Publishing Behind the Scenes Photo Takes

Spring is coming!!!

Yesterday I walked the North Olmsted Trail/Seneca Park.
The trail was still snow covered uneven and the sun at 9AM was there then gone, then back again, still it felt great walking about with my camera. By 10 AM the sun was more consistent. After the Meetup Photo Group dispersed I thought, (hey, I'm right here...the Zoo.)...

So I spent a couple hours with the animals. Upgrades over these past years, Seneca Park Zoo is becoming more "natural" habitat centered.

Took the long way home by way of Charlotte Beach and Braddocks Bay, Lake Ontario Southern Shoreline. Lake was layer multi-colored depending upon how far off shore I focused my camera.
I walked the pier almost to the end lighthouse although snow-ice-slush covered. My legs tired of hiking snow and uneven terrain all day, so I opted for shoreline shots. The advantage of walking the pier was close-up shots of floating ice chunks and graters so glad I did all but the last 70 feet.

North Trail Seneca Park / Charlotte Lakeshore Photo Album

(before clicking link, Bookmark this page to return)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2985&id=100000827497643&l=f889d64fcb


Seneca Park North Trail and Pond / Zoo Photo Album

(before clicking this link, Bookmark this page to return)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2981&id=100000827497643&l=59450a9a2e


More information on Seneca Park (Olmsted Horticultural Projects):

http://www.landmarksociety.org/section.html?id=1&uid=53


For information on Photography and other Meet Up Groups:

http://wwww.Meetup.com

Publishing / Behind the Scenes

Ever wonder what World exists beyond the book?

What Author - Publisher Pathways involve?

The number of decisions involved? whether Self-Publishing or Publishing House?
Marketing? Ground Breaking Now Age Technology?

Listen in...

Listen to Dr. Kent & Sally on Blog Talk Radio

Rising Sparrow Press Project / Facebook

Publishing / the business side of Books.

Since Founding Rising Sparrow Press, December 2003 I have spent many hours learning and expanding my view of marketing or design or gathering resources or legwork-footsteps meeting people local and World-wide.

All of the computer technical information was a combination of self-taught then application (holding my breath hoping it worked) and targeted help by my computer mentor when I was lost forest-trees vision impaired. Net Results

Then - add the last 10 years of computer growth, expansion of what's possible. I started when F-functions had to be hand selected and computers took up entire desk surfaces. Yes, paper had been invented. I wrote 10 years not 1000, unless my computer keyboard is acting up. That you could always count on...computers acting up...like mine had a mind of it's own or it needed to prove superiority over me.

Computers led me to take astrology more serious. Trust me...if Mercury is Retrograde do not, I repeat DO NOT react when your computer acts funny. It is supposed to then...its written in the stars. And whatever you do, Don't go to buy a new one until Mercury gets out of its Retrograde mood.

I started with a website developed by an expert (my mentor and her connections) smart enough to know I was not gifted in computer language and format.

Born (2004): http://www.risingsparrowpress.com/

I learned Frontpage so that I could manage the site through the host.
I loved this for the frequency that I could add content, edit content, add resources, and to change my mind without involving head offices or The National Guard to control computer created chaos that I could create back during the learning stages. Either I have gotten better with computers or they have made it less possible to mess up. I hope both is true.

Next came blogs. I started with Blogger (easiest at the time and free).

Set-up specifically for Dear Daisy book and publishing: Storytellers and Writers, this blog.

To separate writing and storytelling from other interests I set-up:
http://lakeontarioshoreline.blogspot.com/ . That blog contains the most "how-to" information or examples of the photo restoration I've done/do.

I write specific to Rising Sparrow Press / Publishing through blog on Typepad (first free,then I started a small fee account, now I need to update that account-I left it parked there by ownership of the domain name). I will be returning to that blog for specific publishing information-resources during year, 2010.

http://recordfootsteps.typepad.com/record_footsteps_in_publi/

Social Networking entered the possibilities. I connected via (1)Forum of like-minded, goal directed, mission seeking individuals and participated in an every-growing list of teleconferences and organized efforts for social networking and marketing. I'll set it to be a goal to update a list of resources I have found most helpful and will offer it on original website http://www.risingsparrowpress.com/ . I am also developing e-books so this would be a great place to offer those and detailed information.

Also there on the original website http://www.risingsparrowpress.com/ listings of great Resources. People have told me they have gotten lost there. For no other reason than an example of writing/publishing, look at the Writer's Project during New Deal Period when then, too we were rebuilding America: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html . To get there if entering from RSP website (not above direct link) click on Resources located on RSP Homepage.

RSP entered the World of Twitter (2009)...Yes, I Tweet.

Set-up YouTube for media-video development and for platform with the ultimate goal book trailers and...film-making/producing. In process, always. http://www.youtubecom/JaneMarlaVerDow


Continuing on this path, RSP developed Facebook Page most recent.
If interested, click on my Facebook link-badge on this or Lakeshore blog. Join if you wish...free.

