Earlier today I responded to a Twitter post by E.H. Night — author of “The Four Before Me” and “A Stray, Astray“. She spoke about the weird prioritization that some of us get into. With her endeavours she was considering making her 3rd-priority book her 1-st priority project or leave it where it’s at. I understand this — I DO THIS!!! Then came the question common to creatives of “Is this hell?”
I replied talking about my familiarity with this dilemma — I didn’t have a solution for her, only that I understand. It came to me though to use this to update everyone on my book projects and where they’re at …. otherwise put, it’s my excuse to blog this week. hell
Before finishing “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” (book 1) I started on a bagpipe sheet music book comprised of my own compositions (book 2). This got put on hold to start on my second recipe book (book 3). Summer 2018 this second recipe book (book 3) got put on hold to write (book 4) my military & patriotic Highland bagpipe tunes & tune history book. From my sheet music and tune history book (book 4) I got inspired to write a history book about one of the men who landed on Normandy as part of the D-day invasion (book 5). When I started it (book 5) I knew that I was going to have to gather my notes and set it aside for later. I’ve accomplished this and now I’m trying to complete my sheet music and tune history book (book 4) so I can have it published no later than June 2020. The only problem with that is the audience I developed from Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies(book 1) are ready and looking for another installment of recipes (book 2). hell
Clear as mud — RIGHT?!?
So is being a creative-type, having so many projects we want to bring to life a form of Hell? I don’t know — I’m only saying that I understand — that E.H. Night and all the other creative folks out there reading this is that you’re not alone.
Last evening I had a meeting with Tom Trimbath – a gentleman I consider a friend, a self-publishing mentor, and an all around good soul. This ‘meeting’ was not unlike our previous meetings – informal, creative, humorous, and inspiring. A number of things are coming up for Tom and I — it was time to check in again. We met at Toby’s Tavern in Coupeville, WA, for dinner – the same joint we were in not long after the publication of my recipe book last fall.
Now before I tell you about the meeting, let me tell you a little about Toby’s …
If you think this view of Coupeville over Penn Cove is beautiful, you should see it from the ground level.Here’s a little look at Coupeville…
Before Tom’s and my meeting last year Tom suggested Toby’s and offered for me to look into other places in Coupeville. While Coupeville is about 22 square miles here on Whidbey Island, what I was inquiring about was the historic 2-block area on the waterfront overlooking Penn Cove. I know the area well – as a kid I spent summer days playing in the town and seeing the different shops when visiting my grandparents. While many of the shops have changed since then, the historic town has stayed much the same – and if you’re visiting Whidbey Island, definitely stop in and enjoy yourself in Coupeville for at least a few hours. But where was I? Oh yeah – back to Toby’s …
This is the place!
Last fall when I was looking at reviews for the different restaurants on the Coupeville waterfront I came up with a number of nice sounding places. When I looked up Tom’s suggestion of “Toby’s Tavern” I read some rather interesting reviews on Google and Yelp (etc). I read things that made it sound … well … TERRIBLE! Bad food, fist-fights, weirdoes galore … I hung out in my share of divey places in my 20s, but now it just didn’t sound all that appealing. When I checked with Tom he said Toby’s was nothing like that, to trust him, and to meet him there later that evening. So, trusting Tom as I often do, I did!
“A quintessential dive bar housed in a vintage mercantile building dating from the 1890s; even the polished back bar was originally shipped here from around Cape Horn in 1900. Quaff home-produced microbrews and enjoy a menu spearheaded by local classics such as fantastic mussels, clam strips, and halibut and chips, while listening to the jukebox or shooting pool.”
I haven’t been back to Toby’s since meeting Tom there last fall but in my time there I found I like Toby’s. There was something about the joint that was just … comfortable. When I have a few more things in order in my daily life I’d like to stop in for a burger, catch a window booth and write while looking out on the cove.
Not my burger from last night — I don’t take food pictures like this … it’s weird.
Locally, Toby’s is somewhat known for their burgers – I can’t say they’re particularly special – if you go there don’t expect them to be gourmet, from what I’ve seen they just make a good classic burger. So I joined Tom last night again at Toby’s – he had a plate of fish and chips and I ordered a bacon cheeseburger and lemonade. Since he was a little late for our meeting, and I was a little later, we quickly got down to business.
MY BOOK!
