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News
This page is about en.light.en.ment the book
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Sometimes there are printing problems with Lulu ... quite rare that they occur - I'll add - nevertheless, just recently I did have some issues.
The reason why I bring this up is that it can happen to anyone, of course, and should it happen to you, just let them know on their website, www.lulu.com. They will create a "case" and it will be dealt with quickly and efficiently. They will send you an email and may ask for more information (especially if you didn't add a photo of the fault), but eventually you'll get a replacement book.
Go to Lulu.com and click "Support" ... you'll be taken to a page where they ask "What can we help you with?" and you click "My Orders", which will take you to this page ... where you click "I purchased a book or calendar":
When they ask "Tell us a little more about your issue:" you click "Defective, damaged or incorrect order". Don't bother with the options, instead click "I still need help" ...
... and the page extends to reveal the form you need to fill in ...
... Importantly, you should add a
photo, click "Choose file" next to "Attach
File" above your description of the fault (just take it
with your phone-camera) and don't forget to write your order no. down too. Below are the faults I encountered.
The first three images are of a printing fault that ran right through the book, on every left hand page:
Then I had some binding problems ... below is an image with four photos of the faults. Below that an image of what the binding should look like:
So this is what the binding should look like, i.e. the cover should fold precisely where it is creased and it should not separate from the first page right all the way to the spine ... then the following pages will fold neatly.
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This is difficult for me to write about. I made the previous entry in May, I'm writing this one in September. What has happened in the four months since we started my publicity campaign with Lavidge? Well, I'm looking hard for the right words, but there really is only one: Nothing.
I said before that when I was asked what I would consider a successful campaign I responded, "well, ideally that would be lots of sales of my book, but I'll settle for just one or two really good write-ups of my book." So, over two thousand media outlets have been contacted. What was the reaction? Nothing.
Admittedly, I was never promised
anything. No results were promised, only that my press release would be put in
front of more than a thousand media contacts, in the US, GB, Canada &
Australia. They did that, in fact I think the number is over two thousand two hundred. In some cases my book was sent directly, cold, so to speak ... in one case it was requested.
And I was told not to expect any
responses in a hurry ... they may come as late as six month after the event.
Fair enough. But so far I have not been contacted by a single journalist, not a
single newspaper or tv show ... nothing.
OK, that's that, and we'll move
right along. The conversation I mention above was between my friend Jenny and
myself. So she said, "why are you writing; whom for?" Well, I said,
that's a good question: To make the world a better place; for everybody.
Everybody and nobody, except for myself. At the end of the day I write my book - my blogs - for myself ... to clear my head, to solidify my beliefs. Yes, beliefs ... my book is full of them. What, then, is the Take Away from the whole episode? I did write an essay EXPECTATIONS before, maybe it's time to write one on humility.
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We are now well into my publicity
campaign by Lavidge Publicity. Work is being done on two fronts: The Media
Outreach Campaign, where hundreds of media outlets are being contacted and sent
my Press
Release, and we're doing work on Social Media, where we revamped my online
presence.
In the video I mention the essay WASATIA.
There is a media campaign timeline … last week we did a general mail-out of the Press Release, an impressive 2,257 online, print, radio and TV broadcast media were contacted (I had initially been promised it would be “at least 1,000”). This week contact was made with local media organisations.
Obviously it is much too early to expect results, but as I said previously, I'm not good at curbing expectations ... on my Home page, where I pigeon-hole myself into categories, I say I'm a "photographer, a writer and a dreamer". Oh boy, can I dream!
But at three o'clock this morning I had an epiphany, I got up and wrote a new essay: EXPECTATIONS (I do not have spare pages, so these days, unless I can delete one ... I need to bundled a new essay with another).
So this essay describes my disposition these days ... and it needs to be read in conjunction with page V in my book:
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Today Lavidge Publicity published my Press Release; this is a milestone for my endeavour of publishing and distributing my book. I say on my Things To Do list: Don't have expectations ... well, that is not going so well right now!
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Great news:
My press release - prepared by Lavidge Publicity - is finalised and ready to go ...
it'll be released on Monday, 9 April, to start off our publicity campaign.
An interesting thing happened in the process ... the press release contains a quote from the review by Foreword Reviews (I use an excerpt of it on my landing page):
"The goal of the book is to present a challenge and urge determined exploration, but the result is far from elitist, off-putting, or aggressive ...“
There was a link to their website with the review, which contains this sentence: "Disjointed front matter makes the book feel less coherent than it ends up being."
Watch my video to see what took place next (I'll not publish the entire original review, I'll only quote an excerpt; to be clear: I really like the review ... well, most of it):
Since I recorded, uploaded & watched the video, one thought came to me ... there are indeed still - even after I removed nearly twenty pages from the book - a few pages of "front matter" before page 1 (like a dedication, foreword, the impressum & contents page). Is this still deemed "disjointed"? I would find that petty.
OK, enough of that ... off to the beach now (38 degrees C = 100 degrees F) ...
It's been a productive weekend, even with our heat. I finally produced my video DEATH 1; it took me weeks to work out how to do it, but finally it all fell into place. After you watched it, click on the link above and read the essay's footnotes.
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When buying your copy of en.light.en.ment, I suggest you use my shop at Lulu ... this is why: You get the latest edition, quicker, cheaper, better.
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I have built a new landing page for my website and we are working on a publicity campaign for my book en.light.en.ment; to coincide with that campaign I am starting something new: I'm reading essays from the book. I now have a YouTube channel. Below is the video of my first reading BALANCE
