Ten years ago this month I made a decision that changed my life: I laced up a pair of old sneakers and went running.
It was the latest in a series of attempt to lose weight. After working as a cubicle jockey and enjoying a constant stream of free sodas and snacks from my employer, I was on the verge of being obese. I hated the way I looked and physically felt. I knew I needed to change my lifestyle or I was going to be miserable for the rest of my life.
At the time I never thought that running would be something I be doing one or even 10 years in the future. I just thought a little exercise would help me shed some weight and, once gone, I’d change my eating habits to keep the pounds from returning. But as I kept at it I discovered that running was something I really enjoyed. More than just exercise, I liked feeling the sun on my face and feeling the road under my feet. I enjoyed running farther, running faster. Every day was a challenge to see if I could improve and do a little bit better.
And yes, the weight came off. Six months later I was 50 pounds lighter. Looking back, however, it wasn’t’ just lacing up the shoes that day that made the difference. It was getting up every morning after that, no matter the weather or how I felt, and tying to run a little farther, a little faster. It was making that decision the second and third mornings and every morning since that helped me not only lose the weight but rebuild my life, fall in love with Marathon Girl, and bond with my kids.
So here’s to a decade of running—something that changed my life in ways I never even imagined when I first put on those worn out sneakers. And here’s to running every day for the rest of my life.
Books, it appears, are following the path of the music industry and going digital. Earlier this week Amazon’s announced that it sold more Kindle books than hardcover books “including hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition.” This announcement caused some to predict the demise of bookstores. While I don’t believe eBooks will be the end bookstores or physical books, I do think the number of printed books and bookstores will be cut in half or more in the next decade as eBooks increase in popularity.
Were I a bookstore owner, I’d be worried about the future of my business and be working on ways to entice people to come into my store even if they love their Kindle and eBooks. So I was a little surprised at the arrogant and condescending tone of The King’s English co-owner and co-founder, Betsy Burton, when asked by a local television station about the increasing popularity of eBooks.
“Book-buyers, real readers, are going to pretty much stick with books, at least for the majority,” [Burton] says. “I think that readers are very passionate about the physical book and care very deeply about it.”
Burton says locally-owned bookstores will have the same role as always, which is controlling content. For example, identifying which books everyone should be reading.
“Real readers” only read physical books? Really? Everyone I know who owns an e-reader is a voracious reader. Belittling them into second class readers isn’t the best way to entice them or others into your bookstore. They care just as much about digital copies as they do physical ones. Burton’s attitude is reminiscent of music industry executives who smugly dismissed the rising popularity of digital music 15 years ago.
Her idea that a bookstore’s job is to “control content” is laughable and a tad scary. Burton may be a fountain of knowledge when it comes to knowing what books are a cut above the rest, but it’s not her job to “control content” especially when the Internet has democratized information and made content controllers like herself increasingly irrelevant. Instead she should be figuring out what’s selling well and different ways to entice people into her store instead of shopping at Barnes & Noble or buying an eBook from Amazon.
For the record, I don’t own a Kindle or other e-reader mostly because I’ve never had the chance to try one for an extended period of time. I can’t justify plunking down $189 unless I’ve tried to read a good portion of a book on one and make sure it’s something that my sometime-sensitive eyes will tolerate. However, I can see many advantages to owning one and have heard nothing but positive things from friends and coworkers who own one. The temptation to buy one and go digital is very, very high.
Both chain and independent bookstores looking to stay in business in an increasing digital book world need to do more than just sell books. They need to become destinations for readers and storytellers where fans can meet and mingle with authors, socialize with other readers who like similar genres, and or offering book clubs a place to talk about their stories. Without a radical transformation in the way they do business, bookstores like The King’s English will suffer the same fate as many music sellers.
And Betsy, as soon as I find a publisher for The Third, I’m more than happy to help your bookstore out by doing a signing, doing joint events with authors, or talking to local books clubs about it at your store. I want to see bookstores like yours to succeed. However, the old bookstore business model that you’re advocating simply doesn’t work in an increasingly digital world.
