by Bill Harper on March 11, 2010
Here are two words that should never be used together: “lunchtime” and “meeting”.
A couple of our organisation’s senior executives visited our office today, and so we had to schedule a series of obligatory meetings with them.
The first started at eleven, and we all walked in with absolutely no idea what the meeting was about. This happens quite often where I work: a meeting’s scheduled, and we’re all expected to be there, but there isn’t even a hint about what it’s about. It’s as if they’re being deliberately vague to make it more interesting. You can almost hear the voiceover guy in the movie trailers saying, “What will they be talking about today in the Mystery Meeting? There’s only one way to find out”.
Unfortunately these meetings never quite live up to the hype, and this one was no exception. They started talking about stuff I already knew, and finished off with stuff I didn’t need to know.
From there we went straight into the lunchtime meeting. This meeting was much better because we got to ask them all sorts of interesting questions…
Okay, so I lied. This meeting was better because they supplied lunch, and the food was actually pretty good. We did get to ask questions, but they either didn’t concern me, didn’t interest me, or I didn’t like the answers.
For a while I actually felt myself slipping out of my good mood, especially when I looked out the window at the Brisbane River just a short walk away. I wanted nothing more than to take a relaxing stroll along for shoreline in the sun, but instead I was stuck in an office building under fluorescent lighting.
For some reason people think it’s okay to take away our lunch hour if they supply food. I’m sorry, but I do a lot more with my lunch hour than just eat. It’s my chance to escape—sometimes with a book, but usually with a walk. It’s a chance to remind myself what it feels like to be free, and not a corporate desk jockey.
So please, no more lunchtime meetings. I really do have better things to do.
(Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I still have the spring in my step.)
by Bill Harper on March 10, 2010
Remember when you hired a video and sat through all those trailers for other movies? Of course you don’t. You hit the fast-forward button like everyone else, only bothering to press play if something looked interesting (or if, miracle of miracles, the movie actually started). That’s the real reason they invented DVDs and Bly-Ray—to stop you skipping through the previews.
Anyway, you’ll know these trailers help “sell” a movie. (Hands up everyone who hired a movie after seeing one, only to realise the trailer showed the only good bits in the entire movie. Yeah, me too.) Well now they’re doing the same for books. That’s right: you can now watch a trailer for a book.
Now I don’t have a problem with the author appearing on screen and telling people how good their book is and why you should buy it. It’s always nice to meet the person behind the words, as Joanna Penn wrote in a recent article.
But for the love of whatever deity you happen to believe in, don’t dramatise the book.
A week or so ago I found out Gerry Boyle is writing another book in the Jack McMorrow series. Now I love that series, and so when I found out I went straight to his web site to find out more. And what did I find? A book trailer.
I clicked ‘play’, hoping to hear from Gerry himself. But then I saw what I presume were scenes from the book, and immediately hit the ‘back’ button.
This will be the ninth book in the series. I’ve read the other eight, and so I have a pretty clear picture in my mind about what everything (and everyone) looks like. Stephen King came up with the perfect name for it: skull cinema. So the last thing I need is to have someone telling me, “Actually, this is what it really looks like. Sorry, but you’ve had it wrong the whole time.”
It’s bad enough when you see a movie based on a book and everything’s different to how you imagined it. I don’t want the same thing happening before I even open the book.
So for those of you who think a video trailer is the perfect way to sell your book, think again. Some of like making up our own images of what everything looks like.
After all, it’s probably why we’re reading the book in the first place.
