Horse Tales - American Classic Pedigrees

You Learn Something New ...

7/11/2024

Having gotten into chapter five of the Holy Bull book (which will focus on his season-ending win in the In Reality Stakes and the transition to his 3-year-old season), I'm finding myself doing some extra research on what was going on in South Florida racing at the time. Turns out there were two scandals in progress. One, at Calder, involved the suspension of any access to Calder for seven jockeys, all of Venezuelan origin, who had falsified their previous riding records in Venezuela to qualify for apprentice status (and the accompanying weight allowance) in North America. It was big news at the time, particularly since 1992 Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey Jesus Bracho was among those accused. (After further investigation showed that he was indeed ineligible for apprentice status in the USA at the time that he was claiming it, he returned the Eclipse Award, which two years later was officially presented to Rosemary Homeister, who had been runner-up in the original voting and who then became the first female jockey to win an Eclipse Award.) The suspensions came through only four days before the Festival of the Sun and the running of the In Reality.

The other scandal didn't involve Thoroughbred racing but was instead centered at the Pompano Park harness track, where several driver-trainers, owners, and veterinarians were either arrested or lost their pari-mutuel licenses in Florida as the result of a year-long investigation into race fixing that made both the culprits and the local officials look woefully incompetent about either concealing or cleaning up the problems. Although there was no evidence that the dirty doings had spilled over to Florida Thoroughbred tracks, the bad publicity for horse racing of any sort, combined with the jockey scandal, left some heavy clouds hanging over South Florida racing in the public eye. No wonder Holy Bull was such a hero in his native state; nothing like having a budding superstar strutting his stuff at your track without the shadow of a doubt as to whether he was for real (everyone knew Jimmy Croll's reputation for integrity, and he was well liked) to take people's minds off the ugly stuff!

The racing scandals were background material for the focus on Holy Bull's career, so given the space limitations I have to work with in this manuscript, I'm not going to be going into huge detail on them. Still, knowing such things helps to explain the horse's great popularity. He was brilliant, he was eye-catching, and he and his connections were totally for real. Sometimes a star shines the brighter for being framed against the darkness.

Grinding Out a Book

7/4/2024

Writing a book usually starts off with a burst of enthusiasm. The problem is that the opening enthusiasm will seldom carry you through a complete writing project. Three and a half chapters into my new Holy Bull manuscript, that's where I am. I still enjoy the work once I sit down and get into it; it's mustering up the discipline to get going that's the issue.

For me, at least, the best solution is to set mini-goals of so much to be completed (or at least drafted) at the end of a work week. I know how much time I have to produce a completed work, so by setting goals for when each chapter is to be completed, I can pat myself on the back a little as I pass each milestone. Other authors work better by word count (so many words per day or week) or by thinking of the book as a series of subtopics or vignettes and completing each chunk. The important thing is to keep moving, because with a deadline in sight, the one thing you can't do is nothing.

Opportunity Costs and Sunk Losses

6/13/2024

Last week, I touched on the concept of opportunity cost in relation to book promotion efforts---the fact that every such effort consumes resources (such as time) that cannot be used for alternate purposes (such as writing). Awareness of such tradeoffs is necessary in making decisions about how to allocate your available time, energy, and money. Let us suppose that you are on the other end of the stick, however---you have already made a decision, perhaps some time ago, and now are finding that the results you are getting from a particular course of action do not seem to be worth the trade you have made. What then?

Sometimes perseverance is a winning strategy. If you have considered your position and have reason to believe that you may turn the corner with a little more effort or investment, staying the course can be worthwhile. On the other hand, if you find yourself thinking more about the loss of what you have already put into your promo effort than about taking an objective look (well, as objective as possible---we're all human) at whether or not it still has a reasonable chance of getting the results you hope for, you may be falling prey to the sunk-loss fallacy, which can keep you pouring money, time, and energy down a rat hole.

