Klout Poem

Klout weight down from 57.

Flabby Algorithm without Structure

We start with an initial state of empty.

A love affair needs to be elegant.

The dance for a girl is gamesome, watch your weigh.

Turning Complete System, input the information.

One partner builds from specs of dust here and there.

Some sparkle and vibrate beyond the sense of sight.

Others settle for crumbs.

Am I a coat in the closet?

A counterweight to you?

The sequence of operations spits out a magical score,

then suddenly everything about the other is devalued.

Between a hawk and a buzzard in twilight,

computed past that held back some secret in the iron ore.

Another wasp in the coreopsis, confused by the brilliant yellow mud.

Instead of eating the dirt Klout dusts her wings on the flowers.

The bees laugh at the silly creature.

The hummingbirds will kill a weak enemy

who repeats the same mistakes

No this time I won’t get crosslegged and

fluttered by drama of love’s wounding chest.

I don't care much about my score.

caroline gerardo

© copyright for photograph and poetry

all rights reserved we prosecute

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064FOCZO



Buy My Book

Steve Nedelton asks me this morning how have I sold so many books... here is my public answer.

 from: Caroline Gerardo

to: Steven Nedelton

subject: re: Friends

I never pay for ads, submissions, or permission.

Be yourself but be fearless - expect failure but be ready to get up and be better. I'm working on my craft as my number one goal. I write seven days a week - work full time and am sole provider for my family... all that aside I am going to give you some input here and please put your turtle shell on and ears open (I have a desert tortoise who is the dearest).

Focus on three silos at max- you need to budget your time for the number one (writing and family) above.

Pick three different internet tools and one live face to face one.

Buddy up with authors not necessarily same genre ( but you will find kindred make the most sense if they are smart and understand we are not competing with each other).

You need to blog- you need to pour your writing practice warmups in the blog or do reviews of what you adore. Wordpress is fancier I use Blogger just because I'm a loyal Google brander.  Don't bother with writing things that bore you or are negative - people don't want that in short posts. Naysay will drag your heart down.

You MUST change your photo on amazon -it is GREEN and you need a haircut and a relaxed look. The glasses are good you have a cute face but the picture is awful and readers (like everything in the world) judge a book - and the author by its cover. Be you. Its fine to be quirky, authors never dress fashionable.

Think branding - your writing, your presence, your posts, are your whole soul opened for ridicule. Be fearless, I repeat. Link up your silos but don't link all four - link two and two because readers will get bored with "buy my brand." I started using twitter 42 days ago, and just love the flash fiction aspect of writing without self editing, this may not be for you.

Go fill out Listorious with all the definitions and details. You can add- tags. What are your brand's five tags? USE them. Mine are: literary, poetry, fiction, contemporary, books. Yours I'm going to poke here are probably: thriller, spy, nerd, smart, books.

 I don't like Facebook but many authors just love it and sell books there, try it maybe you will be better there than I. I'm on Linkedin and dabble in some writers and filmmakers groups (I've produced before but not where I'm headed today). Linkedin has sold books for me to business people- most authors will tell you linkedin doesn't work for them. Goodreads doesn't sell books but is an easy place to display covers, find those buddies, and read other work to push yourself to grow. Amazon is where your links all need to point to. Amazon sells the largest percentage of paper and ebooks. Amazon slam dunk beats them all. Go look at the big boys Amazon pages Follet Baldessari Crais - they aren't even getting close to what indie authors have figured out: a slick book trailer does not sell your book- content does. The content is you - so be fearless, bleed content, the world is starved for new. God they are so tired of T.V. if you are true to your "brand" you will succeed.

Other methods: indie bookstores go to readings, go to your local library and leave fliers - try different things, figure out what works for you.

I haven't done blog tours- some swear by this and physical tours J A Konrath is a master at the dog and pony show from the back of his car and he blogs about it. He and Locke know how to package and market on a budget with great success.

Authors Den, Agent Query, Bookcountry, a million others find the ones that you like.

Russell Blake said to me yesterday, this is a long haul not a foot race 

Read. Be happy. Pay it forward. Be kind. Let the trolls and negatives roll off like a duck.

Start now.







buy steve's books here:

while you are at it buy Russell's
 better yet buy all my books....

Caroline Gerardo Being a Writer

books
Caroline Gerardo
photograph by Blair Barbeau copyright  2011

I need a black and white photograph for the Thriller Fest catalogue. I just signed up. I fussed over this weekend. Daughter says I need to look tougher. I was thinking the turtle neck beatnik look. She says NO smiling Mom. I think I have settled on this image.
All these silly decisions can make a person wake up thinking.
Learning curve for an author: it is not just about writing a great book.
1. Edit like a demon - use words as clean as arrows or ones with secret sauce. Writing is not just a process it is an art. (background ballet dancers, symphony and  Musée d'Orsay )
2.know formatting for epub, pdf, word, HTML, paperback sizing. I love Garamond and some formats don't - why? Know why. Understand everything about publishing.
3. Learn to produce and worst of all edit a video trailer ( I wake up hearing the word string) Perhaps my next thriller is about an author killing a video editing program/softwear.
4. Social networking: finding your posse. They call it platform I think of it as posse. Manage the time reading all the fabulous things the posse is doing .I find myself lured by the siren song of now twenty one books on my nightstand that I am dying to read. I think there is some procrastination self-sabatoge in the pile of books. Share with anyone all the great opportunities in the world today. We live in such an amazing moment in time.
5. Memorize new poetry to keep word choices with a sound and a fury ( thank you William F.)
6. Keep taking photographs for blogging and visual cues for the writing. I am playing with the idea of using the thousands of pictures I have in a online reading version.
7. Promptly answer emails and incoming requests This task surprises me. I am hearing from strangers who now are friends.
8. Ask for opportunities for reviews, ask people to listen to me read, ask for people to buy my books
as I write this please link on the Smashwords site and order a FREE BOOK or go buy one at AMAZON .
9. Exercise, keep up the day job, feed and water the children -garden and pets.
10. Pray, be thankful, and tell everyone how dear they are to me. Show my joy and love to them. Write some more.
If you are attending Thriller Fest email or tweet me I plan to have fun.

Toxic Assets, Novel By Caroline Gerardo Released today

What a great Valentine for me!

http://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Assets-Caroline-Gerardo/dp/1453877916/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1297697667&sr=1-1



Toxic Assets,  the novel by Caroline Gerardo Released today. Will be live on ebooks in days and in bookstores in weeks.
The Book is Alive on Amazon today

Toxic Assets, Novel By Caroline Gerardo Release