketing – words that make most writers cringe are vital to an author’s success, at least in terms of getting their book(s) sold and read.
The best way to get exposure is to expose yourself – any way you can!
Make a commitment (again, the Newsletter from December 2, 2005) to taking one small step a week towards marketing your book (see Newsletter from December 12, 2005). Keep on taking steps thereafter (Newsletter, December 19, 2005). Network, network, network (Newsletter, November 28, 2005) – anyway, anywhere, anytime, with anyone you can. Jump into action and start locally (Newsletter, January 18, 2006). No matter where you market your book, you are getting your book and your name out there!
DPP author, A.J. Alise, has been a super action wiz when it’s come to getting the word out about her book – and she’s done it very simply. Below is a short email she sent out to all her email contacts *(this is printed with the author’s permission). Nothing fancy, but a great pitch for her book, for eBooks, and inviting people to visit the DPPstore (she also included a hyperlink in her email to the DPPstore):
Get into the world of ebooks today. It's the computer age, so I hear and If you've never downloaded an ebook why not start with my novel CRIMSON ICE. It's very easy reading and please give me feedback, if you've ordered it or read it. Thanks for your support
Alise has also gone the local action route, getting herself interviewed in local newspapers and on radio stations. She has also sent her book out for review. The payoff? People have visited the DPPstore and bought her book.
One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, when Gwendolyn says to Cecily, “I never travel without my diary. One must always have something sensational to read on the train.” This is a great reminder to me – and hopefully to you, dear author – to travel with your book (on an eReading Device), or business cards or postcards of your book. They make for great conversation starters, and you never know who you’ll run into who will be interested in you and your book!
Exposure doesn’t have to come in the form of a grand campaign. It can unfold little by little, step by step, and relatively simply…with a little effort and ingenuity we can all be our own best marketing reps.
Get out there and kick some book -- yours!
Exposure, is exposure, is exposure. I just channeled my inner Gertrude Stein and I’d like to encourage you to channel yours. In all the previous newsletters from this past winter, every marketing tip has centered around exposure in one way or another. Albert Sterner said, “There is art – and there is advertising.” And that’s true…to an extent. But unless you’re writing in a vacuum (see Newsletter from December 2, 2005), art and advertising must share the same path.
Advertising, public relations, marketing – words that make most writers cringe are vital to an author’s success, at least in terms of getting their book(s) sold and read.
The best way to get exposure is to expose yourself – any way you can!
Make a commitment (again, the Newsletter from December 2, 2005) to taking one small step a week towards marketing your book (see Newsletter from December 12, 2005). Keep on taking steps thereafter (Newsletter, December 19, 2005). Network, network, network (Newsletter, November 28, 2005) – anyway, anywhere, anytime, with anyone you can. Jump into action and start locally (Newsletter, January 18, 2006). No matter where you market your book, you are getting your book and your name out there!
DPP author, A.J. Alise, has been a super action wiz when it’s come to getting the word out about her book – and she’s done it very simply. Below is a short email she sent out to all her email contacts *(this is printed with the author’s permission). Nothing fancy, but a great pitch for her book, for eBooks, and inviting people to visit the DPPstore (she also included a hyperlink in her email to the DPPstore):
Get into the world of ebooks today. It's the computer age, so I hear and If you've never downloaded an ebook why not start with my novel CRIMSON ICE. It's very easy reading and please give me feedback, if you've ordered it or read it. Thanks for your support
Alise has also gone the local action route, getting herself interviewed in local newspapers and on radio stations. She has also sent her book out for review. The payoff? People have visited the DPPstore and bought her book.
One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, when Gwendolyn says to Cecily, “I never travel without my diary. One must always have something sensational to read on the train.” This is a great reminder to me – and hopefully to you, dear author – to travel with your book (on an eReading Device), or business cards or postcards of your book. They make for great conversation starters, and you never know who you’ll run into who will be interested in you and your book!
Exposure doesn’t have to come in the form of a grand campaign. It can unfold little by little, step by step, and relatively simply…with a little effort and ingenuity we can all be our own best marketing reps.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
The Advantages of eBooks, by Michael Hart
The Advantages of eBooks
By, Michael Hart, founder of The Gutenberg Project
The Advantages of eBooks:
1. Readability
2. Searchability
3. Quotability
4. Error Correction
5. Ease of Storage
6. Permanence
1. Readability
The more readable, the better.
