Blue Room Books signs
Joey Huffman to book deal

Top: Huffman in concert
Bottom: Huffman and Durden

Blue Room Books is pleased to announce the signing of Joey Huffman, 58, to a book deal. Release of East to the Sun: Memories From the Life of an Accidental Rock Star is planned in 2022.

 Decatur, Ga | February 3, 2021

Blue Room Books, located in Decatur, Georgia, is pleased to announce the signing of Joey Huffman, 58, to a book deal. The title is East to the Sun: Memories From the Life of an Accidental Rock Star. Release of the book is planned for 2022.

The albums, artists, songs, and travel are mere punctuations in the life of a complicated man who is an insightful poet at heart and fueled by the mind of a brilliant raconteur. Joey Huffman, diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2014, began writing popular long-form vignettes of his life, posting some on his Facebook page.

Publisher Jeff Clark wrote in the January 2021 print edition of his magazine Stomp and Stammer, “Better Use of Your Time Than Livestreams: Joey Huffman’s autobiographical Facebook posts…read like chapters from a book — which hopefully they’ll one day become.”

“Joey and I had lunch a few years ago during which he told me of the stories he was beginning to write,” publisher Angela K. Durden recalls. “I was fascinated by his ability to tell a story with such blunt honesty yet keeping a beautiful turn of phrase. He has a unique voice that we love.” In 2020, Durden offered to publish his book.

Book editing and design is now in process and Mr. Clark’s wish is coming true.

Joey said, “I am very pleased and a little bit over-whelmed at having this book published. So many have told me to do it, but making it happen isn’t a straightforward process. I’m so happy to have signed with Angela Durden and her company.”

 

Bands and solo artists Huffman have played in/for: Matchbox Twenty, Soul Asylum, Isaac Hayes, Steven Tyler, Hank Williams Jr., Lynyrd Skynyrd, Indigo Girls, Witness, Michelle Malone and Drag the River, The Hellhounds, Keith Richards & the Expensive Winos (keyboard tech), Izzy Stradlin, Drivin’ n Cryin’, The Georgia Satellites, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Burns & Poe, Butch Walker, and more. Huffman specializes in piano, Hammond organ, and vintage keyboards. He is also a producer, engineer, and songwriter.

 

Media Contact:

BlueRoomBooks@outlook.com 

Publisher Direct: 404-358-0951   

BlueRoomBooks.com

 

Money laundering, slush fund, or legitimate sales? You decide.

At it again...all for you.

by Angela K. Durden
The Most Brilliant Woman in the World

Citizen Journalist.  Novelist. Author of other stuff. 

Business writer.  Songwriter.  Protecting creator's copyrights. 

In The Washington Times online edition of June 18, 2019, in a front page article (wrapping to A6) is an article entitled "Obama shuns unwritten rules for ex-presidents". 

Included were numbers very high up in the stratosphere for Barack's and Michelle's post-presidential paydays from writing books, giving speeches, and making deals with Netflix and Spotify for content creation. 

I've been in the book business for many years and there's one thing I know for certain: Books by presidents and presidents' wives do not make a profit. I know this because their books end up being sold at book remainder shows where they are measured by the pound and put in large cardboard boxes that you then see at stores selling groceries and pharmacy items, and on sale shelves at bookstores for a few dollars each.

Another little secret you may not know is that the term sold (as in retail sales) is often switched out for the other word distributed. This is to hype marketing efforts.  

For instance, it is said that Michelle Obama's book "Becoming" sold 10 million copies between November 13, 2018, and March 31, 2019. The sales figures were called remarkable. Does that figure include print, e-book, and audio book? It is not made clear. However, I have other issues with these numbers.

First, I do not believe that 10 million copies were printed of the 448-page book. That's a big book. It costs money to print, bind, store, fulfill, ship, manage returns, and do the bookkeeping. I would like to see that warehouse.   

But let's just say that 10 million were printed. Were they printed all at one time, or did they sell out and have to go back to press? I doubt it, otherwise that would've been mentioned because that's a big deal. So, does that mean they were sold to one reader at a time? Ten million is a lot of books, so let's do the math. 

Nov 13, 2018 to end of March 2019 = 138 days

That means each day 72,464 individuals had to purchase the book in order to say that 10 million copies sold. That is 1449 in each state each day. Were they driving to bookstores? Buying online? 

Therefore, let's say that if 10 million were printed, then 10 million may have been distributed to book stores, but I double guar-O-damn-tee-ya 10 million did not sell. 

So the question then comes up: How does any publishing company, including one as large as the Crown Publishing Group and Random House 2018 merger made, make any money on such a deal as this? They have huge overhead and are looking to cut costs and they go and make such a deal as this? What else is involved? Are they getting a fee for serving as her speaker bureau? 

I'm calling their numbers bogus. It has happened before that publishing houses, production companies, etc., are used as the middle-men in payoffs or curry favor between politicians and other countries or businesses. So, the current Obama deals going on: Are they money laundering, slush funds, or legitimate sales? You decide.

In any case, I say...

SUPPORT YOUR CITIZEN JOURNALIST.

