Point of Sale

 by Thomas Kies

Most of us have been there.  You go to a planned book signing at a library or a bookstore where nobody has heard of you and you- and maybe your spouse- are the only ones there.  Where it’s so quiet you can literally hear the clock ticking in the next room.  Where everyone avoids making eye contact with the author. 

Or at a book event or authors’ fest where there may be a dozen other writers, but once again, the audience is sparse, and you’ve just spent six hours of your life staring into space.

Those are humbling experiences.

So, I get a lot of requests for attendance, but I’ve become much more selective.  Let’s face it, time is a precious commodity.   

One of the events I do attend is something called the Olde Beaufort Farmer’s Market.  Now, admittedly, this sounds like it could be lame.  Can you really sell books in the same location that feature fruits, vegetables, and crochet animals?

Yeah, at this one you can.  At one point Beaufort was named the coolest small town in America. It’s got a vibe.  And the Farmers Market isn’t’ just for farmers. It’s also got some very eclectic items on sale, like gourmet coffees, baked goods, fine arts, cool jewelry, funky clothes and, of course, shrimp. We are, after all, on the coast of North Carolina. 

During the summer, this is an event that takes place every week, but once a year, they ask local authors to attend. I love this event.

This past weekend, I went through cases of my novels.  The people who attend this event are both locals and tourists, both of whom come to spend money.

Yeah, you still have to work the crowd.  You have to make eye contact.  If they look interested, you ask them, “Do you like mysteries?”  If they say no or tell you they don’t like to read, send them packing. They’re not going to read your books. 

If they say “yes”, you’ve got them.  Engage them in conversation, tell them about your books, how you came to create your protagonist, the writing process, and what makes your books special. Try to do it with humor and humility. 

Accent on the humor. 

What’s fun is if they’ve heard of you or seen your books somewhere before. 

There was one woman, when she spotted a poster featuring my first book, Random Road, rushed to my booth with her friends and exclaimed, “I just read that book.  Are you really the author?”

I live for those moments.  She kept telling everyone around us how much she enjoyed the novel and then proceeded to buy the rest of the books in the series.  

And then there was the group of young ladies in the early part of a celebration of their friend’s looming nuptials.  Seeing the future bride, I gave her a signed copy of Random Road as a gift and told her, “Here, you can take this on your honeymoon.”

The group broke out in laughter.  She smiled at me and purred, “If nothing else, I’ll read it by the pool.”  Two others in her entourage bought books. 

Obviously, it helps if you’re an extrovert, which I am, and enjoy talking with people. What I also love is that if they buy one book, they’ll order more.  I always see a spike in online sales after this event. 

Make sure you can take credit cards; more and more people don't carry cash anymore.  And more than once, a younger buyer asked if I use Venmo.  I don't, but I might have to take a look at it. 

So, I try to be selective these days when and where I spend time with my books. But I also try to keep an open mind.  You never know where there will be an unexpected success. 

Novella Finished and Out With Beta Readers

By Shelley Burbank

Happy Friday, Friends! 

How's your summer going so far? Have you written all the words, read all the books, soaked up all the sun, splashed in the lake or ocean, cooked up some burgers or portobellos on the ol' grill while fireflies danced and sparkled in the long grass on the side of the road? 

For me, this past month has been all about revising Strawberry Moon Mystery. Early beta reader response has been positive overall. I'm hoping with a few tweaks and changes, I'll be able to make it available to readers by the end of September, latest. The more I learn about indie publishing, the less appealing it is, but I'm at this stage where it makes the most sense, at least with this novella.

I'm going to price it fairly high because it's either that or give it away for nothing some other way. Here's my thought: my readers, the readers I'm hoping to attract, will be willing to pay $5.99 for a 120 page ebook. I know the common wisdom is to price it low, but you know what? I think that just signals a lack of confidence and a sense of my work's worth. I haven't decided yet on the print cost, but I think I'll keep in in line with the other two books in the series at 19.99. (It would be so much easier if we could just round up to $20! Especially since we are getting rid of the USA penny! Are any of us REALLY fooled by the .99 on the end of pricing?)

