Getting back to the blogosphere

So much has been happening in the world… The horrible killing of Qadhafi; an earthquake in Turkey (preceded by an upsurge in PKK-Turkish violence); some great-looking elections in Tunisia; continued strife in Syria; the Hamas-Israel prisoner exchange, etc etc…
But for the past few weeks, I’ve been almost completely consumed with the nuts and bolts of running Just World Books. Yikes!
On the assumption that I still have some readers here at JWN, I just want to put in a really heartfelt plea that you all do whatever you can to support the book company. I would love to find a better work/life/blog balance. But as of now, I have to spend a massive amount of time worrying about JWB’s bottom line and how to turn it around.
Do whatever you can to help, please!
You can buy individual books from our growing list. We now offer a growing number of titles as ebooks, as well as in paperback form… Or you could buy a small stack of books, to give them away as holiday gifts. (If you’re buying more than five, contact me to learn the discounts we give on bulk sales.)
In addition, you could urge your local bookstore to stock some of our titles; or press your college or community library to buy some of them… Or, write a good review someplace and generally recommend the books to friends, etc, etc…
Okay, please think really seriously if there’s anything you can do to support JWB…
So then… I have been developing a little plan for transitioning back into refinding my blogging voice. Sometimes, it’s hard. Very often, the longer I go without blogging here, the harder it is to get back into it… and I see that now, it’s been really quite a while. So my plan has been this. First, today, I went to an event at the Brookings Institution on Turkey, where Soli Ozel (one of the contributors to JWB’s super latest book, Troubled Triangle: The United States, Turkey, and Israel in the New Middle East) was speaking.
Rather than blog that, I tweeted it… then I compiled a Chirpstory out of the tweets. (Okay, I know some of you don’t like it when I tweet. Deal with it. For me, it’s a good warm-up exercise for getting back to blogging.)
Step 2 is I’m planning to do a longer blogged think-piece on the Arab Spring at nine months… And then, after that, I have a couple of ideas for other serious blog posts, as well.
But for the present blog post, I want to leave you with the idea that there are things you could do that would really help Just World Books… Which is worth doing because the company does already have some fabulous books… because we have plans for other great ones* in the coming months… and because if JWB’s finances get healthier that will help me regain some good balance in my life, including regaining my blogging voice…
Thanks!!!
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* Other great books we have in the coming months include:
— A book by Issandr El-Amrani of ‘The Arabist’ that traces the roots of Egypt and Tunsia’s democracy movement(s) through six years worth of tracking them closely on the ground, and
— A reflection by Israeli-American activist Miko Peled on the intriguing personal journey he has made to being an advocate for a one-state solution.
(and much more!)