Ever take a walk through the woods and find stuff you want to fix – like untangling a vine that’s strangling a sapling, or returning a bird egg to its nest? You could spend hours making things better before you realize that the woods would have been just fine had you never appeared.
The free market is like nature – full of little injustices, but altogether a glorious place. Then a Democrat comes along; someone who knows better and can’t resist imparting their sense of fairness on others.
The problem with interfering with nature is that once you start, the corrections never end. You end up doing more harm than good. That has certainly been the case with all the social engineering in government over the past forty years. You start out keeping people from harming each other and soon you’re telling them what color car they can drive.
I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Obama administration sets up a regulatory agency to monitor predatory behavior in the woods. It’s not fair that foxes eat bunnies or that the big trees hog all the light from the little trees.
Thank goodness that nature has a way of snuffing out things that aren’t natural.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Wisdom at a young age
I recently asked my friend's little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?'
She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'
Her parents beamed.
'Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out.
You can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.'
She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?'
I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'
Her parents still aren't speaking to me.
She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'
Her parents beamed.
'Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out.
You can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.'
She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?'
I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'
Her parents still aren't speaking to me.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Seen enough to know - not what people voted for
Obama supporters think we need to give him more time. Good grief, they say, he's only been in office 60 days. Bull. We've seen enough to know his agenda.
There were three blocks of voters in the last presidential election: those who liked Obama and his policies, those who voted for the man’s image and didn’t pay attention to his policies, and those who didn’t like his policies. Most hoped that, despite his far-left platform, Obama would rule as a moderate.
Well, he hasn’t. Everything he’s planning - raising taxes, cap and trade, card check, national health care, olive branches to Iran – is well left of the average American’s values.
Obama still doesn’t realize that most of his support came from voters who think he’s cool. They did not want America to jerk to the left.
I know the feeling. Many of us thought George Bush was a conservative, but all we got was bigger government and more debt.
Obama’s popularity is sinking fast; the honeymoon is over. Let’s just hope that the resistance will grow before more damage is done, and we can reelect a better Congress in 2012.
There were three blocks of voters in the last presidential election: those who liked Obama and his policies, those who voted for the man’s image and didn’t pay attention to his policies, and those who didn’t like his policies. Most hoped that, despite his far-left platform, Obama would rule as a moderate.
Well, he hasn’t. Everything he’s planning - raising taxes, cap and trade, card check, national health care, olive branches to Iran – is well left of the average American’s values.
Obama still doesn’t realize that most of his support came from voters who think he’s cool. They did not want America to jerk to the left.
I know the feeling. Many of us thought George Bush was a conservative, but all we got was bigger government and more debt.
Obama’s popularity is sinking fast; the honeymoon is over. Let’s just hope that the resistance will grow before more damage is done, and we can reelect a better Congress in 2012.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Two-faced outrage
There is something very inconsistent and duplicitous about the Democrats’ selective outrage over the AIG bonuses. The Washington elites and media who demonize American industry and think all corporate executives are greedy look right past all the lying and stealing that occurs in government and non-profit organizations:
- Employees goofing off while getting paid
- Calling in sick or drawing disability when you could work
- The ridiculous level of compensation for athletes and celebrities, which is spread like a tax to the population through higher prices for tickets and advertising
- Ineffective, lazy management that squanders resources
- Making a game of tripping up citizens with stupid regulations enforced with the policing power of government
- Cheating on insurance claims and stealing inventory and supplies.
These corruptions are many times more costly than all the executive compensation put together.
Free enterprise has a proven way of ridding the system of greed and bad decisions. Government compounds its inherent inefficiencies by building more government.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The destructiveness of political correctness
Of all the columns I’ve read, the one below haunts me. Race is such a difficult topic…
How Liberals Injure Blacks By Dennis Prager July 11, 2006
I was recently shown a videotape of people reacting to radio talk shows. Organized by a firm that specializes in analyzing radio talk shows, the members of the listening panel were carefully chosen to represent all major listening groups within American society.
But I quickly noticed something odd -- I saw no blacks among the selected listeners. I asked why. And the response was stunning.
Blacks had always been included, I was told, but no more. Not because the firm was not interested in black listeners -- on the contrary, blacks are an important part of the radio audience. They were not invited to give their opinion about various radio shows because in its previous experience, the company had discovered that almost no whites would publicly differ with the opinions of the blacks on the panel. Therefore, once a black listener spoke, whites stopped saying what they really thought, if what they thought differed from what a black had said.
