Rejection is just an invitation to resubmit. Always RSVP
Rejection is just an invitation to resubmit. Always RSVP
I started writing songs when I was seventeen. This was in the Sixties when life seemed like one opportunity after another, waiting to be fulfilled. I played in a band, and we did original songs, inspired by Dylan, The Beatles, etc. I wanted to record, found a studio through an ad at the back of the Village Voice. I had 0 saved from caddying that bought me twelve hours of studio time. I was off to the races.
Demo complete, I read the credits on album jackets of the bands I liked, then went to the telephone directory and got the names and addresses of their publishers. At first I sent them tapes but the responses, when there were any, were generally highly impersonal and non-specific, so I decided I’d be better off taking them into the city, which I did, and started knocking on doors. Showing up in person got me in. Then the hard part began.
Publisher after publisher told me, “Kid I don’t hear it,” which means “Don’t waste my time. It sucks.” I persisted. I asked them to play something that they thought sounded like a hit, which they were happy to do. I listened very carefully. Six months later I was back. This time only two minutes of my two minute fifteen second song sucked. I was making progress.
I persisted. It was made easier because I was returning to people who already knew me and were willing to listen to simple piano/guitar demos that I made at home. Within a year I was up to thirty seconds of “non-sucky” music. Highly encouraged by my level of progress, I continued. By then, a couple of these hardcore music men began liking the music enough to refer me to record producers who needed songs. These guys were very demanding and downright rude. Crude with attitude. Being around them I learned how to depersonalize criticism and focus on the task at hand. By the time I was twenty-five, or eight years after I had begun, my skills were up to a place where there was general agreement that I had “something going on.”
That same year I got a big break. I was at a party and met Larry Gottlieb, a young writer who recently had one of his songs recorded by a group on a major label. We hyped each other to the point where we agreed to try writing together. It was magical. We continued writing together daily and the more we wrote the better the songs sounded. The collaboration made us both better. We scraped some money together from gigging in an airport lounge band, hired a singer and drummer, and recorded a few songs with us filling in as the rhythm section.
Mission accomplished, we took our demos around for a year two. Finally a producer for Arista Records, named Rick Chertoff, (“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, “What if God Were One of Us”, among other hits), liked our stuff enough to play it for his boss Clive Davis, who wasted no time, and, much to our disbelief, offered to publish a few of our songs. We were exhilarated!
While those songs never became hits, this affirmation really lit a fire under us and kept our confidence level very high as we continued to write and promote ourselves.
After a while a song plugger, to whom we had pitched songs when he was at a small publisher, landed a big job at MCA Music and offered us a staff writing gig. (I always keep in mind that this business is unpredictable, and the person who might not have been able to do anything for you last week can be in a position to help you out a week later).
The gig was great. MCA paid us a living wage and covered studio expenses. They also provided us with lists of artists looking for songs and we would write for them in the hopes of getting them “covered”.
Two years into our three-year contract “When She Was My Girl” was presented to the producer of The Four Tops. He liked the song but felt it needed work. Happy to be of service, we changed the bridge into a chorus, played it on the phone to him and he recorded it with them. Within six months it became a number one record here and a worldwide hit. We got a Grammy Nomination for Best R+B Song. From there we kept plugging away, our songs were recorded by Celine Dion, Kenny Rogers, The Manhattans, Marie Osmond, Laura Branigan to name a few. We also wrote “Hands Across America”.
After 9/11 I wrote my last song called “Hole in the Sky”. The song has been featured in television specials and was included on a compilation album of songs written mostly by police and firemen. It was a great honor for me to have my work included with theirs.
The emotional enormity of 9/11, combined with the intensity of having written the song, just depleted me. For the first time in my adult life I lost interest in songwriting, and it has never returned. However my interest in writing prose began abut a year later.
I began with travelogues from remote places where my wife and I were traveling, like Tasmania, Uruguay, China and other exotic locales. They were meant to be stupidly funny and sadly philosophical. The more of them I wrote the more I felt a writing style was emerging and I began wanting to do something in longer form.
I recalled once when Evan Hunter (aka EdMcBain) and I got to talking about his highly successful career, he remarked: “The difference between myself and many really good writers that remain unpublished is that I finish what I start.”
“Finish what you start” became my mantra as I began writing a novel.
I wrote, then I rewrote for two years until I had a completed manuscript. Then I hired an editor, who I found on Craigslist, to critique it and eventually edit it. She did it brilliantly. At that point I felt the manuscript was not nearly as good as it could be so I wrote and rewrote for another two years enlisting additional help. In all I consulted four different editors.
When the manuscript was completed I knew I needed an agent. I had prepared lists of them and had sent about thirty queries out to test the waters.
Shortly after that I was at a party in honor of my former writing partner Larry, who was up for a short visit from Nashville. Also present at the party was, JB Moore, one of the pioneer producers of Hip Hop and a writer for Billboard Magazine. He and I began talking, and I told him about the book I had literally just completed. He asked for a copy. I emailed him one that night. Two days later he told me he knew the perfect agent for me. The next day I sent her the manuscript. The day after that she and I met for coffee and she agreed to become my agent. Two days later, my wife and I left for a long planned for two-month tour of Greece, Turkey, The Middle East and North Africa.
While I was away, my agent negotiated a deal with Schaffner Press, with the understanding that I would rewrite the manuscript under the auspices of the publisher. He and I worked together on it for another year.
On March 4, nearly six years after I had begun and revised the novel at least six times, Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed was released. Praise for the book has been extensive for which I am very grateful. The journey has been one step at a time as every journey is. I hesitate to say one small step at a time because to me any step is a big one. My advice to anyone who aspires to be a published writer is: Enjoy the journey and remember: rejection is just an invitation to resubmit. Always RSVP.