For the general reader the greatest advantage of eBooks is most likely to be simply readability, the advantages of being able to have the words appear in the fonts and font size most suitable to the reader, not to mention a similar ability to adjust margination and pagination to also make the books' general appearance of what readers prefer as possible.
The less these abilities are present in your eBooks the less they possess the qualities that make them eBooks.
2. Searchability
The more searchable, the better.
Most readers regard the ability to find certain chapter or page indicators of great value, hence the whole idea of "bookmarks" that has been with us pretty much all of the history of books. One of the great advantages from the changeover to bound books rather than scrolls is an ability to jump directly from one place in the books to any other place, as long as it isn't on the other sides of the pages being read at the moment.
eBooks have extended the usual "ability to find certain chapter or page indicators" to the ability to find your specific word or phrase, not just an approximate place, but the exactly spot you are looking for.
The less these abilities are present in your eBooks the less they possess the qualities that make them eBooks.
3. Quotability
The entire idea of books is to communicate.
Most books become famous because people talk about them with their friends, which usually involves quotation as an element of the conversation.
With the original eBooks you could simply cut and paste the quotations you wanted in an effortless manner.
The harder it is to quote from a book, the less value a book has to anyone who wants to pass on information.
4. Error Correction
Perhaps the greatest utility of eBooks as compared to a similar paper source is the ability to correct errors.
Trying to correct an error in a paper book is usually a losing proposition, whether you are simply trying to do a correction in your own edition, or trying to get some publisher to correct an error in future editions.
eBook publishers can fix errors literally overnight, as people send them in.
Paper publishers often leave the same errors in edition after edition for decades, even centuries, instead of a new edition actually containing a newly proofed edition of the original text.
To the extent that any eBook is not correctable, it may be considered to have less "eBookness."
5. Ease of Storage
The standard DVD can contain nearly every word that you can find in the books of the average public library and the multi-level DVDs can obviously hold twice as much-- four times as much if double-sided and double-layered.
*
The standard DVD holds ~4.3 usable gigabytes per layer.
*
The Blu-Ray DVD starts with ~25 gigabytes, and had some added potential via a layer of 8.5 G, totaling 33.5G.
Thus 30 of these would hold 1 Terabyte. 15, if they release a 2-sided version.
*
The next generation DVD has already been designed, with about 1 Terabyte of total storage, so just a few should be able to hold every word in the Library of Congress-- a few more for the British Library.
*
Think of the savings in the cost of the shelving if not the simply the cost of the books. . . .
Not to mention the time and energy savings when using a book from such a collection.
*
Many eBook producers use formats that are not so easily storable on your own media.
To the extent that these eBooks are not storable or not compressible, they lose their quality of eBookness.
6. Permanence
We have all heard the headlines published by olde media that information stored on computers is impermanent and is lost to future generations when the olde computer is no longer available.
This is only the case when the information was kept via out of general circulation via some secret encryption.
Plain text eBooks don't cause those kinds of problems.
The paper publishers tout their medium as permanent yet every year we hear that thousands of library books were disposed of because they were simply falling apart.
When new paper books are published, it takes only about five years for them to become so scarce that when local libraries have one lost, damaged, or stolen, that it is not replaceable.
Of all the things published in 1971, most are lost, and pretty much not retrievable except to the experts in an assortment of interconnected archives around the world, but not so with the first eBook as published by Project Gutenberg in the earliest days the Internet started its journey from laboratory experiments to reach out to the rest of the world.
Once an eBook is published in this manner in either the plain text or plain markup modes, the odds are it could survive indefinitely.
To the extent that an eBook does not have this quality, it is just that much less an eBook, as it has that much less a chance of survival.
Just as the more non-standard an email is the less will read it, the more non-standard eBooks will be less read by the general population.
Of course, that is the purpose of many of the formating decisions by various eBook publishers today, to keep an eBook out of the hands of the general population.
The entire idea of keeping people from being able to do all the things listed above is the general result of an astonishing philosophy that the most important aspect a successful eBook must have is that it can't be accessed in the usual manners, as that would allow copying.
