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About This Author
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La Bene Vita
I am a professional musician  , worship leader , small business owner , songwriter , aspiring author and freelance nonfiction writer with a chemical engineering degree .
But that's just my resume.
My profile of qualifications is only one of the ways in which I am unique. Here I chronicle my personal and professional goals and my efforts to achieve them. Occasionally I fail. Mostly, I take daily baby steps toward all my long-term goals. Much like the stories I pen, the songs I compose, and the businesses I run, I am always a work in progress.
August 29, 2012 at 11:24am August 29, 2012 at 11:24am
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I've found a book that's completely missing from the market. I've desperately looked everywhere, and it simply does not exist. So I'm going to publish it. *rubs hands together with an evil cackle*
(It's a surprise.) |
August 28, 2012 at 10:24am August 28, 2012 at 10:24am
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Not too shabby: 278.5. I haven't recorded in awhile, so I wanted to snag the number since it's close to the end of the month.
That is all. |
August 26, 2012 at 10:14pm August 26, 2012 at 10:14pm
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Of course I enjoyed this because I'm a musician, but I found it just as applicable (maybe even more so) to publishing:
The Benefits of Self-Publishing to the Literary Industry
The Internet has finally given the publishing industry some level footing. Sales are a snap when merchant services like PayPal charge you service fees barely higher than traditional Visa swipe machines in brick-and-mortar bookstores. Social media has created a platform where marketing is completely free, costing only time and energy. Distribution is a breeze with Internet stores like Amazon, and even better, with the advent and booming popularity of e-readers, with which authors can electronically transmit their product to any customer in the world for free in seconds. Suddenly, small presses and even individual authors can compete with traditionally-published prices. This is great news for the consumer.
The Quality of Self-Published Works
On the flip side, traditional publishers claim that self-publishing is leading the industry down a literary toilet, and I do admit that cutting out the middle man also cuts out quality controls. While some quality and highly-acclaimed self-published works exist, it's all too easy to self-publish junk, so naturally, self-published junk exists as well. So many authors are self-publishing right now, we are bombarded with literally millions of reading choices. Whether or not you believe the majority of self-published works lack the quality of works traditionally published, The Guardian reports that most of those choices aren't earning their authors a living:
As a consumer, my literary choices are more varied and cheaper than they've ever been. But they're also more questionable. I recently read halfway through a book that one of my author "friends" on Facebook offered free for Kindle at one point or another. The writing has clever and quirky moments, but the whole thing had an overall amateurish feel. I ended up giving up on the book because, frankly, I thought it was stupid. I was too distracted by thoughts like, "This guy needs a decent editor," and "Where the hell is this plot going?" to enjoy the book. I feel like the author has potential, but I'll never waste my time on another of his works again.
Traditional Publishers and the Supply Chain
In my opinion, the publishing industry is in a period of transitional chaos. While I see the benefits of self-publishing to consumer and author alike, I don't believe in cutting out the middle man entirely. Authors are good at writing, and not necessarily editing, marketing, distribution, or selling. Any author who wishes to be a successful author should recognize his weaknesses in the supply chain and delegate or contract those functions, and traditional publishers have always been the literary supply chain experts. But I do believe the traditional publishers are bulky, slow, and overly powerful. They're like WalMart to retail: the larger the corporate giant, the harder it is for everyone else to compete, because - let's face it - even tiny margins equate to enormous profits when you multiply them times the kind of volumes corporate giants see. WalMart can afford to sell at rock-bottom prices when pennies of profit per item multiplied by trillions of items sold still equals billions of dollars to the company's bottom line. The publishing giants have always had the advantage of volume over small presses and self-publishing venues, which gives them pricing power. The problem becomes too much control: higher prices for the consumer and lower revenues for the author.
The Future of the Industry
I believe that traditional publishers are going the way of the typewriter. But I don't believe that rampant unedited self-publishing marketed on Facebook is the future of literature. The industry is in transition, and as with any industry, the consumer ultimately controls the market. Consumers will not tolerate poor quality products. Amazon, currently one of the biggest self-publishing venues, will have to satisfy consumer demands. Whether that satisfaction comes in the form of improved product review processes and rankings, acceptance policies, competing online stores with better quality controls, or something completely innovative that changes the market as much as the e-book did, the consumer will get its way in the end. The trick for the author - or editor, publisher, marketer, agent, or other member of the literary supply chain - is to be there and ready when it happens. |
August 23, 2012 at 2:58pm August 23, 2012 at 2:58pm
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...I'm just curious.
