Vancouver author, poet, songwriter Bill Arnott is the national bestselling author of Gone Viking: A Travel Saga (WIBA Book Awards Finalist and ABF International Book Awards Finalist). His work is published in literary journals and anthologies in Canada, the US, UK, Europe, Asia and Australia and his column Bill Arnott’s Beat is a feature at New Reader Magazine, Canadian Authors Association, The Miramichi Reader, Federation of BC Writers, and League of Canadian Poets. Bill’s been awarded for prose, poetry, songwriting and performed at hundreds of events internationally. He’s a Director on numerous Boards, Writer-in-Residence, creator of Bill’s Artist Showcase, and for his eight year Gone Viking trek has been awarded a Fellowship at London’s Royal Geographical Society. @billarnott_aps | https://billarnottaps.wordpress.com/
The Essentials of Ads and Promo Here’s something you might know. If not, let me share. For some time, we’ve needed to see an ad multiple times before it resonated—stuck—sufficiently looping in our headspace to motivate us to act, in other words driving us to actually purchase the item being promoted. In the earliest days …
Writers, whether you know it or not, you’re a business owner. Specifically, an entrepreneur. The sooner you acknowledge and embrace this, the better. And the easier it’ll be to promote and sell books.
Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the …
Unexpected beauty. In a highrise, surrounded by a sky-scraping copse of towers, nature abounds. Gulls soar, fixed-wing on thermals pumped from rooftop HVACs. Summer settles into place, reluctantly, with every shade of green—Irish hues in streetscapes, courtyards, boulevards—while deciduous and conifers sprout tender shoots begging to be brewed in campsite tea. From my concrete aerie …
First time I showed up at an open mic I was the only one there. It was a Vancouver pub. (Still is, I suppose.) I had my Seagull six-string acoustic (no pickup), both the guitar and I showing our age. In all fairness to the organizers, there was no reason for anyone to be there. …
Ratios are a simple, effective way to quantify your effort as a writer. And if your primary goal is getting published, knowing your ratios is essential.
Six years later, with my pet Steve-the-African-tree-frog, I headed off to grad school, a four-thousand-kilometre drive. Late on the third day, I was stopped for speeding. It was starless dark and the officer used a flashlight to approach our car. I had my license out. Steve was on the dash in his Mason jar. The …
Fifteen years ago Wonderful Magical Words, my first book, was published, raising twenty grand for Make-A-Wish Foundation, for which I’m eternally grateful. Here’s a passage I hope you enjoy, The Story of Steve … “How long do they live?” they’d ask. To which I’d shrug. I imagined Steve would be part of my life as …
You may not know it but if you’re a writer, you’re an entrepreneur. Whether you publish traditionally or self-publish you’re a business owner, and every business-owning entrepreneur needs to create and promote their brand along with knowing their market. Marketing can be a complex field from finding a local seo agency to possibly help with …
Career Experience Part Four finds Bill Arnott, still in high school, but he needs to critique a ZZ Top concert for his creative writing class.
Part Three: Reporting LIVE One of my first typewritten scoops took place at my friend Clayton’s. It was Christmas holiday, grade one. And my first sleepover. Mom packed me a large suitcase and a canvas duffel – clothing for a family for a week, for my fourteen hours out of the house. I believe there …
Part Two: The Big League (To be continued …) In case you missed Part One, you can find it hereabouts.
Like me, Ringo Starr’s never measured pie in pieces. There’s no bigger piece of the pie, simply endless ingredients for limitless pie. This kind of collaboration’s evident in a number of libraries that offer writers opportunities to showcase their craft, reading from both published and unpublished work. At the Vancouver Public Library (VPL) it was …
Something happened when I hit middle age. A knock at the door, someone holding a clipboard, explaining I was required to start using social media – Facebook being a necessity along with nighttime peeing and early suppers. (Not that a clipboard-toting official actually came to call, but I did have a friend strong-arm me into …
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Nicholas Selig, Editor-in-Chief
