Pictures And Video Checklist
February 25, 2011 by Wanda Shapiro
Filed under Blogs
Here’s another installment of my checklist series for authors. This one is also inspired by my upcoming LA event. I’ve made it high priority to get lots of great pictures and some video content for my One Girl One Novel youtube channel which I will be launching soon.
This check list series is inspired by The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande which I highly recommend. It’s a very interesting book with mind-bending case studies which will definitely make you consider writing a checklist or two.
I glossed over what it takes to get good pictures and videos at an event when I posted my Event Planning Checklist earlier this week, but this checklist will walk you through the steps.
DOWNLOAD GETTING PICTURES & VIDEO CHECKLIST (pdf)
Events are a great oppotunity to build interest and interact with your fans, and if you’re not posting lots of pics and video post event, you’re missing out on some of that interaction. I have yet to get great video, mostly because I haven’t made it a priority, but I’m learning and I’ve already had my first meeting with my volunteer videographer.
Click here to learn more about my upcoming LA event at 212 Pier Cafe which inspired this checklist.
Hope you all have a great weekend!
ttyl
Wanda
Event Planning Checklist
February 22, 2011 by Wanda Shapiro
Filed under Blogs
This post is the first in a series of checklists for all my writer visitors. I’ve been embracing checklists more and more since I was introduced to The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, and I’m now bringing checklists to my indie publishing operation. Topics in this series will range from event planning and editing to annual planning and book design.
When you sit down to create a checklist, it forces you to clarify your own thinking and then when you’re done, you have something that will save you time in the future. Since I just announced my first LA event, this seemed like the most logical place to start.
This checklist takes an author through all the stages of event planning for a local book reading. You’ll see this level of inspection glosses over audio/video equipment and photography, but that topic will get its own checklist later this week.
DOWNLOAD EVENT PLANNING CHECKLIST (pdf)
I hope this is useful for those of you planning book readings. I could go on and on about how important it is to have events, but I’m busy at the moment getting ready for one.
Click here to learn more about my upcoming LA event that inspired this checklist.
Thanks for all the support!
ttyl
Wanda
My First LA Event
February 19, 2011 by Wanda Shapiro
Filed under Blogs
My next book event is officially scheduled and I am so excited about this one. This will be my first event here in LA and the venue is so perfect I’m just beside myself.
Friday March 18, 2011 – 7:30 pm 212 Pier Café http://www.212pier.com 212 Pier Avenue (at the corner of Pier Avenue and Main Street) Santa Monica, CA 90405
According to their website, “212 Pier is one of the last refuges for bohemian café goers looking for a comfortable environment in which to read, write, study, and converse with other local artists and intellectuals.” And I totally agree! It’s one of the coolest cafés on the west side and when I gave my publicist my event venue wish list I put 212 Pier at the top of the list. It’s always filled with interesting people and as you can see from the pic below, the walls are lined with books.
At the event, I will read from Sometimes That Happens With Chicken, talk a little about my experiences as an indie author, and answer questions from the audience. Before and after the reading, I will be available to sign books and there will be a limited quantity of books for sale. This event is free and open to the public so spread the word.
Many thanks to my publicist Francine Hwang and event coordinator Phoebe Wynn-Jones at 212 Pier for putting this event together. It’s going to be a great night for Chicken and this kind of venue is great exposure for indie literature.
Can’t wait to see you there!
ttyl
Wanda
Pens With Cojones On Indie Literature
February 14, 2011 by Wanda Shapiro
Filed under Blogs
I’d like to welcome guest blogger Mayowa Atte from Pens With Cojones who has provided the second installment for my 2011 On Indie Literature Series. I met Mayowa in the blogosphere a few months after launching One Girl One Novel and we have stayed in touch across the various platforms that connect people these days.
Mayowa is a vocal supporter of indie literature and a big fan of Sometimes That Happens With Chicken. As you’ll see from this post, we share a passion for bringing high qaulity to the self-publishing arena.