Productive? Somewhat. Today, I've managed to reschedule a student, negotiate advertising rates, purchase MTMS notepads, revise MTMS client policies, write a newsletter article for church, and subscribe to Angie's List so I can check out my business from the customer's perspective. And I kinda-sorta started compiling an online music poll for to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the worship service I lead.
Productive, yes. But all I really feel like I've produced is a pile of snotty tissues. |
August 22, 2012 at 9:55am August 22, 2012 at 9:55am
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I hate it when people whine online about being sick, but SERIOUSLY - who gets two completely different viruses two weeks in a row??? And not just those 24-hour deals, but like the several-days-in-bed varieties?
And I was on such a roll. |
August 17, 2012 at 11:34am August 17, 2012 at 11:34am
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When Storm Machine  struggled with nomenclature for her current project , I bombarded her with thoughts about nomenclature in our own lives: How humans define things, how other races on Earth define things (e.g., canines define things by smell rather than words), and how it's possible that the "sixth" sense is really six hundred various senses that we humans don't understand. Alien races could have completely different biology and sense their surroundings in ways we haven't considered. And the more I rambled, the more I recognized scope creep. While this might all be great fodder for the imagination, she just needs names for her races and nations.
Scope creep versus boundaries.
I create scope creep for myself, constantly, and not just in writing. I create it in my jobs, which are theoretically clearly defined, as least in comparison to my "job" as a writer. My job at church? Lead music at worship. Nobody said I have to have x number of instruments or choirs or sing x number of songs. My job at Patron? Sing for two hours. Could I sing the same exact two-hour setlist every week? Of course. Do I? Not a chance. I kill myself trying to learn new releases and listener requests. My job at MTMS ? - I'm making a bit of money as a business owner, and it's technically enough to live on. Do I just collect a paycheck and let the place run itself? No, I'm looking at how to open 2-5 more campuses. Why? Because I'm a glutton for scope-creep punishment. I set no boundaries.
This is my struggle as a writer.
I need to focus and eliminate the scope creep. Andromeda Sings was a cool idea, and she was sort of begging to be created. A lot of my shorts are just writing exercises that resulted from contest prompts. I need to make like Butcher (and Rowling and Meyer and Brooks and Salvatore etc. etc. etc.) and stick to my story. That's how I can get back into writing. Scope creep spirals out of control, and I lose the reins. Then I don't want to ride anymore, and I take a year-long hiatus from anything so much as a Textbroker article or blog post. It's just too intimidating, because it's too MUCH. So I should focus. Create my world. Everything I do lives in my world. All my characters are tied to the same story. They all have their own stories, of course, but they're linked. I need connections. That's how I can focus.
Whew. I guess I just identified my NaNo project for this year: "Poor Witch" [E] sequel. I'm also going to think through how I can completely rewrite Andromeda to move her to my world. It's highly possible. Mildred's world is parallel to the world we know, and she visits our world, so why couldn't Andromeda move across worlds too? She could.
Author marketing and what I learned from Jim Butcher.
Here's something I've learned from Butcher: He's so freaking addictive because it never goes the way you want it to. In his prefaces in Side Jobs, more than once he referred to rubbing his hands together and cackling with glee when he got Harry into more messes. I need that attitude. I need to do that to my characters. That's the point , isn't it? I'm too easy on my characters. I like for things to work out for them, so I make things work out for them, because I'm the author and I can do what I want with my characters. Why not rescue them?
Because it's boring.
So here's the choice I make: do I want my characters rescued, or do I want readers? Because it turns out (and even though I knew this all along, somehow I've come to the sobering realization that I'm horribly guilty of ignoring the fact) you can't have both.
Suddenly, all the experts who claim that authors should pick a niche and stick to it have convinced me. I buy it. I buy it, and I plan to live it.
Focus.
My New Year's Resolution for 2012 was to create balance between work, family, church, health, and writing. I've done a good job with the first three, but I've sadly neglected the health and writing categories, because I just can't get to them. So I'm adding a new word to live by, and that word is FOCUS. I plan to set boundaries in the categories of my life, including writing. I plan to add "health" and "writing" back into the equation. And I will be successful, because I won't waste my time on things that fall outside the boundaries I've defined for myself, my jobs, my business, my endeavors.
