Tag: Twitter

Here’s Your Sign: Developing A Marketing Plan For A Book To Find An Audience

Posted on by Lo in Publication, Writing

Your Book Is A Roadside Attraction

It says a lot about an area and the people that occupy it when they put up signs like this. Same with websites, social media accounts, and advertising – we can think of each of those things as these weird little signs that can point potential readers in our direction to stop along the road or they’ll drive on past us without a second glance.

If someone interacts with it via a ‘like’? That’s like a snapshot along the highway. It gives us a chance to show up in a friend of their’s feed.

Signs, ads, billboards, gas stations with interesting tourist traps, roadside attractions – if done right all of these will attract a steady stream of individuals that will take the time to stop for a while and be present. We’ve been doing this since ancient times and building legends, even pilgrimages around them. Why not do the same for your book?

Finding & Attracting Your Audience

I write poetry and American Gothic. I may incorporate additional elements, such as science fiction and futurism, but my best work is and always will be heavily influenced by grief, magical realism, questionable realities, and regional social commentary. Most of what I know about my audiences comes from WordPress analytics. This helps me know that while my top 10 countries for visitors in 2020 were:

  1. the United States
  2. the United Kingdom
  3. India
  4. Canada
  5. China
  6. Australia
  7. France
  8. Germany
  9. Finland
  10. Phillippines

Beyond this information, I don’t know much about my readers besides the google searches they use to find my website. And those keyword combinations? They make me smile, but they aren’t very helpful.

So, how do we, as independent authors and publishers, find our readers? How do we decide on where to spend our advertising efforts? How do we interact with social media? The answer is one that is anxiety inducing and one no one wants to hear: YOU or YOUR BOOK have to get the attention of an audience of potential readers by putting out the correct signs to lead them to your work. You have to hope that the law of numbers is on your side and for every thousand people looking at an ad, one person will click all the way through to buying your book.

I have a poetry book that’s being released later this month. How am I going to find its audience?

Breadth vs. Depth

When you first start marketing something, if you don’t know where your target market is hiding, you need to play a game. Be the pied piper and bring those readers out of the woodwork with your magical marketing flute by having your song go to where they are.

As much as we all love existing in our comfy social media reading and writing community bubbles, be it BookTube, #WritingCommunity, #WritersCafe, #PoetsOfInstagram, #PoetryIsNotDead, or your writing Facebook group. The reality is that’s not where the majority of your future readers are going to hang out. So where are they?

We’ll have to check a broad selection of sources before we can focus our energies on a depth of understanding of our eventually targeted audience.

Break your marketing budget up between time and money.

Your time will be dedicated to attracting readers by dedicating time to them without spending money to have others do it for you. There are lots of free or low cost options that are time intensive, but very rewarding in terms of readership response.

But there’s that first hurdle – designing an ad.

Design A Professional Ad That Targets Your Audience

I hate putting myself out there. I am socially awkward and constantly afraid of annoying people. Somehow my whole life I’ve been told that I both talk too much and too little. But here’s the thing: at the end of the day, no one is going to advocate for you in the way you need to advocate for yourself. So, I better go annoy some readers, because it’s impossible to please everyone and I never expected the whole world to like me.

But where do our readers hang out online and in real life? It’s quite possible they don’t hang out in the same places, or if they do, they’re not attracted to the same style of advertisements.

Every genre is marketed differently. I’m going to use the example of Romance as a genre that is well known for having a specific marketing style that is recognizable even if the words are absurd. World of Longmire did an entire feature on some generic romance novel covers that I’m going recommend you look at as examples because none of these are real books and I find them entertaining.

Just like a book cover, your ad should make your genre immediately recognizable without any text. IngramSpark puts out articles on cover design trends (here’s the one from 2020). The trouble I have with this article is that at least one of these design tactics ignores how many readers, myself included, look for that immediate non-verbal cue to inform a potential buyer of what the book is about.

Your advertisement is probably going to be based on your book cover. If you pay for a book trailer or make an advertisement in Canva be sure to check where all you can then take that ad. What are the requirements of your potential advertising platforms? These requirements are essential for preventing wasted time and money. Plan this in advance.

Where Do Paid Ads Go?