While on a family vacation in Colorado several weeks ago I found myself in the hotel lobby one night. A man who looked like he’d been on the road all day walked in. During the check-in process he asked if the hotel offered breakfast in the morning.
“We do,” the desk clerk told him, “but not with the rate you booked the room at. If you want, we can upgrade your room for $8.95 and everyone can have breakfast in the morning.”
The man agreed to the rate increase, checked in, and headed up to his room.
Complimentary breakfasts have become standard at most hotels. However, this was the first time I heard a hotel give someone the option of upgrading their room to include breakfast. However, as the experience shows, there’s no such thing as a free breakfast—even if it’s advertised as such.
A lifetime ago, back when the late wife and I were college students, she worked as a desk clerk for a national hotel chain. When her schedule required her to work until midnight, I’d drive over after my job or evening classes ended and sit in the lobby and do homework or read while she checked in and helped guests.
Because the hotel was located right off I-15, a lot of people would stop by late at night and see if the hotel had any vacancies. If the hotel had vacancies, the follow-up question most of them would ask was if the hotel offered a free continental breakfast. The late wife would tell them that it didn’t but pointed out the great restaurant across the parking lot which was known for having some of the best breakfast food in the state. Upon hearing that the hotel didn’t offer a free breakfast, a lot guests turned around and went searching for another hotel.
One night the owner happened to stop by while the late wife was on duty. In the space of five minutes two potential customers came in, asked about the free breakfast and left when they discovered the hotel didn’t offer one. The late wife turned to owner and mentioned that the hotel was losing out on potential customers every night to other hotels that offered a free continental breakfast.
The owner just kind of smiled and shook his head. “What people don’t realize is that to offer the ‘free’ breakfast, I’d have to raise the nightly rates five to ten dollars a room to cover the cost,” he said. “They may go to a different hotel, but they end up paying for that free breakfast though higher room rates.”
Apparently, however, the owner realized it would be better for business if he offered a “free” breakfast to guests. About a year after that incident the lobby was expanded to make room a breakfast area. As soon as it was done, rates went up to cover the cost of the “free” breakfast.
On the way home from a family vacation last weekend our route home took us by that hotel. I glanced over at it as we sped past. The hotel’s marquee advertised a free breakfast. The parking lot was packed.
I wanted to let everyone know how much your blog comments, emails, and other messages have meant since last week’s announcement about The Third. It means a lot to know so many of you are excited to read it and hope that a publisher can soon be found.
Also thanks to all those who gave me publishing world leads. I’m following up on all of them as well as honing a new query letter as well as looking at alternate publishing options. I hope to have good news soon.
In the meantime, if you’re interested in reading the entire manuscript, send me an email and let me know. I’m still figuring out the best way to let people read it (suggestions appreciated) but as soon as that works out, I’ll send everyone on the list an email and let them know how to access it.
As many of you know, The Third has been going through a series of printing and other delays that have continually pushed back the publication date. This has been extremely frustrating for me and all of you who’ve wanted to read it.
Last week the publisher let me know she was unable to meet the publishing deadline in our contract. She gave me the option of having The Third published in the Spring of 2011 or returning my books rights back to me. After much thought and deliberation I opted to retain my rights to my novel and seek publication elsewhere.
Right now the plan is to find an interested literary agent or another publisher. It’s a long, difficult process that I’m not looking forward to but hopefully better things will come from it. Two upsides this time around is that 1) I have a manuscript that’s press ready and 2) know of others who expressed interest in publishing the novel when I signed the contract late last year. If they’re still interested, maybe I’ll have some good news before the end of the summer. That being said, if you know of anyone in the publishing world who might be interested in taking a look at The Thirddrop me an email.
For those who pre-ordered copies of The Third. I’ve been assured by the publisher that you’ll all receive refunds. If you pre-ordered through Amazon or other online book seller, you’ll get a refund through them though I don’t know the process for that or how long it will take.
Finally, I’d like to thank everyone for their patience with the constant delays of this novel. I know many of you were excited to read the book. As I now have all rights to The Third back, email me if you’re still interested in reading it and let’s see if we can arrange a way to get you a copy of the manuscript.
