Barbara Eberhard's Blog, page 6
April 2, 2023
ANFA
Today's writing in Dad's biography was both the easiest and the hardest.
It was the easiest because there is so much material from the founding of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) to its continued work. Since ANFA started in 2003, it's entire journey has been in the days of the Internet. There are videos of its annual conference online, including some at which Dad presented. Dad also wrote quite a bit about ANFA in his autobiographical files. ANFA has a website and some of the material was taken from there. I had lots to work with.
On the other hand, not wanting to make the chapter the entire book, it was hard to narrow down the topics covered and get to the meat of what I wanted to say - which was about Dad's vision for ANFA. As well as the continued challenges ANFA has in trying to bring that vision to life. I had quotes from a lot of people, as well, as Dad involved almost everyone he'd known in ANFA in some capacity of another.
The chapter ended up at 16 pages, which is the longest of them all, but not outrageous. I'm sure there will be editing to come. And I'm hoping that some of the thinner chapters get fleshed out a bit more by the reviewers/interviewees who have agreed to review and edit the book.
It was the easiest because there is so much material from the founding of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) to its continued work. Since ANFA started in 2003, it's entire journey has been in the days of the Internet. There are videos of its annual conference online, including some at which Dad presented. Dad also wrote quite a bit about ANFA in his autobiographical files. ANFA has a website and some of the material was taken from there. I had lots to work with.
On the other hand, not wanting to make the chapter the entire book, it was hard to narrow down the topics covered and get to the meat of what I wanted to say - which was about Dad's vision for ANFA. As well as the continued challenges ANFA has in trying to bring that vision to life. I had quotes from a lot of people, as well, as Dad involved almost everyone he'd known in ANFA in some capacity of another.
The chapter ended up at 16 pages, which is the longest of them all, but not outrageous. I'm sure there will be editing to come. And I'm hoping that some of the thinner chapters get fleshed out a bit more by the reviewers/interviewees who have agreed to review and edit the book.
April 1, 2023
Tributes
As I continue to work on Dad's biography, the theme I try to keep in the front of my mind - and my writing - is how Dad was trying to change the world. Today, though, I revisited the tributes that had come in after he passed, and I was reminded again why I took on the task of writing his biography in the first place.
Person after person talked about how knowing Dad changed their life, mostly by changing their way of thinking. The architects talk about how he used systems thinking in his way of approaching architecture and how unique that was. Others point to performance-based design, which Dad pushed for, as opposed to the more traditional engineering design.
But when you get to the part of Dad's life where he's meeting with neuroscientists and medical professionals, and he's convincing them that the study of what he called (invented?) neuroarchitecture has merit? That's when the really amazing stuff comes out.
So the thread that I keep trying to pull on is that all of his early thinking - his maverick-ness - led to the idea that architecture and its impact could be measured, and more importantly, could lead to improving people's lives. Systems thinking made Dad see the connectivity between all the elements of building design, as well as the built environment. Performance-based measurement was an early way of getting to the important part of design - it doesn't matter as much how thick the walls are or how much light the windows let in - it matters what impact those things have on the people within the space. Numerous studies have tried to measure why this design is better than that design - for learning, for health, for mental capacity - for humans! With neuroscience, Dad finally believed he had found the means to quantify the impact and get the science and the engineering and the art to meet - to the betterment of the human.
Person after person talked about how knowing Dad changed their life, mostly by changing their way of thinking. The architects talk about how he used systems thinking in his way of approaching architecture and how unique that was. Others point to performance-based design, which Dad pushed for, as opposed to the more traditional engineering design.
But when you get to the part of Dad's life where he's meeting with neuroscientists and medical professionals, and he's convincing them that the study of what he called (invented?) neuroarchitecture has merit? That's when the really amazing stuff comes out.
So the thread that I keep trying to pull on is that all of his early thinking - his maverick-ness - led to the idea that architecture and its impact could be measured, and more importantly, could lead to improving people's lives. Systems thinking made Dad see the connectivity between all the elements of building design, as well as the built environment. Performance-based measurement was an early way of getting to the important part of design - it doesn't matter as much how thick the walls are or how much light the windows let in - it matters what impact those things have on the people within the space. Numerous studies have tried to measure why this design is better than that design - for learning, for health, for mental capacity - for humans! With neuroscience, Dad finally believed he had found the means to quantify the impact and get the science and the engineering and the art to meet - to the betterment of the human.
March 29, 2023
Coming Up with Compelling Book Titles
What to call a book is harder than you might think. Or maybe it's just as hard as you might think. After all, the title of a book is the first tool of marketing it. So, it needs to be compelling. To give the reader a reason to read the blurb on the back cover or the blurb on the Amazon site that includes more details.
