{"id":1635,"date":"2011-09-20T01:06:38","date_gmt":"2011-09-20T01:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=1635"},"modified":"2011-09-20T01:06:38","modified_gmt":"2011-09-20T01:06:38","slug":"connections-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2011\/09\/connections-count\/","title":{"rendered":"Connections count"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a> \"\"<\/a>I am not a business person, or at least I wasn’t until I started Weighed Words<\/strong>. \u00a0So it’s kind of funny that I wanted to come up with a model for publishing that was different than the ones I was used to. Lit mags don’t usually pay unless you win a contest. \u00a0Anthologies by fledgling presses don’t usually pay either. For small-time writers like me, payment came in the form of comp copies and the glory of publication. What was important to me as I worked on Solace in So Many Words<\/em><\/strong> was one guideline: everyone involved should feel valued. So contributors will get royalties because I want to give the writers a stake.<\/p>\n

I also have a slightly different way of looking at profits. \u00a0I am working with an accountant to figure out the actual dollars and cents of the whole operation, but for my own personal accounting (which until now was just a running tab in my head), \u00a0I am looking at the connections I have made as the gold I am reaping from this venture.<\/p>\n

First off, I made 52 connections at the onset when I signed on the contributors. Of course, some were already my friends whose work I solicited, but now our friendship is even deeper. Some were writers who I admired so much that I had to write them and ask them to contribute. Some were writers I knew of \u00a0from their bylines or through publishing connections. And some were strangers who responded to my ad in Poets & Writers<\/em>. Now we’re all on the same team, friends between the covers, so to speak. It is a bond I treasure.<\/p>\n

Funny as it may seem, I met a lot of great people by asking them for blurbs. I am lucky to have known Sharon Fiffer<\/strong> for a while (she rocks), but Thomas Moore<\/strong>, Susan K. Perry<\/strong>, Doug Holder<\/strong> and John Evans<\/strong> are new acquaintances now. \u00a0I have come to meet so many great people connected to events–bookstore owners, managers and salespeople; Father Ted Curtis<\/strong> and the gracious members of Grace Episcopal Church; newspaper writers (like Lilli Kuzma<\/strong>) and book critics; radio hosts like Rick Kogan<\/strong> and Ben Merens<\/strong>, the station staff and those who called into Ben’s radio program (there’s a poet I am still hopeful I will hear from). In promoting the book through Goodreads<\/strong> and \u00a0Facebook<\/strong>, I have connected with people I otherwise would not have known. One reader who won the book through a promotion wrote me a note to say she has cancer and receiving Solace in So Many Words<\/em> made her day. In turn she made my day. I was verklempt at the p.o. after reading her card.<\/p>\n

A friend from childhood attended the Glenview reading and we were able to catch up with each other over coffee. \u00a0Later her mother wrote me a letter and enclosed something special: a copy of a photo from 1960 when the little gang of us from Ravenswood Manor posed at a Christmas tree-trimming party. Other old friends and I have re-connected too, and it feels good, like coming home.<\/p>\n

What I really love is to meet readers<\/strong> who tell me about themselves. I hope to introduce these interesting people to you too.<\/p>\n

In one of my first posts I wrote about how grateful I was to the various people I consulted as I worked on this project. One of the people I mentioned was Paul M. Davis<\/strong> who does Is Greater Than<\/strong>, a blog that covered all kinds of topics, from making pancakes to album covers. Sometimes an essay was featured, and that is how I came to read “My Father’s Legs” which I feature as a guest blog. \u00a0So first it was Paul and now it is my connection with Cory Fosco<\/strong> for which I am grateful and putting in the plus column. I just learned Paul is calling it quits as far as the blog goes, but he recommends to his Is Greater Than friends a site that is his primary gig. It’s Shareable.net<\/a><\/strong>, an online magazine about the sharing community. I am going to check it out.<\/p>\n

Sure, sales are important, but connections are too. They may be less tangible but more valuable. I hope to hear from you.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am not a business person, or at least I wasn’t until I started Weighed Words. \u00a0So it’s kind of funny that I wanted to come up with a model for publishing that was different than the ones I was used to. Lit mags don’t usually pay unless you win a contest. \u00a0Anthologies by fledgling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[529,18,60,420,520,127,528,527,12,524,523,485,82,13,20,522,374,521,530,16,526,525,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-1635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-my-fathers-legs","8":"tag-anthology","9":"tag-appreciation","10":"tag-ben-merens","11":"tag-connections","12":"tag-contributors-2","13":"tag-cory-fosco","14":"tag-doug-holder","15":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","16":"tag-facebook","17":"tag-goodreads","18":"tag-john-evans","19":"tag-paul-m-davis","20":"tag-poetry","21":"tag-publication","22":"tag-ravenswood-manor","23":"tag-rick-kogan","24":"tag-royalties","25":"tag-shareable-net","26":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","27":"tag-susan-k-perry","28":"tag-thomas-moore","29":"tag-weighed-words","30":"entry","31":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1635"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1664,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}