A sunk loss represents a resource that is irrevocably gone, regardless of what you do next. For example, if you buy a meal at a restaurant, you are out the cost of the meal whether you ate all of it, half of it, or one bite of it. For many of us, this represents a challenge to eat the whole thing so that we don't feel we've wasted money. But what if you find that you don't like the food even though it's decently cooked and presented, or you're on a diet and eating the entire plateful would blow your calorie count or your sodium count or whatever sky-high? (For the moment, let's drop the option of taking the leftovers home.) The wise thing to do would be to simply eat no more than is wanted and leave the rest. The problem is that most of us will focus on how much money we're "losing" by not eating the whole thing and then proceed to eat as much of it as can be stomached, which doesn't bring the money back and has a good chance of adding an upset stomach to the evening's woes.

Now, a single meal is generally a pretty small thing, and the worst we usually face from falling for the sunk-loss fallacy in this case is an unpleasant encounter with the toilet later in the evening or with the bathroom scale the next morning. When it comes to an ongoing promotional effort, however, focusing on past investment rather than on a rational look at future expectations can result in failure to cut losses and modify or ditch a strategy that clearly isn't working out. An irrational fear of loss is often a factor, even though the actual loss has already occurred; it's as though the brain doesn't recognize the loss as real until confronted with the need to decide to let it go. Pride is also often a barrier to cutting losses; who likes to admit that they made what's turned out to be a poor decision? (I sure don't.)

Marketing a book inevitably costs money, time, and energy, and completely balking at these costs is a strategy that's almost certain to result in poor sales. At the same time, every promotional effort needs regular reassessment to examine whether it's worth continuing to pursue. Awareness of the sunk-loss fallacy isn't perfect insurance against making further decisions that don't pan out as hoped, but it can at least get your decision-making focused on where it should be---on the projected future rather than on an unchangeable past.

Picking and Choosing

6/6/2024

During my recent book tour in Kentucky, I did a lot of chatting with fellow author Kim Wickens (Lexington: The Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America's Legendary Racehorse). Naturally, the topic of promoting books came up. If you've read material from a lot of sites on authors and writing, you've probably seen advice to the effect that you should take every possible opportunity to get out there and promote your book, no matter what that opportunity may be. Having recently been through the grind of making appearances and trying to keep a book in the public eye, Kim and I both found ourselves with the same conclusion: that advice is, well, flawed. I have a strong hunch that we're not the only authors to have figured that out.

Whether you like it or not, the need to promote your book is inescapable if you're going to make sales. That being said, not every opportunity to promote a book is equal in terms of the resources you have to put in or the results you're likely to get from investing those resources. Some "opportunities," to be blunt, just aren't worth it.

Take book fairs and festivals. What could go wrong? The fees for participation usually aren't exorbitant, and the whole purpose of the event is to put you and your books together with a large group of potential buyers and readers---many times the number of people who would normally visit even a large bookstore in a single day. In addition, you'll have opportunities to network with other writers and with professionals in the book industry. So, why not go to every one you can reach?

The answer is simple: not every festival will offer the same bang for the buck regarding your book or books. Some festivals are slanted heavily toward children's books, or toward certain genres; if your book isn't a good fit for the market the festival is best known for, you may spend all day at your table to sell only two or three books. Some simply aren't in the right location to attract the kind of audience that might want to buy your book; a book on some aspect of horse racing that would be attractive in Lexington, Kentucky, might be a much harder sell in Miami, Florida, or even in Louisville, Kentucky. Some festivals do a better job of attracting people who want to sell you their marketing expertise, writing classes, seminars, etc., than they do in attracting the audience you want to make contact with.

What can be said of book festivals can be said of other promotional opportunities that involve personal appearances. There is always a tradeoff between the potential benefit and the amount of time and money you'll have to sink into making the appearance, and that tradeoff can be harder to justify if significant travel is involved.

