And So It Begins

Today, The Accidental Activist is officially launched at the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. The tree-book is up on Amazon and the e-book will soon follow. Oilspill dotcom is being withdrawn from all outlets. Hold on to yours - it is about to become a collectors' item!

The Accidental Activist is essentially the same story. New title, new cover and the text has been raked over by Three Clover Press editors and the language tightened.

Countdown to a Novel Published, sadly neglected over the past couple of months will stay dormant. As part of the terms with Three Clover Press, my publisher, I am committed to posting every day at Left Coast Voices.

The focus on blogging as a way to bring traffic to my website and selling pages for my books is intriguing. For those authors who stay the course, the results are clear and, best of all, encouraging. You can't argue with statistics and sales. I certainly won't.

Over the past year, I have jumped from one marketing option to another. I have read in bookstores and community centers but these have been very time consuming with little return. The consignment game played with small independent bookstores is depressing. It's not their fault, but there are serious cracks in the system.

So it is an ending of sorts, a parting of ways from Oilspill dotcom and Countdown to a Novel Published. It's been a great journey, a learning experience and now both the book and my resolve as an author are more focused and more optimistic.

Hope to see you at Left Coast Voices. Leave me a comment - it's not quite a conversation over cappuccino, but let's keep in touch.

Good Writing,
Alon

The Holiday Party Season

Like many writers, I am not the party swinger. During the year, the kind of parties that I am invited to tend to be kids birthday parties, where the grand sum of conversation circulates around ... kids. Perhaps I’m not the greatest father (though I do try to be), but somehow, it seems there is only so much to discuss with almost-strangers about your child or theirs, generally theirs. I guess if I were invited to writer’s parties, I would have a ball. But I’m not, so I don’t.

The holiday season presents an intense season of parties, not necessarily revolving around children. Being in the Bay Area, Xmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, all neatly intermingle and we all seem comfortable if not excited at joining each other’s religious celebrations. It’s not hard: we all utilize light, presents, food and wine.

We also socialize.

Like most writers, I’d rather be writing, but I decided this year to approach the parties with a goal. I will present myself as an author. Fresh from the conference I attended in Baltimore (see blog entry: Elevator Pitch), with my well-practiced elevator pitch, I slipped some business cards that promote this blog into my pocket and, so armed, went into battle.

I failed. Even my wife took pity on me and tried to bring up Oilspill dotcom in every conversation that we shared, but to little avail. Twice, I never even got to finish my elevator pitch, once a child fell down and began crying near us, and one woman even spilt her plate of food (I would like to think this was an accident, rather than an act of desperation).

People do perk up their ears when I mention my blog. But they are not interested in my book or me; they are interested in the phenomenon of blogging. And all too quickly the conversation turns to: “What do you people have to say?” “Who reads them?” “My friends/family/colleagues think I should blog. Who has the time?”

And then they turn away to fill their wine glass and replenish their plate with turkey and cranberry sauce and I’m left surreptitiously returning the blog business card to my pocket and sighing.

Happy End-of-Holidays & Good Writing!

Alon