The Florida Writer’s Conference is coming up this coming week! Considering I was booked nearly a year ago. . . well, the old analogy about time flying certainly fits.

I’m making the final brush-ups on the material I want to go over, I’m hearing from people planning to attend inquiring what material I’ll be interested in seeing, and I’m starting to make mental notes of ‘don’t forget this, don’t forget that’. Latest note: bring rubber bands. Many of them. Fortunately, I have a bag with barely any used from it, out in my car, of all places, and so merely need to remember to fetch them out. But I need something to bind printed first chapters with their accompanying complete ms cds and author info. Hence, the note to remember rubber bands.

How excited am I? Very! I love talking about writing. I love meeting other writers. I love seeing where people are in the process, from the brave new world newbies to the ones that have been writing for years. I love talking to others in the industry and comparing notes on where the publishing world is headed and if they’re noting the same huge changes coming down the track as I do. Where they stand on ebooks and whether they will ever really take the place of real books.

Speaking of writers, I had the distinct pleaure of meeting with a fairly new writers group just slightly out of my area. One of our authors, Martha Dougherty, was invited, and she asked if I would like to go also, of which I accepted gladly. It was a prime opportunity to get that afore mentioned ‘fix’ of writer talking to writer adrenaline.

The group is the OV (Ohio Valley) Writers Group (and you can look at their website here: http://www.ovwritersgroup.blogspot.com/) and they were a great group of people. I judged there to be about a dozen, which isn’t bad for a newly formed group only on their third meeting, and my first impression is that they range from the brand new writer (’I'm thinking about writing a book’) to about three that have been in the trenches for some time (’shouldn’t your characters be well developed enough that you don’t have to explain what they’re doing – I don’t want to have to spoon feed the reader’– to which I replied ‘exactly!’).

I was a little nervous about being a party-crasher, but they seemed to enjoy the opportunity of hearing from a publishing pov, and I enjoyed the opportunity of being reminded of the writers pov. We talked about editing, point of view, query letters, tense, active vs passive writing, and the benefits of taking on-line writing courses. All in all, a really intelligent group resulting in an enlightening evening.

Talking to writers in different stages of their journey reminded me that I would probably find an equally eclectic group of people in my workshop at the Florida Writers Conference, and as I go forward today with putting the final touches on my presentation material, I’m trying to keep in mind to try and make the information accessible to the new as well as the experienced writer. If those writers in my workshop find the material of value, some of the thanks can go to the OV Writers Group for allowing me to sit in on one of their meetings.

In other issues, I’m beginning the work on Jerry Cypher’s cover, still messing with what to do with a web-site tht is teetering under the pressure of over 3000 web pages with more to be added (most notably Jim Spurr’s latest book Reflections in the Wake, which has no more than a cameo appearance on the front page with links going to nowhere — which obviously needs to be rectified post-haste. I’m working on an interim solution until I’ve settled on long-term plans for what to do.)

I’ve been notified that my book, In the Brief Eternal Silence, has arrived in Florida for the accompanying book signing at the conference. (I shipped them ahead of time rather than try to lug nearly 40 lbs of books with me through the airport and on a flight — and God Bless Chrissy Jackson’s right hand ‘man’ — Chris Coward, for accepting delivery and doing the lugging from her home to the venue — Thank You, Chris! Did I mention you’re getting one for free for all your help? You are.)

All in all, it’s going to be a busy week, but I am so looking forward to it!

Everyone have a great weekend (and did I mention how nice it is to be able to blog AND see what I’m writing? It is! It is! God is good).

My first eye surgery is scheduled for September 29, which means when I hit Florida for the Florida Writer’s Converence in October, I’ll have at least one good eye to see with. The second surgery for the other eye is scheduled for November 5th.

