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Karen@KarenCommins.com

Karen Commins

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Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

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Gone With the Wind

5 Things I Learned From Margaret Mitchell’s Letters

20 February 2021

I always wondered why Margaret Mitchell didn’t write another novel after Gone with the Wind. I thought she could have feared the critics’ comments as they compared a second book to the epic, monumental achievement of her first. Nothing could ever live up to the reputation of her Great American novel.

However, when I narrated Road to Tara: The Life of Margaret Mitchell by Anne Edwards, I learned one big reason for Mitchell’s later absence from the bookshelves of new releases: she was too busy responding to correspondence about her book to write another book!

Embed from Getty Images

 

I’ve read the 2 books of her letters linked below. I’ve also been collecting the pictures of her letters posted by eBay sellers.

Mitchell published GWTW in June 1936, and it instantly became a runaway bestseller. David O. Selznick then paid the highest price to that date for the movie rights, causing Mitchell’s celebrity to rise even higher.

Suddenly, all the newspapers and magazines wanted to do interviews with the reluctantly-famous author. In numerous letters, she described fans as jumping out of the bushes at her home to get her autograph.

She was so besieged by people who wanted her to sign their books that she stopped signing them after a couple of months. However, she replied to hundreds or maybe thousands of letters requesting an autographed book to explain why she wouldn’t do it — and then signed the letter!

Maybe Mitchell felt compelled to respond to almost everyone due to her inborn sense of graciousness and Southern hospitality. Maybe she secretly thrilled at being a celebrity and sought to keep more recognition coming to her.

Whatever her reasons, she spent all day, every day, immersed in and often overwhelmed by her mail. For instance, she fielded fans’ questions, as well as requests for speaking engagements and material mementos.

Although Mitchell vowed not have any part in making the movie, she answered and wrote a barrage of letters about it. She also kept eagle eyes and a tight rein on the foreign rights and translations of her book, initiating and participating in countless exchanges about those aspects of publishing.

I think of Margaret Mitchell often when I’m reading, replying to, and writing my email and communicating in online forums. I learned a few things from the way she dealt with her voluminous correspondence that I want to share with you.

  1. Use templates, and then liberally copy and paste.

Margaret only had her trusty typewriter and reams of paper at her disposal. What might she have achieved and how productive might she have been with a computer? Rather than re-typing the same info to multiple people like she did, we have the luxury of copying and pasting from one message to another.

If you find yourself sending the same message on a recurring basis, create a template for that type of correspondence. For instance, I have a folder in Evernote containing my templates for numerous situations, including:

  • prospecting emails to publishers and authors (they ARE different!)
  • messages to authors who chose a different narrator from an ACX audition
  • requests for reviews
  • inquiries about licensing rights
  • asking permission to add people to my mailing list

I even have a template for newcomers who leave me voice mail asking to talk with me about becoming a narrator! It’s super fast and easy for me to open my Evernote app on my phone, find that template, and copy and paste it to a text message back to the originating phone number. In the time it took for me to write or you to read that sentence, I could have taken those actions, responded to that query, and moved on with my day.

2. Create and use keyboard text shortcuts.

Facebook Messenger, WordPress, and other platforms don’t maintain my email signature. As pictured below, I set my keyboard text replacement to automatically and magically type Cordially, Karen Commins when I type the 3 letters ckc and press space or return.

I have created a number of text shortcuts for things that I type frequently:

  • my email address
  • sign-off sentence in email
  • daily tasks like walking my dog
  • my web site URLs

MacOS has text replacement as a built-in feature. From my quick Google search, it looks like you have to use a separate text expander utility in Windows to get this functionality. I saw this one recommended on several sites, and its capabilities go beyond simple text replacement.

I have multiple Gmail accounts, and I noticed that text replacement only worked in some of them. I Googled the problem and learned that you have set the Gmail Spelling setting to Spelling suggestions off.

3. Don’t answer everybody even when you know the answer.

Mitchell prided herself on the depth and accuracy of her historical research for GWTW. She felt compelled to set the record straight whenever anyone questioned the facts in her book. Instead of defending her previous research, she could have spent that time doing new research for a new project.

This tip is becoming one of my mantras! I remind myself of this point when I am reading Facebook forum threads. I’ve decided it’s not my job or even in my best interest to share my knowledge every time the opportunity presents itself.

In addition, I receive LOTS of messages from narrators, authors, and wannabes via email, text messages, and social media. As I’ve previously noted, if I personally assisted everyone who asked for my help, I would never have time to do any work of my own.

I state on my Contact page:

Due to the volume of requests that I receive, I may not personally respond to your message. I prefer to answer publicly so that more than one person benefits from the answer.

