I missed that magazine; Newsweek back when it was a shiny magazine I could pull off any magazine rack at any grocery or book store. Now Newsweek as well as many of those bookstores are figments of our collective memories.
This morning I learned that Barnes & Noble are offering signed copies of certain books which got my interest piqued. I immediate wrote an email to marketing at my publisher to see how I could take advantage of that here. In this part of the country, bookstores are not opened for book signings, which is an integral part of selling you the author and the book itself. I’m hoping something positive comes from this because doing the limbo is not fun when I’m trying to launch a book I feel will be very successful once people know about it.
My last Zoom meeting with my Fiction Writers of Spokane was held Wednesday and it actually went off very well. For the most part, doing it in November and December, even pre-COVID-19, was bit of a challenge and this year wasn’t done at all because the organizer either forgot or figured the holidays would make it impossible to do a Zoom meeting.
As I was saying it went off better because, well it became much more spontaneous than structured around an organized agenda. I talked about my recently released A Man’s Passion.
Everyone else discussed marketing, the ways of writing a story which varies from plot driven or character driven, to voice and other variables that makes a story interesting. We even talked about the best method for writing, whether from a word processor, device, or a legal pad and pencil, scribbling everything out long hand. The latter being a slower method, but once in a while it provides the writer an opportunity to think how he or she wants to plot a story or develop a character. For a pantser like me, sometimes I too need to step back and jot out what I think is a better scene or plot twist or character idiosyncrasy.
We are all hopeful, as I’m certain you are that this Zoom business becomes an figment of our collective memories like shiny magazine covers and bookstores.
Jerry Schellhammer 