I don't know where I've been for the last six months, but I'm back, Baby. Initiate productivity sequence: GO! |
August 15, 2012 at 4:50pm August 15, 2012 at 4:50pm August 12, 2012 at 7:33am August 12, 2012 at 7:33am
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I finished a whole entire project because my pastor pushed a little.
That's a good thing.
Websites
I had three websites on my to-do list.One is a web revision for my church site. Another is a web revision for my school site. And the third was a made-from-scratch site for a new local food pantry hosted by six area churches, including mine. I actually scratched something off of my "long-term" to-do list yesterday.
Reading
I'm still reading Side Jobs, but not flying through it like the rest of the series, probably because I already know the outcome. I wanna know what happens next. I'm not diving into a new book series quite yet, but I have a couple choices on my Kindle. I'm thinking I should hold off until Praise Team rehearsals kick off at church. And I finish those other two website projects.
People I'd Like to Kick
 Ohio Idol owner, Steve Wise.
Pretty much any young-ish employee or volunteer who refuses to read or answer emails, whom I must chase down with text messages or face-to-face conversatinos to get absolutely anything done. This includes both MTMS and church.
To Do - Disclaimer: This Section Is Kinda Boring
Finalize plans for Sound System Work Day on September 9th.
Pick/buy music and plan worship and Praise Team rehearsals through December.
Fall ad planning and rollout at MTMS.
Review and implement brainstorm items from MTMS Staff Meeting... a list in its own right.
Meet attorney and chase down $830 owed by Ohio Idol, which owner Steve Wise refuses to pay
MTMS website revision.
Messiah Lutheran Church website revision.
Senor Patron poster. How many weeksmonths since I moved to Wednesdays?
Tweak payroll system so it doesn't take me five hours every month.
--- That one jumps to the top of the list the first of each month, then drops back after five hours or so. 
Review and revise business plan.
Performance evaluations and growth plans. At least for the ones who care.
Writing/Revisions/Editing.
Develop student database.
Something I told Robert Waltz  was at the bottom of my list, next to "develop student database." I can't remember what it is.
Other Important Notes
Did I mention that STEVE WISE, OWNER OF OHIO IDOL, is a JERKFACE? He needs to just pay his fucking bill and stop playing games with big words like "attorney" and "council." He blames his "council" for not paying his bill, which probably consists of himself and his five daughters, who were the "staff" at every single Ohio Idol event.
See, here's the thing. This guy clearly thinks he's doing this again next year when he says things like, "County Fair Such-and-such invited us back next year!" on his Facebook page. He clearly thinks this is a viable, recurring annual business.
Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. Fact: he told MTMS staff (in WRITING) when he asked us to judge that he expected 5,000 entrants. He got about 500, which we also know as fact, because we were there. At $25 per head, you do the math at how much revenue he expected versus how much he actually saw.
See, at that point in a business venture, you have two choices: (1) You bail on the whole thing, or (2) You go in with your eyes open, throw a bunch of money at it, and understand that you won't see a profit until NEXT YEAR, if at all. I know about these things. I barely broke even on my summer camps two years running and am considering not doing it again in 2013. If I do decide to move forward, I understand that it might lose money. But I also understand that I need to maintain my reputation as a quality provider of summer camp programs if I do decide to continue, or I will surely lose money.
He's terrified of a bad reputation. When we (MTMS) told him that another judge told us the same thing he told us ("I never agreed to pay you. You said you would volunteer in exchange for a contact list."), he emailed that other judge and threatened to bring in his attorney if he heard of any more "slander" from her. (I'm not sure how, "Funny, that's exactly what the other judge told us you told her," constitutes as slander.) Then the other judge and I both posted on the Ohio Idol Facebook page that we had not seen payment of our invoices and were just following up, and by the way, congrats to the winners! (also not slander - or libel, either), he emailed us both and told us "formally" (he always uses that word) to stop posting on the Ohio Idol Facebook page, website, or "any other public forum" (oops), and said if we had any questions, that he would provide his attorney's name and number.
So I called his bluff. I replied and asked him to, yes, please, by all means, send his attorney's name and number. I haven't heard back.
I'm so tired of this. I just want to get paid. Leann and I worked long days and sacrificed other things that needed to get done to help this guy out. I feel so abused and unappreciated. |
August 10, 2012 at 12:01pm August 10, 2012 at 12:01pm
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...in dog years, that would be...35? That's fairly close. Except it's WDC years, not dog years, so I would think I'd be published by now. Er - not just published. Published and selling. That's one thing WDC has done for me - help me distinguish between that very important difference.