I've been pretty pleased with my choices for book titles. My first novel, Life Reimagined, was exactly that. It was a novel based on my life and what might have happened if a critical moment in my life had happened differently than it did. It includes, in fact, two versions of my life - reimagined - one in a good way and another in a bad. Two different versions of a "what-if kind of love story".
I had the name for Pre-Bound Girl almost immediately. I just thought it was a clever riff off the idea of the rebound, instead being the girl before the guy commits to marriage. I even went so far with the concept as to make the main character her own pre-bound - as she gets back together with the last guy.
The Drum Set is probably as far away from telling anything really about the story as any of my titles. In that case, the title is a riff - pun intended - off the childhood nickname of the male lead - Tom, also called tom-tom - and the female lead, Tiffany, also known as tympany. Get it? Probably too clever for most people. And I do wonder if the cover image of a drum set only further confuses the issue. It's my least successful book, in fact.
The Gift for Michael is another bit of cleverness, as Hermione might say. Our fictional biographer has a gift for time travel. We don't know why she time travels, and she has little control over when or how. But in the end, we come to find out that she's "fixing" the main male character's brokenness. Her gift is for him.
I did quite a bit of soul-searching about the title, Best Meet-Cute Ever. I took an informal poll among my friends on the term, meet-cute, to see how well known it was. Enough people knew the term that I was satisfied. And there were several books with versions of that term already on Amazon, though none with exactly the same title. That, too, is important. As with most of my books, there's a subtitle of "If We Can Just Get There", which I hoped would help the reader who might not know the term, meet-cute, at least get some of the context. Personally, I didn't know the term until I was the movie, The Holiday, where one of the characters is a screenwriter, and he talks about the first time the main male and female character meeting as the "meet-cute", a cute way to meet. My books are, in many ways, romantic comedies waiting to be filmed. So, that term also seemed appropriate for that reason.
When I first started writing my current novel, I came up with the title, Rich People's Problems: The Story of Raggedy Ann and Andy. The first part of the title has been used, but for books on finances. I hoped that the subtitle would generate interest, and Raggedy Ann is the cover image, as well. Still I wondered if the title would be off-putting. I mean, who cares about rich people's problems? Isn't that the joke? But today, as I was writing, I used the title of the book in the narrative. And I intend to use it again as the two main characters finally admit their love - and all the drama that comes with it - as the problem of two rich people. And laugh at themselves for it.
So, I think I'm going to stick with that title. For now, at least.
I've been pretty pleased with my choices for book titles. My first novel, Life Reimagined, was exactly that. It was a novel based on my life and what might have happened if a critical moment in my life had happened differently than it did. It includes, in fact, two versions of my life - reimagined - one in a good way and another in a bad. Two different versions of a "what-if kind of love story".
I had the name for Pre-Bound Girl almost immediately. I just thought it was a clever riff off the idea of the rebound, instead being the girl before the guy commits to marriage. I even went so far with the concept as to make the main character her own pre-bound - as she gets back together with the last guy.
The Drum Set is probably as far away from telling anything really about the story as any of my titles. In that case, the title is a riff - pun intended - off the childhood nickname of the male lead - Tom, also called tom-tom - and the female lead, Tiffany, also known as tympany. Get it? Probably too clever for most people. And I do wonder if the cover image of a drum set only further confuses the issue. It's my least successful book, in fact.
The Gift for Michael is another bit of cleverness, as Hermione might say. Our fictional biographer has a gift for time travel. We don't know why she time travels, and she has little control over when or how. But in the end, we come to find out that she's "fixing" the main male character's brokenness. Her gift is for him.
I did quite a bit of soul-searching about the title, Best Meet-Cute Ever. I took an informal poll among my friends on the term, meet-cute, to see how well known it was. Enough people knew the term that I was satisfied. And there were several books with versions of that term already on Amazon, though none with exactly the same title. That, too, is important. As with most of my books, there's a subtitle of "If We Can Just Get There", which I hoped would help the reader who might not know the term, meet-cute, at least get some of the context. Personally, I didn't know the term until I was the movie, The Holiday, where one of the characters is a screenwriter, and he talks about the first time the main male and female character meeting as the "meet-cute", a cute way to meet. My books are, in many ways, romantic comedies waiting to be filmed. So, that term also seemed appropriate for that reason.
When I first started writing my current novel, I came up with the title, Rich People's Problems: The Story of Raggedy Ann and Andy. The first part of the title has been used, but for books on finances. I hoped that the subtitle would generate interest, and Raggedy Ann is the cover image, as well. Still I wondered if the title would be off-putting. I mean, who cares about rich people's problems? Isn't that the joke? But today, as I was writing, I used the title of the book in the narrative. And I intend to use it again as the two main characters finally admit their love - and all the drama that comes with it - as the problem of two rich people. And laugh at themselves for it.