Yesterday, I spent the entire day in the doctor’s office, literally from 10:00 a.m. to to nearly two in the afternoon, seeing a total of 5 different technicians. It’s oh so reassuring to have a seasoned professional (rated as one of the top five eye surgeons in our state) exclaim, “Wow, those really are advanced, aren’t they?” upon peering into the dilated holes of my pupils. Nice. As with my initial visit with our local optometrist, I feel as though I’ve turned into Golf game conversation fodder: “Only 44 years old. No. No history of this sort of thing in her family. Most advanced cataracts I’ve seen in some time. ”

I got the now usual bombardment of questions from him afterward: “Ever have cortizone shots? Any family member with premature cataracts, born with eye issues, eye issues at a young age?”

No. No, and no. I’ve always unofficially been an oddity (just ask my family and friends), now it’s just on more than one level.

But business continues with a busy slate, and eye surgery shouldn’t take more than a day or two of slowing me down per eye. So look forward to Jim’s new release probably by the end of the month, and then on to the works of Jerry Cypher and Martha Dougherty, which hopefully will go much more quickly when I’m actually able to see what I am doing.

1. I didn’t recall contacting them offering them the book (or, if I had contacted them, it had been so long ago I couldn’t remember). Suffice it to say it was ‘out of the blue’.

2. Upon visiting their site, I noted that they did indeed review romance books, and many of them, but that they seemed to concentrate on what I will politely term ’spicy’ (one could also substitute the words, ‘erotic’, ‘exotic’ and ‘explicit’ if you get my drift). Here are a few examples of some of their recently reviewed titles:

• Good Will Ghost Hunting: Demon Seed by Lesli Richardson
• Naughty Fantasies by Jade James
• My Wicked Vampire by Nina Bangs

In short, the majority of their titles contain the words paranormal or erotic (if not both) in their genre descriptions. Not exactly the audience that I expected In the Brief Eternal Silence in particular nor Double Edge Press in general to garner.

However, I had been invited to submit, and I’ve never deemed myself a snob. So off I sent the book to be reviewed. But I do have to confess a certain curiousity as to what the results would be of my submission.

Friday, the results came in. Here is the official Night Owl Romance Reviews review:

Review: In the Brief Eternal Silence by Rebecca Melvin (Double Edge Press) Historical

The Duke of St. James is on a mission–to find the culprits who murdered his parents when he was but a boy of 10 years old. Along the way, he finds that the whole matter goes a lot deeper and contains more conspiracy than he could ever imagine–and might even involve the crown. Falling in love was the very last thing he wanted to do. 

Miss Elizabeth Murdock is as plain as the day is long–and she likes it that way. She doesn’t like attention and prefers to blend into the background. Then the Duke of St. James comes into her life and turns it upside down.

Love creeps up on both of them–but vengeance has to be dealt with first, as now it is not only the life of the Duke that is in danger, but Miss Murdock’s as well.

How can the Duke end his vengeance and get the murderers before anyone else gets killed? Or will the murderers succeed before he and Miss Murdock can find true love? Have to read to find out.

This book took me by surprise. It started out kind of slow but once it picked up I was definitely hooked. This wasn’t the type of book I usually like to read but I have to say I enjoyed it immensely. This kept me reading to the end–and it was a very satisfying ending at that.

Happy reading,
The Night Owl Romance Staff
Night Owl Romance
Stay Up Late With A Great Novel
http://www.NightOwlRomance.com

For a review, I’ll take that one. Considering it’s competition, I’m not complaining in the least.

Everyone have a great Sunday.

There is a common theme that runs among them:

• Writing is easy.
• Editing is easier still.
• And Publishing should only take a week, ten days at the most.
• My book will, of course, be a bestseller.

These are the new writers. They are full of enthusiasm and boundless optimism, and I stare at them with glazed eyes and wonder how I can break the news to them gently.

Here’s the reality check. I dug around on the now defunct PODdy-Mouth Blog in search of it as I recalled finding it there previously some time back (which that blog, if one has the time to read it, is a sobering look at publishing in and of itself. It’s demise was abrupt and telling: writers are a needy bunch, and this particular blogger, who had an incredibly popular review site, succumbed to the virtual limb by limb dismemberment as the pack devoured her).