Independent Newspapers

https://twitter.com/dreaminventor/status/1346303803725762562?s=20

Supporting other independent publications, such as your local independent newspaper in your closest major metropolitan area is a great way to keep your money supporting other independent authors. If you write stories that are regionally significant, you will likely find a reader base by advertising in this area as well.

If you have trouble thinking of which metropolitan area near you is “the city” think about which city nearby people moved to after high school to find work (if they moved). For me that was Richmond, Virginia.

If you have the budget in time for contacting each place, nothing is stopping you from advertising in a variety of independent newspapers in select areas across the country where you think you have a chance at attracting readers. Readers of independent newspapers are often attracted to other independent publications, such as ProPublica (yes, they accept advertising). Here are some independent newspapers currently advertising available space:

Independent Bookstores & Conventions

https://twitter.com/dreaminventor/status/1346303808943505409?s=20

I know it’s hard to imagine right now, but there will come a day when meeting readers in person and showing your face will make a difference, especially in niche genres like Science Fiction, Fantasy, True Crime, Horror, and more. As an introvert, conventions are the most extroverted thing I do and they exhaust me. But the opportunities to get known are the thing to point out here.

At a talk hosted by Neil Gaiman in Pittsburgh in 2012 he mentioned the importance of conventions and writing conferences early on in his career. While I recognize that the indie writing and comic scene has changed somewhat since the 1990s, it has not changed as much as many people think. People like getting out of their house, and once more people have the vaccine, I believe this will happen again.

At conventions, authors have opportunities to sign up for panels, to give writing workshops, to volunteer to help host events, and run booths to sell their books and other merchandise (bookmarks, buttons, world maps, posters of book covers, etc). By being willing to get out from behind a screen and engage our readers in person we form connections that can’t be made through text on a page and give ourselves a voice and image. Plus, if you volunteer with the convention yearly, often times you get additional networking benefits such as meeting new people who may know other potential readers of your work.

If that sounds scary, it should. You should proceed with authenticity and caution, fully recognizing the limitations your innate human flaws create. To quote T. Swift “Haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate,” and you should be prepared for that with no plans for retaliation. Be kind and show gratitude to your audience. Show this time and time again. Your thoughts will guide your actions. Think about your readers, even the ones that give you 1-star reviews, like a tiny choir of angels cheering you on (and remember that Satan was an angel too).

When you’re at a convention you’re genuinely not alone unless you choose to be. Friends and strangers interested in your book that could quickly become your readers will make your acquaintance.

While you’re waiting to foster the bravery for conventions, you can contact independent bookstores that are part of larger networks to see if they would be interested in an ARC of your book. This can lead to bulk orders to sell the books in their stores if they think it will sell. Myopic Books in Chicago will purchase used copies of your book from you (at a reduced rate, most likely at a loss) and sell them at a low cost if you get any returned. While you’re going through the effort of selling your book to independent bookstores, you can discuss with them the options to do live events to drive up interest in your book.

By encouraging readers to go through independent bookstores to purchase your book you are helping a local economy and community. You are becoming part of something greater than yourself. People remember this and word of mouth marketing is valuable. Make good impressions – these will travel far.

Take Advantage Of Your College / University

https://twitter.com/dreaminventor/status/1346303807047680007?s=20

Remember that place that took your money in exchange for a degree and some unique memories, some of which you may be taking to your grave?

Take some time to reach out to your alma mater’s bookstore and say, “I’m an alum/alumna and I wrote a book! I would be very appreciative if you could sell a few copies on commission and add me to the section dedicated to alumni publications.” Some university bookstores make it even easier than that if they’re part of the Barnes&Noble college bookstore network and you’re already selling your book through them.

Every alma mater has an alumni newsletter – be it digital or print. You likely have access to an alumni network, even if you’ve never been in contact before. Take advantage of these resources and announce your book to them. There are usually forms to fill out, but they’re all pretty simple. Your spouse or partner can also do this for you with their alma mater.

Reach out to any of your former professors if they’re still teaching and see if they’d be interested in reading your book. You may be surprised by the answer. It will also encourage you to have the book in the most polished form possible before you send it out into the world.

Look into listing an ad for your book in your alma mater’s newspaper, especially if this has decent circulation. It’s important to note that you don’t necessarily have to be an alum of a school to run an ad in that university’s paper – check their rules.

