I had an idea…Al said “No”!

At work, a monthly (I think) newsletter goes out and it’s typically filled with little stories about peoples work and personal accomplishments. I thought this was a fantastic way to get the word out to thousands of potential readers and buyers of the book…and it was free! I was beside myself with excitement and I was dying to tell Al, thinking he would be soooo very much on board; I should have known better… idiot!

Anyway, I announced my brilliant idea to him the next time I “saw” him (online) thinking that it would be a HUGE “high five” session…”this is awesome”, ”this is a great idea”, “who do we need to talk to get this in the next newsletter” Yeah….NO! Not even close. I brought up the idea and with one word…or maybe 3 or 4, he crushed the idea completely “Nope, do not put it in the newsletter” (ok 8 ish words). For a hot second I thought he was pulling my leg, so I said “huh?” and there it was again….”no”. Anyway, not wanting to give up too easily (but knowing deep down that I wasn’t going to get what I wanted) I asked if I were to accidentally hit “send” and an article about the book ended up on the editors desk would it be a bad thing? Al’s response was basically, yes, if he saw it. Well shit, it’s sent to everyone’s email, and posted on nearly every free wall in all the offices, so yes, he would have seen it! So there it was, done! No go on free advertising!! I was sooooo bummed, though not pissed. The one thing I value in any friendship is trust, so I wasn’t going to do anything to take that away… BUT IT SUCKED!!!! HARD!!!!

Knowing that Al is who he is (a massive PITA), I got it and respected and continue to respect his wishes, and didn’t contact the newsletter editor. After all, it’s Al’s book, not mine. As one of the publicists/campaign managers/whatever needed doing gofers, I thought I was onto a good thing with that idea…am I bitter? Nahhhhh….just a smidge…free advertising to a huge audience!! But again, I get it.

So what ideas got the Al seal of approval? Flyers! I was allowed to create flyers for the book AND I was actually allowed to put them up in the offices on my side of the pond. HOWEVER, said flyers were NEVER to show up on his side…GGRRRRRR!!! So if you ever find yourself in my neck of the woods, you will find a flyer posted in my cube. There’s one right in our IT guy’s cube, people are forever going to see him…so…score!!  There are other flyers in other areas of the office too. There are some in my grocery store & post office, and I do believe in a pizza place too. However, if you find yourself in Al’s neck of the woods, yeah, you won’t find a bloody thing!!

In addition to the flyers, Al actually created a Goodreads profile; which is great by the way, an author’s page on Amazon, he has allowed me to talk about the book on some forums, cos he won’t; GoodReads, Amazon, Reddit  and a few others who’s names escape me at the moment. Then there’s the FB page, which is getting better and better (or at least I think it is), you should go take a look and like it while you’re there…please. I think Al opened a Twitter account, not sure if he’s used it yet. {Side note: thanks to my amazing daughter I have learnt how to tweet and I can now “speak” Twitter…a little, I think}

Then of course, there’s this blog that, apparently, I have to occasionally contribute to.

So as you can see, Al isn’t completely against putting himself out there but he does come damn close!!

 

-LSF