We started out with talking about our presentation next week at the Langley Library – titled “Self-Publishing – From Inspiration to Publication“. We gave this same presentation last October and it went well. If you don’t know about this already, it’s great for authors and folks working or thinking abut becoming authors. Writers have additional options to traditional publishing these days, and one of those is to self-publish – you do all the work to produce your book and have a press manufacture your books for you. Self-publishing is how I brought my recipe book to fruition – and one of the companies that supports this is Amazon.com – they make, sell, and provide me with copies of “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies“. Self-publishing has been growing like gangbusters over the past 20 years; it is an option that authors and to-be authors ought to know abut and consider.
I can write this — NO PROBLEM!!!
Tom then brought up the topic of a writing project he invited me to a number of weeks ago – it was about this time that the juices from my burger started leaking down my hand. As for the ‘writing project’, Tom had asked that I contribute some writing to a fundraiser book about tea. This was an interesting prospect to me since I’m more of a coffee drinker. I drink tea, I just don’t drink much tea. Tea remains a new personal discovery for me – I’m still exploring the flavours and finding the moods when it best suits me. As for this tea book, I’m flattered to be asked and I’m excited to get myself further known as a writer – and I know already that I’ll be writing from the ‘new to tea’ position.
Yep, that’s me — BagpiperDon AKA BiscottiDon
This ‘fundraiser book’ topic was timely since I brought a question for Tom on the subject to our meeting. Since publishing “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” I have been working on two books; one of these is my next recipe book, and the next book to be published is a bagpipe sheet music book that is planned to be a fundraiser for a veteran’s organization of which I am a member. It was at this point that my burger started falling apart in my hands with a distinct immediacy. Nonetheless, Tom helped to clarify that books can be set-up through Amazon and sold for fund-raisers, and gave me a little insight on the process … and, as usual, the day after I have a number of other questions for him around this.
There might be robots!
We went on to talk a bit about a Sci-Fi book that Tom is writing coupled with a series I’ve had in my head for 25+/- years. It was then, despite my best efforts, that my burger was really going to pieces – pickles falling out, onions falling out, juice down my hands … that otherwise tasty burger was making me look like a real SLOB! Tom’s book (actually, he said there is going to be two) could exist in the same universe as my book series and we’ve been talking about working on these cooperatively. The prospect has fed my mind – so much so, that to make his book(s) and my books work together it has given me ideas for a back-story book along with two or more books beyond the original four I had thought of – and I’ve been making notes regardless of other things I’ve been needing to focus on.
As we finished up our meeting, and I finished up the last of my broken burger, we touched on two other topics briefly before Tom had to leave. One of these is that we’re looking beyond our 1-off ‘how to self-publish’ presentations. We talked about taking our presentation ‘on the road’ and off of Whidbey Island – we’ve even talked about growing it to where it is a weekend-long workshop with additional presenters. Then, as I was wiping burger juices off of my hands, I introduced a new idea – doing podcasts to promote our writing. I have the gear and the capabilities, and between Tom and I we have plenty to talk about. Tom liked this idea, so I’m sure we’ll talk about it more soon.
Then, Tom and I wrapped our meeting. As our bill got paid we talked with one of the ladies who’s part of the Toby’s bar staff about our presentation. Tom left for an evening of dance, and I left for an evening of practicing bagpipes for a St. Patrick’s Day parade this weekend. Tom didn’t shake my hand when we departed, and after that burger I don’t blame him. And as for Toby’s – it’s dive-bar charm, tasty if sometimes greasy burgers, and view of beautiful Penn Cove – yeah … I’ll be back.
~ The Loved & Loathed BLACK FRIDAY ~
What Are You Doing?
Are you hitting the Black Friday sales? Hiding out, staying home, and avoiding the chaos? Or are you busying yourself with something else today?
Aside from drinking coffee and enjoying some leftover Thanksgiving PIE, I’m at home working on a few future-book-projects. For the past week+, while the e-book file of my current recipe book is getting reviewed for me, I’ve kept myself busy making progress on a few future book projects. One of these calls for me to create some NEW COOKIE RECIPES — which couldn’t have me More Pleased! Black Friday
I enjoy the creative process of imagining new baked goods and bringing them to fruition — it puts me in my element. Get an idea, figure out how maybe to make it, give it a go, possibly fail, try again, and then … finally … FIND IT! For the book I am chiefly working towards, I want recipes with finished baked goods with serious visual and taste-bud POP. Cookies that delight the eye, that the hand can’t resist picking up, and makes a mouth smile from a promise fulfilled. If a cookie could have the electric ambiance of a rock concert, THAT would be THESE COOKIES! Black Friday
As you know from my first book — Make Your Darn Good Cookies, published last month on Amazon — I gratefully accept recipe submissions. If you have a cookie recipe you’d like to submit for possible publication in one of my future books — and in this case a recipe that to you looks and tastes like ROCK’n’ROLL — please run-don’t-walk to e-mail your submission to me.
