Independence

Independence Day!

How do you be independent as a writer? You don’t. You have to write and then you necessarily market.

For certain, the most intimidating aspect for me of writing is the marketing – that is to say “takin’ it to the street” where I have to get off the paper and vocally explain myself – maybe what I’m working on, maybe what I’ve pubbed and even possibly where I’m coming from – very abstract stuff – as a writer.

For certain, what forces me to take it to the street is the ever-present need to expand my subscriber-ship to joecsmolen.com

For certain I saw, months and months ago the absolute, inevitable, daring need for me to step out on the stage and try to say something smart and hope nobody would laugh or demand to know “where did you get those shoes?”

Yesterday, 7/1/23, at Toledo, Oregon, at a street fair called Art, Oysters & Brew, I wore sensible shoes and I asked a lot of people the really clever question “Can I sell you a free subscription to my website?”

What happened, I didn’t expect.

In the first place, they listened – patiently. Their eyes never blanked. They listened. What’s more, I found myself with an incredible amount to say – almost without exaggeration – about the Literary Platform purpose of joecsmolen.com, about how many stories are published on it, and off. And easily 80% of the people I approached(accosted?) generously gave me their e-mail.

And we didn’t talk just about writing. The conversations were personal and fascinating.

Just for example: a man my age, who the instant I saw him, I took for a man who had worked all his life;  he said, yes, he had and all of it right there in or near Toledo. He was wearing a worn ball cap from some sort of machinery company. He said that for a long time he had worked as a “Yarder Engineer.” He had been a Logger!

And we were getting along fine, but he was hesitant about subscribing, so I picked up a copy of the first three pages of my story D.C. Chester. I told him “Read the first paragraph.” He did and he smiled and said, “I’ve been to all of those places.” Then he subscribed to joecsmolen.com

Those places – Death Ridge, Desolation Saddle, Ten Mile - are all up in the Coast Range woods not far from Toledo. Along what is now called the Crystal Springs Loop off Highway 20, you can see the Chitwood Bridge – better than it was in 1893 – and the cemetery, better than it was before that.

Gents like that Yarder Engineer remind me of what drives all of my type of story.