Thursday, August 26, 2021

a lesson in Instagram

Received a nice rejection this morning from a magazine I'd sent an essay to: Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, we don’t see a place for it at this time. We did, however, enjoy reading your pitch, and we would welcome submissions from you again. 

It's still a no, but the door is open a crack. Believe me, in this business, that's a win. 

Another win: according to the eye doctor yesterday, I do not have glaucoma. My dad and others in the family had it, but so far the eyes are good, for me — a huge relief because reading is my life. Still waiting for CT scan results. Still alive to tell the tale.

My son came to visit yesterday and gave me a lesson in posting on social media, specifically Instagram. I've taken workshops and webinars and read many articles on marketing, struggling to make sense of it, and I learned more in ten minutes from Sam than from all of it. I need to post regularly on IG, and it's not vain and self-serving to do so. Well, no, it IS, but it's what's necessary to get yourself and your work out into the world. So I will try to overcome my reluctance. It feels like boasting. It is boasting. But he gave me ideas on how to make it fun for readers. I've been looking for years for a social media assistant, and there he was, eating, as usual. "Just buy me a steak," he said, "and I'm happy to help." 

This is the pic I posted today: Lennon and McCartney arm-wrestling, with a note about my sixties memoir All My Loving. 

There's something primal here. The intense, mostly friendly competition between these two geniuses is what made their music so brilliant. Luckily George, with his own quiet genius, was content to remain in the background for the first years, and easy-going Ringo was the steady backbeat for them all. 

As was the great Charlie Watts for the Stones, RIP. 

Watched a doc yesterday on the history of elephants: the first, according to fossils thousands of years old, was as big as a rabbit. They posit the trunk grew because the tusks appeared first, and the beast needed a way to get past them to put food to its mouth. Talk about brilliant! Also, that elephants as they ate brush cleared land in Africa, allowing the first primates to move about freely and flourish. So we owe it all to the elephants. I signed a petition against the importation of ivory this morning - does that even still need to be an issue? We are such barbarians. 

https://action.hsi.org/page/86381/action/1?locale=en-US&fbclid=IwAR0beN5reQHTpa28ZX8615zDURLmIgqDASkHGPKGAJ1om3EWMZgewGEG0xU

3 comments:

  1. Instagram seems to be the one these days. Have resisted so far. But will look forward to your experience -- the one ahead on the trail?

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    1. I see you on Twitter, Theresa, and admire your courage - I do not dare to venture there, it's a fast-moving river and I don't know how to jump in. I thought IG was just for nice pictures, but Sam told me, it's the place to sell. "People want to know about you," he said, "but you have to post an interesting image to catch their attention, because people are scrolling down quickly on their phones." I don't think I'll last, but I'll give it a go.

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