Archive for August, 2013


Trouble for the Cabo Blanco Fishing Club in 1956

 

The Cabo Blanco Fishing Club was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1956, but there was more to the story than anyone expected...

The Cabo Blanco Fishing Club was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1956, but there was more to the story than anyone expected…

Colonel C. J. Tippett was not only the Director of the South American Office of the International Civil Aviation Organization in 1956, he was also the club manager for the Cabo Blanco Fishing Club, off the coast of Peru.

The Cabo Blanco Fishing Club was the hottest big game sportfishing location in the world at that time, and celebrity anglers were pulling record-setting hook and line catches in astonishing numbers.

This activity attracted the attention of Sports Illustrated, and the magazine sent out a writer to do an article on the wonders of black marlin fishing on Marlin Boulevard. But the article didn’t represent The Club in quite the way the members had expected, some of whom were affiliated with the magazine’s leadership.

On March 19, 1956, the headline “The Fabulous Cabo Blanco Club – In Color” blazed from the cover of Sports Illustrated. It pictured Alfred C. Glassell Jr. with one of his many black marlin catches on the dock at Cabo Blanco. Tip’s happy anticipation in reading the article, mailed to him from New York City, quickly turned to unease as the author began to systematically bash the Club’s exclusive policies.

Tip and The Club’s leadership were tasked with damage control on the fallout from the article. The incident is described in detail in Chapter 17 of “When No One Else Would Fly“, the aviation biography of Colonel Tippett.

Tip wrote a telegram regarding his action on the article:

“KIP FARRINGTON. EAST HAMPTON, N.Y.

I HAVE WRITTEN HENRY AND YOURSELF A LETTER AIRMAILED YESTERDAY STOP.

SITUATION SERIOUS BUT CAN HANDLE STOP. REGARDS TIPPETT”

The full story, in the book, is now available on Amazon.com.

Should I Self Publish My Book or Continue To Submit To Traditional Publishers?

HowToTurnYourBlogIntoABookThis is a question I have blogged about alot – because it comes up in discussion alot.

It’s a big decision, and weighs heavily on authors wanting to get their work out.

I’ve thought about this as I’ve self published my own books – and continued to submit them to traditional publishers.

I’ve finally come up with a short answer to this long question.

If you can wait to see your work published, then definitely continue to submit to traditional publishers.

Set a schedule, set a number of publishers to submit to, create a good book proposal, and stay with it until your time, and list, is up. I

f you don’t get a response, consider the issue again and once again, see if you can wait.

Because ultimately, a traditional publisher can provide us with a team of people who can get our books to places we can’t get on our own. Because we are writers, and publishing is a full time business on its own and keeps us from our writing.

But if you can’t wait to publish your work – for instance, if you know you could be making money right now because it is a niche book with a niche market that you can reach on your own, then go ahead and do it.

Do it well, and carefully, and thoughtfully and strive for the editorial and presentation standards set by traditional publishers.

And continue to submit to traditional publishers, with the understanding that they probably won’t be interested until you can show significant sales.

Because, again, ultimately, we want to keep writing – and publishing work takes us away from that, even as it gets our books into our reader’s hands, which is, after all, the point.

 

Famous People Who Met My Grandfather, Colonel C. J. Tippett… Roscoe Turner

Roscoe Turner was a self-made pilot, race car expert, and commercial airline founder. He met Tip in 1955.

Roscoe Turner was a self-made pilot, race car expert, and commercial airline founder. He met Tip in 1955.

Continuing one of my favorite blog series that support my book “When No One Else Would Fly“, the aviation pioneering biography of Colonel C. J. Tippett… I introduce Roscoe Turner.

Roscoe Turner was a self-taught automobile mechanic who fell in love with flying but was prevented from joining pilots in the sky by his lack of education and connections. He persevered throughout WWI and bought his own barnstormer at the end of the war. Turner made his way up in civil aviation, by flight racing and stunt flying. He built himself a name and place in commercial flight through his own efforts.

His speed racing set flight records and he caught the attention of the Gilmore Oil Company, which would one day be absorbed into the Mobil Oil Company. The Gilmore Oil Company’s logo contained a lion, and so, as a publicity stunt, the company gave Roscoe Turner a lion cub to fly with – and he did. Roscoe and Gilmore, the lion cub, flew all over the United States until the cub grew into a lion and became a flight hazard in the cockpit. Gilmore stayed on the ground, and Roscoe grew in fame and set up training programs during WWII.

Roscoe Turner was 60 years old when he traded letters with Tip in 1955, discussing a commercial aviation opportunity in South American aviation – when Tip was the Director of the South American Office of the International Civil Aviation Organization. They enjoyed a friendship and professional connection, as well as similarities in their aviation backgrounds. Turner expressed admiration, and some envy, over Tip’s transition from conventional to jet aircraft as Tip qualified in the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star.

Read more about Tip’s aviation life in “When No One Else Would Fly” now available on Amazon.com.

Self Published Authors Still Need To Do A Book Proposal

The Horned Lizard of Self Publishing, who is proud of her new tat, strongly recommends you read the Terms Of Service when you are self publishing a book.

The Horned Lizard of Self Publishing, who is proud of her new tat, strongly recommends you read the Terms Of Service when you are self publishing a book.

As I get ready to release my “How To” series on How To Self Publish A Book, I want to emphasis the need for self published authors to produce fully developed book proposals of their writing projects before they embark on the self publishing process.

Usually, book proposals are needed for the process of traditional submission – and each agent or publisher usually has a set of submission guidelines on their website. Book proposals require us, as authors, to do a deep dive into the subject matter of our book, target audience, competitive titles, and to form at least a basic marketing plan.

