#Nostalgia John Glenn – 2/20/1962 - Part 2

In last week's Part 1, I discussed the background of Glenn's historic flight and what America expected. This week, the focus is on the flight itself.

The sum total of the computing power of Friendship 7 was, using a generous term, small. By today’s standards, microscopic would be more appropriate. The majority of the computing during the slightly less than 5-hour flight was done at Goddard Space Center in Maryland. The amount of technology available to Glenn was far less than a 2015 smartphone. Or as one comment made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the flight reads:

It's amazing to think that a smartphone you can read this on hundreds of times the computing power than was involved in the whole Friendship project.

Here’s the link to a detailed discussion of the Mercury capsule. The close-up photos are sobering.

ASIDE

If you didn’t see the film, “Hidden Figures,” I recommend that you take the time to view it. While I knew about some of what was going on in parts of the United States regarding ethnic equality, this movie showcases the issue while focusing on the preparation and the flight itself. 

“Hidden Figures” is, according to reliable sources I’ve read, presents racial discrimination as part of the culture in the area where NASA’s facility was located. Until I saw the film, I had no idea of the prejudice and bigotry the women involved in doing critical calculations lived. I leave this aspect of this event with this quote from the link above.

“For NASA to get John Glenn into space and home safely, institutions that supported prejudices and biases needed to start tumbling down. All hands (and brains) had to be on deck.”

Also because of the film, the deficiencies in my memories as a 12-years-old of the experience, I learned that the mission was cut short and that Friendship 7 was under Glenn’s control far longer than anticipated. NASA wasn’t sure that the capsule would survive the descent through the atmosphere. I suspect little if any of the problems were presented to the media until after Glenn was home safely.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming…

We watched the splashdown on television at school.

Splashdown. That’s what they called all the Mercury and Apollo landings. The small spacecraft crashed into the ocean. Parachutes slowed the descent somewhat, but the astronauts splashed into the sea at high speed. Inflatable bags—labeled RECOVERY AIDS in the diagram—deployed and a beacon began transmitting.

Over a dozen Navy vessels were in the general area of the planned splashdown. At least one had to arrive before the minimal flotation system failed and the capsule—most probably with the astronaut inside—would sink into the briny deep.

According to the New York Daily News the day after the event:

But the astronaut, who had maintained part-manual control of the space capsule for the last two orbits, dropped gently to a safe parachute landing in the Atlantic 800 miles southeast of this launch site.

Remaining inside the capsule, Glenn was swiftly picked up by the destroyer Noa, a recovery ship stationed a scant six miles from the spot where the spacecraft touched down at 2:43 P.M.

Wikipedia portrays a slightly more time-distant perspective.

A chart printed in the NASA publication Results of the First United States Manned Orbital Space Flight, Feb. 20, 1962, relates that the spacecraft splashed down in the Atlantic at coordinates near 21°20′N 68°40′W, 40 miles (60 km) short of the planned landing zone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Atlas_6 - cite_note-11

Retrofire calculations had not taken into account spacecraft weight loss from the depletion of onboard consumables. The USS Noa, a destroyer code-named Steelhead, had spotted the spacecraft when it was descending on its parachute. The destroyer was about six miles (10 km) away when it radioed Glenn that it would reach him shortly. The Noa came alongside Friendship 7 seventeen minutes later.

What the USA showed was the ability to put a man in orbit and bring him back alive. We were all sure that America would easily meet President Kennedy’s ten-year timeline to reach the surface of the moon.

I was the proudest kid at Spring Valley Elementary School that day. After all, it happened on my birthday!

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#Nostalgia John Glenn – 2/20/1962 - Part 1

3 - 2 - 1 - Ignition - LIFT-OFF!
The Atlas 6 rocket with John Glenn in Friendship 7.

I turn 70-years old this Thursday, February 20, 2020. Today and next Tuesday, blog posts reflect the greatest event that occurred on any of my birthdays... except, of course, the first one in 1950.

With my mom in the summer of 1950.

My twelfth birthday was on February 20, 1962. To help me celebrate, John Glenn blasted off from Cape Canaveral in a tiny Mercury space capsule that morning. His mission was to be the first American to orbit the earth. The photograph below shows Glenn standing beside his wife and Friendship 7 in 2002. You can see the size of the capsule—just big enough for one astronaut and the electronics to keep him up. And hopefully, bring him down safely.

