Wonderings on Wanderings: Working on the Book Title.

working title and cover design

My first working title for my book was ‘Cruising to a Life Together’. It has since evolved many times over and that story is in itself entertaining. From the theme that surfaced as dominant, the patriotic theme, it became ‘Cruising to a Life Together. Becoming an American.’ Many of our American friends in the RVing community were attracted to this, wondering what this late-age immigrant has to say about being accepted into the US as a naturalized citizen.

But my editor raised her concern about this title. Chit said it should not be ‘Cruising to a Life Together’ because, however, dashing and handsome a character Bill is, the story really is about me! So I changed it to ‘Cruising with Bill. Becoming an American.’ not wanting to drop the second phrase that was so attractive to our American friends. But Bill objected because he did not want to be the ‘dog’. In John Steinbeck’s classic, Travels with Charley, Charley was a dog! He suggested ‘Carolina Cruising’ because it is really a story about me. Admittedly, there is a nice ring to it! So it became ‘Carolina Cruising. Becoming an American.’

But when I started to think about what to write in query letters to literary agents who can pitch my book to traditional publishers, I had to dissect my target market and delineate my purposes. This is how the main paragraphs of my Query Letter ended up being:

“There are hundreds of books about RV odysseys. After all there are eight million RV enthusiasts and thirty million RVers in the US. But not one is about a late-age Asian immigrant, then 59, who had just retired from the Philippine business landscape and dared to plunge into a biracial marriage with 63-year old Caucasian American Bill. I have had plenty of adventure as a jet-setting executive from corporate Philippines, but it wasn’t the cruising kind: aimless (no big aims), effortless (no big efforts), timeless (no big dictates on time), deeply personal, enjoyable, and meaningful drive through life

. 

My family raised their eyebrows, of course, but nothing could stop me from this never-ending honeymoon! And so for four and a half years, we traveled to forty-nine American states, nine Canadian provinces and six Mexican states in two kinds of RVs, a scooter, and a dinghy. We crossed the continent six times and traveled nearly a hundred thousand miles. We were, after all, star-crossed lovers, not looking for love, but looking to stay in love in this, my third try (also his).

Thrust into a largely white community, I not only soaked up America’s sights (thirty National Parks and eighty National Monuments and countless others) but also immersed myself in American culture and history (thirty of forty-four presidents’ and other legends’ homes). Within the cozy confines of a 350-sq. ft. motor home, lessons came as fast as the scenes changed. I not only learned how to be a wife without losing my identity, despite cultural and gender differences made bigger by late-age rigidity and ‘get-there-it is’. I also became an American without losing my roots, not getting boiled into the soup melting in the pot but mixed into a chunky stew, contributing to the taste, but retaining my flavor. 

‘Carolina Cruising’ is a retirement story like no other. It is my retreat to America to feed a fascination, find a friend, and fly to freedom. By the time any natural born, permanent resident or future immigrant American finishes reading this story, he or she will feel that he can have a dream even at a late age from anywhere in the world. And, using whatever means of ‘transportation’, he can achieve it amid the beauty of his adopted country for the first time!”

And I worried about the title. I gave Bill a line-up of fourteen titles to choose from and this was his number 1 choice: ‘Carolina Cruising. A Road Trip across America.’ And when I started writing to several literary agents, I felt compelled to change it to the more thought provoking title, ‘Carolina Cruising. An Immigrant’s Road Trip across America. Then, somehow I wrote it in reply to a query on Facebook. Then some friends thought it to be too direct. I shared this post on FB and now there are about 9 choices. Which do you think it should be? Your vote will help me a lot!     

Or do you have another take on it? The one who gives a winning title will get a free copy of the book!

Wonderings on Wanderings: Building a Team, Planning a Business

my social media marketing consultant, the most prominent digital influencer in the Philippines, Janette Toral!

Bill, my go to person

I have not written a book to earn lots of money. But I did not write one to lose money either. They say 10% of the effort is in writing the book, 30% in publishing, and 60% in marketing. Being right in the middle of editing, still researching publishing, and just lining up the marketing steps, there is so much work left for me to do. My go to person for helping me is, of course, Bill, but he has enough on his plate, especially now with his CASA commitment. 2014 will definitely be one busy year without help! I need a team and I need a plan!

my editor, Chit Tribiana

With Chit having completed Round 1 of the book editing, Bill and I made an appointment with an Arizona CPA to get guidance on how to set up the business for ‘The Cruising Lifestyle’ as a brand that will have the book as the first product. He advised us to set up a simple single proprietorship, a DBA (Doing Business As). He also said we can set up a book of accounts using the concept that 50% of some of our expenses can be charged to the business such as the RV, car, computer, and membership at Thousand Trails Resorts, basic things that enable us to maintain our RV cruising lifestyle.

With the book of accounts set up, I made a preliminary business analysis. If I make a small profit per book, then I need to sell 10,000 books; a medium means 5,000 books; and a high means just 3.333. These numbers seem very doable! I am even more excited now! Even if I sell no books, we would have only spent direct expenses of about $3,000 and just a little more than $1250 if I don’t spend a single cent in marketing! Is Bill going to support me in this endeavor?  Of course!