All of this information is critically important to us as self publishers – and makes it clear that, as self publishers, we are actually not that different from traditional publishers. If you don’t consider budget, staff, industry connections, and public relations reach.

One of my “How To” books is all about creating the book proposal, and the rest of the series, both the actions of self publishing and marketing, all refer to the materials you would have created during the book proposal process, so it is pretty integral to the process.

Self publishing a book is not a shortcut to getting published. Doing it properly, doing it well, means taking the same road to publication as a traditionally published author, only walking it ourselves – instead of riding in an auto, and the road is not paved, and often doesn’t tour through major centers of population.

Of course, you can self publish a book without any of this annoying follow through. There are no actual barriers to just accepting an ISBN from the Print On Demand service and putting up a roughly formatted manuscript. But that is not the kind of self publishing I am talking about – so I’ll act as if that’s not even an option in our author’s world.

 

Colonel C. J. Tippett and the Locust Plague of 1947

Colonel C. J. Tippett and Joe Mashman set first in flight records in helicopters in 1947.

Colonel C. J. Tippett and Joe Mashman set first in flight records in helicopters in 1947.

In 1947, Argentina had a problem. An unusual series of winter rains in the northern provinces had triggered a succession of locust plagues.The insect swarms were unmerciful, and Argentina was losing critical grasslands which fed the beef cattle that were the nations most important export.

Pilots in conventional aircraft were trying to combat the locusts, but were failing as engines clogged with the insect’s bodies and lives were being lost. Efforts to fight the locusts from the ground were limited and ineffective.

There was one new aviation technology that came to the forefront at this time – the helicopter. It was the ideal aircraft for fighting the locust plague, and there just happened to be a helicopter manufacturer who was looking for a way to showcase commercial helicopter abilities.

In Chapter 14 of “When No One Else Would Fly“, Tip wrote:

“While I was in New York City, I was called to an office in the State Department and advised that a phone call would be coming through from Mr. Larry Bell, president of the Bell Helicopter Corporation, who wished to speak to me personally. Over the phone, Mr. Bell told me that the Argentine government and the State Department wanted me to be the head of an operation and that it was a most important assignment. The helicopter was the only instrument that could combat the locusts successfully. I advised Mr. Bell that I did not feel qualified to accept the position, as I knew nothing about helicopters, having never seen or flown one. Bell replied that if I would come back to Buffalo, they would teach me all they knew about the machine in a matter of weeks.”

Tip did learn in a matter of weeks, and he joined Joe Mashman, Bell Helicopters primary test pilot, and solved Argentina’s locust problem. Together, they stayed on and formed TAYR, Trabajos Aereos Y Representaciones. Tip and Joe mashman, along with C. W. Wes Moore, set first in flight helicopter records almost every time they took to the air.

Read more about Tip’s helicopter exploits, and more, in “When No One Else Would Fly”, now available on Amazon.com.

 

 

 

Should I Do My Own Self Publishing Or Hire It Out?

Self Publishing Advice Busy Bees

The editors at Writer Beware Blogs have been busy bees gathering important information for us writers.

Every month or so, I take on this question again, because it is one of the most pressing issues in self publishing.

It can be very simple in some cases… do you have the skill and time to do it yourself?

If not, question answered. Set a budget and timeline and start to find a reputable self publishing company that will help you get your book out in the way you want it done. Check the “Writers Beware” site for scams, and make sure you get both a print and eBook .

If you do have the skill, and the time, I strongly encourage you to do it yourself. Software, if you don’t already have it, can be found on the Internet for free or very little money… you don’t have to have InDesign or Word. They make it easier but are not required.

My self publishing advice is slanted toward a specific way of Do It Your Self Publishing. Create your own publishing company, own your own ISBN, and create all the files (except for the cover) yourself. Hire out the editing and the cover, but forge ahead with your own hands otherwise.

And my advice is also skewed to eventually getting into traditional publishing by self publishing great books, building an audience, and continuing to submit to traditional publishers as your book sales grow.

Because doing the self publishing ourselves is a big job, and takes us away from the actual writing. But it gets our books out there, in readers hands, and I believe in that, with all my skill and all my time.

 

 

About the writing of Colonel C. J. Tippett’s biography

Col. C. J. Tippett Rio Party 1943Tip’s story, “When No One Else Would Fly” describes a complicatedly fascinating time in history, when great change provoked extraordinary action by both people and governments. A time when technology and politics deeply affected the personal lives of people in every class and economic level.

The writing of this story has taken place across a twenty- year span of time that has seen an astonishingly similar combination of technological, economic, and political change that has likewise affected the process of researching and producing it.

Colonel C. J.Tippett finished his manuscript in 1990 and I immediately began researching. While I used as much of the Internet as I could, my main resources were libraries, archives, and other books. As the years passed, my web searches yielded more and more valuable and accurate information until, in 2012, I was able to actually sit – by YouTube – in the cockpits of the planes my grandfather flew. I was able to find out things about the people he flew with, and fill in the details surrounding his achievements in ways were impossible even ten years earlier.

I participated in a stunning change in information access and publishing technology that significantly improved the way I could present Tip’s life story. And I’ve been living through an economic and political upheaval that bears some responsibilty for the fact that it took twenty years to produce a readable version.

Tip’s museum-quality archive formed the factual basis for this book and I thank him for both protecting it over the course of his travels and for making it available to me. I am also grateful to all of the people who researched, investigated, archived, organized, collated, posted, scanned, saved, studied, transcribed, listed, wrote, re-wrote, queried, answered posted, chatted, blogged, logged, snipped, photographed, conversed, read, re-read, memorialized, and preserved their knowledge and photographs.

“When No One Else Would Fly” is now available on Amazon.com.

Copyright 2012 Corinne Tippett & The Westchester Press
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