VISIT Consolidated Author Page

AND BUY A BOOK!

If I self-identify as a Female Native-American Caribbean-African Disabled Male Machinist Righty-Tighty-Lefty-Loosey Author, will my books sell faster?

by Angela K. Durden
Technology inventor protecting creator's copyrights. Business writer, novelist, songwriter, and Citizen Journalist.


Book Marketing 101: If you want to sell books, you got to have a platform. Sometimes that involves murder. If you don't want to kill somebody, then you have to find another way to get that platform upon which marketing campaigns are built.

Here are the problems with my marketing platform. I am not, are no longer, or have never:

1. Been 20 years old and —
2. Posed nude (except when I was three-weeks old but that doesn't count)
3. Taken nude pictures of others (don't ask what I've taken of myself)
4. Robbed a bank and used the money to pay for cancer treatments
5. An atheist who...what do atheists do?
6. Killed anybody or covered up a crime
7. Been a meth/pot/crack head who came back and founded a multi-million dollar empire
8. Married a gangster or other public personality
9. Divorced a gangster or other public personality
10. Had an affair with a married gangster or other public personality or his wife
11. Had my life threatened by a gangster or other public personality or his wife
12. Lived out of my car and then gone on to found a multi-billion dollar empire

The list could go on, but you get the gist. I simply blend in with all the other law-abiding folks who calmly and quietly go about their lives. 

However, I've come up with a marketing plan. Let me know if you think it will work:

If I self-identify as a Female Native-American Caribbean-African Disabled Male HB1/2 Machinist Righty-Tighty-Lefty-Loosey Author, will my books sell faster? 

More importantly, will agents and publishers vie over my unpublished manuscripts with exclamations of "Wow! Does she ever have a great platform!" (Two exclamation points on purpose in that sentence because that is how much enthusiasm they will have for me.)

You think I jest? I do not. I am quite serious and I thank you for giving me your opinion on this matter. These links below are real stories. I can't make this stuff up. Lots of other people are doing outrageous things as they self-identify.

OMGee! Look at all the free column inches these people get in newspapers. That's money straight to the bottom line if they're selling something. 

Man marries computer in New Mexico. Alabama does not recognize the marriage. Man sues.

White woman, Rachel Dolezal, self-identifies as black and will not apologize.

All-woman Spelman College will admit men who self-identify as women.

To get a job, Elizabeth Warren claims to be Native American.

Ryerson University made a policy change to create a more inclusionary environment for students. That's right. You don't have to self-identify as anything.

To get greater diversity on the provincial bench, Ontario is making changes to its judicial applications. Please, oh, please, self-identify as something we can count, even disabled. 

And Regnery, the nation's premier publisher of conservative books, will no longer allow authors to self-identify with the New York Times best-seller list seeing as how the NYT is such a manipulator and very left-leaning anyway.

Whoa. Now that's an idea I could steal: Self-identify as a BEST SELLER from the git-go. 

The Most Brilliant Woman in the World

by Angela K. Durden
Technology inventor protecting creator's copyrights. Business writer, novelist, songwriter, and Citizen Journalist.


You might infer this article will be about Hillary Clinton. It isn't, but I shall use her to setup the story that will follow. Which story, by the by, will be all about the real Most Brilliant Woman in the World — Me!

For some years, Ol' Hill's shills and dupes have spread the rumor that she is the smartest woman in whatever room she appears if not the entire whole, big, wide world. This article appeared last May which quotes Amie Parnes as saying: 

"[Hillary] could do anything. She's one of the smartest people – she will always be the smartest woman in the room, I think."

Notice the phrase "I think" at the end of that quote? Is Amie hedging her bet? Giving herself an out in case another woman proves to be smarter?

Still, for these folks who insist that men and woman are the same and that to use gender-specific titling is wrong, racist, prejudicial, inflammatory, sexist, violent, and demeaning to women, notice how Amie said Ol' Hill will "always be the smartest woman" in the room yet did not specify which type of woman?

In fact, what everybody says — smartest woman — implies some other gender could be smarter should they find themselves in the same room as Ol' Hill. For your edification, here is a list of 58 other genders which could be smarter than the losing presidential candidate of 2016.***

This list does not cause any problem for Ol' Hill because access to any room she is in is tightly regulated by gun-toting bodyguards who aren't about to let in anybody who hasn't been vetted as having a lower IQ than her.

Now to the story about the real "most brilliant" woman in the world — Me!

Yes. It is true. I am not lying and have it on good authority. Here's how it came to be that I found out how smart I am.

There I was in beautiful and historic Downtown Decatur, Georgia, at the Decatur Book Festival this past Labor Day weekend, appearing as a headlining draw at the Sisters in Crime tent. I was invited because I am the author of the thriller "Whitfield, Nebraska" (available on Amazon.com, if you'll just be so kind as to click this link and buy it). Having paid my yearly dues to belong to the group, they also agreed to kindly let me hand out flyers to the crowd trickling by.

Because of my deep connections in the publishing world, I managed to lay hands [Linda, that was me who went through your purse] on a ticket to the last VIP party blowout on the lawn between the bandstand and the Old Historic Courthouse.

