My friends and family hate my books

At first I shared just about every piece of news I had about any of my books. New review? Facebook that! Favorable news about sales? Tweet it! Guest blogging? Reblog, baby!

It worked like clockwork works. Tweets led to sales. My friends and family gave me virtual high fives. And a few even became fans, which makes me happier than I can describe.

But I've hit a point of diminishing returns. And if the previous three glowing reviews of Sin Walks Into The Desert didn't convince my social circles to check it out, the next three ain't going to either. I'm afraid I'm pissing my friends off by flogging my novels 24/7.

So I'm going to stop. Instead, I've started an email list. You'll find it the righthand column of this site. Opt in, I'll spam you. But only very occasionally, when I have a new book, a special offer, or real news to talk about. You can also favorite me on Amazon or fan me on Goodreads.

Thanks for the support! 

If I started calling myself a message director, would that be cool or would people just roll their eyes?

Copywriters got hosed in the job title department. The word doesn't indicate that we also come up with concepts, cast talent, choose music, direct voiceovers, develop content for multiple media channels, help our partners determine a visual approach, manage junior creatives, present work to our clients, and often even determine strategy.

Decades ago, some designer looked across the table and said, "I'm going to start calling myself an 'art director.'" And his copywriter should have replied, "OK. Then I'm going to start calling myself a 'message director.'" But he didn't. Whoops.

Maybe we ought to correct that mistake. More than ever, copy is the least of a copywriter's problems. Integrated storytelling, with multiple engaging and surprising doorways into a cohesive brand, is our current measure of greatness.

Yes, I still get giddy when I get a brief asking for a 30-second spot. But I get equally giddy when a client says, "We have this much money. How do we use it to maximize our brand across multiple consumer touchpoints?" A copywriter may not have the answer. But a message director certainly would.

[Ed. - This post was inspired by a discussion on the Egotist.]

My week without a browser that became three weeks without a browser finally yields an insight

My ongoing experiment finally turned up a useful observation. My goal was to use only my Blackberry, email app, and RSS reader to access online content. I assumed the experience would teach me something about mobile marketing. But while I did feel an increased a connection to brands that offered mobile sites, like Google and 9NEWS, the most interesting change was the way I managed my life. My desktop email and calendar applications became meaningless when I could manage those functions in real time from my mobile device. So by purposefully eliminating Firefox, I accidentally eliminated Entourage. I'm not sure if it's fair to extrapolate my experience to the general population, but think about this: If more people start using their mobile device as their primary means of retrieving email, email marketing that contains lots of links, offers and products will become pretty annoying. Short emails with a simple coupon for one targeted offer would be a whole lot better.