Behind The Scenes (June 6, 2012)/Marketing

The Female Body As Art

The Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette got 404 hits yesterday.  The Old Soldier is still waiting for confirmation that the funds he’s set aside for his two guest writers has been deposited in his PayPal account.  As soon as the funds are available I’ll publish the work of my two new guest writers.

The Old Soldier has started a new marketing campaign.  I’m going to place a paperback copy of my book, Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories, in The Big Idea Bookstore.  The bookstore is only a few blocks away from my apartment and is owned by the employees.  I’ll lose money on the book; but the URL of this magazine will be in the book where people will definitely see it.  You can download your copy of the book by clicking on the first link in the sidebar on the right.

Here’s another marketing idea that I’m working on.  I would still like to get local women (amateurs) to pose nude for the magazine; but I’m going to have to build up funds for that and that could take all year.

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Keep reading and keep writing that flash fiction.

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Read.  Study.  Write.  Submit.

About these ads

A Special Ebook For Flash Fiction Writers

Hello hello hello, my brother and sister bloggers and flash fiction writers.  The Old Soldier is here to encourage you to download The Ebook on writing show-don’t-tell flash fiction.  The flash fiction stories in this Ebook are the same stories that helped me win a K. LeRoy Irvis Fellowship worth more than $60,000 dollars.

So, the selection committee at the University of Pittsburgh thought the stories were pretty good and you will, too. 

But these stories are not just about entertainment.  They are about writing in such a way that a reader is able to “live” in the stories and to participate in the creative process. 

Download Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories.  Make an investment in your own writing career.  It will be worth it.

Never Start A Story This Way

Varsity Walk

Image via Wikipedia

Novice writers often make this mistake.  Don’t you make it.

Hello hello hello, my brother and sister bloggers, creative writers and Flash Fiction Fanatics.  When I was teaching at the University of Pittsburgh as a grad student I was thankful that none of my writing students turned in a short story that began with the protagonist waking up in bed and thinking about life.

And don’t you do it either.  Doing it is the equivalent of having dead air on the radio.  It’s the equivalent of starting a one hundred-yard dash standing straight up instead of being done in the starting blocks.  It’s the equivalent of waiting for a bus with a group of other people and then when the bus arrives you get on the bus and only then start searching for your bus fare instead of getting on the bus with your money in your hand.

Don’t do it.

Click on the Ebook tab at the top of the page to download your copy of Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories.

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