Fall cleaning.  No, it’s not a typo.  It is not Spring cleaning.  Anyone can follow the convention of spring clean, which I admit, has some inherent attraction, but it isn’t for me.

It has been a busy summer with many author events plus planning the annual Wisconsin Writers Association Conference.  Last Saturday we polished off an exceptional that only 35% of the members bothered to attend.  An annual conference takes a ton of work and is outrage sly expensive.  We lost money on the conference and there isn’t a nonprofit organization that can sustain that approach to serving members.

I digress –this post is about cleaning.  Over the summer my home office looked like the picture above.  To regain normalcy I decided to begin a cleaning project on Monday.  I call it “cleaning out the cobwebs”.  My mind needs to be cleared and aired out.  Physically cleaning my office is a metaphor for cleaning my mind.

The latest rage is having a device to stand while working on your laptop.  I often spend six hours a day sitting at my computer and there is strong evidence that it is a killer.  Monday morning I went to Office Depot and purchased a small stand up desk for just $100.  I’ve ordered an anti-fatigue matt that should arrive by tomorrow.  So far, I like standing.

Perhaps fall cleaning is another change that comes with age.  I like it.
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When do you clean?
 

This Saturday, September 22, begins autumn.  When I was younger my favorite season of the year was spring.  Spring represented new beginnings, hope and a crescendo of energy.  It may have had something to do with having a spring birthday.

As I reach my late sixties with the seventies not far off in the distance my favorite season has become autumn.  In Wisconsin autumn brings a rainbow of color in dense forests, frosty mornings and the harvest.  I have found that autumn is a reflective time of year as nature and I get ready for winter.
Looking back over this year I pause to wonder if I made the right choices.  Looking backward to help determine how to move forward makes sense to me now.  It didn’t when I was thirty.

I have a nasty habit of over committing and this year in particular I plunged headlong into events without considering the consequences first.  The result, I’m tired.  I have already made major commitments for the future but now I am aware to not add any more.

Accepting and understanding your limits is a part of letting the sum of your life experience affect your path now.  I appreciate having a little time to reflect, gather myself up and face tomorrow with assurance and self-confidence.
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What is your favorite season – and why?

I published my first two books through Amazon Create Space.  At the time I praised Amazon for providing an easy to use tool to self-publish, provide print on demand books and help with marketing.  At the time Amazon was hailed as democratizing publishing and providing an opportunity for the “little guys” to participate in the publishing world.

Circumstances change, now I have a traditional publishing contract with Henschell HAUS Publishing, a regional publisher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.   Initially my contract was for my third book.  Several months later the publisher suggested I market the books as a series and offered a contract on the first and second book.  The covers were re-designed and improved, book size changed and now I have the Ian Murphy-Irish Troubles Series.

When the new series was published I received a notice from Amazon with a request to prove that publishing rights were given to HHP.  I complied and actually felt protected from Amazon.  Several weeks later I noticed that Amazon still had the original books and the new series.  This was confusing.  I learned that I had to send a request to Amazon to “retire” my titles in Create Space.  I assumed that meant the Create Space titles would disappear.  Wrong!!!
I received a long lawyer like response from Amazon that retiring a title doesn’t mean it is removed it only means I will not be able to order print on demand copies.  The Create Space titles remain on Amazon FOR ETERNITY. 

So, there will be confusion in Amazon world for the rest of time.  I can’t do anything about it. 

Once again Amazon is the 600 pound gorilla in the room. 
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Share your Amazon experiences with me.

Wisconsin is blessed with a number of small towns and villages that have a unique heritage.  Among them is New Glarus Wisconsin in the south west area of the state.  New Glarus was founded by a number of Swiss families because it reminded them of their European homeland and they could transplant their unique dairy farming to Wisconsin.

I spent this past Sunday in New Glarus at their summer art festival.  As I’ve come to expect in Wisconsin the weather refused to cooperate and the book sale was relegated to the basement of the Swiss United Church of Christ while the main event was located in a park across the street.

The book sale organizers placed handmade signs all around town but directing traffic into the church basement was a noble yet futile cause.
In terms of weekend book events this one was brief 10am to 3 pm.  In early afternoon one potential book buyer asked where the used books were located.  I didn’t understand the question but was able to learn that the local library was having a used book sale at the same time.  Had I known there would be competition from the local library I would have passed on the event.

In the five hours I sold two books.  The $30 table fee was a donation for the church’s mission in Salvador – so the cause was worthwhile.
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This event was my third in the last four weeks and I’m beginning to question the effort.  Has anyone else had experience with book sales events?