Attention all LGBTQ readers: The e-book of my historical novel The Pleasuring of Men is now available from Amazon's Kindle for $4.99, marked down from $9.99. But this bargain will soon end. If you want the e-book, get it now.
I have two BookBub ads going. But first, what is BookBub? It is a free book-discovery service that helps readers find new books and authors. Readers tell BookBub what kind of books they're interested it, and BookBub sends them e-mails with recommendations, and notices of discounts and new releases. And in those e-mails are ads promoting new books -- ads created by authors eager to find new readers; in other words, authors like me.
BookBub ads are tiny little squibs of things that appear at the bottom of BookBub e-mails. They consist of three items: the book's cover image, a few words of description (10 to 60 characters), and a call-to-action (CTA) so you can buy the e-book immediately. (BookBub only does e-books; no paperbacks.). So the ad for Pleasuring of Men has that sexy cover of a young guy, then the text: "TOM'S SERVICES COST A LOT, BUT HE KNOWS HE'S WORTH IT," and then the CTA: "READ NOW." This ad is appearing in Amazon in the US, the UK, and Canada.
My other ad is for my new nonfiction title, New Yorkers: A Feisty People Who Will Unsettle, Madden, Amuse and Astonish You. The
ad includes the cover (so small the subtitle is illegible); the text "SURPRISNG FACTS ABOUT NEW YORK YOU WON'T FORGET"; and the inevitable "READ NOW." It appears in Amazon and Barnes & Noble USA, and in Kobo and Google Play as well in Canada, the UK, India, and Australia.
So what do I expect? Hopefully, more e-book sales. But honestly, how would I, as a BookBub member, react to these two ads? Would I buy? The first one, for New Yorkers, maybe not. The subtitle, which I count on to hook readers, is readable in the cover illustration here, but not in the BookBub ad. And the other ad, showing the sexy young guy? You bet! That photo does it all. But will it work on others? Will others buy? Time will tell.
There's a learning process involved in BookBub. You have to analyze your CTR and hoped-for ROI and other statistics to find out what kind of ad works best for you, and that can be a challenge. But even before that, you have to learn the meaning and significance of CTR, ROI, CPC, CPM, and God knows what else. So wish me well and don't expect glorious tidings, for I'll be groping through a labyrinth of stats that I barely understand. Maybe, instead of BookBub ads, one should take up knitting. And undermine one's masculine image (if a male)? Well, John L. Sullivan, heavyweight boxing champion from 1882 to 1892, used to knit, so that should settle that. Sullivan, who sported a magnificent handlebar mustache, was a hero of my childhood, along with Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and sexy Batman. Even so, I doubt if I'll try it. (A sudden inspiration: why not a post on heroes? My own, and everyone's. Could be interesting and might say a lot. I'll ponder.)
NEW YORKERS COPE:
AN OUTDOOR BABY GRAND,
A NAKED JESUS, FREE HAIRCUTS,
MOPEDS, BIKES
New Yorkers are famous for adapting: to hurricanes, blackouts, 9/11 -- you name it. So of course we're adapting to the pandemic, of which our city is the epicenter. But with few visitors and lots of muggy summer heat, it isn't easy. So what are we doing?
For fifteen years Colin Huggins, 42, has been giving free outdoor piano concerts in Washington Square Park. He plays a 900-pound Baby Steinway that he lugs on a dolly to and from the park. He lets people lie under his piano, so they can be cocooned in sound as he plays. In good times he played to crowds of tourists entranced by the sound and sight of classical piano music in a park. Donations from these concerts were enough to let him live modestly in the city. Never has he thought of moving indoors; he is at heart, and totally, a street performer and wants contact with his audience. But now, in the absence of tourists, he plays to small crowds who are masked, hesitant, and socially distant; they part with a dollar or two -- not enough for him to pay his rent. And the Steinway has to be lodged somewhere, always in some improvised arrangement that never lasts: a small rented space that
became infested with drug dealers; a shuttered restaurant that finally reopened; and now, providentially, space in the Judson Memorial Church, just across the street from the park. But getting a 900-pound Steinway into the church's small elevator isn't easy.
Strapped for cash, Mr. Huggins may have to give up the concerts and leave the city. When he announced this in Instagram in June, donations poured in, giving him a little more time in the city. He is determined to keep on playing, but there are limits, physical as well as financial, to what he can do. The sight of him pushing his draped monster of a piano on a dolly along the sidewalk is one of those where-but-in-New-York experiences that make this city unique. Let's hope he finds a way to stick around.
Recently, when he arrived in the park with his piano, he saw some police officers and paramedics gathered around the park's fountain, which had been occupied by a young man, stark naked, who went by the name of Jesus. Jesus had moved into the fountain with a couch and a sun umbrella. His behavior there caused disruptions in the park, he got into a fight with another local, and now he refused to leave. Finally the paramedics got hold of him and took him off in an ambulance. A naked young Jesus living in a park fountain: another where-but-in-New-York experience.