Opportunities that don't involve in-person experiences are generally less expensive, and as a rule of thumb, I'd say that if you have an opportunity to be interviewed by phone or Zoom for a piece in a periodical or website, or you have a chance to "appear" as a guest on someone's podcast or YouTube channel, go for it unless something about the party offering the invitation raises a red flag in your mind. These things typically cost nothing but your time, and most periodicals, podcasters, and YouTubers aren't going to waste their time on talking to someone they don't feel will appeal to their audience. That's a win-win; you get publicity, and they get an interview that they have reason to believe will help grow their audience. I'd be much more cautious with people who want you to pay for whatever their writing-related service may be. Exercise due diligence with these and check around with people you trust, because people offering paid services range from excellent professionals to slapdash or overly optimistic amateurs to scammers. (A good clue: if results are "absolutely guaranteed," take a long and skeptical look at more than the testimonials such services often rely on to sell themselves---even the best agents, editors, instructors, and marketers out there can do no more than improve your chances of success, and the good ones will be honest enough to admit that although they're confident in in their ability to provide value with service, they cannot promise great success every time.)

Promotion is important, but don't forget that there is an opportunity cost attached to the time and money you spend on marketing your book. Unless you're in a "one and done" situation as far as writing goes, time and effort you spend on marketing is time and effort you can't spend on getting your next book written, and over the long haul, creating a sizable body of work to keep engaging older fans and bringing in new ones is at least as important if not more so than relatively short-term marketing endeavors. Keeping an eye on both the forest and the trees is the needed strategy in developing a successful writing career.

Book Tours Part V: The Aftermath

5/16/2024

Getting home from a book tour can be a great relief, no matter how good and profitable a time you had on the trip. There's much to be said for being back with your loved ones again and for settling into familiar, comfortable routines. Nonetheless, there are a few pitfalls to be aware of on getting back home.

First, give yourself a little time for readjustment, especially if you've been on the trail for a couple of weeks or more. Your loved ones have adapted to doing without you; you've been equally adapted to doing without them. You need to get used to each other again. This is especially true if you're returning to children, who can make sudden changes right under your nose, much less when you're out of sight for a while. Depending on the personality of your child or children, you may find them needier or more standoffish on your return than you remember. Give them (and yourself) a little time to adapt to being a family again. Don't overlook the fact that pets, too, may need a chance to readjust.

Second, be prepared for a significant physical and emotional letdown to hit you within a few days of your return. You've been running hard and living on adrenaline and cortisol, probably more so than you know. If your body is demanding rest and lowered stimulation levels, do your best to meet those needs. You may have no choice about getting right back to work, but try to defer complex or demanding projects for at least a few days while you sort out the inevitable accumulation of things that didn't get done and need your attention. Be prepared for needing extra sleep and for readjusting your diet and exercise schedule. Taking care of your physical self will help keep your emotions from taking you on an unwelcome roller-coaster ride---and if the trip didn't go so well, can be a needed way to soothe and reassure yourself that you're still a worthwhile person.

Third, don't overlook the possibility that you may get sick soon after coming home. When you combine extra stress for days or weeks on end with exposure to viruses that you haven't met at home, the odds are pretty good for ending up with a minor illness. That's another reason for not planning too much into the first few days after you get home---you may need recovery time from more than exhaustion. (I speak from grim experience here as I'm still coping with the tag end of a head cold I brought home with me.)

Fourth, don't give yourself a chance to lose receipts and records you'll need for filing your taxes. Put them into a file or envelope right away and put them where you keep other important records.

Fifth and finally, don't forget gratitude. If people made arrangements for you, provided hospitality, or did you favors along the way, be sure and thank them again after you return home, even if you did so in person. A note or thank-you card may be a bit old-fashioned but is still a particularly nice touch, though an appreciative text or email is far better than nothing.

Until the road calls again, safe travels and safe harbors to you all. Next week should see a return to more "normal" topics.

Book Tours Part IV: Budgeting Yourself

5/9/2024

As I wrap up my research/promotion trip to Kentucky, I am getting a solid reminder of the need to budget oneself physically. The truth is, being away from home for extended periods of time is exhausting even when you're trying to pace yourself. Travel almost always results in disturbed sleep patterns; you are continually adapting to unfamiliar places, your schedule tends to be irregular, and the push to Get Things Done keeps your adrenaline/cortisol levels pumped up higher than usual, tending to mean that whatever sleep you do get is often of poorer quality than you get at home in your own bed. This is the time when good stress management techniques can come in very handy, along with a supply of melatonin.