So, without further ado, here’s Mayowa from Pens With Cojones on indie literature…
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Pens With Cojones On Indie Literature
Of late, there has been a spike in the number of skirmishes between indie writers (self-publishers) and well, everyone else. As frequently happens, writers (both traditional and indie), industry professionals and commentators weigh in with cautionary tales about the euphoria and reality of self-publishing, indie writers respond with communal fury worthy of a Siberian wolf pack.
This I think is how things should be.
Stab, parry, and thrust, posts and counter-posts, tweets and tumblelogs, fact and snark, experienced fear and brave naiveté; we should all question indie literature and its practitioners should remain undeterred and unafraid. This is how we will find holes in the model, this how we will preserve the fierce independence and attitude of indie literature.
But in the wandering around the blogosphere and kindle boards, I find evidence of a fallacy festering in the indie community. The fallacy in is the idea that it doesn’t matter how many bad self-published books are put out into the world because readers will filter out the dreck and the cream will rise to the top. The idea that it doesn’t hurt anyone if, “Shiralee from Nebraska uploads her barely edited manuscript to Amazon.”
Generalized Perceptions are Unavoidable
“Why do so many Indians work in IT, they smell.”
Those words fell, flip-flop casual, from the mouth of my then boss, a hip thirty-something who had hired me (a Nigerian) as an intern and taught me a great deal. He tapped the sheaf of resumes on his desk with a finger and looked around as if expecting the universe to make the answer manifest.
He hired a white guy from North Carolina, a nice fellow who I became good friends with.
I tell this unpleasant anecdote to illustrate the power and ruthlessness of perception. It colors every moment between two parties; boy-girl, seller-buyer, producers-creators, employee-employer, stranger-stranger, writer-reader.
The accumulated weight of our experience – every memory, connotation, stereotype, nugget of shared culture – lay heavy on the brow of every interaction. There is no escape, and if we cannot escape perception, we also cannot escape generalization.
My ex-boss from above was acting on his (horrid) generalized perceptions of Indians. You are also guilty of acting on your generalized perceptions. Quick! What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Mexicans? Car Salesmen? Hipsters? New Yorkers? Tea Parties? Well tanned jocks of Italian descent from Long Island?
Guilty.
Independent bookstores are great for literature but are terribly managed. The big six are prestigious vultures. Literary fiction is boring. Trashy novels are read by sexless housewives. Genre fiction is terribly written. Writers who complain about publishing are frustrated (this one’s true actually). Self-publishers are bunch of “me me me” wankers. NY critics are stuffy, inbred elitists deaf to the peoples’ heartbeat. Generalized perceptions are alive and well in the book world.
And so we come back (after a lengthy diversion) to this idea that it doesn’t matter if a lot of indie literature is bad because the cream will rise to the top and the readers will act as filters.
It is, to be blunt, bullshit.
Kumbaya or Else
A fecal reading experience with one indie book affects other indie writers in the genre, other indie writers, other writers, and literary culture across the board (in varying degrees). Readers who suffer at the hands of an indie author WILL remember their suffering the next time they consider a book by any indie author, not just the offender.
We are in this together, whether we like it or not.
There is a delusion common among writers, this idea that we are special, that our stories are uniquely beautiful and deserve to be told. A voice whispering from our writerly guts, providing assurance that we are CREAM and we shall rise to the top. Even terrible writers are assured of this and you and I may very well (it’s quite likely actually) be one of the deluded. It doesn’t matter if your story is great if a potential reader refuses to read self-published books because of a bad experience.
There are no exceptions. Kumbaya or else.
On Respect
The most offensive portion of this attitude is the idea that readers will filter the crap. A reader’s time is a precious thing, invaluable even. No writer should ever take that the time a reader invests in books for granted and expecting readers to read and discard (or ingest with distaste) all the dreck out there is to misunderstand and disrespect both readers and the writing profession. Readers are not there to filter out our crap, we must respect them and ourselves.
Bad Indie Books Cost Us Money and Readership
If pride in our craft does not motivate us, we can dwell on this: every bad experience a reader has with a indie book lowers the chance that the reader will read another. These readers become lost sales and lost readership.
Scary stuff…but it’s nothing we can’t fix.