I believed that this was the reason -- not some racist animosity toward blacks -- since such companies are paid to give accurate reports on audience reactions to radio programs, and clearly their results would be skewed without input from black listeners. But I still needed to test this thesis. Do most whites really not publicly say what they believe, if what they believe differs from what a black believes -- even when the subject has absolutely nothing to do with race (i.e., reactions to a radio talk show discussing other subjects)?
So I posed to this question to my radio audience, and, sure enough, whites from around the country called in to say that they are afraid to differ with blacks lest they be labeled racist.
I could not imagine anything more detrimental toward abolishing racism and to enhancing black progress in America than such an attitude. But apparently it is the norm in American life to so fear being called a racist that individuals as well as institutions react to blacks as they would to children -- humoring them rather than taking them seriously.
This is another terrible legacy of the dominant liberal attitudes vis a vis America's blacks. For the liberal worlds of academia and media, as for the Democratic Party, blacks are not seen as individuals, the way members of virtually other minority and majority groups are. In the liberal mind, blacks are an oppressed group -- the ultimate oppressed group in America -- and there is little more about black Americans that one needs to know.
Therefore, in a mind-numbing non sequitur, blacks are not be judged, talked to, talked about or hired as other human beings are. I write "non sequitur" because even if one were to agree that blacks are an, or even the, oppressed minority, why would that obviate the need to judge, talk to, talk about or hire black human beings differently than anyone else? It would seem that anyone with equal respect for blacks would judge and talk to them just as they would all other people. But high schools and universities, newspapers and television, the Democratic Party and other liberal institutions have made it very difficult to do so.
Anyone who argues that standards should be identical for blacks -- in hiring and in college acceptance, for example -- is likely to be labeled a racist. And if the person making that argument is himself black, he becomes a member of the group liberals most hate, black conservatives -- "traitors" to fellow blacks.
For the full text, click here.
How Liberals Injure Blacks By Dennis Prager July 11, 2006
I was recently shown a videotape of people reacting to radio talk shows. Organized by a firm that specializes in analyzing radio talk shows, the members of the listening panel were carefully chosen to represent all major listening groups within American society.
But I quickly noticed something odd -- I saw no blacks among the selected listeners. I asked why. And the response was stunning.
Blacks had always been included, I was told, but no more. Not because the firm was not interested in black listeners -- on the contrary, blacks are an important part of the radio audience. They were not invited to give their opinion about various radio shows because in its previous experience, the company had discovered that almost no whites would publicly differ with the opinions of the blacks on the panel. Therefore, once a black listener spoke, whites stopped saying what they really thought, if what they thought differed from what a black had said.
I believed that this was the reason -- not some racist animosity toward blacks -- since such companies are paid to give accurate reports on audience reactions to radio programs, and clearly their results would be skewed without input from black listeners. But I still needed to test this thesis. Do most whites really not publicly say what they believe, if what they believe differs from what a black believes -- even when the subject has absolutely nothing to do with race (i.e., reactions to a radio talk show discussing other subjects)?
So I posed to this question to my radio audience, and, sure enough, whites from around the country called in to say that they are afraid to differ with blacks lest they be labeled racist.
I could not imagine anything more detrimental toward abolishing racism and to enhancing black progress in America than such an attitude. But apparently it is the norm in American life to so fear being called a racist that individuals as well as institutions react to blacks as they would to children -- humoring them rather than taking them seriously.
This is another terrible legacy of the dominant liberal attitudes vis a vis America's blacks. For the liberal worlds of academia and media, as for the Democratic Party, blacks are not seen as individuals, the way members of virtually other minority and majority groups are. In the liberal mind, blacks are an oppressed group -- the ultimate oppressed group in America -- and there is little more about black Americans that one needs to know.
Therefore, in a mind-numbing non sequitur, blacks are not be judged, talked to, talked about or hired as other human beings are. I write "non sequitur" because even if one were to agree that blacks are an, or even the, oppressed minority, why would that obviate the need to judge, talk to, talk about or hire black human beings differently than anyone else? It would seem that anyone with equal respect for blacks would judge and talk to them just as they would all other people. But high schools and universities, newspapers and television, the Democratic Party and other liberal institutions have made it very difficult to do so.
Anyone who argues that standards should be identical for blacks -- in hiring and in college acceptance, for example -- is likely to be labeled a racist. And if the person making that argument is himself black, he becomes a member of the group liberals most hate, black conservatives -- "traitors" to fellow blacks.
