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Yesterday I ran into a huge number of examples that the art of selling has gone to the dogs. I recently bought a Bowflex, and my last payment was posted by my bank but the finance company never posted it to my account. When dealing with the customer service people, the first thing out of my mouth was that they didn't post the payment I made, yet they kept telling me that my last payment was past due.
Uh, yeah. I think that's what I'm calling about. Duh. Love my Bowflex, but I'm not going to guy anything else from them.
Then I went to a Sprint store as I've decided that I hate my Instint (it's a crappy phone that doesn't want to work right half the time) and I wanted to see about getting a new phone. The first thing out of the sales person's mouth, on hearing the troubles I've had was that I couldn't get a rebate, that I'll have to buy the phone outright (said with a very pained expression on her face) showed me one of the seven (seven?)phones that were in the store and then ran off to deal with another customer.
I hope she gets paid by the hour.
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So, this weekend I went to Cincinnati, Ohio, into the very bastion of Writer's Digest, to attend their Editor's Intensive. What fun was had. A bunch of computer illiterate, wannabe writers sitting in a room to find out how to get their work read and published only to hear, again and again, that they must get off their asses and get on the internet. Hee, hee.
Anyone that knows an aspiring writer knows how much we love hearing that we have to work for a living. Blah, I tell you!!!
It's a familiar refrain I've been hearing lately that has begun to seep into the vast pile of spastic goo I like to call my brain. Writing a book is all well and good, but the book you've pored your heart and soul into isn't the end-all-be-all. What you should be doing (and doing right now) is marketing yourself. If your known as a writer before the book comes out, then you won't be known by the book and the rise and fall of the book itself won't be the rise and fall of your career. To put it another way- a writer is in it to produce a book. An author is in it to produce a lot of books.
That was what was kinda nice about this weekend. The focus was on a career as an author, not a career as the writer of a particular book. This is great advice, especially in genre fiction (as I am), where it's oh so easy to get pigeon-holed into a specific kind of genre fiction. Only last week (I think it was last week, it might have been the week before), my current favorite podcast "Writing Excuses" covered that very topic.
Anyway, back to the topic of the intensive. The way it work was like this. Upon registering, we sent in 25-50 pages of our work. A WD editor read it and critiqued it for us. The first day of the intensive, we were treated to a day long seminar of things we should do to become noticed as writers and, therefore, published. A great deal of time was spent talking about social networking and websites and the like because it's becoming more and more important to have a presence before submitting work to a publisher/agent or self-publishing as it is terribly important to do well on that first book in order to get the second published. The second day, we met with the editor that read our work and they told us what they liked and didn't like and gave us pointers on where we might like to try to get the work published.
When the class wasn't either having to hear "that guy" (you know that guy, the one that wants someone to tell him how to have other people do the work he should be doing, and is so takes on the victim role because he can't do it his way) arguing with Jane (last name escapes me and I'm too lazy to look it up), editor of WD, or shouting down said "that guy" so we can move on with the session, we were treated to some very good information. Though I will make one caveat in that it really is more for people who haven't published before, but are on the cusp and willing to learn how to promote themselves, it was a great weekend. I think only one person I spoke to had anything negative to say (other than "that guy" who couldn't come up with a positive thing to save his life because none of the people speaking couldn't come up with a service that would do all the work after he creates the first draft for him because that's the "fun part") and that was because she apparently knew what was wrong with her work to begin with and the editor she spoke to didn't have anything new to say about her work.
I guess the important thing for me is that I got on the plane coming home with a smile. I really need to do stuff like this more often.
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Just got back from Ohio-WD Editor's Intensive. Lots of fun. Learned loads. Need more time to get done everything I learned. One thing about going to these conventions/conferences/seminars-there's always lots of work to do to apply what I learned. Ooo, fun!
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Friday, November 2nd, 2007
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Just finished draft 2 of my sci-fi novel. It still has some major revising to do on the last few chapters since I had to rewrite it all, but I'm feeling rather satisfied with myself. Even with all the procrastination and a few days of bio-chemical angst, I still managed to finish the damn thing.