So the question has circled back then evolved to become: How to Preserve the Message of Rising Sparrow Press; the message RSP was founded upon; the message statement written through words of book, Dear Daisy,2004?

Competing with all this...writing next books and daily bread making and life.

This was my next step...

Networking - Communications - Living the Golden Rule/Business

my New Page listed/linked on Facebook.

"Starting this Page as a place to social network encouraging others to join in. One rule: The Golden Rule. Place posts of you/your business/your gifts that serve others. Place posts that you have found to ease your path that could benefit others"

Those were the starting words I chose to represent the Golden Rule (my perspective). Written late night and tired, I vow to go back to expand ideas/thoughts/discussion if anyone is struggling with how they interpret the Golden Rule to participate. There is a discussion board set-up there, so feel free to supply your thoughts,ideas, suggestions.

Established this platform...

because I believe, as I wrote in Dear Daisy...

what was once a question I asked there, now through Rising Sparrow Press becomes a statement...

"...one candle and candles united in purpose create the World’s path of creation..." ~ Jane Marla VerDow (Dear Daisy)

I believe this. My intent and purpose; to prove by living it that my belief is true.

I invite others to join me.

Jane Marla VerDow

(Janie)

The Wise Kid

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Scott Adams, Cartoonist Dilbert

Perfectionism. That's what gets in the way of writing and creating. Gets in the way of anything productive, for that matter.

Children's writings often get closest to truth. At least truth that I can understand.

“Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” Margery Williams, from The Velveteen Rabbit

Today I was feeling most unpurposeful...there is such a word, at least in my mind...today.

Challenging myself to work, when play seemed more on target. Challenging my plan because the details were less than in some finished state. Why bother with some next blog post or some next step when for the life of me I could not picture where it was all leading or what "it" would be, and especially no answer to "why"?.

So this morning I was reading a post from a Forum friend. Same, or at least a close similar thought there. Words saying something about taking advantage of the moment and meaning not getting too caught up in the end product. A recent past she described, taking advantage of an opportunity that was on offer rather than try later, alone, perhaps days or months later. Her's today, What a website would be in final form? Mine today, What is this blog's purpose and how does this one fit with the (2) others I write?

My wise kid smiled connecting, reading her post. Ah, my wise kid, the one I can always count on to be there, or I should write, to be here with me.

My wise kid's advice? My wise kid's thought on the subject...the comeback...

The only one who really needs to be concerned with the final version presentation is the Undertaker.

Since I'm not interested in that job...guess I'll settle for being less than perfect along this writing-publishing pathway. So this is today's post. It fits today...for me...

Where it fits the finished product and Plan? I have no idea. And...I smile.

Jane Marla VerDow

Author: Jane Marla VerDow, Dear Daisy copyright ©2004; Independent Publishing: Rising Sparrow Press, est. 2003.
Visit Author Website http://www.risingsparrowpress.com/ to learn more about author’s upcoming titles or for writing and self-publishing resources. Also find Hard to Find Resources on history, travel, rare/old book finds, and arts/literature.

Rising Sparrow Press assists you to write, collect and restore the yesterdays and today.
Create the legacy others will treasure tomorrow...

For Publishing information visit: http://www.recordfootsteps.typepad.com/

Professional Reviews

Dear Daisy, a book read over and over by readers, and many shared awakening, transformative moments and stories. Many told of second, then third time readings. Many described that with each read, new experience or insight was gained.

Professional Reviewers? Rising Sparrow Press originally limited the number to a handful of copies mailed for professional reviews. This by Publishing standards is extremely conservative. I knew this.
At a later date the list was expanded by 6 additional copies, all tailored to highly specific niche markets. All review copies were author signed and sent to reviewers in the self-publishing and specific niche market venues; each one down a path focusing on social issues. Reviewers? Not one answered. Not one review, good or bad.

Then, and especially now, I wonder if any read the first line, or sentence, or paragraph.Reading bits and pieces at best, how much of the story, the message contained would be missed through casual glance at a cover? Bound traditional, void of a paper dustcover with photo enhanced quality, not modern eye accepted or valued. Prejudice is like that, depth lost. The feel of the book, the texture of life lost and the people’s stories there bound, the Souls underneath are missed in the speed of a modern scan reading moment.

Reviewers, so many today caught in the manufacturing, book printing and distribution; a market-sales world design.A book’s life based upon shelf life days, weeks, a few short months at best for a “best seller”.Investment is based upon how quick the dump, the unload, the sale. Literature for future generations…? I am not wise enough to venture the guess.

Perhaps, more time may tell what books will some later date be rebound, reprinted, and will rekindle the spark of a reader’s enthusiasm and interest.

