Outskirts Press Presents the Highly Effective Habits of 5 Successful Authors:
How They Beat the Self-Publishing Odds, and How You Can, Too!
OUTSKIRTS PRESS
PUBLISHED BY: OUTSKIRTS PRESS at Smashwords
Copyright © 2010 by OUTSKIRTS PRESS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction by Brent Sampson
5 Steps to Self-Publishing Success, or How You Can Earn $30,000 a Month through POD Publishing
How I Found Self-Publishing Success, and How You Can, Too
How This Stay-at-Home Mom Became an Amazon.com Best-Selling Author
3 Big Mistakes You Can Make with Author Collaborations and How to Correct Them
Top 4 Out-of-the-Box Book Marketing Tricks to Promote Your Self-Published Book
How Self-Publishing Saved My Life
When I contacted the five authors highlighted here and asked if they were interested in being featured in a new book about self-publishing success, every one of them expressed the same level of excitement and collaborative spirit. Ms. Sally Shields sent an article the same day; Ms. Charlotte Endorf filled my in-box with words and photographs; Mr. Ronnie Lee humbled me with his heartfelt response.
Each of these authors took different paths toward self-publishing success. In their own words they will share their respective habits and their private lives within the following pages. While collaborating with them, what I found most interesting were the traits they share: a positive attitude, an honest interest in helping others, and an unflinching desire to share their work and their words with the world.
You see, an author’s marketing efforts never end. That is perhaps the single most important habit they have in common.
For instance, when Sally Shields sent me her article, she also attached a screenshot of her new book, The Collaborator Rules, on Amazon with a No. 1 Amazon sales rank in both the Organizational Learning and Management & Leadership categories.
When Gang Chen sent me his article, he also included information about an entire series of books he has planned, many of which he hasn’t even published yet. But he wanted me to know about all of them.
Ronnie Lee provided me with so much content, it was difficult to narrow it down. Perhaps that is what happens when you are one of the most prolific published authors in the world. Since 2006 he has published over 5,500 pages (and counting). Simply amazing.
When Andrew Rafkin and I corresponded, the communication was split evenly between his contribution to this book and his recent attendance at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, where he stopped by the Outskirts Press booth to market and sell his latest book, Mexican Madness.
Charlotte Endorf ’s contribution included photographs, and she was already prepared with authorization-to-publish forms. It’s great dealing with a professional. Plus, she asked about the publication date of this book because she was already planning on how she would participate in its marketing. She understood that the success of this book would translate to increased exposure for her books. That is the very definition of progressive planning.
What habits do these authors share? They never stop promoting and they never stop writing. Andrew has published four books thus far with Outskirts Press. Sally has published two. Charlotte has published six, Gang Chen five, and Ronnie Lee eight. And they plan to write and publish many more. Sure, they all love Outskirts Press, and they all have very nice things to say, but that’s not the point. The point is that by being positive, prolific, and generous toward others, opportunities present themselves. It is that concept, and the warm messages in the following pages, that I hope you find inspirational and motivating as you pursue your own writing and publishing goals.
Never forget: a writer writes. It is the most highly effective habit of any successful author, self-published or otherwise. If you’re not writing or rewriting the book itself, you may be writing an article to promote the book, or you may be writing an e-book to sell along with the book. Or, who knows... maybe someday you may even be asked to contribute a chapter to a book about your success.
What a great reason to write!
And with that, let’s get to this tale of five authors, in their own words...
Brent Sampson,
President and CEO
Outskirts Press, Inc.
www.outskirtspress.com
May, 2010
BOOKS BY GANG CHEN
Planting Design Illustrated
www.outskirtspress.com/plantingdesignillustrated
Architectural Practices Simplified
www.outskirtspress.com/architecturalpracticesimplified
LEED AP Exam Guide
www.outskirtspress.com/examguide
LEED GA Exam Guide
www.outskirtspress.com/leedgaexamguide
LEED BD&C Exam Guide
www.outskirtspress.com/LEED-BDC
5 Steps to Self-Publishing Success, or How You Can Earn $30,000 a Month through POD Publishing
by Gang Chen
The economy was not so bad when I started thinking about publishing my first book, Planting Design Illustrated. I had received some interest from traditional publishers but they wanted to make quite a lot of changes and add a co-author. These alterations would have made me dislike my own book! So, I turned to self-publishing. At the time, making a lot of money was not at the top of my priorities. I simply wanted to publish my own book in my own way.
Things change. Sure, I still want to have all the control and keep all my rights, but the royalty checks have a way of becoming more important, especially with the current economic climate. I self-published my second book, LEED AP Exam Guide, with Outskirts Press in September of 2008. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, is the most important trend in development and is revolutionizing the construction industry. My book had the benefit of being published at the right time, at the right price. In one month (January 2009), I earned over $30,000 in royalties ($31,207.68, to be precise). I earned even more in February.
