Archive for January, 2005

Snowed Under

Wednesday, January 26th, 2005

We had a humdinger of a snowstorm last Wednesday night! We were still trying to find the car in the drifts (okay, that’s a slight exaggeration) when we heard about the “Blizzard of 2005″ that was heading our way. However, that little weekend blizzard wasn’t anywhere near the intensity of the Nor’Easter last week (for us, anyway). When it hit on Sunday, it was nice to have an excuse to not go anywhere, bundle up under some quilts, and read. That’s the best part about snowstorms. They’re an excuse to do nothing at all!

Ali and Frank are participating in a homeschooling field trip this week. It’ll be outdoors and involves the children digging into the ice on a nearby lake to see what critters and plants are hiding underneath. With temperatures in the single-digits, I’ll have to bundle them (and myself) up pretty good. They were outside today building their snow forts higher and higher. With the amount of snow we have right now, they have plenty of raw material to work with! Don’t worry. They don’t crawl under their forts. Makes me shudder just thinking about that. They’re just big white hills they crouch behind during snowball fights. Too bad it’s too powdery to build a snowman…

Each year, until now, we’ve all gone to the doctor together (all six of us), stood in a row with our sleeves rolled up, and received our flu shots. I had a horrible case of the flu about five years ago and have been adamant about the entire family getting shots each year since. However, this year it looked like we needed to do without in order to protect those more vulnerable to its effects. Well, there’s now a surplus of flu shots in Maine (unused shots will be discarded) so we’re all going to the doc this week to stand in our annual flu shot row. A local teenager died from flu complications just before Christmas, so I’m very relieved that the children are going to be protected. The kids are, needless to say, not quite as happy about this development as we are.

Hugs to all!
Angela

P.S. Want to read real query letters that landed these contracts? Woman’s Day – $2,800; Redbook – $3,500; Ladies Home Journal – $3,000; DiscoveryHealth.com – $2,000; Lifetime Magazine – $3,000; Life Extension magazine – $6,480; Natural Remedies $11,300; and many more! Click HERE.

Getting Suspicious Book Returns?

Wednesday, January 19th, 2005

by Angela Hoy

We’ve seen lots of marketing ploys and blatant sp*m from so-called PR and book marketing firms that say they guarantee to get your book on bookstore shelves. Authors should be very, very wary of these claims. In most cases, the author will pay much more to the “PR” or “marketing” firm than they’ll ever get back in book sales. And, they just might end up with a pile of returns from the bookstores.

We’ve heard rumors of late about one company in particular that was charging authors for this service. The problem is, long after this firm had cashed the authors’ checks, books started coming back to authors from the bookstores. The returns were puzzling to the authors because they were told the bookstores specifically ordered these books. It appears that a common scam was being run by this firm. I’m not going to publish here how the scam works because I don’t want to give anyone any ideas, but the scam is highly illegal and can result in jail-time.

Needless to say, this person did get books into bookstores for authors, but the books weren’t put on shelves. The bookstores realized they’d been scammed and the books are now being returned, at each author’s expense.

We’re currently helping to investigate this particular individual and we’re very happy to help other authors who feel they’ve been a victim of this type of scam.

So, if any of you are tempted by one of these “too good to be true” marketing ploys, remember that getting your book on store shelves is very difficult for even traditional publishers and almost impossible for everyone else (especially marketing companies that don’t pay bookstores for that shelf space!). And, even having your book on those shelves doesn’t guarantee sales. To read more about this topic, read my recent article, Marketing to Bookstores – A Waste of Time?, HERE.

Cows and sheep and goats and…

Wednesday, January 19th, 2005

We joined the local homeschooling 4H club last week and were pleasantly surprised to learn that not everybody in 4H is required to grow and auction off livestock! All humor aside, 4H is a great group and we made lots of new friends. The children loved it and can’t wait to get started on some projects to enter in the state fair this summer.

We’re finally getting consistent snowstorms after a pretty dry winter. The sleds are getting some use and we have shovels on every porch. Percy, the dog, is getting a bit picky. He’ll no longer go outside to potty in the morning until you’ve shoveled the steps and a little “potty path” for him. That means one of us has to get out of bed each snowy morning and quickly outfit ourselves in heavy winter gear just to avoid a wet spot on the floor. Ug.

We’re taking a very short trip in two weeks, which was one of my Christmas presents. I asked for “two nights in a place with a fireplace in the room located in a neat town with lots of neat shops.” Richard found just what I wanted in a little town in New Hampshire and made reservations for three nights! Yea! He’s the best hubby in the world…

Hugs to all!
Angela

P.S. Want to read real query letters that landed these contracts? Woman’s Day – $2,800; Redbook – $3,500; Ladies Home Journal – $3,000; DiscoveryHealth.com – $2,000; Lifetime Magazine – $3,000; Life Extension magazine – $6,480; Natural Remedies $11,300; and many more! Click HERE.