Ransom, Teya, Dragomir, and the rest of the characters in The Third will come to life at some point. Right now, however, I don’t know when that’s going to happen.
Now that the weather’s finally warmed up, Marathon Girl and I have taking the kids on weekly family runs again. In the back of my mind I worry that the kids will tire of them but every week they still enjoy hopping on their bikes or climbing in the stroller for a three or four mile run with Mom and Dad. The oldest two enjoy them so much that they’ve now ride alongside me during my morning—so long as they’re awake and ready to go when I’m heading out the door.
Most mornings, just as I’m finishing my weight routine I hear them running down the stairs to see if I’ve left without them. When they see that I’m home, they let out excited cries of joy, put on their shoes, and head out to the garage to get their bikes.
It’s been a nice having the two boys on their bikes with me as I run. Having them with me helps me focus my thoughts on the family instead of work or other stress inducing subjects. It’s been fun to watch their endurance increase with each passing day. A four mile bike rid is no longer a problem for them.
We don’t talk much during our runs but from the big smiles on their faces as we count off the miles, I can tell they’re having a good time riding their bikes in the cool morning air with dad.
The NFL doesn’t have consolation game. Neither does Major League Baseball. Ditto for the NBA and NHL. The NCAA basketball tournament used to until 1981 when someone wised up and realized that third place games are pointless. I thought it might be a soccer thing but after doing some research I realized that Major League Soccer doesn’t have a third place game either.
From a player’s perspective, I’d think the third place game would be an emotional letdown. You came this close to making it to the biggest game of your life and didn’t do it. Now you have to run around on a field for 90 minutes with a bunch of other people who, like you, also didn’t make it to the big one. What, exactly, are you playing for?
From a fan’s point of view, I’d personally have a hard time rooting for any of my favorite sports teams in a consolation game. You don’t root for your team because you want them to be number three. You want them to be champions so you can beat your chest and brag to everyone about how awesome your team is.
In sports, you’re either a champion or you’re not. It’s that simple.
If anyone can tell me why the World Cup third place game is a big deal (KS, maybe?), let me know. And for those who think the World Cup consolation games serve a purpose, how many of you can tell me who won the third place game in the 1994 World Cup without the help of Google or some other search engine? (As a hint, the winner, loser, and score of that game is probably the only World Cup game I know off the top of my head.)
Last week local talk radio jock, Bob Lonsberry, was fired from his morning gig. According to the radio station, the reason for the firing was ratings. Bob’s show had fallen from the Top 10 to 29 out of 32 stations. Unable to keep his mouth shut, Lonsberry posted a 1,300 word rant on his website detailing the firing and planted the seeds for a conspiracy theory that Mike Lee, a GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate was really behind his dismissal.
Of course, being suspicious is my stock-in-trade, and the timing of my termination and the stand I’ve been taking on the looming senatorial primary and the fact I’ve been opposing a candidate [Mike Lee] who made $600,000 from one of our largest advertisers last year, does make me wonder. Strings get pulled in the real world, and politics is hardball, and our program’s effort helped tip the nominating convention, so it’s not impossible that I lost my job in Salt Lake so that somebody else [Mike Lee] could get a job in Washington.
As a talk, sports, and news radio connoisseur and having had a short-lived run in radio business, the one thing I do know about the medium is that it’s like any other business: it’s all about making the station money. You can put on an entertaining show every day but if no one’s listening, then your show gets pulled. It’s as simple as that. As long as you’re the station’s making a profit, they’ll keep you on the air forever no matter how many politicians you piss off.
Years ago I listened to Lonsberry’s program on my way to work but stopped after he spent a good portion of my drive to work talking about inane subjects with his son, Lee, and the traffic reporter, Paige Bradford. It was like listening in on a phone conversation between friends catching up on each other’s lives. It wasn’t even close to entertaining radio. It was boring. Apparently a lot of other people felt the same way.