The major part of the business plan, once set up, is marketing. I have been doing this most of my business life, marketing different products and services: training, consulting, software, hardware, etc. There are four Ps in marketing: product, price, place, promotion. The final product is on its way; price will be decided with the publishing house; the same with place or points for distribution. To promote a book, the principles are the same but the state of the art is now different because of the Internet.

Literary agents and publishers say that a strong online platform will be key in promotion. So I have repositioned my blog, my Facebook profile, and twitter account as parts of that platform. My blog has since averaged 13,500 views a month, below the 30,000 strong platforms have. So I have more to do! A FB fan base of around 3,000 is also needed. I have only 1,800 but think I will get there. My new FB business page, The Cruising Lifestyle, is under construction and hopefully will also reach about 3,000 likes. My new website, gocruisinglifestyle.com, also under construction, will put my blog, my book, articles published, and photo galleries in one place. 

But I definitely need help because I still do not use Twitter enough and have not even begun to use LinkedIn or You Tube.  Even Pinterest and Instagram can be exploited. So I need a social media marketing consultant. There are many who are offering their services in the US. But why will I pay top dollars when better value services can be had from the Philippines, second only to Brazil in using social media? So I have sought the opinion of Janette Toral, the most prominent digital influencer of the Philippines, who promptly gave me homework to do. First idea is this: the key is to have engaging conversations with potential clients, enlisting their email addresses, and converting to a sale!

my traditional media marketing consultant, Jingjing

But we probably will also need ads (FB, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.) and publicity, the latter probably the more important of the two. I am lucky that one of my BFFs is a well-known publicist in the Philippines, Jingjing Romero. She will probably not say no to help me penetrate the Filipino reader marketplace! But I do not have any idea how to do it in the US. Hopefully, my publishing house will be able to help me reach the American reader marketplace!

So there you have it, I don’t feel so alone now. I have an initial team: Bill, Chit, Janette, Jingjing. Three published authors have also reviewed my book: Linda Herman, Roberta Dolan, and Linda Kennedy. Two bloggers, Tel and Merry Jo, also helped. Family members Suzanne and Claudine pitched in. And friends Liz Kranz and Chit Derkits complete my team of reviewers. Who else would like to be part of my team in this journey? You are so needed! 

Wonderings on Wanderings: Writing and Editing a Book

this book's emerging dominant theme is patriotism...for both the US and the Philippines 

waiting for the train at grand Central, New York City

Our wanderings have given me a lot of lifestyle adventures to write about! I now have 217 blog posts about the cruising lifestyle, some of which are wonderings about the wanderings. It was mid-January last year when Bill left me for a month to help his son in Boise, Idaho. Sometimes it is the saddest of times when I cope with referred passion. I was then visiting in Seattle and when everyone was at work or school, I put the lonely hours to work. Using our personal story behind the scenes as thread, I put the posts together into the first draft manuscript of my book. Spellcheck helped a lot. When Bill came back a day before Valentines, he had more than two hundred pages to edit! 

By May, I had a second version. A somewhat private person, Bill asked me to eliminate some of the details and a new theme came out, my bitter-sweet swings of patriotism between the Philippines and the US. This part was more difficult to write and it was only around August when Bill could take another look. By October, with just idiomatic phrasing and grammatical errors as feedback from him, the third version came out fast. I was then encouraged to show my work to other people! We sent it to his daughter Suzanne and my daughter Claudine.

Merry Jo's blog home

Linda Herman's Parents to the End

I looked for constructive criticism from both American and Filipino friends. From the Toastmasters Club and Book Club in Kent, Washington were Linda Herman, a psychologist and newly published author of Parents to the End, Liz, a lawyer who recently lost her husband and is currently writing her own memoir, and Merry Jo, who also writes posts at travelblog.org about her own travels with husband Dave. They gave me such critical feedback that I was able to make marked improvements for the fourth version. I am still waiting for feedback from Roberta Dolan, another soon-to-be published author of Say It Out Loud and the blog, http://write-to-survive.blogspot.com, who gave me a push towards writing when I met her at the Orlando Thousand Trails RV Resort! Hopefully, Tel Asiado, a friend from the Institute of Advanced Computer Technology, an established author, freelance writer and owner of Inspired Pen blog network from Sydney, Australia, will too!  I am also waiting for feedback from Chit Ragasa Derkits, a friend from the University of the Philippines, now a retired PhD in Physics living in Pittsburgh.

Tel Asiado's Inspired Pen network of blogs

I was very ready for professional editing! There are two kinds of edit, first is developmental editing and second, line edit. The first checks for a good opening, logical flow, clarity, completeness, superfluity, good conclusion, organization, and achievement of purpose along with some light line edit that includes spelling, punctuation, grammar, usage and obvious errors of fact. This edit will give the best feedback for jazzing up any manuscript. The second or heavy line edit includes checking of facts, word usage, awkward sentences, bad parallelisms, misplaced modifiers, and edit of grammar to the standard of a well-educated reader and, lastly, smooth transitions. This edit will finalize a manuscript for publishing.  We are now on the first round.

growth of the BPO industry in the Philippines

I wanted a Filipino editor. I believe strongly that the facility of Filipinos with American English and familiarity with American culture (the Philippines was a US colony from 1898 to 1946), give my countrymen amazing competitive advantage in backroom business processes with much lower per hour rates compared to American labor force. Editing is one of those processes and I would like to show this to the world (actually, social marketing is another and I will have another Filipino consultant for this).