Here’s the official numbers from Nielson’s Bookscan (on which the Best Seller list is comprised from) for the year 2004:

Regarding Neilsen Bookscan’s tracked sales of books for 2004 (1.2 million), here are the results:

• Of those 1.2 million, 950,000 sold fewer than 99 copies.
• Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies.
• Only 25,000 books sold more than 5,000 copies.
• Fewer than 500 sold more than 100,000 copies.
• Only 10 books sold more than a million copies each.
• The average book in the United States sells about 500 copies.

Got that? Here’s a chart with some percentages to help you get that more in to perspective:

Take a close look. Fully 78% of books printed never sell more than a 100 copies (trackable sales — that doesn’t count how many you manage to sell to family and friends in your livingroom). IF you manage to sell more than a 100 copies, you can proudly state that you are in the top 22% of sales. If your book sells more than 5,000 copies, you are in the elite 2%.

Notice that those books in the 100,000 and 1,000,000 categories are so miniscule a number that they don’t even rate a full percentage point.

So, unless you have a fantastic marketing plan (like, say, infomercials) it may be time to lower expectations.

The key to success in writing isn’t a single blockbuster, but a string of 22 percenters (preferably in the high-end of that category) with an occasional 2 percenter in the mix. If you manage to make it into the fraction of a percent category, you can truly look upon it as winning the publishing lottery. Otherwise, be prepared for a long, hard road and a LOT of writing.

In addition to this first new writer, a second new writer has come onto my radar screen, one full of ideas for books (in addition to the one he has ready to go). He seems to be perfectly in sync with the vision I have for Double Edge Press, with books ranging from the Chicken Soup for the Soul variety to an in depth look at Revelations and End Times Prophecy. Both of these concepts, and a few others, were enough to intrigue me.

Then something quite unexpected happened. The kind of event that makes you wonder just who you really are and where God really intends you to be in His plans. Tragedy and mystery.

The tragedy is one you are probably all aware of (although not to the degree that Michael Jackson has been dominating the airwaves for nearly two weeks solid now), and that was the death of Billy Mays, pitchman extaordinaire. I was a fan of Billy’s through his recent television show “Pitchmen”. I had been aware of him prior to this through the many commercials he had starred in, but my enjoyment of him as a personality increased tenfold with watching the behind scenes activity of the selection of a product, the perfecting of it, and then the commercial filming. He struck me as a down-to-earth, approachable and extremely decent guy. The episode of his helping out an old friend who was partially paralyzed from a airplane accident seemed to highlight the ‘extremely decent’ aspect. And I well remember the episode which featured his wife and young daughter also.

So it was with sadness and shock that I read of his death about a week ago. My first thought, selfishly, was I really going to miss his show. His marketing ability was stupendous and I felt like I learned something from him everytime I watched. My second thought of was his lovely little girl, and his older son, now without a father. And his wife, without a husband.

Despite these feelings, I had no idea that God was going to draw a line from Billy Mays, to our new writer, to Double Edge Press. And yet, that is exactly what God has done.

Our new writer is from the Pittsburgh area and grew up with Billy. They’ve kept in touch all these years. The passing of Billy for him was quite personal and not the vague feelings of sadness that I felt. When he called me this week and told me these things, I offered my heart-felt sympathy. Billy had been a man in the prime of his life, on the top of his game, and gone too soon. His death, for everyone close to him, was a tragic shock.

I learned more of Billy than I had ever imagined from him. None of it surprised me. My estimation of approachable and extremely decent were only the tip of the ice-berg. He was a faith-filled man, and felt that much of his success was due to God’s guidance in his life. He was a major contributor to charity in the Pittsburgh area. He was planning on building a church.

Would I be interested in a Biography on him? I was asked.

Oh, yes. Definately, yes.

Anyone, obviously, could write a Biography. But one coming from a friend, who had known Billy since he was young, who was friends with the family, who would treat Billy with the respect and insight he deserved, and who would be ‘authorized’ by family to write the story, and write the story including what was most important to the subject: faith and family; these qualities made this book desirable to me. These same qualities will make the book, I’m sure, desirable to his fans.