The Opportunity and the Message
Precisely because self-publishing stigma is receding in the literary community and self-published books are not yet fully mainstream (despite Ms. Hocking’s numbers), this moment in time represents a unique opportunity for us to shape mainstream perception of self-publishing. We must take control of the generalized perceptions about self-publishers and we must do it now.
This is the time to ask: why should anyone read an indie novel, is it better written than a traditionally published one? Is it fulfilling the needs of a forgotten niche? Is it better edited? Is it innovative in the way traditionally published books aren’t? Is it more stylish or more entertaining? Is it cheaper, of higher physical quality?
The Way Forward – Self Policing
Writers tend to be nice people. We are intimately aware of the hesitation and self-doubt wailing within each other and so our default mode of interaction is support. This again is how things should be. Nevertheless, no degree of politeness or writerly camaraderie should prevent us from self-policing our output. Many professional occupations are self-regulated (doctors, realtors etc.) and there is no reason we can’t do the same.
We don’t have to be the Gestapo, but we do have to tell the truth and when books are bad we have to say so and help the authors get better. Yes, it’s going to be messy and there will probably be spats until we can get the process formalized a little bit but we have no choice.
The way forward for indie literature is for indie writers to make it clear both to readers and to other writers that we are invested in producing high quality work as a community.
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For more info re: Mayowa Atte visit http://www.penswithcojones.com or you can follow him on Twitter @PensWithCojones. Of course, these are my two favorite posts over at Pens With Cojones. Wink.
http://www.penswithcojones.com/2010/06/sometimes-that-happens-with-chicken/
http://www.penswithcojones.com/2010/07/sometimes-that-happens-with-chicken-the-cojones-review/
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Many thanks to Mayowa for his continued support and his contribution to my On Indie Literature Series. If you’d like to read the first installment, click here for Ed Renehan On Indie Literature.
ttyl
Wanda
Three Cheers For Fan Art
February 10, 2011 by Wanda Shapiro
Filed under Blogs
It’s official. Sometimes That Happens With Chicken has inspired its first fan art! Many thanks to Paul Wright for this wonderful piece of art he sent me which memorializes how far Chicken has gone since I launched One Girl One Novel last year. Paul is a big supporter of indie literature and this is his latest contribution.
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INTERNATIONAL CHICKEN
By: Paul Wright
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When I reached out to Paul to thank him, he sent me the following email.
Hi Wanda,
I am so glad you like it Wanda! I loved the story and after reading it, I found myself following the adventures of Chicken in Facebook. I became fascinated to see your book really taking off and the global attention it was gaining. This idea came to me one day and I thought wouldn’t it be wonderful and fun if Chicken had something to acknowledge it’s existence in the world and not just here in the U.S. (thus came the idea for the Passport). I felt it made a statement as to how widespread your book really is and the diversity of its readers.
You are a great author Wanda, and I am proud to know you, and I can’t wait for the next book. Thank you again!
Best regards,
Paul
I too am fascinated by the diversity of readers who have fallen in love with Chicken and having fans like Paul is the most surreal aspect of my life at the moment. But, it’s a good sign for indie literature and it motivates me to get back to editing that next book Paul mentioned. And, inspiration has a way of paying itself forward because Paul’s “International Chicken” inspired me to have a conversation with renowned pop artist Michael Perez about planning an event for later this year.
With this post of my first fan art, I’m officially putting out a call for other fan art which Michael and I will display at another joint event sometime this summer. We’re going to have a one-night event dedicated to fan art, open to any artist fans who would like to participate. You’ll have an opportunity to display your Chicken inspired art work along side Michael’s own Chicken inspired paintings and some pieces from his 2011 collection.
The event location is still up in the air since Michael and I are based on different coasts, but we’re discussing some possibilities here in LA and Michael’s gallery in Miami is still on the table as a possible venue. Over the next few months we’ll be collecting art for the show and figuring out the details. This is a great opportunity for emerging artists and I’m so pleased to be teaming up once again with Michael Perez and his publicist Caitlin Slayback.
