Growing Good Things: Pam Walker's Advice to Authors

"Remember Andy Warhol and his notion that everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes."

First-time author Pamela Walker has certainly taken this notion to heart.

Pam was pounding the pavement many months prior to the arrival of her book, Growing Good Things to Eat in Texas: Profiles of Organic Farmers and Ranchers (TAMU Press, 2009). Her individual efforts combined with those of her publisher's marketing team have garnered a long list of reviews (Austin American Statesman, My Table Magazine), media coverage (Edible Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston Chronicle, The Dirt Doctor), events, and speaking engagements many authors would envy.

Here she offers her advice to authors interested in working harmoniously with their publishers on marketing efforts:

"Think of your Author Information Form as a Map of main routes in getting your book into the hands of people you've envisioned all along as your readers."

Take the AIF (author information form) seriously.

Even if in a tired, cynical moment, you think that this form, like so many that these bureaucratic times require us to complete, will be filed away and never read or used, resist that thought.

Think of it instead as a real tool both for yourself and for the press marketing team, a map of main routes in getting your book into the hands of the people you’ve envisioned all along as your readers.

Meet the Marketing Team

A couple or so months before the book comes out, go to the press offices and meet with the marketing team.

To prepare, review your AIF and if your ideas have changed since completing the form or if some of the information is no longer current, then note these things and advise the marketing team.

The value of meeting with the marketing team cannot be overstated. As authors, we know things about our intended audience and venues that the marketing team doesn’t necessarily know, and as professional marketers, the press team knows things that authors don’t.

By meeting personally, we not only begin to pool our knowledge, but we also come alive to each other as real people, not just names and disembodied messages in an e-mail inbox. And so, in this way, we as authors make ourselves part of the press marketing team.

And why shouldn’t we? We have the most to gain by joining the team. After all, the press has many books to promote, while we have only ours. If we aren’t willing to put thought and action into promoting our book, why, with so many titles to promote and so little time, should the press make our book a priority?

Seize the Moment

Remember Andy Warhol and his notion that everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. Make the most of your fifteen minutes to bring your book to the attention of as many people as possible.

During the months leading up to publication, let any associates who share, or may be brought to share, your purposes for writing the book in the first place, know what the book is about and when it’s coming out.

Enlist them in using the occasion of the book’s publication to serve your common interests. With the help of such people and that of the press marketing team, one thing will lead to another, one promotional event will generate several more, and your book will reach not just those you hoped it would but also those you didn’t know to hope for.

For example, I’m giving talks and signing books in all kinds of places -- at conferences and bookstores and at farmers’ markets, grocery stores, and feed stores. And I’m even selling books myself, from cartons I carry around in my car. In addition, my book is being reviewed in newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

Dos and Don'ts

Don’t think you can promote your book effectively by yourself, and don’t think the press marketing team can promote your book effectively without you.

Do enter into conversation and partnership with the press marketing team, and enjoy the places you and your book will go.

Tom Lea Collection Featured on CBS Sunday Morning

CBS Sunday Morning recently featured several pieces from El Paso artist Tom Lea's collection, including That Two Thousand Yard Stare ─ part of its report on the Army's "hidden" art collection.

In 2008, Texas A&M University Press published The Two Thousand Yard Stare: Tom Lea's World War II, edited and with introductions by Robert Mac Greeley. Here, Greeley has collected paintings and Lea's previously unpublished accounts of his experiences documenting the war as a commissioned artist for Life Magazine.

See images and an excerpt here.

View the video from CBS Sunday Morning here:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

E. Joe Deering Live on Fox 7 Austin!

Nik Ciccone of Fox 7 Austin is interviewing E. Joe Deering, author of Lovin' That Lone Star Flag (TAMU Press, 2009), this morning, live from the Capitol Visitors Center!

The interview will air intermittently throughout the Fox 7 morning live news broadcast here.

Also, see inside this book!

