45 Comments
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Angie Maher's avatar

Hey Henny…I’m not sure what kind of book you are writing, but have you considered self-publishing? I went to a writing workshop in Philly, pitched my book to an agent, learned a lot, and ultimately decided self-publishing was the best route for me. Happy to share what I learned with you.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Thanks Angie! For a variety of reasons that’s not the best avenue for this particular project. But I’m not ruling it out in the future!

Where in Philly was your workshop?

Angie Maher's avatar

Downtown, at the convention center. In 2023. It travels around the country, I think.

Rosa Maria's avatar

May you add Darla, Garnet, and Maverick as subscribers?

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Alas, the are all illiterate 🤣 🐾

Rosa Maria's avatar

Oh, crumbs!

Rosa Maria's avatar

Good afternoon, Maverick. Your opinion about this book?

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

He says 4 paws up!!!!

Rosa Maria's avatar

In this case, I shall look for it at the library. Thank you very much!

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

You probably won’t find it there yet. But his other two should definitely be there. Range and The Sports Gene.

Rosa Maria's avatar

Thank you very much for your recommendation.

Rick Lewis's avatar

If you take Angie up on this offer you could bring 30 copies of your self-published book with you on every flight and take advantage of the sales constraints of a captive audience and walk down the aisle selling your book to everyone who forgot that's a thing that people used to do on planes. That way you don't need a bigger audience, you just need a smaller one that can't escape.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

I will 100% do this. I have no shame and am perfectly willing to subjugate myself (as evidenced by 20+ years of marriage 🤣🤣).

Also, was that really a thing???

Rick Lewis's avatar

ha ha, reading books I mean was a thing people used to do. not selling them, at least that I ever saw

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Ah, gotcha. That makes more sense. I’m a little slow on the uptake occasionally.

Reading a physical book on an airplane, with noise canceling headphones on, is one of my great joys in life.

Jason Botts's avatar

I thoroughly enjoyed this, Henny. And I pretended to be working (from my wife's viewpoint) while reading it. But I also do have to call you out: Epstein's first book was The Sports Gene. If you haven't read that one, and knowing you a bit now, I promise you'll love it.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Dammit! You’re right…I shoulda known that. And yes, I definitely still need to read that.

And if you haven’t read Range yet move it up your list. I think it would be particularly beneficial to what you’re working towards.

Jason Botts's avatar

Man, I’ve read Range five-six times, at least, lol. But I’ll be honest, I got stuck half-way through Inside The Box and still have yet to get back to it. I think I needed more sports examples to hold my interest, lol. Both my sons read it though, I suppose I can lean on them for the cliff notes, haha

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Yeah that’s honestly what I think held my attention so much, just all of the football thinking I was doing as I was reading it. And also this writing thing…we’ve got a ton of constraints stacked up against us.

Linda Blatnik's avatar

May the Force be with you,

Henny (Stars Wars fan and Taoist) 💙🦋🙏

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

And also with you Linda 😉

Anne Jones's avatar

I heard that in my church voice…which is way sweeter than the voice in my head😂😇

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Hahaha, took me back to my days as a Catholic 😀

Mike Bryskier's avatar

I was going to wish you luck finding an agent, but then I got to the part where 43% of your subscribers open your emails and the other 67% don’t.

You may want to find an accountant first.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

You didn’t see my joke then. Or you didn’t think it was funny.

I’m going with you didn’t see it. My fragile ego can’t handle much more disappointment 🤣

Mike Bryskier's avatar

My humble apologies. Let's go with "didn't see."

I learned speed reading decades ago with Evelyn Wood. I could get the gist and save all kinds of time.

Apparently with age, the gist is no longer sufficient. I now have to read the actual words.

Brandi Wiatrak's avatar

You crack me up! 😂

And I subscribe to so many people and I neverrrrr get any Substack emails beyond the new subscriber alerts or the confirmations I get subscribing to others. It’s so weird. So, it makes sense to me that your open rates are lower. But luckily enough, you’re always in my feed.

Good luck on sourcing a publisher! 🙌

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

That is so weird. I have people who are not on the app tell me that too. I think they must get caught in some junk folders.

And, thanks!!!

Paul Horton's avatar

Looking forward to reading your book, meanwhile I will be looking for you in my inbox

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Appreciate it friend 👊🏼

Chris Stanton's avatar

Giddyup! I’m forwarding this to Bob Sacamano immediately.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Nooooo!!!! Of all of the twisted characters on that show he was possibly the worst.

You don’t happen to know David Puddy do you? He seemed like my kinda guy.

Anyway, see you at Arby’s!

Chris Stanton's avatar

I think my mechanic knows him. I’ll ask.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

SERENITY NOW!!!!

Bernie Mortensen's avatar

Buy me some beer. Send me some money. Nah. Simply reading this free post of yours is a joy. Thanks Henny.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Gosh dang it Bernie, I appreciate that more than you realize!

Bernie Mortensen's avatar

Boy howdy you just reminded me I’m out of beer. Time to do a beer run.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

YOU just reminded me of the Zac Effron movie, The Greatest Beer Run Ever. A very good watch.

Good Humor by CK Steefel's avatar

Your book is done! Congrats! Renee from Gryphon Quill is on Substack. She writes advice for writers and she’s a lit agent. She’s also super nice and funny.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Thanks Carissa! I love Renee’s advice!!!

Anne Jones's avatar

Love the unapologetic stream of consciousness here!

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Thanks Anne, and you nailed it! Total stream of consciousness 🤣

Justin Barber's avatar

Man, it's weird because I was born in 95 😂 but Seinfeld reruns were, as a rule, always playing in the house. My dad passed on several phrases to me that I never realized were actually always one of three things: 1. a Steve Martin line, 2. a Chris Farley line or 3. a Seinfeld line.

To this day, my mom and I on the phone will sometimes just go "Why don't you just tell me the name of the movie you selected". Maybe the key for me is to send my folks your Substack!

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Oh man that is so great. We used to use that quote ALL THE TIME in college. Like, as the answer to sooo many questions (why don’t you just tell me…).

Which makes me think now that I was in college the year you were born.

Thank you for ruining my day.

Justin Barber's avatar

😂😂