University campuses are incredibly effective places to advertise books, especially if that age group is your target demographic. That said, if you’re writing a book about planning retirement late in life, maybe don’t try to sell that to someone who just turned 18.

Public Libraries

Public libraries are a quiet refuge where people that don’t know what they want to read can go and discover something new. That new thing could be you.

Another great place to donate copies of your book is your local public library. As you travel, you could also do this with the public libraries in the locations wherever you go. With the advent of digital lending it is a lot cheaper to offer free copies of your book to public libraries, but physical copies have the benefit of being able to sit on the “New Arrivals” display near the circulation desk.

Some public libraries host genre specific book clubs. See if you can submit your book to be on the upcoming reading list for one of these.

Many libraries will work with authors if they would like to plan and host a free event to promote their book. You may need to print out flyers or a poster detailing your target age range, genre, and what you plan to do with your audience, but this is a way to introduce yourself to a smaller group of potential readers. For more details, contact your local public library since policies and associated fees vary based on location.

The Social Media Fallacy

Social media isn’t very social. Between FOMO and the constant need to satisfy the dopaminergic attention seeking behaviors of yourself and others, you’re wading through a sea of noise. You will deal with people that will treat you as less than human and you will fight uphill battles against anyone with more money than you because the reality is that YOU are the product, not the Advertisements that are paying for you to see them.

Social media feeds are governed by algorithms that dictate every advertisement and post you are exposed to based on engagement patterns and paid sponsorship targeting. If you want to use social media to sell something to a different audience than the one you normally interact with, you will either need to create a different account for that type of interaction or you will need to work hard at using the exact hashtags for optimal exposure. That is, unless you are buying advertisements.

If you decide to buy advertisements you need to do so intelligently. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter each have methods for targeting a specific audience.

There are classes and books available on how to use social media algorithms and this is the area most talked about for independent authors at this time, so I’m going to leave this category here for now and not repeat what others have said.

Targeting Feed Advertisements

Take the time to learn how to engage your audience. If you are looking to engage an audience on Twitter to use the platform to advertise your work for free, create a strategy. You will want to learn how to do this with all platforms if you plan to minimize the amount of money you spend.

Newspaper and Magazine Book Reviews

As someone that reviews independent published and publisher books, I want to be very clear:

Best Sellers Happen Through Marketing

There are always exceptions. Many newspapers and magazines include editorial book reviews for new releases. It never hurts to contact someone and ask if your book can be added to that review pile. If it seems like someone could potentially be interested in your book, why not ask? What’s the worst they can say? No?

Tracking What Works

You will be receiving a lot of data as you market your book and start to sell it. What do you do with that? This is where we start cutting out excess spending in areas that aren’t helping us.

Create a milestone timeline for sales and advertising budget allocation. By 6 months – 1 year you should be allocating 80% of your budget (time and money) toward the advertising sources responsible for 90% of your sales. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to know everything when it comes to your readership. This is where interacting with your audience and getting to know them really matters the most.

Maybe you wrote a book that was NA, but your actual readership tends to be in the 30-45 age range? What if you thought your audience would be predominantly female and non-binary, but instead they’re male and non-binary? As authors our assumptions about who our readers are going to be can be wrong. Pay attention to who your readers actually are and embrace them as they are.

Do You Have Marketing Tips?

Do you have non-social media marketing tips that I missed? What do you think of these?

I hope this was helpful for those that are publishing independently and looking into marketing their work.

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Twitter Is A Strange Tool For Geospatial Analysis Of Emotion

Posted on by Lo in Personal Blog, Roughly Academical

The Sentiment Tool

Previously, when I discussed onemilliontweetmap.com I left off a feature from my discussion. Today, I’m going to show you why.

Source: onemilliontweetmap.com 2:38PM 30 July 2020 US MT – baseline sentiment

Time for The Sentiment Tool.

To get an idea of how people feel about a certain keyword or hashtag you can look at how it is being used in association to the connotations of the words in the same tweets. The idea is that words within a language have connotations that can be used to convey how someone is feeling on a subject. The above map is the baseline prior to implementing any keywords or hashtags to narrow it down.

