I’ve been drawing them ever since.

You know – like these…

Nice cover, eh.

July 3, 2012

Started a challenge with a few friends, Ben Brooks and Elana Johnson. The idea was to generate 30 ideas in 30 days. I went through spurts, 2-3 some days-0 the next, but the exercise was GREAT and generated some meaningful ideas. I’ll do a follow up post on this soon. The idea here is to fail fast and get used to the process of ideation. It’s something I’m comfortable with, but honestly, 30 ideas in 30 days is not for the faint of heart.

July 6^th – false started on an idea that I might go back to someday. It came from the Concept Challenge and I put some good time into before realizing it wasn’t right for me at this point.

July 8^th, wrote 1 paragraph in my Concept Challenge doc that resonated and turned out to be the novel I just finished (Novel 7).

July 11^th, started in on my new book (which I’m calling Novel 7 because it’s my 7^th full length novel attempt) with a new method. I’ve been a pantser in the past, but it’s always led to unfulfilled endings and HUGE reworks plot wise. This time – I built a heavy structure before I began.

July 15^th – finished my 8k word outline (for Novel 7). Yeah. That’s 8,000 words of “throw away” stuff. Nobody will ever see this, but it became the skeleton of my book.

July 16^th – 2,130 words in Novel 7. Over my daily goal, but the words-they-were-a-flowin’.

July 23^rd – up to 6,500 words. Time for some feedback. I liked where the story was heading and I was experimenting with combining prose and verse chapters, but I had no idea how it would attach to children within my target reading group. I turned to facebook for help and found 6 teen readers in about 20 minutes (via their parents).

July 30^th – wrapped up the 30 ideas in 30 days thing. The last 3 ideas were perhaps the best on the list. There’s something to this. I’ll hit this later in the ideas post as well, but yeah, this was a very good thing for me to try.

August 2^nd – wrapped up part one of my Novel 7. It was bubbling around 8,500 words at this point. I shared it with my wife (my #1 reader – she’s tough J). This provided me with my first red flag.

August 8^th. Got all the feedback from my first beta reader group (6 kids between the ages of 10 and 13). Received good reviews, but there was some concern, some common threads. Time to draft zero for a bit. Found out that the verse stuff I’d added resonated well with the age group, which shocked me, once again reminding me that this age group exceeds my expectations.

August 9^th – vowed to never underestimate my readers again. Also – vowed to go all out – and stop worrying about readers and just write.

August 12^th – put Novel 7 away and dabbled with Novel 8 for a bit.

August 14^th – up to 3,500 words on Novel 8. Burned it in a fire. Goodbye Novel 8.

August 17^th – Went to the drawing board a bit. I had a few images in my mind for Novel 7 that I wanted to paint. These helped me capture the mood of my book better AND helped me launch my first chapter in a better place, addressing the feedback and concerns of my tiny focus group.

August 18^th – started writing again. Outline polished. A few inspirational images painted. Picked out a nice playlist to cue on spotify – time to hit this thing. Spent the day setting writing goals and deadlines. Deadlines which, for the most part, were iron clad.

August 19^th – hit first goal. 1200 new words. Satisfying first chapter. This ended up being the first official start of what ended up being Novell 7.

August 22^nd – up to 4k words. On target. This keeps on going. I write fast, but this time I’ve decided to massage the process as I go. It makes it impossible to count revisions, but it works for me because I’m a bit OCD and I like to feel closure as I work so I 1) read chapter/section written the previous night, 2) check it against my outline, 3) adjust outline (always happens), 4) revise chapter, and 5) write new words on next chapter. Rinse repeat daily for the most part. At this stage I can hit 1k new words consistently. Fast forward because the next few weeks are pretty much the same crapola.

Sept 20^th – read THE PECULIAR by Stephan Bachman. I was blown away by the voice and the complexity of this book. The subtle mentions of environment and politics to add to his world building was handled with such poise it was nearly invisible – yet ever-present. Oh yeah, I took notes and implemented accordingly.

Sept 28^th – hovering around 35 thousand now and some things are a bit wonky. I realized at this point I had a plot knot coming up that would require a big revision. Some, most authors would forge ahead, but it was keeping me up at night – so I had to go back. I NEEDED to fix a problem with my MC being more reactive, than proactive. It was driving me nuts, and honestly, it is something I should have attacked earlier. I went back a bit – so things slowed down.

