When it’s Thursday Blog Day and not much has happened since the prior blog installment, what’s a blogger to do? Considering this endeavor has always seemed more “Seinfeldian” than news-filled, for oh these 11+ years, there’s still only so much “nothing” one can write about. This, therefore, is why I keep a file that is filled with all the emails or Facebook messages I get that even vaguely resemble questions from readers. When in doubt, go to the file and find the best ones. It’s like “Instant Blog” powder. Just add water. And since it’s been raining here in the Twin Cities for about 24 hours, I have plenty of water to add. Just ask my sump pump.
Before that, though, I just realized something about the arbitrary decision I made to make Thursday my blogging day. I think I did that because when I switched this blog to our family site after posting my final installment at the NHRA site, I was neck deep in feverish writing, having just started the process with “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” and Thursday was the best day to give myself a bit of a break from that. Research and write like a maniac on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, then blog on Thursday, and finish up with some final editing and writing on Friday. Seemed like a great plan, at the time. Now, though, I see the flaw. Heading back out to a bunch of races, in order to continue promoting the book, means I’m blogging on the day before that happens. I leave for Brainerd tomorrow. Maybe it would’ve been smarter to pick a different blog day, way back then, but I think we’re locked in now. Thursday it is!
So let’s get to those questions, but before I do that it bears mentioning that I rarely get reader emails anymore. Most of the questions and comments I get are direct messages on Facebook. The times, they keep changing…
Cara, from San Antonio, actually contacted me through our charity, The Perfect Game Foundation, and she asked: “I’m heading to the University of Texas for my freshman year and I think public relations is something I could really love doing. Any advice for my field of study?”
You really couldn’t go wrong majoring in Journalism, for multiple reasons. You’ll learn how to write succinctly and accurately, you’ll learn what’s important and what’s fluff, you’ll understand how to structure a story, you’ll learn about dogged determination, and you’ll come out of it knowing the “other side of the street” from a PR perspective. Knowing what matters to a member of the media will make you a better PR person. Oh, and Hook ‘Em Horns! Enjoy Austin, and eat at Chuy’s whenever your college-student bank account allows.
Carl, from New Hampshire, wrote: “What do you think about New England Dragway? I haven’t seen you write about it much, but it sure is great for all of us up here in this part of the country.”
The reason I haven’t written about it much is because it’s been a really (like REALLY) long time since I’ve been there. When it was added to the NHRA tour, we’d already instituted our “no travel when no hospitality” rule at Team Wilkerson, and LRS was not doing corporate hospitality there. So, beginning with the first year it was on the schedule I never traveled there. The only time I’ve been to New England Dragway was way back in (I think) 1992 or thereabouts. If you’ve read my book you know my first job in drag racing PR was when I went to work for a guy in New Jersey. We represented Chuck Etchells and Mike Dunn, and I got my feet wet for the first time in terms of press releases, media relations, and this whole end of the business. We also represented Kendall Oil, and they sponsored “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and his Top Fuel Dragster, at the time.
Garlits wasn’t driving then. He tuned the car and Bruce Larson drove it. I don’t recall which “Swamp Rat” that car was, but it was the black dragster with a cockpit canopy and the mono-strut rear wing. A very innovative car, indeed. I went to New England Dragway for an IHRA race they were in, but I don’t remember much about it other than how small the track was and that they lost in the first round. Hey, it was a long time ago. We also did some PR work for Al Hanna, who drove a jet Funny Car. I have an almost certain memory of him being there, as well.
I do know NHRA and the teams really enjoy going to the Epping race now. It’s pretty easy to see that on Twitter, thanks to the plethora of tweets from drivers, crew members, and PR people who love to share pics of the lobster, crab, clam chowder, and other New England delicacies they enjoy up there. And when the schedules coincide you see a lot of pics from Fenway Park, too.
Paula, from Denver, sent me this message: “I really enjoyed your book. It was hard to put it down! And, I really related to your chapters about growing up and not liking grade school. Are you like me, in that you’re well past those years but still get a pain in your gut when you see kids and their parents buying back-to-school supplies this time of year?”
Oh my, yes I do. Today is my sister Cindy’s birthday, and as I wrote in the book we could mark off the milestones of summer by three such dates. My birthday is June 19, and at that time we had nary a care in the world and summer was just getting started. My sister Mary’s birthday is July 25, and by then I was getting worried. When Cindy’s birthday came around, I was in full panic mode. When I got up this morning and sent Cindy and email on her big day, I felt that pang once again. At this point, I’m pretty sure no one can force me to go back to Mary Queen of Peace with the nuns, but I can’t be 100 percent sure of that so I’m always on guard!