All this, obviously, is very much in the ‘kick it around’ stages. Much could happen to derail it. But I still, very much, have that feeling of an unexpected line being drawn by the hand of God. It’s quite possible that Billy will still have a large, large impact on the world well after his untimely death. I hope Double Edge Press is able to be a part of that.

May all of our thoughts and prayers be with his family in this, their time of need.

Despite the writing of checks, royalties are fun for me. I like to see how many sales each book has garnered, and for those selling well, I like to imagine their pleased surprise when they get the check in the mail.

So if you’ve noticed a lag in my blogging, just rest assured that I am, once again, busy counting beans.

Everyone have a great day.

When I was ‘merely’ a writer I had little opportunity to attend such functions, and I viewed those that could attend with envy. Four kids, a corresponding lack of funds, and a full work schedule trying to supplement those meager funds forecluded the expenditure in both time and money to chase after a ‘hobby’. I did, however, have the honor of attending Cynthia (owner of SterlingHouse Publishing) Sterling’s, then annual Christmas Party which was my first introduction to every writer’s dream of champagne, caviar, and a host of delicacies on the buffet that still make my mouth water in remembrance. A guest list that included a host of minor celebrities completed the picture perfect setting.

Cynthia was my first agent and nearly my first publisher, having offered a contract for my third work titled Some Storms You Weather Alone upon her moving from agent to publisher. The title never did make the print list due to various reasons and after writing In the Brief Eternal Silence, I threw it in the garbage along with all my other previous works, a great deal relieved that they had never made the light of day. Which just goes to show that sometimes rejection can be a blessed thing.

Cynthia was probably the single most inspirational person I had the pleasure of being associated with on my journey from writer to publisher. She took my early work seriously, agenting two out of three of my first manuscripts. Her staff taught me a great deal about editing, and she provided me with my first job in the writing/publishing industry, a part-time position transcribing previously self-published titles onto a computer to enable the files to be uploaded to a printer. I still remember the first book I transcribed, a memoir by a WWII vet as a POW on the Baatan Death March. I did some proof-reading and other odds and ends also, but what I remember most is putting in an eight hour shift at the glass factory I worked at as a blue-collar worker, then jumping in the car and driving an hour to Pittsburgh and then putting in another four hours in the office.

Ah, if I had only known the journey ahead of me. Twelve hour work days and a two hour commute were the easy parts.

But what I learned from Cynthia was invaluable: the tangibles of transcribing, editing, proofing, and the intangibles of a woman owning and operating a publishing house, going independent publisher without the benefits of print-on-demand. In other words, back in the day when taking a chance on a book meant about ten grand or more in investment in each one.

But what I really wanted to blog about, before taking a trip down memory lane, was the Florida Writers Conference, and what I’m finding most fascinating about their blog. I never imagined that the first real writers conference I would be attending would be as a work-shop presenter teaching, and not as a paying writer eagerly wanting to learn.

I read with interest their 6/16/09 post on Pitching with the nearly unique view of being the one being pitched to rather than the one doing the pitch. I appreciate the call to the writer to be considerate, appreciate the time I’m investing, etc, and the sound advice they give their writers on what to be prepared to answer. Simultaneously, I know that what they are advising could be augmented, in my case anyways, with information on being prepared to answer questions about themselves and their writing process.

Things I’m probably going to ask are:

• How long have you been writing?
• Is this your first manuscript?
• What motivated you to write in general and this in particular?
• What other ideas do you have for further books?
• What does getting your book published mean to you?

I ask these questions because if I accept a submission for publication, I’m investing in the author as much as in the work. Normally, I’m also trying to suss out the writers that are serious from those that knock together a single manuscript and think they are done. That question, at least, I can feel fairly certain to be already answered. No one pays conference fees to attend and an additional sum for the privilege of a face to face unless they are either, a) serious, b) have way too much time and money on their hands.

So if you are a writer looking to be published, and you have the opportunity to talk to someone who you think may be interested in your work, be prepared to talk a little about yourself and your creative process also.