Photos from the days before the flight reveal the harsh reality that this space flight was nothing like science fiction. Hundreds of SciFi authors painted glowing word pictures of the glamor of spaceships and travel in “outer space.” Glenn did not enter the Friendship 7 after walking up a ramp, not by ascending a stairway. You can see in the next photo that Glenn clambered gracelessly down through the hatch and folded himself into the seat.

The capsule was just that, a capsule. President Kennedy toured the capsule with the help of Glenn soon after all data was retrieved. The success of Glenn’s mission was critical to Kenney’s stated goal of having Americans on the moon within ten years. 

"If you look closely, Mr. President, you can still see the indentations my rear end left in the seat during lift-off."

NASA’s diagram of the capsule includes the term ballistic in its technical name. Glenn’s spacecraft sat atop at huge missile, actually metal tube filled with explosive fuel, so the ballistic descriptor was more accurate than anyone at NASA wanted to admit.

I remember sitting a watching the lift-off with my family on our black and white console TV screen. We were mesmerized.

Next Tuesday: The flight and the aftermath.

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#Authors. Exposing Advertising that DOESN’T WORK - Conclusion

This week, I discuss five examples of Advertising that DOESN’T WORK plans.

Disclaimer
I base all commentary in this blog on personal experience. I understand that some authors have successfully used any/all my “doesn’t work” examples.

I retired from my full-time high school and university teaching career in June 2012 after thirty-nine years.

I met with my longtime friend, Jeanne C. Stein, best-selling author of “The Anna Strong Chronicles” and other titles. We began reading and commenting on each other’s writing in the 1980s.

Jeanne is amazing. Her perseverance in making herself is a testament to her determination. I value her advice.

She suggested I start with science fiction.

I did.

While waiting for responses from publishers on one manuscript, I submitted another to what called itself a “co-publisher.” They accepted the manuscript and published it in early 2014.

2nd DOESN’T WORK EXAMPLE.

Expecting winning a writing competition to boost sales

At the recommendation of my publicist, Sherry Frazier, I entered Traveler’s HOT L in a book competition. It won the science-fiction category. I bought stickers to put on the covers of the copies I’d purchased from the co-publisher. I added “Named Best Science Fiction Book” in the 2014 USA Best Book Awards” to my website and my Amazon Author page. 

I expected sales to soar. Sales did not soar. 

Sales did not increase to any noticeable extent.

In last week’s Part 1 of this brief series, I described the non-marketing of my co-publisher. That my publisher did not acknowledge the award anywhere but in an in-house memo, didn’t help.

3rd/4th DOESN’T WORK EXAMPLES.

Discounted print and eBook sales/Free eBook events

3. Amazon KDP allows authors to conduct sales. Each sale has a strict time limit and allows only fixed levels of discounting in the sequence of sale prices. 

I’ve done this more than once, hoping that continuing to do the same thing over would this one time have a different result. There was no significant surge in sales, even when the books were at the most discounted price.

I posted these sales on

• Twitter—multiple times each day.
• Facebook at least once daily on my Author’s page, on my personal page, and in more than one group I belong to.
• my website.

4. KDP also allows authors to allow free downloads of eBooks for limited times. I could copy/paste the above verbiage here, but I won’t. Sales did not increase after the giveaways, even though most of my giveaways moved that eBook into the top 100 free eBooks for a time.

5th DOESN’T WORK EXAMPLE.

Book signings and Author Chats

I’ve had over 5,500 students in my teaching career. A significant majority liked me as a teacher and most of those on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter follow me. At least a plurality of those individuals live close enough to San Diego, CA, that driving to an event from where they live to where a book signing was, isn’t out of the question.

My first book signing was at Mysterious Galaxy. The store specializes in SciFi and Mystery books and is well-known throughout the Southwestern US. My time-travel book, Traveler’s HOT L was a natural. They publicized the event, and I spread the word. There was a full-house in their venue, and I sold 34 copies. I found out later that the average sales at a book signing are six books, so I was happy.

However, one event does not a successful marketing strategy make.

I set up a signing in the library at the high school from which I’d recently retired as a Biology teacher. Many former students and a half-dozen teachers came. 
I sold about twenty books.

I rented a booth at the City of La Mesa Arts Festival. Not a bad venue. Moderate foot traffic.
I sold six books.

