Patience had its reward and about
three years ago I started my Journal of
the Silent Majority website on GoDaddy.
When I attempted it for the first time the process was too complicated for me,
but I was fortunate to have help from an individual smarter than me and that’s what
it took. Someone new to writing books
and publishing has to have some help once in a while, but it’s not like the
all-encompassing assistance the professionals back east get. When they write a book, it literally takes a
village. When little people like me
write a book without that assistance, it’s monumental. There will be mistakes, but hopefully they
will be minimal. Since there is no
influence of the corporate or institutional variety, my book remains an
authentic blood and guts memoir and history of the U.S. since WWII.
Over three years ago I took the
advice I’d seen in several books on self-publishing to create my website for
pre-publication publicity. It was like
following the wisdom of the old saying: “From an acorn grows the big oak.” On November 16, 2012 I followed up on
Blogger.com to create my blog which has more than 3,000 views and keeps me
writing and telling the stories I love to tell.
Sadly, I’ve seen local writers neglect the practice and wither on the
vine. My thanks to Blogger.com for
letting me live out my natural inclinations especially on bleak winter days
like the past four where the Arctic ice and snow has made everyone in the
Ozarks and along the Missouri and Arkansas line hunker down.
It’s especially gratifying to go to
the sites’ dashboards and retrieve the audience statistics. Of course, most of my viewers are from the
U.S. In second place come the Germans
and the Russians are third. I hope I do
not disappoint them because this American knows a lot about their history and
much of it is covered in JSM. How their
histories tie in with ours is crucially important because (Shall I say it
again?) history does not occur in a vacuum.
In a time when the big boys in New York won’t even look at a little guy,
those statistics which reflect growing interest are like
a breath of fresh air to me.
For those who have been patient with
me I have good news. The publication
time for Journal of the Silent Majority
will be 2014. The galleys came out very
well. For a first time author, I was
surprised. Valley Star Publishing was
born and I’ve received my ISBNs. There
is proper funding. I’ve closely studied
several self-publishers and I do not intend to make their mistakes. Because of that, I’ve developed a strategic
plan; one that is more innovative.
There’s a wonderful technological revolution that makes it possible.