For the full text, click here.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Voted the #1 Wonder in Macon
I feel just a little closer to God when I’m standing next to a river. I like oceans too, but going to the beach is a lot bigger investment of time and money. And I hate sunscreen.
When I moved to Macon in 1984 I wondered why there was so little access to the Ocmulgee River. Except for a glimpse on the Interstate, you wouldn’t even know Macon had a river back then.
Sure enough, several years later, NewTown Macon built the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail. The primary leadership, fundraising and construction came from a combination of private, foundation and public sources. I’m sure there are others, but I understand that most of the credit goes to Chris Sheridan, Bill Hodges, Mike Ford, Juanita Jordan and Ben Porter. Danke!
The Trail will soon connect two spectacular destination parks - Ocmulgee National Monument and Amerson Water Works Park - with wonderful smaller parks in between – Central City, Gateway, Rotary and Jackson Springs - and two historic cemeteries - Rose Hill and Riverside.
The Trail connects a lot more than places. You meet very interesting folks along the River. And getting out on the Trail does a soul good; it’s healthy, green, social and a great economic development resource.
What part can you play? Get out on the Trail and AWWP. Tell your friends. Ask the City and County to do more to maintain and improve the Trail. Join Friends of the Trail. Attend events; sponsor them if you can. Volunteer for Friends committees. Call Ashley Griffin at 722-9909 for more information.
Who voted the Trail the #1 Wonder in Macon? That was me.
When I moved to Macon in 1984 I wondered why there was so little access to the Ocmulgee River. Except for a glimpse on the Interstate, you wouldn’t even know Macon had a river back then.
Sure enough, several years later, NewTown Macon built the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail. The primary leadership, fundraising and construction came from a combination of private, foundation and public sources. I’m sure there are others, but I understand that most of the credit goes to Chris Sheridan, Bill Hodges, Mike Ford, Juanita Jordan and Ben Porter. Danke!
The Trail will soon connect two spectacular destination parks - Ocmulgee National Monument and Amerson Water Works Park - with wonderful smaller parks in between – Central City, Gateway, Rotary and Jackson Springs - and two historic cemeteries - Rose Hill and Riverside.
The Trail connects a lot more than places. You meet very interesting folks along the River. And getting out on the Trail does a soul good; it’s healthy, green, social and a great economic development resource.
What part can you play? Get out on the Trail and AWWP. Tell your friends. Ask the City and County to do more to maintain and improve the Trail. Join Friends of the Trail. Attend events; sponsor them if you can. Volunteer for Friends committees. Call Ashley Griffin at 722-9909 for more information.
Who voted the Trail the #1 Wonder in Macon? That was me.
Doing the wrong thing could leave permanent scars
What would you do if some grease in a pan on your stove caught fire? Most people would panic and throw water on the flames. And that’s when you end up in the Augusta Burn Center and your house burns down.
But throwing water on a grease fire is exactly what the Democrats are doing to our economy. Under the misguided banner of FDR’s “we have to do something”, they are propping up the problem (bad loans), missing the solution (tax cuts) and breeding panic in order to pass loony legislation (carbon taxes, earmarks, etc.). They just don’t learn.
The spastic pace of Democrat spending tells me they know they only have two years in power. Hopefully the US economy is strong enough to absorb the craziness.
To see the video on kitchen grease fires,
But throwing water on a grease fire is exactly what the Democrats are doing to our economy. Under the misguided banner of FDR’s “we have to do something”, they are propping up the problem (bad loans), missing the solution (tax cuts) and breeding panic in order to pass loony legislation (carbon taxes, earmarks, etc.). They just don’t learn.
The spastic pace of Democrat spending tells me they know they only have two years in power. Hopefully the US economy is strong enough to absorb the craziness.
To see the video on kitchen grease fires,
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Trick phrases by Democrats
Tax cut for 95% of Americans... welfare for the half of American workers who don’t pay any income taxes but get a refund anyway.
Tax the wealthy, soak the rich … taxing the job creators and small business owners who are the backbone of America. Obama and his minions need to go back and read The Millionaire Next Door.
Fairness Doctrine… censorship of the right. NBC, CNN and CBS already have more airtime than Rush and other pundits.
Cap and trade… Democrats’ version of indulgences (see Martin Luther). Tax planes, trains and automobiles to subsidize alternative energy sources that can’t stand on their own.