Creativity Webs

Lately I find myself wanting to focus on multiple creative pursuits: learning to crochet granny squares, reading ancient and world history and Guam history, catching up on classic literature I've missed, and continuing to explore art techniques and art journaling. All this plus more story ideas than I can handle. It feels as if I'm spinning a complex web of creativity and getting myself tangled up in all the threads. 

How do you balance your creative life?

I think one way, moving forward, will be reducing my screen time. It's so easy to fall into a nightly television habit. I'm more productive in the mornings, but I could spend my evenings reading the history and literature and knitting/crocheting. One idea was to create a cozy reading space, and so I bought a beautiful, cheery yellow lamp to sit beside a chair in my living room.

I'd like to add a pretty blue and yellow print to the shade if I can figure out how to do it properly. And yes, that's the same knit dishcloth I started months ago. I looked for some floral artwork at the local Salvation Army Thrift Store with no luck, but I was in a hurry. I'll get there again soon and take my time poking into odd corners.

Facebook, Shmacebook

As I'm about to begin "marketing" the novella, Facebook is once again on my iPhone. Am I pleased with this development? No. Simply, no. Hopefully I've figured out how to use the platform without it using me. I hop on. I post. I skeedaddle. No scrolling. Very little hitting the like button. Even less commenting. 

This makes me a "freeloader" and I don't care! 

Hope you have a wonderful week and final weeks of summer. See you in the fall!

Shelley

Have you subscribed to Pink Dandelions, my monthly newsletter on creativity, culture, manifesting, mindfulness, and nurturing your own beautiful life? http://shelleyburbank.substack.com/

[A version of this blog post appeared on my private blog, Shelley's Journal.

Creepypasta and more

 by Sybil Johnson

Today it’s random thoughts day for me. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a writer or if everyone has random thoughts throughout the day. I pretty much have them when I’m driving or walking or watching TV or reading a book or.... Something catches my attention and I feel the need to look it up or make a note. Sometimes I get stories out of them, sometimes I just find them interesting. Here are some of my most recent thoughts:

Creepypasta – I was watching an episode of the French crime series, The Art of Crime, and they mentioned creepypasta. What? I double-checked the English subtitles (I don’t know French) and, sure enough, it said “creepypasta” all one word. The episode was set in the world of ballet. Students at a ballet school were scaring each other with what they called creepypasta videos. They’d dress up as a Degas ballerina statue that was rumored to come to life and scare the crap out of each other, then post it on the internet.

What is this, I thought? Is this a thing in real life or made up for the episode? So I looked it up. Turns out it’s real. A creepypasta is any horror story or video that is posted to the internet. The name comes from “copy and paste”. Not sure I get how that works, but that’s okay. I’m old. I may have to come up with a story that features creepypasta stories. Hmmm.

Cats of Disneyland – I love Disneyland. It’s my happy place. I always feel better after I’ve been there. I see ducks that live in the park all the time. I knew there were also cats who lived there, but I’ve never seen any of them. They generally come out at night and help keep the vermin population in check. A friend pointed me to this video about the cats. Made me smile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLCoFx4Hrns

Pronouns – I recently read a book by John McWhorter, a linguistics professor, called simply Pronouns. I found it highly interesting, particularly the chapter on “they”. Worth a read. When writing a mystery, I don’t really want to use he or she for the murderer because that might give something away. Unless the police are absolutely sure the perpetrator is male or female, of course. I tend to use they a lot.

Hen pronoun in Swedish --- I’ve been “learning” Swedish for a while now. Still don’t know it well, but I am learning more and more each day. In the above book on pronouns, McWhorter mentioned that Swedish now has a “hen” pronoun for use when you don’t know the gender of a person or for someone who is non-binary or where gender doesn’t matter. I was not familiar with this at all. In my studies, they just mention han(he) and hon(she). Hen seems like a nice addition so I looked it up.

According to various sources on the internet, hen originally came into being in the 1960s, but did not reach the “masses” until 2012. It was officially added to the Swedish Academy’s dictionary in 2015. It was inspired by a Finnish pronoun which refers to anyone at all. This was an interesting article on its origins and current use: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/swedish-hen

 aibohphobia – This is the fear of palindromes. I saw this on Jeopardy! I really, really want this to be a real thing. Can you imagine having this fear and your name is Anna? Anyway, apparently the word was invented in response to a challenge to invent a new phobia. The word is, of course, a palindrome itself. No one has been diagnosed with this as of yet.