Self-publishers, dedicated to written word and story, I sense will preserve the tradition of bringing variety to book shelves. Perhaps not all books will be judged by an end market sales value. I hope…for the expanded moment told by journalists and the storytellers of times and places, and the validity of our historical accounts and records hang in the balance. Yes, as a writer I do feel editing and publishing may very well edit away or block the truth and stories of our times if we only write with the final sale our sole purpose.

As the Author of Dear Daisy, hand signed copies floating somewhere…or sitting on some reviewer's personal library shelf…or used to create someone’s social program…or re-gifted as someone’s Christmas present…I wonder…and…I smile, knowing someday those copies will reappear. My only hope…that future holders and distributors will sign the book to the next, and then the next so that the trail can be read…and valued. As a book collector, I love to find old books and I can sense the hands that have held and the path such books traveled...fascinating to see the signature and date trail. As the Author, I would hope this path for Dear Daisy.

A few early sales to coworkers...their stories revealed that a few had family living in Puerto Rico, Canada, and China…so just for the fun of it, I signed a handful of books as gifts to send offshore just to see where Daisy would travel. Someday…maybe two hundred years from now, those copies will resurface…and I can’t wait to see where Daisy’s flight pattern traveled.

As Publisher, the investment in obtaining reviews I would question for future books, especially my own, those similar in written design to Dear Daisy. A self-help, a murder mystery, or an in vogue romance novel…maybe reviews would serve such a book’s purpose.

In hindsight, often the best sight, the professional review path just wasn’t the path for Dear Daisy. In hindsight, I trust my readers more than I wish to donate to reviewer collections.

Of Three Hearts

As I took first steps Publishing I reviewed previous steps I had taken, my words as written in Dear Daisy. My heart-mind was uncertain and conflict between head and heart caused my steps to be more determined.

Which path the author, I would consent to follow; my personal heart, loyalty to Daisy and her peaceful resolution and teaching ways; and the publisher’s dream to distribute the message of this book to its rightful audience, to propel energy and to profit against debt and investment?

Words written to children (Dear Daisy):

To the “other children” if I could have spoken to them, I would have told them the secret I’ve learned through my experiences with this time called life and to travel a wilderness. It’s all in the step and mostly in the fact that you step but also take time to rest if only for a minute. It doesn’t matter if you can’t feel the ground or have no idea where you’re going. Your feet know the way and your heart is your compass. Follow your heart and build your dreams.

Excerpt from a letter I composed on my Justice pathway in honor of my mentor, Daisy.
(Dear Daisy)

The motto of the National Association of Colored Woman, “Lifting As We Climb” expresses most closely my own beliefs and guides in word what my heart attempts in action for daily living. Perhaps my sharing this additional detail with you will help to further clarify the Justice path I chose.

From Twentieth Century Negro Literature, 1902
“And so lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition ere long.With courage born of success in the past, with a keen sense of responsibility, which we must continue to assume, we look forward to the future, large with promise and hope. Seeking no favors because of our color or patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice and ask for an equal chance.”

God be with us on our pathways of Peace and Justice,
Jane


“First, is the dangers of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills –against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence.Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man.”
Senator Robert F. Kennedy (June 6, 1966)


The Author, the loyal friend, and the Publisher, all, consented that a portion of Dear Daisy would be donated. My thank-you to Daisy for being my loyal friend, on Earth and from Heaven.

The dream: to sow seeds to the wind; to let Daisy fly and travel the globe. My heart, all of my heart was drawn to the wonder, and then I wrote this Author letter on the website I created, www.RisingSparrowPress.com

Author's Letter

Welcome.
I hope you enjoy the feel of this website. I hope it feels like
home.

Some say one always knows what they want to be when they
grow up. Truth told, I always knew. At least on some level.
There are the stories my sister could tell of me taking all of the
Little Golden Books in our house and printing my name on
the front inside cover. Those same storybooks now are part of
my home library.

Maybe it was more obvious than I knew when I would write
and hand my work to anyone to read just to watch them read,
seeing their face change, knowing where they were and what I
had written that could alter their expression. Connection.

I never spent a single second or stamp sending in any of my
words to Publishing Houses.That was part of the vision I had.
Back when. Not sending in any of my work, that is. To be
censored or edited or rejected was not part of the plan.

Researching traditional marketing pathways I soon found
myself discontent with modern ways. Too many authors sound
the same. Especially the "how to" books. Too much sales focus
and not enough of anything else. I was searching for my voice.
I love authors who have their own.

You see, I knew the greats that I loved back when I was
dreaming this dream to author made their own path. There was
something pioneering, adventurous, even daring about writing
words and finding a path for words to travel.

So here I am. Writing and finding that pathway.

My dream now? That someone two hundred years from now
will find a copy of my work and it will still hold value.


Jane Marla Ver Dow



“Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (Noble Lecture, December 11, 1964)