Yay for me.
Leigh
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Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
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Well, I have finally gotten a job. Yay. I'll be working at MD Anderson, which has all that good karma for working for a cancer center, I'll be making over 10k a year more than I did at Sprecher's, have dental and eye insurance, work for a huge business where I can actually get a promotion or transfer to another job if I don't like this one, and they have yoga classes. How cool is that?
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Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
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Here I am again, my friends, bored and annoyed. I should be writing, since I'm unemployed this week, but I'm procrastinating instead. It's terrible that, when I get close to the end of a book, it takes me forever to get into finishing it. I guess it's a fear of success or something, I don't know.
So, what's going on today? Well, I'm waiting for a job offer from MD Anderson. The job isn't my dream job, but it's a job, so who can complain. My mom bought herself a new car yesterday evening. It's a Saturn VUE. It's a nice little SUV like car, but gets crappy mileage. I'm sure she'll like it a lot.
I've been having sinus headaches the past few days. Mom tells me there's this contraption where you wash your sinuses out with a jet of water. I believe the crap cloging things up just is supposed to be rinsed out. Somehow, that doesn't sound like a lovely experience, though, it apparently works well.
7 days until New York. Yeah. I'm rather excited, well, as excited as I can be sitting alone on a Tuesday morning, bored and annoyed and procrastinating. I've decided to take two of my works in progress to read for agents. We're supposed to read two pages to two agents and they give us feedback. I'm taking my sci-fi/detective story for one day, and my gangster-sorcerer story to the other.
I'm very stream-of-consciousness today. I woke up too early this morning and it's getting to me.
Oh, and a couple girls in my online writing group convinced me to start a Yahoo 360 page. Yet, another online journal for me to forget to post to. I don't know why I did it. It might have to do with it being 1 am, with nothing to do but write--so I immediately look for a distraction. We'll see how long that one lasts.
What else? Well, I just finished reading Brandon Sanderson's book, The Final Empire. It's awesome for anyone looking for some original fantasy to read. It's got a completely new form of magic (based off metals), is based off what happens with the hero loses at the beginning, and has a kind of heist thing going on. It's really cool.
Okay, I'll stop rambling. I'm gonna go order a pizza.
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Tuesday, September 25th, 2007
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Hee, hee. I'm going to New York in November for a writing seminar. Yay!!!!
Who says writing is a boring occupation. I get 4 days in New York, and its tax deductible. How cool is that?
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Monday, September 17th, 2007
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Robert Jordan, writer of the Wheel of Time series, died yesterday...and he hadn't finished the last damn book of the series. How very inconsiderate. Inconsiderate of me, I mean, that I actually am annoyed by the fact that I've had to sit through eleven damn books while he meandered around for seven of them without actually moving the story forward and he dies without finishing the finale, damn it.
Okay. I'm done being inconsiderate, thank you. I am actually very saddened by his death. He was a good writer. Apparently, by the way, another fantasy writer, whose name escapes me at this moment, died last week. I wonder if it'll hit in threes like most catastrophes. Who's next?
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Thursday, September 6th, 2007
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I hate that most of the jobs I'm qualified for go through temp agencies. I usually end up not getting the job I want but rather jobs like this one, where my only responsibility is to answer the phone...usually about once every half hour or so. It's nice that I get paid $13 an hour and access to the internet, but it's not exactly satisfying employment.
I hate writing cover letters. I feel like I'm rambling.
I hate that I don't really want any of these jobs, and no one's hiring on the job I want.
Blahh. I need a sugar daddy.
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Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
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Hello my long lost friends,
It's been so long since I've written in this thing, I don't know where to start. Well, I've finished school and would be graduated if UofH had their shit together. They messed up my credits so that's holding everything up. It's made even more annoying by the fact that this is the second time I've had to deal with this kind of crap. Blah.