Of course, this presupposes several things:
1. That enough people would only want to have illegal copy access that this would threaten the eBooks' success.
2. That it would be possible in the first place to make up some kind of protection that could not be cracked by an enterprising young hacker in its first few weeks.
3. These protection modes have not been intentionally made crackable by government enforcement agencies. [Such as the widely touted Lucifer, DES Data Encryption Standard that was intentionally weakened by some U.S. Government agencies so they could be sure to break into anything a person or corporation might ever store on a computer.]
***
The Advantages of eBooks are:
1. Readability
2. Searchability
3. Quotability
4. Error Correction
5. Ease of Storage
6. Permanence
The greater extent that an eBook eliminates the ability on the part of the potential reader to accomplish these the less the eBook has of the general qualities we have come to know as "eBookness."
By, Michael Hart, founder of The Gutenberg Project
The Advantages of eBooks:
1. Readability
2. Searchability
3. Quotability
4. Error Correction
5. Ease of Storage
6. Permanence
1. Readability
The more readable, the better.
For the general reader the greatest advantage of eBooks is most likely to be simply readability, the advantages of being able to have the words appear in the fonts and font size most suitable to the reader, not to mention a similar ability to adjust margination and pagination to also make the books' general appearance of what readers prefer as possible.
The less these abilities are present in your eBooks the less they possess the qualities that make them eBooks.
2. Searchability
The more searchable, the better.
Most readers regard the ability to find certain chapter or page indicators of great value, hence the whole idea of "bookmarks" that has been with us pretty much all of the history of books. One of the great advantages from the changeover to bound books rather than scrolls is an ability to jump directly from one place in the books to any other place, as long as it isn't on the other sides of the pages being read at the moment.
eBooks have extended the usual "ability to find certain chapter or page indicators" to the ability to find your specific word or phrase, not just an approximate place, but the exactly spot you are looking for.
The less these abilities are present in your eBooks the less they possess the qualities that make them eBooks.
3. Quotability
The entire idea of books is to communicate.
Most books become famous because people talk about them with their friends, which usually involves quotation as an element of the conversation.
With the original eBooks you could simply cut and paste the quotations you wanted in an effortless manner.
The harder it is to quote from a book, the less value a book has to anyone who wants to pass on information.
4. Error Correction
Perhaps the greatest utility of eBooks as compared to a similar paper source is the ability to correct errors.
Trying to correct an error in a paper book is usually a losing proposition, whether you are simply trying to do a correction in your own edition, or trying to get some publisher to correct an error in future editions.
eBook publishers can fix errors literally overnight, as people send them in.
Paper publishers often leave the same errors in edition after edition for decades, even centuries, instead of a new edition actually containing a newly proofed edition of the original text.
To the extent that any eBook is not correctable, it may be considered to have less "eBookness."
5. Ease of Storage
The standard DVD can contain nearly every word that you can find in the books of the average public library and the multi-level DVDs can obviously hold twice as much-- four times as much if double-sided and double-layered.
*
The standard DVD holds ~4.3 usable gigabytes per layer.
*
The Blu-Ray DVD starts with ~25 gigabytes, and had some added potential via a layer of 8.5 G, totaling 33.5G.
Thus 30 of these would hold 1 Terabyte. 15, if they release a 2-sided version.
*
The next generation DVD has already been designed, with about 1 Terabyte of total storage, so just a few should be able to hold every word in the Library of Congress-- a few more for the British Library.
*
Think of the savings in the cost of the shelving if not the simply the cost of the books. . . .
Not to mention the time and energy savings when using a book from such a collection.
*
Many eBook producers use formats that are not so easily storable on your own media.
To the extent that these eBooks are not storable or not compressible, they lose their quality of eBookness.
6. Permanence
We have all heard the headlines published by olde media that information stored on computers is impermanent and is lost to future generations when the olde computer is no longer available.
This is only the case when the information was kept via out of general circulation via some secret encryption.
Plain text eBooks don't cause those kinds of problems.
The paper publishers tout their medium as permanent yet every year we hear that thousands of library books were disposed of because they were simply falling apart.
When new paper books are published, it takes only about five years for them to become so scarce that when local libraries have one lost, damaged, or stolen, that it is not replaceable.