Murderbot Diaries – I recently discovered the Murderbot Diaries, a series of books by Martha Wells. I am currently in the middle of book 4 of 7. They are full of adventure. What I really like, though, is the personality of the Murderbot. I hear AppleTV has made a series out of the books. I want to finish the books before I watch it. I wonder if I’m going to enjoy it as much as the books. 

Those are my random thoughts for today. What are yours?

Colorado Book Awards

 By Charlotte Hinger

The Colorado Book Awards event was held Saturday, July 26. I was thrilled that Mary's Place was a finalist for the Historical Novel award. First place went to All Our Yesterdays, by Joel H. Morris. It's about Lady MacBeth and I'm eager to read it.

I was delighted to learn that an anthology, Ramas Y Raices, written by Type M's very own Mario Acevedo was also a finalist. It features the best of CALMA--the Colorado Alliance of Latina Mentors and Authors. There were twenty-four contributors. 

The Colorado Book Awards are very suspenseful for the finalist. All the finalists are revealed early, but the winner is not announced until that very special Saturday night. 

Winners from each category read a selection from their book and then gave thanks to people they wanted to acknowledge. The winner of the Creative Non-Fiction Award was Brandon Shimoda with The Afterlife is Letting Go. This book was also chosen as Booklist's one of the top ten history books of the year. No small feat! In fact, Shimoda has won quite a number of prestigious awards. 

Afterlife is about the Japanese American concentration camps during World War 11. All the reviews praise his research plus his ability to integrate his own family's history. 

Honestly, if he writes as well as he speaks this book must be outstanding. He literally broke my heart. Although Afterlife is based on the Japanese experience, he then referred to the terrors of the Israel Hamas War. Of course I was aware of the staggering toll on people, but he also pointed out the obliteration of libraries. 

Why had that not occurred to me? In a very short time, precious rare books have been destroyed and libraries reduced to rubble. Historical and family records no longer exist. 

I'm not sure I could breathe without access to a library.  

Alert the physicists!

 Michael Chandos

Alert the physicists! Time has changed. For me, at least. When I was a kid, sometimes time dragged by. Now, with me over 70, time flies by.  WHY?

When I graduated from college, I was in the Air Force. I traveled. Started a family. Bought cars and a house. Took the equivalent of online schools. Started a Masters program. But I still found time to write.

Strictly an amateur, I wrote for fanzines and online blogs, before they were called blogs. One was a Star Trek-inspired writing club organized like crew members on an Enterprise-type ship. Each contributing writer developed a character from Star Trek, complete with a bio, an image (which a talented member drew to our specification). I was an Andorian security and intelligence officer. A Redshirt. Then we picked a theme or mission scenario to write stories featuring our character. The "Captain" pulled the stories together into a spiral bound anthology for the members' enjoyment.

I started collecting background data on mystery and SF subjects, stored in boxes that I dragged through four successive house moves. Apparently, filing was optional. I still have a couple of the boxes of articles, pictures and notes. There's gold in there.

I left the service for the aerospace industry. I still took classes, but now I added live theater. I moved twice to new-to-us houses. I started Vintage Racing in a 1964 Formula car. I still wrote. I researched, wrote, pitched and sold a volume of military history. I sold my first SF story for 10 bucks.

I left industry for Federal Civil Service. More classes (Air War College), lots of travel, a new house, still racing, still doing theater, at a higher level, took college and professional theater courses. Got an agent, did commercials. Sold several mysteries, even one SF story to a Scottish publisher. Finally, retired from the 9-5.

Started a business, a private investigations LLC, just me. Was very busy. Licensed in two States. Sold the race car. Theater and travel tapered off. Bought a buy & die house that took a year of my time. I had my first professional sale to a mystery anthology, then 12 others, joined groups like the Mystery Writers of America.

Finally closed the business. 

Oh Boy! I was unburdened and had loads of time to write. Except I didn't. 

I was busy doing "stuff", like painting and repair. I did housework. Days passed like telephone poles seen from a train. I had to ask people or look at my phone to make sure I was aware of the day of the week. I didn't have a solid fix on the month or hour either. I did less writing. Less writing. Less sales. WTH.

I am sure some evil experiment or geophysical anomaly has altered time.

Anyone out there in contact with Einstein?