Meaningful Connections

SO YOU WANT TO MARKET YOUR MEMOIR

MY ODYSSEY on WRITING, PUBLISHING, and MARKETING

                            MY ODYSSEY

                              POST # 4

A STRANGER in a STRANGE LAND

OK so I feel as if I got tapped into the fraternity of my choice, transcending to the next rung of my personal life trip. Now what? The point of the writing and the publishing is obviously to share my experience with whomever is interested. The question is where to begin? What to do? Who to approach? How do I feel about the whole undertaking of marketing at all ? I initially felt caught between racing straight ahead and retreating.

SO YOU WANT TO PUBLISH YOUR MEMOIR

MY ODYSSEY on WRITING, PUBLISHING, and MARKETING

                            MY ODYSSEY

                              POST # 3

BE CAREFUL of WHAT YOU WANT

After twenty five years and about twenty rejections I finally got a hopeful response. An editor, who liked my topic of therapeutic communities, wanted to know if I included R.D. Laing. Fortunately in my book I pay a great deal of tribute to this innovative British Psychiatrist {a founder of the therapeutic community concept}.

Although this particular editor told me that his company passed on my work he had an editor friend - he thought might be interested in it. Within days of speaking to this editor I got an offer to sign a contract with them. My conclusion is when the timing is right: its right ! That is, when the planets are in alignment the process appears to unfold seamlessly.

SO YOU WANT TO PUBLISH YOUR MEMOIR

  MY ODYSSEY on WRITING, PUBLISHING, and MARKETING

                            MY ODYSSEY

                              POST # 2

Taking my Odyssey  experience seriously, combined with passion, dedication, persistence, and discipline is a formula that for me has been a bridge to the realization of my dream to publish my memoir.

Post # 2 describes some additional highlights of my odyssey on publishing my Odyssey.

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE YOUR MEMOIR

MY ODYSSEY ON WRITING, PUBLISHING, and MARKETING

                             MY ODYSSEY

                               POST # 1

ORIGINS:  {INSPIRATION}

As a budding psychotherapist in l967 I was fortunate to get a job at Odyssey House – an innovative therapeutic community treating heroin addicts. For the first three months I thought I had discovered the equivalent of a psychological Garden of Eden. Then a progression of strange events occurred that transformed me from an observing participant to a participating observer.

I started keeping copious notes of my confusing experiences which became the essential research data for my book called:

                                 Odyssey:

                                    A Memoir

                           Personal and Professional

                           Perspectives in Addiction

                      The Best and the worst of the 1960s

DRUGS, IMPOTENCE, and the WHOLE TRUTH

                        ITS  ONLY MY BODY - NEVER MIND

The New York Times - 12/4/2005 - printed a story titled: "SALES of DRUGS for IMPOTENCE DECLINE, DEFYING ADVERTIZING and EARLY EXPECTATIONS. The story indicates that despite an estimated $400 million spent in 2004 to promote Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra, "new prescriptions in October were down about 10 percent from a year ago."

What particularly upsets the drug companies is the fact that the drugs "work about 70 percent of the time" and "have relatively few side effects."

The article states " while the drugs have helped millions, many impotent men have simply decided not to take medicine to improve their ability to have sex." (Dr. Abraham Morgenthaler, associate professior of urology at Harvard Medical School.)

The article offers a number of possible reasons to account for the notable decline in sales. These include:

EVOLUTION, INTELLIGENT DESIGN, and KANSAS

          BE CAREFUL of WHAT YOU WANT

Kansas Board Approves Challenges to Evolution

New Standards Also Redefine Science

... Among the most controversial changes was a redefinition of science itself, so that it would not be explicitly limited to natural explanations. (11/9/05) New York Times

SOCRATES WOULD HAVE BEEN DELIGHTED

Socrates challenged the youth of Athens to challenge their parents and other authorities first assumptions about the nature of reality and the ways in which we access knowledge of and about reality. I wonder if the majority of the Kansas school board who voted for their challenge to evolution and science are fans of Socrates? They may be surprised by what they have set in motion.

DECODING MEANINGFUL COINCIDENCES

  A WORKSHOP ON DECODING MEANINGFUL COINCIDENCES:

                           (SYNCHRONICITIES)

We sometimes assign meaning to coincidences and believe they possess coded spiritual messages. Are there more mundane explantions? Are synchronicities created or discovered? Learn to use these experiences to bring about significant psychological change.

      First Session: Wed, Nov.2nd, 2005 6:30pm - 8:30 pm

      Sessions: 2  Instructor: Gibbs A. Williams Ph.D.

      Location: Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street  {Directions}

                     Code: LPSP24-02     Price: $50.00

            Tell a friend                   Phone: 212.415.5500