Up the Creek

Kim McDougall, of Blazing Trailers, sent out an email with a message from Tribute-Books. Evidently, they are looking for authors in the young adult genre (YA for the terminally hip). Well, that let me out, but I still found something in the note that did apply to me. Here's the quote:


"I am a big believer in the power of social media ... In my opinion, social networking is the bread and butter of any author's promotional efforts. Without it, it's like trying to paddle upstream without a canoe. Readers want to connect with the person who wrote the book. They crave interaction with an author. Nothing beats getting a writer to comment on a blogger's book review post or getting a personalized thank you tweet from your favorite author. The days of authors being isolated from their fans is over. They're now able to build an online following and receive instant feedback for their work. They have the opportunity to take part in creating their own literary community."


And there, gentle readers, is the very essence of my dilemma ... I don't disagree at all with the author of this quote, in fact I'm sure it is the deal ... in spades. Evidently, I just don't have the knowledge, ability, creativity or stamina (am I leaving anything out?) to take advantage of it. You know where that leaves me?

"... and don't call me Shirley!"

I get these email blasts from Steve Harrison ... he's the guy who runs the Reporter Connection, which claims to be able to hook you up with all sorts of media outlets that are just dying to interview you. Anyway, I got this recent notice about author Reid Rosenthal's efforts to promote his new tome by soliciting people in the airport. Here's an excerpt from that notice:


"If I saw anyone who was reading a book or had a Kindle or an iPad, I would walk up to them and say, ‘Hi, my name is Reid Rosenthal and I’m an author ... I notice you’re reading a book ... Then I’d launch into a quick spiel: ‘I’m writing a six-novel series ... I’m excited about this book and think you’d really like it. If you give me your card and a dollar, I’ll give you $4 off on the book when it comes out. ... By the time I got back to Salt Lake City, I had 161 dollars and 161 business cards ..."


All I could think of when I read this was the scene in the movie 'Airplane' where Robert Stack's character is punching out various solicitors as he makes his way through the airport. A tip of the hat to Mr. Rosenthal ... you gotta admire that kind of chutzpah.

PS. Farewell and adieu to the 2011 Tigers ... they gave us a good ride (sniff, sniff).

What Me, a Twit?

Somebody help me out here ... I've been resisting the Twitter phenomenon because ... well, I just plain don't get it. Everyone (don't make me tell you who 'everyone' is) said I HAD to set up a Fazebook page ... so I did ... and I still don't know why. I send out notices about stuff on that thing and then ... crickets ... nothing ... oh, I do see about a thousand notes from other folks about babies and weddings and who knows what ... but I can't figure out who is talking to who or why ... and none of it ever relates to my original dispatch.  So now I keep hearing about the necessity for authors to have a Twitter account ... how would that be any different than Fazebook? Oh well, probably won't work on my rotary phone anyway.

PS. Tigers got thumped by the Rangers again and are behind in the ALCS 0-2 ... gloom and doom are descending on moi.

@#$%^& $&*%!!!

To paraphrase comedian Jeff Foxworthy, you might be a crappy marketer if you go to a class reunion and no one there knows that you published a second book almost a year ago. Opps, did I just describe moi? Yep, I attended a reunion (no, I'm not going to tell which one) over the weekend, and while many folks remembered that I was an author and even remembered my first book, not one knew that I had a second book out. Ouch! I mean, if friends don't know what you're doing, how do you expect the general public to know? And I swore I'd do a better job marketing Headwind than I did with Northern Cross. Maybe I should just swear.