E. Joe Deering talks to Nik Ciccone about how he gathered this shot of a Lone Star flag-clad Cadillac in front of the state capitol.

E. Joe and Nik are flanked by Texas paraphernalia at the Capitol Visitors Center, as E. Joe tells Nic about Texans' affinity for the image of the state flag.

When Loyola University in New Orleans found out about E. Joe's project, they gave him "carte blanche" to photograph its graduation.

WWII in HD and Artist Tom Lea

Last night millions of viewers tuned in to the first installment of the History Channel's much-heralded WWII in HD, a 10-hour documentary culled from "thousands of hours of lost and rare color archival footage."

Narrated by Emmy Award winner Gary Sinise and with soldier diaries read by Hollywood talent like Rob Lowe and Jason Ritter, the documentary ─ shot entirely in HD ─ will air for two hours each night through Thursday.

While WWII in HD promises footage most Americans have never seen, many are likely familiar with Life Magazine-commissioned artist Tom Lea's iconic paintings.

In 2008, Texas A&M University Press released an unprecedented collection of Lea's never-before-seen firsthand accounts of his assignments, powerful sketches and unforgettable paintings in The Two Thousand Yard Stare: Tom Lea's World War II, edited and with introductions by retired Marine Corps Aviator Brendan M. Greeley.

An excerpt:

"My watch said 0340 when I woke up on the blacked-out weather deck below the bridge. Barefooted and in my skivvies, I got off my cot and stood by the rail rubbing grit from my eyes. Dead ahead, framed between the forward king-posts, there was flickering light on the black horizon. Sick yellow balls of fire flashed low in the clouds like heat lightning, but continuous. It was the Navy shelling Peleliu with the final punch before we landed. The black silhouette of a seaman on watch by the rail turned to me and said, "Them Japs are catching hell for breakfast."

Dawn came dim with low overcast. In the first gray light I saw the sea filled with an awe-inspiring company of strangers to our troop ships. Out to the horizon in every direction were lean men-of-war, fat transports, stubby landing craft, gathered around us like magic in the growing light. It was D-Day.

We ate our last meal together, dressed in baggy green dungarees, on the plank benches of the troop officers' mess. We washed the food down our dry throats with big mugs of coffee, and put all the oranges in our pockets. Getting up to go, Captain Farrell repeated his instructions for Martin (Robert "Pepper" Martin, Time Inc.) and me, the two correspondents, 'Be at Number Three Net, starboard side, at 0600.'

Growing dawn had brought the ship violently to life. Power winches rumbled, hoisting our landing craft over the side. The marines, after long captivity in their crowded holds, moved at last to their stations by the rail, battle gear buckled, the last oil in the gum, the last whet to the knife. I felt some almost palpable spirit walking, the emptying holds and passageways and along the crowded decks, with a word for every man.

Lea photographed flying cadet Bill Kelly in the cockpit of his trainer as the basis for his final painting. (Courtesy U.S. Army Center of Military History)

In the corner where I kept my gear I checked it carefully and finally. There was the belt with the two filled canteens, first-aid kit, and long black-bladed knife; and the pack with the poncho and shovel, the gloves, headset and K-ration, the waterproofed cigarettes and matches and candy bar─and my sketchbook and pencils and camera and films wrapped in the target balloon. All set. I checked my pockets for my watch and identification wrapped in rubbers-and my grizzly coin for luck.

Martin and I buckled our belts, slung our packs, and put on our helmets. Inching along throught he marines, we found Farrell and his men standing shoulder to shoulder with all their gear on the jam-packed main deck near the rail over Number Three Net. The main deck looked queer without the landing craft that had loomed overhead on the long convoy days, making shade for marine card games. Now these boats were down in the water ready for the loads.

'Free Boat Two,' bellowed the squawk box on the bridge, and Farrell said. 'That's us. Leg's go.'

