Sage's Desk

My promotional efforts for Aqua Vitae have included producing a set of gorgeous bookmarks with information about the novel. I've been aided with the design expertise of a friend, and it's been an interesting learning experience.

Following the advice of this article, we uploaded our design onto Vistaprint, actually making postcards rather than bookmarks (does VistaPrint even have a bookmark option? I don't remember seeing it.) Each postcard featured the bookmark pattern twice, so I then had to use the library guillotine* to cut them to size.

I'm satisfied with the finished product, and for writers (or anyone, really) wishing to do the same, I have only a few additions to the advice contained in the above linked post. 

First, I cannot stress enough, be sure to get a VistaPrint discount. You could get it offline, or you could subscribe to their mailing list, or you could borrow a code from your friend. But get one, because VistaPrint prices add up very quickly--they charge, so far as I can tell, for each subset of a service. The finished bookmarks are gorgeous, but printing them in color on both front and back added at least a dozen dollars to my order. I'd suggest you find a coupon that takes a large chunk off your total order for that reason (rather than getting individual services for free or at a reduced price--you'd still have to pay for the other services).

Remember to orient the images on the postcard the way the article shows you! My friend and I followed the instructions and the bookmarks turned out fine. Otherwise they'd have been printed upside down.

Be careful how you cut the postcards. You get two to four bookmarks to each postcard, and it can be tempting to cut many at one time so cut short the amount of time you'll spend at the guillotine (it took me half an hour to cut 200 postcards, give or take). However, you really should only cut one postcard at a time--the glossy paper stock on the postcards doesn't cut easily in a thick stack. I lost some bookmarks trying. Also, I'd advise cutting with the glossy-side of the postcards facing down, although you may wish to experiment on your own. This was a library paper cutter with an old blade that I was using, and sharper ones may be able to manage more.

Lastly, when designing the image to upload on VistaPrint, add very generous margins. You'll need them to cut out the finished product. Also, VistaPrint's printing may leave some blank slivers on the edges of the cards. You can decide whether they're worth trimming off if they occur.

Also, the prices per card drop drastically as you make larger and larger orders. If I run through this batch of bookmarks, I'll order more and more of them.

There ya go! Sage's advice on how to make promotional bookmarks using VistaPrint. Oh, it also helps if you get a design wizard to help create them. Have I mentioned how gorgeous mine are?

*Aka the choppy paper-cutter things. If guillotine is not the real word for them, I don't want to use the real word, because saying I've used a guillotine sounds too cool. I am a grown-up.

If you want to win a copy of Aqua Vitae, it's your lucky weekend! I've posted giveaways on both Goodreads and Library Thing.

You can enter the Goodreads giveaway here.

And LibraryThing here.

That is, Aqua Vitae is at last available on Amazon.com.

It also has garnered a rather nice four-star review.

This winter break is going by in a blur of promotional activities and short story writing, editing, and submitting. It's a whirlwind, but I don't mind. 2011 was not a particularly kind year to me (was it to anybody?), and I'd as soon bury it beneath some gems from 2012. The boyfriend's down from Stevens Point and will be until I drive him back on the 8th, and this weekend will also include some activities for the two volunteer programs I've signed up for--one is the VITA tax prep program, another is with the local fair trade shop and education center in Waukesha. I still have two weeks until school starts in which to juggle writing, friends, and volunteer activities. For now, at least, I feel pretty good.

as T. Arkenberg. Friends are welcome!

Sorry about that. Though if you look at my twitter (@tarkenberg --or better yet, my Tumblr, which my twitter mostly feeds from) you can see it's not that I'm allergic to social networking platforms, per se. I just find it easier to join conversations someone else has already started, by reblogging or retweeting or what have you, than sit in front of a blank screen and just...talk.

( And talk I will! )

Kiva's new promotion is extremely well-timed. If you follow the link below, you'll be able to make your first $25 loan through Kiva for free! if you've been considering joining, I hope this will make the decision easier for you.

http://kiva.org/invitedby/theresearkenberg

This is the first section of the rough draft of my paper, part of a philosophical research project undertaken this summer to determine the extent of our obligations towards the poor worldwide. In light of these facts, what do you think our obligations to end poverty are? (That's not a rhetorical question; I'd love to discuss any or all of these points with anyone who's interested.)

Additional notes and citations appear at the bottom of this post.