Then there's diet. If you're like me, you're probably strongly tempted to throw caution to the wind and just eat whatever. In one word: DON'T. I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy yourself, but keeping an eye on what you eat and drink does make a substantial difference in how much you're dragging by midway through your trip---not least because overindulgence in alcohol, caffeine, fat, and/or sugar ties back into the bugaboo of getting enough quality sleep. Dehydration is also pretty common when you're on the road, and the combination of too little water and too much sugar can definitely make any aches and pains you have flare up. It's better just to avoid the problems by exercising moderation. If you can work in some exercise to go with it, all the better.

Finally, there's mental exhaustion. If you're making a lot of appearances, the pressure's on to make sure that you and everything you need are in the right place at the right time, to say nothing of the pressure to present yourself and your book well and make good impressions. If you're working in research time (as I did on this trip), you're trying to make the most of every precious moment that you have access to resources you don't have at home. Working some "me time" into your schedule may seem like a luxury, but it isn't. Take time to stop and take in a local attraction or two. Laugh with friends or give loved ones back home a call. Pray. Meditate. Set some time aside for reflection on what you've learned. Shop for something nice for someone you love at home. You'll have to keep balance in mind; this is a business trip, after all. But do take time to take some pleasure in the journey and some care for your own needs. You'll work the better for it.

Book Tours Part III: The Taxman Cometh

4/18/2024

When tax time rolls around, you'll want to be sure that you have any legitimate expenses against your book-selling income taken into account. Book tours tend to generate a lot of those expenses, and good record keeping is vital, both to know how much you can legitimately deduct and to keep the IRS from taking an unexpected bite out of you if those deductions are challenged.

Your records should include an itinerary for your planned travels, as IRS regulations require that the majority of a trip must be for business purposes in order to claim your travel as a business deduction. Days spent traveling to your destination from your tax home (the place where you regularly work) and back home count as work days; days spent primarily in social or recreational activities do not, even if they are spent in the area where you are conducting business. An itinerary helps to show that your travel was planned with business in mind. Consider emailing your itinerary to someone else (such as your emergency contact) so that you'll have a date stamp on it preceding your travel,

Another IRS rule that you need to keep in mind is that your expenses should be "ordinary and necessary" for the business you are in. You don't have to confine yourself to the cheapest lodging and meals you can find, but staying in a four-star hotel (unless that's where your convention is being held) and eating at restaurants much pricier than your normal fare may raise a red flag in an auditor's mind. You don't want to give the impression that you are inflating your expenses or trying to pass off a luxury vacation as a business trip.

What do you need to keep? As much as possible, I'd recommend keeping hard copies of receipts for all expenses directly related to your business-related travel. Those can include:

Gasoline or charging for a vehicle.
Car rentals.
Taxi, Uber, or Lyft services.
Tickets for public transportation (airlines, trains, buses).
Food. You can deduct 50 percent of the cost of your meals.
Lodging,
Laundry and dry-cleaning expenses.
Communications costs (faxes, wi-fi fees, etc.)
Shipping for materials related to your business between work sites.
Tips related to any of the above services.
Registration fees for events you attend as part of your business dealings.
Promotional materials and items you need for setting up displays.
Books you have purchased as inventory for direct sales.
Anything else related to conducting or promoting your business. Be prepared to justify anything in this category that might seem unusual.

If you are traveling in a private vehicle, you'll also want to keep tabs on your mileage. You may find it more advantageous to use the IRS's set per-mile rate (which takes depreciation and wear and tear on your vehicle into account) than to deduct just your actual fuel expenses.

If you are traveling with someone else who is not needed for business reasons (for example, your spouse is coming along for company), you may not deduct that person's meals and you may deduct only that portion of lodging expenses that you would have paid had you been traveling alone.

