First Word

I don't know why I am still shocked when people are just so rude for no good reason. For our radio show First Word Radio , I recently had a random, rude comment posted on Facebook that cited the show as the worst show ever. I sort of knew the "friend's" name and was shocked. It was a pointless comment from a guy I hardly knew. First and foremost, it's my Facebook Wall you're pretty much defacing with "graffiti". Second, no one is forcing you to listen to the show. It's a show we do as a marketing and entertainment tool for my company 3L Publishing . We do it for fun and to promote other authors. We're up to between 1,000-2,000 listens per show. If people happen to like it and apparently some seem to enjoy it then bravo and yaye! We're not asking for anyone's approval anyway. If you don't like it, that's cool and no problem. But I do have a problem when someone blatantly goes out of their way to post some mean-spirited message ...

I just posted a query for First Word radio and got up this morning to find an astonishing 200 pitches in my in-box. To suggest I will spend the next several days sorting through those is an understatement. I had to laugh, because I've heard a query on HARO produces that kind of response. What really blew my skirt up were the really weird ones. I was somewhat astonished by things like JoJo the Dog Boy who became a dog because he got in a fight on the playground. Or Moesha the Monkey Wrangler ... now I am half-hearted kidding, but not really. I don't want to specifically cite any of the real ones, but what I just described is pretty darned close. Rest assured, I won't be inviting JoJo on the show. What I also discovered aside from the odd assortment of circus freaks were various trends in books. Now this piece of information could really help me out. I noticed reinvention was a big one. Chin up and all that sort of stuff. The coaching books and success books -- also big. I no...