Oct 6^th  – most of the plot problems were hammered out and I moved on here. From 9-28 to 10-6 there was zero positive word count. In fact, I lost over 6k words. Down to 29k, but ready to march.

Oct 7^th – added my first new words in a while. Back on track.

Oct 8^th -  Read IDA B – by Katherine Hannigan. Great use of language and a good ‘quiet novel’ approach and mechanic. Also, wonderful integration of nature into the make-up of a character.

Oct 15^th – Read MAY B – by Caroline Starr Rose. This was suggested to me by a crit partner as a good use of verse in MG. Loved the book very much, but learned more about pacing than verse writing, if I’m being honest.

Oct 22 – hovering around 40K words and liking where it is going. This is a MG novel, so I’m thinking at this point I can project my final word count will end up around 50k, maybe 52 depending on how sloppy I’ll be during this draft.

Oct 23 – registered for Cheryl Klien’s Plot Masterclass. I adore her book, SECOND SIGHT, so getting a chance to hear from her in person was too hard to pass up. I also had a new deadline – must be “query ready” by 11/17. Seemed aggressive but doable.

Nov 5^th – THE END – round 1. Planning on the masterclass got me pumped so I hit this pretty hard. I ended up heavier than expected, 56,244 word for round one (kind of round one). I had just under 2 weeks to polish before the class. Feeling right on track!

Nov 7^th – started in on workshop materials for the Masterclass and I found some very weak parts in my book that had to be addressed.

Nov 9^th – I underestimated the amount of pre-class work required for Ms. Klien’s Masterclass. I decided at this point to give up on revising until after the class and focus on being prepared for making changes learned from the class. This, in retrospect, was a good decision.

Nov 11^th – read MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD by Francisco Stork in preparation for the class. Loved every word – holy cow – it is so brave and honest. It struck a chord with me because of the special needs of my son, as well as identified some parallels with my MC in Novel 7.

Nov 13^th – read THE BOOK OF EVERYTHING by Gus Kuijer – this book ended up influencing me (and Novel 7) a great deal, especially concerning my ending and my approach to things mystical or magical in my book. Brilliant book – you MUST read this.

Nov 14^th – read MILLICENT MIN, GIRL GENIUS, By Lisa Yee. I adored how brilliant Millicent was (she’s a genius, what did I expect), but I fell in love with her sense of humor. The plot in this book is pristine. I immediately passed it to both of my daughters, who gobbled it up. (I was traveling from the 11^th to the 14^th – hence the heavy reading. Just sayin’ J).

Nov 16^th – panicked because my book sucked and the plot workshop papers PROVED IT! Seriously, I stayed up most of the night trying to prepare for this masterclass. I’m a nerd for stuff like this – but I wanted to really absorb this puppy.

Nov 17^th – Cheryl Klien’s masterclass was perfect for me. I wasn’t ready to submit, but I would have been bummed if I thought I was, because I was heavily influenced by the class. Tons of great info to take away, and Ms.Klien, as expected, is a fellow plot nerd. She is super smart and funny in person – I am so glad I went.

Nov 19^th – deconstruction of Novel 7 begins. There was plenty to keep, but plenty that needed to go. New plan, new schedules, new deadlines – GO!

Nov 20^th – found nearly 25k words worth keeping. Actually, I kind of love those 25k words, but it’s brazen for a writer to say things like this. Screw it – they are good words. I hope to share them with you someday.

Nov 28^th – day before TurkeyDay! I finished the revised and improved of Novel 7. I was down to 42k words. In the revision process I lost nearly 20k words, added a character, combined 2 others, refined my MC’s drive and much, much more! Time for a little break!

Dec 1^st – Set new revision schedule. Warned my trusted beta readers it was coming down the pipe asked if they would have time post Christmas to give me a good read through. Gave myself a week to let things digest, I usually like to wait longer but I wanted to get back to this.

December 3^RD – read Jason Hough’s DARWIN ELEVATOR. Man, I needed this. It was nice to turn to an adult Sci-Fi for a while. Nothing like reading outside your genre to help refocus. I adored his book and blogged about it here.