Store records of your travel expenses for at least three years after filing the return related to the year of travel, which is when the statute of limitations for an IRS audit expires. Note that if you under-report your taxable income by 25 percent or more, the IRS can go back up to six years, so keep that in mind if you're claiming a high amount of expenses relative to income.

Record keeping is not fun, but it's a necessary part of conducting a business, whether you're a freelance writer, a racehorse breeder-owner, or running an earthworm farm. Besides sparing you trouble if your expenses are challenged, good, well-organized records are also helpful in proving that you're running your business in a professional manner with the goal of making a profit. Those are reasons enough to take good care of what may otherwise seem a thankless and tedious task.

Book Tours Part II: Setting Your Budget

4/11/2024

Aside from the logistics of planning stops, events, and places to stay, book tours also require the dreaded "B" word---budgeting. That means deciding what you are willing to pay for and how you are going to pay for it. Politicians may have the luxury of forcing current taxpayers and future generations to pay for their extravagances, wishful thinking, and re-election promises, or you may have just inherited a substantial windfall from a rich relative. For the rest of us, a travel budget is necessary.

The starting point of a sound budget is the amount you can afford to spend---preferably without taking on additional debt (seldom wise unless there is a reasonable expectation of getting more of a return on the money spent than the cost of borrowing it). Then back off 10 to 20 percent to give yourself some wiggle room for the inevitable unexpected expenses and for discretionary spending. The remaining figure is what you've got to work with. It will need to cover the following:

1) Books that you will carry with you for direct sales.

2) The cost of promotional materials---bookmarks, social media cards, banners, and so on.

3) Lodging, if you are unable to stay with relatives or friends who are willing to have you visit. "Clean and safe" is the minimum; beyond that, it's up to you as to what amenities are non-negotiable, but the more you want, the more you'll have to spend. Location also factors a lot into costs, so you'll have to decide whether you're willing to drive a few extra miles to save some bucks.

4) Food. Restaurants aren't cheap, especially if you want to eat something healthier than gas-station hot dogs and taquitos. Preparing your own food or buying from supermarket delis can be less expensive but may not always be feasible.

5) Transportation. If you're driving, you'll have to pay for gas or charging stations; if you're flying or traveling by bus or train, you'll need tickets and money to cover any baggage fees. If you're using some form of public transportation between cities, don't forget about the cost of local transportation once you get into town.

6) Personal expenses for hygiene items, first aid supplies, your other must-haves, and things you forgot (there will always be something).

7) Any necessary fees for registrations or admissions to events and venues.

Travel expenses aren't always 100 percent under your control, but the more you plan ahead and do your homework on researching costs, the fewer unpleasant surprises you're likely to get. Prepaying for things like hotel rooms in advance guarantees that you'll have them when needed and can often save you money, but usually at the price of flexibility for last-minute changes.

Making a budget and sticking with it isn't much fun, but finding yourself up to your eyeballs in extra bills and debts after your trip is even less fun. Pick your poison.

Book Tours

4/4/2024

Among the many parts of a writer's life that can be both headaches and delights are trips to promote books. The fun parts are meeting fans and friends and seeing new places. The tough parts are putting schedules together, financing the trip, deciding how much of your own stock to carry, and the wear-and-tear of being on the road (or in the not-so-friendly skies).

Schedules, particularly, are a balancing act. Too little to do during the course of a trip, and it may be hardly worth the making; too much, and you risk running yourself to exhaustion and opening yourself up to conflicts caused by overcommitment. You have to know your own endurance and energy level and plan accordingly. If you're traveling to an area you don't know well and won't have a local with you to help steer you around, err on the side of undercommitting yourself rather than overcommitting; you'll probably need extra time built in for the inevitable communications miscues, travel delays, and problems in finding the target locations.