Copyright ©2009 Marc Blatte author of Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed: A Novel
Author Bio
Marc Blatte, author of Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed: A Novel, a native and longtime resident of New York City, grew up in the Bronx, played baseball in the Roy Campanella Little League and was a protege of the bestselling author Ed McBain.
After a brief stint west of the Hudson at Kenyon College, Marc returned to the city that never sleeps to become a wunderkind of the songwriting industry, dubbed by legendary record producer Clive Davis as one of the “fortunate ones.” He has composed material for major stars, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for best R&B Song.
He has shaken Joe Frazier’s hand at Small’s Paradise, danced with Sherry Lansing, fixed Debbie Harry’s sink, met Henry Kissinger, and had an unexpected visit from the Wu Tang Clan. He has worked as a golf caddy, Rotor Rooter man, tenement superintendent, keyboard player in a lounge band, was a hip-hop white boy pioneer record producer . . . and lived to tell.
The father of three daughters, Marc and his wife Jeanne divide their time between New York and Nicaragua. He is currently at work on his next mystery featuring Black Sallie Blue Eyes.
For more information, please visit http://writtenvoices.com/titlepage.asp?ISBN=0980139414
Categories: Craigslist Nashville Tags: Always, invitation, just, Rejection, resubmit., RSVP
How to advertise your business for free
How to advertise your business for free
According to the Small Business Administration, 5% of an entrepreneur’s gross sales should be budgeted for advertising. However, if you are not relying on outside financing to get your business off the ground, your budget may be .00. Believe it or not, there are ways to get the word out about your product or service without spending a dime.
Here are 5 ways to advertise for free:
Create a simple electronic ad in a user friendly format such as Adobe pdf or even a short power point. Place an ad in free online classifieds such as Craigslist, Classifiedads.com and Backpage.com. A few local groups are:http://www.nashvillenawbo.com/ Nashville Chamber of Commerce has various networking opportunities such as a mentoring/networking lunch every quarter. http://www.nashvillechamber.com/smallbusiness/ SCORE-Nashville Counselors to Small Business. www.scorenashville.org Read “How to advertise your blog”: http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Advertise-Your-Blog&id=267685 According to CNN, in 2007 there were more than 100 million MySpace members and 60 million Facebook members with more than 40% of members being over age 35.
Now that you have the avenues to advertise for free, make certain your ads are not poorly designed or cheaply produced. To guarantee successful advertising:
There are many hosting sites that offer domain names and website templates for as low as .00/month. Pass them out at every opportunity-while dinning, grocery shopping, at the mall, etc. Keep the repartee to a minimum and get the message across in one or two direct and concise sentences.
With the use of the internet, it is now easier than ever to advertise with little or no investment. Small businesses with minimal budgets are able to gain a market presence and brand recognition just by consistent internet marketing. Take advantage of every free advertising opportunity now and eventually we’ll see your business advertising on a highrise in Times Square.
Dawn Moiré Williams is president of The M.I.L.E. (www.milesofsuccess.com), Management Institute of Learning Excellence, adjunct professor at Virginia College, a freelance writer, and senior auditor for a large hospital management company. She received a BS in management from Hampton University and a MBA from MTSU. A resident of Nashville and native of Los Angeles, she is a wife and mother of two boys. Contact her with questions regarding management training, career counseling or article information at dawn@milesofsuccess.com.
Categories: Craigslist Nashville Tags: advertise, Business., Free
Craigslist Nashville: Get Music Tickets Now
Craigslist Nashville: Get Music Tickets Now
Nashville has such a large, diverse and predominant music scene that it has earned the nickname “Music City.” Country and jazz music are just two of the genres with deep roots in the Nashville area. These roots live on today and are very much a part of not only the Nashville music scene, but part of the national musical culture in America. A scene this massive can become overwhelming, especially when searching for tickets to some of the great shows that stop through Nashville. It is possible to navigate the musical calendar, however, especially when using Craigslist to your advantage.
Founded in 1995 in the San Francisco Bey Area, Craigslist is network of sites designed to connect people from various communities. By 2006, Craigslist had expanded beyond Northern California to over 450 U.S. states, Canadian provinces and global cities. The network has grown to become one of the largest web sites on the Internet, while employing no more then 24 employees throughout its history. Users can post on Craigslist in any of a number of forums, depending on the goal– perhaps promoting a garage sale, advertising an apartment for subletting, or looking to hire new personnel. All forums are organized within multiple categories and subsections for easy browsing and navigation.
Craigslist Nashville (http://nashville.craigslist.org) is no different. It has the same forum categories as other sites on the Craigslist network, including the vast “for sale” section. This section is further divided into several smaller subsections, like auto parts, electronics, and musical instruments. In Nashville, one of the more useful subsections is the “tickets” forum, which contains listings for various event, concert, and sports tickets.
A quick browse of the tickets forum on Craigslist Nashville reveals tickets available for multiple concerts, including Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Legend, Tim McGraw and Justin Timberlake. There are seats available at all price ranges and seating locations. Even if you missed out at the box office, you still have an opportunity to get into one of these great shows. Plus, tickets to see the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League are also available from CL users. Use Craigslist to get in to see 2006 NFL Rookie of the Year Vince Young!
The best part of this system is that it allows people to see shows that otherwise might have been inaccessible because they are sold out. By allowing ticket holders to advertise their sales and having interested parties to contact them directly, transactions are simple and quick. After all, concerts are about having fun, not just in Nashville, but everywhere. Craigslist Nashville allows you to enjoy the show without a lot of hassle about tickets.
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Categories: Craigslist Nashville Tags: Craigslist, Music, Nashville, Tickets