1. The Problem of Poverty
More than three billion people, almost half the world’s population, live below the World Bank’s poverty line of $2.50 US per capita consumption per day. The poorest half of the world’s adults hold 1.1% of global wealth1. The extremely poor, those living under $1 US per day, number one billion 2 and die at a rate of 18 million a year3. One billion human beings are chronically undernourished, 2.5 billion lack access to proper sanitation and 2 billion lack access to essential drugs. This leaves them vulnerable to and unable to treat diseases like malaria, pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrhea, childhood illnesses, and AIDS. They lack the savings and resources to cushion misfortunes caused by natural disasters, civil war, or accidents. There are 218 million child laborers in the world, 8 million of them working as slaves or bonded laborers, child soldiers, or prostitutes4.
Those living in these appalling* circumstances are unable to escape them; with barely enough income to survive on, they are unable to save or invest, to maintain necessary infrastructure or capital for economic growth, or to compensate for disadvantages caused by poor and worsening climate, cultural barriers against race, religion, or sex, and international trade sanctions5. This is what development expert Jeffery Sachs calls a poverty trap: the state of extreme poverty itself leaves the poor unable to achieve economic growth without outside help.
Despite this, it is possible for the severe poverty that is the normal state of half of humanity to be ended. The collective shortfall of the 3 billion people living below the poverty line is only 2% of global household income, of which the top decile (tenth) of the world population earns 71.1%. As it is, 0.33% of US Gross National Income is committed to official development aid, out of a promised 0.7% 6. Those who believe it is the responsibility of the poor to raise themselves out of poverty will be gratified to know that remittances earned by foreign workers in developed countries and sent home amount to three times as much as foreign aid7.

1. Politics as Usual, Thomas Pogge, page 13
2. The End of Poverty, Jeffery Sachs, page 19
3. Politics as Usual, 11
4. Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right, edited by Thomas Pogge, page 13.
*I debated using an emotionally charged adjective here, but in the previous paragraph I just mentioned dying of diarrhea and living as a child prostitute, I think ‘appalling’ is an acceptable word choice.
5. The End of Poverty pages 57-61
6. Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right, page 27. To rephrase, this is one-third of one percent out of a promised seven-tenths of one percent.
Poverty.com offers this template (http://www.poverty.com/printletter.html) for a letter to your government encouraging it to take concrete steps to reach the promised 0.7% aid goal.
7. Globalizing Justice, by Richard W. Miller, page 79.

I'm just hyperexcited.

Okay, so I got my first royalty payment in my PayPal account today (for a short story published under my penname). Okay. *deep breaths* *OMGI’MRICHI’MRICH*

Well, not rich, but that was a pleasant chunk of money.

Some of that money is going into my much-diminished bank account (curse you Amazon.com and your easily accessible, expensive used books!), but the rest is going to a variety of cool charities. I’m listing them here, with my reasons for supporting them, as a sort of signal boost*. They’re all worth taking a look at.

• http://www.kiva.org/, a nonprofit that enables you to provide microloans to entrepreneurs in the developing world through an online account. When the loan is repaid, you can return the money to your PayPal account or use it to make another loan.
• http://www.therandomact.org/wordpress/ Random Acts, which for Supernatural fans needs no introduction. Interestingly, the Donations tab is labeled ‘Buy Our Love.’ So have I just purchased Misha Collins’ love? Sweet.
• http://www.wfp.org/ The World Food Program, in light of the famine devastating the Horn of Africa.
• http://www.proliteracy.org/, for its international programs. Over 700 million adults worldwide are illiterate, and one of the first steps in combating poverty is education, especially the education of women (which among other things slows population growth and encourages gender equality). I wish I could be more poetic on this point, but the facts do speak for themselves.
• http://www.worldreader.org/ has the unique idea of provided solar-powered ebooks to readers in developing countries.
• https://gftw.org/ Gleaning for the World, a 5-star charity on Charity Navigator that provides surplus supplies and equipment to humanitarian organizations.
• Lastly, http://www.worldwildlife.org/home-full.html The World Wildelife fund, because ecosystems are precious and all the cutest animals are endangered. Yes, that’s basically my reasoning. A good long look at a red panda should convert you to it.

*In the interests of honesty, the amounts I’ve donated to each individual charity are tiny. I’m not a saint and I’m not rolling in riches, satisfied childishly excited as the royalty payment as made me. I’m hoping I might be able to magnify the effect of my own tiny donations by encouraging others to support these charities as well.

Part one and part two.

 

 

( I've been trying to find a word all day. A big word. Complicated.  )

 

 

Part One and Disclaimer, etc here

 

( The candy wrappers did indeed make Dean angry.  )