I think I should just change the name of this blog to:

“I AM SO CONFUSED.”

Perhaps I am just working on too many things at once and I have not had a vacation forever, but let’s start here. As I go to post it, I pat myself on the back for getting it out here a bit more quickly, then I notice that I have written on the same issues I did last time..

Maybe I should rename it:

"GET A NEW LIFE."

I have good intentions and then it just pops in my head that I have not written in over a week, because:

I am trying to relearn Zazzle. I started with them in 2011 and have effortlessly sold, mainly otters on t-shirts, over the three years. It is definitely not a living wage but then again, I am exerting next to no effort on it. I decided it was time to get serious.

So, I spent one full day this week learning how to maximize my store in Zazzle. I had directions. I outlined my plan. I went to sleep, confident in my step 1-2-3 plan.

Only thing is; the plan was old and those steps were no longer in the same place, on the website. All the plans were old. I am convinced that everything written on the internet is outdated by the time I read it.

My next ‘because’ is creating my website for my soon-to-be Kindle book.

I have created my own web pages with Coffee Cup Web designer, since I first learned html in 2004. It was so nice to move up to their Visual Site Designer. Coffee Cup was still basically, at least I thought it was, a site for non professionals to create their own website.

Now they have a Responsive Web designer. It sounds great, your website will be able to be seen on an iphone or a laptop. I must have missed the asterick that said, “for professionals only.” Either that or my mind is just going. I think my household is voting for the loss of my mind, but, I notice they are not volunteering to design my website for me.

I am very slowly learning it, or I am convincing myself of that. Now, I discover that it is only part 1 of a two part program. They haven’t told me how much part two will cost yet, either.

Anyway, I vote that everything written on the internet has to have a date with it. Then, you will not spend a day with outdated directions, And, while I am at it, I suggest that all commercials have to pass a test for irritation. If they put a song on an automobile commercial, you should be able to understand the words, at the very least. I would name the obnoxious commercial but, after several times of writing down the name, I lost the paper and still do not remember. So, your irritating people does not translate well.

Where's the time?

Eons ago, you could write a book, print it out, send it off in a book box and get a rejection or, if it appealed to someone, find an agent or editor. 

No longer so!

Now, you need an "Author Platform;" A presence on the web, really on the world, that says you are somehow connected, not just five ways to Kevin Bacon, but to half a million people you have never met in person. These are people who like to read your written word.

I do understand. It's a built in audience for your book. What I do not understand is how you have the trim to write a book, when you need to build a website, blog, tweet, LinkedIn, and be entertaining on Facebook, which I find to be quite a depressing site whose main function is to point out to me, "Am I REALLY related to these people?" I am already convinced that I did not go to school with half the people who say they were in my class. My memory cannot be that bad.

So, my apologies for being missing from my site for so long. I have been running another edit to cut wordcount. It has either tightened my work up or killed it dead. I have long ago decided I am not the person to judge my own work, so, in the near future I am thinking about putting up two clips. 1. from when I started the book, and 2. after twenty-five edits. We shall see, because right now I am focusing on my Author Platform.

I found a nice article on The Creative Penn. There is a ton of information on building your platform and what it is and isn't. One is A Definition of Author Platform by Jane Friedman.

Now, I know that I need "visibility, Authority, and reach." I think I also need about twelve more hours in a day. Guess I shall give up my afternoon nap. I cannot give up housecleaning as I gave that up long ago.