TO DO
 Write to-do list.
Take nap.
I don't even bother making things up to scratch off the list first.
My ADD is OUT OF CONTROL. And I'm not even diagnosed. Maybe I should get a diagnosis. I wonder if medication would help? Shiny medication, so distracting. I have legitimate stuff to do, of course, but I've done nothing but email another musician at church all morning. It's enough to drive you mad:
Me: Hey, since you're playing a pretty solo right before the prayers, do you want to continue playing softly under the prayers and The Lord's Prayer this Sunday?
Musician: Which Lord's Prayer are you going into, Mallott's or the contemporary one?
Me: I actually meant to play softly under the spoken Lord's Prayer, but since you suggested it, singing the Lord's Prayer would be nice. We could do whichever one you like, so long as you can provide us with lyrics for the power point slide show.
Musician: Do you mean type out the words in a PowerPoint slide?????
Me: Hahaha no!! I mean send the lyrics to me and Melissa and WE will type them into a power point slide.  If it's the contemporary version, we have those lyrics already. If it's another version, we need the lyrics.
Musician: Are you kidding me??? Are there different "lyrics" to The Lord's Prayer??? Isn't the prayer the same with only the music different????
Me: Silly. Of course! There are different TRANSLATIONS of the Prayer, are there not?? The contemporary song includes the "debt/debtors" verbiage, but starts with "Our Father, who art in heaven" rather than the "Our Father in heaven" that is typical of that translation. Our poor congregation would be beside themselves with confusion if we put the wrong words in front of them!!
Musician: Since I've played for so many denominations, debtors, trespasses, intruders, etc. all the same people to me!! I found the front page to that Russell Nagy Lord's Prayer. I think you did it a few weeks ago at a wedding. I didn't have much time to look for the rest of the pages. Do you have it immediately at hand?
Me: Yes, let's just do that one. I have those lyrics.
Musician: I'll need the music. I think it's in the key of G?
Is it too late to go back to Plan A??? Sheesh. Meanwhile, I need to send an email to our client list reminding them to sign up for upcoming recitals; write a bulletin announcement inviting church people to sing in my choir; and plan the fall schedule for my praise team. And that's just what I need to do TODAY.
At least I blogged, even if most of it was copy/paste cheating. |
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I finished the Dresden Files (except Side Jobs, his collection of shorts) and moved on to The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty for book club. A very good book, but nowhere near as suck-me-in engaging as Dresden. I'm still going to bed too late (thanks a heap, Gabby Douglas), but at least I'm not spending every free moment nose-in-Kindle.
That image doesn't work as well, does it? Technology is great until it renders our cliches obsolete.
At MTMS , we cleared 275 and dropped back down when a family of three withdrew, but we're still two-steps-forward-one-step-back in the volume growth category, which is the opposite of May and June, which makes me very happy. I love my job again.
On the weight loss front, I dropped four pounds and held... all summer long. I suppose I should be happy I'm not gaining, but I still have twenty-six pounds to go according to my goals. I ate three molasses cookies (6 points) and drank two cups of creamered coffee (2 points) for breakfast today. Yay, go me.
On the writing front... (wait, there's a writing front?) ...two months until "October Novel Prep Challenge" [13+], which means one month until advertising and fundraising begins. Other than that, I'm behind on my WDC blog (yours truly) and my business blog, I've been away from social media and the Internet in general, I have three website revisions in progress, and I'm behind in my church duties.
I will accomplish something on my to-do list today. *scribbles "take nap" on to-do list* |
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Even better if she can whistle to the tune of Mozart or something. 
Comment 
, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.![Merit Badge in Music
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To a dear friend whose talent for writing music is sensational. May you have a fabulous New Year, (((Brandi)))!!! *^*Kiss*^*
Big hugs,
Sherri *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Music-1050.gif)
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I don't know how you do it, but I assume there's magic involved *^*Bigsmile*^* I have really enjoyed this month of planning and preparation for NaNoWriMo and I love how organized it all is. Thank you for hosting a great challenge and for your dedication to helping so many of us prepare with confidence and trepidation for National Novel Writing Month (known to sane folks as 'November' *^*Laugh*^*) at your [Link To Item #1474311]](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Organization-1150.gif)
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For your hard work, commitment, talent and innovation in running the October NaNoWriMo Preparation each year, which helps many of us get our scattered thoughts together for November's novel-writing. And also because this badge has ducks on it.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Leadership.gif)
