a long day - i went to a local author's fair at the galesburg public library, and i probably talked to people the entire four hours. i couldn't help it. it's been a long pandemic. and these were authors i wanted to impress. i ended up selling two books, and trading several others, and giving a couple to the library. in short, i came home a little depleted, but happy.

i've begun to think of print marketing as its own sphere, entirely unrelated to kindle marketing. as i look down at my kindle ratings, i can say that i've done pretty well to get some books down below certain threshold rating numbers, like below two mil or below three mil. i can't say the same for my print ratings, as i'm not known well in the print world, and have to get my book out there considerably more before i can do the same for my paperback ratings. the ratings have entirely become an obsession. i pick up my little log book (where i write down major changes and keep track once a week) almost constantly sometimes. success means that the thing will be quite messy, and i look forward to writing down the weekly ratings once agian tomorrow morning.

i'm checking the world cup a lot - reminds me of my old days teaching esl when i'd lose whole teaching days to a big game like france or netherlands. those european countries are the big ones - they take it very seriously and always have an excellent team - but argentina and brazil are right in there with them, and it always ends up pretty exciting in my opinion. it's nationalism as it should be - a purely sports-oriented wish that your kids are hotter than theirs for an hour or two.

it's a bit cold out there, and i'm tired. will update you on the author fair - i met a bunch of cool local authors. i'll put it all on either the authors' blog or the galesburg blog, hoping of course that i have time. chou.