So, I think I'm going to stick with that title. For now, at least.
March 19, 2023
Page Count
In my day-to-day life, I manage the proposal operations department for a government contractor. My team of proposal managers ensures that our company's proposals will be compelling - give the government a reason to hire us - but also compliant.
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to compliance is page count, or page limits. Most of the time, the Requests for Proposal (RFP) do not give us nearly enough pages to write what we need to write. So, we spend a lot of time and energy worrying about how to write as compelling a proposal as possible within the confines of fewer pages than we would like.
In my fictional writing, of course, I have no such constraints. In general, though, I like my books to be in the 300-400 page range. I think that makes them substantial, but not daunting to read. I remember when I was reading the Harry Potter series by Rowling, and each book was substantially bigger than the last, till the final book totaled well over 700 pages in hardcover (which is why it had to be two movies). I have no aspirations to write a book that long, though I suppose I should never say never.
But my father's biography is proving to be shorter than I would have thought, and perhaps shorter than I'd like. By the time it's done later this year, I suspect it will be only about 200 pages. If you had asked me, I would have thought there would be no way to cover the expanse of his life and career in so few pages. But that's where I am.
Interesting.
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to compliance is page count, or page limits. Most of the time, the Requests for Proposal (RFP) do not give us nearly enough pages to write what we need to write. So, we spend a lot of time and energy worrying about how to write as compelling a proposal as possible within the confines of fewer pages than we would like.
In my fictional writing, of course, I have no such constraints. In general, though, I like my books to be in the 300-400 page range. I think that makes them substantial, but not daunting to read. I remember when I was reading the Harry Potter series by Rowling, and each book was substantially bigger than the last, till the final book totaled well over 700 pages in hardcover (which is why it had to be two movies). I have no aspirations to write a book that long, though I suppose I should never say never.
But my father's biography is proving to be shorter than I would have thought, and perhaps shorter than I'd like. By the time it's done later this year, I suspect it will be only about 200 pages. If you had asked me, I would have thought there would be no way to cover the expanse of his life and career in so few pages. But that's where I am.
Interesting.
March 18, 2023
Citations
Today, I spent the first hour of "writing" updating the endnotes in Dad's biography to be formal citations, instead of just hyperlinks to websites or my notes so I would remember where the information came from. I haven't done formal citations since graduate school in 1985. And there was no such thing as websites in those days. So, I actually wasn't sure how to do website citations.
I had been kind of hoping I could just find some app that would go through all the websites and convert them to citations. To be honest, such a thing may or may not exist.
But instead, I used Grammarly. It worked very well for articles and books I'd found through searches.
The only challenge I've found has been, while a lot of the entries on the websites have attribution for the author, many do not. Grammarly didn't have guidance for when there's no author. It also wanted me to put "n.d." for no date, which seemed odd to me. So, I used my best judgment about how to cite a more "generic" page. I think I've gotten to a good place, but it was a bit of a guess.
Another thing I'm going to have to look up is how to cite from personal correspondence or interviews I've conducted. Again, I've come up with my own format for these things in the absence of other sources; Grammarly doesn't have anything on this kind of source material. The reason this is important is I'd like this biography to eventually get published by a publishing house, so I'm trying to do things in the "right way", to make the manuscript look professional - even though I'm obviously not a professional biographer.
Likewise, I'm struggling with how to do repeat citations. Grammarly and other editorial sites said you can use "ibid", which I remember from college and graduate school, if the citation is one that immediately follows the same source. But I remember "opcit" for when it was a citation of a source used before but not immediately above. And neither Grammarly nor other sources had this. Instead, they recommended "Reference #, Page #". I suppose that will work, but it means I have to wait until I'm done with the writing to know what the Reference # should be.
Bottom line is I've converted most of the endnotes to actual citations at this point. But doing so definitely took me back to almost 40 years ago.
I had been kind of hoping I could just find some app that would go through all the websites and convert them to citations. To be honest, such a thing may or may not exist.
But instead, I used Grammarly. It worked very well for articles and books I'd found through searches.
The only challenge I've found has been, while a lot of the entries on the websites have attribution for the author, many do not. Grammarly didn't have guidance for when there's no author. It also wanted me to put "n.d." for no date, which seemed odd to me. So, I used my best judgment about how to cite a more "generic" page. I think I've gotten to a good place, but it was a bit of a guess.