Dec 8^th – did a full read through of Novel 7 without taking notes during the read (hard thing for me to do). Wrote down impression and overall plot things to fixed. I did not cry and feel like I’d waited a few months, my usual reaction during this stage. Took it as a good sign.

Dec 12^th –reorganized Novel 7 into “books” similar to a format found in Kate DiCamillo’s TALE OF DESPERAUX. I found the numbers in the chapter headings (chapter 1,2,3,etc…) distracting and not fitting with the mood of my book. Too formal. Decided to scrap them and rename all the chapters. Took WAY more time than I thought but it felt like progress and polish.

Dec13th – completely rewrote the last 3 chapters from scratch. They were fine, but not hitting the right chords – the resolution was there, but the emotional impact seemed forced.

Dec 16^th – revision is finished. 46 some odd words. I’m really not sure how many times I revised the entire thing. Kind of impossible to tell with this new method, but I know I went over some tricky parts of the book multiple times, while others got a more traditional treatment (write, plot revision, voice revision, copy edit).

Dec 17^th – Gave the finished book to my wife. She cried. Achievement unlocked. She also red-penned the heck out of it because she’d good like that.

Dec 17^th part 2 – took time off until after Christmas to make candy and spend time with my family – distraction free!

Dec 29^th – finished adding in my wife’s notes and a few of my own – then shot it off to a couple of friends for a read. 45,840 words. Give or take too man ‘hads and that’s’.

Dec 30^th – read a crit partner’s book. Wanted to give up because she handles plot like a master – couldn’t stop reading it.

Jan 1^st – sent crit partner notes. Tried to ignore the new book ideas that were coming into my mind.

Jan 5^th – started Novel 8 – again.

Jan 6^th – hated Novel 8 even more than previous. Burned it in a real fire. I’m not kidding. Its ashes now.

Jan 15^th  – today. Started Novel 9 high concept thinking and it’s like love at first sight all over again.

That’s it. Easy. J

Also, I’m more of a book talker-abouter than a book writer-abouter. I don’t know what it is, but if you ask me what I’ve enjoyed lately or ask for a recommendation I get all giddy and can’t stop talking. I LOVE discussing books, especially with friends that have already READ the book.  There’s nothing better than digging below the surface with another likeminded reader and over-analyzing a writer’s choice to dress a character in blue when said character is obviously the yellow representation in the novel.  I mean come on!

What? You guys don’t assign colors to characters. Oh man, I feel so alone.

So, why break the tradition now? Why spend my time gobbling up your time to try to convince you that Jason Hough’s time was well spent telling you a story about massive space elevator set in a different time? Because, someday I want to be able to brag about telling you that I knew Jason Hough before he was the next Sci-Fi buzz word, because believe me, he will be.

Alright. First a confession or four.

• I like big books (and I cannot lie).
• I am a Science Fiction junkie and I adore Firefly, Burn Notice, Veronica Mars (especially season 2), and a little anime classic called Cowboy Bebop.
• My favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy fiction are cleverly masked mystery novels with extremely high stakes and well planed technology. Sorry, I checked out of Cory Doctorow’s LITTLE BROTHER because his description of a kid turning an Xbox into a global security hacking device was just silly. An xbox – really? An xbox? Those were about as advanced as a microwave back then. That’s the best ya got? Sorry – I digress.
• I adore a book with a map. A book with 2 maps nearly sends me into a nerd-sugar-coma.
• I’m suffering from major series fatigue. In the past I’ve devoured series books, but I’m kind of tapped out and tired of feeling like I don’t have closure from an author simply because there’s an opportunity to spin off a 2^nd, 3^rd, 8^th offering.

That being said, it was very kind of Jason Hough to write THE DARWIN ELEVATOR just for me. It’s beefy, which I like in a Sci-Fi book. I know that sounds like a silly thing to review, but I’m of the opinion that sci-fi/mystery needs time to build, and Jason handles this tease like a pro. His pace is relentless, a never-ending thrill ride through a desperate world set in the 23^rd century, where his main character, Skyler Luiken, captains a ship of genetically unique misfits as they travel outside the safe zone to collect the spoils of a society ravaged by a world ending plague. These missions are handled with the ball-busting grace of a NASCAR street race in billion dollar space-jets combined with the danger of a drug-smuggler’s run.