Everyone have a great day.

This year, I am happy to report, the sales were moving briskly. In fact, I ‘escaped’ my public speaking slot because, I’m sure, every time our coordinator glanced my way, I was busy talking to customers, and hence he would move to the next and the next until the day was at an end.

Yes, sales were very good. It was quite gratifying.

Part of this success was due to the advertising being ran in the local newspaper. As I had hoped for, I had many comments from people exclaiming, “Oh, I saw your ad in the paper and was meaning to call for a catalog, and here you are.”

Catalogs moved quite briskly also.

Another consequence of the ad is the connection with local authors that knew nothing of me, nor I of them. I’ve had several contact me, and as of yesterday was invited to an impromptu meeting with a local business man who has a few works cooking on his creative stove. The first is of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” variety, which instantly interested me as I know the Chicken Soup market is enourmous.

The meeting was so impromptu that I am ashamed to say I met him in sweat pants and a t-shirt. The reason behind this is I had spent the entire morning in two different meetings, complete in full suited skirt and heels, makeup hair, the whole regalia, which I utterly hate. Upon arriving home, I instantly tore off the dreaded formal wear and contrarily and thankfully changed into my oldest most comfy gear. When I returned the inviters’ call, my first thought was, Oh, no, I am not putting on the business clothes again!

I agreed to meet him at a local establishment and, after apologizing for my appearance, had a pleasant afternoon conversing on the rapidly changing publishing industry, where we are in God’s time-table, politics, the expresso book machine, and his work.

As I found on Sunday at Art in the Park, nothing beats being out amongst people and making personal connections. That’s true with customers, and I think it is also true with writers. You can gain more from a fifteen minute (well, in this particular case it was more like an hour and a half) face to face with someone than a month’s worth of emails.

I walked away with a very positive impression that this writer would fit my vision for Double Edge Press. Now it was just a matter of whether his writing would. He had given me a sample, and not long after I returned home, I sat down to take a quick glance, and found myself hard pressed to put his work down in order to do the things I was supposed to be doing. He had humbly disclaimed his writing ability, but from my quick taste of his work, I think he may have somewhat underrated himself.

As a result of several things, James Spurr’s work that I’m currently editing and am very excited about, the recent development of a writer with fantastic work that may be coming aboard this fall, encouraging sales at Art in the Park, and yesterday’s meeting with a talented local author (how nice to have another author in the immediate area!) I’m feeling as though the future of DEP is very bright indeed.

Everyone have a good, good day.

When he had called me on from his cell phone that day, asking me if I could use a copier, I instantly said yes. I said yes even more enthusiastically when I heard the price tag: free. I didn’t know what I would do with it, we already have a small copier on our printer, but like back at the beginning of this venture when I was ordering my computer on-line and my brother asked what I would do with the obscene amount of memory I wanted, I knew I was going to do something with it.

With the computer, the memory was put to use starting a pub house. I had no clue at the time that I was ordering it that this would be what I would use it for. With the copier, again I knew I would use it for something, I just didn’t know what, nor when.

So after a iniital try out, in which we established that the top 8.5″ x 11″ paper drawer didn’t draw, but that the reserve 8.5″ x 11″ did nicely, along with the 8.5″ x 14″ and 11″ x 17″ drawers as well, it sat in the corner and became a catch all, rather like the piano in our living-room.

I wasn’t particularly annoyed with the fact that the top drawer refused to draw paper. It was why we had gotten the machine for free. The business sharing the same building as my husband’s business office had become fed-up with this little quirk. They had few reasons to print anything but standard 8.5″ x 11″ and evidently printed enough that not only had they worn out the main draw drawer, but also missed the amount they could print without refilling when reduced to the reserve drawer only. They ordered a new copier. Pressed for space, they were busy hauling the old copier out of the building, wondering if they could reasonably expect the garbage men to haul it away when my husband happened upon them.

“Want a copier?” one of them asked, half joking, half desperate.

“Does it work?” my husband replied.