For these I decided to include the Daytime/Nighttime layer since this is a 24 hour visualization. I’m not doing top 5 countries for these images, and instead am focusing on the overall sentiment patterns and I’m going to explain why I’m not the biggest fan of this tool.

1. Keyword: Party

Source: onemilliontweetmap.com 1:45PM US MT 31 July 2020 keyword party

This one is fun because it is so ambiguous. “Party” can be related to a birthday party or a political party. Some would claim the word “party” has a preexisting positive connotation. Some regions of the world are more negative than others. Africa and the Americas are the most negative based on the tweets from the past 24 hours.

What’s fun about this tool is that you can zoom in on specific tweets to see what some of the positive vs. negative examples are. What I did find was that there’s a lot of inconsistency as to what is counted as “positive.”

Here’s a false positive via Hawaii:

https://twitter.com/MrMonday88/status/1288998956559560705?s=20
Well… that doesn’t seem very positive.

Let’s try another one! This tweet turned out to be a true positive and is way more wholesome:

What about the negatives?

Oh, well that is sad. A Back To The Future V watch party would be fun.

2. keyword: Election

Source: onemilliontweetmap.com 1:56PM US MT 31 July 2020 keyword election

Well, more people feel negative or neutral, rather than they feel positive on a global scale. That’s… not good? Maybe the world hates politics! Election itself has a fairly neutral connotation, so I would have expected a neutral sentiment overall.

Based on example 1, we can tell that tweets inclusive of the string “Hitler” can still be detected as positive with a combination of words that still convey a positive connotation by the sentiment algorithm used by onemilliontweetmap.com – so, there’s some work that can be done in regards to reliability.

In summary, many of the positive, negative, and neutral tweets in the US have to do with the suggestion that Election day be moved. Due to consistency, I’ll spare the examples.

Let’s do something more fun!

3. Keyword: Chocolate

Source: onemilliontweetmap.com 2:05PM US MT 31 July 2020 keyword chocolate

The assumption often goes that everyone likes chocolate, right? Maybe not! I assumed chocolate would have a neutral or positive connotation to it because it’s food and not everyone likes the same food. But 70% of the world is tweeting “positive” things about chocolate. Delving into the connotation question more, it seems that this is a major barrier for ESL speakers and authors, particularly because the words selected, though direct translations, may not be appropriately based solely on connotation instead of denotation.

4. Keyword: Sadness

To get an idea of how untrustworthy the sentiment tool is I decided it was time to do a test.

Source: onemilliontweetmap.com 2:09PM US MT 31 July 2020 keyword: sadness

Okay. Hold up.

This was meant to be my 100% of people don’t think this is happy. Something isn’t right here. Let’s look into this.

False Positive #1:

False Positive #2:

Most of these false positives are celebrations of life – cases where positive language is used in combination with language of grief. Clearly this confuses the heck out of the sentiment tool.

5. Keyword: Fantastic

source: onemilliontweetmap.com 2:54PM US MT 31 July 2020 keyword: fantastic

So what about false negatives? Well, those can happen too! Using the keyword “fantastic” with the assumption of 100% positive results, I was able to find an example.

In this case it looks like the algorithm may have been confused by the word “missed”? Otherwise, I am uncertain as to why this tweet was counted as a negative sentiment.

The Sentiment Tool In Summary

It’s important to remember how flawed these tools are in the face of judging human emotion. While it’s powerful to be able to look at large populations to gain an understanding of their overall attitudes, as you begin to break it down everything falls apart. There’s too much nuance to trust an algorithm to determine what is objectively positive, negative, or neutral without additional data. Each connotations is determined by social research that is flawed and fails to capture the diversity present within language, instead focusing on a standardization model that homogenizes word sentiment. This is done by some set of people deciding the connotations for words within the sets their algorithms scan for.

Connotations around language are based in culture and regional dialects, rather than the denotations found in dictionaries. Here are some examples of positive things to say where I grew up that would not be interpreted that way elsewhere:

  • Well, she/he/they ain’t ugly.
  • This food is just terrible – I’ll do everyone a favor and finish it.
  • I’d hate to meet you under better circumstances.

What are some regionalisms from where you grew up that don’t match up with the assumed connotations of words? Do you think these would be confusing to someone not from there?

