The Wall Street Journal and the Amorphous Audience

My friend, the wonderful Stephen Jukuri, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal this week!

This is a thing that I find very cool because, though Stephen is an extraordinarily talented writer and artist, he's not exactly the money-driven, corporate poster child for the WSJ.

I told him I was impressed at his "connections."

His response:

I wish I was that well connected. Freak chance is all. [The writer] wrote a great article on multi-tasking, and I responded, and next thing you know....

This just goes to show how powerful responding to a person's writing can be. We write because we have something to say. We like to think we can touch people. It's always a welcome surprise, however, when we discover that we actually connect with our audience.

For many writers, their audience is a sort of distant, amorphous blur. The writer may wonder if anyone out there really gets what he or she is talking about. When someone actually does "get it," and takes the time out of his or her busy schedule to say so, it is a Banner Day, indeed.

So, kudos to Stephen -- not for being a featured Quote of the Day, but for taking the time to connect with someone whose words connected with him. Every writer should be so fortunate.

Number One

For about 12 hours on September 26 and 27, books I'd written were the #1 and #2 bestselling Horse Books on Amazon.com. (Geoff's was #1, Clinton's was #2.) It was a rather surreal experience to see onscreen.



Other cool numbers that cropped up showed that Geoff's book ranked in the Top 10 of Individual Sports titles, and in the Top 35 of all Sports titles. Its overall ranking for the nearly 2.5 million books available on Amazon.com was 1960-something. It may even have done better than that, but those were the numbers I saw.

It's never a good idea to put too much credence in bestseller statistics. From Amazon.com to the New York Times to other book trackers, the titles on such lists vary from week to week and from day to day. A book may hit #1 on one list and not even register on another. Playing the bestseller / numbers game can really mess with your head.

On the other hand, having a title reach #1, the Top 10, or even the Top 100 of a bestseller list can add a certain amount of cache to the book. It can help generate some "buzz" (a loathsome marketing term) and give the project a continued boost. The term "bestselling" can also help validate an author's efforts and be used to gild the writer's bio.

Aiming for #1 is hardly a reason to write a book. On the other hand, it makes no sense to put forth the time, effort, and energy necessary to create a book if you don't believe in the project enough to be willing to promote it as best you can.

I am fond of reminding writers: No one believes in your career more than you do. If you don't believe your book deserves to be a bestselling title, perhaps it's worth revisiting the project and perfecting it until it's clearly the best thing for readers to do with their money and their time.

I tell all new (and not so new) authors to go for it. Aim for #1. Come up with a plan and put it into action. The danger is not in aiming for the stars. It is in failing to raise your sights to the sky. It is also in believing that you're too good for this world.

Rider's Wednesday -- West Nile Watch

This past weekend I, and most of my horse-owning friends and neighbors, received notification from a local veterinarian's office that West Nile has been conclusively diagnosed in our county. Needless to say, we are concerned.

According to the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), the first case of West Nile was diagnosed in the U.S. in 1999. In the last 7 years, it has become a leading consideration whenever horses present with neurologic disease. It is, unfortunately, associated with a high mortality rate (over 33 percent of all infected horses die).

West Nile is a flavivirus. Mosquitoes and other bloodsucking insects transmit it to warmblooded hosts like horses, birds, and people. Horses and humans, you may know, are considered "end hosts," which means that the West Nile virus cannot be transmitted from them to another host.

Our West Nile notification suggested vaccinating and boosting existing vaccinations. The AAEP guidelines for West Nile vaccinating recommend that all horses in North America routinely receive the vaccine (though it is not recommended for pregnant mares, and has been associated with foal deformities and death).

Symptoms of West Nile include muscle weakness, stumbling, tripping, twitching, depression, fever, convulsions, partial paralysis, coma, and death. West Nile can be easily confused with other conditions, such as EPM and rabies, that may have similar symptoms.

All told, West Nile isn't really anything to mess around with. The fact that a confirmed case is in our immediate area doesn't exactly fill me with warm fuzzies. Though we've had some cold weather recently, it hasn't been enough to eliminate the mosquitos yet. It looks like we'll be vaccinating again -- sooner than we'd planned...

Coaching for Accountability

I spoke with my coach, Stephanie, today -- brought her up to date, reported on current projects, and told her my plans for October and November.

I almost rescheduled our appointment, because my good friend Denise had agreed to come and help set posts for the riding arena. Of course, when I scheduled an arena-fence-post-day, I forgot about my session with Stephanie. But I didn't cancel. (It's always easy to say "no." I'm afraid it would have set a dangerous precedent...) Instead, I begged off from setting posts for a bit and came in for the call.

The best thing about having a coach is that she keeps me accountable. She remembers what my goals are. She knows what I'm aiming toward. She keeps me on track and encourages me. And she holds me accountable for my own dreams.

When I'm working with a writer (as the coach, instead of the coach-ee), I like to do the same thing. As someone who's "been there," and as someone who is not so close to the project that I've become myopic over it, I constantly try to find ways to help the writer see the big picture.

I ask the writer to remember the reader. We explore ways to add value to the reader's experience. We discuss long-term plans for the book. We work to streamline the writing process and improve the writer's productivity. And we continually come back to The Point of the whole project, revisiting it from several different angles, to make sure that the end result is consistent with the original vision.

Working with a coach is just that: work. A coach pushes, prods, and challenges you. A coach is as invested in your success as you are, but the coach's dreams are not yours. If you want your vision to become reality, you must take responsibility for making it happen. A good coach in your corner can help show you the way. But it's up to you to commit to the journey.