I sent my latest version last December to Chit Tribiana, copy writer at the Institute of Advanced Computer Technology when I was marketing manager. An English major, Chit built a career as a professional editor in the Philippines after the unfortunate demise of I/ACT. Also a blogger (http://chitsblog.wordpress.com), she expects to finish her first round feedback by end of January, giving us February and March to do the second round. If I have a publishable version by end of March, I will have enough time to release the book by end of June.  I would like to time it to coincide with July 4, Independence Day in the US and Philippine-American Friendship Day, the day the US also granted us our independence, because patriotism has emerged as the dominant theme.

Finally, my wanderings and my wonderings about them will produce something worth keeping for me and Bill and our family. Hopefully, it is also worth sharing with you all. 

OLA: Welcoming the New Year in Phoenix!

my daughter April's story-book engagement at the Scottish Highlands

Bill about to enter the cinema

It’s my 66^th New Year! I have spent 10 of those in the US and it is very different here. Whereas it is boisterous and smoke-filled in the Philippines, here it is very quiet and intimate. Bill and I welcomed it by ourselves with a small midnight meal. We had ham, queso de bola, stollen, Roscato, champagne, and twelve round fruits, albeit all oranges from our orange tree! This was after the rollicking movie Last Vegas at a second run theater, Super Saver Cinema, in Phoenix for only $1.50 each!

We waited for 2014 with much anticipation! We arrived from San Diego on Dec. 28 giving us three days to prepare for the welcoming of 2014. Bill and I immediately launched out year-end cleaning as is the custom in the Philippines (not spring cleaning as is the custom here). First we focused on the files, then the clothes and bathroom cabinets, and then the pantry and kitchen storage. We achieved a lot this year. After all, we are not running around with the RV!

Hawaiian Experience spa in Chandler, Arizona

solitaire diaond necklace

'Carol' also had a lot of cleaning to do. In the Philippines I regularly had facials done. On Dec. 31 I went for a Hawaiian Experience spa at the nearby city of Chandler. It was a gift from Bill and the Harpers (my daughters gave me a soliataire diamond necklace!) who feel I deserve to be pampered After the anti-aging all-organic facial, I signed up for the next ten months with just $59 more a month on top of their gift card. Hopefully, I will no longer need the facelift that I think is due!

Bill doing the shopping at Sprouts

Next we went to Sprouts, the famous fresh farm produce supermarket so that we can fill up our pantry and refrigerator with goodies, another tradition in the Philippines! As the clock struck twelve and the $8M ball dropped in Times Square, we remembered what a good year 2013 was: my fifth grandchild Kai, my becoming eligible for Social Security and Medicare, and the completion of my book and Bill’s one-month with Jim helping him with he new office building, two weeks with Cristine in Alaska, and a month helping Suzanne recover from her hip surgery. 

Kai,my fifth grandchild

New Year'sEve Midnight Meal

Then I remembered T.S. Eliot who wrote "For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice.” 2014 will be as exciting, if not more!

       

the complete route of the 'Iron and Ice' cruise

First of all, we have booked ourselves a cruise to Denmark, Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, and England on an Enrichment Voyage (there are courses when the MV Explorer will be at sea) from June 1 to 15. Before that, on May 1 to 16, we take an air/land trip through Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. And on June 16 to 30 we take a road trip through southern England (Southampton, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Bath, and Cornwall) and  London before going to Scotland for the wedding of my daughter April at the Guthrie Castle on July 2. Then the family tours Scotland after the wedding. Even my BFFs Ann, Jingjing and Fides will be there as Ninangs!

But the best thing for me (after April’s wedding of course) is that I will finally get to publish my book. While it is now going through editing, I am now making the rounds of some literary agents focusing on travel memoirs and self-publishing houses. Even if no one picks up the book, I will self-publish it by March, right after two rounds of editing, in time for June right before July 4, the Fil-American Friendship Day. When I retired in 2004, I had as an objective five things: cook a little, teach a little, love a little, write a little, and paint a little. In 2014, ten years after, I have just one unmet goal. But I also added another unintended activity: traveling!

CASA

Bill, on the other hand, has earmarked the year as a big payback year. He retired in 2009 and in just five years he will begin achieving that goal. He has been committed to the CASA program, court-appointed special advocates, who attempt to make sure the needs of the children of parents in jail or in litigation or are victims of child abuse are taken care of. He had to go through a strict screening, including a lie-detector test and fingerprinting at the end. He then will attend four training sessions in January and hopes to receive is first assignment in February which may run as long as eighteen months.

Loud and clear, our voices will be different in 2014!