It’s day 12 of the Kickstarter for The Hawaii Project, Monday, April 13.

$7,045, 20% of goal, picked up $10 yesterday. Sigh.

I’ve mostly battled through my bout of Resistance, which I hit yesterday and which you can read about here.  Haven’t heard back from anyone yet, but hope springs eternal….

Got a meeting set up with Porter Square Books. Yay! Going to go pick their brains about bookselling, author promotion, and see if there’s any way to work together. Doing things that don’t scale. 

First, I’m off to Firecracker, to whom I am an advisor. They’ve got big momentum in medical education, awesome new offices in downtown Boston, and interesting challenges (and they’re hiring). It’s fun to worry about somebody else’s problems for a change. It’s like the difference between being a parent and being a grandparent. When you’re a grandparent, when you’re done playing, you hand the kid back, say “here you go”, and go home 8) (and worry). When you’re the parent, you have to wake up at 2 in the morning to deal with the problem.

Finish up with Firecracker, head to Porter Square, am told the person I am meeting it’s their day off and they’re not here. Shit. Some kind of misunderstanding. Oh well. I make arrangements to go back tomorrow. Day in the life…..

I talk to my dad on the phone this evening, haven’t talked to him in awhile. It’s dusk, and while I’m talking to him, deer run through my yard. I think of the Coyote that was in the yard a few days ago, and it all keeps my problems in perspective – at least a coyote isn’t trying to eat me 8).

Today’s Music: I stumble across the song for the new True Detectives show. Absolutely hypnotic. I don’t know the show but the music, wow.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OfU7CGY5DQ. A little research shows it’s Lera Lynn and unreleased. So I spent an hour with that and this (a cover of TV on the Radio’s Wolf Like Me, on infinite repeat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwVX4cG6F9s

It’s day 11 of the Kickstarter for The Hawaii Project, April 12. Sunday.

$7,035, 20% of goal, thanks to a generous donation. Still coming in as a trickle. Not going to make it…..

It’s Sunday. Thinking about dialing it back today. I have one main goal for today. Get in touch with book bloggers. So far, I’ve mailed friends, acquaintances, journalists, librarians (every library in the state of Massachusetts believe it or not!), and gazillion other people. But I haven’t sent any to book bloggers, who should be interested, both for their readers and so they could get their blog included in The Hawaii Project. I’ve been meaning to do this since day 2 of the campaign, haven’t done it….

I start to draft an email, built out of the key messages I’ve crafted and been repeating, but tailored for book blogs (I’ve repeated this stuff so much it’s starting to feel stale). One thing I’m going to offer them is to do a guest post. I start looking around at what’s going on in the books world to see if I can draft off of something, make a topical post.

There’s a HUGE controversy going on right now in Science Fiction land around the Hugo Awards. It’s fallen prey to the same political polarization that’s everywhere else too. Just google “Sad Puppies” and you’ll get the picture pretty quick. There is a blog post to be written, about why the “Awards” mentality is fundamentally wrong, and why The Hawaii Project is on better footing in terms of helping readers, but I look up after about 3 hours of web surfing and realize I haven’t sent my mails.

Uh.Oh. I have encountered the dread Resistance, as Steven Pressfield likes to say (btw Read This Book). Procrastination if you will. That force that helps you avoid doing the things you should be doing, maybe because you’re afraid. I realize I’ve been putting this mail off and avoiding it for a long time. Because most everyone I’ve been in contact with so far has some reason to listen to me and hear me out. They’re a friend. Or a journalist who gets paid to listen to people like me pushing a product.

Book bloggers, well, they are the most bookish of people on the internet. I realize I’m afraid of having my work (and myself) judged. Found irrelevant. Found not worthy of mention. Ah, there it is. That’s why it’s taken so long to write this mail. Gotcha. It’s funny the things you can hide from yourself.

Brief Commercial Interruption: If you’re reading this, you may not know what The Hawaii Project is. The Hawaii Project brings you books and book news you’d never have found on your own, by tracking hand-selected sources of great books, uncovering things that match your favorite authors, personal interests and current events, and bringing them to you daily. 10% of our revenue goes to support 3 great literacy non-profits. 

If you think that’s a worthwhile endeavor, I’d appreciate your backing on Kickstarter: http://www.thehawaiiproject.com/kickstarter

OK, now I have that straightened out, I pick 10 blogs, read them so I understand their audience and profile, and fire off the mails pretty quickly. Not so hard after all. I had a quota of mails to send, and to punish myself I make sure I do more than my quota. (btw I’ve written about this too in Do More Than is Required of You).

And close out the day with the first episode of the season for Game of Thrones. Yay!

(music: Sunday is Jazz day at my place. Dexter Gordon’s wonderful Night in Tunisia and other gems here).

It’s day 10 of the Kickstarter for The Hawaii Project, April 11. Saturday.

1 new backer yesterday. We’re at $6870, 19% funded (yesterday’s diary entry had a typo btw, we’re at 19%, not 29% (I wish!). Discouraging. But, lots of time left. I’ve heard from enough people that they really want what I’m doing, that I attribute the state of things to my limited marketing talent rather than a lack of market demand.

Today’s Saturday, going to do some work, but also take some downtime. I’m finishing up a “Publisher” page for The Hawaii Project, where a publisher can have a presence inside the experience. I brainstorm with a friend of mine, finalize some things, and send it off. Vaya Con Dios, Publisher page! Bring back some publishers! (the cover image of this post in a Publisher Page for Black Lizard, a crime novel imprint). (Anybody know anybody at Black Lizard btw?)

“A sound mind in a sound body” is attributed to various Greeks & Romans, but whoever said it, it’s good advice. Especially when you’re in those intense work times, you need to exercise. I play in a tennis league, the regularly scheduled matches ensure I play even if I forget to schedule it. I play a singles match and do ok, and a doubles match, and lose, but I’ve had three hours of working out and de-stressing and not thinking about work.

An old acquaintance gets in touch and asks about features for book clubs. Gack! Damn! That’s a whole marketing angle I didn’t chase. Crap. Anybody got a good idea how to get in touch with the hundreds of thousands of book clubs out there in one fell swoop? Me neither. Sounds like “hand-to-hand combat” aka “retail marketing” aka “Do Things That Don’t Scale” is the only way there. Sigh.

Head home, and throw on a James Bond movie (Quantum of Solace, Daniel Craig, seems apropos), and start to mockup another publisher page. Goodnight!