Do “The Hustle”… (Readers Digest Version
24/11/2024 § Leave a comment
I guess I keep trying to craft my writing to impress the editors of The New Yorker with my overinflated and slightly honest, though understandably involved, and supposedly not-ready-for-prime-time non-fiction, writings. Some—friends mostly—have noted they have the attention span of a butterfly, clocking in at under a minute per read session. Can I send them a skinnier, condensed version? How they know what a butterfly understands and how short their attention span can be is beyond me, or perhaps I have not smoked enough of the stuff formerly known as Mary Jane, the evil weed?
For those, I churned the full-on, full-fat text of the Do “The Hustle”… post into ChatGPT and asked OpenAi to make the blog post buttery smooth for those who don’t have the time to spend trying to decipher my humor and understand the sales messaging I subtly sprinkled in so as not to appear needy and wanting.
_______
We’ve all seen those TikTokers boasting side hustles that supposedly earn hundreds of dollars per hour. Most of the time, their hustle is you watching their videos. But it got me thinking—I already have something to sell: books!
Look out! Marketing schmutz below!
My book Mud Folio is a collection of unsung lyrics—poetry with a musical twist. It’s earned praise from notable figures like jazz singer Ann Hampton Callaway, pianist Ramsey Lewis, and Gang of Four drummer Hugo Burnham. The latest edition features 30 new lyricals, perfect for composers seeking inspiration or a new lyricist to collaborate with.
The blurbettes are on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and I think you can even buy the softcover (on the left above) and the hardcover (on the right) on Walmart.com, though not in the stores.
Buy yours today! (Jump through the links below to also read the fantabulous and copious marketing verbiage before ChatGPT homogenized it.)
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Walmart | Boston Globe Feature for the first edition in 2013
And in the esoterica department?
Inspired by our high school campaign to elect a mannequin as class president, Don’t Be A Dummy is primarily blank pages with room for your own musings. This tongue-in-cheek coffee table book has “endorsements” from personalities like Eddie Murphy and Eddie Izzard.
Get your copy today!
(Again, those obviously fictional blurbettes can be found through the first two links below. Walmart has very little marketing schmutz online. This is perhaps just one reason books don’t sell well there unless they are best-sellers, cozy murder mysteries, by a Kardashian, or religiously themed.)
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Walmart |
And slightly a bit more practical?
A humorous nod to Mao’s Little Red Book, this lined notebook is perfect for notes, doodles, or starting your own revolution. A favorite among my old classmates! (How ChatGPT hallucinated that I have no idea. As the text below was shoved into the machine and I clearly state how many I have sold to date.)
Here’s the postcard I created to hand out at our recent High School reunion, hoping to boost sales. I believe I have sold two so far. So it’s up to you to raise that total to the height of the Great Wall.
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Books |
More to come?
Got a manuscript or some wild ideas? Let’s make it a book. Contact me and watch this space for future releases.
And for the uninitiated, the title? The Hustle is a nod to the iconic disco hit. Here’s a clue from YouTube.
_____
(And ChatGPT praised itself on its work, with the addition of an exclamation point to drive home its fine ability to churn and skim the full-fat text: “How’s that? Short, focused, and still keeps your humor intact!”)
Mud Has Been Flung
14/01/2013 § 4 Comments
When the mad dash ended, publishing the Mud Folio after all, I wanted to feel exhilarated, complete, full of a high of some sort instead of an exhaustion compounded by a nagging feeling something is wrong, unmade, or maybe incomplete. Could there be a tiny bit left out? A wrong word in a bad place? A better picture to be used? Often, I go searching for the problem, soul searching the piece and myself; what have I done, could it be better, proof-reading, and tweaking. Usually a fool’s errand, as whatever problem I am looking for probably never existed. At least I should know by now how to finalize one of my own projects and fling it out there as soon it is finished. With a deadline looming and the possibility of a check in the mail, I can bear down on the project and “get ‘r done.” My own stuff, where I can diddle and review and it’s for free, coming to the end, finding where the finish is and stepping over that line, that turns out to be tough.
A few nights ago, I flung the Mud Folio files across the line and here it is, finally published. The 190 pages, comprises a compilation of my, mostly unsung, lyrics. Not complete mind you, full of the lyricals up to a point. Since, month by month, I am adding piecework to the unsung lyrical market, there are now quite a few doggedly recalcitrant lyricals to find their way into the second book of Mud. Seeing how long this one first one took, if I were you, I wouldn’t wait up nights for Mud Folio Dos to hit the book stands. I started compiling the first bugger back in New York during my former life in the film business, sometime in the mid to late ’80s.
Mud Folio, Almost Here
19/10/2011 § 2 Comments
It’s been a hard slog to get this sucker, THE MUD FOLIO, published in book form. A real book, with spines, a cover, cut to size, even an ISBN number and a UPC code, not the PDF download that’s up there now.
Why? Well, while I figured out a nice looking layout for an 8.5 x 11 page print-out LULU prints their trade paperbacks at 6 by 9 inch, a bit of a different ratio. If I wasn’t so anal, I’d just change the page dimension in InDesign and be done with it. But, I had to tinker, then the tinkering didn’t look right. Then life got in the way, and now, just about THREE FREAKING YEARS later, I am ALMOST done. Not yet, but almost.
We’ve had a few hiccups along the way as well. I added them on a timely basis — updates as they happened rushed to print, “copy, boy!” — to The Mud Folio page on Facebook, which I know you’ll “like” ASAP so you can get all the up-to-the-minute info on publication dates, and news and reviews, and future attempts at humor. (I sure hope we get us some reviews. I sure hope you can get the humor.)
Now, all in one place, here’s what’s happened to us to throw us off course, delay publication, fray nerves, and otherwise make us ready for those many Fridays when just one beer would not do. Though not first in the long list of detours, that Okie Poetry Slam was perhaps the hairiest of all.
BOOK BURNING
« Read the rest of this entry »
tapedave 