These are the steps I followed:
1. Write a valuable book
This step is easily overlooked, but it is No. 1 on this list for a reason. Your book must provide some sort of value or benefit for the reader. In my case, my books are both non-fiction, and fairly niche. I earn the lion’s share of my royalties from my LEED AP Exam Guide, which provides a mock exam, study guides, and sample questions for the LEED AP Exam, required to obtain one’s title of LEED AP (Accredited Professional). Did I say it was niche? It is—and for people seeking the information contained in my book, it is also invaluable.
I don’t think I’m saying anything revolutionary when I say that publishing non-fiction is an easier proposition on the self-publishing front than fiction. But even fiction books are valuable if they provide the type of escape your reader is seeking. Whether you write non-fiction, fiction, poetry, or something else entirely, the book must deliver on its promise. You might do everything else on this list, and you might even find some short-lived success, but ultimately the success of your book comes down to the strength of your book and the marketing efforts you put forth.
2. Identify your target audience
Who is your reader? If your answer is “everybody,” you need to reevaluate your goals and recalibrate your expectations. Even the best-selling book of all time appeals to less than one-fifth of the planet’s population. You know the book? The Bible. No book is meant for everybody. In fact, perhaps counterintuitively, the smaller your audience, the more success you will find. Look at my books: Planting Design Illustrated and LEED AP Exam. That small, target audience is precisely the reason my books are well known in the proper circles. Do I care that someone who reads Harry Potter has never heard of me? No. Is it incredibly important to me that students and professionals in the field of green building design and construction have heard of me? Yes.
Who do you think is easier to find and market to: a person who reads Harry Potter, or a student/professional in the field of green building design and construction? Exactly. The smaller your pond, the bigger your fish. Or something like that.
3. Recognize the type of book you are publishing
You should be realistic about the type of book you are writing, and the type of publishing you are doing. If you are self-publishing your book (regardless of whether you are doing it yourself or through a POD company, as I did), don’t try to force your book to be something that it’s not. Your book is not a mass-market paperback like those you find in a grocery store. Nor is it the latest hardback, discounted 80 percent, like those you find at Costco. As a self-publishing author, both of those scenarios are too risky, and to be frank, you probably don’t possess the means to take on that kind of risk. So why try? Self-publishing authors publish trade paperback and hardback books that can be available regionally (perhaps), locally (probably), and online (definitely).
4. Price your book appropriately
No, this does not mean you should simply make your book as affordable as possible. It means you should do market research to determine the prices of similar books in your category. Look on Amazon.com for similar books (you’ll need to be aware of these books anyway, when it comes to marketing yours). Examine their page counts and price points. Make an honest assessment of your book in relation to the other books in your category. Does your content justify a higher price? Does your page count suggest a lower price? Your method of publishing should be considered but should not play a definitive role in the price of your book—the marketplace should. It doesn’t matter where you published your book if no one is buying it (just as it doesn’t matter where you published your book if many people are buying it!). Just be sure you are comparing apples to apples (see No. 3 above).
5. Publish your book wisely
My main consideration when choosing a publisher was not how much my royalties were going to be. That only became important to me after the book was published. But they say hindsight is twenty-twenty, so I’m going to share with you one of the main reasons my royalties are so high. The publisher I chose, Outskirts Press, pays me 100 percent of the profits of the book and lets me set my own pricing. A competitor, iUniverse, pays 20 percent of the profit. Xlibris pays 10 percent of the retail price. But by paying 100 percent of the profit, Outskirts Press allowed me to set the retail price to whatever I wanted, and now I earn the entire benefit of increasing my price.
Here’s another way to look at it: If I had published my same exact book with iUniverse at the same exact retail price, instead of earning $31,207.68 in January I would have earned approximately $5,300. If I had published my same book with Xlibris, I would have earned approximately $4,600. Yes, without knowing any better, I would have still considered myself a successfully self-published author, but probably not enough to write this article.
How I Found Self-Publishing Success, and How You Can, Too
by Gang Chen
1. Find a niche and fill it
There is currently no official book on the LEED Green Associate Exam, and most of the existing books on LEED and LEED AP are too expensive and too complicated to be practical or helpful. The guides in my LEED Exam Guides Series fill in the blanks, demystify LEED, and uncover the tips, codes, and jargon for LEED as well as the true meaning of “going green.” They set up a solid foundation and fundamental framework of LEED.
Each book in the LEED Exam Guides Series covers every aspect of one or more specific LEED rating system(s) in plain and concise language. They are indispensable books for everyone—administrators; developers; contractors; architects; landscape architects; civil, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers; interns; drafters; designers; and other design professionals.
