I heard it again this week: The economy's bad! And it wasn't on Jay Leno's show. It wasn't a joke. It was a reason to sit back and mope.
Look, my income got cut in half, due to the increased price of gas. But when gas came down, the budgets of the places I play didn't go back up, so my income stayed cut in half. Several places I used to play have dropped entertainment altogether, because it's one of the first things to go when “the economy's bad.”
I've seen it before. Every recession (depression, downturn, pot-hole) if preceded by someone getting on the news and saying, “Money's tight and people are scared.” And sure enough, money gets tight and people get scared. This always happens for a reason and the reason, I'd bet my bottom half-dollar, is so someone can make more money. If a bank goes under, someone buys it for a song and makes a lot of money on it. So how do you buy a bank for a song? Make it go under. The economy is in trouble because someone wants it that way to make a bundle – not worrying about the people who will go under in the meantime.
My last novel was about this. In Deadly Research, (http://tinyurl.com/cdhcab or as a Kindle at http://tinyurl.com/cbpfjp ), Jack Richmond discovers that the news is being manipulated so that a handful of people will benefit from every turn, while millions suffer. Of course, they try to kill him, but if they didn't it wouldn't be an exciting book, would it.
The point is, I wrote a book and I'm writing another. I've learned about eBooks and how to handle files and format a novel for the new readers out there. I am promoting that to people and am getting a response. Good things are happening, because I am learning and promoting.
So turn that frown upside-down and sing along with me: Early to bed, early to rise, work like blazes and advertise.
