Shame on every person who wanted a better deal on a T.V. or a comforter set than more time giving thanks with their families! I have NO PROBLEM with Black Friday. I had no problem with Black Friday starting at midnight on Thanksgiving, but for a "Black Friday" deal to start on Thanksgiving is just plain stupid. If you want to extend Black Friday, do it in the other direction. Bleed it into Saturday and Sunday. Doesn't that make more sense?! Stop being stupid people, you're driving me crazy! ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!! Rant over. Enjoy your weekend.
Of stuffing on my shirt. Well, hello Black Friday. Did I forget to write my blog post today? Why yes I did, but not because I was out at the stores getting the best deals, which are all on Thanksgiving now by the way. Which brings me to my new, on the fly blog post/rant. Now, we can blame the retailers all we want for ruining a wonderful holiday that SHOULD be based around a family sitting around a table of food and giving thanks for everything that they have, including the ability to go shopping...the next day! However, the fact remains that if no consumers showed up on Thanksgiving, they wouldn't open the stores. Period!!!
Shame on every person who wanted a better deal on a T.V. or a comforter set than more time giving thanks with their families! I have NO PROBLEM with Black Friday. I had no problem with Black Friday starting at midnight on Thanksgiving, but for a "Black Friday" deal to start on Thanksgiving is just plain stupid. If you want to extend Black Friday, do it in the other direction. Bleed it into Saturday and Sunday. Doesn't that make more sense?! Stop being stupid people, you're driving me crazy! ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!! Rant over. Enjoy your weekend.
0 Comments
The end that I'm referring to is of course the end of NaNoWriMo, and here's what I have to say about it. I have heard far too many friends, writers, writer friends, and friends of writers say to me this year "I'm doing NaNo this year, but I'm probably not going to make it to 50,000 words." This is a phrase that should not be uttered by someone doing NaNo for several reasons. First, this is giving up before you start AND giving yourself an excuse to do so. Don't unconsciously stop yourself before you start! :( Second, the wonderful thing about NaNo is that it is not a publisher or an agent enforcing a deadline that will cost you money or possibly your whole book deal if you miss it. NaNo, though giving you some structure, is also beautifully flexible. You CAN make it to 50,000 words for NaNo. Start during November and end in January if you must, but you don't have to stop just because November 30th has arrived. Keep writing until that 50,000 words that you're calling so elusive is under your belt no matter what the calendar says. Believe me, you'll feel much better saying I didn't make 50,000 words UNTIL January 1st rather than just saying that you didn't make 50,000 words this year. Third, if you've truly decided that 50,000 words is out of your reach, don't leave your goal for NaNo open-ended, a practice which is sure to lead to much fewer words than you are capable of putting out. Make a different goal for yourself and tell others about it to hold yourself accountable. Say instead, I've made a personal NaNo goal of reaching 30,000 words or of writing 3-4 short stories or something similar. That way you'll have an actual goal that your shooting towards and aren't just talking about a goal that you've decided that you're not going to reach. We still have 9 days NaNoers. Go make words happen! For those of you who didn't know (and I find it really difficult to believe that there's anyone reading this blog who didn't know), I recently hosted my first book launch party at the Barnes and Noble in Ann Arbor. Since I have now hosted a total of one event at a bookstore, I am now obviously an expert, so I'm going to now impart my wisdom unto you should you ever decide to host a similar event yourself (in case you aren't following, I'm being sarcastic). Tip #1: Hound your contact at the bookstore relentlessly. I ended up having to call twice and e-mail thrice to actually get the event scheduled. Tip #2: Offer more than just a book signing. If you are not a celebrity or at least a New York Times Bestselling Author, chances are not many random people are going to care about you signing their book. Offer excerpt readings, maybe games, maybe free food, maybe prizes, anything to generate interest in actually attending. Tip #3: Make sure that you know what space you will have for the event. Miscommunication had us crammed in a back corner with far fewer chairs than needed. Tip #4: Make sure that they order copies of your book to have for purchase...and make sure that they are ordering the correct book. Despite my numerous e-mails with detailed information, B&N still ended up ordering the wrong book to sell at the launch party (my first novel instead of my second novel). Fortunately, they still sold out. Phew! Thank you attendees! Tip #5: Don't assume anything!!!! I assumed that the B&N employees would know that I had a book launch party scheduled the day