Back Book News

"The Rider's Back Book" is nearly ready to send to the publisher. I spent some time on the phone last night with Dr. Warson, discussing the medical illustrations (x-rays, MRIs, CT scans and others) that will be in the book.

Our conversation was punctuated with such comments as:

Ooo, this is great. There's a metastatic tumor here that anyone will be able to see...

What an excellent shot of a ruptured disc!

Oh yeah! The L5 / S1 is so damaged that they've practically fused together. See? Ooo -- and there's a disc impinging on the spinal cord, too -- great stuff!

I told him I was seeing a whole new side of him. Most people, myself included, rarely include "ruptured disc" and "great shot" in the same sentence.

Ah, but he was in his element, looking at radiographs, commenting on them, and deciding upon the best ones for the book.

Tomorrow, we are to go over Charles' photographs and make sure all are seen and signed off on. Then it's just a matter of making a hard copy and sending the package off to Vermont. Life is good!

Title Tracking

An interesting website that is currently in Beta testing mode is Titlez.

The site offers a way of tracking the Amazon.com sales ranking of one or more titles. Though Amazon updates their sales numbers hourly, and the rankings are a useful way of tracking a book's popularity with the world's largest online retailer, they keep no record of the title's past success.

Titlez.com collects and graphs Amazon rankings over time. Just type a title, subject, publisher, or author name into the search field, and you'll see a graph that features the day-by-day performance of a given book.

You can find things like a book's best rank, worst rank, 7-day, 30-day, and 90-day ranking, and lifetime average. You can also compare the performance of two or more titles.

Since the site is still in development, not all titles have information collected, but you can request a title be added. (Clinton's book, for instance, had the information readily available. I had to request that they track the sales figures for Geoff's book.) For now, access to the site's resources is free -- you just need to register with your name, e-mail, and a password. Pretty cool, huh?

Birthday Wishes

Today is my birthday. It's a BIG ONE. It ends in "0," which always invites a retrospective, and begs questions like What have I accomplished in my time on the planet? and Why don't I have more to show for my life so far?

I've always been a driven person. My plans for my life have been far-reaching and ambitious. I've discovered, however, that those plans have been found on no one's agenda but my own.

For instance, a decade ago, the last birthday that ended with "0" was very difficult for me. I wanted to have at least one book in print or one screenplay optioned by then. But God's time is not our own. And though you can work to advance your career, you cannot simply make things happen.

It took a few more years before I had a book out, but it wasn't the book that I thought would be the first published. By then, my daughter had come along to brighten my life. And my husband had lost his job. So much for my meticulously crafted Life Plan.

Today, in keeping with a grand tradition that includes carb-laden cakes, cards, and candles, I've made a few Birthday Wishes:

* I wish everyone would choose to do one self-sacrificing Selfless Act a day. It would be a regular reminder that there are those less fortunate than we are, and we are all in this world together.

* I wish everyone would "unplug" for 24 hours on a regular basis. With no TV, no radio, no CDs, and no DVDs monopolizing our brain cells, we'd be forced to confront our own thoughts, find our own entertainment, and reach our own decisions without relying on corporate-sponsored media that is focused more on their bottom line than on their consumers' well-being.

* I wish every corporation, every business, and every company were held accountable for the damage they inflict on the planet, and were made to take steps to clean up their collective mess. I wish it were impossible to conduct business without making a non-destructive footprint and leaving the world at least as good as you found it.

* I wish every overweight person would become financially responsible for and sponsor a person who is dying of malnutrition -- until both people were healthy.

* I wish every parent would recognize the enormous potential within his or her child, and would accept the responsibility for helping that child thrive. This includes surrounding the child with unconditional love, giving opportunities for success and for failure, insisting upon personal responsibility, and protecting the child from the world at large (because it is a very large world).

And finally,

* I wish every person would take steps toward reaching a personal goal. What is life without a dream?

"The Sting of Ignorance"

Yesterday, the New York Times ran an article by Harvard Medical School professor Jerry Avorn detailing his experience with a toxic jellyfish tentacle, an emergency medical team powered by conventional wisdom, and the omnipotence of the internet.

One of the unmistakable points of his piece, however, is the paramount importance of doing one's own research. Not taking others' suggestions at face value. Not blindly following the lemmings who lead the way. Not falling in the rut of "we've always done it like this..." No -- there is much to be said for personally looking into a thing to gain a greater understanding of it.

True, when using the internet, one must be careful of one's sources. But that's true of any research project.

I use the internet so much on such a consistent basis, that I find it hard to remember how I ever fared without it. But I am amazed at how haphazard many students and other users are toward what it has to offer.

It's not that they're unfamiliar with the computer or the internet. They know how to use all the pieces of the research puzzle quite competently. But too often, they're not entirely sure how to assemble the pieces in order to come up with a discernable picture.

The problem, I fear, is not a lack of information. Nor is it that the information is somehow difficult to access. The problem is simply that solid research skills are taught less and less. To many students, all sites are created equally -- they carry equal academic weight, are equally factual, and equally impartial and unbiased.

My friend TG and I have had many discussions on several variations of this theme.

When she taught at the university level, she routinely ran into administrators who told her not to "waste time" teaching things like critical thinking and research skills. Often, classes such as literature, comparative studies, and writing intensives that would make use of such skills were eliminated entirely from the curriculuum. Instead, they were replaced with things like "keyboarding," "business writing," and other benign courses designed not to educate, but to turn out cubicle drones.

I am inclined to agree with Avorn when he categorizes the internet as one of the three most useful medicines he knows (along with aspirin and acetominophen). It places potent information at our fingertips. It remains to be seen, however, how long we consider information valuable enough to ascertain that it remains free and available to all.