Well,
We’ve reached the deadline for the second round of contest entries. Last time we had three. This time, it looks like we’ll have none. In other words, our basic strategy of relying on contest entries for content that we will publish needs to be revisited. So, we are planning to become a more “traditional” online publisher, providing content that people will find so interesting that they’ll pay to download it.
This is very exciting because both Ujjvala and I have written many things over the years. Some have already been published or won awards, many have not. Now we have an opportunity to share them with the world through a venue that we’ve created.
We are also revamping our website again. Thanks to some invaluable feedback from the lovely people at Zona Rosa, we’re going to take the focus off of Obama and politics and make this website much more personal.
So, wish us luck in this latest revamping of Mason-Dixon Publishing, and thanks for your interest and support.
—-Joe
In the Pre-Order box on all our web pages, you will now notice that you can read excerpts from some of the entries for our first contest. This is significant for us because it marks the very first time that we are fulfilling the basic function of a publisher—printing the works of our contributors in a form that others can see. I know we’re still a long way from publishing our first book, but we can finally say that we’ve published something. If you’ll read the excerpts, you’ll see that both Monique and Adam have very different styles, but they both manage to capture the intense excitement of Inauguration Day, 2009. I can’t wait until we print their entire essays in our book, so that you can read them, too!
Well, one thing that has changed in my life as a result of Barack Obama’s presidency has been a return to the anti-nuclear activism of my youth. I’ve been opposed to nuclear power since my high school days. However, over the last 20 years nuclear power has been on a slow, natural decline as old plants broke down and the horrible economics and fantastic liabilities of nuclear power prevented new plants from being built. So, something of an uneasy truce has been in place while anti-nuclear activists have waited for nuclear to die a “natural” death. Obama changed all that with one speech, promising billions in “loan guarantees” to nuclear power. However, he withheld the information that the taxpayers are also making the loans through the federal finance bank. This is typical of the half-truths and deceptions of the nuclear industry. So, I mustered up a pretty good “Obama” impersonation and made a youtube video, something I never would have dreamed of doing before Obama’s presidency. Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E5dlriYr3g
Well, I just returned from a wonderful visit to Savannah. Ujjvala and I had a very productive time. We also made some important decisions about our next steps with the company, and had time to visit the Savannah Book Fair. It’s heartening to note that even in this “e-world” that we all live in now, face to face interactions are still irreplaceable.
In our discussions, we realized that a book that focused solely on Barack Obama’s Inauguration is too limited to be successful. Now that he has actually been in power for a year, people’s impressions of that day are being reshaped by their continuing experiences with Obama. The Inauguration was about hope. Obama’s actual presidency is turning out to be much more complicated. Some people are seeing their hopes come to life. Others, however, see Obama’s presidency as the realization of their worst fears.
We realized that our book needs to chronicle both the hopes and fears of America. We will have a chapter dealing with the joy of the Inauguration, but we will also take submissions from anyone who feels that their lives have been changed by Obama’s presidency since then. We want real, personal stories, not a list of talking points. We feel that those are the stories people will want to read about today and in the years to come.
So, here we are, a year after Barack Obama’s Inauguration. That event inspired the world, gave hope to a nation, and promised fundamental change at all levels of our society. My own experiences at the Inauguration prompted me to write the account that is posted here in an earlier blog. It also inspired Ujjvala and me to start this publishing company.
Since Obama took office, we liberals who worked the longest and the hardest to get him elected watched with worry as he filled his cabinet with Wall Street insiders, conservative Democrats and even some key Republicans. Then there was irritation as he put off the repeal of Clinton’s “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy. There was also some anger as the Democrats and Obama passed a credit “reform” bill which: didn’t cap interest rates; didn’t restore the bankruptcy laws that used to let you keep your primary residence and one car; didn’t stop predatory lending practices or adjustable rate mortgages; and accelerated the impoverishment of Americans at the hands of the credit card companies. Now there is outrage at a health care bill which will force us to pay huge corporations hundreds of billions of dollars for expensive, inadequate, health insurance while still leaving tens of millions uninsured. This is not the universal and affordable health care candidate Obama promised. On the horizon is an energy bill which offers unlimited federal loan guarantees to build new nuclear power plants. This would cost the nation trillions and burden our descendants with radioactive waste that will cause cancer and birth defects for the next 20,000 years without helping the climate crisis.
At this point, it is important to remember that, as Obama himself said, the campaign victory was never really about him. It was about us. The extraordinary effort that millions of Americans put into the campaign, and the coming together we did as a Nation when he was inaugurated—those were real. The qualities and abilities we credited Barack Obama with may prove to be illusory, but the mass movement that brought him to power was not. America is ready for fundamental change, but in the last year we have learned, again, that change does not come from the top. So, Obama does not have the intention or ability to make the positive changes he promised. That doesn’t let us off the hook. We can’t give up. It’s time to buckle down and work even harder for the kind of change we want. It’s important that we don’t let the feelings and empowerment that we felt on January 20, 2009 disappear. Because we really are powerful. We can and will change the world. What we have learned in the past year is that Barack Obama and the Democrats currently in Congress will not simply change it for us.
Mason-Dixon Publishing’s first year has also been disappointing in some ways. We received a grand total of three paid entries for our “Were you there? Stories from Barack Obama’s Inauguration” contest. Needless to say, everyone who entered won! As it stands now, however, we have spent thousands of dollars and do not have anywhere near enough material to publish a book. I have to admit, that I was very discouraged and almost ready to give up. Ujjvala is the one who gave me renewed hope. She is insisting that we push ahead and publish our book. We have learned many valuable lessons. We now have experience with advertising and some idea of what works and what doesn’t. We have a fully functional website that is professionally maintained, and we know that our basic business model can function, with some adjustments. Based on feedback we’ve gotten, we’re going to open the contest to a much broader range of people, charge less for the entry fee, and offer more in prize money. I’m going to make the trip down to Savannah in February so we can talk over the details in person.
So, one year later, we learn that our personal relationships are really the key to success in life. We have to give each other hope and the courage to carry on and keep fighting because those essential emotions won’t be given to us in a real and lasting way by any politician or celebrity.
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Click here to see excerpts from submissions that have already won and will be included in the book.