In my case, I asked why my LEED Exam Guides Series was needed. A number of books are available that you can use to prepare for the LEED exams. The U.S. Green Building Council Reference Guides, for instance, are comprehensive, but perhaps too comprehensive as they give too much information. The LEED 2009 Reference Guide for Green Building Design and Construction (BD&C), for example, has about seven hundred oversized pages. Many of the calculations in the books are too detailed for the exam. They are also expensive. At approximately $200 each, many people may not buy them for their personal use, but rather will seek to share an office copy.
This was a niche I could fill with my own LEED Exam Guide series.
2. Do your research and understand your market’s need
It is good to read a reference guide from cover to cover if you have the time. The problem is that few people have time to read a whole reference guide. Even if one were to read the whole guide, it is difficult to remember all the important issues to pass the LEED exam. Rereading the material several times is necessary to remember it all. The solution? My guidebooks!
Reading a reference guide from cover to cover without a guidebook is a difficult and inefficient way of preparing for the LEED exams because you do not know what USGBC and the Green Building Certification Institute are looking for in the exam. But each book in my LEED Exam Guides Series fills in the blanks to become a valuable, reliable source. I knew what the market needed; I just had to deliver.
3. Identify the benefits of your book(s)
By identifying the benefits of your book you are better prepared to effectively and efficiently market them. Customers only care about one thing – how your book will help them. If you can answer that question before they ask it, they’re much more likely to make a purchase.
In my case, I made a list of benefits of my LEED Exam Guide Series:
•They are exam-oriented and more effective than the USGBC reference guides
•They will give you more information for your money
•They are better than most, if not all, other third-party books
•They give you comprehensive study materials, sample questions and answers, mock exams and answers, and critical information on building LEED certification and going green
•They are comprehensive yet concise
•They are small and easy to carry around
•You can read them whenever you have a few extra minutes
4. Develop a long term game plan
With my niche identified, my research conducted, and my benefits listed, I knew the world needed a series of LEED Exam guides. The next step was planning the series, right down to the titles and sub-titles. Don’t just keep the information in your head. Write it down and somehow make yourself accountable to deliver on it.
For example, the next books in my LEED Exam Guides Series are currently in production. One book will eventually be produced for each of the LEED exams. The series includes:
LEED AP Exam Guide: Study Materials, Sample Questions, Mock Exam, Building LEED Certification (LEED-NC) and Going Green
LEED GA Exam Guide: A Must-Have for the LEED Green Associate Exam: Comprehensive Study Materials, Sample Questions, Mock Exam, Green Building LEED Certification, and Sustainability (LEED v3.0)
LEED BD&C Exam Guide: A Must-Have for the LEED AP BD+C Exam: Comprehensive Study Materials, Sample Questions, Mock Exam, Green Building Design and Construction, LEED Certification, and Sustainability (LEED v3.0)
LEED ID&C Exam Guide: A Must-Have for the LEED AP ID+C Exam: Comprehensive Study Materials, Sample Questions, Mock Exam, Green Interior Design and Construction, LEED Certification, and Sustainability (Available in early 2010)
LEED O&M Exam Guide: A Must-Have for the LEED AP O+M Exam: Comprehensive Study Materials, Sample Questions, Mock Exam, Green Building Operations and Maintenance, LEED Certification, and Sustainability (LEED v3.0)
LEED Homes Exam Guide: A Must-Have for the LEED AP+ Homes Exam: Comprehensive Study Materials, Sample Questions, Mock Exam, Green Building LEED Certification, and Sustainability
LEED ND Exam Guide: A Must-Have for the LEED AP+ Neighborhood Development Exam: Comprehensive Study Materials, Sample Questions, Mock Exam, Green Building LEED Certification, and Sustainability
LEED GA Mock Exams: A Must-Have for the LEED Green Associate Exam: A Companion to LEED GA Exam Guide: Questions, Answers and Explanations, Green Building LEED Certification, and Sustainability
5. Find a long term publishing partner
I tried to publish my first book, Planting Design Illustrated, with the conventional publishers. I contacted hundreds of them and I did get a book deal with one major publisher. Halfway through the publication process, the major publisher requested substantial revisions to my manuscript and suggested adding a co-author to my book. If I were to make those revisions, I would not like the book myself and I would rather not publish it. I eventually cancelled the contract with the major publisher and decided to publish the book myself.
So I compared various publishing options, and decided to go with Outskirts Press. The author representative and other people at Outskirts Press were hard-working and very responsive. They really know what they are doing. They walked me through the publication process step by step and made it very easy. After years of trying, I finally got my book published through the great service of Outskirts Press.
Their services do not end after the book is published. They continue to provide excellent marketing advice. Since its release, Planting Design Illustrated has consistently placed as No. 1 or No. 2 on Amazon’s list of best-selling books in the Planting Design category.