The setting for THE DARWIN ELEVATOR is a concept artist playground. Set nearly 400 years in the future, on the only “clean” place left on earth, Darwin, Australia, a massive elevator has been stabbed into the earth by a highly evolved alien race. This safe zone is the citizen’s link to any foreseeable future and the brightest, and sometimes most menacing minds have conglomerated there. Some to research what’s left and what the future might hold, some to profit like cut-throat pirates.

The cast and crew of Jason’s book, however, are what really kept me rolling. There is more wit in this book than at a Joss Whedon Fanboy Convetion. I was constantly surprised by the dialog, it felt immediate and natural and perfectly in tune with the world Jason created. The characters were deadly serious but never out of reach and overly heroic. Man, that sounds weird, because Skyler Luikenis a freaking hero, but he also seemed like the kind of guy you’d want to hang out at Comicon with. Crap, I hope they still host Comicon in 2300 on the DARWIN ELEVATOR.

THE DARWIN ELEVATOR kept me guessing. It’s set up like a mystery, which I appreciate. It’s always tough when reading Sci-Fi because the writer has soooo much to build and express to the user, but Jason masterfully wove his world building into the book in a way that made me beg for the answers. His technology was well thought out and it felt immaculate. No Xboxes powering this world.

Okay – now the best part. THE DARWIN ELEVATOR doesn’t just have one map. Yeah, that’s right, it has TWO MAPS. One vertical and one horizontal. I know. I KNOW!

And my biggest surprise of all is that I wanted more. I know I mentioned I’m in series fatigue, but the ending of this book was handled with precision. Great closure, but a lingering worry that more needed be done. Not needed in a way that felt carried on or drug out (dragged out? I don’t know) , but in a way that made me feel confident that I was in good hands as a reader.

Get this book as soon as you can. Preorder it today so you don’t forget (LINK). Don’t futz around and wait for the movie(which is not an announcement, just a prediction). Jason is going places and THE DARWIN ELEVATOR is sweetened-condensed proof.

Hammering.

Picking.

Wincing, wailing and wanting to withdraw.

Examining your mouth via the bathroom mirror,

As you sit in the sink.

Your white socks wet.

The lights too dim.

An angry spouse, an unwilling son.

A good amateur hygienist is worth its weight in gold fillings.

Extraction comes with pops and cracks.

Rinse and spit.

Your white socks red.

A hole the size of the pink eraser at the end of your #2 Ticonderoga,

But your tongue is convinced it’s larger than a crater lake.

Time for the transplant.

Candy Corn for Halloween?

Painted wood, like Forefather #1?

Sculpey hardened in the toaster oven?

très chic! Sexy.

And to think. This is only the first draft.

Perhaps Leonid Rogozov will assist during revision.

Seeking advice.

Finding peers.

Adding influence.

I know this can only be mine.

The selfishness.

The honesty.

The Patience.

This is not a journey of friends. That will come. It always does.

Their praise.

Their disappointment.

Their misery.

Their hope.

But for now, I walk alone.

Intrepid.

Deliberate.

Solo.

Okay, so I posted last week about having this “why have book sales dropped in the US” question on my mind and it’s still here. In fact, it’s pervasive. One of the things I was planning on blogging about is innovation. In particular, innovation in pricing and book length and user interaction – and then this happened.

The Kindle Serial thing is exactly what I was thinking – especially for young readers.  So I when I watched the press conference I was pointing to my monitor shouting – THAT! YES! THAT! Then I saw their book titles and was like – huh? (no YA – no romance ) But that’s another blog for another time.

The idea of serialized novels is a not innovative, we all know that. What is new however, is how it is priced and delivered. Also, – it’s social/crowd sourced, which is SCARY AS HELLO KITTY to some. Especially those in the traditional book world and authors who love control. Who has two thumbs and loves control? This guy! Who has two thumbs and loves the traditional publishing ideals? THIS GUY!