If you're lucky enough to have a marketing contact assigned to you from your publishing house, treat that person well, because he or she can make your trip a lot easier or a lot harder. Marketing people can sometimes dig up opportunities for you through in-house contacts that you would have a lot of trouble arranging for yourself, especially when you let your marketer know well in advance when you plan to be traveling in a given area. (By the way, one thing that should be taken into account when planning the timing of a trip should be natural hooks into your topic or theme---if there's a festival or major event related to your book's topic or even mentioned in your book, for instance. Built-in hooks like that increase the potential interest and audience.) If you find a possibility that looks interesting---say, giving a talk at a museum or library---let your marketer know as soon as you can so that you'll be working together instead of at cross-purposes. Open communications are absolutely necessary; if you and your marketer aren't honest with each other about the limitations and capabilities on each side, neither of you will have a good time.

Marketing contacts perform another valuable service, that of making sure that books are made available for signing at your stops. Not every place you schedule will have its own bookstore or a gift shop through which your work can be sold, but getting as many places lined up as possible for which you don't have to carry your own inventory will make your life a lot easier. For sales you make from personal inventory, don't forget that you'll have to keep records of how much you paid for your stock and records of your sales, and that you will be responsible for collection and submission of any applicable sales taxes.

Book festivals that fit into your trips are excellent places to network with fellow authors and industry professionals and to meet fans. When looking at possible festival stops, don't overlook possible cross-genre opportunities. For example, Fred Kray, author of Broken: The Suspicious Death of Alydar and the End of Horse Racing's Golden Age, successfully marketed his book at venues attracting fans of the true crime genre as well as "horsy" people. Consider the possibilities at local historical societies, festivals, or celebrations related to people or places in your books. Your goal is to put your book out in front of as many potentially interested people as possible.

Don't overlook that trips are expensive, so you do want to get "bang for your buck"---just don't get penny-wise and pound-foolish. More on that next week.

When the Muse Is on Vacation

3/21/2024

No matter how disciplined you push yourself to be as a writer, there are days when your level of inspiration is absolutely nil. These are the days in which you either can't force yourself to the keyboard at all or in which you delete everything you write the instant you pause long enough to reread it. So, what do you do when you can scrape up neither inspiration nor any desire to write?

If you've been plugging away for days on end, you may need to just give yourself a break. Whether you are religious or not, there is great wisdom in the biblical injunction to rest one day in seven. We are human beings, not human doings, and we need time to just be---to worship, to spend time with loved ones, to take a walk, to feel the wind in our hair, to stop and smell the flowers. It's wiser to take time to come apart into a space outside your work than to push yourself to the point that you just plain come apart.

Let's say, though, that you have built some sensible space into your schedule, you're giving yourself a reasonable amount of R&R, and the Muse still refuses to come back to work with you. What then?

Only you know yourself, and for some folks, pushing through to write even though you don't feel particularly inspired may be best. Otherwise, this may be a good day to take care of other writing-related tasks so that you still feel as though you've made some progress in your writing life if not on your manuscript. That may mean sending or answering emails related to your writing work, doing some research on your topic, or taking some time to review materials or media related to the craft of writing. It might even mean putting your current manuscript aside and writing down some ideas for future projects. Sometimes it helps to be able to swap back and forth between different manuscripts so that when you're stalled on one, you can work on the other for a bit; a strategy that isn't always the most efficient but does keep you in the habit of writing.

Don't overlook taking time to read, either. Most writers have at least at some point been voracious readers, but it's easy to put reading new things aside when you're up to your eyeballs with trying to get a piece of your own writing completed. Nonetheless, setting aside time---even a few minutes a day---to read something new exposes you to new ideas, writing styles, and ways of presenting material. And you never know when your reading may provide a spark that relights your own flame. If you've got someone in your life with whom you can discuss your writing freely, count yourself blessed and take time to be with that person or persons as well; you and your friends may not be the equivalent of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Inklings, but you all may well be better for your times together nonetheless.

Sooner or later, if all else fails, you will simply have to sit down and write, however you may feel about it; when you're in danger of letting days away from writing slip into weeks and months, it's either sit down and work or risk losing any taste for writing at all. All disciplines have times when they just aren't fun, and the will to push ahead in the absence of immediate satisfaction is often the difference between mediocrity and the level of mastery that brings fresh joy to its craft. Nonetheless, knowing when and how to give yourself some space is also part of the art of writing.