I am reading today on Slate of a contest for second (published) novels. I ask myself, what other contests are out there?

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Turns out, plenty of them, some for unpublished manuscripts. One way to gin attention, it seems to me. If you win, of course. What do y’all (I’m raised in Florida, fifty+ years later, I still say it) think of that? 

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Okay, I have another idea. I was just downstairs. My husband asked me to proofread a letter he is writing to Pepe Escobar. (Pepe, not Pablo, the drug dealer, he is always pointing out.)

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Pepe is an international political reporter, specializing in Europe and the Mid-East. He and my Eberhard correspond, my husband being a German national, well versed in the European situation, past and present, and also in the MidEast. He worked as a photogramatical-survey pilot and photographer on stretches of MidEast coastline under development thirty-forty years ago, then was co-pilot on the personal aircraft of the Aga Khan. He spent a lot of time in that area, and knows the history from the partitioning in the early twentieth century on down, some from personal experience. He was in Aden on a lay-over, in a hotel outside the city center, when Mad Mitch pulled his legendary stunt in sixty-seven. Mr. Escobar seems to value his opinions.

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I'll ask Eberhard if he would consider asking Pepe to give Sly! a mention on his blog. A long shot sure, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. 

--edited by Mimi Speike on 12/9/2014, 12:36 AM--

I'm talking with Michael Hagan about bumper stickers, which he produced and sold at one point. He says that they would cost in the neighborhood of thirty cents each. If so, I would order two or maybe three thousand of them and mail them around the globe, go to NY and Boston myself and paste them up in train stations, subway tunnels etc. Maybe have a contest: stick my sticker up in your city, in a recognizable public locale, take a photo and email it to me, win a free book and/or paperdoll. 

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MyGuySly.com bumper stickers, with a head shot of my critter, should get some traffic to my website. And, more challenges, to win additional outfits for the paper doll. In the early twentieth century, big city newspapers gave away a paper doll, and each Sunday, a new outfit for it, in their Sunday magazines. They were collected, eagerly. 

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All this is on hold until I feel I'm within striking distance of finished. That has to be my priority. I am starting to work on a website, however. 

--edited by Mimi Speike on 12/9/2014, 12:30 AM--

I'm watching a you-tube video about a Toronto book fair called Inspire. The man is interviewing self-pubbers set up there. A few of us could share a table. Carl, you're up there somewhere, aren't you? Can we crash at your house? Book Country Par-tee! Bring your sleeping bags. The seventies all over again. You weren't there? Poor things, it was a gas!

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Title of the clip: A Wee Bit About Self-Publishing by Elvis Deane. 

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My advice is, if you've got the bucks to spare, go for it straight off. If not, dedicate your profits from e-book sales to promoting with a vengeance: table, hotel room, I'm willing to do whatever it takes, that I can afford to do. Now, that would be the place to hand out my bumper stickers. As Mark Knopfler says in his song News, "It may be a game but I won't play to lose." 

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I'm dead serious about the table business. How much does a small table cost? 

--edited by Mimi Speike on 12/10/2014, 2:20 AM--

What about this: As I drive around, I see small commercial signs stuck in the ground, at stop signs, etc. I just passed one: So-and-So Spa, free facial with purchase of a hundred dollar gift coupon. This may be unregulated advertising, needing no permission. I'll have to call up city hall and ask.

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I'll keep my eye on that sign, to see how long it lasts. Why couldn't I do the same thing for my book/website? And, why couldn't you?

--edited by Mimi Speike on 12/12/2014, 10:11 PM--