Promoting One’s Work

Over at Civil War Memory Kevin Levin has kept his readers abreast of all the steps involved in bringing his first book to publication.  We’ve heard about researching, writing, revising, responding to comments, revising again, indexing, securing blurbs, and so on, all looking to the appearance of his book in the near future.

I’m sure this is an exciting time for Kevin.  Nevertheless, one might wonder about the need for all these posts.  After all, the main issue is that he wants people to buy and read his book.  There are more direct ways to do this.  Take this example, which I highlighted at Civil Warriors back in 2006:

Just call this economy of force and simplicity of message.

 

 

News and Notes, June 11, 2012

Keeping up with what’s out there …

• I’m sure this news story about picking up litter in Georgia will attract attention. H/T Ray Ortensie.
• Gettysburg College’s Civil War Institute is circulating a recent post on this blog to help frame the blogging session at this year’s event.  Those of you who want to read another perspective should go here.
• Finally, a housekeeping note: As is true of just about any blog, occasionally I come across posters who feel that some misbegotten notion of free speech allows them to engage in freely abusive behavior or to offer retorts that are designed to instigate flame wars and exchanges of insults without any sufficiently redeeming intellectual value.  Those addresses and IPs are marked as spam.  I notice that some of those people relegated to that status keep on writing as if they think I’m still going to read their posts.  At best, I see the address, then glance (and I mean glance, as in less than a second) at the text (as opposed to reading it) as I click the “delete permanently” option.  This means that I’m choosing not to savor some posts, including several that appear to have taken a long time to assemble (those are the easiest to toss).  Some folks have figured it out and gone away; others seem devoted to make me their special one-way pen pal.  So sad, too bad.  That said, for those readers of the blog who think that sometimes such exchanges produce more heat than light (as well as an entertainment value, judging from hit counts), rest assured that my policy curtails that possibility; indeed, the most hits here in a day came when Matt Gallman, a professional historian, recently offered his views on matters (sorry, Connie … you haven’t even made the top ten).  The readers and commenters on this blog help make it what it is, and for that I thank them.

Talking Points: Defending the Confederate Flag

This blog entry intrigued me, in part because of how it imagines such a conversation would unfold.

There’s a great deal of insight into some people’s logic to be gleaned from reading this entry.