What is your opinion of the sentiment tool? Would you find it helpful in writing? Do you think it’s helpful or does it introduce more confusion?

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Thank you so much for reading this and I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day. If you like what you read, please consider liking, commenting, or sharing. This helps me know which posts my readers enjoy the most. And as always – thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to spend with me.

Twitter Is A Strange Place For Global News Insights

Posted on by Lo in Academical, Roughly Academical, Writing
Source: https://onemilliontweetmap.com/ as of 28 July 2020 at 3:10 PM U.S. Mountain Time (US MT)

At any given time the major cities around the globe are lit up on the Twitter activity heat map. They don’t sleep, but you’ll see after 5 PM things start to get busier for countries that run on a Monday through Friday work schedule.

For those of you losing your minds over that last statement, there are, in fact, countries that don’t run on the stereotypical Western work week. While I would love to get into how this is a detail I have yet to see a single author include while writing about these cultures, for now I will link the Wikipedia article here.

One of the great things about Twitter is that we can use it as an analytical tool to see what people are talking about across the globe and where they are having these thoughts exploding out of their brains and into a space limited to 260 characters.

So let’s go on an exploration of where the world is having deep thoughts reduced to hashtags/keywords using the free analytics tool One Million Tweet Map. I do recommend everyone to have fun and repeat this with hashtags and keywords you’ve selected. Please pick more positive/silly words than I did. I’m still questioning why I went the serious route. If you do repeat this, please tell me about it in the comments!

As a few notes before we begin, I took these map samples at a few different times to try and get the most interesting maps I could to then research what the related current events in the countries lighting up could be.

A Quick Survey

1. #covid19

Source: https://onemilliontweetmap.com/ at 3:52 PM US MT with search inclusive of all tweets using #coronavirus #covid19 #pandemic #covid #virus #socialdistancing #stayhome #corona #quarantine #lockdown

The coronavirus global pandemic is in full swing with the second wave commencing.

Top 5 countries tweeting about this are:

  1. United States – well this one makes sense. The pandemic hasn’t calmed down much here. Our case growth rate has increased to 2% (at the time of writing) from when we had it down to just under 1% for that brief glimmer of hope amount of time… before everyone who doesn’t understand how disease transmission and eradication decided it was time to “go back to normal” without sufficient social structures and a Health Belief Model in place to protect everyone – specifically the most vulnerable members of our population.
  2. India – Currently holding at a 2.3% mortality rate, India has 1.5 million cases compared to 4.5 million in the United States. To put this in perspective, the population of India is 1.35 billion and the population of the United States is 327 million. It’s coming up in the news because, much like other disease outbreaks in India, the populations most impacted are directly linked to socioeconomic stratification. This is drawing media attention.
  3. United Kingdom – The UK has the highest number of coronavirus related deaths in Europe. That seems like a very legitimate reason for it to be at the forefront of people’s minds.
  4. Mexico – Mexico, like the United States and the United Kingdom, is one of the most impacted countries. Partially due to the wealthy foreigners fleeing to tourism destinations at the beginning of the global pandemic. This has lead to the closures of over 150,000 businesses as Mexico struggles with to tackle providing economic support while stopping the spread. All of this during a time when Mexico reaches near record daily death tolls.
  5. Spain – Citizens of Spain fear that it is entering its second wave as talks of a second lock down loom. At the same time, Spain is attempting to save its tourism industry – a major source of strife during this global pandemic.

2. Keyword: economy

Source: https://onemilliontweetmap.com/ at 3:30 PM US MT with search term “economy”

The Top 5 countries tweeting about this are:

