Hello my friends, it is so good to be with you again. As a matter of fact it is always great to be with you all. Happy Summer Solstice to you as well. With the coming of summer my strength and energies are coming back and the goal this year will be to make my self strong year round, and I don't think that will be a problem now. Things are really looking up.
I want to share a series of thoughts with you today for you to think about and hopefully you will grow from it. This is for writers just as much as it is for artists. In the early 1990's I was making a lot of money doing commercial art. I had some sweet accounts lined up. I worked for several professional sports teams, I had an account with Seaworld, I did work for a greeting card company just to name a few, and that kind of work pays 20 times the money that publishing pays. But because I couldn't see a new future it came to an end. The computer was on the rise and most of the commercial work out there was done on the computer. I didn't want to go that way though. I didn't want to learn how to use a computer, I was a dinosaur, so slowly I went back into doing physical labor installing carpet, when all I had to do was learn something new. I really kick myself now for being so narrow minded. But I have no one to blame but myself, but this coming year you are going to see me throw my hat back into the commercial ring and include that kind of work with my personal "Art" pieces. I am going to be expanding my horizons as the saying goes. But the point of this is that if I had been a "visionary" I would be living a hell of a lot better, be a lot more healthier and have a lot less emotional scares to burden if I had just learned to use the computer.
Madison and I where talking about the new direction that publishing is taking. If you want to make a living as a writer, your going to have to start thinking outside of the box. That means you are going to have to think about e-books, my god, that market alone is becoming massive with Kindle and all of those gadgets. For a writer not throw their hat into that ring, damn, that is just so stupid. Think of all the potential money and readers you are losing. Lets face facts, people are poor these days, and that is not going to change anytime soon. If a kid has a choice to buy a book for 20 bucks, or they can download the book for 2.99, which one do you think the kid is going to do? I think it is a Miracle that kids are even reading these days.
And all I hear is all the "Big Time' writers and publishers putting down the self publishers. Now this is a shame, but I do understand why from a business point of view, but I don't like it. This is America, and I do remember making a commitment to my fellow Americans to fight for their rights to have free speech and so on. Self Publishing falls under this, and anyone with a high school education understands that the principle of democracy is that we have a "Competitive market" so prices will stay down and quality will increase. I know I am damning myself by saying this, but I support self publishing and will continue to do so. So for those of you that just read this and said, "Well, he'll never have a future at our company," I say to you "That your company does not have a future unless you learn to look outside of the box"
I have several writer friends that can not seem to grasp the concept of making money off of e-books. Their damn lucky to sell 50 books a year because they don't have a clue about marketing. For some reason they seem to think that If they publish a book, the whole world is going to rush to by it? No, I'm not kidding, I know several writers just like that. They never wrote a book in their life and they think just because "THEY" wrote a book, everyone is going to rush to buy it. Not one of these writers even considered a budget for advertising or traveling on a circuit to promote their book. Good ole common sense tells me that "hey if I put my book on Amazon as an e-book for a few bucks, that I could make some advertising money right there with no money out of my pocket."
Advertising and getting the word out about what your doing is the 2 biggest keys there are to being a successful writer or artist. BUT IT TAKES TIME! and that is the big enemy to young people these days, not one of them have patience. They all want it right now and that is a whole another story that you don't want to get me to get into right now.
But anyways, enough for now, if I am going to blog more, I have to keep them shorter so I can get to work. Folks, the glamour that used to be publishing died in the 80's. It is not coming back. If you want to be an artist or writer, then you need to start studying on new ways to make it happen. If you want to talk about this, then lets do it on the group my friends. Peace and Blessings. "May the Darkness Comfort You"
I want to share a series of thoughts with you today for you to think about and hopefully you will grow from it. This is for writers just as much as it is for artists. In the early 1990's I was making a lot of money doing commercial art. I had some sweet accounts lined up. I worked for several professional sports teams, I had an account with Seaworld, I did work for a greeting card company just to name a few, and that kind of work pays 20 times the money that publishing pays. But because I couldn't see a new future it came to an end. The computer was on the rise and most of the commercial work out there was done on the computer. I didn't want to go that way though. I didn't want to learn how to use a computer, I was a dinosaur, so slowly I went back into doing physical labor installing carpet, when all I had to do was learn something new. I really kick myself now for being so narrow minded. But I have no one to blame but myself, but this coming year you are going to see me throw my hat back into the commercial ring and include that kind of work with my personal "Art" pieces. I am going to be expanding my horizons as the saying goes. But the point of this is that if I had been a "visionary" I would be living a hell of a lot better, be a lot more healthier and have a lot less emotional scares to burden if I had just learned to use the computer.
Madison and I where talking about the new direction that publishing is taking. If you want to make a living as a writer, your going to have to start thinking outside of the box. That means you are going to have to think about e-books, my god, that market alone is becoming massive with Kindle and all of those gadgets. For a writer not throw their hat into that ring, damn, that is just so stupid. Think of all the potential money and readers you are losing. Lets face facts, people are poor these days, and that is not going to change anytime soon. If a kid has a choice to buy a book for 20 bucks, or they can download the book for 2.99, which one do you think the kid is going to do? I think it is a Miracle that kids are even reading these days.
And all I hear is all the "Big Time' writers and publishers putting down the self publishers. Now this is a shame, but I do understand why from a business point of view, but I don't like it. This is America, and I do remember making a commitment to my fellow Americans to fight for their rights to have free speech and so on. Self Publishing falls under this, and anyone with a high school education understands that the principle of democracy is that we have a "Competitive market" so prices will stay down and quality will increase. I know I am damning myself by saying this, but I support self publishing and will continue to do so. So for those of you that just read this and said, "Well, he'll never have a future at our company," I say to you "That your company does not have a future unless you learn to look outside of the box"
I have several writer friends that can not seem to grasp the concept of making money off of e-books. Their damn lucky to sell 50 books a year because they don't have a clue about marketing. For some reason they seem to think that If they publish a book, the whole world is going to rush to by it? No, I'm not kidding, I know several writers just like that. They never wrote a book in their life and they think just because "THEY" wrote a book, everyone is going to rush to buy it. Not one of these writers even considered a budget for advertising or traveling on a circuit to promote their book. Good ole common sense tells me that "hey if I put my book on Amazon as an e-book for a few bucks, that I could make some advertising money right there with no money out of my pocket."
Advertising and getting the word out about what your doing is the 2 biggest keys there are to being a successful writer or artist. BUT IT TAKES TIME! and that is the big enemy to young people these days, not one of them have patience. They all want it right now and that is a whole another story that you don't want to get me to get into right now.
But anyways, enough for now, if I am going to blog more, I have to keep them shorter so I can get to work. Folks, the glamour that used to be publishing died in the 80's. It is not coming back. If you want to be an artist or writer, then you need to start studying on new ways to make it happen. If you want to talk about this, then lets do it on the group my friends. Peace and Blessings. "May the Darkness Comfort You"
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