But, this is the world I’m familiar with from a business stand point. Crowd sourcing ideas, interacting with gamers on facebook, making subtle changes to design and content suit your audience. All of this is a very exciting and progressive way to offer compelling customer service. There’s something very attractive about this potential, and I want in. It’s the perfect crossover knowledge between my background in social gaming and writing.

But.

But…

But……

It has perceived baggage. Or at least, I perceive it has perceived baggage, and it’s really too bad – because my gut tells me customer service and reader interaction like this is coming. Like a freaking CRAZY TRAIN!

I like compare and contrast lists, so I’ve made one. If you have a few minutes, read it and give me your thoughts. I’m open to suggestions, because honestly, I’m thinking this makes a ton of sense and I have a book that might just fit in here like a glove.

Plus side

• I can be out quick. Finally have something fun to share with the people that have been asking me for years about my writing. *adding a note here. By quick – I mean quicker than a traditional route. See comments below for more information.
• I can test my theories about the importance or non-importance of having a platform before publishing a book.
• I can produce my own cover art at a very professional level.
• I understand the facebook fan page feedback look and how to drive operate in that world
• I have good connections with a solid group of young readers
• I have been telling serialized stories in games for more than a decade
• The upfront cost is minimal
• Most marketing will be in my control and court
• I can create my own “swag”
• Being involved with Amazon as an independent writer could bode well down the line as they grow their influence in the book world.
• I have a book that would fit this methodology just right that is collecting dust under my bed (so to speak).
• I will learn a lot. LIKE TONS!

The neutral side

• The effort required to put a book like this out will be equivalent to publishing and promoting a book through the traditional route.
• The out of pocket expenses will be the same with either route.

The negative side

• I’m really bad with contracts. It will cost me money to have someone look at the contract
• I’ll have to reach out to my network and bother them to buy my book. No two ways around that. I’d have to do this with a trad publishing deal as well, but it comes with more validation.
• I am worried about how my friends in the publishing world will look upon this decision. I have friends I respect greatly that would NOT suggest I go down this path. They are very smart people – so this weighs heavily on my mind.
• I’m not the type of guy that would use a pen name. It’s just not me.
• It doesn’t seem like you get very many chances after you self publish. This might be changing, but the overall impression is that it’s giving up, not innovating.
• If the book does poorly, it could haunt me for a long time.
• Marketing directly to teens is NOT easy.
• If I don’t do this, I lose a learning opportunity.

So… what do you think? I could keep adding to this list forever, but you get the idea. What would you do if you were me? What would you do if you were you?

Sara Megibow expressed it perfectly in 140 characters. She said…

It struck a nerve with me, so I responded – and used the word THAT when I should have said THIS. See, once you make a grammar mistake online, it haunts you forever.

I want to dig in to this problem, but to be honest, I’m a bit leery. In fact, digging into this in the past began the slow and painful death of an previous novel, NORTH. My MG fantasy that was overanalyzed until it turned into a bizarre amalgamation of every profitable MG fantasy novel out there, thus removing ME from the process. I’m NOT doing that again.

I’m going to do a few of these “what’s up with book buyers these days” posts and I thought I’d start by giving up some battle wounds in hopes of soothing my writer soul a bit.

I’m going to oversimplify this to the point of sounding obtuse, but here it goes. Remember the “this is my blog rules” – which state ‘this is my blog – my opinions – my take on things – which probably makes them malarkey, but if you disagree – it’s up to you to correct them. Please comment below ‘.

Please Be Kind and Rewind 10 year: the dark ages before the mass consumption eBooks.

My guess (my hope really) is that the big 6 saw this coming. They looked at data and noticed trends that told them, before any of us, that people were not buying books. I’m also hoping that during that time the big 6 looked at the few books that were really doing well, and established guidelines based on those books in hopes of influencing a better book selling future. Those guidelines made it through to the acquisition editors, who passed it on to agents, who passed it along to their clients, who spilled the secret to the unpublished masses (like me).

Now, in its own right, this is a good process. People familiar with the business and art of making books can interoperate this information in a valuable manner. Editors, agents and published (or contracted) authors have access to a very smart network. They can evaluate these suggestions on a per book (per page) basis and decide as a group where it makes sense to employ these guidelines and where to leave them out.

The unpublished do not share this luxury.

