Anne R. Allen on Blogging
There were so many things I wanted to post about last week and didn't get a chance, and this is one of them. Anne R. Allen is a blogger and author I've posted about before. And now she's giving advice about blogging that I thought was interesting. She is, from what I've seen, the consummate blogger.
If you are interested in trad publishing, this quote below is good advice. In full disclosure, I have not followed most of these blogs in a while. However, I still do follow one of them (Bransford's) and I usually find something worthwhile. The only reason I don't follow the others is because I don't need to know anything more about querying. But if you don't know anything about querying, I suggest you find blogs like these to learn about it. It's a skill that will follow you throughout your publishing career, especially when it comes to writing your own book descriptions for your published works. It's important to "hook" an agent with a good query. It's 1000 times more important to "hook" readers with your book description. And that book description not only has to hook the reader, but also be accurate. If not, you will pay a price with reviewers.
If you hope for a traditional publishing career, you should also be regularly visiting agents' blogs like Janet Reid's and Kristen Nelson's and former agent Nathan Bransford's to find out how the traditional publishing process works. You can also interact with other writers who comment on the blog.
This is important, too.
Your blog can spin a good yarn, make people laugh, provide information, or all three, as long as you put it in your own honest, unique voice and you’re not too whiny or preachy. (Although experts generally advise against fictional yarns. More on that below.)
In other words, keep it real and don't screw around. I've seen what has happened to some authors who created fake blogs and it wasn't pretty. I actually once made the mistake of starting an author blog with a pen name and I started such a category five shitstorm without even realizing it I shuttered the blog after two weeks and never returned to it. It freaked me out, and that's not easy to do.
The Internet can be a nice place, but also a mean place, and if something doesn't add up on your blog, there will always be someone who can't wait to expose you, even if you are harmless. I've always prided myself on the fact that I can stand behind everything I publish here on this blog, and I've never had any regrets. It also gives you leverage and freedom, not to mention the ability to sleep well at night.
The only thing I can add to this is that you want to stick with it. You don't have to blog every day. But you want to keep some kind of consistency going. As a blog reader, nothing bothers me more than going to a blog and seeing the blogger hasn't posted anything for over a month. What happens is people lose interest and they don't come back.
Beekman Mortgage Lifter
I've posted about "The Beekman Boys" before a few times. I'm on their mailing list and I've been following their mortgage lifter plan. (I think Tony and I need one of those mortgage lifter plans, too. Maybe we could raise pachysandra; we have two acres of it here.) In any event, this is what they are doing now.
From my inbox:
The woman who helps us with our book-keeping (math is not our strong suit,) recently got an email from the company who makes accounting software, Intuit. Apparently Intuit is hosting a contest in which they will pay for a 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl for one lucky small business.
We immediately thought of our "Mortgage Lifter" sauces. As you know, 25% of the profits from all "Mortgage Lifter" products go towards helping struggling small farms. Our goal is to get "Mortgage Lifter" products into every major supermarket.
How cool would it be to have a commercial all about helping small farms in the freakin' Super Bowl?! And think of the money that would be raised for farmers!
So, to get through this first phase of the contest, we need your vote. Please go to this link to our entry, scroll a bit down, and hit the "Vote" Button.
There are also a few other things of interest going on at Beekman.
The one hour video special about our wedding will be available for downloading on Amazon on September 21st! Until then, our friends at the production company are releasing one teaser video each week- with PolkaSpot herself as narrator!
You can check that out here. And here.
The Bluest Eye Called Porn
You know how I'm always talking about how there's no set definition of porn, even though some people decide to define porn on their own terms all the time. Well, I think this is the perfect example of that. They are now calling Toni Morrison's classic novel, The Bluest Eye, porn. And, the entire post to which I'm linking has put a spin on something serious and made it sound frivolous and wrong. I've read The Bluest Eye multiple times, at various points in my life, and I have never once considered this book to be porn or obscene. In fact, it's one of the most important books I think I've ever read in my life. It changed me, and when a book can change you there's something more to it than just words and sentences on a page.
The Bluest Eye is the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, who prays every day for beauty: for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to fit in. As her life begins to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife, such as being raped by her father and beaten by her mother, she finally appeals to Soaphead Church, a pedophile, to help her attain blue eyes. After being impregnated by her father, she loses her baby and ultimately loses her mind.
Read more at http://politichicks.tv/column/warning-graphic-common-core-approved-child-pornography/#qh4T64JIkUhQiMmi.99
The reason this all came about is because The Bluest Eye is on a list for 11th graders. That's a junior in high school.
When the blogger says this I cringe when I read it.
I understand that after reading those excerpts a lot of you may be angry that this is approved for reading in any school. I could probably end the article here.
Either she hasn't read the book in full, has no empathy or understanding of the cultural aspects handled in the novel, or she just wanted to put a spin on something controversial to get attention.
If you have not read The Bluest Eye, I highly recommend you go out and find a copy. It is not porn.
Saturday 24 August 2013
Anne R. Allen on Blogging; Beekman Mortage Lifter; The Bluest Eye Called Porn
Posted on 17:47 by Unknown
Posted in Anne R. Allen, Beekman mortgage lifter, blogging tips, porn, the bluest eye, Toni Morrison
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