I finished my first novel, and got 12 rejection letters before running out of money to send out more. I'm not very upset by the rejection, it's expected and I feel like a real aspiring writer now. It's a badge of honor, in a way.
Haven't got a real job yet. I'm temping right now, so I'm rather bored at work and can spend the time writing here. In actuality, I'm procrastinating. I have to write cover letters for the jobs I want to apply for. That's a pain. I hate that. It's like writing query letters for my literary agent search. I hated that too. Blah.
My mother has recovered admirably from her illness. She had a short relapse a few months ago, but is in remission once again and doing much better. She's back to work, and tolerating my moochness until I have money again.
I can't think of anything else to write about now. Maybe I'll come up with something later. All I have to do at this job is answer the phone, and they don't get that many phone calls. Maybe I'll get back to that job search. Maybe.
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Thursday, August 4th, 2005
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Okay, I know it's been a long time, so spare the "she's alive" stuff, okay?
Well, this is what's up with me so far.
I'm still with the law firm - will probably be there until I die or get a novel published, whichever comes first.
My mom had a relapse in her leukemia, and is in the hospital. I'm going to move in with her to help with the bills and such. It really sucks that every time she goes in the hospital she needs someone to be around her for about a two to three week period. It'll help immensely to have someone there all the time for a while. Basically, she's in MD Anderson right now for an double-blind test with cemo and another drug that I'm forever forgetting the name of. It's basically the same thing she would have had anyway, so we can all keep our fingers crossed. After that, the very nice doctor at MD Anderson (who happens to be an Irishman named Frances how typical is that?) said she'd probably need a bone marrow transplant after that cause he thinks the marrow she has has been messed up too much. He thinks her remission was not a real remission at all since she had a relapse in less than a year.
Anyway, while I'm in the progress of moving, I'm taking a couple days off next week. I sprung that one on the cunt manager earlier this week. The job is just driving me up the wall. People are just plain too stupid and absolutely refuse to think for themselves. It's amazing.
On the writing front, I've managed to finish my short sci-fi novel. I'm working on a rewrite, which will hopefully be good enough to publish (it's like 230 something pages). I've got my fingers crossed on that one.
On the school front, I've dropped all my classes this semester so I can be there for my mom, but I've signed up for an online writer's conference call "Focus on the Novel". I'm pretty excited about that. It's not thru UofH but thru Writer's Digest, so it'll still be cool though not count for a diploma. Oh well, I figure UofH ain't going anywhere, and I'll hopefully only be at my mom's for about a year or so. It might be famous last words and all, but even my mom is saying she wants it to be a temporary thing. She's a tough lady. I admire that.
So, things are pretty stressful on this end, but I think we'll muddle through.
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Wednesday, January 12th, 2005
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I'm looking back at my book. I read in a number of places that, for a first novel, agents want something that is about three hundred, three hundred fifty pages - mine clocks in at almost six hundred. It's an easy read, but I want to sell it so I'm trying to figure out what can go. Geese, what a prospect. It's going to mean major cuts and rewriting. Lots of work, but I'm getting into the swing of it. It'll teach me how to think in different ways - different ways to tell a story. That's what I'm telling myself. I'm also working on my second book, which is guaranteed to be much shorter since I'm trying to tell the whole thing through the point of view of one character instead of four or five. Looks much more promising.
On another note, living with my mom has had some bad effects. I actually sat and watched an entire episode of Wife-Swap tonight. I find myself disgusted and heartened about reality TV. On the one hand everyone on the show had positive experiences and it showed people the other side of the fence which is a wonderful thing, but then I realize that I was watching reality TV. I'm thoroughly disappointed in myself. Is my life that bad that have to watch people worse off than myself to feel better? I guess so, but I don't have to feel okay about it. Yuck.