Sadly, Lonsberry’s conspiracy has found legs. The (Provo) Daily Herald reports that Tim Bridgewater supporters are jumping on the conspiracy theory bandwagon that ratings had nothing to do with Lonsberry’s dismissal. Lonsberry is now sending out robo calls on behalf of the Bridgewater campaing furthing the conspiracy talk. I received one on Friday. Like all conspiracy theories, however, not a shred of proof is offered to back this up. Instead a few events are strung together on the hopes, fears, and emotions of their audience.
If Lonsberry really wants to get back into radio, he needs to shut up and take a lesson from Armando Galarraga about how to handle setbacks with class. You lick your wounds, move on, and live to fight another day. Instead of weaving intricate conspiracy theories to assuage his bruised ego, Lonseberry would be better off to figuring out his next career move. Ten years is a long time to be in the radio business—especially on one station. If his show was as popular as he claimed, other radio stations might come calling. However, the more he rants about his conspiracy theory, the less attractive he becomes as a radio personality and a human being.
The launch of The Third has once again been delayed. As of now it doesn’t have a scheduled release date. For those who have pre-ordered or have been looking forward to reading it, I’m apologize. I was told that the July launch was solid only to have it be pushed back again. I wish it was something I had more control over but the release date is in the hands of my publisher. I’ll let you know as soon as I have some good news.
For those who haven’t read it, I’ve posed the first four chapters of The Third are now available in PDF format. You can download it here.
Thanks for your support. If you have any questions, send me an email.
I’m not much of a soccer fan but enjoy it when the World Cup rolls around every four years mostly because it’s fun to watch many of my coworkers work get into it.
Most of my coworkers have lived in or are from different countries and tend root for those countries. Several cubes around the office are overflowing with the flags of Mexico, Brazil, England, South Korea and other competing teams. (The coworker on my right is a big Germany fan—albeit it without the insanely decorated cube.) Today I even saw few guys wearing soccer jerseys over their regular work attire.
I’d be more included to join the party if Bulgaria was part of the action but, alas, they couldn’t get out of their European qualifying group. I would have been thrilled if they could have pulled off that upset but wasn’t expecting it. The one thing I learned while living in Sofia is that Bulgaria is the Detroit Tigers of soccer. Occasionally they do well but most of the time their fans are resigned to the fact that their soccer team is destined for mediocrity.
The one oddity is that with all the World Cup hoopla at work, no one seems to be rooting for the United States. I think my soccer-crazed coworkers would like to see the United States do well in the tournament (as would I) and would probably root for the US after their other team is eliminated, but their soccer hearts are with other countries.
It does make wonder that if so many coworkers weren’t born or had lived overseas, if anyone at work would even care that the World Cup was going on. I doubt cubes would be decorated with red, white, and blue or people would be wearing US soccer jerseys to work. I know I wouldn’t care half as much (if at all) if I hadn’t lived overseas and been exposed to how seriously the rest of the world takes the sport.
But during this World Cup I’ll put in a half-hearted effort to keep an eye on the US team and hope that Bulgaria qualifies for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Unless you’re self publishing, the cover is one of the few things out of the writer’s control of the final product. Bad covers can make a good book unappealing. That’s why any publisher will contract with or employ talented graphic designers to make their books pop off the shelves. Whoever did the covers on these blogs should be fired.
Just a few bad book covers you can find at that blog are the following.
You can see more bad covers here. Happy looking (or not).
Congratulations to Marathon Girl who completed her fastest marathon time in five years, finishing in a Boston Marathon qualifying time of approximately 3:28.13. I say approximately because that’s what her stopwatch read said when she crossed the finish line. Her official race time, however, isn’t posted on the official race result site for some reason.
We’re contacting them to see what happened. Hopefully we can figure out why her race time wasn’t posted along with everyone else. Marathon Girl wants to run Boston and even though she could run another marathon and quality without too much difficulty, she does want her race time to count in case she’s unable to run another marathon before Boston.
That aside, it was great to cheer Marathon Girl on as she crossed the finish line and to see the smile on her face after she realized how fast she was running again. She trained hard for this marathon and it was nice to see all of her hard work pay off.
Update: The went through the data and found Marathon Girl’s time. It’s officially 3:28:49.2 or about 7:58 per mile! Updated results here.
The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating article on how ebooks and other book-publishing technology are shaking up the business model traditional book publishers.