  1. United States – The United States economy isn’t doing so hot. The Federal Reserve is leaving interest rates at close to zero. Some are arguing that the last financial quarter is the worst in United States history. Even Fox News is saying that the economy is only going to get worse with a second downfall expected.
  2. United Kingdom – Brexit is at the top of many minds it seems. The London School of Economics and Political Science suggests that businesses that escaped the fallout of COVID-19 will instead be destroyed by Brexit. The World Economic Forum predicts a slow recovery in early 2021 if the country can get coronavirus contained and controlled by the end of 2020. At this time it seems most of the concerns are tied to the economic impacts of the global pandemic combined with Brexit.
  3. India – It seems that economists are pessimistic about India’s recovery. The Reserve Bank of India continues to cut interest rates and India considers itself the 3rd worst economically impacted country – the first being the United States and second being Brazil. The ongoing border dispute between China and India contributes to this economic crisis. Other blame India’s economic reopening plans. Either way, for a third economic quarter, India’s GDP suffers.
  4. Australia – Economic news out of Australia tells a different story compared to the rest of the world. Expecting contraction and deflation, Australia expects only a 5% decrease in GDP. But that isn’t the whole story. Large numbers of Australians are unemployed and underemployed and others predict that Australia is approaching a fiscal cliff.
  5. South Africa – The International Monetary Fund has provided $4.3 Billion in emergency support to South Africa. Retail sales collapsed to less than 50% of what they were a year prior in April, suggesting insufficient economic support during stringent lockdown procedures. With massive business closures in multiple industries and significant declines in spending, tax revenues have decreased. Restaurants in Johannesburg are protesting government actions while Business For South Africa (B4SA) predicts that the country is looking at a minimum of two years before any economic recovery begins.

3. Keyword: Black Lives Matter

Source: https://onemilliontweetmap.com/ at 3:35 PM US MT with search term “Black Lives Matter”

Top 5 countries tweeting about this are:

  1. United States – There is so much news. There is so much information available. I am not going to even try to provide a summary with links.
  2. Canada – The majority of news here is in discussion of what is happening within the borders of their southern neighbor or local news stories regarding racial injustices occurring within Canada – such as whether or not police should be responding to mental health crises instead of emergency medical workers. In Toronto, Black Lives Matter protestors issued a list of requests, including the removal of racist statues and restructuring of the Toronto police department, including the defunding of many of its units and resources. In the same city, over 2,000 artists signed a letter in solidarity with the movement.
  3. United Kingdom – Between Elle announcing that Women are the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK, the announcement of a Black Lives Matter TV series, the cancelling of London Pride’s joint event with Black Lives Matter, and active youth participation across the country, the UK is not an inactive leaf in the stream of history. Statues have become a major topic, leading one man to be jailed, police departments at risk for litigation, and one museum digging in its heels over the display of a statue of a slave ship owner. These events are inspiring intense art exhibitions, with some of the art inspired by this global movement going on to be displayed in Westminster.
  4. India – The Black Lives Matter movement has sparked necessary and pre-existing controversy over the cultural relationship between social status and skin color. Skin lightener brands, such as Fair and Lovely, is one of many targets currently being called out as an example of this frustrating example of colorism found throughout the country. The problem is that discrimination based on the color of skin is more complicated in India than I, or any American, can understand. At this point, requests are for concrete and basic anti-discrimination laws – a very different concept of need compared to what the United States and United Kingdom are seeing as protesters seek to bring social injustices to light. Even the Catholic Church is getting involved.
  5. Nigeria – Between calling for museums to return stolen looted goods, pride in Opal Tometi’s role in the American Black Lives Matter movement, the Nigerian Museum confronting Christie’s over the auction of stolen, sacred ancient artifacts, and the recognition that Nigeria is becoming a fashion capital of the world, there’s no shortage on news as to why Black Lives Matter is trending there.

4. Keyword: New Zealand

Source: https://onemilliontweetmap.com/ at 3:39 PM US MT with search term “New Zealand”

The Top 5 countries tweeting about this are:

  1. United States
  2. United Kingdom
  3. Canada
  4. India
  5. Nigeria

I’m going out on a limb here and saying people are talking about New Zealand for reasons that have not that much actually having to do with events going on in New Zealand… Just a hunch… After looking at articles and deciding they were too depressing to list here.

5. Keyword: Food Shortage

Source: https://onemilliontweetmap.com/ at 4:10 PM US MT with search term “Food Shortage”

Okay, seriously, why did I think these depressing searches were a good idea?