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Tuesday, January 11th, 2005
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That's me. Bored out of my skull. I can't think of a single thing to do. I could write, but I haven't got any good ideas. I could watch a movie, but I've been staying with my mom while she's recovering from kemo so we've been watching a lot of TV (damn those reality shows...who thinks of this crap?) I could read, but all I've got is Harry Potter in Latin but that has way too much thought involved.
I think I would like a giant meteor to come and land on me now. At least I'd stop being bored. I'd just be dead, and then I wouldn't care.
At least I've gotten the internet to finally work right. Aren't you happy? I can assault you with my boredom. Yippee.
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Monday, January 10th, 2005
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Oooo, getting all high tech....for me at least.
Just wanted someone to read this, even if it sucks (or not depending your tastes).
Thanks Clint and Matt (though you probably won't remember) for the idea.
( Read more... )
Sorry about the length. I'm still figuring out how this thing works.
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Monday, December 13th, 2004
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I am now officially done with yet another semester...Yeah...
I am very glad to be out of school. Wish I could be out of work. I truly do hate my job. Fortunately, it does account for my freaky schedule. Next semester I'm taking classes on Tues. & Thurs. from two to five. Totally freaky, but I'll be finally done with my core. This makes for sooo yeah.
I had more to say, but now I can't remember what it is.
I'm now having a grand old time drinking a lot of wine and reading Neil Gaiman short stories. I used to hate short stories. I suppose my Intro to Fiction class has now cured me of that. Who says that you can't learn something from college? No one, I guess. It is college. I suppose you are supposed to learn something.
Have I mentioned that I'm done with the semester and I'm drinking lots of wine?
Yeah!
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Saturday, November 20th, 2004
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I'm such a geek. I realize that. I actually told my mom that I wanted Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the Latin edition.
Yep.
Total geekdom happening over here.
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Friday, November 19th, 2004
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I need to learn a little courage. Actually, I need to learn a lot of courage.
I had a moment today. It went a little like this... I was in English class, and I came up to a dilemma. The project was to choose an author to tell the rest of the class about. On Wednesday it was any author. On Friday, today, it was one of the authors discussed in class. When the teacher found out that most people wanted to go off the syllabus, she made that accessible. As I sat there, I made the decision to choose an author on the syllabus, 'cause that was the original assignment apparently.
Not what I had originally planned. I had been deliberating between Neil Gaiman and H.P. Lovecraft. I chose Angela Carter, an author I know nothing about at all, only that she wrote redone fairytales. I like that.
Unfortunately, she’s a feminist writer. I hate feminist writing. Most of the stuff I read that is “feminist” is very stupid and trite (I’ve drunk to much wine to really go any further in depth). After choosing her, I immediately began to realize that I wanted to do Lovecraft. He would have been easier. But, do I want easier? I don’t know. Now it’s too late. Another person in my class wanted to do Carter, and I think she was very disappointed that I got there first. What if she chose someone else instead? How is that fair? I took her choice, when I could have done what I wanted to in the first place? I was too much a coward. I chose somebody I didn’t know a damn fuck about. I could have done something I liked, but I didn’t. Instead I’ve chosen the hard way ‘cause that was what the teacher originally wanted us to do (even though she changed her mind later on).
I’m very disappointed in myself, to say the least.
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Thursday, November 18th, 2004
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Okay, I'm trying to make an important decision for school and I need to know if anyone can remember what movie was recently released (in the last few years) that was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. I remember there being one (not a film version of one of his stories but one that was inspired by him), but I can't remember what it was. I wanna say it was Pitch Black but I can't remember.
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Friday, September 17th, 2004
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 I am The World
The World represents the moments when we feel fulfilled and blessed and all that goes into them. It is a very positive sign that you are in a position to realize your heart's desire. What that is for you depends on the situation, but it will always feel great. Remember, though, that Card 21 is a symbol of active contribution and service. To hold the World in our hands, we must give of ourselves to it. That is the source of true happiness. For a full description of your card and other goodies, please visit LearnTarot.com
| What tarot card are you? Enter your birthdate.
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Ummmm...did I sleep through that?
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leighg's journal