One year, 525,600 minutes… yes, time has flown! One year ago, we published A Career Carol.
In the last year, lots seemed to have happened. And like so many things in life, its spooky when you look back on a big event and then realize it was year ago.
We’ve learned a lot as first-time authors. There was the process of publishing for example. We were delighted to work with a publisher for the first time. We felt we needed a guide as we attempted to publish a book. One of us found the process frustratingly slow. The other had the wisdom and patience to see it as a proof of concept and learning experience.
Then there was the publicity angle. There is no point writing a book and not telling people about it. So, we set out with publicists in Austria, London, and New York. Working with this virtual team was wonderful. It felt very much like having allies, supporters, advocates. With their help we:
Did radio interviews in Chicago, Dublin, and drum roll, Cedar Rapids.
We did interviews with newspapers and journalists, including the iconic Wiener Magazine and a national UK daily tabloid.
We wrote articles for over 60 journals and magazines including Forbes, Fast Company, Readers Digest, Big Think, Maddyness, LinkedIn, and People Management.
We worked with podcasters in Houston, Indonesia, and London.
We also worked to develop our own social media presence. Building a website, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and even Tik Tok.
It’s quite funny to look back on some of this. We think of ourselves as semi-talented amateurs on most of this. Our whole thing, though, is that we want to try to do as much of it as we can ourselves. Its ultimately about the experience and learning. The outcomes are predicable. But… but… each piece to our slightly biased eyes… gets better as we learn.
We are reminded of several of our teachers (more about Ms. Skinner later) and work bosses over the years. We think we both built careers to some extent on the belief that so long as we didn’t make the same mistake twice, we were making good progress. Try, fail, try again. It’s a mantra to build a long occasionally successful career on.
A big highlight of the last year were the conferences and school presentations Helmut was invited to give. He talked to over 300 high school students in Vienna and then featured A Career Carol at the AFS youth council conference in New York.
However, as you might expect, the big surprise and ‘oh my gosh… does this mean we’re not just authors, but relatively good ones’ moments were the book award recognitions. In April A Career Carol was selected as a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Awards, In the summer, the Bookfest named us best career book, and then in September the big completely unexpected BBA recognition came.
So, a year later, are we different? What has changed?
Well, A Career Carol enters its second year with some kudos, a renewed momentum. The book award season shone a spotlight on it that has widened and deepened interest. That’s good!
Moreover, we are enthused. We are excited. We are more confident.
As an aside, we did an interview recently for Sassy Book Reviews and were asked the question ‘Why did you write A Career Carol?” We have the usual answer to that question. The one that talks about believing there was a need, a gap, a niche. Something important to say.
One of us though, also thought perhaps it was because they were trying to prove Ms. Skinner their junior school English teacher wrong. When she said, very cruelly, vindictively, and without justification…. David Oxley… she shouted this in front of the entire class…. Once again, you have proven my point… mark my words…you will never ever be a writer…. No. You are destined for a career without letters, grammar, or punctuation!
Well… Ms. Skinner…. How do you like them apples!
(P.S. I’ve never understood the apples comment in Good Will Hunting. Apparently, it’s a riff on apples falling not far from trees and some movie folklore. I still don’t entirely understand how it has become a phrase meaning something like… now who’s laughing… or in this case… Ms. Skinner may have been premature in her dismissal of the young Oxley’s efforts).
(P.P.S. Dr Schuster has just pointed out that perhaps Ms. Skinner deserves some credit for using the dark arts of reverse psychology on me. My world has just shifted on its axis. I will now go and dismantle the room dedicated to half burned effigies).
Apologies for that diversion… returning to A Career Carol’s birthday.
We find ourselves today reassured that the proof of concept that was A Career Carolhas done as well as it has. It received a great reception in the media, among critics, and has sold well in the UK, USA, Austria, Belgium, and India. It is fascinating to see where it has sold most.
The last year has taught us a great deal but the main take away is that we think we are really onto something with the fundamental purpose, format, and message behind our writing. With A Groundhog Career, we will hopefully take a further step forward toward serving that purpose.
Onward… upward…try…fail…try again…and again
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