Cathi Bond

Adventures From the eBook Frontier – Dispatch Twenty Eight

Cathi — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:21:03 +0000

Hey all

I have learned a ‘big honkin’ bucket of icy cold water in the face lesson’ this week.

I have been humbled. I have been educated in a field that I genuinely thought I knew something about. I have learned the true power of social media.

What sells candies, shirts, real estate, refrigerators and panty liners, what promotes and informs nearly every decision we make in our lives is most largely determined by the power of social media. It no longer belongs to traditional conduits of promotion.

Whether or not you succeed or fail depends on whether or not your candies etc get LIKED, get blogged about, the good word spreads and hopefully some modicum of success follows.

It’s a kick actually.

The power now truly rests with you, the people. It no longer belongs to the critics. Whether or not that makes me sad or concerned, is a moot point. To be a success people have to click that they like your product, that they really really like you.

The other thing I’ve been doing, which I wouldn’t have done before, is boldly approach people (not cold on the street) but people I casually know and ask them if they want to buy my book.

I did it today at the pharmacy. Sale!

I did it in the parking lot of my apartment building two nights ago. Sale!

Even last year I would have been ashamed to have done this, now I’m not. It’s like, “I wrote this. I like it and I think you’ll like it too. Want to buy it? I’ll give you a good price.”

And you know what? It works about 50 percent of the time.

But what’s really going to make my book get out there is you.

Yep that’s you…..

I need you to like it on your FB and most especially if you bought a copy on-line please please please write a short review and post it on wherever you bought it. That has been the biggest realization slap of them all.

I’ve learned this week that NOTHING sells books like regular folks word of mouth and their purdy little thumbs up. And the icing on the cake are those little mini reviews, they make the books fly out of the eBook stores.

And then of course the bloggers. I have decided that I am no longer afraid of the bloggers. This week I will bake some cookies (yeah right) and go knocking on blogger doors.

“Hi, I’m Cathi. I have snacks and a free ARC. Will you be my friend?”

This will probably make blogger doors shut faster than my Mom did when the pack of Jehovah Witness were spied striding up the front walk.

So that’s it. If you’re up tomorrow, that’s Saturday, between 9 & 10, Pearse Murray host of A Fabulous Morning (and a pretty fab fellow himself) will be chatting with me about the book.

And thanks again for ALL of the support at the launch. I’m still floating in happy cloud land.

Adventures From the eBook Frontier – The Book Launch was a Grand Success

Cathi — Tue, 14 May 2013 02:57:20 +0000

Hey all,

For everyone who came, saw, chatted, drank, ate, listened to me read and bought a book, I thank you.

When I’ve got some pictures I’ll post then, but mostly I just wanted to say goodnight and thank you again, so much, for making this such a memorable experience.

Adventures From the eBook Frontier – Gerald Hannon Weighs in from Xtra Magazine

Cathi — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:54:44 +0000

Hi all, it’s book launch day and I’m really nervous, but I’m also thrilled to pieces.

When I opened my inbox and saw a link to a review of Night Town in Xtra, written by the one and only Gerald Hannon, I exploded into a thrill … of … pieces.

So here goes….

Toronto the not so good

REVIEW / Cathi Bond’s Night Town is a vibrant, harrowing first novel

Gerald Hannon / Toronto / Friday, May 10, 2013

“Not enough ecstasy for me,” Jack Kerouac famously wrote in On the Road, “not enough life, joy, kicks, darkness, music, not enough night.” Of course he was romanticizing: he was white, a soon-to-be icon of the beat movement, “wishing I were a Negro” and bewailing the white world’s pallor in the ecstasy department. Toronto writer Cathi Bond has a much more nuanced, less romanticized view of nocturnal life in her vibrant, engaging and often harrowing first novel. Night, she knows, can protect, can seduce, can bore, can terrify – especially when your protagonist is a small-town teenaged girl coming to terms with personal tragedy, a developing sexuality and a city – Toronto – experiencing its own tangled adolescence.

