We let Minnie out this morning as usual and when we went into the hay barn, I was surprised to see her sitting at the very top, gazing out at the world from her very safe vantage point. Minnie has a lot to say, and she squawks quite a bit, meeowing imperiously. Nice to see how she got way up there, though I can’t quite imagine how she did it. Minnie is doing very well, she is quite content in her barn.
We had our first snowfall this morning, the Love Dog was out rooting around for chicken droppings, donkey leavings, rotten apples freezing in the cold from the apple tree. She is a happy Love Dog in the snow.
Marianne from Maryland wrote me c/o Post Office Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Here is an excerpt from her letter:
“...I want to tell you a little about myself. I worked at Super Fresh Grocery Store, I had 30 years, 1 month 5 days when they closed the doors to the whole division. 1,500 people lost there jobs, retirees lost all there benefits. This happen on July 5, 2011. Since then I have put in for many jobs, I guess they want younger people. So I work when I can, I deliver flowers on holidays, clean house for 2 elderly women once a month, do some baby sitting, I even cut my neighbors grass every other week. I work the State Fair selling tickets 10 days, 142 hours. I also pet sit. So I don’t have a steady income. I wish I could make a monthly contribution but I know I can not.
I really have loved reading your books, I own several, and your blog. Thanks, Marianne.”
Thank you Marianne, your contribution to my work has been much more generous than any monthly contribution.
I am figuring out the new book tour and embracing it. The old book tour – I did 23 of them – was a sedate and expensive affair. I would fly all over the country, be driven around in limos by media escorts, bookstores crammed with people, long lines to sign books, gorgeous hotel rooms downtown, room service, great meals, eager fans and readers, flowers in rooms. (I whined yesterday that nobody sent me flowers on the occasion of my book being printed, so Shelby Edwards of People’s House Publishing in Washington State send me a beautiful bouquet, I thank her, they are brightening up the living room.)
For many writers, those kinds of book tours no longer make sense. They are expensive, many bookstores are gone, there are few book reviewers, lots of people are reading books in their e-readers rather than going out to readings, so the new book tour brings the book to them as well.
So the new book tour in the post Kindle, Facebook/Twitter era is very different. Mostly, I do some regional bookstore appearances and lots of radio interviews and otherwise stay home and fire up the new media empire I have been building for some years – podcasts, blog posts Facebook topics and contests and lots of stuff to give away – more than 70 copies of Second Change Dog: A Love Story, more than 100 bags of free Fromm Family Food to people who pre-order the book from Battenkill Books, my local bookstore (518 677-2515 or visit their website). It makes sense, I can reach a lot more people online.
I am determined to cross the Rubicon of the new publishing world and be relevant and successful there, and you know what? It’s working!
Second Chance Dog: A Love Story is in it’s second printing, weeks before the pub date of November 12. There are lots of online pre-orders. People like free stuff and they expect and maybe they will like my new book too, it’s my favorite so far, it is happy story, a great Christmas story in many ways as the book ends on Christmas Eve. I am in hot pursuit of the two titles ahead of me on the online best-seller lists – Pure Joy, Danielle Steel’s story of traveling to Paris with her mouse-sized dog, and 101 Dog Tricks. The competition is rough. Book tours are not literary any longer, they are no-holds-barred brawls, and I’m in up for it. No more whining, time to get down and dirty.
So I’m trying to get a firestorm going and am sweetening the pot today. I smell a winner. So many of you seem to love this photo (above) of healing Minnie and her hen friends that I am offer 3 printed and matted copies of this photo for Connie Brooks to give-a-way to people who pre-order the book from Battenkill Books, my local bookstore, and a great independent bookstore. We are also giving away 100 bags of free dog food to people who pre-order the book from Battenkill which Fromm Family Foods, the only sponsor of bedlamfarm.com, has donated to the cause, and I thank them.
I am launching Second Chance Dog at Battenkill on November 12, 7 p.m. – reading and questions – and Maria and Frieda and Red will be joining me there. This will be Frieda’s coming out party, she deserves it, I have instructed her not to eat my fans. Maria and I will sign and personalize any copies of the book purchased through Battenkill, it is a wonderful opportunity to buy local and support worthy bookstores, we need them in our lives.
So in addition to free books and bags of dog food, there are now also free photos of Minnie and her hens, and probably more coming. I will also be giving away 70 copies of the book on Facebook after it is published to people who post on the related topics I will be putting up there, so there is a lot going on with this book. It took me a bit, but I am figuring out the brave new world of publishing, I am so eager to make this work, I have worked long and hard at it, change is my faith and my purpose. And this feels like the right book to make this transition. Come along for the ride. And oh yeah, please get the book too.
You can order the book anywhere in the country now – check out my books page – or pre-order it from Battenkill and get free stuff, you can do it on the pre-order page, on the store’s website or by calling Battenkill at 518 677-2515. From the green cover to the Christmas eve ending, I think it is a neat Xmas gift to anybody who loves a dog or who loves a human.