SALLY SHIELDS
BOOKS BY SALLY SHIELDS
The
Daughter-in-Law Rules: 101 Surefire Ways to Make Friends with Your
Mother-in-Law!
www.outskirtspress.com/theDILRules
The Collaborator Rules: 101 Surefire Ways to Stay Friends with Your Co-Author!
www.outskirtspress.com/TheCollaboratorRules
How This Stay-at-Home Mom Became an Amazon.com Best-Selling Author
by Sally Shields
Hi, I’m Sally Shields, author of the No. 1 Amazon.com bestseller, The Daughter-in-Law Rules: 101 Surefire Ways to Make Friends with Your Mother-In-Law! So much has happened lately it’s hard to believe that only recently I was a struggling first-time author. I didn’t have a clue about writing a book, much less getting it published!
Here is my personal story:
Like most women, I got married and got a mother-in-law. But after a couple of years, I was left scratching my head, thinking, “Where is the manual for this?!”
I wrote to the ladies who authored the best-selling book The Rules, and told them that because they helped all these women meet and marry the men of their dreams, they needed to provide some advice on how to get along with the other women in their men’s lives—their moms!
These two authors told me it was the best idea they’d ever heard. I honestly just wanted some advice on the topic!
“You should write it,” they said.
At first I thought they were crazy; the last thing I’d written was a term paper in high school English class! But, the gears started turning in my mind. So I started to jot down all the troublesome incidents that would pop into my head in regards to my MIL, and came up with a rule and a solution to deal with each and every one. When I put a few of these rules into practice (and saw that they actually worked) I thought maybe I could help save other young wives years of needless contention!
But, what about getting published? It didn’t seem feasible from all the stories I’d heard about how impossible it was, and I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. But, I decided to try anyway. I went the traditional route, and contacted over a hundred literary agents. As the process evolved, I realized just how hard it really was. I eventually garnered the interest of a New York literary agent through a well-crafted query letter, and within a few weeks, I was signed. But soon I learned that a proposal was required, which, I found out, was even more difficult than writing a book in the first place! I had to do market research and statistical comparisons. I was jumping through hoops, and it was a process that I never want to repeat! Nevertheless, I got over that hurdle and finally, after several rounds of editing said proposal, the agent began to submit my manuscript.
Months went by. Fifteen rejection letters later, I slowly realized that even if I were lucky enough to get a publishing deal, it would require signing over my rights and editorial control, and allowing the agency and publisher to decide on my book cover, interior layout, formatting, pricing, and release dates—all of which could take between one and two years, maybe more. And the publishing company would retain more than 90 percent of my book sale revenue.
I contacted an author in my genre who was “lucky” enough to be signed to a rather well-known traditional publisher and asked about her experience. She shared that she handed over her rights and was offered a meager $3,000 advance, which was split with a co-author. She was promised a 10 percent-of-wholesale royalty rate. She was required to do her own publicity, and spent mucho bucks hiring a public relations firm. Ultimately, the company sold 20,000 copies of her book but 15,000 of them were returned—and destroyed!
The book was taken off the publisher’s roster, and shelved forever. She then had to hire an expensive attorney to reclaim the rights to her own book, which she was told could take several years.
At that point, I decided to investigate opting out of my contract. I thought I’d rather self-publish than go through all of that!
One day, I walked into a Barnes & Noble and just for fun asked if they ever carried self-published books. The person directed me to their Web site, where I saw an offer for a free guide from Outskirts Press. Little did I know that I had just walked into a gold mine—won the lottery, so to speak, the very first time I bought a ticket. I was so lucky!
Not only could I be in charge of my own pricing, interior, book design, and distribution discount, but I could also order authors copies at a deep discount, get a free Web page, and be published within twelve to sixteen weeks—all for under $1,000. And so, I ended up self-publishing with Outskirts Press. And what a thrill to hold my book in my hands for the first time!
My book came out looking exactly the way I wanted. The cover designer took my ideas and created something that even exceeded my expectations. It was placed with a wholesaler and made available though online outlets such as Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com.
My mom was so excited, and bought a few copies. So did my aunt in California, as well as my best friend from high school. The nice lady next door ordered a copy of my book for her daughter’s wedding shower.
All very nice. But now what?
I soon found out how difficult it is to get a self-published book accepted by a traditional bookstore without knowing what you’re doing. But where else do people go to buy books? I wrote the book so that I could deliver a message to the world, not so that it would sit unnoticed in some computer file in the sky! Through a friend, I heard about a course that taught authors how to get free publicity on their own through zero- and low-cost strategies. This was a very attractive idea since hiring a PR firm can cost up to $8,000 a month! In this class, I learned that nothing can help you build credibility and increase sales faster than having the distinction of “bestseller status.”