Another New Yorker who is adapting is Herman James, 32, an African-American barber whose Upper West Side barbershop was closed last March, when the city closed all nonessential businesses. Eager to keep busy and to help his fellow New Yorkers, in May he began giving free haircuts in Central Park. The first day he just put his chair and tools out there, and waited. Within ten minutes someone jumped in the chair, and he's been in business ever since, clipping masked customers, many of them with three months' growth of hair. He commutes by subway from Brownsville, Brooklyn, where he lives alone, carrying his tools in a suitcase with a chair attached. He can be found on the west side of the park just north of Strawberry Fields. His barbershop reopened in June, but he plans to continue his one-man outdoor operation through September, after which he will switch to house visits. Outdoor clippings and house visits are less risky than an indoor setting, he reasons, and people love getting snipped outdoors in the lovely setting of the park.
Mr. James prefers appointments, but walk-ups are welcome, and donations are as well. His preferred customers are people strapped by the pandemic: all ages, both sexes; they pay what they can. Is what he's doing against park regulations? There are no rules against it, but there are no permits for it, so it's in a gray area. So far, the police have been supportive. Several officers even took his card, wouldn't mind getting a haircut themselves when off duty. He's gone the whole day, takes a 4 p.m. break to get lunch at a cocktail and wine bar where he's a regular, then back to work. After work he revisits the bar, takes the Long Island Railroad back, gets home around 9 or 10 p.m. And in his spare time -- as if there were any -- he's writing a self-improvement book. A real New Yorker; a doer, tireless, energetic, innovative.
So what are other New Yorkers up to? Even though the subway cars and buses have never been cleaner, many commuters avoid their enclosed spaces. A young woman who wanted to get from her home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to attend a small garden party in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, got creative. She went there by stages:
Strapped for cash, Mr. Huggins may have to give up the concerts and leave the city. When he announced this in Instagram in June, donations poured in, giving him a little more time in the city. He is determined to keep on playing, but there are limits, physical as well as financial, to what he can do. The sight of him pushing his draped monster of a piano on a dolly along the sidewalk is one of those where-but-in-New-York experiences that make this city unique. Let's hope he finds a way to stick around.
Recently, when he arrived in the park with his piano, he saw some police officers and paramedics gathered around the park's fountain, which had been occupied by a young man, stark naked, who went by the name of Jesus. Jesus had moved into the fountain with a couch and a sun umbrella. His behavior there caused disruptions in the park, he got into a fight with another local, and now he refused to leave. Finally the paramedics got hold of him and took him off in an ambulance. A naked young Jesus living in a park fountain: another where-but-in-New-York experience.
Another New Yorker who is adapting is Herman James, 32, an African-American barber whose Upper West Side barbershop was closed last March, when the city closed all nonessential businesses. Eager to keep busy and to help his fellow New Yorkers, in May he began giving free haircuts in Central Park. The first day he just put his chair and tools out there, and waited. Within ten minutes someone jumped in the chair, and he's been in business ever since, clipping masked customers, many of them with three months' growth of hair. He commutes by subway from Brownsville, Brooklyn, where he lives alone, carrying his tools in a suitcase with a chair attached. He can be found on the west side of the park just north of Strawberry Fields. His barbershop reopened in June, but he plans to continue his one-man outdoor operation through September, after which he will switch to house visits. Outdoor clippings and house visits are less risky than an indoor setting, he reasons, and people love getting snipped outdoors in the lovely setting of the park.
Mr. James prefers appointments, but walk-ups are welcome, and donations are as well. His preferred customers are people strapped by the pandemic: all ages, both sexes; they pay what they can. Is what he's doing against park regulations? There are no rules against it, but there are no permits for it, so it's in a gray area. So far, the police have been supportive. Several officers even took his card, wouldn't mind getting a haircut themselves when off duty. He's gone the whole day, takes a 4 p.m. break to get lunch at a cocktail and wine bar where he's a regular, then back to work. After work he revisits the bar, takes the Long Island Railroad back, gets home around 9 or 10 p.m. And in his spare time -- as if there were any -- he's writing a self-improvement book. A real New Yorker; a doer, tireless, energetic, innovative.
So what are other New Yorkers up to? Even though the subway cars and buses have never been cleaner, many commuters avoid their enclosed spaces. A young woman who wanted to get from her home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to attend a small garden party in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, got creative. She went there by stages:
- a rented electric moped to Alphabet City, the most downtown spot available, where she parked it;
- by foot one mile to the South Street Seaport;
- a NYC Ferry to North Williamsburg;
- sipping a to-go margarita en route, by foot for 20 minutes to the event.
It took two hours, but she didn't mind. Going home, she took a car-share service with her roommate.
Others also avoid the subway:
- a woman who runs a media company skateboards when on errands in the East Village;
- a young dentist commutes from his home in Hell's Kitchen to his practice in Chinatown by Citi Bike or moped;
- another woman rides Citi Bikes, but changes bikes just short of 30 minutes, when an extra fee is charged. She meets friends only in places that can be reached by bike or on foot.
Yet those who ride the buses and subways insist that, thanks to nightly deep cleaning, they have never been cleaner. Personally, I've avoided the subway, as much because of its horrendous jolts as its enclosed spaces. I've ridden a bus just once, masked, got on in front when I should have got on farther back, and will ride one again, if necessary. (The front is now reserved for persons needing help, as for example anyone in a wheelchair.)
Source note: The information in this post was taken from the Metropolitan Section of the New York Times of Sunday, July 19, 2020. As always, this section keeps me updated on what my fellow New Yorkers are doing.
Coming soon: ???
© 2020 Clifford Browder
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