Another thing I'm going to have to look up is how to cite from personal correspondence or interviews I've conducted. Again, I've come up with my own format for these things in the absence of other sources; Grammarly doesn't have anything on this kind of source material. The reason this is important is I'd like this biography to eventually get published by a publishing house, so I'm trying to do things in the "right way", to make the manuscript look professional - even though I'm obviously not a professional biographer.
Likewise, I'm struggling with how to do repeat citations. Grammarly and other editorial sites said you can use "ibid", which I remember from college and graduate school, if the citation is one that immediately follows the same source. But I remember "opcit" for when it was a citation of a source used before but not immediately above. And neither Grammarly nor other sources had this. Instead, they recommended "Reference #, Page #". I suppose that will work, but it means I have to wait until I'm done with the writing to know what the Reference # should be.
Bottom line is I've converted most of the endnotes to actual citations at this point. But doing so definitely took me back to almost 40 years ago.
March 5, 2023
Family Treasures
Among the reasons to dig through all the papers left by my father - besides writing his biography - is the treasures I'm finding.
Today's treasure is a picture from March 1927 of my father as a baby being held by his father, Carl Eberhard, and being looked on adoringly by his mother, Clara Eberhard. Not only has no one in the family ever seen this picture, but it clearly shows the biological connections. You can see my father's face in his father's face (and my Uncle Arthur for that matter, who looked very like my father - and apparently his father). I'd never seen a picture of my grandfather without gray hair. He looks so very different with the black hair that two of his sons also shared. The photograph also shows how much my cousin Jeanette looks like our grandmother. I've always thought so, but the rest of the family sees the resemblance in this 1927 photo, too.
Another treasure that I just put into the book is from correspondence between my father and the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. The AHC had written to my dad in 1981 asking for his papers as part of their Archive of Contemporary History. At that point, Dad was 54 - so he was both flattered by the request, but also a little "dismayed" to realize that he was at an age where archivists were contacting him. Still, he ended up sending 21 boxes of materials over the course of his lifetime. But the treasure was this sentence in the letter Dad wrote before sending his first boxes: "My wife suggested that I wait a few more months to see if I have any severe separation point." My mother, Dad's wife, would have known that Dad was attached to his papers, his legacy.
These two are on top of the never-knew-about testimony before Congress - twice! - that I found as part of my research. And so many others. But those were about Dad's career.
These two are family treasures.
Today's treasure is a picture from March 1927 of my father as a baby being held by his father, Carl Eberhard, and being looked on adoringly by his mother, Clara Eberhard. Not only has no one in the family ever seen this picture, but it clearly shows the biological connections. You can see my father's face in his father's face (and my Uncle Arthur for that matter, who looked very like my father - and apparently his father). I'd never seen a picture of my grandfather without gray hair. He looks so very different with the black hair that two of his sons also shared. The photograph also shows how much my cousin Jeanette looks like our grandmother. I've always thought so, but the rest of the family sees the resemblance in this 1927 photo, too.
Another treasure that I just put into the book is from correspondence between my father and the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. The AHC had written to my dad in 1981 asking for his papers as part of their Archive of Contemporary History. At that point, Dad was 54 - so he was both flattered by the request, but also a little "dismayed" to realize that he was at an age where archivists were contacting him. Still, he ended up sending 21 boxes of materials over the course of his lifetime. But the treasure was this sentence in the letter Dad wrote before sending his first boxes: "My wife suggested that I wait a few more months to see if I have any severe separation point." My mother, Dad's wife, would have known that Dad was attached to his papers, his legacy.
These two are on top of the never-knew-about testimony before Congress - twice! - that I found as part of my research. And so many others. But those were about Dad's career.
These two are family treasures.
February 26, 2023
Is It More About the Doing or About the Thinking?
When I first started to think about writing Dad's biography, I wondered how I - not being an architect - would be able to write effectively about Dad's career in architecture. I figured I was reasonably smart, and my role in proposal management for a government contractor, means I'm constantly reading and evaluating documents about subject matters on which I have little expertise. I figured I'd make it work. Or call on his colleagues and my niece if I couldn't.
But what I'm finding - as I'm pursuing my theme of my father as a maverick - is that what Dad did is only part of his being a maverick. In many ways, it's not what he did that makes him a maverick, but how he did it.
For example, being a dean of at a new school of architecture is pretty maverick-y. Having to put new degree programs in place, get accreditation for the programs, and hire faculty - not to mention attracting students - requires a person who has some charisma and chutzpah. Dad had both in spades.
But he also wasn't interested in designing a tradition architecture program at SUNYAB. He was interested in systems thinking and in getting the students to see that they had to be project managers, as much as designers, because getting a building built requires the expertise of many skilled craftspeople. Both of these ideas were new in the early '70s. I won't say unique, because I don't have the expertise to say that. But definitely maverick-y.