I visited every Barnes and Noble store in San Diego County, one in Orange County, and one in Riverside County. Three of them sounded interested, two did not do signings, and one never responded to my query. I got one signing at the store in Escondido.

Their advertising comprised putting the poster I gave them in the window. The venue inside the store was in a corner with little traffic. There were no signs inside the store directing customers to the event.
I sold two books.

I did a book signing at the university bookstore where I’d been full-time faculty for eight-years. They set my table up in the entry foyer to the bookstore. People had to walk around the display to get to the bookstore's items for sale. 
I sold two books.

I scored an “Author’s Chat” at a branch of the San Diego Public Library system. They marketed in their mailer. About a dozen people attended. 
I sold four copies. 

I rented space in a satellite building of the university mentioned above. Great room. I did a PPT presentation on the process and highlighted the three science fiction books I had published by that time. Over twenty people came for the presentation and a few others wandered in after the presentation. 
If memory serves, I sold ten books.

In a nutshell, I struck out far more often than I hit a home run with book signings.

6th DOESN’T WORK EXAMPLE.

Book Boosts on social media

Two times I did a tour of my books in my blog, spending two weeks on each book. I provided background information and snippets from each book.

To the best of my knowledge, after twenty dedicated blog posts…
I sold no books.

What’s my advice about advertising?

Work with a publicist or marketing firm. If you don’t sell books then, at least you have someone to blame. 

SEO: book marketing, authors as marketers

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#Authors. Exposing Advertising that DOESN’T WORK

I retired from my full-time high school and university teaching career in June 2012 after thirty-nine years.

I met with my longtime friend, Jeanne C. Stein, best-selling author of “The Anna Strong Chronicles” and other titles. We began reading and commenting on each other’s writing in the 1980s.

Jeanne is amazing. Her perseverance in making herself is a testament to her determination. I value her advice.

She suggested I start with science fiction.

I did.

While waiting for responses from publishers on one manuscript, I submitted another to what called itself a “co-publisher.” They accepted the manuscript and published it in early 2014.

Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash

1st DOESN’T WORK EXAMPLE.

Not checking on the commitment of whatever publisher you consider for marketing your book.

I now know that “co-publisher” is a synonym for “vanity publisher.” The best description of what that means is a sentence I found in a review of the company after I signed on. 

“This is a good place to have print your books if you’re planning on selling them off a table at the back of the auditorium after you give a presentation.”

What I got for my share of the co-publishing was 

• A listing on the company web site. There was a debate before the book went to press between using C. R. Downing or Chuck Downing as my author name. We went with C. R. Downing. The book description on the company website STILL has Chuck Downing.
• A one-page “flyer” – it had a name I’ve forgotten – with information about the book. It had a color image of the cover and a variety of described details like size and ISBN. The publisher described it as “golden” and critical for getting books into bookstores for signings or as inventory. I had to print them. One person in one bookstore looked at one. She used the ISBN to find it on Ingram.

That’s the extent of the co-publisher’s help with marketing.

ASIDE: I’ve learned that unless you are an established high-profile author, few if any, publishers will spend much on marketing your book, even if they offer you a contract.

Comments on this example.

At the recommendation of my publicist, Sherry Frazier, I entered Traveler’s HOT L in a book competition. It won the science-fiction category. I bought stickers to put on the covers of the copies I’d purchased from the co-publisher. I sent the PNG file of the sticker to the co-publisher.

This is the cover mentioned above AFTER I added the sticker and the tag at the top. What you get when you buy from Amazon is missing both those features. 

The co-publisher

• Still has the wrong author name on Traveler’s HOT L’s page.
• Never took the time to put the PNG winning logo on the cover.
• Never changed the book’s description to include winning the award.
• Sent nothing about the award anywhere but through an in-house memo.

I received a $100 advance from the co-publisher. I’ve received no royalty checks from them as of 03/02/2020.

Next week: I’ll discuss more Advertising that DOESN’T WORK plans.

SEO: book marketing, authors as marketers

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My website is: www.crdowning.com

Email: crd.author@gmail.com

My Blogs

Life as I see it. Topics rotate between those of general interest to lovers of life,  authors, teachers—probably you, too.  Posts on Tuesdays and some Mondays.  http://crdowning-author.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context. Posts M/W of discussion questions. Thursdays - Timeless Truths. Fridays - Expressions of Faith. https://mychristiancontext.blogspot.com/  

I'd appreciate your feedback on Blogger!