Maddy Barnes is a 13-year-old girl living a storybook life in a small southwestern Ontario town. Her father is the town doctor. Her mother is beautiful and a model homemaker. The marriage seems a real love match. She has two younger brothers, and the whole happy package might seem like a sketch for a domestic television sitcom except for Bond’s skill at adding just the right amount of narrative dissonance: the little neighbourhood girl struck and killed by a car in the opening pages. Maddy’s sadistic grandfather (he torments the children by pinching them). The medical tests that her mother undergoes in Toronto and which no one seems to want to talk about.

It turns out Mrs Barnes has cancer, though that isn’t revealed until much later (locals believed it was infectious and happened only to bad people). Maddy becomes convinced that she’s the one responsible for her mother’s untimely death, which happened not long after she’d been caught being French kissed by a boy. Her mother’s refusal to say she had cancer, Maddy’s misplaced guilt and the slow realization that she’s attracted to girls combine to send her life spiralling out of control. It gets worse when her father remarries and the family moves to Toronto. Before long she’s stealing narcotics from her father’s office until, inevitably, she’s living on the street and dealing the drugs she’s come to need as badly as her clients.

Bond is particularly good at painting a nuanced picture of street life – the world out there is both gritty and tender. Yes, there are monsters: Hermann, the local drug czar, is a chilling psychopath, but crazy drunk Gabe and angelic whore Lily create a kind of family without the prose having to descend into mawkishness. As Maddy slowly develops a hard-won acceptance of her lesbianism, we get intriguing glimpses of gay Toronto in the 1970s. The Blue Jay, a dyke bar at Gerrard and Carlaw, was ground zero for stone butches and their frilly femmes. That scene, funny, disturbing and touching, horrifies Maddy (“there was no way I was going to spend my life dressed like John Wayne”), but she isn’t exactly inspired by the scene at Jo Jo’s, a clone bar on Church Street, where she gets introduced to the gay male hanky code and the fact that gay men will have sex outside, even in the dead of winter. There’s change in the air, though – gay men and lesbians are beginning to socialize together, and Helen, Maddy’s guide that night, talks about the power inherent in being out and being proud, though she’s just coming to realize that herself. The novel hurtles perhaps too precipitately to a conclusion that can seem a little pat, but there’s no “happily ever after” for these characters, not quite yet. Unlike Kerouac, they’ve seen too much night.

Bond is gay and a broadcaster for CBC Radio. Night Town is the middle volume of a projected trilogy she says will be the story of a family and of a city over the course of nearly 100 years, a story that will “document our history as citizens of Toronto (as everything’s being smashed to smithereens) and also document our collective gay history. I see it being forgotten, and that infuriates me.” She won’t write history in the academic sense – scrupulously researched, possibly dry, rigorously fact-checked, referenced and indexed. We need that, of course. But there’s something we need at least as much – good story. Bond has that in hand.Night Town
Cathi Bond

Book Launch in Toronto
Mon, May 13, 6-8pm
The Imperial Pub
54 Dundas St E

See you tonight, as I said, in a thrill of pieces.

Adventures From the eBook Frontier – Nora Arrives With Her Magic Mic

Cathi — Thu, 09 May 2013 20:14:22 +0000

In the publicity and promotions game, there’s one thing you need to know. Can you guess what it is?

Can *the meat* (one of the many nicknames for the creatives), can the meat talk? And I mean, can they talk eloquently about their book? Are they abusive? Are they low talkers or high talkers? Me, I’m all over the place. One second and I’m whispering and the next moment I’ve jumped an octave into a near bellow.

To show our fellow journos that I can string together a sentence Nora and her kindly elves assembled this sonic masterpiece

http://cathibond.iguanabooks.com/books/night-town-intv-with-nora-young-1/

Cut and paste into the URL and follow the breadcrumbs until you find yourself at a magice sonic site.

Thanks Nora!

I think this is likely it folks, until the launch.

Adventures on the eBook Frontier – Dispatch Twenty Seven

Cathi — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:48:48 +0000

Hi gang,

It’s going to be a busy weekend press wise. This Thursday, May 9th, Susan Cole of NOW will be doing a print review of Night Town.

Then the ever fabulous Pearse Murray of PROUDFM is interviewing me on his radio show A Fabulous Morning.

It’ll be playing this Sunday between 8 &9 and then repeated the following Saturday between 9 & 10 Don’t miss it. Pearse and I knew one another from a previous incarnation in the 80s -

- and the same zany energy still exists.

