How do we trace the outlines of the invisible?
where despair won’t touch you gentle
and secret won’t fingerprint its way out of chest
and won’t poetry its way out of fear
the darkened cave of mankind’s deepest secrets
and treasured desires
the place he enters through the mind
tucking away all inner thought
inner being
inner wish
inner fantasy
that real self
hiding in thought
a storage place for his hopes
his hatreds
dreams and guilt
a peeled off echo of coming and going and knowing better
this is his resort
his vacation away from himself
his place of residence
he lives here
inside the cave made of chest
the place he thinks no one will ever find
can we write the heart?
take it beating
bleeding
and dripping with genuine
soaking with regret,
and repentance,
and expectation,
and nerves all tender like
hanging suspended in the air
or on the closet hooks of his thoughts
under the bed spread of memory
flowing back and forth like waves
we stand knee deep in his tears
our clothing soaked with his love
and his hatred too
can we contextualize the heart?
twist it
turn it
influence its shape so that it fits on these lines
can I drink your thoughts?
so that you relate to lyric
and your heart fits the silhouette of this pen
and puts a dent in white paper
Welcome back to No Whining Wednesday, the only day of the week where you do not get to whine, complain, or criticize. Click Hereif you’re new to this segment for more on what this is about.
The No Whining Wednesday Badge
“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches..”
– Rainer Maria Rilke
Are you rich? Here’s a list to help you to find out. You’re rich if you:
Woke up this morning
Have a roof over your head
You ate today
You have someone who loves you
You love someone back
You have clean water
You have food in the refrigerator
You have someone who could give you food
You have a good heart
You wish good for others
Someone prayed for you today
You prayed for someone today
Someone cares for you
You have clean clothes
You have a washing matching to wash your clothes
You know how to wash your clothes on hand
You have a dream
You know how to read and write
You’re breathing right now
Understand and then appreciate your riches. Do that and you will never be disappointed. For the grateful, there is no poverty.
I come from a place where twitching mouths and search for the white stuff on the floor is protocol. A place where the White Gods ruled, food stamps sacrificed to glass pipes and crack is the answer to every question and yet, I don’t plan to leave any of them behind. Not the government cheese, hand-me-down clothing or the streets chalked with junkies. I ain’t nobody special so if I can be healed they can too, if they choose. I won’t miss a trip to Egypt or beautiful Germany (I almost went one time..bummer that it didn’t work out). I can be found quoting the likes of Whitman, Dickinson, or Frost and I think Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet is beautiful (even though his eyes look weird to me.) I’m a sucker for deep conversation, red wine, and education. I love to learn, pray, and study scripture. After all, what’s a beautiful woman whose mind is weak? I don’t mind walking into your fancy dinners either just as long as you’re paying for the plate. I hate the spotlight, true (though I will stand by my word). Shy most definitely. You can have the credit. I’ll wait and speak when the time is right because I’m kind but not weak and humble but not timid. Don’t box me in. My overcoming is a bridge for all people, not a closed door. Two Xs and no spaces except the one I found outside the box. No boxes please.
YO! AUTHORS! Check it out. This is what I mean by attending FREE online webinars and conferences to aid in your education when you cannot afford to pay for a live one. This is a FREE, online global conference for authors, run fringe to the major book fairs: London, BEA & Frankfurt Bookfairs, broadcasting 24 sessions of author education over 24 continuous hours, so that authors around the world attend some live sessions, no matter where they’re located.
Since I got my butt kicked editing the hard-copy of my author media kit yesterday (the longer one I print out, not the one in the sidebar) I figure it will be the topic of today’s discussion. IT owes me that much!
I have slowed down my writing articles a lot lately so I figure we were due for one. I’ll discuss why I’ve slowed down at a later time. Anywho, the author media kit…
Though “It is always worth it” (See my most recent guest post here), that doesn’t mean it’s not important to focus on putting energy toward the right things (balance is seriously everything!) Energy and time spent directed toward the wrong thing is just as ineffective as no energy toward the work at all. Running into a wall will produce the same thing as standing still. It is insanity, repeating the same thing and expecting a different result. Posting everyday on your blog will not bring more views if you aren’t also networking with others or people can’t even find a follow button on your blog at which to follow your blog (my most serious blog pet peeve!) That is why I have shifted my perspective and started to focus on activities that will give me a return on my time. It is about growth.
Partial snapshot of the office and my unorganized work-space. Yes, I work from two computers. One is responsible for holding my sticky notes lol
At some point in your writing life, you are going to have to get a bit organized. Whether that is posting sticky notes on your computer as reminders (guilty), keeping a notebook filled with notes you may or may not be able to read (guilty again), or having an author media kit.
I’ve been updating my writing life in more ways than one and have found that being able to go to my author media kit for links has been a great help in getting things done. What is an author media kit anyway?