Of all the things published in 1971, most are lost, and pretty much not retrievable except to the experts in an assortment of interconnected archives around the world, but not so with the first eBook as published by Project Gutenberg in the earliest days the Internet started its journey from laboratory experiments to reach out to the rest of the world.
Once an eBook is published in this manner in either the plain text or plain markup modes, the odds are it could survive indefinitely.
To the extent that an eBook does not have this quality, it is just that much less an eBook, as it has that much less a chance of survival.
Just as the more non-standard an email is the less will read it, the more non-standard eBooks will be less read by the general population.
Of course, that is the purpose of many of the formating decisions by various eBook publishers today, to keep an eBook out of the hands of the general population.
The entire idea of keeping people from being able to do all the things listed above is the general result of an astonishing philosophy that the most important aspect a successful eBook must have is that it can't be accessed in the usual manners, as that would allow copying.
Of course, this presupposes several things:
1. That enough people would only want to have illegal copy access that this would threaten the eBooks' success.
2. That it would be possible in the first place to make up some kind of protection that could not be cracked by an enterprising young hacker in its first few weeks.
3. These protection modes have not been intentionally made crackable by government enforcement agencies. [Such as the widely touted Lucifer, DES Data Encryption Standard that was intentionally weakened by some U.S. Government agencies so they could be sure to break into anything a person or corporation might ever store on a computer.]
***
The Advantages of eBooks are:
1. Readability
2. Searchability
3. Quotability
4. Error Correction
5. Ease of Storage
6. Permanence
The greater extent that an eBook eliminates the ability on the part of the potential reader to accomplish these the less the eBook has of the general qualities we have come to know as "eBookness."
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
DPP Newsletter, Edition XI
THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION XI
January 25, 2006
"Writing is easy. You just sit down at the typewriter and open a vein."
Red Smith
YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!
I not only use all of the brains I have, but all I can borrow.
Woodrow Wilson
Pick My Brain
Please! Let me know how I can help you. You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep! will continue as an ongoing column in the new formatted newsletter you will begin receiving in February. I want to be the best resource for you in this area as I can be, so please send me any questions you have or suggestions for ideas that you would like information about to nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com
Author! Author!
Check Out…
http://www.nytimes.com/books/specials/writers.html
This is a complete archive of the Writers on Writing column, a series in which writers explore literary themes.
http://www.barbarademarcobarrett.com/writersonwriting/index.html Writers on Writing is a weekly radio program hosted by journalist and author Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. Each Thursday at 5pm Pacific, writers and poets join her from the studios of KUCI fm, on your radio in Orange County at 88.9 and simulcast worldwide at www.kuci.org
For Thoughts, Ideas, and Inspiration
PUBLISHER’S PROMPT
Writing Prompt
Use the word or the idea of the word “Heart” or “Hog” to inspire a poem, song, or short story.
If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate. You can find my response posted on the blog http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/
Site-ings
Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators
http://www.scbwi.org/
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, formed in 1971 by a group of Los Angeles based writers for children, is the only international organization to offer a variety of services to people who write, illustrate, or share a vital interest in children’s literature. The SCBWI acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people. There are currently more than 19,000 members worldwide, in over 70 regions, making it the largest children's writing organization in the world.
THE SUN MAGAZINE (in print)
http://www.thesunmagazine.org/
Writing Guidelines
http://www.thesunmagazine.org/writer_guidelines.html
Unfortunately, you're not likely to find The Sun at your regular newsstand. Many distributors won't carry it because it's not "commercial" enough: we don't carry advertising; and we regularly print pieces that are too risky, too personal, too sad, too something. Yet somehow the magazine finds its way into the right hands; readers who appreciate writing that doesn't talk down to them or up to them, but meets their level gaze.
The Internet Writing Journal
http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/
Submissions:
http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/guidelines.htm
The Internet Writing Journal® ("The IWJ") is seeking original articles. Please read the guidelines carefully before submitting. Remember, we only publish nonfiction articles -- please do not submit poetry or fiction! We recommend that writers read articles published The IWJ to get an idea of our editorial style and the types of articles that we publish. Click here to see a list of links to prior articles. We look forward to seeing your submission!
Writers Write
http://writerswrite.com/
Your one-stop resource for information about books, writing and publishing
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION XI
January 25, 2006
"Writing is easy. You just sit down at the typewriter and open a vein."
Red Smith
YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!