And then, on Monday, the big day … LAUNCH-O-RAMA!!!!

I really hope you can get your fine selves down to the Imperial Pub, but if you can’t, you can always order a copy from Amazon, Iguana, Chapters . All of the usual eBook sales portals.

And remember Night Town is available in both digital and print.

There are some pretty good deals on the book right now, so if you’re thinking about grabbing yourself a copy, now’s not a bad time.

Till late!

Adventures From the eBook Frontier – Night Town is Available for Sale!!!!!

Cathi — Thu, 02 May 2013 22:03:21 +0000

Hi all

Oh my gosh, oh my golly and as Samantha Stevens used to say on Bewitched, “Oh my Stars.”

She’s out. My little baby Night Town is out on the streets, well she’s actually at all of the major eBook retailers and waiting to be printed somewhere in Tennessee.

You can find Night Town at Barnes and Noble, Chapters, Kobo, iTunes, you name it, Greg and the gang at Iguana made sure it was there. But just in case you think it’s only available in a digital form, uh uh uh, you can order a print copy while you’re at the eRetailers just as easily.

I’ve got all kinds of amazing press lined up and I’m going to tell you more about that later, but first, I want to formally invite you all to the book launch, graphic kindly designed by my pal Scott Barker. Squishing of image courtesy of me.

And I do also want to ask you to consider buying the book. It’s a darned fine read, if I do say so myself. So far nobody has said anything negative, although I’m sure that will come. And when it does I’ll come here and cry.

In all seriousness, I welcome constructive criticism and perhaps as some time passes we can get a good discussion going about Night Town. What works and what doesn’t. As I said at the beginning of this journey, I believe that the wall between author and reader has dissolved and I truly am interested in discussing my writing with my (hopefully I’ll have some) readers.

One caveat though, it has to be constructive.

All for now. You wouldn’t believe how insanely GOOD busy I’ve been.

Adventures on the eBook Frontier – How Much Does Shipping Cost ????

Cathi — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:52:00 +0000

Big lesson being learned in Bondville. It seems that, contrary to popular belief, a lot of people I know don’t really buy books online. Books or anything for that matter. Hmmmmmmm.

Funny all that smoke and mirror reportage hooting wildly about the staggering numbers of people abandoning stores in favour of the ease of shopping online.

Who wants to make bets that Cathi will end up being her own distribution hub? A little wrinkle is that I hate the post office.

Since the term “going postal” likely originated for a good reason, I’ve been doing a bit of research as to how much it will cost in shipping for readers to buy my book from …

AMAZON

Spend $25.00 and it’s free. Any less and it’s time to pony up, but it’s really not all that bad.

Standard Books $2.99

Express Books $5.49

Priority $10.99

INDIGO

Also free with an order of 25 clams and up. I wonder what it is for just one? OHMYGAWD! It’s a scandalous $5.99, but wait, wait, the salesperson on the phone just told me that if I have my copy of Night Town shipped to an Indigo near you there is no charge at all.

This is very good news for those still nervous about taking the physical book store out of the shopping experience. But you still have to pay for the book online.

And prices as of April 15th? A mere $7.69 for your kobo as well as a considerable 24 % discount on the hard cover dropping the price to … $13.68

Sweet. But you still have to pay GST. ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…Don’t blame me. Take that up with the government.

BARNES AND NOBLE

I don’t see that the Nook Version is live, but the cost of the hard copy is about the same right as it is at Indigo. $13.46

As far as shipping goes, Barnes and Noble are following Amazon and Indigo’s examples. 25 buckaroos

Standard Books $3.00

Express Books $3.99

Priority $12.49

This seems pretty fair to me. Tomorrow, I’m going to call and check in as to exactly when the hard copies are in stock. It should be super soon. Fingers, toes, eyeballs and knees are crossed.

PS If you’ve got any questions you want me to cess out, now’s the time. I’m still climbing up my very steep learning curve.

Adventures on the eBook Frontier – Dispatch Twenty Six

Cathi — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 22:44:50 +0000

Hey there! I know it’s been more than a week, but what a week+ it’s been. The writing’s finished, but the publicity machine is slowly assembling itself around me, like a promotional exoskeleton.

