This is a video I made yesterday, which is when I usually make videos. Anyhow, it’s about my continuing battle with clutter and piles of old books attempts to organize my office and save my heirs a shit ton of work when I’m no longer around.
Hi, me again. Have I ever even mentioned that I’m a librarian? Yes, I’m a librarian by training. I did work at the FTC Library for a short time, maybe a year, maybe more. I was part-time and I really enjoyed working there. It was a really nice place to work, but I couldn’t manage a full-time commute into DC. So even though they offered me that position, I said, “Well, I don’t think so. Sorry.” I was really sorry to leave because they were nice people and I loved working with them. Anyway, having said that, Super Searchers. Super Searchers make it on their own. This is about independent research, doing business as an independent researcher. I thought some of this advice, which by the way was published in, I think it was 2002, has not grown stale at all. It is something that we should all be thinking about.
Under the subhead “The People”. Let me just read this to you.
To make it on your own, you have to be your own driving force. There is nobody telling you what to do. You have to want to succeed and you have to be committed. Taking the risk makes you halfway successful already because you have to believe in the concept of your own success. The fact that you’re willing to shed your dependence on a single organization [or platform] speaks for itself.
I added the “or platform” part and I’ll let you guess which platform I have in mind.
You need a combination of skills and the ability to switch gears. You need to be able to work alone as well as interact effectively with clients, potential clients and colleagues.
I think that’s part of the good citizen part that somebody was talking about the other day in terms of publicity. Yeah. Working well with others, avoiding unnecessary drama. Drama is unnecessary most of the time.
Nothing is ever simple. If anything characterizes this group of people in terms of personality, it is an insatiable thirst for information.
This explains a lot about me. I tend to be very, very interested in a lot of things. Oh, back to what I was reading.
No stone is left unturned in the search for an answer even when making personal decisions.
Time management and organization are big issues and people take different approaches. While some love gadgets and have every possible electronic device networked and wired together, others keep life simple, refusing to get even a cell phone.
This is back in 2002. I’d like to see these people function today without a cell phone. I know that there are many people who are switching back to flip phones and I’m tempted sometimes to do that.
Networking, referrals, and cooperation tend to characterize these individuals, as opposed to a competitive spirit. To a large extent, individual success contributes to the growth and recognition of the profession.
I think these are all really important points that an information provider was conveying to her own community. And these are good points for authors as well. We do best when we support each other. We’re here for each other.
I read about this on FilmStack all the time. They’re there for each other. They’re promoting each other’s work. This screening is going on in New York and this one’s going on in LA and this one’s going on in Atlanta. I don’t happen to be in any of those places, but there they are.
So anyway, I mean, okay, Substack, good place for writers. Does anybody read it other than writers? I’m curious about that because I think somebody kind of brought that point up and it really wasn’t… I don’t know if it was asked as a direct question. I don’t know.
Anyway, all these different things we’re supposed to do to get noticed or whatever seems like who are we trying to reach? Sometimes we’re trying to reach other writers. Sometimes we’re trying to reach people who can help us out in our careers. Sometimes we’re trying to reach people who could get help from us. So nine times out of ten, I’m confused.
I just do my best. I try to make videos like this to share what I know, share what I’ve learned. And was I being a bad citizen back in 2011 when I said Amazon is getting too powerful? Was I being a bad citizen of the community? I don’t think so. I thought I was issuing a warning, but nobody wanted to hear it. Nobody wanted to hear it. Nobody. And believe me, I have never felt more lonely than I felt in the months after I made those statements about Amazon because nobody was communicating with me. Nobody. I mean, I eventually reached out to somebody and I actually had a phone call with someone. It just grounded me so much just to hear somebody’s voice. And the internet is not an easy place. It isn’t. It’s not even a friendly place. I mean, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t.
It’s just tough to know sometimes. And it’s getting tougher to know who you’re dealing with, whether it’s a real person or not. And there’s so much great knowledge in this book and books like this. I wish more people would read these instead of looking for advice in all the wrong places from God knows who.
There’s something else I wanted to talk about, but I’m going to save it for another video because really the idea that we can do anything is not a freeing thing to a person like myself. It’s a mind-boggling thing. It’s like, what thing do I want to do? I know what I gravitate toward. I gravitate toward books. I gravitate toward movies. I gravitate toward television. I gravitate toward environmental protection. Of course, as a lawyer, I’m interested in the law. I’m interested in seeing how the law is kind of being changed by the internet, so to speak. I think there are so many topics I could talk about that it gets ridiculous. But yeah, I still hate Amazon and I still think they’re an awful lot like a German dictator that I used to name all the time. So … eh! … that’s the way it goes. Sorry. No, I’m not sorry actually.
I’m fine. Just fine. Every time I say I’m fine, I’m not really fine. I’m usually in pain, but oh well, does that make me a bad citizen? I’m really starting to wonder if I should be an author. If I should just ditch the whole author thing and just say, “Well, that was fun while it lasted. I’m just going to do screenplays now or I’m just going to do productions now. I’m just going to produce movies now. I don’t know. I never know what the hell I could do. I do know I need to clean this room because honestly, it’s a mess. That’s it. That’s all I had to say. And I’ll be seeing you, with any luck. Take care. Ta ta!
PS: This just in! Fatal Connections is now available as an ebook on Amazon! And I didn’t use KDP to put it there. So I can leave there anytime.
Turns out that PublishDrive distributes to Amazon. And many other retailers worldwide.