Dac Crossley's Western Blog

R U on Facebook?

A silly question. Of course you are! I'm the laggard here.

I’m such a slow old-timer. These new methods don’t come easily. My intuition doesn’t handle them very well. I bought a copy of Facebook for Dummies and worked my way through it. I’m getting a grip.

We writers are always looking for new ways to promote our books (and ourselves). I must admit that I’ve been too slow to pick up on Facebook – thought it was mostly a place to post family photos. Was I wrong! I was taken aback when I finally got around to listing one of my events on Facebook. The response was much larger than expected. Clearly, a lot of you are using the social media.

Our world marches on. Familiar objects, everyday tools disappear right in front of us, or morph into recognizable shells with new mysterious innards. Novel household tools push the old familiar ones to the back of the pantry. We struggle to stay agile with new kitchen appliances, new foods, new miracle meals. Lord, what next?

How much longer will we have the printed word? Will pixels replace pages? It’s happening faster than I’d like. Yes, I read e-books and they serve me better in some circumstances. But – I cannot sell and sign an e-book. Not yet, anyway. Please don’t take that away.

Next is Twitter for Dummies and Linkedin for Dummies and (heaven help me!) Social Marketing for Dummies.

I’m finally on Facebook. Please be my friend. Please write something on my wall.

Dac Crossley
June 25, 2011

“When all men think alike, no one thinks very much.” – Walter Lippmann.

Guerilla Book Marketing

We adopt radical methods for marketing our novels. Always looking for new ways to call attention to them.

Paddle Georgia is an annual event, a canoe trip down one of Georgia's many rivers. Hundreds participate in journeys of several days, with overnight camping and rest stops along the way.

So, I've rented one of the rest stop porta-potties to advertise my latest novel, Escape from the Alamo.

Here's the inside of the potty, with the book cover displayed on the inside of the door, and a copy of the novel hanging by a string. And a supply of my business cards.

They say that fifty percent of advertising works. But nobody knows which fifty percent it is.

(Thanks, April...)

Dac Crossley
6.18/2011

"A problem well put is half solved." - John Dewey.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Do-it-yourself Publishing - Sin or Virtue?

As you may know, I've self-published three western novels. I'm quite pleased with the result. However, we're kinda treated as second-class citizens - "vanity" writers who couldn't make it via the traditional publishers.

It's universally recognized that the publishing industry is changing rapidly, largely due to developments in digital technology and the emergence of print-on-demand publishing. I'm interested in the impact of those far-reaching changes. Who else is taking control of their own books?

I'm talking today with my old friend Dr. Robert Coulson, Professor of Entomology at Texas A&M University and Director of the Knowledge Engineering Laboratory. He’s taken the unusual step of self-publishing a textbook, “Basic Landscape Ecology”.

Bob – You’re self-publishing a textbook? What’s wrong with the traditional publishers? They’re usually anxious to add a good book to their list.

Publishing is a business now driven by the digital age. There are three tasks: writing the text, producing the book, and selling it. Traditional publishers handle the second and third tasks, paying royalties in the neighborhood of fifteen percent. And, the author relinquished copyright to the publisher. The suite of electronic publishing applications available today cancels the benefits of a publisher producing and selling your book. It's a learning process, but you can do it!

Why should I learn about Landscape Ecology?

As you know, Dac, the discipline of ecology deals with living organisms in the context of their natural environment. Landscape ecology provides the spatial and temporal context for this focus. And, landscape ecology includes the presence, actions, and activities of humans. You need to read the book, Dac.

Where can I buy your book?

You can purchase “Basic Landscape Ecology” from my company at www.kelabpartners.com. Marketing it is the big experiment, isn’t it? Our strategy has been to advertise the book through ecology conferences. Conference organizers have permitted us to display the book. As conference registrants we have access to e-mail addresses of other participants, so we build an e-mail list. We target teachers of ecology. If the book is “adopted” for a course, it will be available their bookstore.

Finally, Bob, How’s the Aggie football team looking for 2011?

The performance of the football team is always a perplexing subject, but there is one immutable fact about all the games: The Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band has never lost a half – farmers fight!

Check out Dr. Coulson at: kelab.tamu.edu/coulson/

Dac Crossley
June 13, 2011

"There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew." - Marshall McLuhan

San Antonio's Hot Wells

When I was quite young my father would drive us up to San Antonio, where we would stay in the Hot Wells Tourist Court. Here's the old DeSoto at the entrance, Mom inside waiting for Dad to take the picture, back in 1933.

In later years we stayed at the Alamo Court on Broadway, near to Breckenridge Park and the zoo. The Hot Wells Tourist Court hangs on, in the fringes of my memory.

An artesian well drilled near the river once gushed thousands of gallons a day, hot sulphur water. A resort soon sprang up to take advantages of the healing properties of the warm, foul-tasting waters. Hot Springs went through several iterations of health spas and resort hotels. Devastating fires would destroy one hotel and another would arise. In the time of my childhood tourist cabins surrounded the ruins of the final attempt at a hotel complex.

That hot sulphur water released into the San Antonio River soon gave birth to an extensive bed of freshwater mussels, downstream from Hot Wells. When a youngster looking for fish bait cracked open a mussel, he discovered a large pearl. Almost immediately a bonanza was born, a "pearl rush." Word was that New York jewelers would pay fantastic prices for the pearls. San Antonians panned the muck for the valuable mussels.

It didn't last long. The mussels were all grubbed out, their shells littering the banks. According to historian Char Miller there were "sporatic revivals" of the pearl harvesting, but nothing like the original extensive mussel beds.

Here's an opportunity for Professor Dac to say something about the over-exploitation of natural resources. Professor Miller makes that point for me in "On the Border. An Environmental History of San Antonio."

Tourist courts were fun. When we were young.

Dac Crossley
June 4, 2011

"The sentimentalist ages far more quickly that the person who loves his work and enjoys new challenges." - Lillie Langtry.