I not only use all of the brains I have, but all I can borrow.
Woodrow Wilson
Pick My Brain
Please! Let me know how I can help you. You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep! will continue as an ongoing column in the new formatted newsletter you will begin receiving in February. I want to be the best resource for you in this area as I can be, so please send me any questions you have or suggestions for ideas that you would like information about to nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com
Author! Author!
Check Out…
http://www.nytimes.com/books/specials/writers.html
This is a complete archive of the Writers on Writing column, a series in which writers explore literary themes.
http://www.barbarademarcobarrett.com/writersonwriting/index.html Writers on Writing is a weekly radio program hosted by journalist and author Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. Each Thursday at 5pm Pacific, writers and poets join her from the studios of KUCI fm, on your radio in Orange County at 88.9 and simulcast worldwide at www.kuci.org
For Thoughts, Ideas, and Inspiration
PUBLISHER’S PROMPT
Writing Prompt
Use the word or the idea of the word “Heart” or “Hog” to inspire a poem, song, or short story.
If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate. You can find my response posted on the blog http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/
Site-ings
Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators
http://www.scbwi.org/
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, formed in 1971 by a group of Los Angeles based writers for children, is the only international organization to offer a variety of services to people who write, illustrate, or share a vital interest in children’s literature. The SCBWI acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people. There are currently more than 19,000 members worldwide, in over 70 regions, making it the largest children's writing organization in the world.
THE SUN MAGAZINE (in print)
http://www.thesunmagazine.org/
Writing Guidelines
http://www.thesunmagazine.org/writer_guidelines.html
Unfortunately, you're not likely to find The Sun at your regular newsstand. Many distributors won't carry it because it's not "commercial" enough: we don't carry advertising; and we regularly print pieces that are too risky, too personal, too sad, too something. Yet somehow the magazine finds its way into the right hands; readers who appreciate writing that doesn't talk down to them or up to them, but meets their level gaze.
The Internet Writing Journal
http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/
Submissions:
http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/guidelines.htm
The Internet Writing Journal® ("The IWJ") is seeking original articles. Please read the guidelines carefully before submitting. Remember, we only publish nonfiction articles -- please do not submit poetry or fiction! We recommend that writers read articles published The IWJ to get an idea of our editorial style and the types of articles that we publish. Click here to see a list of links to prior articles. We look forward to seeing your submission!
Writers Write
http://writerswrite.com/
Your one-stop resource for information about books, writing and publishing
WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…
The Newsletter
We’re Continuing to Change…
As of February 1 we’re:
1) Changing formats
2) Changing our name from The Authors’ Advocate to News Bytes
3) We’ll be publishing bi-weekly (last week I had written “bi-monthly” – that was an error. You will receive the newsletter every two weeks).
Our Websites
We are still in the midst of reconstructing all three of our websites to make them more informative, user-friendly, and more interesting to peruse. As soon as they are complete, we’ll invite you to check them out (of course, you can check them out now if you want to get a good image of “before” and “after”).
Fun Facts
January:
A Room of One’s Own Day, January 25: For anyone who knows or longs for the sheer bliss and rightness of having a private place, no matter how humble, to call one’s own. [© 2003 by WH] For info: Thomas and Ruth Roy, Wellcat Holidays, 2418 Long Ln. Lebanon, PA 17046. Ph: (717) 279-0184. Email: info@wellcat.com Web: www.wellcat.com
Author Birthdays (January 25-31):
Jan. 25: Robert Burns, 1759; Somerset W. Maugham, 1874; Virginia Woolf, 1882; Edwin Newman, 1919
Jan. 26: Phillip José Farmer, 1918
Jan. 29: Anton Chekhov, 1860; Germaine Greer, 1939
Jan. 31: Zane Grey, 1872; Norman Mailer, 1923
All of the above was taken from Chase’s Calendar of Events, 2006©
Write on,
Nicky
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!
Teamwork allows common people to attain uncommon results.
Anonymous
From Here to There: Local Action
Self-promotion is great. Self-promotion with help is even better. Let me help you promote your book in your locale.
Networking has been an on-going theme in almost all of the past week’s marketing tips…and it continues to be in this week’s tip. We’re just broadening your network.
Put on your hunting and gathering cap and don your self-promotion scout uniform!
