Bryan W. Alaspa 1Becoming a local “celebrity”
July 7th 2009 13:45
OK, let me first tell you that I am not so arrogant to think of myself as even remotely close to being a “celebrity.” If you were to spend about eight hours on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago and ask everyone who walked by if they knew who Bryan Alaspa was, all of them would give you a puzzled expression, shake their head and say “no.” I am a nobody for most of this town. Even people who have bought my books are unlikely to realize I live here and know what I look like.
That being said, I am about to be on TV soon.
You see, about a week or so ago I became the proud owner of a G1 phone, which now puts me among those of you who have smartphones. I love this thing. I spent time looking through their app store which they call the “Android Market.” I was positively giddy to find out there was an app that was an eBook reader. I cannot afford a Kindle, although I have novels available in Kindle editions that have sold well, so I have been aching for an eReader. I now had one on my phone!
Granted, it was through a website called Feedbooks.com and they only offer books for free. Since the books are loaded by other members of the site, the books are either in the public domain or owned by the authors. Still, I was able to download Moby Dick and H.P. Lovecraft stories to my phone. It’s fantastic.
Well, I have no agent. I don’t have a publisher with an exclusive contract for my fiction. I do have a novel I wrote a couple of years back, a horror novel called “Gone,” that I have been sitting on for a while, wondering if I should rewrite it or try to get it published. Well, heck, people have been treating me well, and I have been on the eBook bandwagon since before there was a Kindle. I decided to upload “Gone” to Feedbooks.com and then wrote a press release.
I then proceeded to do everything wrong. I released the press release on a Friday and then on a Friday before a major holiday. Nothing buries a story faster than doing that. I did it accidentally, but it was still done. I made it seem like a big deal. I said I was giving the book away, exclusively via Feedbooks.com and exclusively in an eBook format. All of this was true.
To my surprise, people began picking up on the story. I was first contacted by the Medill News Service. This is a wire service and news service run via the Medill School of Journalism out of Northwestern University. It is run by graduate students, like the minor leagues of journalism before they move on to big-time news services. They want to record me via video. So, I am going to be on TV.
Sure, it may just be TV seen on basic cable, or in the damn dorms, frat houses and campus TV station, but still. It is my very first TV interview. The overall piece is about the suddenly popularity of eBooks. I may be on for all of four seconds. Regardless, this is a big deal.
Then I found that CBS 2 here in Chicago had handed by press release to some lowly staff writer who had then rewritten it and posted it in on their station’s website. There was my name, full name, on the website for all to see.
I don’t know if this will lead to anything. The cynic in me doubts it. I wanted to generate some attention and I managed to do that, so I guess I got what I wanted. Still, if people start stopping me on the street, I am going to be amazed. Maybe I’ll get a stalker! Who knows? Maybe I should just start hanging out on Northwestern’s campus.
That being said, I am about to be on TV soon.
You see, about a week or so ago I became the proud owner of a G1 phone, which now puts me among those of you who have smartphones. I love this thing. I spent time looking through their app store which they call the “Android Market.” I was positively giddy to find out there was an app that was an eBook reader. I cannot afford a Kindle, although I have novels available in Kindle editions that have sold well, so I have been aching for an eReader. I now had one on my phone!
Granted, it was through a website called Feedbooks.com and they only offer books for free. Since the books are loaded by other members of the site, the books are either in the public domain or owned by the authors. Still, I was able to download Moby Dick and H.P. Lovecraft stories to my phone. It’s fantastic.
Well, I have no agent. I don’t have a publisher with an exclusive contract for my fiction. I do have a novel I wrote a couple of years back, a horror novel called “Gone,” that I have been sitting on for a while, wondering if I should rewrite it or try to get it published. Well, heck, people have been treating me well, and I have been on the eBook bandwagon since before there was a Kindle. I decided to upload “Gone” to Feedbooks.com and then wrote a press release.
I then proceeded to do everything wrong. I released the press release on a Friday and then on a Friday before a major holiday. Nothing buries a story faster than doing that. I did it accidentally, but it was still done. I made it seem like a big deal. I said I was giving the book away, exclusively via Feedbooks.com and exclusively in an eBook format. All of this was true.
To my surprise, people began picking up on the story. I was first contacted by the Medill News Service. This is a wire service and news service run via the Medill School of Journalism out of Northwestern University. It is run by graduate students, like the minor leagues of journalism before they move on to big-time news services. They want to record me via video. So, I am going to be on TV.
Sure, it may just be TV seen on basic cable, or in the damn dorms, frat houses and campus TV station, but still. It is my very first TV interview. The overall piece is about the suddenly popularity of eBooks. I may be on for all of four seconds. Regardless, this is a big deal.
Then I found that CBS 2 here in Chicago had handed by press release to some lowly staff writer who had then rewritten it and posted it in on their station’s website. There was my name, full name, on the website for all to see.
I don’t know if this will lead to anything. The cynic in me doubts it. I wanted to generate some attention and I managed to do that, so I guess I got what I wanted. Still, if people start stopping me on the street, I am going to be amazed. Maybe I’ll get a stalker! Who knows? Maybe I should just start hanging out on Northwestern’s campus.
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