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I will be at Borders locations in Columbus, Cincinnati and Crestview Hills, Ky., this weekend to discuss and sign "The Developers." Here are the specifics:
2 p.m. August 12
Borders, 4545 Kenny Road, Columbus, Ohio
7 p.m. August 12
Borders, Princeton Plaza Shopping Center, Cincinnati
2 p.m. August 13
Borders, 2785 Dixie Highway, Crestview Hills, Ky.
My brother, Chris, recently recounted a tulmultuous occurrence in our lives. Here's the text of that fateful day.
While there are many things to consider when writing, one of the most important items has to be the audience. If I write the greatest story in the history of literature, and it's a war story, there's a good chance that people who aren't interested in war won't like it.
"The Developers" isn't about war, and it's not the greatest story in the history of literature. Maybe the top 10, but not the greatest. Ha! Even when you anticipate that you know your audience, there's still something that just doesn't fit.
Authors who are either self-published or with small publishers have an extremely difficult time getting the word out about their novels. Most large publishing houses have money devoted to advertising, and well-known authors usually have their own publicists to handle marketing.
You receive a lot of spam, right? Apparently, so does everyone else.
In a recent report compiled by SoftScan, close to 90 percent of emails sent in July were spam. It should be noted that SoftScan is a company that offers anti-spam software, and that it also acknowledges that fewer actual emails were sent in July because of the holiday, according to vnunet.com.
Many people in Western culture are starting to take search engines for granted. I'm not talking about just having a computer and having access to the Internet. I'm speaking of what you can and cannot find in some of the top engines themselves.
The publishing industry, much like any entertainment industry, is all about who you know, and not necessarily about how good you are. Having said this, though, if you are damn good, and you have a little luck, you can break into the inner circle.
I plan to attend the 2009 edition of the Baltimore Book Festival ... as a customer, though, not as a vendor. But I still feel as if I should be more a part of the action. So, for the rest of September, I decided to give away a few copies of my workplace humor novel, "The Developers," in conjunction with raising money for Southwest Baltimore Charter School.
A reader once questioned me about extensions. Perturbed,
I responded, "Maybe they work for Britney, but I'm not
ready for hair extensions." Then I fell out of my chair,
hit my head on the keyboard and realized he meant file
extensions.
Writing a review for Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is sort of Catch-22. If I don't tell you enough about it, you probably won't be interested in the book. But if I tell you too much, you won't have to read it because you'll already know what it's about.
But I suppose I should try.