Here’s what I fear the result has landed. These assumptions on how to make a book that sells, have become dogma, and perhaps contributed to an overall downgrade in debut novel submissions to agents/editors, thus limiting their options at truly unique offerings from their most important resource – writers.

I’m basing this off a few things 1) my experience in seeing this happen in the games world first hand, 2) my personal experience of trying to interpret this ‘how to write a book that sells’ information and incorporate it into my own work, 3) the constant reminder from agents at the outlandish percentages of ill-prepared books in their collective slush pile (perhaps collectively it’s slush planet. Slush galaxy?) and 4) the suggestions and critique given to me from other writers often mimic advice I’ve learned through this channel. Not a bad thing, but the advice has become dogmatic. Sorry – gotta call it like it is.

I began writing NORTH over 2 years ago. The first draft happened verbally. A story spun for my children that centered around the myth of Santa Clause and an explanation of how he stopped time to be able to run around the globe in one night. It was full of peppermint, memories, children testing their belief system, and family.

My audience (my very bias decedents) was captivated. They hung on every word and encouraged me to add another installment nightly until the story was resolved. I thought about it during the day, just so I could delight them before bedtime with the continued adventures of Josie, Kesuk, and a young giant named Brun. It was one of the most important experiences of my life.

Two years later, I had turned that soulful experience into something entirely different – not horrible, but different. I’d removed the Santa myth all together and placed the emphasis on the children’s journey instead. I’d also removed a critical character because he was an adult and children don’t want to read about adults – right? I rushed to the story, pushing conflict and action to the first page, reducing the time spent getting to know the characters for the sake of moving into the inciting incident. I changed the pace from a comforting fairytale to an adventurous adrenaline rush with everything from crocodiles to legends of a lost  city hidden behind the Aurora Borealis. I had plans for extending it to a three book series. A branding and marketing plan was in place. I lost writing time to building a platform. (How did that sneak in there? That’s another blog post.)

And you know, in the end, I wasn’t ashamed of NORTH. I’m still not. It’s actually okay. I even sent it around to some much respected people for response, which is something I don’t take lightly, but it wasn’t MY book. And for those of you that know the pub industry, you can see that while my intentions were correct, I didn’t necessarily implement the right things. I over worked this cream filling out of this thing,  and all that was left was yellow cake.

I know I’m not alone here. I’m positive that other writers have made, and are currently making the same formulaic changes to their work. I know a ton of these people will send out submissions and a percentage of them will get a chance. They’ll find the right hook and their writing will be good enough.

Their yellow cake will be better than mine, but it still begs the question, have we given up on the cream filling?

Has the average PUBLISHED book, those that have the chance to influence the market, dropped in quality and originality?

If you agree – and if you’re a writer/agent/editor – you’d have to agree THIS is something we can fix. It will not be easy, but I’m personally not worried about taking a bit of the blame and doing whatever it takes to raise the bar.

So, what do you think? Do you think this could be a contributing factor in the drop of book sales? I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts.

So I’ll recap and wrap this up, because honestly, I want to blog about something I know about. Chickens! No, food! No, basketball! Crap, I’ll figure it out – but it won’t be Pinterest, and here’s why.

Pinterest gives me a headache. I have a love-hate with it because it’s so pretty – but so nebulous. I like it as a user. I find the Pinterest browsing experience quite soothing. However, I’m extremely hesitant to Pin anything – I’m just not up for the commitment. I’m not saying I’m in the majority here, and there’s no way of knowing if I am, other than anecdotally, but I’ve received quite a few emails and comments about this and most of my friends do the same – browse and enjoy, not promote and shop.

Also, Pinterest numbers are hard to come by online. There are success stories, but they seem to be geared toward a very unique market. Women over 35. Now, don’t get me wrong – this is a KILLER online buying community, but if I’ve learned anything from being in the games business – you don’t want to focus your earning potential on a sliver group, regardless of how aggressive they are about your product. (for years games focused on men age 18-30 and things didn’t really start to bloom until people realized that there was a blue ocean of consumers outside this group – more on that someday – perhaps – maybe – probably not).

Some companies like Zappos, have been very upfront about their low performing Pinterest shares, claiming they roll in at about .72 cents per share. For those of you playing along – that’s really low. Like – don’t bother low.