Vegan – old Indian term for ‘bad hunter’
I'll take an hour of mess for 23 hours of majesty
Mother Nature is full of majesty… and some pretty nasty details. Take for example the Polar bear. Who could not be impressed with such strength and beauty? But did you know that Polar bears’ favorite meal is baby seal and that they occasionally eat their young?
Free enterprise is responsible for building America. And with all that incredible wealth creation we got a few Robber Barons and Enron’s along the way. Like nature, you get 23 hours of majesty and an hour of nasty stuff you don’t want to see.
But here’s the difference. The media tends to focus on the best of nature – eagles soaring, Polar bears snuggling – and the worst of business. Movies, TV shows and headline reporters have little positive to say about corporate executives.
I’ve had the good fortune to have worked in a variety of industries over 35 years. While I’ve seen occasional greed and unethical behavior in business, I’d put the collective ethical standards of corporate executives up against any group of teachers, entertainers, lawyers, doctors or other groups - for profit or not.
Industry and nature are both majestic and messy. Let’s not throw away the baby just because she has an occasional dirty diaper.
Free enterprise is responsible for building America. And with all that incredible wealth creation we got a few Robber Barons and Enron’s along the way. Like nature, you get 23 hours of majesty and an hour of nasty stuff you don’t want to see.
But here’s the difference. The media tends to focus on the best of nature – eagles soaring, Polar bears snuggling – and the worst of business. Movies, TV shows and headline reporters have little positive to say about corporate executives.
I’ve had the good fortune to have worked in a variety of industries over 35 years. While I’ve seen occasional greed and unethical behavior in business, I’d put the collective ethical standards of corporate executives up against any group of teachers, entertainers, lawyers, doctors or other groups - for profit or not.
Industry and nature are both majestic and messy. Let’s not throw away the baby just because she has an occasional dirty diaper.
Big government - not this, not now
Many people I know and respect see things quite differently from me. I love free enterprise; they think more government is the solution. How can this be? Is there a right or wrong position?
I think the answer is that both the right and left have a time and place, kind of an extension of Winston Churchill’s wisdom: “If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”
I gained an appreciation for the free market through twenty five years in industry. I learned to balance the dog-eat-dog harshness of business with the meek-shall-inherit–the-earth humility of my faith. As far as I’m concerned, there is a time and place for turning the other cheek, and a time and place for breaking some china.
The time to be liberal is when you have the resources... your own resources and not those of others. You can’t help others until you have your own act together. America absorbed the higher taxes and liberal policies of Bill Clinton because boomer spending turbo-charged the economy in the 1990s.
But current times are different. Weathering a severe recession caused by the mortgage crisis is no time to borrow enormous sums from our children to fund far left causes (national health insurance, carbon taxes, unions) that build a huge central government. Our economic conditions are serious and it’s time to get off the liberal agenda and back to business.
I think the answer is that both the right and left have a time and place, kind of an extension of Winston Churchill’s wisdom: “If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”
I gained an appreciation for the free market through twenty five years in industry. I learned to balance the dog-eat-dog harshness of business with the meek-shall-inherit–the-earth humility of my faith. As far as I’m concerned, there is a time and place for turning the other cheek, and a time and place for breaking some china.
The time to be liberal is when you have the resources... your own resources and not those of others. You can’t help others until you have your own act together. America absorbed the higher taxes and liberal policies of Bill Clinton because boomer spending turbo-charged the economy in the 1990s.
But current times are different. Weathering a severe recession caused by the mortgage crisis is no time to borrow enormous sums from our children to fund far left causes (national health insurance, carbon taxes, unions) that build a huge central government. Our economic conditions are serious and it’s time to get off the liberal agenda and back to business.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Obama's words don't match deeds
Tony Marsh had an excellent piece in The American Spectator on March 3, 2009. Here are some excerpts (italics) with my comments.
In Barack Obama the Democrats have a communicator… his body language is non-threatening, his rhetoric reassures with its reasonableness and comforting cadence. But his words in no way match his actions. His lips say moderation, his actions say spend, tax and expand government.
Yes, Obama is treated like a rock star. Some say he’s cool; I say he’s slick.
It's understandable that most pundits marvel at his mastery of delivery, but few seem to note how remarkably comfortable Obama is with his own hypocrisy. He hides his real policy agenda behind a screen of dense rhetorical smoke. President Obama understands he can't achieve his radical reorganization of America's economy by telling people that's what he actually intends.