An Author Media Kit is a collection of marketing material that anyone wishing to know more about you as an author can access and use for articles they may want to write on you, interviews, and other forms of publicity. It is a collection of branded hype-free marketing materials and collateral material for journalists.
The media kit is always a work-in-progress. It is something that must be revisited and added to as you gain more exposure for your work and should be both electronic and hard-copy. (You can find my e-copy on the sidebar of this blog HERE. It’s a little bootleg but I’m working on it). It doesn’t matter where you are in your career, every writer can use a media kit. This means that your “status” as a writer has nothing to do with it. Whether you have twenty book reviews or none, whether you are a Best Seller or novice, whether you’re a Self-Publishing “Pro” or not, whether you are visible in the community or not. All of this has nothing to do with the Author Media Kit. Easy to put together if you invest the time, you do not need any special skill set, training, or experience. In fact, the author media kit can be bought if you have the money and is not something you send out to people in the form of a “Buy my Book” Ad.
“Luck is preparation meeting the moment of opportunity.” – Oprah Winfrey
Look at it as an opportunity to prepare. When the door opens for you to appear on someone’s radio show or your article to be featured in a magazine or whatever you consider “doing it big”, the media kit will come in handy. In fact, the interviewer will refer to the kit for basic information on you as his form of preparation and research.
The Author Media Kit is:
A major marketing package
Anyone should be able to access it through your website/blog
Journalist expect it
Ensures accuracy in news stories
Helps people to promote you and your book
Free publicity – Free publicity beats paid Ads
7 Key Audiences Who Will Access Your Media Kit
Journalist – Broadcasters, Talk Show Hosts
Bloggers – Easy access to photos bloggers can use, social media handles
Reviewers— Amazon reviews in your kit
Retailers
Individual Buyers
Event Planners
Anyone Who Wants to Promote you or Your Book
The primary goal of the media Kit is to make all these people’s job easier. By making their job easy, they are going to promote you and your book.
Caution. The Author Media Kit is not something you send out to people as a “Buy My Book” Ad. It is something that is offered in the event someone needs more information on you. It is also there in the event someone happens to organically come across your website. All the information they need to know about you is right there. It is not even for you, but for others.
Personally, it helps me to stay organized and cut down on a lot of time. It helps me to:
Easily access social media links and photos for guest blog posts
Easily update my author website or anything else that may require such info as contact emails and links
Copy and paste needed info into emails of inquiry
Share across social media in the event someone is looking for more information about me.
I can go on but you get the point. It even helps in the case of Book Reviews! Are you tired of having to send your social media handles out? Author photos? Send the reviewer to your Author Media Kit. There, they can find author photos, social media links, and anything else that they need and so can you.
Not only does the Author Media Kit help others to find you but it helps you too. My online Media Kit (which needs work itself but that’s the kit for you. It will always need an upgrade!) is working for me right now. I can go to it for my social media links and my bios for the website, cutting down on time I can now spend doing something else.
(Speaking of Bio, it is good to have at least 3 different sized bios in case someone wants to write something on you and they may not have a lot of time. They can copy and paste the short one or the extended one according to their schedule. It is good to have a short bio, a medium length bio, and an extended bio.)
It’s about taking the steps needed so that you do not drown in this sea that is Indie Publishing by making yourself easier to find. Just like genuinely supporting others, by making the job of others easier you naturally become better. (Also, write your bio in 3rd person so people can cut and paste it. Again, the job of the Author Media Kit is to make the job easier for whoever is reaching out to you.)
Yecheilyah Ysrayl is the author of The Stella Trilogy, Blogger, and Poet. She is currently working to release two books in “The Nora White Story” this year–about a young woman who dreams of taking part in The Harlem Renaissance movement and her parents struggle to accept their traumatic past in the Jim Crow south. “Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One)” is due for release July 15, 2017. For updates on this and other projects be sure to follow this blog and to subscribe to Yecheilyah’s email list HERE.
My Guest Blog Post with Chris Graham. My message today is “It Is Worth It”. This is for the writers underground. Underground is the place where people are tilling soil, laying seeds and preparing for harvest. Keep striving! DON’T give up! Why? Because it’s worth it.
Peace to everyone reading this post at this moment, for sharing these words on your blogs, and for giving me the opportunity to speak. I am grateful for the support and for the opportunity to build with you.
Frustration, depression, sadness, and lack of hope is something that everyone experiences at one time or another. These spirits are most especially present in the ambitious person. The man or woman who desires to go above and beyond. The person who strives for excellence, who strives to do anything beyond the norm, anything great, anything outside the box, and anything noble can be sure to experience these low points somewhere down the line.
Any writer who is really seeking to make a difference, not just to pen empty words on a page but to literally carve purpose into ink and to do it so powerfully that it breaks down mental barriers, this…
The PBS Blog 