In my blog post on 15-Dec-11 I volunteered my impression of having been ignored and disregarded by the Wounded Warriors’ Project. I am pleased to announce that Ann Zarrelli, representing the organization’s Strategic Partnerships, sent me a reply which in the interest of full disclosure I reproduce in its entirety below.
=========Begin Excerpt========
From: Strategic Partnerships Generic (sp@woundedwarriorproject.org)
Sent: Mon 12/19/11 3:57 PM
To: asumenstan@hotmail.com (asumenstan@hotmail.com)
Constancio,
Thank you for your interest in supporting Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) and the wounded heroes we proudly serve. However, we regret to inform you that we are unable to support your request to form a strategic partnership with WWP at this time. While you are more than welcome to donate proceeds we cannot endorse your book because we have made a decision to align with books on a limited basis. We do hope you understand this decision.
Even though we are not able to align on a strategic partnership level at this time we would be more than happy to refer you to our team members that handle third party events for fundraisers or our donor services department.
As always, we are very grateful of your interest regarding WWP.
Kind regards,
Ann Zarrelli
azarrelli@woundedwarriorproject.org
________________________________________
From: WWP Information
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2011 1:17 PM
To: Donor Services Generic
Subject: FW: WWP General Information Email
=========End Excerpt========
Evidently WWP’s information processing cycle (IPC) is in the order of one week. Considering the scope of its activities and commitments one week seems a reasonable par for the course. In comparison, in my organization the IPC is WIG28. That is my original coinage for the cyber parlance meaning “whenever I get to it.” It behooves to note that with a dysfunctional right leg resulting from a motor vehicle collision on 30-Jun-11, my organization has a staff of less than one, i.e., exactly one functional leg less. I can safely claim that WIG28 is a reasonable par for the course as well.
For the record, I should note that I have not responded to Ann Zarrelli’s email. I intend to send her a reply after I have adequately thought out loud (publicly at that) what I should say to her. My difficulty stems from her suggestion that I solicited WWP’s endorsement for my book, Flirting with Misadventures. I’ve searched my records and I have not such evidence of having sought anybody’s endorsements, least of all from the wounded heroes represented by WWP to whom I genuinely feel indebted, and wish I could contribute more to the Project.
Admittedly, the book’s performance in the market has been definitely dismal. This assessment is mainly based on my daily monitoring of changes in Amazon.com’s published ranking for both the printed and electronic editions.
I started the chore on 22-Nov-11. Except for a positive bump on 6-Dec-11 of 567 in the “paid in kindle store” category and a jump of 1,757,754 on 8-Dec-11 for the “in books” category, the trend has been consistently and dismally negative, i.e., an increase in numerical value, which translates into a decrease in ranking order.
With apologies to Brianne Wilson, my book promotion/marketing coach from the publisher, FriesenPress whose efforts at educating me I have not responded for more than a month, I console myself with a quotation from page 138 of the book, to wit:
True, I can't lose the which I have not won,
Nor count the merits should such lose incur;
Ill happenstance, no kin to oblivion,
No lighter make the injury endure.
This I do know — just good intentions make
No substitute for actions we should take!
As for an appropriate reply to Ann Zarralli, let me borrow the locution immortalized by Paul Newman and quote, "What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate."
Here’s wishing everybody a very Merry Christmas. Or as Tiny Tim would say, “God bless us all, everyone.”
No comments:
Post a Comment