Hello, friends!
Me: Speed blogging.
When: Now.
Why: Wife off work entire forthcoming week. Whoo-hoo! Visiting local wineries today to buy Thanksgiving wine. She now in shower. Me now on/in bed, BLOGGING AT WARP SPEED!
Do I enjoy going to winery tastings? No. Nein. Nyet.
Why not: Weird business model: Stand; sip; get stared at; feel pressure to buy. Plus, prodigious pretentious potential powerful put-off.
Wife, though, LOVES whole atmosphere of wineries. May be burgeoning wino. Must monitor.
Thanksgiving! Always a fave holiday of ours! So much to be thankful for. First: Perfect religion. Second: Love of good woman. Third: I’m not yet dead. List goes on. Except actually that’s about it. Sweet!
Ah, autumn. It was 87 degrees here yesterday. Our local leaves turn orange and red in the fall cuz they’re frying in the sun. No: It’s autumn/winter here, for sure. Can tell by eerie darkish light So Cal gets this time of year. Dig it.
Wife out of shower! Must rouse self!
But before I do: A sincere thanks to those who’ve joined by Facebook Fan Page. I have no platform—no TV/radio show, no mega-church I head, no national ministry to help me sell books. The web is my platform. Tough to impress publishers with that. But every person who joins my fan page is one more indication to a book publisher that I might be someone on whom they should take a chance. So THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I look forward to walking out onto the stage you’re so graciously helping me build.
All right! Rouse time! Out of my bed and off I go, to act like I know a merlot from my toe.
Just out: UNFAIR: Why the “Christian” View of Gays Doesn’t Work (softcover edition; Kindle edition; NookBook edition). Like/join my Facebook page. Join Unfundamentalist Christians.
![John Shore on The Huffington Post](http://johnshore.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/huffpost.jpg?w=120 "John Shore on The Huffington Post\")
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I feel both entertained, yet oddly exhausted. Happy Thanksgiving!
I’ve written quite a bit about this, some of which you can find here:
http://johnshore.com/2008/01/06/how-to-make-a-living-writing/
John & Susan; just two cents more. If you want to get noticed in today’s publishing world, you’ve got to have a web presence that connects you with your “fans”. If you look at people like Jonathan Coulton, who wouldn’t be as big of a musician as he is today if he hadn’t given his music away, done the facebook thing, twitter etc. You’ve got to meet your audience where they live. If you open up a lemonade stand, don’t expect any takers if you hide it behind a hedge in your front yard.
Susan: I appreciate your input, but you can trust that if there's ONE thing in this world I know about, it's how publishing works. But yeah, of course, as you say: if a house BOUNCES your book, sending them to your facebook page as a rebuttal to that rejection would be … insanely counterproductive. But for reasons too numerous to go into here, you'd better believe publishers care if you've got a Facebook fan base. It's huge.
I need to disagree with about the Facebook fan club thing, John. Good writing sells books to publishers – good writing, and God's perfect timing. If a publisher doesn't like your writing, presenting a list of people who disagree with their assessment is annoying at best, and severely career-limiting at worst.
hope you have a great week!!!
Wow. These comments were fun to read. Great stuff. The other day a friend told me that he thought my readers left the most readable comments of any blog he knew. It' so true! Anyway, awesome. (Oh, Des: I meant that I think Christianity is perfect.)
skerrib; you're right, why don't wineries have non alcoholic stuff to try? Why not make good ole grape juice?
John, what does Perfect Religion mean?
I have never acquired the taste for any alcohol. So, while I think wine tasting and touring wineries sounds fun…to me it would taste like paint thinner. Bleh.
I'm really into the Martinelli's though…the teetotalers love me. =)
That's how we have it here, I love wineries and wine and Husband feels exactly like you! Oh that was so funny, thanks!
I hate wine conventions, they always act like they know so much. What exactly does a woody nose but a floral palette mean anyway?? Do they even know?? Or does someone say something and everyone rushes to agree least they look stupid?? Sounds like emperor's new clothes syndrome to me
Part of my BA experience in 1976 caused me to give up vino for a long time. A few years ago I got a bit brave and started having a glass occasionally with a meal.. sometimes even drink a beer.
Hope your journey was a sweet (or dry) one John!
Bob the Fan