Rejection #6

I am only slightly more disturbed about this one because it is Bookends Agency and Jessica Faust's blog sold me on the agency. I wasn't expecting a hit on this one. They're not doing fantasy. I thought I saw urban fantasy on their list and thought, why not? But after checking, I don't see it on their list anymore. Maybe they'll like The Inn of the Star Crossed, which is a historical fantasy set in Civil War Manhattan and upstate NY. It has romance in it too. Well we're only up to 6 rejections. I need to get to 100 rejections before I start getting hits. Keep your fingers crossed.

Forward progress: I have cover photos for the two Facebook pages, The Inn at the Crossroads, The Inn of the Star Crossed. Now I need one for the Omniverse.

Qualified Success! Yay!

I have reserved two websites, Mark Vincent LaPolla.com and Mark LaPolla.net. (As of the writing of this, 3/31/13, they are under construction. I hope to look back on this period of my life and chuckle.) I was too late to get Mark LaPolla.com but I don't really need it. I have also created two Facebook pages, The Inn at the Crossroads and The Inn of the Star Crossed. (They are also both under construction.) As I have said, it was Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog post which triggered my epiphany. (Well, triggered might be a little misleading. It was a combination of my own blog posts and comments I made on her blog that eventually lead me to the conclusion that I am a dunce.) But it was the eBook Write Good or Die that has cemented my position and my desire to get published as an eBook even if I have to self-publish.

I can hear Joe Koranth shaking his head saying, "Haven't you been reading my blog? Have you learned nothing?" And I must reply, "Yes, you are right. But first, I have to make sure my book is worthy." Actually, that's not my real response. I have my name on tons of paper. Just Google either "Mark LaPolla" or "Mark Vincent LaPolla", especially the latter. Many of my papers and articles and such comes up associated with my name and that is a fraction of my work. I was publishing before the internet and not all of my papers are on the web. But someone is starting to do just that. I recently found one of my Behavioral and Brain Sciences papers with Bernie Baars on the web.

My main point is, I am just beginning. I have many queries and manuscripts out. I'd hate to self-publish only to find that a publisher has accepted my book. I will, however, only accept a decent deal. After all, I don't need the money and though I may have a long career as a writer ahead of me, I don't think I can match Mr. Koranth's amazing output. I am late to the self publishing game. But I hope to have not only two completely manuscript s by the end of the year, but a third as well. Even though Kim and I run two art schools, a painting school and a fiber art school, I don't have any cover art or covers for my books yet. (Calling all art students! Does anyone want to take up a commission?)

Forward progress! Or in the famous words of the 10th Doctor, "Allons-y!" And no, bow ties are not cool unless you are in full dress. Sorry, Matt.

I know, I know. Many of you want to kill me because either you are looking for chocolate from Life by Chocolate, or you are looking for the menu for this year for the workshops, or you are, God help me, looking for more information about Caramel Cutters, my highest traffic post. And what did you find? You found all this writer gobbledigook. There, you now have all the links. Go and enjoy and see you at a Workshop.

Branding! Writing: the Author as Factor!

Don't ask me why it took me this long to figure out that I needed a website branded to me. My only excuse, and it is an excuse, is that I was taught in the corporate world, especially in software start-ups, you should never brand the founder of a company. Because, when you want to sell that company, you will have to sell the founders with it. Or when you go public, your IPO, the founders will have to go public, too. Remember, the CEO and CFO are not always founders. Rather what you should do is brand the product and let it stand on it's own two feet. The Hailey twins, Shawn and Kim, branded the Meta-Software to them. They were the gold standard, not HSpice. The Hailey twins were the factory, not Meta-Software.

Look what happened with Apple. Founder Steve Jobs is the classic example. While Steve was alive, Apple could do not wrong. It could miss two quarters and still climb to $705. But without him, Apple lost 33% of its market cap. Why? Because Steve Jobs == Apple. That didn't happen with the Woz. Woz who? Exactly. Nor has that happened with Bill Gates. We tried to do that at BrightStreet, an online promotions company I helped found.

That is exactly how we run our inn. Unlike the previous owners, Eliot and Tish, we try not to associate ourselves closely with our brand. No, rather we try to make the painting school, the inn, the art quit and fiber art school, the chocolate factory and retail store stand on its own two legs. These three brands, Hudson River Valley Art Workshops, The Greenville Arms 1889 Inn, Life By Chocolate, are what we push. Those are our brands. We are just executives at Woodchuck Ventures, Inc., our company. So, even though we will be here forever, we wont live forever.

When it came to getting a website and branding me, I didn't make the connection. But it is obvious, after a ten ton epiphany fell on my wooly headed, dense, numb skull that the writer and the artist is the product. Or at least, the write or artist is the factory and company all combined into one. Here I was thinking only about branding my work! But who produces the work? I do. And that's probably why writers of all stripes complain when people ask them about their process, where they get their ideas from, why they did this vs. that. Many will say gruffly, "Read the book; it's all in there." Or they might say, "I don't like to talk about my work. Anything I have to say is in there," pointing to his or her newly minted novel.

But if the writer is the factory, then those questions are nothing more than QA, quality control. What the writer does in rewrite then is QE or quality engineering. But the customer, the reader, wants to know about the internals. The customer needs to connect with the factory, or factor, to get a warm and fuzzy about the product. And that is why I am going to get a website ASAP!

Is it no wonder that my first novel was about Silicon Valley?