Amazon has taken an early lead, providing service tools for authors to self publish and creating an imprint last year to publish promising authors in print and online.
This month, Amazon is upping the ante, increasing the amount it pays authors to 70% of revenue, from 35%, for e-books priced from $2.99 to $9.99. A self-published author whose e-book lists for $9.99 on Amazon’s Kindle e-bookstore will receive about $6.99 for each book sold. The author would net $1.75 on a similar new e-book sale by most major publishers.
The new formula makes digital self-publishing more lucrative for authors. “Some people will be tempted by the 70% royalty at Amazon,” [Richard] Nash says. “If they already have a loyal fan base, will they want 70% of $100,000 or 15% of $200,000 for a hardcover?”
Digital self-publishing, or “vanity” publishing, is creating a powerful new niche in books. WSJ’s Geoffrey Fowler joins the Digits show to discuss how this is threatening the traditional book industry.
Traditional book-industry players and tech companies are jumping on the digital self-publishing bandwagon. Apple last week announced a digital self-publishing program for its iPad giving 70% of revenue to authors, similar to Amazon’s formula. Last month, Barnes & Noble also announced a service called PubIt!, allowing authors to post and sell e-books online.
While traditional publishers aren’t going the way of newspapers any time soon (though they’re slowly heading that direction), the shift to digital publishing is going to be a boon for talented writers. Published authors with an established fan base can sell their books for less than traditional publishers while making more money per book. New authors in the process build a fan base have another way to market manuscripts that aren’t under contract.
Talented unpublished authors can get around the often lengthy and cumbersome process of finding an agent and working with a publisher. If they have a compelling story to tell, they can immediately start selling books and building a fan base.
Of course not every self-published book will do well. As the WSJ article notes, self published books are generally poorly written and lack an editor’s touch. But in the new publishing paradigm, talented writers can hire editors to go over the book to improve the story and writing.
It’s also makes it easy for authors to overcome the second problem self-published books face: crappy covers. We’ve all be told never to judge a book by its cover, yet we do it all the time. If someone’s going to take a self-published book seriously, it needs a cover that’s going to make people want to pick it up or, with ebooks, at least read the first chapter or two. (And for those who say they never judge books by their covers, would you even consider reading a book with covers like these? Be honest!) Thankfully, there are plenty of talented graphic designers out there who can create a compelling cover for a couple hundred bucks. You have a professional look and copy and you’ve overcome two big obstacles that self published writer and books encounter.
Going the self-published route isn’t the best option for everyone right now. But it’s become a more viable business model for talented writers. That being said, I’ll be testing these new self publishing waters later this summer with a short, niche book of my own.
Last week a blown call by umpire Jim Joyce cost the Detroit Tigers Armando Galarraga a perfect game—one of the rarest feats in baseball. (See video above.)
As a lifelong Tigers fan, I’m used to seeing my team end up on the wrong side of history. (Two other Tiger pitchers have lost perfect games with two outs in the ninth.) But I have to admire the way Galarraga and the Tigers handled the situation.
There could have been long-winded, obscenity-filled rants at the post-game press conference, an appeal to Major League Baseball to overturn the decision, and diatribes about the need for instant replay in baseball to make the games “fair.”
But there wasn’t any of that. At least not from Galarraga and the Tigers organization.
After the game Joyce watched the replay and admitted his mistake and apologized to Galarraga. Galarraga accepted his apology and shook his hand. The next night Galarraga was treated to a standing ovation. Joyce umpired from behind the plate. The Tigers won. Life went on.
In a world full of people who rant and rave when life doesn’t turn out the way they want it to, Galarraga’s reaction was very refreshing.
We live in a harsh, unforgiving world. Life is rarely fair. We work hard and devote our lives to building up families, businesses, and dreams only to “watch the things you gave your life to broken” by our own mistakes or the actions of others. What’s important is how we react to life’s setbacks. Do we complain and give up on our goals or shrug off the disappointment and “stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools”?
Armando Galarraga may have been robbed of his place in baseball’s history books, but his reaction to a very disappointing setback will always make him a class act in my book.