“All but the top drawer.” At which point my husband pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial for me. And, that, my friends, is how we got a free $5000.00 copier. These things never happen to me. But they happen to my husband quite regularly.

The funny part of the story is that less than two weeks later my husband, Neal, again ran into the same guy. He told him the new copier had quit working. “Any chance of getting our old one back?” he asked.

“I’ll sell it to you,” Neal replied with a devilish grin.

The point of the story is that I finally found a use for the copier: 2009 Double Edge Press catalogs.

I mentioned them yesterday in conjunction with an advertisement I was running in the local paper beginning today. I had done catalogs previously, but because I was printing each out on a printer they were both a) time consuming and b) costly. Both of these circumstance forced a very narrow and focused distribution of them and I concentrated only on small independent retailers in hand-picked regions.

What possessing the copier has done is enable me to print them a) relatively quickly, and b) cheaply: about 7 cents a catalog. Do they look as nice? no. They’re in black and white rather than color, and they do tend to have a skid mark occassionaly. But for mass consumption, they’ll do nicely, and it allows me to offer them for free to anyone interested responding to the ad. At approximately $70.00 per thousand, they fit into the budget. Unlike the old catalogs that I distributed in miserly fashion, this year’s catalog is free for the asking.

So the grand experiment started this morning with the first running of the ad. Very few people in the area know we’re here. Very few know that a pub house exists in their local area. With the running of today’s ad that will hopefully change, and some ‘buzz’ would be nice.

Everyone have a great day and a wonderful weekend.

However, it does cause traffic jams on my desk top, both the virtual and literal one.

Even in the midst of editing, marketing must go on. It is the one task that is never done. At no point can you wrap it up and say, “Well, done with marketing for a while.” It’s an ongoing, uphill battle to get our name out there in front of people.

Several months ago, I blogged about switching our distribution discount for most of our titles (not all, but most) to an astounding 70% off. This switch came after I was in contact with a regional book retailer who required this percentage off to even consider carrying our books. It caused to wonder if the old ’standard’ of 55% off to distributors was now obsolete, especially in today’s economy. Everyone, including retailers, maybe especially retailers, are looking for a bargain. Something they can pass on as a bargain to their customers and still make a profit at the end of the day.

It’s up to us, the suppliers, to tighten our belts even further and give them what they want. Painful, but necessary.

So in light of this line of thinking, I made the afore mentioned changes and sat back to wait on the results. I speculated it would be several months before I saw anything noteworthy, and as much as six months to a year before I could deem the experiement either a success or a failure.

Today, for the first time, I’ve seen some significant movement in sales pertaining to our distribution outlet. Not a flood, not by a long-shot, but a small up-tick that is encouraging. What I find most revealing is that this up-tick does not correspond with on-line sales numbers (i.e. Amazon) as the sales there for all of our titles, even the ones that are normally moving quite well, have been dismally slow since around the start of the year. No, this small up-tick is the result of brick and mortar stores testing the waters. They’ve seen a bargain, and they’re taking a chance that the bargain will sell.

In retrospect, years down the road, I may well look back on this moment and realize that if we hadn’t had an awful economy at the moment, these same book and mortars may have well stuck with the tried and true (the big pubs) no matter what discount we had on our books. But desperate circumstances call for desperate measures, and if they can pick up a title from a relatively unknown small publisher as a better discount, this one time they’re trying it.

In addition to this cautiously optimistic news is my dipping my toes into the waters of local newsprint advertising. I’ve advertised before,usually at the on-set of a new title, sometimes by paid Press Release services, sometimes with specific newspaper spots. All of these advertisements have been in the author’s area and not in my local region. They’ve always been focused on a single title (the one being newly released) and a single author (the one doing a book-signing in those instances). What I’ve never done is advertise the publishing house as a whole (other than on-line advertising back at the very beginning of this venture, which, from my experience, was nothing but a capital draining waste of money. I don’t recommend it).