of the event...I was wrong. I assumed that my contact at the store would be present to assist during the event...I was wrong. I assumed that B&N would at least have a sign up advertising my event and directing people to it the day of the event...I was wrong. I assumed that they would have the space set up for me before I arrived...well, you get the idea. Tip #6: Invite everyone you know and their extended family! There is nothing sadder than a lackluster turn out at one of these events, you feel like a failure, the store feels like they wasted their time, and everyone is just sad. Fortunately I invited and REMINDED just enough to get a fantastic turnout!!! Thank you again to all who attended!!! You don't want to browbeat people into coming...but maybe just guilt them, or better yet, entice them with fabulous prizes. Trust me, I had a very bad feeling in my belly at the start of the event when there were only about five people there, and you do not want to have that feeling. Tip #7: Record the event if you can. You never know what interesting questions might come up, or exciting things may happen during the event that you may want to save and use for future book promotion. If you can't record the event, at least take lots of pictures, especially if the turn out was good. Tip #8: Be prepared. Practice your readings, time your readings and other activities, and think about what you're going to say and what you're going to write in people's books so you don't hold up the signing line trying to come up with something witty (totally guilty). Your big goal is to have things go as smoothly and professionally as possible. If you can pull off a professional event, then people might think that you're a professional author. Tip #9: Stay calm. No matter what snafu's pop up (see Tip #5), don't dwell on them, overcome and move on. Stay positive. No one wants to be around (or help out) crabby people. Tip #10: HAVE FUN!!! Book promotion should be fun! Well, I hope that these tips help anyone who is thinking about hosting an event like this. I know that next time I plan one of these suckers, I will definitely refer to this list! Cheers! So there's this little concept I've been working on called "Bliss is the Default State". It all stems from a thought I had a few months ago when I realized that my resting state, at home, nothing much going on, was not general contentment, but rather annoyance or frustration. Acknowledging this, I thought, that's not a great way to be, so I attempted (and am still attempting) to change that. I encourage everyone to truly take a look at what their "default state" is, and if it isn't bliss or at least moderate contentment, work towards changing that. No one wants a miserable life, and you might not even realize (like I didn't) what part your default state plays in how happy you are with your life in general. Now you might say, great idea Jen, but easier said than done, and you wouldn't be wrong. Like I said, I'm nowhere near to having things all figured out, but I can give you these few tips: 1) When your brain is not needed for complex figuring stuff out (e.x. in the shower, washing dishes, when you're at work...just kidding), try to think of things that make you happy like the best moments of your life, 2) Actually take stock of how you are feeling (and don't just say I'm fine!) and then, if you aren't blissfully happy but actually find that you are irritated, try to figure out exactly what is annoying you and either fix it or just let it go, 3) Don't dwell on things that make you unhappy, focus on things that make you happy (which is kind of a mash-up of tips 1 and 2). Now I know that everyone has problems that make them unhappy that they need to think about in order to solve them, but make sure that you are thinking about then in term of a solution and not just revisiting the problem over and over again. I guess to sum up I'd say, give yourself the choice between being happy and not being happy and don't just fall into a pattern of not being happy. Me, I'm gonna try to have bliss as my default. ;) Cheers. Yeah, that was a good day.
|
If you give me your e-mail, I'll send you a monthly newsletter. Or bimonthly...we'll see.
Links
Purchase Books
Whispers of a Killer (WHISPs Book 1)
Whispers of Terror (WHISPs Book 2) Whispers of Conspiracy (WHISPs Book 3) Moonlight Medicine:Onset Moonlight Medicine:Epidemic Moonlight Medicine: Inoculation Miles From Manistique The Christmas Plague Purchase Short Stories
Snick - Ghostlight, The Magazine of Terror (Winter/Spring 2018)
Cold Comfort - Monsters in Spaaaace! AuthorMy name is Jen Haeger and I have a degree in Veterinary Medicine as well as a Master's in Forensic Science, so I decided to forget all that and write novels. I used to read quite a bit as a youth, but was not introduced to truly spectacular writing until my husband showed me the works of Jim Butcher, Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, and others. We are both enormous dorks and enjoy Science Fiction, Fantasy, Board Games, and RPGs, but also try to get out backpacking every once in a while (much easier to do when we lived in New Zealand). Cheers! Archives
April 2023
Categories
All
|