Here are just a few parts of the beast, aka what publicity and press people historically have brought to the party, but are now part of the writers’ responsibilities.

First, try and get the invitation to the launch completed. Next, try and assemble a killer email contact list for the folks who write literary reviews.

Let me tell you, one should never scoff at the significant power of a well stocked Rolodex, painstakingly assembled by a seasoned promotional department.

Then it’s time to seek out the bloggers. I don’t know why I’m afraid of the bloggers, but I am. I think it’s likely because they don’t have bosses who can stop them from being too mean for fear of lawsuits. Because let’s face it folks, there are few things meaner than writers who decide that they don’t like another writer’s work. It’s a scary thought what they could say, and what if it went viral?

To really impress the press you so desperately need, what you need is a killer media kit. In the past I thought it was not big deal. Easy peasy to assemble one. Pah! I knew nothing.

For a good media kit you require a “can’t stop reading” synopsis, a whole bunch of “praise”, followed by a bio, pretty pictures of me (yeah like that’s a lotta fun) and the book’s cover (much easier) and then contact info for Emily Niedoba. Who thankfully is riding shotgun with me for the whole ride.

And we’re just getting ready to launch the campaign! It boggles the mind. At least my mind.

At this point in the journey I have two observations to make about the differences between the mid 20 century book business compared with the new digital model.

I’m not saying that writers can’t, and shouldn’t, be involved with the selling of their own books. There is no denying that things have changed and we need to pitch in and shill. But somewhere in the new financial model, editing and promotion need to return to the mix. I am not an editor and I am not a publicity person. These are significant crafts, fields of expertise all until themselves.

*Abandoning them is foolhardy and not good for reading or writing.*

Until next time.

Adventures on the eBook Frontier – Dispatch Twenty Five

Cathi — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:23:21 +0000

My Blackberry just vibrated with the news that Night Town arrived at the printers moments ago. I feel like crying. I truly do. It’s unbelievable. It’s so totally surreal. After all this work. Draft after draft after draft. Rejection after rejection. Heartbreak, followed by moments of creative elation. That’s when the pleasure receptors shoot all that feel good juice into your brain and you’re on cloud nine. At least for a short time.

That’s where I am right now. The pleasure receptors are engulfing me, letting me swim in pure joy and excitement, if only for a short time.

I will return to trying to figure out a publicity plan soon enough, but right now I’m standing on top of my desk, staring the window at a slate grey city sky, while dancing like a crazy freak to The Five Royales.

Adventures on the eBook Frontier – Dispatch Twenty Four

Cathi — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:25:33 +0000

Are you ready folks? Drum roll please……….

We have a pub date: May 13th, 2013

A time: 6pm-8ish pm

And a place to launch my baby …

The Imperial Pub, 54 Dundas St. E, just a stone’s throw from Yonge Street.

Last Friday, at Emily’s recommendation, I wandered in and instantly knew that the Imperial was perfect.

First off the whole place just screams Toronto 1970s.

There’s a bar on the main floor called The Aquarium Bar and it’s got a big honkin’ aquarium full of real live fish. Not the usual puny, near belly-up, pale goldfish. No these fish are good looking, happy fish.

Next I went upstairs into the other bar called, “The Library Lounge.”

It was then I fell in love. The place is so retro. I could just smell the 70s. The worn rug, a jukebox and the clusters of round tables and captain’s chairs. The kind of chairs that newspapermen used to sit at while they jotted down last minute copy, swilling cheap whisky out of tumblers.

On top of that, the Library Lounge has a jukebox, a fireplace (whoa!) and book cases full of real books. And some of them were … gulp … *hard covers!*

But what’s best of all is that it’s not some faux 70s. It’s real 70s. Walking into The Imperial was like visiting a magic place where time stood till. It’s the ideal place for you to meet my baby Night Town for the first time.

So mark it in your calendar. If I’ve got your email, you’ll be getting one of those “Save the Date” notices, followed by a very groovy Scott Barker designed invitation. If I don’t have your addy, it’s worth giving it to me just to get one of Scott’s designed objects. (BTW Scott’s a very talented young architect who’s just opened his practice.) cathibond@gmail.com

That’s all for now. Till next time … c