Flying the Hump in the moonlight. (Courtesy U.S. Army Center of Military History)

We gave a hitch to our packs, hoisted our legs over the rail, and went down the rope net, down the scaly side of our sea-bitten ship by swinging handgrips and tricky footholds between the swaying knots, down to where the bobbing net met the pitching deck of our little iron tub. When we were loaded the coxswain gunned our engine in a blue stink of smoke and we cast off."

Lea with The Price in his El Paso studio. Courtesy Adair Margo Gallery.

Inside the book: Lovin' That Lone Star Flag

"Cowpuncher" (Ron Sitton, Fort Worth Stockyard), 2002

Texans sure do love their state, and E. Joe Deering has the pictures to prove it.

As a staff photographer for the Houston Chronicle, the author of Lovin' That Lone Star Flag said he was struck by how often he spotted the image of the Texas flag emblazoned on buildings, vehicles, barn doors, and other places.

"Belt Buckle" (Jesse Campos, Houston), 2004

Called "flagotography," E. Joe's images have graced the pages of the Chronicle and prompted an exhibit at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station.

Want to win a free copy of E. Joe's book? Submit your best, unique lead (snap a pic, if you can) by Nov. 19 for a chance to score your copy. E. Joe will choose!

"Lone Spur" (Dana Nelson, Hempstead), 2004

His shot of your "flagotography" may even be featured in his next book!

Joel Ira Holwitt on "Execute Against Japan"

The following is an interview with Joel Ira Holwitt, author of "Execute Against Japan" The U.S. Decision to Conduct Unrestricted Submarine Warfare. (TAMU Press, 2009)

Q: Why was the U.S. move to unrestricted air and submarine warfare against Japan so significant? Did a precedent exist?

Joel Holwitt: With the passage of so many years since the Second World War, it may be difficult to understand why unrestricted submarine warfare could have been considered so controversial and despicable before the United States entered the war. And yet, the United States did go to war in 1917 over unrestricted submarine warfare, and during two subsequent decades, national and military leaders repeated numerous high-minded statements that nothing could be more foreign to the American notion of freedom-of-the-seas than unrestricted warfare. But within one day, the United States abruptly turned about from that position and waged a determined and pitiless maritime war against Japan that ended only in the absolute destruction of Japan’s merchant marine. For that reason alone, the U.S. decision to conduct unrestricted submarine warfare remains an important moment in history.

Q: What is "freedom of the seas?"

Nittsu Maru, on her way to the bottom in March 1943. (Photo courtesy Naval Historical Center)

JH: Freedom of the seas is a concept that has gone through numerous iterations over the centuries, but at its core it is about the right of noncombatants to travel the seas in safety during time of war. Ultimately, President Woodrow Wilson defined it as the right of any noncombatant to travel in any place at any time without threat of attack by any aggressor. Such an "absolute" definition of freedom of the seas, of course, conflicted immediately with the German U-boat campaign in the First World War.

Q: Why should we be interested in this shift in military
policy?

JH: U.S. unrestricted submarine warfare played a pivotal role in the Allied victory in the Pacific.
Despite a faltering start at the beginning, the U.S. submarine force essentially annihilated the Japanese merchant marine. The true cost of U.S. unrestricted submarine warfare, however, did not lie at sea. Rather, its greatest impact lay ashore, where untold numbers of Japanese
soldiers and civilians suffered and died from malnutrition and starvation. The U.S. submarine campaign so successfully interdicted food supplies to the home islands that during the
period immediately after the Japanese surrender, the Japanese people relied upon American food shipments to survive. And more than that, U.S. unrestricted submarine warfare implicitly legitimized the German unrestricted submarine campaign, and ended the Wilsonian paradigm of "absolute" freedom of the seas.

USS Covington sinks after being torpedoed by a German U-boat, her American colors still flying. Indiscriminate attacks by German U-boats against shipping, regardless of nationality, defenses, and passengers, proved to be the pivotal factor that drew the United States into the First World War. (Photo courtesy Naval Historical Center)

Q: What is the enduring legacy of this move on U.S. Naval policy
today? And, why was it illegal to begin with?