If I can quickly point someone to a blog article or other resource, I am very happy to do so. Otherwise, since I have stated my policy, I feel no guilt when I sometimes need to press the delete key. I especially use the delete key when I know someone wants to sell me something or I can tell that writing a suitable answer would take more than 5-10 minutes. I make a note of questions that require more involved answers for subjects to explore here on the blog.

4. Don’t put others’ needs ahead of your own creative output.

I saw a quote recently that speaks to this thought:

“When you say yes to others, make sure you are not saying no to yourself.”
— Paulo Coelho

When I re-read my journals, I’ve noticed that I’ve said on too many occasions that I didn’t even start on my project for the day because I was helping other people.

Helping people gives me joy. I feel it’s a large part of my purpose.

I’m realizing, though, that I can help more people in the long run by prioritizing my creative projects (like writing this article!) ahead of helping a single person in the moment.

5. Get to the point quickly, and don’t bury the lede.

Mitchell’s letters show her immense strength and charm as a loquacious storyteller. She wrote the most chatty, lengthy letters and would wax on for paragraphs assuming that her recipient was devouring her every word with keen interest.

People today are too busy and get far too many sources of info hammering at us every day.

When I worked as the deputy branch manager in my government IT career, my boss complained that he received lengthy emails that left him wondering what the person wanted him to do. He often forwarded such messages to me to decipher and resolve.

At least once a week now, one of those kinds of messages appears in my inbox. If I can’t quickly figure out what the person wants from me, I delete the message.

A while back, I did some research to learn the ideal length for a prospecting email to a potential client.  One writer uses a 5-sentence rule.

The sweet spot falls between 50 and 125 words, which is not much longer than a tweet. I use this site to check the length of emails before I send them.

You also may want to compose messages on your phone because more people are now reading and replying to emails on their phones. If you have to scroll your message, it’s time to make some cuts!

If you wonder why your emails go unanswered, one article writer commented that, like my former boss, s/he felt anxious when seeing large blocks of text. Do they have time to read it? Would they get all of the sender’s points? Do they need to read it carefully? Do they have time to write a long response?

When I’m drafting a message, I may write it in linear/chronological fashion about the situation, which naturally causes my call to action to fall near the end. I then move that action to the 1st or 2nd sentence so it’s immediately clear to the recipient why I sent the message and the action I want them to take. I’ll also enter the action as the subject of the message. I’ll edit the message to use a journalism-style of inverted pyramid where the least important info is left to the end.

 

Applying these 5 guidelines to my own correspondence and forum participation enables me to spend more quality time on my own projects. How do you make time for your creative work? Please leave a comment!

 

 

 

Filed Under: Away From the Mic, Books, Business, Narrators Tagged With: Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

Finding Your Own Road to Tara

8 November 2017

A few years ago, I started my audio publishing empire with a public domain book. Today, I am thrilled to publish my first contemporary audiobook ROAD TO TARA: THE LIFE OF MARGARET MITCHELL by Anne Edwards.

Road to Tara: The Life Of Margaret Mitchell by Anne Edwards audiobook cover art

I’m not the first narrator to acquire audio rights and publish an audiobook of a current book. Nevertheless, I wanted to retrace my steps in this article to inspire more of you to follow a similar path. As actor/writer/director Bob Fraser used to urge people, you can cast yourself!

[Read more…] about Finding Your Own Road to Tara

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Away From the Mic, Business, Narrators Tagged With: Anne Edwards, audio rights, Gone With the Wind, Jessica Kaye, Margaret Mitchell, marketing, Road to Tara

TDIMH — Identify With Excellence

27 May 2015


This Date In My History is an ongoing series of blog posts taken directly from my private journal entries and are intended to help others along their path. I usually use an entry that is at least 10 years old. However, today is the 4th anniversary of a significant change for me. Perhaps after reading it, you’ll want to make the same change.

Friday 27 May 2011 9:08pm

I received a Joyfully Jobless newsletter from Barbara Winter today. I just signed up for her newsletter recently although I’ve known about her for years.

Today’s was titled “The Company You Keep”. She wrote that John Tesh had received a letter from a 15-year-old boy who wanted to know how to make it in the music business. Tesh

said his best advice to was to listen to great music every day and study what other musicians do.

She also gave the example of Simon Cowell, who said that in his early days,

he was a sponge soaking up the advice of those around him who were more experienced.

She continued:

I’m surprised to discover that everyone isn’t an enthusiastic student of success…Would-be writer is not an active reader. Would-be entrepreneurs have never had a conversation with someone who is successfully self-employed about how they got started…

So where do you want to succeed? Study those who have done what you want to do. Absorb the lessons of success, not failure.

With that in mind, I realize I need and want to be an active audiobook listener. I think the last one I heard was in Hawaii last year [a year before this writing].

