http://www.facebook.com/events/303758879712204/
Back in December 2010 when I self-published my first novel, Tribe of One, I naively thought that after seven years in the making, the book would be easily promoted through email, blog and readings. I enthusiastically bought audio equipment, talked with my friends, Monica and Gustavo, at Esquina Tango about hosting my reading debut, “Cupid’s Naughty Secrets,” and dropped off press kits at several locations around town to set up future readings.
Although I managed to arrange two other readings at other locations, the whole hustling around town and not hearing back from most places wore me down. Not only that, but the more time I spent trying to arrange readings, the less time I was working on new material and reading/researching. After my third reading event in Austin, I stopped hustling and concentrated on writing my second novel and enjoying the unstructured time of a three-month summer vacation, including making a research trip to Utila, Honduras, where most of the next novel takes place.
School began again in the fall and a lot of my time and energy went into teaching. I still wrote every day and after Christmas when I bought myself a kickass blender to make smoothies and cut down my prep time for my weekly cooking, I discovered that, for once, a time-saving device actually had saved me time. I then began my morning routine of getting myself ready for work, then sipping my smoothie while writing before work rather than waiting until the evening.
That slight change in schedule truly made a tremendous difference. The need to eke out writing time and headspace after a full day’s activities was eliminated. More of my afterschool time could be dedicated to other pursuits, which felt more natural.
During this past spring break, I took another “stay-cation” and enjoyed a week’s worth of my life as full-time artist. One of the things on my to-do list was file my taxes. I took a deep breath and created an account with a popular on-line tax filing service.
Although I’d paid someone last year to prepare my taxes since I wished to file as a small business owner, I felt confident to do the deed myself this year. By sheer luck, I had chosen to use the “perfect” credit card for charging all my businesses expenses. That particular company made things tremendously easier by offering customers an annual spending report, which broke everything down into categories.
My very Virgo sense of organization also helped. I’d kept nearly every receipt in addition to having the charge accounted for through the credit card report. After I finished going through every tax deduction scenario, I happily saw that I’d receive a refund. I exclaimed to the heavens, “Why aren’t I a millionaire?”
Then and there, I decided to adopt a more business-minded approach to my writing. Instead of reliving the energy-draining hustle of setting up readings, I’d invest my refund in brand Mathdreads, the name of my company.
A few weeks later, the capoeira group I train with provided the first opportunity. Every year, Capoeira Evolucao has a batizado e troca de corda in order to give the first cord to the beginners and the next higher cord to the continuing students. This huge ceremony usually involves higher cordas from other capoeira groups, including my capoeira teacher’s mestre, Rodrigo.
We raise funds for plane tickets and other accompanying costs to host the batizado. Sponsorship is just one of the ways we raise money. So when I received the email with the sponsorhip information, I immediately filled it out. I then emailed my book’s cover art so it could be added to all the promotional flyers and the official 2012 Capoeira Evolucao batizado t-shirt along with the other sponsors.
With left over refund money , I had Tribe of One t-shirts printed up just in time for the batizado. I set up a table and enjoyed watching my fellow capoeiristas spar higher-level capoeiristas to earn their corda. At the end of a spectacular batizado, a few people bought a book and a t-shirt.
Yet, I knew I could do better. After mulling things over and talking with a friend later that night who also trains capoeira, I came to the realization that in order to get where I wanted to be, I had to organize my own event. I’d no longer waste good energy chasing after venues and events. I’d no longer set up a vendor’s table at events where I wouldn’t read, perform or emcee. After discussing my intentions with two friends, one became the co-organizer and the other a performer.
The three of us knew that in a happening town such as Austin, any night we chose to have the event, we’d be in competition with other cool events going on. I felt that Sunday was the best day for me, especially for a monthly event. Then the phrase “second Sundays” popped into my head. Not only did that fit well for my personal schedule, but it was also a good time to book the capoeira studio in the evenings.
Unfortunately, “second Sunday” was a popularly used name as my co-organizer, Carmen, pointed out. We both wrestled with names and volleyed each other possible names that the other politely shot down. I thought my best one was “Mariposa Verbosa,” which Carmen thought was funny, but one problem with a Spanish event name is that it may mislead attendees that the event would be in Spanish.
I confessed to Carmen that I had far more success naming books, poems and short stories than I did this event, primarily because the theme would change every month. As both a surrender and compromise, we settled on the name “Austin Writers Roulette.”
Now that we have an event name, we can busy ourselves with recruiting talent and advertisting. I love unleashing this creative entity just in time to fully enjoy my summer.