So, through an online e-mail blast strategy, I brought my book to the No. 1 spot on Amazon.com in the Wedding Showers category. And that, I must say, was a fundamental factor that afforded my book an essential credibility boost. Indeed, I was elated to add the bestseller distinction to my name—and I was thrilled to sell a few hundred books in one day! Nevertheless, I soon realized that bestseller day was exactly that—a launching point. Now, how to effectively leverage my new bestseller status to its utmost advantage? How to use this distinction to catapult from selling a few hundred books on Amazon to becoming a true, six-figure-income author? Back to the drawing board.
I embarked on a journey to learn as much as I could about selling through non-traditional methods that had little to do with bookstore sales, since that wasn’t an option anyway. I learned that corporations are often interested in using books as premium incentives to give to their customers or simply as gifts to their employees. So I started contacting corporations.
Voila! I partnered with 1-800-Flowers and they ran a full-page ad in the back of my book featuring a coupon code. I contacted several other corporations and currently have interest from major players such as David’s Bridal, JC Penney and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Over many months, I studied the top gurus, ranging from authors and publishers, to media trainers, agents, radio hosts, producers, distributors, and more.
By this time, I was getting more and more interested in—OK, obsessed with—book marketing, so I decided to take a leap of faith, and signed up to attend a very costly four-day event in New York City. My husband was sweating bullets! However, at this event, I met producers from over one hundred national TV and radio shows. I also met over fifty book marketing agents, distributors, and publishers.
Here’s what I learned at the conference:
The biggest hurdle is not writing a book—it’s what you do after the book that is the most significant. See, a book opens doors—it is the biggest and most important calling card you will ever have. But having a book doesn’t mean people are going to buy it!
I began to understand the reality that very few people get rich from simply selling their books, aside from authors such as Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, and the like. Rather, it is the back-end products and services that are created from the book that can make the difference between a struggling writer and a million-dollar author.
So, how does a regular person make a living from his or her book? The secret that successful authors know is how to use their books as tools to build their businesses. I learned that the secret to creating a business and selling lots and lots of books, my friends, is none other than knowing how to get massive publicity!
So, rising to the challenge, I set out to get major (and free) publicity for my book, using the strategies I’d been learning. Since self-publishing The Daughter-in-Law Rules, I have gained media coverage from over a hundred sources, ranging from radio and Internet, to print and television. My book reached No. 1 in the Wedding Showers category on Amazon, and I appeared on the nationally syndicated show, The Daily Buzz. I was a featured expert on Martha Stewart Whole Living Radio and Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the No. 3 nationally syndicated radio therapist in America, who recommended The Daughter-in-Law Rules as her “pick of the week.” The DIL Rules was also chosen as “Hot Book of the Week” in Star Magazine on Mother’s Day, and the African Women Business Network purchased the foreign rights to The DIL Rules for distribution in Africa.
So, although I didn’t start out having a business, all the publicity I created has intrigued other authors, who are now asking me to coach them. So, what were some of the other results of all this great publicity? I now have a coaching career. I am a workshop and teleseminar leader, radio host, and creator of a potential reality show.
I still strive to make corporate sales, fundraise, and I still speak regularly at bridal events. See, as an author, you are now in the business of marketing. But remember, you have to have a clear vision and a strong desire genuinely to help people. For example, my vision is to create more harmony among mothers and daughters-in-law worldwide, as well as inspire others to follow their dreams through writing and self-publishing a book.
The moral? You can reinvent yourself! In order to become successful in any endeavor, the only two things you need are passion for your topic, and a sincere desire to help people. The rest will fall into place.
The Collaborator Rules: 3 Big Mistakes You Can Make with Author Collaborations and How to Correct Them
Excerpt by Sally Shields (copyright 2010)
Writing is a lonely and difficult business. When you’re all alone with a computer in the middle of the night and you can’t decide if your character should get married or throw herself under a double-decker bus, it would be nice to have someone to ask. When you’re pretty sure that what you’ve just written is either the worst rubbish any mind ever conceived or a stroke of Shakespearian genius, you might feel the need for a second opinion. When you know exactly how the screenplay starts and how it ends but you’re missing that teensy part called “the middle,” the thought may well cross your mind that what you need is—a collaborator!
Lots of writers work with collaborators. From screenwriting comedy teams to textbook authors, writing is not always best done alone, wallowing in self-pity. And so, many innocent, doe-eyed writers enter into collaboration, without thoroughly considering the consequences of this monumental decision. If your writing is important to you, you must make sure that the collaboration is right for you. And when you do find someone who seems to be that perfect partner, is it always smooth sailing? Absolutely not!
Below are three mistakes that you can make inadvertently when collaborating, and some of the steps that you can take to avoid them, and safeguard yourself from potential disaster. Let’s begin.
