by Max Hartshorne on May 23, 2012
Our lives are made up of transitions and eras. The other day as I contemplated my new life here at my house without my housemate family of seven years, Mary and I discussed an idea of taking down a wall and opening up this 1920s house into a more modern open room arrangement. She was surprised I was enthusiastic about the idea. “I thought you hated that!” she said. But I explained that above all else, I am never reluctant to accept and create change.
I have had many different careers in my 53 years, each with arcs that parallel my relationships. I was once a newspaper paste-up artist, then a reporter, then a salesman, now a publisher. I know many people like me, who used to do this, or once did that, and now spend their time much differently. During a walk with my cousin we talked about a fellow who often talks with pride about how he “used to work there, and there, and there.” What happened? How come now he works in a low paying factory job, with only memories of great, higher paying jobs to brag about?
The arc rolls on….once my old friend and webmaster Joe Obeng used to live in this house, along with my son Sam. Now Joe is recovering in a hospital room and with a trach in his throat, can intently listen but can’t utter a word. He mouths the words as if I could understand, I hand him a clipboard and pen but he still tries to talk. Seven years ago, they moved out and the kids and family moved in. Seven years ago Joe was telling me over and over again how we had to modernize our website. While he was in the hospital this week, this work began, and I was excited to tell him, amazed that we actually did it.
Now in 2012, a new house has been purchased seven miles away in East Deerfield. It’s exciting for my daughter and son in law to have a place of their own. So gramps will wake up in this big house alone. That’s not so bad, really. Change. It’s what life is all about.
by Max Hartshorne on May 22, 2012
Change can be scary, and then again, sometimes it can feel like surfing down a big glorious wave. A few things that happened over the past few weeks convinced me of this.
GoNOMAD publishes a line of travel ebooks called Plane Readers. We started the project last April, and now we have five titles on Amazon, BN.com and Kobo in Canada. The price of the 278-page ebooks has always been $2.99, which has yielded pretty good sales.
But there is one title that outsells all of the rest, it’s the book about Italy. So we decided to raise the price last month to $4.99. Imagine being able to change the price of a hardcover book after you’ve had it in the bookstore The bookseller could do it. But the author could not.
We increased the price and sales stayed strong. WOW! We don’t want to go above $5 but at this point we were able to squeeze another 60% worth of revenue out of our most popular title. The result? We went from selling about 10 copies a day to just under 8. Worth it.
Later on I got a reality check when I my friend Ed told me he had asked his old friend, a military book writer if he had ever heard of ebooks. Nope. He had no idea what we were talking about. We have an idea about publishing one of his books as a future title, but first we’ll have to explain that in our version, the camouflage in the photos will be in color, not in black and white.
by Max Hartshorne on May 22, 2012
James Irwin answered a question to a post on Reddit.com a few years ago. It would change his life. The question, explained in a story in Wired Magazine asked how a group of US Marines would do if they were taken back to ancient Rome and had to do battle with the emperor’s troops.
At work in Des Moines Iowa, Irwin only had a little while during his lunch break to compose what he called “Day One.” In the post he laid out the scenario and began the story. The comments, upvotes and praise on Reddit were overwhelming. They wanted more. And they wanted it right now!
So Irwin kept writing, posting Day Two, and then a few days later, Day Three. Commenters went nuts, thousands of people weighed in, telling Irwin how much they loved what he was writing. Also taking note was a Hollywood agent, who read the posts and saw great potential.
A week later the agent had good news. Join the Writer’s Guild, Irwin was told. We’re sending you a six-figure advance. He quit his job and now, despite how surprised he is, he’s no longer working for the software company.
The only thing Irwin said he misses is that he can no longer post the stories on Reddit, it’s no longer ok to give away the writing that’s now bringing him fame and fortune.
by Max Hartshorne on May 20, 2012
There is no substitute for visiting someone and talking to them face to face. I often think about this after a satisfying lunch meeting, or a few drinks with a friend, or a romantic rendezvous with my partner. That despite all of our interconnectedness, despite now much we get to know our friends by following their actions and comments on Facebook and Twitter, these interactions, no matter how seemingly intimate, are not the same as seeing them in person.
Having a conversation that goes around and around up and down and then sideways is what you can do when you’re seated across from your friend at a restaurant, like I did today with my pal Jim. Running into people in the flesh, people you like but haven’t seen in a long time, feeling a hug and looking into their eyes, this is all stuff you gotta do in the REAL WORLD.
You just can’t run into an old friend on line, nor can you dance from topic to topic with no random order, no then it’s all lineal, and much more reliant on following the conversation through. Yet it in these random assorted topics where I find the most interesting things out about people.
My friend Jim told me that he’s so glad that I’m always asking him to get together, that I’m one of those people who organizes these ‘in the flesh’ visits. “Keep doing that!” he said.
I made a commitment after I closed my office that I’d get out of the house more, and make regular lunch dates, or bike riding dates, or walk dates. That I would reach out for more of these real world exchanges, and not let the virtual world rule my life. I have found great solace in sharing my anxieties and my triumphs with friends like Jim and Ed, and I’m never not glad I made the effort to get in my car and show up.
