In my full time job I work at a corporation and of course corporations measure everything (especially P&L!). As I work in my free time to promote my book and my ideas, using this blog, facebook, twitters, articles, and radio interviews, I do try to measure my success. I can't really measure my success in dollars, because the return on a book through royalties is rather low. So I have used other measures--contact; connections; comments; compliments; even complaints. These measures tell me that I have had some impact.
Last Saturday, I spoke to Barbara McGuigan on EWTN Radio for two hours on her "The Good Fight" radio show, and I invited listeners to search for my blog by "googling" supremacy and survival blog--and I know that 10 people found my blog by using that search. Five more found it by googling stephanie mann supremacy survival, and two or three by combinations like Stephanie Mann blog or stephanie mann barbara mcguigan. Overall page views on my blog increased. Therefore, the interview did produce measurable results. Two listeners left comments on my English History: from Henry VIII to John Henry Newman (1500-1900) facebook page (see badge in the right hand column on this blog) and I received one direct email comment.
Even though Barbara and I were discussing the Blessed Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne and the history of de-Christianization of France during the French Revolution, we did bring up the English Reformation and Barbara kindly plugged my book several times. I did see some movement in the ranking on Amazon.com for my book, but I have no way of knowing of any other book sales (at EWTN or other sites or even bookstores) that might have occurred because of her comments.
Of course what's impossible to measure was the satisfaction and fun of speaking with Barbara and with the listeners who called in with questions or comments--two callers even mentioned the operatic connections of Picpus Cemetery: Andrea Chenier and the Carmelites, which I knew about--and, indirectly, Beethoven's Fidelio (not to mention Fernando Paer's version of the same story, and two other operas), which I did not know about--inspired by Adrienne de Noailles Lafayette's efforts to help her husband, the Marquis de Lafayette, escape from prison in Olmütz. You can read more about the Marquise here and more about the operas inspired by their imprisonment here. When the family was finally released from that prison, they probably felt like the prisoners in the great chorus of Fidelio:
So now whenever I hear one of Beethoven's Leonore overtures or listen to my recording of Fidelio (the Klemperer, Ludwig, Vickers classic), I'll think of the Marquise Adrienne de Noailles Lafayette! That kind of enrichment is really immeasurable.