Today's writing was about Dad's next venture - the American Institute of Architects Research Corporation (AIA/RC). By now, it's the mid to late '70s, and energy conservation is on everyone's minds. The AIA/RC coined the term "energy conscious design" and proselytized about it to as many of the 87 schools of architecture as would listen. They held design contests for students in the same subject. They wrote books and published magazines on this topic and others that AIA/RC had been hired to pursue for the federal government, which was just learning - from Dad - that it needed to pay attention to architecture - for energy conservation, but also life safety and other reasons.
But there are other aspects to Dad's job that are at least as important as what AIA/RC did. First, he was again pushing systems thinking and "asking the right question". Second, he was more interested in performance-based standards - whether the design accomplished its goals - than in strict engineering standards about how thick the walls needed to be or how many windows a building needed to have. Third, he was a mentor to a group of young people, many of whom either had already worked for him and followed him to AIA/RC or who worked for him again in their careers. He was "raising" a new school of architects who thought as he did about systems thinking and performance-based standards and asking the right question.
And to me, that's where his being a maverick had the biggest impact.
But what I'm finding - as I'm pursuing my theme of my father as a maverick - is that what Dad did is only part of his being a maverick. In many ways, it's not what he did that makes him a maverick, but how he did it.
For example, being a dean of at a new school of architecture is pretty maverick-y. Having to put new degree programs in place, get accreditation for the programs, and hire faculty - not to mention attracting students - requires a person who has some charisma and chutzpah. Dad had both in spades.
But he also wasn't interested in designing a tradition architecture program at SUNYAB. He was interested in systems thinking and in getting the students to see that they had to be project managers, as much as designers, because getting a building built requires the expertise of many skilled craftspeople. Both of these ideas were new in the early '70s. I won't say unique, because I don't have the expertise to say that. But definitely maverick-y.
Today's writing was about Dad's next venture - the American Institute of Architects Research Corporation (AIA/RC). By now, it's the mid to late '70s, and energy conservation is on everyone's minds. The AIA/RC coined the term "energy conscious design" and proselytized about it to as many of the 87 schools of architecture as would listen. They held design contests for students in the same subject. They wrote books and published magazines on this topic and others that AIA/RC had been hired to pursue for the federal government, which was just learning - from Dad - that it needed to pay attention to architecture - for energy conservation, but also life safety and other reasons.
But there are other aspects to Dad's job that are at least as important as what AIA/RC did. First, he was again pushing systems thinking and "asking the right question". Second, he was more interested in performance-based standards - whether the design accomplished its goals - than in strict engineering standards about how thick the walls needed to be or how many windows a building needed to have. Third, he was a mentor to a group of young people, many of whom either had already worked for him and followed him to AIA/RC or who worked for him again in their careers. He was "raising" a new school of architects who thought as he did about systems thinking and performance-based standards and asking the right question.
And to me, that's where his being a maverick had the biggest impact.
February 25, 2023
12 x 3 = 36
Don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled to have 12 books on KDP. I'm amazed that I've written 12 books to be honest. And two more in the works.
But today, I worked with Eric on improving my keywords and book categories. He'd read, and I'd read, about optimizing those choices to improve the likelihood of your book being found.
I did a little sleuthing on Amazon for other authors whose books I've read and who write similar kinds of books, and I had some ideas about new keywords to use as a result. Eric had also done some research, and he had some of his own ideas. And unfortunately, this led to one of our rare disagreements. I took a lot of his suggestions. But not all of them. And he argued that I was trying to make my books more searchable, and that's what his words would do. And I said I didn't want to change some of the keywords I already had. And he said some authors spend weeks and months picking their keywords. And I agreed. And said this wasn't the last time I would change them. So, let's not fight about it!
But...one thing we did agree on was that I needed to fix the categories associated with my books in KDP. Unfortunately, Eric thought there were more options than there actually are. But many of my books had been categorized in either Fiction: General. Or Fantasy: General. Neither of which are particularly helpful in getting noticed, as there are millions of books in those categories.
Instead, we changed the fantasy series and Finding Magic to Fantasy: Epic and Juvenile Fantasy: Magic and Sorcery. I agreed with Eric those were good categories. My books are definitely not children's books. But juvenile worked, I thought.
Interestingly, the Kindle algorithms didn't like that combination. They wanted me to pick either an adult category OR a juvenile category. But fortunately, they let me ignore this suggestion. Weirdly, however, only the Kindle edition of each book was flagged for this.