Top 5 countries tweeting about this:

  1. United States – Conflicting information arises as I do my investigations. Despite the USDA continuing to say there are no food shortages, supply chain issues are resulting in empty grocery store shelves across America. Food manufacturers are cutting corners and changing their recipes, and with the USDA and FDA’s permissions, food allergy labeling and ingredient labeling standards are less stringent, resulting in Americans with food allergies no longer being able to trust food labeling (as an aside, I am among them and recently had a peanut allergen labeling issue in violation of FALCPA with Tillamook – read more on the FDA website here). The reasoning for these changes in labeling standards? That food shortage that the USDA claimed isn’t happening, but now the FDA is saying food manufacturers are reporting. The blame is placed on a shortage of farm workers, with those working trapped in the United States on H-2A Visas where labor violations and back-wages owed are at an all time high. At the same time, these migrant populations live in conditions putting them at the highest risk for COVID-19 transmission. With online retailers other than Walmart and Amazon not allowed to accept federal assistance programs in 33 states, the most vulnerable populations are suffering the consequences.
  2. United Kingdom – It appears that there is a national food strategy for combatting shortages. This is stirring up some conversation about the resilience of supply chains and commerce. Some are worried that Brexit will make matters worse as record numbers of individuals in the UK can no longer afford food.
  3. Nigeria – It looks like Nigeria is taking the active intervention approach after the United Nations call it and 24 other countries likely to face devastating famine as a result of COVID-19. Some experts are urging the government to do more, as it appears only 3% of current interventions are coming from the government.
  4. India – India, while producing so much food exported to the rest of the world, was ranked 102/117 on the Global Hunger Index before COVID-19 hit. Now, the problem is getting worse. The impacts extend far beyond the human population, with tiger poaching hitting all time record highs as a result of subsistence hunting. Even rhinoceroses are suffering from a food shortage. Times are so hard, India is considering passing anti-famine amendments that have not been seen in over a century.
  5. Canada – For Canadians, many are concerned about the food shortages negative impacts on the long term survival of the polar bear. Others seem to believe a silver lining to the supply chain disruption is how it is saving community supporting, local agriculture. Agri-Canada is using this opportunity to create youth focused jobs to reduce the supply chain disruption.

Why Care?

It’s helpful to think about the world beyond our own individual experiences. We cannot live in a society where we think about everything with ourselves at the center of our personal universes. It is important to instead consider the experiences of those elsewhere – places we have never seen and may never see in our lifetimes. We are all interconnected and nothing we do exists in a bubble. Nothing.

Go forth and search for more positive things. I will try to do the same.

Thank you so much for reading my post today. If you enjoyed it, please like, comment, and/or share. This helps me know which posts my readers prefer and can help me cater future content.

Quarantine Writer’s Block Short Story by L.H. Westerlund

Posted on by Lo in Announcements, Short Story

I’m excited to share the winning short story composed by L.H. Westerlund written for the contest associated with Quarantine Writer’s Block: Exercise 1. This short story seized an every day object sitting on the desk and turned it into a curiosity adventure. Enjoy!

Image by L.H. Westerlund

It looked inconspicuous. It looked like a hair accessory, that was the only way to put it. A soft fabric circle curled around an elastic, meant to be used to tie your hair up. It was made with half grey, half pink but in matching white-plaited fabrics and it stretched readily around the cord inside if pulled at.

But it lay on the working desk of the single most prized student of the greatest crafts magician of all time – well, excepting the mentioned disciple if the master was to be believed. And perhaps he unceremoniously should be.

The delicate, almost invisible white pattern going across the two colours, the gentle curve of the fabric and the hidden stitches from where it had been sewn together told nothing about the power it might hide within. The fabric was soft and felt maybe slightly warm to the touch, but was it all a trick of the mind? Was this merely something the crafter had left behind, dislodged accidentally by a hand running through her long hair as she worked?

Or was it the product of some new spell? An artifact of unspeakable power using magic most mortals could only dream of wistfully? Who knew what magic it could contain!

The fabric item lay there peacefully, mocking with its secrets. There was no way to tell. None at all… except perhaps… A shout.

“Kiera! What’s that on your desk?!”

L.H. Westerlund

L. H. Westerlund is a Nordic author, engineer and playwright living in London. She is currently working on several new novels, including “The End of Elena Heart” which will be available at the end of the summer, and a sequel to the children’s-series “The Truth About Monsters”.

Her author website is The Literature Goddess. You can also connect with her via Twitter or Smashwords.

Her first book, University Strange or My Strange Life Amongst Academics is available for purchase now. If you would like a preview, the first chapter is available through the publisher’s website here.