Vacation's Over - Now It's Time for PR

It was a lovely respite - 10 days on the lake in New Hampshire with beautiful days and deep, dark nights with loons calling across the water. If I hadn't been working on a project near to my heart, I would have relaxed more, but I knew it would be like that. It was a blessing of sorts that there's no Internet at the cabin, that we had to take our laptops to the local library to get and send email. Boy, does that focus your reading and writing!

But now we're home and getting into the rapid speed-up of the fall and winter. Now it is time for me to be like Marti, the AR guru of The Art of Marketing You. I've been watching and learning from him and the others on AR who say Blog! Tweet! Facebook! And so I'm starting to blog more. And I tweet as @McFrugal (of the Clan McFrugal, of course). And I'm on Facebook not once but twice. First, for myself and keeping up with family and friends. But now also as The Cat Lover's Book of Days for the book that comes out in October. With the help of a savvy young PR professional, there's even a fan page for the book now.

And that's where I learned another important lesson. You don't have to do it all yourself! I'm one of those who has never found it easy to delegate. I "knew" a fan page would be important. I figured I could do it myself, could understand the technology, and save some money. Wrong! I might have been able to figure it out, but probably not in time to be of any value. So through a referral I found someone who did it in a couple of days and continues to help with press releases and more.

There will always be more that needs doing than I can get done by myself. It takes me a while, but I'm learning from friends like Margaret Rome who find people like tech gurus to deal with the things that need doing, and that would otherwise take away from her incredible productivity. That's my new watchword: Outsource.

Now if only I could outsource sleeping, think how much more I could get done!!!

When You Finally Know

You know how people ask children and teenagers, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I always had answers back then – scientist, pilot, writer. But once I hit the age when you're supposed to have some direction, the choices were not so clear. And since then I've spent decades saying, "I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up."

Margaret Rome signing Real Estate the Rome Way

The other night I realized that I finally DO know. I want to be what I am now. I want to be the one setting up the signing table, schmoozing with the fans, and helping authors make that connection with their readers. I want to be the one with the camera, roaming the room and taking pictures as the author talks with customers and signs their books. I want to be the one they mention in the acknowledgments because I've helped them make a particular dream come true.

It's only taken mumbledy-teen years, but it finally happened. I know what I want to be when I grow up!

(I still don't want to actually grow up…but that's another story.)

Readin' in the Rain

As the sky glowered a dismal gray, the first visitors stepped carefully down the slick cobbled streets of Mount Vernon Place at Baltimore's Book Festival. I guess we should have expected this; in past years the Festival has been cancelled at least once when a hurricane came through. But still, we hoped that on this Saturday dry weather would keep the thousands of books in scores of booths from curling. It was not to be.

First it drizzled, then it rained, and then you couldn't hear yourself think over the pounding of the downpour. The picnic tables sat soggy and forlorn while the food vendors smiled hopefully at the passersby huddled under umbrellas. Even with the lights that the City of Baltimore provided inside the tents, there was no way to dispel the gray sogginess.

But in publishing, as in theater, the show must go on. And thanks to stalwart visitors and an engaging young writer, the MidAtlantic Book Publishers Association's booth was a good place to be. In the couple of hours that we (author Margaret Rome and I) were there to volunteer, we talked with writers of fiction, non-fiction, memoir, and poetry. MBPA's president, Sheila Ruth did a great job of setting up the booth, assembling information packets, and displaying the association members' books.

I love to see the creative covers that come from people not constrained by big publishing's limits. Sheila's husband, Nick, was "wearing" the cover of his book, Dark Dreamweaver, and son David was in the spirit of things with his purple cape. It was David who stood outside the booth and stopped visitors with his smile and invitation to take one of MBPA's information packets. And every packet that left had in it a post card for Margaret's book, Real Estate the Right Rome Way, and one for my own book that I'm scrambling to get out before the holidays, The Writer's Book of Days. You can read more about both upcoming books on The Silloway Press Website. While you're there, be sure to sign up for the free monthly newsletter, KeyNotes - the next one is coming out soon!

Despite the low turnout and the river running through the booth, we had fun. While waiting out one of the heaviest downpours at the Book Festival, I talked with a woman who had come on a bus trip from New Jersey just for the event. It took me back to my days at craft shows when even bad weather wouldn't keep the die-hard fans away. And it gave me renewed hope that the well-written, independently published book is alive and well in America.