Which brings me to the title of this blog post. The way KDP works is that each book and each format is an entry. So, for my 12 books and three formats (Kindle, paperback, and hardcover), that's a total of 36 entries.
The three entries for each book are "linked" in that they are on the dashboard next to each other. But if you make a change for one format, you have to make the same change (or a different change if you want) for the other two formats. The only information that has to be consistent across each format is the author's name and the title. Beyond that, you can have different descriptions, categories, keywords, etc., for each format for the same book.
I suppose some authors might use that flexibility to continue to optimize for searches. In fact, Eric and I talked about having different keywords for different formats for the same book. But I had enough trouble coming up with seven keywords or phrases for each book, much less 21! Also, I'm AR enough that I wanted the keywords to actually be the same for all three formats. Which meant writing them down for each book and then replicating them across all three formats. I also wanted each series to have mostly the same keywords. So, I kept five of the seven keywords the same for each book in the series, varying only slightly from book to book. We'll see if that makes any difference in searching. Or if we can even tell!
Likewise, I changed the categories for my fictional biographies to be mostly consistent. Each one is either Fiction: Biography or Fiction: Contemporary Women, or both. A couple are Romance: Contemporary. And Gift for Michael is under Fiction: Occult or Supernatural, because of the time traveling.
Bottom line, I had to redo the keywords and categories for each book and each format.
12 x 3 = 36.
But today, I worked with Eric on improving my keywords and book categories. He'd read, and I'd read, about optimizing those choices to improve the likelihood of your book being found.
I did a little sleuthing on Amazon for other authors whose books I've read and who write similar kinds of books, and I had some ideas about new keywords to use as a result. Eric had also done some research, and he had some of his own ideas. And unfortunately, this led to one of our rare disagreements. I took a lot of his suggestions. But not all of them. And he argued that I was trying to make my books more searchable, and that's what his words would do. And I said I didn't want to change some of the keywords I already had. And he said some authors spend weeks and months picking their keywords. And I agreed. And said this wasn't the last time I would change them. So, let's not fight about it!
But...one thing we did agree on was that I needed to fix the categories associated with my books in KDP. Unfortunately, Eric thought there were more options than there actually are. But many of my books had been categorized in either Fiction: General. Or Fantasy: General. Neither of which are particularly helpful in getting noticed, as there are millions of books in those categories.
Instead, we changed the fantasy series and Finding Magic to Fantasy: Epic and Juvenile Fantasy: Magic and Sorcery. I agreed with Eric those were good categories. My books are definitely not children's books. But juvenile worked, I thought.
Interestingly, the Kindle algorithms didn't like that combination. They wanted me to pick either an adult category OR a juvenile category. But fortunately, they let me ignore this suggestion. Weirdly, however, only the Kindle edition of each book was flagged for this.
Which brings me to the title of this blog post. The way KDP works is that each book and each format is an entry. So, for my 12 books and three formats (Kindle, paperback, and hardcover), that's a total of 36 entries.
The three entries for each book are "linked" in that they are on the dashboard next to each other. But if you make a change for one format, you have to make the same change (or a different change if you want) for the other two formats. The only information that has to be consistent across each format is the author's name and the title. Beyond that, you can have different descriptions, categories, keywords, etc., for each format for the same book.
I suppose some authors might use that flexibility to continue to optimize for searches. In fact, Eric and I talked about having different keywords for different formats for the same book. But I had enough trouble coming up with seven keywords or phrases for each book, much less 21! Also, I'm AR enough that I wanted the keywords to actually be the same for all three formats. Which meant writing them down for each book and then replicating them across all three formats. I also wanted each series to have mostly the same keywords. So, I kept five of the seven keywords the same for each book in the series, varying only slightly from book to book. We'll see if that makes any difference in searching. Or if we can even tell!
Likewise, I changed the categories for my fictional biographies to be mostly consistent. Each one is either Fiction: Biography or Fiction: Contemporary Women, or both. A couple are Romance: Contemporary. And Gift for Michael is under Fiction: Occult or Supernatural, because of the time traveling.
Bottom line, I had to redo the keywords and categories for each book and each format.
12 x 3 = 36.
February 20, 2023
Paying Heed to Living Memory
As I continue my progress on Dad's biography, I've reached the point where the description of his work is part of the memories of people still living - people I've interviewed, people who worked for Dad, and people who will know whether what I say is completely accurate or not. Thus, the task of writing these chapters is more daunting than it was writing about Dad's early years, where no one alive still has those memories or will know if what I've written is accurate.
In the '70s, Dad was president of an organization called the American Institute of Architects Research Corporation. I have interviewed at least a half dozen of the young people who worked for Dad at AIA/RC. Most of them, at least the ones I've talked to, have gone on to have amazing and prolific careers in architecture, academia, and research. And they all, also, continued to have a relationship with my father. Almost all of them talk about being mentored by Dad.