Chad, from right here in the great state of Minnesota (St. Cloud, to be precise) said: “Just finished your book. It was awesome, and really motivating for me. I’ve felt like I should write a book for years, but never knew how to do it or how to get started. Any advice?”
Yes. Just start writing. As my editor, Greg Halling, told me, “Write it all. Write everything you can think of. We can always edit.” And boy, did we ever edit. As originally written, my book would’ve been close to 1,000 pages and the cover price would’ve been close to $95 or more, because it’s based on page count. We edited 400+ pages out of it.
So, Chad, don’t worry about publishing or formatting or anything else. Just write. Write as much as you can. Once it begins to look and feel like a book, start researching publishers. The vast array of self-publishing and print-on-demand firms out there makes it really easy and you’ll have lots of options. I enjoyed working with (and continuing to work with) Outskirts Press but there are plenty of publishers out there and they all have their own approaches to the process. I liked Outskirts Press because they charge less up front, but then act as the writer’s partner by taking a percentage of each sale. That motivates them to help you promote the book.
One other piece of advice is to write in the Google Docs word processing application. I had to download it and get used to it, but it’s the best way to write a book, in my opinion. That’s because you can share it with other people and both make changes, and because everything you ever write, whether you eventually edit things out or not, is always saved. You can dig back and find stuff you chopped out, if you want. (Also, in the interest of fair reporting I will admit that I wrote Chad a reply on Facebook immediately, so this is just a recap of that.)
Steven, from Michigan, politely and succinctly asked: “Why is your book so expensive?” I don’t hear that a lot, but I do hear it. As explained above, in the world of self-publishing the cover price is mostly out of the author’s hands, except the case in which the author wants to make the price more expensive. The default cover price is usually $19.95, but that’s based on a “normal” sized book, or one even shorter than normal. 200 pages, max. After that, each page adds to the cost. We used every trick in the book to condense “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” and got it down to a still-hefty 545 pages. At that length, that’s what it had to cost. And after Amazon and the publisher take their cut, I end up getting about $7.50 per copy sold.
Keep an eye on Amazon, if you’re still on the fence about buying it. They have formulas for calculating expected demand, and the price can float around a bit. At one point, it was down to $39.95 but we’ve had a spike in sales recently and it’s back up to $49.93 right now, so two entire cents less than the original cover price. And, of course, the Kindle version is only $9.99.
As has been my recent tradition, I’ll finish up today with yet another story that fell victim to the massive editing process Greg and I went through.
It’s well documented in the book that I attended a very challenging all-boys Jesuit high school; St. Louis U. High. The curriculum was stout and the instructors expected excellence. I provided them with a lot of “not too horrible” but somehow I got through it. For all four years, though, there was one period during the day that I relished. It was Physical Education, otherwise referred to as “Phys-Ed” or the generic “gym.”
In the fall, we’d play touch football. I was captain of one team and I decided to “draft” players from our class a little differently than the other captains, who picked buddies and other guys on the real football team. I, instead, picked one tall and fast guy, named Chris Kainz. Then I added a number of non-athletes who never played on any teams. And we won. A lot. Beating teams full of guys from the varsity football squad and other great athletes. How did we do that?
Well, the guys I picked were usually overlooked, underused, and disrespected and I needed them to be a key part of our offense. I needed them to block! I was the quarterback and I knew if I got just a little bit of time I could hit Chris with passes and he could outrun the defense. My blockers took their assignments seriously, since they usually weren’t even included in sports. Chris and I kept it simple. He’d run two or three “square out” routes on successive plays. That’s a route where the receiver runs about 10 yards, then squares off the route to run straight toward the sidelines. A little head fake the other way helps too.
Then, after a few of those where I could throw the ball before he even made his cut, we’d call a “square and go” and Chris would appear to run the same route as I faked the pass. Then he’d turn back upfield again and I’d hit him going long. That fooled the defenders every time.
I remember those games vividly because we had a team full of guys no one else wanted and we won. Even when the other teams knew what was coming.
In 2014 we had our 40th reunion and Chris was there. We were chatting and I said, “Do you remember those touch football games during Phys-Ed?” and before I could finish the question he said “Like it was yesterday. We ran nothing but square outs and square and go patterns and beat everyone.” I was stunned. I couldn’t believe he remembered it as vividly as I did, 40 years later. Sometimes the most mundane and unimportant things stick with you. Those touch football games stuck with both of us.
That’s it for today, gang. Thanks for hanging around with me and I’ll see you next week. As always, if you liked what you read here please hit the “Like” button at the top.
Bob Wilber, at your service calling more square out routes.