12.07.2007

Milestones, Ineptitude, and Social Anxiety

Milestones, Ineptitude, and Social Anxiety

I have a one-hour break to get some critical to-do items done, so of course I am blogging instead.

Last night Seymour and I got to have a date! A short one, but, still. When we got home, the kids were all asleep (never a guarantee even at 10 PM), so we even got to watch Battlestar Galactica: Razor together -- until I fell asleep on the couch, anyhow. ROMANTIC.

One of the things we chatted about was our different approach to projects and life in general. I am very much a plodding to-do list person -- while I do get hopped up on My Great New Ideas, I also prefer coming up with concrete, finite, deadline-driven tasks and getting them done; he is the dreamy, productive, open-ended integrator who innovates, and thereby impresses all his co-workers with his creativity. This is why he has a stack of laurels sitting on the desk at his high-profile job, whereas I wipe our kids' asses. Sometimes I wish I was more like him.

Especially now that Can I Sit With You? has been published (but it now, please!). I am flailing a bit as to next steps for promoting and increasing sales. Jennyalice and I had coffee with the Bad Moms yesterday, and as all those amazing women threw wonderful ideas at our heads, I could see the ever-sharp Jennyalice soaking it all up while I just sat there feeling dazed and queasy. This is why I stopped being a software producer and became a writer/editor/content developer.

Anyone want to help out with PR? I'm not saying we aren't capable, but promotions are not one of my strengths, and though Jennyalice could sell oil to Hugo Chavez, her life is about five times more nuts than mine. And I'm not exactly feeling sorry for us as we've raised over $1000 in less than a week, thanks to all our wonderful supporters. But I also know we could do even better.

And I am trying, really. I've slapped this button everywhere I could think of:

Support independent publishing: buy this book on Lulu.

I took several deep breaths and nominated us when Beth Kanter put out a call for social and charity projects that make excellent holiday gifts and causes.

I am going to the BlogHer Holiday Meetup in San Francisco. Not necessarily to promote CISWY; more to help work on the social anxiety that had me flipping out through the entire BlogHer '06 Conference. And also to see many of my cool friends.

Also I've arranged for some local coffee shops to sell our book, and have given copies to local school librarians to review, get back to me with their opinion, and put in circulation if deemed appropriate.

We will also be having Can I Sit With You? authors reading in San Francisco in late January. More details as it approaches.

Anyhow. It's still not enough, given this project's potential. We could use some help, or at least some promotional ideas.

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I know that not everyone wants to buy a copy of CISWY, and that's okay. But if you're still on the lookout for charitable holiday gifting ideas and vectors, please consider supporting SEPTAR, the Special Ed PTA to which all of CISWY's proceeds go, through the following means:

If you use this search box right here to find and then buy Amazon goods, SEPTAR will get a percentage of your spent dollars:



Of course, if you'd prefer, you can always make a tax-deductible direct donation to SEPTAR, in someone's honor.

And finally, one of my favorite CISWY writers sent us another story that will rearrange your insides, in a good way.

Time to work.

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