It seems like I’ve been spending a lot of time telling people no lately, and as much as I try to be accommodating to others whenever I can, I know that I’ve disappointed some folks.
In the last two days alone, four different people have asked if Terry or I would look at their book project, anywhere from 10 to 50 pages, and give them our feedback. I know it may not seem like reading a few pages would be that much of a chore, but we just don’t have the time. Again, this was four requests in just two days. In the course of a month I get many requests like this and there is no way to handle them all and still get any work done on our own projects. Some folks don’t even ask first, they just send their manuscript and ask me to read it. I wish you all a lot of success with your writing and publishing projects, and I hope you understand when I have to say no.
Something else I get on a daily basis are invitations to join Google +, Linkedin, and other social media. I’m on Facebook and occasionally I post something on Twitter, but that’s enough for me. I appreciate the invitations but I’ll pass. It’s not that I don’t value all of you but there’s just one of me and there are only so many hours in a day. I also don’t play online games, so sending me an invitation to Farmville or whatever is a waste of both of our time.
And then there are e-mails. I don’t appreciate blanket forwards but I do welcome e-mails from our readers and try to reply as soon as possible. Sometimes folks get upset if I don’t reply immediately. The other day while I was at the VA hospital, somebody wrote to ask me for my opinion on a fifth wheel trailer they are considering purchasing but I was not able to reply right then. By the time we were done they had sent two more e-mails asking if I was getting their message and why I had not replied. I’ve seen instant coffee and instant oatmeal, but nobody has invented instant Nick yet that I know of.
Speaking of e-mail, yesterday my friend Sandi Swanson called to tell me she had just received a spam e-mail from me. Yeah. Apparently somebody hacked one of my e-mail accounts. I’ve changed all of my passwords, but if you get an e-mail from Nick Russell with Nick Russell in the subject line, it’s spam and not from me. I apologize for the inconvenience.
The wind blew hard all day yesterday and all night long and we never even poked our noses out the door. I spent the whole day trying to format the print version of Miss Terry’s Kitchen, which was an experience beyond frustrating. No matter what I did I couldn’t get the page numbers to work in InDesign, the page layout program. I tried everything in the manual and everything I could find online and kept beating my head against a wall. I finally said the heck with it (well, maybe I said something a little bit stronger) and just started inserting them manually. By the time I finally gave up about 10 p.m. my hands were throbbing but I was somewhere over halfway done. Hopefully I can wrap it up today.
Have you signed up for our Free Drawing yet? This week’s prize is an audiobook of Dog’s Run, my stand alone mystery set in a small town in Ohio in 1951. It’s grittier than my Big Lake
Thought For The Day – I never make the same mistake twice. I usually make it four or five times, just to be sure.
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Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Hate to sound cold, but I suspect that if a “writer” has such little confidence in what they’ve written, then they should probably not bother. There’s enough junk floating around out there as it is. Your time is your own, no need to apologize.
Carry on.
I’ve not tried writing a book and probably never will. However, if I did, I can’t imagine asking someone I don’t know to review the manuscript. I know enough about writing to know that it’s hard work and, with writing and everything else that you do, spending valuable time on someone else’s work would not be very appealing. Of course, spending valuable time on unsolicited junk would be a real pain.
The world is filled with clods and apparently the RV lifestyle has its share of them, too. Your time is yours alone, Nick. No need to apologize.
Many lawyers charge $500 an hour for “advice”.
Nick, you do not need to apologize to these free loaders, if they want someone to review their work they need to find someone who charges probably an arm and a leg to review their books. You have enough on your plate to handle and you do it so well.
Nick, as you and Terry are the kind, courteous people that you are, I understand why you’d apologize for not being able to proofread someone’s manuscript. But many people depend on the blog part of your agenda every day, as well as the creative part which would be your written works, for entertainment and advice. Although I’m being selfish, I’m thinking that you and Terry should continue doing what your fans have come to rely on you for, and only other stuff if it fits into what you want to do. And thanks for what you do.
I am looking forward to recipe book, can’t wait.!