Booze flowed like wine and the line snaked long for food prepared by a celebrity chef. A young female DJ who thought everybody over 25 was old, played music that had most of the crowd yawning. Yes, the DJ was ready to call it a night and get to her next gig.

But she did not count on the crowd. You see, authors have a high tolerance for pain, especially after getting drunk. So the worse the music got, the more these writers, agents, and publishers said, "We'll show her who's boss!"

They began to do crazy things like acting out bullfighting, spanking each other on the dance floor, shaking boobies and booties, ripping clothes off each other, and lasciviously licking their King of Pops while hollering "Dry Clean Only!", and so forth.

It was cray-cray, I tell ya. I'm still reeling from the overall debauchery rocking that kasbah.

Anyway, back to what this story is all about: ME!

After about ninety minutes, Linda and I were finally able to make it to the food table where I filled my plate with two build-yer-own celebrity-chef tacos (soft corn or flour tortilla shells choices!) We made our way to a table where other non-hoi polloi were sitting and proceeded to eat.

Next to me was a man who took all of ten seconds to zero in on the fact that he was sitting next to the Most Brilliant Woman in the World and he proceeded to take advantage of the knowledge possessed within my noggin and began peppering me with all sorts of questions.

I make it a habit to practice humility where I can, so I won't bore you with all the details and reasons as to why he was convinced I was the Most Brilliant Woman in the World.

Suffice it to say that by the time he got through trying to prove to the Most Brilliant Woman in the World how smart he was (he just wrote an E-book setting himself up as a guru to working stiffs with dreams of making money), he was able to discover all the holes in his theory.

Can you say "market research done, rewrite coming forthwith"? That's right. Look how much time and effort I saved him and it only took me thirty minutes.

Seven times this man dubbed me the Most Brilliant Woman in the World and seven times I agreed with him.

His parting words to me were: "You are THE Most Brilliant Woman IN THE WORLD, Ash…errrr… Angelaaaaa. Let's chat further. Say, do you have a husband or boyfriend or significant other?"

Ah, now we know what he's selling: His services. Or he's looking for a nurse or a purse.

Linda later told me that the fellow offered to fetch her a glass of wine and she said, "I know you. You were sitting next to my friend at the table."

He says, "AaaazzzRITE! Ang-Ashlee-La-lala. Ya know… she's the Most Brilliant Woman In. The. WORLD."




*** In case you don't want to click the link in the article above, here's the list of 58 gender options as identified by gender specialist All-Bull-and-Crunked News. Please note that neither male nor female appear on this list unless you lump those in under Other.

• Agender
• Androgyne
• Androgynous
• Bigender
• Cis
• Cisgender
• Cis Female
• Cis Male
• Cis Man
• Cis Woman
• Cisgender Female
• Cisgender Male
• Cisgender Man
• Cisgender Woman
• Female to Male
• FTM
• Gender Fluid
• Gender Nonconforming
• Gender Questioning
• Gender Variant
• Genderqueer
• Intersex
• Male to Female
• MTF
• Neither
• Neutrois
• Non-binary
• Other
• Pangender
• Trans
• Trans*
• Trans Female
• Trans* Female
• Trans Male
• Trans* Male
• Trans Man
• Trans* Man
• Trans Person
• Trans* Person
• Trans Woman
• Trans* Woman
• Transfeminine
• Transgender
• Transgender Female
• Transgender Male
• Transgender Man
• Transgender Person
• Transgender Woman
• Transmasculine
• Transsexual
• Transsexual Female
• Transsexual Male
• Transsexual Man
• Transsexual Person
• Transsexual Woman
• Two-Spirit

Go Indie! Bezos would have liked that phrase at one time.

By Angela K. Durden

The most current circulation numbers I could find predated Jeff Bezos buying The Washington Post. Can't seem to find any stats from after the 2013 purchase by Nash Holdings, a company Bezos set up to acquire the paper. Up until that date, the numbers were declining quickly. Would it be too far off target to suggest the numbers are worse now? Probably not.

As if the newspaper business isn't chapping his backside enough, Amazon (which, rumor has it, has never made a profit) is pushing a price war to get sales volume up.

This is particularly disturbing to the Big 5 book publishers. Amazon is playing games with the book business. If you are an author published with one of the Big 5 or their subsidiaries, you will want to read this disturbing report here.

Of course, as a small publisher, my sales volume does not put me in his sites. But then I have to ask, "If many of the buttons consumers click are set by automated algorithms, whose to say I'm not losing out on sales, too?"

Independent bookstores are making a comeback. I know because I have one in my neighborhood I've been buying from for years. Business is picking up for Eagle Eye Bookstore. People like to talk to people. The owner, Doug Robinson, is president of SIBA, a trade association for indie book stores.

Want to find an independent bookstore near you? Take a look at this list here.

At one time, Bezos would have appreciated the phrase "Go Indie!"
Too bad Jeff wants to rule the world.
Photo credit (WikiCommons)

Read more from Angela K. Durden here.

And here.