The platitudes are getting old; the honeymoon is ending. Even the liberal press is poking at his policies. Check out RealPolitics.com for a daily dose of the growing criticism from the likes of the NY Times.
At some point, the president's rhetoric must meet reality. Once the painful economic reality hits the twenty- and thirty-something's who provided Obama's winning election margins, it's unlikely they'll be quite so enthusiastic. After all, just the spending he's committed in his first four weeks will cost each of them the equivalent of 10 Caribbean vacations over the course of their lives -- or 50 new laptops and 500 new i-pods.
Consider for example his promise to go through the budget "line by line" to eliminate wasteful spending and cut programs that aren't working almost hours after signing the biggest spending bill ever passed in the entire history of humankind.
Despite his oft-promised job-creating infrastructure improvements, President Obama's so-called "stimulus" plan spends only about 15% of its nearly trillion dollar price-tag on actual infrastructure. Rather than investment, the Obama plan rolls back welfare reform, nearly doubles the national debt, and throws money at a random collection of government pork.
We've only just seen the start of the spending spree. Obama has told his liberal allies he will push for universal health care, increase grants for college tuition, and promote a "re-tooled and re-imagined auto industry" Translation: a big fat Detroit Bailout.
All I’ve heard since the inauguration is: “He inherited a mess. Give him time. We have to do something!” But when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging.
In Barack Obama the Democrats have a communicator… his body language is non-threatening, his rhetoric reassures with its reasonableness and comforting cadence. But his words in no way match his actions. His lips say moderation, his actions say spend, tax and expand government.
Yes, Obama is treated like a rock star. Some say he’s cool; I say he’s slick.
It's understandable that most pundits marvel at his mastery of delivery, but few seem to note how remarkably comfortable Obama is with his own hypocrisy. He hides his real policy agenda behind a screen of dense rhetorical smoke. President Obama understands he can't achieve his radical reorganization of America's economy by telling people that's what he actually intends.
The platitudes are getting old; the honeymoon is ending. Even the liberal press is poking at his policies. Check out RealPolitics.com for a daily dose of the growing criticism from the likes of the NY Times.
At some point, the president's rhetoric must meet reality. Once the painful economic reality hits the twenty- and thirty-something's who provided Obama's winning election margins, it's unlikely they'll be quite so enthusiastic. After all, just the spending he's committed in his first four weeks will cost each of them the equivalent of 10 Caribbean vacations over the course of their lives -- or 50 new laptops and 500 new i-pods.
Consider for example his promise to go through the budget "line by line" to eliminate wasteful spending and cut programs that aren't working almost hours after signing the biggest spending bill ever passed in the entire history of humankind.
Despite his oft-promised job-creating infrastructure improvements, President Obama's so-called "stimulus" plan spends only about 15% of its nearly trillion dollar price-tag on actual infrastructure. Rather than investment, the Obama plan rolls back welfare reform, nearly doubles the national debt, and throws money at a random collection of government pork.
We've only just seen the start of the spending spree. Obama has told his liberal allies he will push for universal health care, increase grants for college tuition, and promote a "re-tooled and re-imagined auto industry" Translation: a big fat Detroit Bailout.
All I’ve heard since the inauguration is: “He inherited a mess. Give him time. We have to do something!” But when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
On Obama's economic plan
From Sherman Frederick’s March 1st column in the Las Vegas Review-Journal…
"Wealth-sharing is the new ticket. It is, as Oscar winner Sean Penn might say, ‘elegant’. And all the rage in Europe. But you'll excuse me if I don't obediently take my place at this kooky séance table. I don't think the spirit of FDR is worth conjuring, other than to learn how to prolong a recession.
“To fix the woes "inherited" from President Bush, we must now engage in a wilder form of federal deficit spending? It's a rationalization akin to an alcoholic celebrating the first day of a sober life at the Glenfiddich distillery.
“Look, all good Americans believe in giving everyone a fair shot. Social conservatives, however, really believe in creating fair opportunities, not outcomes. It's not about giving people somebody else's fish. It's about teaching, sharing and celebrating the joy of fishing, not to mention equal access to the good fishing holes. No one will starve. But some will do it better. That's American.
“Asking Americans to give up capitalism temporarily for a form of socialism is like ordering a Catholic to give up Christianity for Lent.”
