The good news is, every last bleepin’ version of ‘So You Wanna Win a Local Election’ is finally up on Amazon. That means you can purchase:
- The color paperback for $99.95
- The monochrome paperback for $49.95
- The Kindle e-book for $29.95
I’m sure the Pulitzer Committee will be calling me any day now!
The semi-bad news is, if you add up running a fascinating number of current campaigns, getting the ball rolling with some 2021 campaigns, and promoting Forward Communication and the book, I’m a very busy boy! So, starting this week, The First Ward will move from a MWF three columns a week schedule to a Tuesday-Thursday two columns a week schedule.
Though I suppose, depending upon how you look at it, one less weekly column might actually be good news for my “adoring throng” and all those incessantly misbehaving local elected officials.
Rest assured, it’s beyond gratifying that my core readers understand the effort involved in making sure The First Ward is always a quality endeavor, but for most folks, unless you’ve done this for 14 years, you can’t possibly understand how time-consuming real journalism really is.
Even the local papers don’t begin to understand that! And then there are those readers who simply want me to turn over my hard-earned-sources because they firmly believe they’re entitled to them. Yikes!
Please don’t get me wrong! I’m not complaining. I love the fact that my unpaid written endeavors, on occasion, level the playing field. And I can’t tell you how much I enjoy bringing you the stories that only someone with real sources can bring you.
Not to mention that if I didn’t regularly expound on those Kane County and Northern Illinois shenanigans, I’d probably get arrested twice as much as I already have. Trust me! Appeals can get kind of expensive!
The truth is, though I generally LOVE my cut-above-the-rabble regular readers, I write for me and no one else. The best indicator of that dynamic is the 450 or so people I’ve blocked on Facebook. I really should call the World Record folks about that one, shouldn’t I?
It’s not that my writing volume will decrease – I don’t think that’s possible. It’s that I’ll be writing shorter and more instructional political posts that not only call out the ne’er-do-wells, but fold into promoting Forward Communication and the book.
I’ll also be posting more spur-of-the moment shorter stories on topics that move me in real time. The first one will likely be St. Charles closing bars at midnight to limit that heinous COVID-19 contagion. You mean to tell me the virus reacts similarly to feeding gremlins after midnight?
Mayor Rogina will be getting a call in that very regard.
Lastly, I will be adding a “donate” button to the blog. If those absurd Edgar County Watchdogs, who couldn’t spell the word “journalism” can do it, then why not me? Though I’m not a hard-sell kind of guy, if any reader wants to get their business in front of thousands of smarter than average readers, I’m certainly open to that possibility.
Put more simply, as I’ve relentlessly proclaimed for 14.5 years, “Let’s continue the conversation!”
