Shreds of Humanity - Sample Chapter

Shreds of Humanity

Prologue

I was sane once.

Sane?

Sane seems like such a clean and tidy word, wrapping my whole mind and body in a thick blanket of normalcy which no longer seems possible.

But I was normal once, just as I was once sane.  That sanity was gone now, though.  As gone as my wife and child.  As gone as everything normal.

That word kept ringing in the emptiness of my skull.  Sane.  Was I sane?  It was a fair question, but it stirred an even deeper question.  If I wasn’t sane, what was I? 

Crazy?

That word was even tidier than the other choice, but just as incorrect.  If I was crazy, would I know that I’d driven my mental bus past the right exit?  If I was crazy, would I feel the loss of my sanity just as I felt the loss of my family?

No, I wasn’t crazy any more than I was sane.  My brain bus was just stuck in neutral, unable to shift into drive or reverse—forever stuck on the psychological highway without the ability to simply unbuckle and step away from the bony cage that surrounded it.

These wandering thoughts and images were all that was left to my mind now.  They were the wisps of imaginary smoke trailing from the ethereal crack pipe of reality and, no matter how hard I swatted for those hazy tendrils, they simply evaded my mind and left me grasping at the nothingness before me.

Nothingness.  That was a better word for what I was left with—the emptiness of my soul as it lay trapped between sanity and insanity.  Everything that I once knew and loved was gone now—my child, wife, job, apartment, life, mind—all gone like a screwdriver in the junk drawer.

But that left only me in this great mental wasteland; unable to form complete and rational thoughts, yet just as unable to completely bend to the comforting quilt of insanity.

Testing the Social Media Marketing Waters

So last week I went on an allegorical dissertation of how to become a Social Media Marketing Master (say that three times fast!), but this week I’ll add some meaty chum to the water.  I won’t recap the discussion, as I’d rather you suffer through my words one post at a time, so I’ll just assume you’ve read it and swim on…

Step one is simply to get in the water of the internet.  That’s a simple task for most anybody under the age of 16, but those of us who can remember getting out of the chair to turn the TV channel (of which there were only *gasp* 13) might find it a little more painful and frightening.  I won’t waste anybody’s time on the basics of the internet, but I think its use for marketing is worth discussing at length. 

Are you ready?  Did you inflate your swim vest, don your arm bands, and pull down your goggles?  I sure hope so, because the water is cold and dark at first. 

Swimming the Social Media Marketplace (let’s call it the ‘SMM’ so I don’t get cramps and drown myself) is more than just listening to that old internet dial-up tone and surfing for naked pictures of mjHangge (please don’t because even I don’t want to see myself naked).  To become an SMM Jedi, you’ll need to learn where to advertise yourself, how to advertise you, and how to avoid those embarrassing SMM faux pas.  In her great book, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Susan Gunelius speaks of her ‘four Cs’ of social media participation.  Content creation, Content sharing, Connections, and Community building.  While you’re still teasing the SMM waters with scared toes, I would suggest that you start with building Connections and Community.  Creating content and sharing that content is your ultimate goal, but if you think twitter is the tremulous call of a bird then I would suggest you begin by merely observing content rather than creating it. 

Let’s start by talking about the WHEREs.  There are thousands, probably even millions, of online places to build community connections.  From social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to forums on anything from the dietary rituals of earthworms to the sexiest Porsches, you can launch your SMM swim training by simply lurking around and seeing how people interact with each other. 

My suggestion is to begin by simply signing up for a personal Facebook page.  You are likely to invite only your friends into that personal FB page, which will allow you to swim in warm waters without fear of sharks.  Your friends will give you the leniency to make a few gaffes without letting you drown and may become your most strident swim coaches as you break out from the safety lines surrounding your swimming hole.  The beauty of beginning with FB is that you aren’t expected to bring any snacks to the picnic, your friends will interact with or without you.  My only caution is that you must be wary of what lessons you learn from your friends there—some things said in the ‘privacy’ of FB would be damaging or deadly in less ‘intimate’ areas of the internet.

This is also a good time to point out that ANYTHING YOU PUT ON THE INTERNET WILL BE THERE UNTIL LONG AFTER YOU ARE DEAD.  I hate to yell like that, but it’s something that people don’t seem to realize and is something you must learn early and often.  Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want your grandkids to read and, for God’s sake, don’t post pictures you wouldn’t want your mom to see…