"Wealth-sharing is the new ticket. It is, as Oscar winner Sean Penn might say, ‘elegant’. And all the rage in Europe. But you'll excuse me if I don't obediently take my place at this kooky séance table. I don't think the spirit of FDR is worth conjuring, other than to learn how to prolong a recession.
“To fix the woes "inherited" from President Bush, we must now engage in a wilder form of federal deficit spending? It's a rationalization akin to an alcoholic celebrating the first day of a sober life at the Glenfiddich distillery.
“Look, all good Americans believe in giving everyone a fair shot. Social conservatives, however, really believe in creating fair opportunities, not outcomes. It's not about giving people somebody else's fish. It's about teaching, sharing and celebrating the joy of fishing, not to mention equal access to the good fishing holes. No one will starve. But some will do it better. That's American.
“Asking Americans to give up capitalism temporarily for a form of socialism is like ordering a Catholic to give up Christianity for Lent.”
Tips on getting your book published
There is no clear, single path to getting published. While I haven't yet reached a level of commercial success, I have climbed the mountain a couple times. Here are a few basic lessons I’ve learned on the journey:
1) Compelling content. You’ve got to have something really important or entertaining to share. A guy I know sold five times more books on repairing small engines than I sold in two page-turning novels. He went deep into a sliver of a niche while I surfed a part of the ocean.
2) Write it out. Unless you have $30,000 or so to pay some pro to write your story, you’ve got to write it yourself, and it better be dadgum good.
3) Find good editors. Harder than it sounds. You need people to give you feedback on content (plot, flow, tension), copy (grammar, punctuation) and most important, that it’s altogether worth continuing. Sugarcoated feedback from friends is a counterproductive tease.
4) Find a publisher. You can always pay $600 or so to self publish (print on demand), but if you do, the hundreds of hours you have invested so far are just a start. Buy a copy of “Writer’s Market” at Barnes & Noble or Amazon for a full listing of publishers for your genre and send them a proposal, or query letter.
5) Marketing. So you have a book. Except for a few dozen sales to friends and family, who’s going to know it exists? Local book stores won’t carry self published books unless you really work it. The media pretty much ignore all the requests they get to announce new books. There are 200,000 books published every year and fewer people reading. Even if you land Doubleday or some other national publisher, you still need connections and hard work to promote your book. And good agents are even tougher to find than publishers.
6) Recovering your costs. You have to sell thousands of books to recover the many costs of writing, publishing and marketing. Only 250 or so Americans make a living writing fiction, so don’t quit your day job.
This all sounds onerous because it is. It’s the marketplace’s way of filtering the eagles from the pigeons. And yet despite all the time, frustration, rejection and cost, I’m still working on book #3.
If you’d like any more information about my journey, send me an email with your phone number.
Bottom line: keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet firmly planted in reality.
1) Compelling content. You’ve got to have something really important or entertaining to share. A guy I know sold five times more books on repairing small engines than I sold in two page-turning novels. He went deep into a sliver of a niche while I surfed a part of the ocean.
2) Write it out. Unless you have $30,000 or so to pay some pro to write your story, you’ve got to write it yourself, and it better be dadgum good.
3) Find good editors. Harder than it sounds. You need people to give you feedback on content (plot, flow, tension), copy (grammar, punctuation) and most important, that it’s altogether worth continuing. Sugarcoated feedback from friends is a counterproductive tease.
4) Find a publisher. You can always pay $600 or so to self publish (print on demand), but if you do, the hundreds of hours you have invested so far are just a start. Buy a copy of “Writer’s Market” at Barnes & Noble or Amazon for a full listing of publishers for your genre and send them a proposal, or query letter.
5) Marketing. So you have a book. Except for a few dozen sales to friends and family, who’s going to know it exists? Local book stores won’t carry self published books unless you really work it. The media pretty much ignore all the requests they get to announce new books. There are 200,000 books published every year and fewer people reading. Even if you land Doubleday or some other national publisher, you still need connections and hard work to promote your book. And good agents are even tougher to find than publishers.
6) Recovering your costs. You have to sell thousands of books to recover the many costs of writing, publishing and marketing. Only 250 or so Americans make a living writing fiction, so don’t quit your day job.
This all sounds onerous because it is. It’s the marketplace’s way of filtering the eagles from the pigeons. And yet despite all the time, frustration, rejection and cost, I’m still working on book #3.
If you’d like any more information about my journey, send me an email with your phone number.
Bottom line: keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet firmly planted in reality.
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