But again, the economy is coming into play, this time in the form of GM axing a great percentage of their car dealerships on a nationwide level. A week ago, when I was reading in the paper of several local car dealerships being forced to close their doors (some after nearly a century in the business) I had no idea that this was going to effect my advertising plans. How could I? There is absolutely no obvious connection there.

Car dealerships advertise in the newspaper. They advertise in the newspaper A LOT. Take three major advertisers out of play for the local newspaper, who, like all newspapers across the country is already struggling, and they begin to come up with some interesting, and relatively cheap, ways to offer advertising. An ad with accompanying image that previously would have cost me a about $150.00 to run for one day in the main pages of the paper I can now run for three days at a thrid of the cost in the classified ads under their newly created ‘Home Businesses’ section.

I had never seen this category before, but I noticed it after observing another local home business owner, of a beauty shop, running an ad with her rates, her address and phone number and an accompanying eye-catching photo of herself. I observed this ad for about two weeks straight, and I noticed it every single day. I couldn’t help but notice it. I go to the classifieds for various reasons, to look at the houses for sale, to check out the job market, the used autos, lost pets, found pets, and merchandise in general. Anything with an accompanying photo catches the eye. And it catches the eye better than the paid for advertisements that I (and probably everyone else) am used to skimming over and ignoring in the usual paid for advertising spots throughout the paper. I was intrigued.

So, finally, I call the number in the woman’s ad, the owner of the beauty shop. Basically, after introducing myself and assuring her that i don’t run a competing beauty shop, I asked her, “How’s that working for you?” in reference to the ad from where I had gotten her phone number.

“Great!” was her unabashed reply. She went on to tell me that she ran it once for ten days and was so impreseed with the results that she signed up for a further fifteen days straight. “I’ll probably keep running it,” she said. “The phone’s been ringing off the hook with new customers that never knew I was here before.”

There’s a big difference between beauty shops and publishing houses. But the one thing we have in common is that not very many people know I’m here. That’s about to change.

Starting Friday, I’ll have a three day ad in the same humble, nearly laughable section of the newspaper. Not where you would expect a publishing house to be advertising. But at the end of the day I only have one litmus test on where my advertising dollars go, and it isn’t what looks pretty or what looks dignified. It’s simply what works.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about what that advertisement will contain, and the catalogs that due to my much-loved and much-esteemed husband I am able to create for as little as seven cents (yes, that’s $.07) a copy and offer for free to those who respond to the ad.

Which brings me back around to editing. Creating an ad for the classifieds wasn’t too time consuming, but creating a catalog and working out the system in where I can print off and assemble two about every thirty seconds for mass production took a little more time than I would have wished when in the midst of an edit job. Let’s just say that perfecting the process required one total tantrum throwing meltdown including obsceneties over the persnicketyness of a particular copier, and an impatiently uttered prayer for patience. I don’t think the temper tantrum or the profanities worked, but the prayer did. Patience was granted, the process was completed allowing me to offer both a catalogue (which says very nicely that we’re ‘established’ in the ad readers mind, I hope) and because of the relative cheapness of the production, offer it for free (and who doesn’t like to read about getting something for free?).

So, I have on-going editing, on-going marketing through discounts established a few months back that finally seem to be seeing results, new advertising with a new catalog. What more could be throwin into the mix to make my days even more hectic? That brings us to our oldest son’s graduation from high-school.

Now maybe my memory is faltering the older I get (and there’s nothing like your first born graduating to remind you that the years are passing fast), but I don’t remember such a hoopla when I graduated as there is today. My calendar is completely filled for over a week with track photo sessions, track banquets, graduatiing class banquets, Baccalerate, practice, and finally Graduation. Add to that our youngest has her own class’s awards ceremony and you begin to see how filled up my coming week has suddenly become. Even an edit of a seasoned writer such as Jim Spurr with relatively minor issues has become challenging. Not in doing it, but in finding the time to do it.

But in the end, it is all very positive ‘busyness’ and far better than having nothing cooking on the stove at all. Soon, the graduation will be over, the advertising results will be in and the editing completed. At that point, I’ll take a breath, take a look around and see where we are.

Everyone have a good day.