to kindle or not to kindle, that’s the question

One of my guiltiest pleasures is reading.  I read for fun.  For information.  To help kids with annotated bibliographies when there are short deadlines.  (My eldest owes me big time.)  A friend of mine mentioned that she gifted her mom with a Kindle.  While I can see the benefits of loading everything on one little device it takes the romance away from a good old-fashioned book.

Call me crazy, but I love the art of the book.  The cover, what type of typeface is used.  The funny blurbs on the back to get you to read it.

Is is just me, or does anyone else appreciate the smell of a library with all those books collected in one place.  If they could figure out a way to bottle that fragrance, I would buy it.

Seems fitting to talk about books today, the day that J.D. Salinger went to the big library in the sky.  Ironically, someone in my house has to read “Catcher in the Rye.”  Looks as if I’ll be re-reading it–the old-fashioned way.

thanks for the comments–

Thanks to all who have commented on “Idea Generation.” 

After some thinking about this, I remembered hearing stories about Papa Hemingway setting up his typewriter in the bathtub.  (Smile.)  I recently heard that money-maker Dan Brown wakes early, early in the morning to write in his separate studio.  Early like 4 a.m.  And much media attention has been given to J.K. Rowling writing in a coffee shop while the baby (first book) slept in a pram.

So tell me, and others, where do you get your best ideas?

idea generator

Where do the best ideas come from?  Now THAT’S a mystery.  But I did get some good advise from a former professor and  colleague and I’ve found it to be very helpful.  She recommended every week to do something that you’ve never tried before:  go to a new restaurant, eat a different kind of food, see a movie (or have someone else choose a movie that you wouldn’t normally see), listen to a different kind of music.  Take an afternoon to do a little side trip somewhere you’ve never been before.  She called this, “Feeding the Monster”–the creative monster that is.

Now while I don’t get to do this EVERY week, I do find that if I can do this regularly, it really helps with idea generation.

Call me crazy, but I find also that my best ideas come when I’m not really thinking about the tagline, headline or tactic that I’m trying to come up with.  Lots of creative folks have recommended keeping a small notepad at your nightstand.  I do find that as I’m either drifting off to sleep, or just waking up, an idea will come to me that solves a creative predicament.  Write it down!

The shower is also a good place for thinking.  I read that the female copywriter, stumped for an umbrella campaign for the city of New York thought about it while in the shower.  She wrote in the condensation on the shower stall, “ I Heart-Shape NY.”  The rest, as they say,  is history.

I’ll scratch your back

Just the other day, I met with a colleague who is starting up a new video-production company.  I don’t know about others, but I really enjoy helping my friends with their businesses.  It takes me down new paths that I probably never would have had the opportunity to go down–a paying it forward sort of mentality.

That being said, I also have learned some valuable lessons with regard to ”helping” others with their marketing.  I have learned to be very judicious about giving my services away for free.  It’s easy to do; hard to recover from.  All who call themselves professionals in the marketing communications world have to be careful not to give away the store. 

Those who value their businesses and taking them to the next level will not have a problem with paying for professional services–despite the challenging economic times–they understand that it is an investment in their future business and a good thing to do.  It is worth their TIME to spend time with a marketing professional and it is worth their investment as well.

how about a little snow?

I spent some pretty formative years in Texas.  Snow is a rarity.  When it does snow, Texans are filled with wonder.  Businesses cease.

I don’t like snow.  It is cold.  Wet.  The clothes are so unflattering.  I won’t buy them.  I don’t do any snow sports.  My dancing ankles will not allow me to ice skate, much to my two daughters’ chagrin.

I’ve always said there are only two places for snow:  in those little snow globe thingys that my husband likes and on Christmas cards.

Check that, three places for snow:  blogs! 

It’s not cold, or wet.  Perfect.

the importance of a communications strategic plan

Since I also write a monthly food article for the Post-Dispatch, I have to make this analogy of a  strategic plan to a recipe.  For those of you who know marketing and cooking, then getting into the kitchen without a recipe is not a problem. But since most people don’t have both skills (cooking and marketing)  talking to your audiences or creating marketing materials without a strategic plan is like cooking without a recipe.  You are just not sure how your efforts are going to turn out.  They may turn out fine.  Maybe not. 

A 2-3 hour session of asking pertinent questions about who you are, what your business is, who you want to be to your customers is vital–not only for you to be able articulate that, but also so that communication professionals can assist you.

If you don’t do that, you may end up with souffle, you may end up with a flat omelet.  You’ll have eggs in both cases, but it might not be in the form that you want it.  Those who take the time and the effort to work through a strategic plan, seldom have eggs on their faces. 

Writing all over the place

I’m continually surprised (and usually delighted) when I land a new client or account.  And you’d be amazed at where a background in journalism and good writing skills will take you.  I have written commercial scripts, had them produced and aired (my :30 seconds of fame.)  Written a script turned into a flash presentation for a major brewer to convince the new imported president to keep the web-based electronic closet of assets.  Powerpoints to beat the band, ghostwriting for another journalist, and a piece picked up by the op-ed page.

The wierdest thing, I have to say, was being in New York City (the mecca of communications) and hearing the television commercial that I had written, broadcast in Spanish (which I don’t speak.)  Funny.

It’s all in a day’s work.

Writers read. Readers write.

I seem to go through phases of different genres of reading material, but I always have a book going.    Right now, I’m reading Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol.”  I know that my better half cringes when I come home with the latest novel purchased from B&N or Borders.  What he doesn’t understand is that I HAVE to read.  It’s part of my job.  And I can’t wait for it to come to the library.  I do have a good friend though who, as book editor of a major metropolitan newspaper,  often supplies me with a title once in a while that is current, or that no one else will ever read. 

What are you reading and enjoying these days?

This old house

This is our home. My office is on the third floor.

Don’t make me!

So last YEAR the web designer  helping me asked me if I wanted to blog.  “NO!”  I said rather emphatically.  The last thing a trained writer wants to do is to write.  Writing is work.  Sitting at the keyboard is work.  I’m writing enough for other people, I don’t want to write for myself.  Sort of like going to one of those scrapbook parties.  I put words and pictures together for a living.  I certainly don’t want to be doing that in my off time. 

Never say never.

Who knows how much I’ll write.  But I’ve been told by certain colleagues whose advice I value that I should.  So here it is.