Here’s what that means in a nutshell. Zappos found that their users were 13 times more likely to share a purchase on Pinterest than on Twitter and 8x more likely than on Facebook than twitter- This is good, right? Not really because those shares didn’t convert into revenue. Here’s data that packs a punch – Zappos purchases posted on Twitter – garnered an average of $33.66 per order – while Facbeook posts brought in $2.08. That puts the .72 cents per share in some perspective.

So – a user on Pinterest with 36,660 users, posting to their board is roughly the turnover equivalent someone on twitter posting to their 720 followers. Yikes! How many people do you know with 36K people following their Pinterest account? How many do you know with 720? Yeah, me to.

I’m sure Zappos will figure this out. There is a lot to be tweaked, quality of pictures, the pin forward messaging – all that jazz has a profound effect on what gets a consumer to commit, but a 33 to one ratio is pretty hard to ignore.

The last thing that I just can’t get over is Pinterest’s inability to do things like geotargeting to consumers – don’t say that’s not important in social shopping or I’ll blow a CORK! – brand recognition (a survey done by Amazon found that most social shoppers identified Pinterest as their #1 social shopping experience, not ModCloth or Revlon or one of the other Pinterest success stories), the inability to promote yourself without driving attention to your competitors. It’s all too, well nebulous. Shiny, pretty, tranquil, I’ll give you that, but it’s as nebulous as all the nebulous nebula put together and stirred up with a nebulocal spoon in a nebulium coated pot.

In the end, Pinterest just isn’t for me. I’m not convinced it is worth my time at as product provider. However, I’ve never been a fan of shotgun marketing. I don’t see myself as having unlimited hours to tweak my marketing plans. I don’t subscribe to the adage of ‘any view is a good view’ – I’m more in the mindset of ‘a trackable view with discoverable data will help you refine your marketing efforts and maximize your time spent/product sold ratio’.

But that’s just me.

But first, take a handful of these. What are they you ask? Why, it’s simple really. These little doohickeys are like flags, or flares you can send up to help you remember what you were looking for – what caught your eye – what inspired you. We’ll call them PINS. Why not? It’s a catchy word isn’t it? PINNNNS!

What’s that you say? You’re looking for chocolate donuts. Brilliant. We have heaps and loads of chocolate donuts. Your best bet is to start in the Food and Drink Pavilion, but I’m sure you’ll find some in the Wedding Hut as well in the Holiday’s and Events Bazaar. Oh, and don’t forget the Kid’s Corner. Kids love donuts as much as we do after all.

Pin Battle Round 2

Go ahead then. Look around, and I’ll be right here ready to help you check out before you leave.

Have fun.

3 seconds later…

Ooh, what’s that? Chocolate No-Bake cookies with Nutella and Pretzels. Yes please. PINNED.

Orange Chicken – What are you doing here? Sexy! Saucy! Spicy! PINNED.

Cilantro Lime Rice – ooh, remember that time in Santa Fe, the first time you ever had this stuff. YES – PINNED.

Oh wait, yes – donuts. I remember now donuts, you were after donuts. Let’s see, scroll-scroll-scroll.

Why does orange catch always your eye? Must be a Halloween thing. Wow – Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread – not donuts, but there’s always tomorrow. PINNED.

What’s this doing here? 6 calorie burning exercises that promise to make your stomach look like a Superhero’s? Well, after all the choco-donuts – we’re going to need this aren’t we. PINNED.

Hmm. An hour in the Food and Drink Pavilion and not one chocolate donut. What do you say we try The Holiday’s and Event’s Bazaar.

Woah. This is new. It feels like fall in here. Amazing! We could hang out here all day and would you look at that! 6^th pin down from the top is a Hostess-mini chocolate donut with red M&M’s for noses and pretzels for horns. It’s a mini-edible Rudolf! So easy – you’re kids will love these. PINNED + Comment! You’re so kind.

Snowman Pizza- PINNED.

Holiday Polka Dot Cupcakes – PINNED

Neil Patrick Harris in a Batman costume – PINNED – hey, don’t judge!

Salted Caramel Pinwheels! DAYUM! DAYUM! DAAAAAYUMM! PINNED! And we have a winner!

