When we got back to Elkhart Campground on Thursday, we had a huge box of mail awaiting us, so we spent most of Friday getting orders ready to mail out, and we managed to make it to the post office a few minutes before closing time.
Yesterday we spent the day logging in all of the orders we had received, as well as some leftover paperwork from the FMCA rally in Ohio a couple of weeks ago. I also spent much of the day working on the seminar schedule for our upcoming Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally. It’s a balancing act to try to get everybody who wants to do a seminar scheduled in, and also in trying to avoid having two seminars at the same time that clash, as for example our For Women Only Roundtable, and the excellent What Every RVing Woman Should Know seminar.
We also don’t want to go the route of so many RV rallies and just have the same seminars over and over again, by the same people, at every rally. When that happens, people get bored pretty quick and stop returning. We do have some repeat seminars from last year’s Ohio rally, but we also have a lot of new offerings, including two different seminars on genealogy, a new seminar on making digital slideshows, and one on cooking on the road. And don’t forget that premier RV speakers and authors Joe and Vicki Kieva will be presenting their excellent RVing Alaska seminar, as well as a seminar on RV and Camping Tips.
To check out our tentative seminar schedule, click the Rally Seminars link and scroll to the bottom of the page. As you can see, we still have a few holes to fill, but we’ve got a great lineup scheduled.
I also spent some time exchanging e-mails with a fellow who has been reading my Publishing4Profit website, and wrote to ask my advice on a self-publishing project he wants to undertake. He told me he had read every word of the website, and just wanted to go over a few things with me.
I’m always happy to help someone out, if only as a sounding board to bounce ideas off. But this gentleman really didn’t want advice, he just wanted me to tell him that his manuscript which is by his description “an eclectic mixture of fiction, autobiography, poetry, and political musings,” was going to be a bestseller and make him bushel baskets full of money.
I try to explain to would be authors in my What Do I Write About page on the website that fiction and poetry does not sell, and unless you are a figure in the public eye, nobody wants to read your life story. Okay, your wife and kids will read it, but that’s just because they don’t want to hurt your feelings. Still, this fellow was convinced that he was sitting on a gold mine. After all, everybody is always telling him “You should write a book.” What could I do, except try to tell him the facts of life, and then wish him well when it became apparent he wasn’t listening. I’ve made my living crunching words for much of my adult life, and I’ve managed to learn a thing or two along the way about what works and what doesn’t.
Several blog readers have written to me asking if we are going to see a Bad Nick Blog. My pal Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour is busy working on the format, and we should be launching the new blog in the next two or three weeks. But beware, like Berni Frees said in a comment in a blog post somewhere, she’s seen Bad Nick up close and personal, and it’s not gonna be pretty!
Thought For The Day – I may be schizophrenic, but at least I have each other.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
It is my opinion that if someone suggests “You should write a book,” you should interpret it to mean “You have been babbling on and dominating the conversation for hours and you should go write it all down and leave the rest of us to have a normal conversation.” It does not mean that anyone is necessarily going to want to read a book about your musings.
“Fiction … does not sell”? There is a lot of fiction out there and the Harry Potter series sure sold a lot of books. Did you mean that a combination of fiction and poetry does not sell?
Nick, I’ve been told I should write a book, and I have about seven or eight partial chapters sitting in my computer. I’ve pretty much decided that those partial chapters will sit there, and maybe someone will drag them up and send them to my kids after I’m gone. You know that writing is a lot of work, and I’m retired, for heaven’s sake!
(Did you know that Darlene Miller published part of one of our blogs in her second “RV Chuckles and Chuckholes” book? We’re in print!!!!)
We are eagerly awaiting a chance to read Bad Nick, as long as it doesn’t get TOO up-close and personal!
Doug,
Yes, a very few fiction authors make it big, but for every novel that sells, there are thousands that will never even get a glance from an editor. Just like for every country music star or actor out there, you can find hundreds of people just as talented who never made it.
The purpose of my self-publishing website is to help people make money. Unfortunately, 95% of those who write fiction will never make a dollar at it.
Nick