Starting locally, gather up as many names and places as you can. Start this week and make this an on-going task on your “to do” list, timeline, or calendar. Names, places, and sources -- people who own coffee houses, or businesses that might have some kind of connection to your book. Names of local community news people- journalists and local papers, radio personalities and the stations they broadcast from, local cable television hosts and the stations they telecast from. Gather contact information (especially email, and especially email if you live outside the U.S.) for each of these people and places.
Send the information to me and I will get busy contacting the names/places you researched in order to assist you in garnering more publicity for you and your book.
Together, let’s get you and your book exposure. Let’s get you sales. Between us, let’s “attain uncommon results”.
Please send any/all information to me at nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com
Anonymous
From Here to There: Local Action
Self-promotion is great. Self-promotion with help is even better. Let me help you promote your book in your locale.
Networking has been an on-going theme in almost all of the past week’s marketing tips…and it continues to be in this week’s tip. We’re just broadening your network.
Put on your hunting and gathering cap and don your self-promotion scout uniform!
Starting locally, gather up as many names and places as you can. Start this week and make this an on-going task on your “to do” list, timeline, or calendar. Names, places, and sources -- people who own coffee houses, or businesses that might have some kind of connection to your book. Names of local community news people- journalists and local papers, radio personalities and the stations they broadcast from, local cable television hosts and the stations they telecast from. Gather contact information (especially email, and especially email if you live outside the U.S.) for each of these people and places.
Send the information to me and I will get busy contacting the names/places you researched in order to assist you in garnering more publicity for you and your book.
Together, let’s get you and your book exposure. Let’s get you sales. Between us, let’s “attain uncommon results”.
Please send any/all information to me at nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com
Publisher's Prompt
Use the following, January 18 prompt from “Prompts & Practices” by Judy Reeves to begin, end, or use in the middle of a piece.
“It was noon and nothing is concluded.” (after Donald Rawley)
She sat at her desk, staring blankly at an even blanker computer screen. She had been sitting that way for almost fifteen minutes. Somewhere between what she thought was a good idea and plunking out words on the keyboard for four hours, she decided it was all a waste and deleted everything from the word document she had begun at half past seven.
She had been taught never to delete her work. That even if what she had written seemed all for naught, there might be a seed of a beginning, or a sprout to a middle or a perfect flower of an ending. She cursed that instructor in this moment for putting all those gardening metaphors in her mind. She decided to take a head hoe to them and get rid of all that she had planted. With one click she was able to make her digital harvest disappear.
So she sat, as she knew Hemingway once had, at her desk, for the set amount of time she had prescribed for herself. The clock at the bottom of the monitor turned over to 11:51 AM. Nine more minutes to go. She could sit and stare at the screen, envision what she would like to write, or maybe simply restart writing whatever came into her head.
She sat and stared at the screen.
After what seemed like hours, the monitor clock struck 12:00 PM. It was noon and “nothing is concluded,” she thought.
With a sigh, she rose and pushed her chair in under her desk, stretched, and decided to go out in the back yard and look at the nasturtiums.
“It was noon and nothing is concluded.” (after Donald Rawley)
She sat at her desk, staring blankly at an even blanker computer screen. She had been sitting that way for almost fifteen minutes. Somewhere between what she thought was a good idea and plunking out words on the keyboard for four hours, she decided it was all a waste and deleted everything from the word document she had begun at half past seven.
She had been taught never to delete her work. That even if what she had written seemed all for naught, there might be a seed of a beginning, or a sprout to a middle or a perfect flower of an ending. She cursed that instructor in this moment for putting all those gardening metaphors in her mind. She decided to take a head hoe to them and get rid of all that she had planted. With one click she was able to make her digital harvest disappear.
So she sat, as she knew Hemingway once had, at her desk, for the set amount of time she had prescribed for herself. The clock at the bottom of the monitor turned over to 11:51 AM. Nine more minutes to go. She could sit and stare at the screen, envision what she would like to write, or maybe simply restart writing whatever came into her head.
She sat and stared at the screen.
After what seemed like hours, the monitor clock struck 12:00 PM. It was noon and “nothing is concluded,” she thought.
With a sigh, she rose and pushed her chair in under her desk, stretched, and decided to go out in the back yard and look at the nasturtiums.
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