Tuesday, March 28, 2017

4T Olio -- Do you remember 8-track? and why promo drives me nuts

Do you remember 8-track tape? Answer below (no cheating, lol).

Technology has changed substantially over the last 50 years. When we began the twentieth century, we had recording tech for both audio and video, but only barely. There were wax cylinders and vinyl records and photographic plates. The equipment to make these records were expensive. The average person couldn't afford to make their own recordings.

Then came film you could buy at the drugstore--and send out to be developed. Now families could record their most precious moments. But you still had to buy records, either by the album or the single.

Then, in the mid-sixties, suddenly we had magnetic tape and Polaroid self-developing film, and the world changed. For the first time, an audio recording device was within the price range of the middle-class family. You could record anything you wanted, including music off the radio. What a wonder!

Better yet, tape was portable. No needle-scratching just because of a few bumps! Soon tape-playing devices were available in cars. Remember cassettes?

But it didn't stop there. Computers were up and coming, and magnetic and disk technology combined to create data storage on magnetic disks. But we needed to transfer data physically. Soon we had 5 1/4 floppy disks--they really were flexible, which is why they were called floppies. On the heels of floppies came smaller, more indestructible 3 1/2 floppies--no longer floppy but the name stuck.

And then came *gasp* fiber optics and CDs, followed by DVDs. And *gasp-gasp* flash technology that gave us thumb drives--and gave rise to .mp3 players. Data and music were suddenly available in our palm.

Tablets and phones with stunning audio-visual capabilities came history's equivalent of a millisecond later.

So what does all this have to do with promotion?

Simple. As fast as technology has rushed by in the past few decades (does anyone have a floppy drive anymore? I think not), social media and the art of book promotion has changed JUST AS FAST. The things I learned as a new published author DO NOT WORK any more. This is a huge problem for me because, frankly, I like to do a job right the first time and then consider it DONE.

Yeah, I can hear the guffaws out there. LOL. Even I know how ridiculous that is. Because, you know--life happens. No plan survives meeting reality. That sort of thing.

So, this is all a round-about way of posting a couple promo helps that may be obsolete as soon as I suggest them.


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8-track was the alternate cassette format of magnetic tape we used to play music back in the stone age. Sort of like VHS/Betamax.

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