Once Upon a Time When I Wrote a Book

I've been following a friend's experience becoming a published writer. David St. Lawrence of Ripples: post-corporate adventures blog, has been posting about his attempts to publish, in print, his book: Danger Quicksand: Have a Nice Day which is a free download off of his blog, to those who are interested. I even spoke with him on the phone the other day and he's such a warm fellow, inviting, personable, and full of energy-- especially for his book, that it gave me an idea-- to start a series of posts about MY experience writing and publishing my book: Dickless Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online.

Let's start at the beginning, and go on until the end-- which is how all good stories should be told. Even the ones which begin with a flashback.

Many, many years ago, when I was a child in second grade...oh, I suppose you don't want me to start THAT far back. You will get used to me...I can be a bit of a joker.

Ahmm....(that's me clearing my throat)....

Two years ago I was much like my friend David. I was disappointed with the path my life was on. I had endured corporate job after corporate job, over a period of close to 15 years. (before that I was a stay-at-home Mom.) In 1999, through 2002 and into 2003, I worked at several start-ups.

The start-ups were exciting--for the first few months. Then, they became bothersome. (David, and all who read his book, will understand.) They became bothersome because-- they refused to allow me to do my job. I was hired to write, but, more often than not I made coffee, opened mail, and watched the CEOs make disasterous decisions that, ultimately, would, and did, cost me my job.

No problem. After the third time, when the company I worked at actually seemed to value my input but refused to take my advice, I said, "No more. I'm not going to be an employee ever again!" And, I went out on my own.

I was, at that time, just beginning to earn enough money to live on-- as a consultant doing web content writing, with a few articles at paying magazines thrown in. It was heaven. However, there were a lot of people in my immediate world that continued to want to take advantage of not only my good nature, but my writing skills. These people, sad to say, were mostly men. Men who thought I would be thrilled to join their staff, unpaid, and do sales, marketing, or writing for them. Just to get my name in front of their customers. Customers, mind you, that most of them were desperate for!

<Big sigh.> Now, while this was going on, I noticed something interesting happening online. I noticed that the number of women online was outpacing the number of men. Women were moving beyond email and into shopping -- for the convenience, the choices, the free shipping, and many other reasons. But, no one was paying any attention to this important phenomena. Just like folks in the "dirt world," the Internet was ignoring the women's market.

At this time, I was expressing some frustration at yet another company that was trying to convince me to work for free, when a friend (a male friend) said, "If you could do exactly what you want, and not have to deal with these bozos who are out to steal your talents, what would that be?"

I thought about it for a few seconds, and I said, "I'd write a book. A book about marketing to women who shop online."

"Sounds like a good idea," he said. "I know what you can call it..."

I waited-- he was in marketing and had scads more experience than I, so I was very interested in his advice.

"You can call it: Dickless Marketing," he said, with a grin. "After all, you'll be teaching people how to get out of the 20th century Dick and Jane world, and into the new millennium."

After laughing for some time-- laughing so hard I was crying-- I heaved a sigh and shook my head. "I can't do that," I said. "I'd never be able to pull it off."

"Of course you will," he insisted. "You'll explain that Dickless means marketing to Jane, not to Dick. It's just common sense."

How true, I thought. In time, oh, five minutes or so, I came to love the idea.

The fact that the title of my book is provocative, has attracted both positive and negative comments-- but, in the end, it served (still serves) its purpose: to show people online that Jane is the gender who spends the most money. Jane is the one searching for your product or service-- for herself, or for someone she knows.

Now you have the story of how the title to my book, Dickless Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online, came to be. In my next post, I'll talk about how I chose print-on-demand for my book, and show you why my new company was born-- out of that less than satisfactory experience with the POD company that produced my book.

Do not, however, expect confessions, secrets, or blatant accusations. The company that published my book is still in business. They have many customers. I don't know if these customers are happy ones, or not. I only know that I am not one of the happy ones and I will tell you why without insults or anger-- something I could not have done when I was going through the experience.

And I will tell you what I learned about print-on-demand.

I hope you will learn something from my experience. Just as David St. Lawrence is doing such a marvelous job showing others the way, I hope I can point you down the right road...maybe one that leads to Rochester, NY where print-on-demand began and where we, at A-ha!, do business.

We'll talk. Tune in later this week for Part 2. Until then, write something wonderful today. Even one sentence. Think of science-fiction writer, Ray Bradbury, who said, "Don't think! Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things; you simply must do them."

Comments

[Marilyn S. Porter Author of Last Kiss]

I have a book. Would like to sell it on line, on a blog, whatever. It's a different sort of love story told from the "male" point of view. It's set in the 1960's, Boomer time, and takes place in a small town in upstate New York, that could be anytown, USA. It is based on the old song from 1964, Last Kiss, by J.Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers. It was re-recorded by Pearl Jam in 1999 and was an instant hit.

Please advise.

Marilyn Smith Porter, author of Last Kiss
LastKisstheBook.com

[David St Lawrence]

Thank you for mounting my pre-order ad this morning.
I am already getting hits from it.

Isn't blogging a hoot?
We start conversations effortlessly, and if we have a decent communication cycle and good manners, all sorts of things happen.

My book was written because of a comment made by Rosa Say, a rather new blogger. I used an off-the-wall marketing approach because of remarks from Seth Godin, a very well-known blogger. My book is on ChangeThis because of an email from Avi Solomon, another blogger.

And now, I am sticking with the people who originally passed the word that my book was worth reading - these were bloggers, one and all.

My rationale is that these are the people who convinced 5000 people to download a rather large book, so they are my best source of referrals to enlighten people that the book is finally available in a slick dead-tree format with a personal message from the author.

I am blogging this entire project, of course, so that others will not have to break new ground when they decide to publish their own books.

As I wrote elsewhere, blogging is not a zero-sum game. There is room on the blogosphere for a million more books. THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF SHELF SPACE.

There is also no shortage of genres. You want to write the ultimate cowboy, sci-fi, horror, farside, bodice ripper? You got it! It may never find shelf space at Borders, but you can sell that puppy for years until every Rocky Horror Show junkie has one.

So, don't throw away those old story ideas. Figure out a marketing plan and publish until you get it out of your system! Good luck!