Can cookies be Rock’n’Roll? OH YEAH! I think so…
Do you want to do some experimenting, too? Download my FOUR FREE COOKIE RECIPES from my recent book, go get in your kitchen, and have some FUN!
Geoff Castle’s 2013 Celtic Xmas Concert in Anacortes, WA – photo courtesy of Chris Terrell
Lately I focused some of my time on studying how to build oneself in the business of self-publishing books — in other words, marketing.
When it comes to gaining attention, my knowledge-base was born out of the music industry — promoting bands, representing albums, and selling my services as a solo Highland bagpiper for people’s life events ranging from weddings to retirement parties and of course funerals. I applied this DIY gumption and (albeit subtly) my rock ‘n’ roll marketing approach to period of my business when I was producing baked goods, and I have been continuing this into this new endeavour of writing and self-publishing recipe books.
E-Readers
Thanks Aleta!
As you will recall from my 07Nov2017 blog post, an online friend — Aleta — generously offered to send one of her earlier e-readers to me. She wanted to support my plan to turn my first recipe book into an e-reader edition, and it helps to have a device to view your work as you are converting your book file into an e-reader file. As I have been learning about the conversion process I have also started learning about other authors publishing and marketing their e-books. Much to this voracious reader’s joy I have also learned about free e-books! Among these I have found books and articles on marketing. This morning I read a marketing article that enhanced both thoughts and plans I already had…
How to Turn your Book into 18 STREAMS of Income
by Kary Oberbrunner
Kary Oberbrunner … we haven’t met.
Go-getters, movers and shakers, creative people, and artist have at least two things in common — we all have great ideas to work from and we all make mistakes. When we learn from our mistakes or learn about mistakes to avoid and-how we all grow!
Kary Oberbrunner’s article “How to Turn your Book into 18 STREAMS of Income” points out marketing mistakes for writers to avoid (like thinking of books as business cards) along with options and opportunities that they may have not realized. Some of what Mr. Oberbrunner presents in his article I am already familiar with and is parallel to my direction — other elements have shown me new ideas or ways to think differently about things I already know.
His main focus in this article is for writers to turn their books into an income stream. One morsel — section 2 on ebooks, suggesting why most (every?) author should turn their printed book into an e-book — particularly resounded with my plans and I had an AH-HA! moment. The gist of the writing was …
“Ebooks are as close as your smartphone. You can read an ebook while standing on a subway, sitting in a doctor’s office, or waiting in line at the grocery store.”
Relative to my recipe book everything before ‘grocery store’ made sense once I read ‘grocery store‘.
Recipe Books — JOY JOY JOY!
Folks haul their phones everywhere, and often folks with e-readers haul them everywhere, too. They might have 100+ books on their e-reader but they don’t haul 100 books everywhere. Most of the books I have put on my phone duplicate to my e-reader and vice versa.
While I have queried and found that most people prefer to NOT cook or bake working from recipes on an e-screen, it could still be beneficial to have your recipes — or preferably My Recipes (<– I am not above shameless self promotion) — on your phone or e-reader. Folks don’t haul all their recipe books to work where they think about what they are going to make for dinner, and then haul those books to the grocery store where they double check ingredients they are going to buy.
The big AH-HA! I had was…
I had already planned to convert my book to an e-book, but now I am thinking — PLEASE put my recipe book on your electronic device. If you don’t want to work in the kitchen from an electronic screen, I understand — to each their own — but bring it with you when you shop, or when you are going to be thinking about what you’re going to make for your friends or family. Or what you might make for the hottie in the accounting department at work whom you just landed a date with!
Does it make sense for me to convert my recipe book to an e-book?
Earlier today I responded to a Twitter post by E.H. Night — author of “The Four Before Me” and “A Stray, Astray“. She spoke about the weird prioritization that some of us get into. With her endeavours she was considering making her 3rd-priority book her 1-st priority project or leave it where it’s at. I understand this — I DO THIS!!! Then came the question common to creatives of “Is this hell?”
Then, Tom and I wrapped our meeting. As our bill got paid we talked with one of the ladies who’s part of the Toby’s bar staff about our presentation. Tom left for an evening of dance, and I left for an evening of practicing bagpipes for a St. Patrick’s Day parade this weekend. Tom didn’t shake my hand when we departed, and after that burger I don’t blame him. And as for Toby’s – it’s dive-bar charm, tasty if sometimes greasy burgers, and view of beautiful Penn Cove – yeah … I’ll be back.
