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Re: Fwd: The End As We Know It


Nancy and others wanting to dive into Twitter: Forget "Twitter for Dummies" 
 Get "The Twitterbook" MUCH better written, easy-to-read and lighter to 
carry!  Here is a link: _http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596802820_ 
(http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596802820)  
 

Sincerely,
Kathy Jentz
Editor/Publisher
Washington  Gardener Magazine
826 Philadelphia Ave.
Silver Spring MD  20910
301-588-6894
WGardenermag@aol.com
_www.WashingtonGardener.com_ (http://www.washingtongardener.com/) 

Follow  us on:
_http://twitter.com/WDCGardener_ (http://twitter.com/WDCGardener) 
washingtongardener.blogspot.com

Our  mission: to help your Washington, DC, area garden grow better!
Subscribe  today for $20 a year by sending a check to the address above.
The magazine  makes a great gift for gardening friends!

* Help save paper - do you need  to print this email? *  

 
In a message dated 12/18/2009 3:53:07 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
szerlag@earthlink.net writes:

Whether  you make your entire living by garden writing and programs or  
use  the proceeds to supplement your income doesn't change the facts.  
Nor  does the fact you don't want to change and as Doug says create new   
channels. The train is coming down the track folks and we can't stop  it.

My weekly column runs in both of the Michigan major  daily  
newspapers. It does not  pay well, but helps generate  income from  
speaker's fees. I will do more then a dozen in March and  April, my  
really busy time,  at four of the largest garden  centers in Metro  
Detroit for which I am well paid.  I also do  an occasional magazine  
article and this fall I participated in an  infomercial for the Works  
Tri Vac. You may have seen it. My nephew  caught it on TV while  
vacationing in Mexico over Thanksgiving - What  a hoot!  While I was  
not paid residuals or a talent fee,   I was given a small stipend for  
time and expenses. I had to fly to  North Carolina to tape the piece. I  
got my 15 seconds of fame and it  has also added to my promotion  
platform so it was worth the time and  effort as far as I am  
concerned.  To date I am able to generate  about 35 percent of my  
income from my garden writing endeavours.  It's not a king's ransom -  
my social security and a small pension  from my late husband pretty  
much covers my expenses, so my GW income  is gravy. It pays for my  
"electronics" , garden writers symposium,  bi-annual trips to England -  
I'm signed up for Donna Dawson's Garden  Writers trip in July,  lots of  
soil amendments, fun stuff for  my kids and grandchild :-)

That said, I do not feel I can sit on my  laurels because as we all  
know, newspapers are dying. I estimate my  column will be good for  
another three years and then who knows? I  generate lots of attendance  
for my talks through my columns - some  venues pull in over 200  
attendees, but if the column goes, so goes  my speaker's fees.  So I'm  
banking my future is online. And  though it may take a year or more to  
direct my readers there, I must  take advantage of the platform I have  
in place.

So I am  taking an active part on partner Jeff Ball's website, and we  
are  hitting the ground running on my blog. I also plan to start   
Twittering after Christmas. Jeff's website, www.yardener.com has  been  
around for several years and is established, but after crash  and burn  
on blogspot my blog is starting from scratch. To my  surprise I've been  
getting 20 to 25 hits a day, 35 or so on weekend  this past month. When  
my other blog crashed we were up to 3 to 4  hundred hits a week.

While the money is important to me, I cannot  imagine my life without  
my garden writing career. When my beloved  husband of 35 years died  
suddenly of a stroke a little over a decade  ago,  my career saved my  
life. Doing an infomercial at the ripe  old age of 68 was a real kick.  
And, I got rave reviews from the  producer and the folks at Positec.

Don't think for a minute this  internet thing is easy for me, it's not.  
I am spastic when it comes  to computers, and screw things up all the  
time. In order to be  successful, I have had to upgrade my computer and  
every time I  change equipment all hell breaks loose.  I could stick my  
head  in the sand and hope for the best, but then what? When I get   
discouraged I think back to the time my late husband, the art  director  
of the marketing department at the Detroit Free Press, told  his  
graphic artists he would be training them to do all thier  graphics on  
the  Mac, and in six months their boards and  t-squares would be gone.  
Talk about panic and an uphill climb.   Back then the programs were  
tough to learn and took lots of  practice. Today everyone does graphics  
with no training. Of course  that does not make them good, but I digress.

Jeff just bought copies of  the latest Facebook and Twitter for  
Dummies. I was appalled at the  thickness. Can't anything be easy any  
more? Guess not.  When I  bought my Mac mini I paid $100 for a years  
coaching by the store  wizards. We bring our computer with us and they  
give us an hour  walking through what every problem we have. We have to  
make an  appointment online. One guy used his time to do a presentation  
that  ended up getting him a new job. Because you send your subject in   
ahead of time you are assigned someone who knows the program etc.   
There is no limit to number of time you use it.  I'm sure there  are  
postings for computer coaches at local colleges and libraries.  I'm  
trying to view all this as anew adventure. The good news is,with  the  
internet, the world is my oyster and I just need to learn how to  crack  
it.
Happy Holidays however you spend it.

Nancy  Szerlag
Columnist for Detroit News
szerlag@earthlink.net
Check blog  at  http://nancysgarden.wordpress.com



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Send photos for GWL to gwlphotos@hort.net to be posted
at: http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos

Post gardening questions/threads to
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For GWL website and Wiki, go to
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