Mistake No. 1:
Rely on friendship to carry you through a collaborative process
Solution:
Never trust anything to smiling handshakes (no matter how much you like your collaborator!). Co-authoring is a huge nightmare if one party ends up working harder than the other, or does not deliver content promptly, or if your collaborator suddenly does a 180 and ends up boiling a bunny. (For those of you innocent bunnies who were born after 1987, consider adding Fatal Attraction to your Netflix queue.)
Mistake No. 2:
Fail to copyright your original work
Solution:
You have a great idea for a project, (or, if you’re the one who came up with “the big idea”, write it down, work on it as much as you can on your own, and apply for a copyright with the US Copyright Office. It doesn’t matter how raw a form it’s in; this is your brainchild, your hobbyhorse, your magnum opus, your intellectual property, and anything else that comes from it can be labeled a derivative work and will safeguard you from any future parties who may try to claim your efforts as their own.
The main points are (1) that ideas can be and are easily stolen and (2) writers must protect themselves. Although you cannot copyright ideas, you can copyright expressions of ideas; i.e., writings, drawings, musical compositions, and other tangible forms or expressions of this nature. So if you have a great idea, write about it and register it for copyright protection. However, someone else can also write about that same idea and register the copyright, provided he or she doesn’t express it the exact same way you did. Copyright exists from the time of the subject’s creation, so if you have a great idea and write about it, the time of its conception should be documented on your computer. Then be circumspect; discuss it only with those you completely trust and keep those discussions to the bare minimum until you’ve reduced it to paper and registered it with the US Copyright Office.
Mistake No. 3:
Get sloppy with your e-mail communication
Solution:
Communication used to involve human beings getting in the same place and speaking in such a way that they could hear each other directly. True story! Then Albert Einstein or Marie Curie or one of those smart inventor types (Edison?) came up with a new tool. It was called a “telephone.” Now, people could talk to each other without leaving home, and without having to smell each other’s cooking! Later, of course, Al Gore invented the Internet, and everyone started sending e-mails. You don’t have to see anyone; you don’t have to talk to them. It’s perfect, right? LOL!
However, one of the great dangers of e-mail is that it’s too fast. Case in point: you read a message from your collaborator suggesting you revise the third chapter. You, on the other hand, think it’s a masterpiece. Also, the third section is in your area of expertise and your collaborator knows nothing about it. Not only that, but you stipulated in your original written scope of work that the third episode was solely your responsibility. So you fire off an e-mail: “3rd. chap fine, leave it.” Guess how much respect your collaborator feels from this missive? Maybe you meant it in funny way, so you added a smiley. Think that caused her to grin? Think again. Once the context of full human communiqué is stripped away, all meaning is lost. You have to go out of your way to explain what you mean, and you have to imagine yourself receiving the e-mail. Is it truly clear? Is it respectful?
For more information about Sally Shields, speaker, radio personality, free publicity specialist, and author of the No. 1 Amazon.com bestseller, The Daughter-in-Law Rules visit www.sallyshields.com.
ANDREW J. RAFKIN
BOOKS BY ANDREW J. RAFKIN
Red Sky Morning
www.outskirtspress.com/redskymorning
Creating Madness
www.outskirtspress.com/creatingmadness
Mediterranean Madness
www.outskirtspress.com/mediterraneanmadness
Mexican Madness
www.outskirtspress.com/mexicanmadness
The Old Man and the Sky
by Andrew J. Rafkin
I was born in 1946 in San Pedro, California, and grew up in a commercial fishing family. Through high school I worked on sport fishing boats, and at seventeen went commercial fishing with my father, the captain of a large purse seiner, during summer vacation. Two years later, a friend asked me if I could relieve him on his father’s ninety-foot fishing boat, Diana, for four days, off the Santa Barbara coast; his wife was due to have their first baby.
On the second day of the trip, we got caught in a freak hurricane-force storm. The waves grew to thirty feet, and knocked the Diana on its side, throwing half the crew into the turbulent ocean. I was one on them. A crewman died in my arms while I tried to save him, causing me almost to lose my life.
It was a great sea story, I was told. “You should write a book,” others would say later. “It would make a great movie.”
About eight years after the incident, I was on a sport fishing trip with some friends and found myself telling them and other fisherman my tale while sitting in the galley. I received the same suggestions. My response was, “I’m not a writer; I barely made it through English 101.”
Someone on deck yelled. When everyone headed outside, an elderly fellow with thinning gray hair and a full beard stopped me on the way out. He said, “I loved your story, and I agree with your friends. It would make a great book.
“Take some advice from an old man who loves to read. Some day you might want to write this book. While it’s fresh on your mind, write an outline of everything you remember, and when you’re older and have more time, you’ll be prepared.”