JH: Unrestricted submarine warfare was specifically outlawed by the London Naval Treaty of 1930 and the London Submarine Protocol of 1936, which was signed by every major power that conducted unrestricted submarine warfare in the Second World War. These clauses were meant to last "in perpetuity" regardless of what happened to the rest of the treaties. After the Second World War, the Nuremberg tribunal insisted that the 1936 London Submarine Protocol was still in effect. In fact, without any new treaties to override it, the Protocol is technically still in effect today. Therefore, by law, submarines must carry out cruiser rules of warfare by visiting, searching, and capturing merchant ships. There are some logical exceptions to this, but international law still does not permit unrestricted submarine warfare as seen in the Second World War.

The senior naval leadership of the United States, including some members of the General Board of the Navy, assembled for a group photo in December 1920. (Photo courtesy Naval Historical Center)

Luisa Owen reads Herta Müller

"Divided after World War I, the province parceled out to Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Romania, life in the village remained the same. Without moving, we changed countries. . ."

Luisa Lang Owen, author of Casualty of War: A Childhood Remembered (TAMU Press, 2002), was nine years old when she was deported from her village home and sent to live in a concentration camp ─ a victim of the mid-'40s ethnic cleansing in Communist Romania and Yugoslavia.

Part of an ethnic German minority, a Danube Swabian, Owen shared experiences similar to those depicted by novelist, poet, and essayist Herta Müller. winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Owen, who has recently read Müller's books, including Nadirs (German: Niederungen, translation by Siglinde Lug. University of Nebraska Press, 1999), explains:

Owen's first portrait with her parents, 1936.

"Reading Nadirs, I was struck, but not surprised, by the depiction of the same events in village life, which I describe in Casualty of War. Such events were, after all, characteristic of village life in Banat for generations.

Divided after World War I, the province parceled out to Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Romania, life in the village remained the same. Without moving, we changed countries. We did not change our way of life. We, Danube Shwabians, kept our customs, our rituals, our culture, as well as our language, loyal to our ethnic group, being loyal to the respective countries to which we belonged. Though our relatives across the border may have been inaccessible to us at times, we remained united by a way of life shared in common. In the twenty some years of this division, life in the village, in three different countries, did not change.

Owen's traveling pass with photograph, Osijek, 1950.

The almost twenty years between Ms. Müller's birth (1953) and mine (1935), yielded an overwhelming change, effecting the village and the perception it offered. The village I had experienced as a child, was inaccessible to the child in Nadirs. In my memoir, I celebrate the perception the village offered when it was whole and alive: I hold up its image as home, a place that offers a sense of belonging.

I mourn the loss of the village. Ms. Müller does not know this loss. The child in Nadirs only knows the lost village. Repelled by life in the village, the child's perception, honed by fear, tuned to darkness and death, devastatingly beautiful in the truth it offers, reveals a desolate world. The view to the integral village obscured, the child sees the confining carcass of a once-alive thing, now dead. The two views of the village put next to one another, expose an irrevocable loss. The oppression and the repression arising from it, alters the village, the perception it offers, effecting the inner life of the child, sealing the fate of a way of life.

Although the ethnic Germans in Romania were dispossessed, some, like those in Yugoslavia, taken to Russia, some resettled within the country, most were left to live at home in villages and cities, separated from their way of life, witnessing its disintegration in slow motion, enduring the effects of the persecution over time. Herta Müller depicts this journey in poetic prose, forcing the darkness into light: the persecution continues, she says.

Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia were disowned, dispossessed, taken from their homes, all in quick succession, put into concentration camps to die, dying by the thousands, dying slowly, women, children, and the old (1945-1948). As survivor, I bear witness."

Owen at home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, 1962, photographed by her son Erik when he was four years old.