Dad had his faults, to be sure. But one of his greatest strengths was his belief in young people. More than one of the people I've interviewed have talked about that. It wasn't just these folks from the '70s that Dad mentored. He mentored young people as late as his days at ANFA in the 2003-2005 timeframe when he was in his 70s already.
And so, it is those young people - some of whom, like me, are not so young any longer - whose memories and mentorship I need to honor as I write these next chapters.
Fortunately, most of them have agreed to be a critical reader once the biography is completed. And I'm sure - because we are all humans - some will remember events one way and others another way.
But the one thing that's clear is that this biography isn't just my attempt to give my father's life's work meaning and acknowledgement. It's also an opportunity to pay heed to the living memory of those who came after him, who were mentored by him, who worked with him repeatedly, and who have - through their own living - changed the world of architecture, as well.
In the '70s, Dad was president of an organization called the American Institute of Architects Research Corporation. I have interviewed at least a half dozen of the young people who worked for Dad at AIA/RC. Most of them, at least the ones I've talked to, have gone on to have amazing and prolific careers in architecture, academia, and research. And they all, also, continued to have a relationship with my father. Almost all of them talk about being mentored by Dad.
Dad had his faults, to be sure. But one of his greatest strengths was his belief in young people. More than one of the people I've interviewed have talked about that. It wasn't just these folks from the '70s that Dad mentored. He mentored young people as late as his days at ANFA in the 2003-2005 timeframe when he was in his 70s already.
And so, it is those young people - some of whom, like me, are not so young any longer - whose memories and mentorship I need to honor as I write these next chapters.
Fortunately, most of them have agreed to be a critical reader once the biography is completed. And I'm sure - because we are all humans - some will remember events one way and others another way.
But the one thing that's clear is that this biography isn't just my attempt to give my father's life's work meaning and acknowledgement. It's also an opportunity to pay heed to the living memory of those who came after him, who were mentored by him, who worked with him repeatedly, and who have - through their own living - changed the world of architecture, as well.
February 18, 2023
Notability Questions
When I first started writing about my father, John Paul Eberhard, it was to - unfortunately - put together his obituary.
I had actually written an obituary for our mother first, as she died first. She was in hospice for 10 days, which gave me a chance to think about what to write and to do a little research about her. That obituary was published on the Ever Loved website when she died on April 12, 2020. I knew when I wrote Mom's obituary that the only people who would really be interested were family and friends.
However, when I started writing Dad's obituary - shortly after Mom's - I had the idea that, because Dad was well known in his industry, the obituary might get shared more broadly. And therefore, it should probably be reasonably accurate. It also proved fortuitous as Dad ended up dying only two weeks after Mom. I think I've written about that before.
Dad's obituary then became the basis for an article to try to get him into Wikipedia. Now, like most of you, I've always thought Wikipedia was open to any editor, meaning anyone could update any entry. I guess I assumed there would be some kind of control over changes, but Wikipedia also seemed to be "open".
So imagine my surprise when my first draft of an article on Dad was summarily - and probably rightly - rejected. First, the Wikipedia editors - who are a real thing - didn't like that I was Dad's daughter. They prefer that entries come from folks interested in a topic, but not so close as a child. Second, they didn't like my "flowery" language. I talked about Dad being innovative; they didn't like that. I talked about Dad being a visionary; they didn't like that. Third, and most importantly, they didn't see anything about Dad's career that was "notable".
The question of notability is an interesting one, therefore. I did finally get Dad into Wikipedia on the strength of his having be awarded the LaTrobe Prize by the AIA, a biennial $100,000 prize, which was co-awarded to the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) to help fund/start the organization.
But the more I dig into Dad's history and career, the more I would argue makes him notable.
One thing he did early in his career was argue for and find funding for the creation of the National Conference of State Building Codes and Standards (NCSBCS).
Before that, he helped drive the development of the first computerized hotel reservation system, in a joint project between Sheraton Corporation and Hilton Hotels.
He testified before Congressional committees at least twice that I've found so far, once on the funding of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and once about plans to create the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS).
Dad was the first-ever dean of architecture at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNYAB), where he started a new concept in graduate school programs to give the students practicum experience as well as classroom instruction at the Buffalo Organization for Social and Technological Innovation (BOSTI), patterned after Organization for Social and Technological Innovation (OSTI) in Cambridge, MA.
He essentially created the American Institute of Architects Research Corporation (AIARC), which had been a sort of "holding company" within the AIA, but hadn't actually done any research. When he left, AIARC had grown to 60 people with a budget of $10 million.