I downloaded Anne Frank Remembered narrated by the audiobook master herself, Barbara Rosenblat…I’ll be listening to the phrasing and pauses as much or more than the accent.

I will listen to an audiobook every day on my day job. It’s another good way to prepare for the audiobook success and constant work that is coming to me. I’m also thinking it would be great to listen to a book while swimming. I’ll have to give it a try.

Today’s Take-aways:

1) To quote the fabulous and wise Barbara Winter one more time:  Be a keen observer. Identify with excellence at every turn. It will make a huge difference in your ultimate results.

2) If you want to narrate books, you need to listen to books. If you’re an author who is considering making an audiobook from your text, you need to listen to books.

For the past 4 years, I have listened to an audiobook every day. I have listened to an average of 20 books in each of those years. Since audiobooks are a multitasker’s dream come true, you can listen while doing some other activity. This thread on Goodreads will give you some ideas of how to include audiobooks in your schedule.

3) I do listen to books while swimming, and I highly recommend the Waterfi waterproof Shuffle for that purpose. Since I don’t swim every day, I’ve found that it helps if I already know the story. Gone With the Wind accompanied me in the pool last summer, and I’m determined to finish it this summer! 🙂
 

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Away From the Mic, Business, Narrators, Success Leaves Tracks, This Date in My History, Voice-Over Tagged With: Anne Frank, audiobook, Barbara Rosenblat, Barbara Winter, Gone With the Wind, Goodreads, John Tesh, Joyfully Joblesss, Simon Cowell, swimming

How will you use your next 24 hours?

12 September 2006

Gone With the Wind is my favorite movie of all time. I could give so many reasons for liking it, but you would wonder why I thought about it today when this is a blog about voice-over. True, I was born and live in Atlanta, but a ride on public transportation to downtown Atlanta this morning actually reminded me of something in the movie.

Remember the big scene early in the film at the magnificent Twelve Oaks estate, where everyone went for the barbeque? The camera panned to a sign on the grounds that said:

Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

No matter where I go, I always have things with me to advance my voice-over goals. I press any spare time into service. On the way to my appointment this morning, I studied background material for a major audition. Other times, I may:

  • read books for upcoming audiobooks
  • read marketing books
  • write blog ideas and entries (sometimes jot the ideas in my PDA, other times write longer sentences by longhand)
  • plan marketing strategies
  • listen to audiobooks and podcasts on my iPod
  • listen to accents, dialects and foreign languages on my iPod (I have loaded Spanish and French CDs, and I have Italian and German CDs ready to be loaded.)
  • make notes about the podcast show that I am developing
  • write in my journal

In addition, my PDA cell phone is a Pocket PC, so I can surf the web and get e-mail anywhere. I can read my voice-over newsgroups and blogs while commuting. I also can respond to inquiries about projects and review web sites of prospective companies. Time spent on public transportation or in places like a doctor’s waiting room are always highly productive for me.

Whenever I ride public transportation, I have noticed that a majority of people get on board clutching their cell phones like Linus from the Peanuts cartoon clutched his security blanket.

I have observed that an incredible number of people are chronic cell phone abusers. Even at 7:00am, a girl sitting near me felt the overwhelming compulsion to call someone! She continued her conversation for the entire 40-minute trip; she was still talking when I left the bus.

Riding public transportation in the afternoons is like walking into the stock market, with everyone laughing and shouting into their phones as though they are the only people who exist on the planet. Aside from the fact that no one else around wants to hear these inane conversations — especially at 7:00am! — I have some advice for those of you who are serious about your careers in voice-over.

Hang up the phone.

Think of it as a golden opportunity to rest your voice.

People reach for their cell phones because they are afraid to be alone with the silence of their own thoughts.

I take notes as I read books, and you may have noticed that I love quotes. From one of the many marketing and publicity books I have read, I wrote down this quote:

Think.
Make time for self-examination.
[in the example of commuters on a train, the author wrote that]
Instead of contemplating something or giving their thoughts free rein,
they get on their cell phones.
Cell phones allow you to have conversations to pass the time
instead of passing the time in actual thought.

When I arrived at my destination building this morning, I got on the elevator with a girl who had a book in her hands. It was titled French in 10 Minutes A Day. I commented on her book, and she proudly told me that she was adding another language to her arsenal. I inquired about her other language skills, and she said she speaks Spanish and Arabic. She obviously is a girl who is going places — and not just in the elevator!

I often hear comments from people that they would love to start their career in voice-over or they want to do more marketing to increase their voice-over jobs, but….they don’t have time. We all have the same number of hours in a day. Since time is your most precious commodity, the question you should ask yourself is:

How do you want to spend your next 24 hours?

Filed Under: Away From the Mic, Narrators, Observations Tagged With: Gone With the Wind

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