What’s this? You came here for chocolate donuts? What’s up with the caramels and the NPH Batman poster?

Did I forget to tell you that you could just search for Chocolate Donuts?

Ohh, maybe next time. I get it. This wasn’t really about chocolate donuts now was it? I didn’t think so. It was about shopping. Browsing. Digging around for something new and undiscovered. And let’s face it; the hunt is more enjoyable than the kill.

And don’t worry. Those pins you left behind, they aren’t votes or reviews per se. Nobody notices them. We don’t rank things by how popular they are, or by how often people approve of them here in the World’s Largest 24 Hour Flea Market! Those pins are more like breadcrumbs left on the forest floor to help you find your way back. Besides, there’s always next time to go and grab that chocolate donut. The seller will still be here, somewhere. Don’t ask us where, we honestly have no idea, but I’d suggest starting in the Food and Wine Pavilion. If not there why don’t you try The Science and Technology WigWam or perhaps the…

Alright – enough of this. I don’t pretend to be an expert on how Pinterest works, but I’m about as close to an expert on play pattern recognition and user experience. This is just how see Pinterest being used, and to be honest – it’s a wonderful user experience. The three things that I’ve  highlighted in this little post that bother me concerning Pinterest as a marketing tool are:

• Discoverability – How do I drive people to MY chocolate donuts – not a competitor’s product?
• Predictability – How do I get my pins to float to the top so they are seen on the first page at a predictable rate? Pinterest shuffles the deck, if you don’t my another mix to my metaphors, providing a random experience each time. Great for the user – not so much for the retailer.
• Shareability – if I don’t follow you, what you pin means nothing to me. So, it’s very social on a global perspective, but not very directed to your potential core market.

Sheesh – those sound like topics for next year’s Glee Project! (Aylin got screwed BTW)

So… here’s my question for you: As a user and/or someone with wares to hock, how close does this mimic your user experience?

Also, please stop by Jamie Harrington’s blog to check in our her arguments. Pin to Win, Baby! 

Anywhoo –

During Write On Con, we organizer hang out in a virtual palace of snark, crystal wizards and dolphins. It’s called the underbelly and honestly, we could raffle off the chance to join us during a live event next year. It’s a riot and the conversations in there are at times a little too honest, if that’s possible. The discussions really pick up after the live events when the group of us are breathing free – slapping each other on the backs for not breaking the internet. This year, we got into a very interesting conversation about Pinterest (which I can’t spell btw) and my eyes were wide open as I read the comments of my fellow Write On Con Organizers.

The conversation centered around two things. 1) Pinterest from a user’s perspective is simply amazing, and 2) what are Pinterest’s potential as a viable marketing solution. The underbelly discussion was fast and furious because we have both invested potential marketers in there (like Lisa and Laura Roecker and Elana Johnson) as well as people that actually work in social media as a career.

Jamie Harrington is a social media maven. She works with big name clients like Chevy, Crocs and Jovian, and she is actively marketing via Pinterest.

Nikki Katz is currently Managing Editor for SocialMoms.com and previously the Managing Editor for BlogWorld.com. She also does social media consulting and web design in the side!!

I’m a creative director at EA, working mainly in their casual and social space. Viral and social marketing is my passion and I’m enamored with the data behind the sale.

I learned so much, but honestly, I’m still not convinced that Pinterest is there yet from a driving sales point of view. The good news, Jamie has agreed to put the gloves on in public with me. We’re going to put together a couple of posts about our thoughts, concerns and hopes for Pinterest over the next little while. A blog war if you will! Or as she put it – A rap battle, but slightly more nerdy. Nikki will be chiming in as well to keep us straight. Believe me, you’ll want to read her stuff. She’s as sharp as a tack!

My goal with this is simple. I want to be convinced. I want to understand how and why marketers plan on reaching customers via Pinterest and decide for myself if it’s worth my time. Other than that wonderful time I spend as a user – browsing with my wife for recipes and pictures of hot guys while lying in bed.

I’m there for the recipes. Honest.

Also – follow along on twitter Nikki = https://twitter.com/katzni

Jamie = https://twitter.com/jamieharrington

and you can find me here ===> https://twitter.com/DustHansen