I thanked him and went out to catch some tuna, and when I got back home I took his advice and made some notes.
Twenty-six years later, I was on a two-day fishing trip off the Mexican coast telling the same story—receiving the same responses. But this time I decided to write that book!
I found the fifty handwritten pages in a box full of memorabilia from high school and college. The yellow ruled papers were faded and the edges frayed, but that outline was the foundation of my first novel, Red Sky Morning.
It wasn’t always easy. For more than thirty years, I have served as the president and owner of Palos Verdes Security.
My wife and I live in a seventy-eight-year-old house on the bluff overlooking Angel’s Gate lighthouse, entry to the Port of Los Angeles.
I still love the ocean, and go sport fishing as much as I can. In the near future, I plan to retire and build a fifty-eight-foot sport fisher catamaran, which has been a lifelong dream. I have a great wine cellar and carry on the family tradition of making wine like the Croatian and Italian fishermen of the past.
I wrote most of Red Sky Morning at my office. I would read excerpts of the story to my manager to see if she liked it. She said she did, and found the story to be similar to one told by her grandfather, who was a commercial fisherman and had almost lost his life in a storm. Upon further discussion, it became apparent that her grandfather, Ike Ventimiglia, was on the Diana with me, and that we had pulled him out of the net. I had resuscitated him! It truly is a small world.
Ike was in his eighties living near Redding, California, when he passed away. Thinking about Ike inspired me to work harder to complete Red Sky Morning.
Strangely, I’ve somehow come full circle from my past to the present. In the early morning while having a cup of coffee, I watch boats like the Diana making sets for fish off of Cabrillo Point.
The San Pedro fishing fleet has dwindled down to a dozen boats or so. The fishermen of the past made a good living, but today they can barely survive. Most of the fish are gone, and in the recent years, squid—better known as calamari—have become popular. If it weren’t for the local squid fishing, I don’t think the local fishermen could survive.
Forty-four years ago, when this true-life adventure began, I was fishing on the Western Ace. My dad, the captain, pointed to these huge Russian trawlers that were dragging the bottom indiscriminately, catching every living creature that would go into the net. Dad said that type of fishing method would wipe out the cod fishing industry on the East Coast. His prediction came true. Indiscriminate fishing methods like that, along with long-lining and gill-netting, are now being restricted or banned.
Today we face a lot of challenges. Our world has become much smaller. Countries are forming alliances to address these problems and are also starting to be more aggressive about over fishing and the polluting of our oceans.
The oceans are our life source! We have the technology to change the course we’re on. It will require a worldwide effort to protect and preserve our biggest asset: our oceans.
I’m going to fulfill my dream, and build that boat. I hope that my friends and I will continue to enjoy the sport of fishing. I also hope that our families, and especially my grandsons, will have the opportunity to enjoy the ocean and fishing as much as I do.
Publishing Red Sky Morning was another dream I had to fulfill. I developed a professional relationship with Outskirts Press and I’ve been with them for over four years. I’ve seen some of their competitors come and go. My first book received the EVVY literary award and recognition from Readers Favorite. I now have four books published and all of them are award winners. I just finished writing another and two more are in the works. I remember back when I thought I could never be a writer. How long ago that seems…
If I had to come up with one piece of advice, it would be this: Don’t let anyone tell you what you cannot do, not even yourself.
Red Sky Morning
Excerpt by Andrew J. Rafkin (copyright 2008)
I Felt the warmth of the morning sun on my face. A new day, Saturday, perfect for a round of golf. The sunrise was exceptional. Huge thunderheads rolled across the horizon creating a fantastic backdrop, the sun’s rays reflecting a panoply of color across the sky. The mid-September weather patterns typified the time of year.
Seasonal storms off the southern Pacific coast of Mexico generated the unstable weather.
Across the border, they called the storms chubascos, which blew the thunderheads through the southern deserts of California and into Arizona. The locals there called it monsoon season, and complained about the humidity.
I was sitting on my patio, having a cup of coffee and enjoying the view, when my wife, Lynn, came out.
“Good morning, honey. Want some breakfast?”
“Thanks, but I’m going to have breakfast at the club. So, what are you going to do today?”
“Oh, Diane and I are going shopping at the South Coast Plaza. Then we’ll find a nice place to have lunch, so you better plan to eat at the club when you finish your round. When’s your starting time?”
“Around nine.”
“Well, you better get going if you plan to have breakfast.”
“Yeah, you’re right. See you later, honey.”
I gave my better half a kiss, went to the garage, jumped into my golf cart, and zipped over to the clubhouse.
As I pulled up to the practice area, a friend, Bob Clark, yelled out, “Hey, Andy, the albacore are biting. Let’s go fishing.”
