I Sent A Copy of The Pitcher To The President...

And got a letter back. It happened like this. A friend of mine who had been part of a literary benefit for The White House said I should sent a copy of the book to the then social secretary and that she would give it to the President. I forgot all about it after I sent it. You do these things when pushing a book. Crazy shots that have the odds of the lottery against them. Sometimes they work and most of the time there is no way they will ever work.

Anyway I received a letter from the President saying thanks very much for the book. Although he didn't cite the title I figured he was busy. Then I studied his signature. It looked real. I mean would they really have a machine that can duplicate a signature complete with ink imperfections? No way. I was convinced this letter had come from the President and set about getting a frame. I mean you don't get a letter from the President every day.

So I framed it and put it on my dresser and every day there was a  letter from my pal the President. And then my daughter sent off a letter telling the President to basically have a good day. She is nine. And sure enough about three weeks later she got her letter. And I thought wow this guy is amazingly responsive as I opened her letter and read my letter. Huh! ....guess they do have a machine that can duplicate a signature.

 I gave her my frame.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher
 

The Author Scoreboard

Used to be you put a book out there and you had no idea what was going one. BA. Before Amazon. Now the world can take a peek and it is the same as having your pants down....do you really want everyone to see your underwear. Only if it looks good and if it looks bad then you want to hide. So the author scoreboard is there every day like a stock fluctuating with the tide. Up or down it sets your mood for the day. Which is not a good thing.

Should you feel better about yourself because someone buys your book.  Sure. But is that why you wrote in the first place? No. You wrote because you were drive to do it and the whole selling thing was secondary. Now there are people w ho will say no no I wrote to sell books.  Pity you. Go make a widget they are easier to sell. Most authors write out of a higher sense of purpose and that is what keeps you going through the hard times.

But being human you watch the scoreboard and when your ranking improves the day is good and when it falls off the day is dark. You tell yourself it doesn't matter but it does. Because you do want to believe people are buying your book. You want to believe that scoreboard represents a faith in you and your story and that what you do is not in vain.

So back to why you started to write in the first place. Yes it starts out of a higher place but you have to eat too. There in lies the rub

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher
 

Why I Left The Literary Festival

There comes a point where you have to go. It happened in my first writing group. I had just had a book published by a tiny press and I could not stay. And now it happens when I go to the Midlist Author events. I just can't stay. There is something about walking into some town hall or VFW or restaurant and seeing authors captive behind their tables and books. They look in pain. They stare into space confronted with the egos of others in crisis. The authorial dream cannot stand up to ten authors eyeball to eyeball confronted with the obvious truth. No one cares that you wrote this book and no one is coming.

And the reason no one is coming is the same for book signings. That world is now online. The midlist author always had a hard slog but the dregs of the old ways of marketing assure us that truly the world of brick and mortar is on a time limit. And when the woman calls and asks for thirty five dollars to sit in a small town in a town hall and face down those other authors then it is insult to injury. Because you pay it. Marketing is marketing. But is it?

The waste of time is evident. The marketing that occurs on a booksite or on Facebook or shooting out tweets blows away sitting in a room with ten other writers trying to sell books. To add another pin to this scenario the library has a large room of books they are discounting for about a buck a book in the next room. So all the authors have to offer is their personality and that is buried behind embarrassment and depression over the fact this then is the real world of selling self published books to a world drowning in such books.

And so I leave. I see my table with my name. It is empty and in a way I should go and sit down and do my time. But I have done that before. It is time to move on. So I do.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher
 

What Media Does an Author Pursue?

You could just go after the newspapers. They used to be pretty good at covering novels. But a lot of these journalists are gone. I know that most of the people who covered my other books are no longer employed by the paper. If there are reviews they are assigned out. So that leaves radio. The bookshows used to be a safe bet. A lot of them are gone and the ones that are left are on a shoestring. Of course there is NPR and I have done that but it is not a sure thing ever. And the other question is how many books does radio really sell?

So that leaves the internet. This is where most authors now make their stand. At least one can take a shot. But again what do you pursue? The Social Sites? Twitter. Blog. All of it. Yes all of it. That is the approach now. Do it all but of course you quickly realize this is impossible. There are just not enough hours in the day and if there were you would be bleary eyed and spent. Forget about writing. That is not even an option.

So what media does an author pursue? Local media is not a bad bet. A local author has a good shot at a local paper. And local papers can be picked up by bigger papers. And of course blog. Tweet. Interact socially. Do your newsletter. Do giveaways. Take a shot at a radio interview. Give speeches. Go to festivals. Jump up and down. Scream. Build a website. Build another website. Give books to teachers. Give books to anyone who will review. Pray.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The PItcher