After four decades of creating campaigns and presenting concepts to clients, I grew to enjoy the challenge of making the Chief Marketing Officer and his group of corporate executives eyes light up with an unexpected solution attached to mesmerizing visuals. There is nothing like it. Seeing your ideas come to life and affecting the audience in such a way they babble in awe over their new campaign.
I define creativity as utilizing my accumulated knowledge to touch the soul of the brand with ideas that aren’t only original but entertaining, useful and unpredictable.
Using that as my measuring stick I knew when I had captured the soul of a product, brand or service and I knew how to direct my team to take the idea to a place no one would expect but would gladly accept.
But now I am taking that same knowledge and excitement to the launch of my first novel.
For the first time, I feel like a pilgrim again trying to gather the attention and approval of my peers with an idea fleshed out into a novel series. A bit longer than a sixty or thirty-second commercial. I am now feeling that anxiety again. But it is the anxiety of, did I create a professional piece of work.
Love me hate but just don’t like me was one of my pet peeves while working in advertising. I felt the word like was the Holy Grail on Facebook but the devil in disguise in the world of advertising.
To me, it says mediocrity that I consider a disease I am constantly fighting. When I lose that fight from time to time I agonize over how and why.
I made sure to do my research and homework having my novel copy edited, line edited and proofread each a handful to times by names and companies posted by the Alliance of Independent Authors as the best on their Best and Worst listing.
I had my first edition read by those I trusted to give me their honest opinions and took their input rewriting areas they had problems with.
But most importantly, their response to my protagonist and storyline was: They loved it.
One morning I sat having breakfast with a published and well-known author who advised me, “It’s never perfect. Just move on and once you have done your due diligence, publish it and start writing the next one.”
So here I am. Utilizing my ad skills to promote the February fourth release of my first novel on Amazon. With each ticking minute, I nervously await the results of those who are willing to take a chance and read an unknown author’s first novel.
DAY ONE: Birth is a death sentence, is an intense fiction thriller and a three-year project that is the first of a three-part series releasing on February 4, 2019. You will find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play & Google Books, and other front-line bookstores.
I hope you take a risk and give it try. Then feel free to give it a review to let me know if you enjoyed it or loathed it.
You can read my bio and more on my author’s site at donsedei.com
Thank you for your time,
Don Sedei
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