“Sounds good to me. You want to charter the Patriot?”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll make the arrangements after our round.”
Later that evening, the phone rang. Bob said, “It’s all set up. I talked to Greg, captain of the Patriot, and booked a two-day trip, a week from Monday. OK with you?”
“It’s good with me. You talk to anybody else?”
“Yeah, looks like Ed Cuff, Terry Small, and Bill Hasvold can go. You have anybody else in mind”?
“Yeah, I’ll call my cousin, Joe Zitko, and my nephew, John Wright; they’re good fishermen and a lot of fun. I’ll also call a good friend of mine, John Chuka, who I’m sure would love to go. That would bring it to eight good fishermen.”
Both John and Joey called back to confirm. The plan was for all four of us to meet at my house in San Pedro, Monday afternoon, and take my Land Rover to H&M Landing, in San Diego. The rest of our party was driving from our country club in Murrieta. We planned to rendezvous at a restaurant near the landing for cocktails and dinner, then get aboard the Patriot.
By two o’clock, we were all at my house. We decided to take two cars, because we had so much gear. We loaded up my SUV and John’s truck and took off, hoping to miss the rush-hour traffic. We got lucky. It took about three hours to get to the landing, which was full of action. Albacore fever was rampant.
Albacore are not only considered one of the best-tasting fish, but also a great fighter, challenging any angler. When the word got out that the albacore were biting, the landing reservation phones rang off the hook, and whatever boats had not been previously chartered, would soon be booked. When we arrived, all the parking lots were full. There were people all over the place. Some were arriving and anxious to board their boats and go fishing. Others were getting off the boats, finishing their single to multi-day trips, fishing both U.S. and Mexican waters.
First thing, get a parking spot! The place was like a circus with fishermen and looky-loos running around, and cars jockeying for a parking spot. If we were lucky, a boat or two might drop off their passengers, who would eventually find their cars. If not, it could take over an hour to park. We got lucky. Two cars pulled out, and we slid right in.
Joey asked me, “When are we meeting for dinner?”
“At six. We’ve got twenty minutes; let’s go check out the action.”
We left our gear locked up in my Land Rover and headed for the dock. The aroma of smoked tuna filled the air. The dock was like a beehive of people, with four boats pulling in and their fishermen milling around the dock. When their trip started, each angler received a number, and any fish he caught was immediately tagged for identification at the end of the trip.
The crews loaded carts full of fish and pushed them up to the dock. Each boat had its own staging area, where the passengers circled and waited for the crew to call out their numbers.
There was total chaos. The crew members yelled out numbers; the fishermen claimed their fish and dragged them into piles. There were booths set up around the staging area with vendors selling hand-packed, canned, or smoked albacore, and trying to convince the fishermen to trade their fresh tuna for the cans or smoked fish. I felt either way the fishermen got the worst part of the deal, but if they preferred smoked, or canned fish, instead of fresh, who was I to criticize?
We walked around and took in the action. Joey said, “Hey, Chuka, looks like the fishing couldn’t be better.”
“Man, I’m glad I could make it. I almost had to cancel because of a real estate deal. You know, I didn’t have time to change my line. It’s only a couple of years old, so it should be OK, don’t you think?”
“Are you kidding? I changed my line, just for this trip. Wouldn’t you get pissed if your line broke every time you hooked a big fish?”
“I guess I better get some new line.”
“John and I filled our reels on Wednesday at the Rusty Hook. I think you need to pay a visit to the tackle store.”
We wandered over to the H&M Landing store, where John bought the line he needed, and the rest of us were able to find something new to add to our tackle boxes.
We got to the restaurant about 6 p.m. The rest of the group was waiting for us at the bar. We had just ordered a drink when the hostess informed us that our table was ready. Dinner was fantastic; we all drank too much and had a great time. We were all pumped up to go fishing, and then the stories started: How I lost the big one.
“Joey, remember when we were at the East Cape and caught seven marlin in two hours?”
“How about that time when the four of us caught 290 albacore in one day!” said Bob.
“Yeah, sure, take off the zero, and I might believe you,” said Bill.
“Hey, Bob, did you get a scar where Bill hooked you in the ass?”
Everybody was laughing, then they started the heckling. “Aw, come on and show us!” yelled Ed.
To our surprise, Bob stood up and browned us all.
That really started things going. Known for his quick wit, Joey jumped in with one of his classic jokes:
“One day, this parish priest decided to go fishing at the local lake. He got to the marina early in the morning and rented a rowboat, loaded up his gear, and rowed out onto the lake. It wasn’t long before he caught a fish. He thanked God, took out the hook, and put the fish in a bucket. When he bent over he saw that there was some water in the bottom of the boat. He didn’t remember seeing any water before he left the dock, but he wasn’t sure.