Pool table

Seems I get my thoughts organized like the balls on a pool table, and then wham! Another thought comes along and knocks all the other thoughts various ways, and I start the process of putting them in order again.

Here's a few thoughts:

I can't make anyone buy anything. All I can do is offer them a product, talk about the value of a product,and hope the customers see it's worth their money. This is true for books, cards, cars, etc. Advertising agencies talk about "creating" a need in a customer, and I do believe you can influence a customer to think that they need a particular item, but it takes time and many ad impressions.

For self-published books, authors are the best salesmen. If the author doesn't sell, sell, sell, the book will die, die, die. Don't expect e-books to change that.

I don't like e-books. Oh, I can see their attractions and uses, but the best e-books seem to be the ones that were ported over from print books by the major publishing houses. The majority of self-produced ones are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors and simply bad writing. I have read several good self-produced e-books and a hundred or so bad ones. It's all well and good to say the gates are down and information flows free, but there's a lot of merit in having discriminating gatekeepers. I guess the consumers are the gatekeepers now. And maybe the technology.

And now some pertinent info.

Last week I mostly worked on Tales from Bethlehem. It's now in the hands in my first proofreader. He's found several errors so far, which I always appreciate. After he's finished (by the end of this week, I hope) then it will go to my friend Jean to catch everything he missed. (No pressure, Jean!)

Saturday, I attended writers group and gave a very short program on the various rights authors can sell.

This week, I will
- Work on Tales from Bethlehem. Entering corrections and lengthening one of the final Tales and finishing another new Tale.
- Continue to help my two authors promote their books.
- Chores.
- Walk at least three times.

That's a bit vague, I know, but those are what I have lined up ... until another thought comes along.