And then there's ANFA and the LaTrobe prize, and a couple of books and, and, and...
But there are other instances of things that, I would argue, make Dad notable.
Perhaps the most interesting one is that there are 21 boxes of his papers, writing, correspondence, drawings, and everything else career-related at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. "Officially established in 1945, the Center now holds over 90,000 cubic feet of historic documents and artifacts in more than 3500 collections—placing the AHC among the largest non-governmental archives in the nation." AHC had contacted Dad in 1981 wanting to see if he would be willing to have them be the archive of his papers as part of their Contemporary History collection. Dad was both "flattered and dismayed" by the request, because he didn't think he was at the point of his career where archivists would be interested in him. However, he sent off papers in 1982 and then more and more throughout his career. The original inventory I have from 1984 said the archive contained 13 boxes. Now, in 2023, it's 21 boxes.
So, Wikipedia, I would think that Dad being one of only 3,500 collections at a place called the "American Heritage Center" would also qualify him as being notable. And, in fact, there's a hyperlink to his collection at AHC on the Wikipedia article for Dad.
So there.
I had actually written an obituary for our mother first, as she died first. She was in hospice for 10 days, which gave me a chance to think about what to write and to do a little research about her. That obituary was published on the Ever Loved website when she died on April 12, 2020. I knew when I wrote Mom's obituary that the only people who would really be interested were family and friends.
However, when I started writing Dad's obituary - shortly after Mom's - I had the idea that, because Dad was well known in his industry, the obituary might get shared more broadly. And therefore, it should probably be reasonably accurate. It also proved fortuitous as Dad ended up dying only two weeks after Mom. I think I've written about that before.
Dad's obituary then became the basis for an article to try to get him into Wikipedia. Now, like most of you, I've always thought Wikipedia was open to any editor, meaning anyone could update any entry. I guess I assumed there would be some kind of control over changes, but Wikipedia also seemed to be "open".
So imagine my surprise when my first draft of an article on Dad was summarily - and probably rightly - rejected. First, the Wikipedia editors - who are a real thing - didn't like that I was Dad's daughter. They prefer that entries come from folks interested in a topic, but not so close as a child. Second, they didn't like my "flowery" language. I talked about Dad being innovative; they didn't like that. I talked about Dad being a visionary; they didn't like that. Third, and most importantly, they didn't see anything about Dad's career that was "notable".
The question of notability is an interesting one, therefore. I did finally get Dad into Wikipedia on the strength of his having be awarded the LaTrobe Prize by the AIA, a biennial $100,000 prize, which was co-awarded to the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) to help fund/start the organization.
But the more I dig into Dad's history and career, the more I would argue makes him notable.
One thing he did early in his career was argue for and find funding for the creation of the National Conference of State Building Codes and Standards (NCSBCS).
Before that, he helped drive the development of the first computerized hotel reservation system, in a joint project between Sheraton Corporation and Hilton Hotels.
He testified before Congressional committees at least twice that I've found so far, once on the funding of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and once about plans to create the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS).
Dad was the first-ever dean of architecture at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNYAB), where he started a new concept in graduate school programs to give the students practicum experience as well as classroom instruction at the Buffalo Organization for Social and Technological Innovation (BOSTI), patterned after Organization for Social and Technological Innovation (OSTI) in Cambridge, MA.
He essentially created the American Institute of Architects Research Corporation (AIARC), which had been a sort of "holding company" within the AIA, but hadn't actually done any research. When he left, AIARC had grown to 60 people with a budget of $10 million.
And then there's ANFA and the LaTrobe prize, and a couple of books and, and, and...
But there are other instances of things that, I would argue, make Dad notable.
Perhaps the most interesting one is that there are 21 boxes of his papers, writing, correspondence, drawings, and everything else career-related at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. "Officially established in 1945, the Center now holds over 90,000 cubic feet of historic documents and artifacts in more than 3500 collections—placing the AHC among the largest non-governmental archives in the nation." AHC had contacted Dad in 1981 wanting to see if he would be willing to have them be the archive of his papers as part of their Contemporary History collection. Dad was both "flattered and dismayed" by the request, because he didn't think he was at the point of his career where archivists would be interested in him. However, he sent off papers in 1982 and then more and more throughout his career. The original inventory I have from 1984 said the archive contained 13 boxes. Now, in 2023, it's 21 boxes.
So, Wikipedia, I would think that Dad being one of only 3,500 collections at a place called the "American Heritage Center" would also qualify him as being notable. And, in fact, there's a hyperlink to his collection at AHC on the Wikipedia article for Dad.
So there.