You can learn more about Michael, one of today’s hottest pop artists, using the links below and if you’d like to contact him, please do so through his publicist at MyPublicst@hotmail.com.
http://www.michaelperez-artist.com
http://www.onegirlonenovel.com/index.php/2010/07/one-girl-one-novel-one-big-nyc-event/
http://www.onegirlonenovel.com/index.php/2010/07/my-first-book-event/
http://www.onegirlonenovel.com/index.php/2010/09/art-heals-nine-years-later/
If you’re an artist and would like to participate in this event, please click here to contact me. We’re accepting art in any medium as long as it’s inspired by Sometimes That Happens With Chicken.
Many thanks again to Paul Wright for his fan art contribution and for inspiring this great event. Many thanks also to Caitlin Slayback and Michael Perez for once again rallying to support Chicken and indie literature.
ttyl
Wanda
I Cannot Live Without Books
February 7, 2011 by Wanda Shapiro
Filed under Blogs
I’d like to welcome guest blogger Cie McCullough Buschle who is helping me celebrate Library Lover’s Month. Cie writes great posts that zero in on historical tidbits and this is another gem.
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I Cannot Live Without Books: A Brief History of the Library of Congress
In 1800, when the capital of the US was officially moved from Philadelphia to Washington D.C., Congress also decided they needed some books, and a nice place to put them. So they purchased $5000 worth of books and put them in a room in the brand new Capitol building. All sorts of official rules were set up, such as yes, the President and the VP could borrow the books too, and of course Congress needed a Librarian of Congress and a Joint Committee on the Library. While President John Adams signed the Act that officially stated the need for the Library, Thomas Jefferson signed the first law setting up these rules and structures. 740 books were ordered from London, mostly dry legal books, along with three maps.
In 1814 an army from London came, burned down the new Capitol and took all the books back. In fairness to the men of that army, it was the War of 1812, and invading armies are wont to do such things. So the small library, now at 3,000 books, was burned and pillaged.
Where is a young country to go to replace such a valuable investment? Low on funds after the war, the US needed a benefactor, someone who believed not only in the country but in the necessity and the power of books. Maybe a former president, or a founding father. Maybe both.
Enter Thomas Jefferson. Not a month goes by and Jefferson offers his personal collection of almost 65 hundred books. It was considered to be one of the finest in the country, containing rare and valuable edition. Fifty years in the making, Jefferson’s collection was not only twice as big, but far more varied than the original Library. Books of other languages, books on philosophy, science, literature, even cookbooks are now the stuff of the new Library of Congress. Not hand picked law books, but books that will actually reflect the population of the growing country. Says Jefferson “I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from their collection; there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer.”
After five months Congress appropriated $23,950 for the 6,487 books, although Jefferson would have accepted any price. This price was based on the measurements of the books’ sizes. To prepare for the shipment of the library from Monticello to DC, a Georgetown bookdealer, Joseph Milligan, was asked to come and supervise while Jefferson himself arranged and cataloged the books.
At that time there was no Dewey Decimal System and libraries were arranged alphabetically. Jefferson preferred, of course, a more scientific method based on Lord Bacon’s tables of science, the hierarchy of Memory, Reason and Imagination. This meant books were arranged by subject matter, first History, then Philosophy, then the Fine Arts, with a few subject modification. After all, where did Jefferson put his personal cookbooks? However, in day to day usage, even this method was abandoned in favor of simply shelving books by size.
However the books were arranged, Thomas Jefferson’s belief was that all books, no matter the subject, would be of importance to the US legislature. It is this “concept of universality” that still serves the Library of Congress today, when it is not just a resource for the country, but for the entire world.
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For more on the Library of Congress, please take a look at these books:
America’s Library: The Story of the Library of Congress, 1800-2000
The Library of Congress: An Architectural Alphabet
Jefferson’s Books
“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry”
~ Einstein
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Many thanks to Cie McCullough Buschle for this guest post and for all her posts on various blogs which I have enjoyed. I’ve come to look forward to Cie’s holiday history posts in particular and I can only imagine what she is going to enlighten us with this Valentine’s Day.
ttyl
Wanda