Okay, rant complete, back to the swimming lessons.  I would suggest that you begin with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Forums in your specific field.  I wouldn’t suggest doing much more than signing up for accounts and wading around a bit until you’ve spent some time learning the etiquette of each site.  Also, don’t sign up for too many at once, you’re simply trying to acclimate to the SMM not trying to master the butterfly stroke yet.  Simply spend the time watching others who are trying to sell themselves just as you are.  Write down what makes you want to read a certain author or follow a politician.  Don’t worry about how to sell yourself yet, your time will soon come.  Just watch and learn.  In the first few days of owning a Twitter account, you’ll see some great SMM role models to emulate like Kim Garst (@kimgarst), Jonathan Gunson (@JonathanGunson), or the amazing Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki) who has nearly 1.4 million followers.  Listen to them, watch what they do, learn how to sell like they do.  At the same time, watch for the mistakes.  There is a fellow author who I’ve read and enjoyed, but have chosen to unfollow because of his Twitter behavior.  His first (and most glaring) mistake is that he tweets a dozen times an hour about how great his books are—he quotes from them, posts reviews, lauds excessively upon his own work.  Don’t get me wrong, he is a talented writer and he does deserve praise for his accomplishments, but let others say how great they think he is or, at the minimum, don’t post about it constantly.  You want to build connections with people, not hear their ad nauseam thoughts on themselves.  I would love to hear more about his dogs and cars with a sprinkled sales pitch to get the uninitiated to take a quick nibble of his works.  From my limited online exposure to this writer, I can honestly say that I’d have never bought his books if I’d met him on Twitter instead of at the bookstore.  Think about that as you start to move into step two—if you don’t learn the basics of the SMM then you will be lost in it and you will miss one of the greatest sales opportunities ever.

See, step one was simple.  If you’re still floating above water (and I haven’t put you to sleep yet), then you’ve already learned the basics of social media marketing.  Take the time to struggle through each step as you reach them and soon you’ll be on the OSMMST (Olympic Social Media Marketplace Swim Team). 

Next week I’ll begin talking about how to use each of the most influential sites to your best advantage.  Until then, have fun surfing and watch out for the sharks.  MjH

Any other social media studs/studettes you can recommend?  Send me their names and I’ll add them to the list!  MjH

HOMEWORK

• Open a personal Facebook account
• Open a Twitter account
• Read and pay attention to others' tweets and posts
• Follow some SMM role-models such as @kimgarst, @JonathanGunson, @GuyKawasaki, and @Susangunelius
• Follow me @mjhangge_author and post how great you think I am.  (Okay, so maybe that's a stretch, but I'd sure love to hear from you.)

RESOURCES

• Learning to Swim in the Social Media Marketing Waters by mjHangge - next week's blog post on mjHangge.net
• 30-Minute Social Media Marketing by Susan Gunelius
• Social Marketology by Ric Dragon

DEFINITIONS

• Facebook defines itself as 'a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them'.
• Google+ 'aims to make sharing on the web more like sharing in real life.  Check out Circles, Events and Hangouts, just a few of the things we've [Google+] been working on.
• LinkedIn helps '(m)anage your professional identity.  Build and engage with your professional network.  Access knowledge insights and opportunities'.  
• SMM - Social Media Marketplace - Simply my acronym to keep you awake today
• Twitter is a '(s)ocial networking and micro blogging service utilizing instant messaging, SMS or a web interface'.  

Calculate your life expectancy today

The Death Clock: Calculate your life expectancy today

Literary Yoga?

Literary Yoga?

One of the most difficult things for me is to decide how to find balance.  Do I work on writing my next novel?  Do I spend time with my family?  Do I work on social media?  Or videos, covers, agents, even strange new tan lines?  Since I still love my day job, I’ve got to find ways to successfully divide my time between the things I have to do and the things I’d like to do. 

In my humblish opinion, being successful in today’s publishing world is much different and more complex than any other time in history.  It isn’t necessarily more difficult, as there are so many more venues to showcase authors, but the sheer numbers of authors, publishers, and sites sometimes make it more difficult to be noticed or ‘found’.  While I’ve had decent success as an Indie writer, my goal has always been to become a well-recognized author around the world.  As the party planners for the ‘Historically Famous Author’ parties don’t necessarily care whether my wife and grandmother really love my work, it is important to have a successful platform to build upon. 

So, is it more important to work on my writing, my platform, my family, or my mastery of the Fallen Dog yoga positions?  I wish I could say that I use every moment in pursuit of either happiness or success, but the truth is that I probably waste just as much as I spend fruitfully. Since I have a dream, but live within the real world where I’m only given 24 hours a day and hopefully another 40 years of life, my belief is that I have to find a balance (and not the Sleeping Dog kind) that will help me find both happiness and success.

I try to give the taxpayers (who happen to still be willing to pay my monthly bills) an honest day’s work everyday.  I try to spend quality time with my wife and three daughters.  I try to get the proper amount of sleep, relaxation, and exercise (though I seem to fail on all three more than any other area in my life).  I try to keep up with platform building and social media.  AND, I try to make every minute of my writing time count. 

For those of you who want to succeed in today’s publishing world, my suggestion is to find a way to practice some form of Literary Yoga.  Spend time with your job, your family, your platform building, and your writing.  Don’t let any of them overwhelm the other, but never neglect any of them either.