A writer's journal about English words, books and writing ... with a techie touch
born with a pencil in my mouth ... printers' ink runs in my veins ... can't think without a keyboard ... can't wait to wireless thoughts
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At WindRiver Publishing, an ISBN converter allows you to convert up to 100 ISBN's into 13-digit numbers at once. Bowker's service is limited to one at a time. See this page for an explanation of ISBN (International Standard Book Number uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally) and related book identifiers.
In January 2005, I filed what would be the third complaint from clients doing business with a printing company name Doing80.com a.k.a Doing80 Inc., a.k.a. Rundu Enterprises with BBB. Rundu Stagger, owner, failed to fulfill her obligation to print the books contracted and paid for, and has since not refunded $1,100.00 that she owes, even though I have filed a complaint with BBB. Her sorry story is give me more time. I will pay your money. I gave Rundu the option of making installment. I have not heard from her since May 9, 2005. Beware of this company.
The new writer, all starry-eyed and sparkling, enthuses about the genre novel being written, and then says, "I'm a shy person. I could never do those book signings or interviews." My shoulders slump. Neophytes have no idea what it takes to sell a book, if it's actually printed and distributed. The realities of what we might call the "post-writing life" are painfully outlined in She'd Be Great on TV. It makes me wonder if I really want to pursue publishing a fiction book. [selling books promotion books]
If every post here began with the weather report, Writer's Edge would soon roll off the map from boredom. Today I anticipate trying to elect a woman mayor of San Diego for the third (?) time, knowing another election will come in November. I'm not entirely pleased with this candidate, but the city needs a radical improvement, and changing the mayor's sex is about as radical as we can get here in SoCal. It's also my play day, so visits to an auto and an aerospace museum are planned, the latter fitting because I just watched the space shuttle launch. Viewing the space ship shuddering into the atmosphere strapped to enormous rockets ignited the cold chills and tears I've experienced witnessing every launch (and re-entry) involving human beings. This is my expression of patriotism, to pray (even if I don't believe), "Oh God, please don't let anything bad happen to them!" This evening I'll fight the rush-hour traffic to welcome a fellow author to a writers' group meeting. He's to talk to us about self-publishing. It won't be difficult for me to play devil's advocate, if needed. Now, was this stultifying, edifying, or what (in light of yesterday's post)?
Tom Dolby, the author of The Trouble Boy muses on the need for and effects of blogging for writers in this SFgate.com article, Writers make good bloggers, but does blogging affect good writing? Unfortunately Dolby has rather limited vision, at least about blogs, assuming they must contain wrenching emotional outpourings of a writer's personal trivia. I ask if that's what readers want to learn about writing, about an author? Isn't it akin to publishing your own expose, if the cruddy tabloids won't do it for you? [Tectags: writers' blogs]
Reader's Digest magazine celebrates its 1,000th issue. It was a staple, along with Life magazine and Reader's Digest Condensed Books, in the home in which I was raised. In the rebellious years, rejecting everything that represented my parents' generation, reading the Digest was relegated to time-passing in doctors' waiting rooms. I know, however, that this magazine lead me to a larger world of literature and writing through a method now practiced perhaps only by the Utne Reader. The Digest remains the most widely-read magazine in the U.S. and appears in more than 60 languages around the world. Hail!
If you're writing freelance, one income source is writing copy for the Internet or content writing. These works range in length from titles and tags to full articles and in complexity from Google ads to all the text for a multi-page website. In next month's Writer's Digest magazine, veteran writer Robert Bly advocates such writers having their own websites in Weaving Your Web.And because online writing is becoming a large percentage of copywriting work, cutting yourself off from these assignments will have a significantly negative effect on your revenues. Many copy-writing clients are looking for a writer who can handle both their online and offline work, so being perceived as a writer lacking Web savvy may cost you print assignments.He also offers seven site design tips for writers including posting articles you've written and a portfolio of clients and samples of your work, having a simple organization targeted to the needs of potential clients, and registering a branded domain name. [writers' websites]
ditsy -- 1978Maybe the list is only applicable to use in Britain, for I seem to remember "pear-shaped" describing diamonds and body shapes and breasts since forever as in Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend. [English words]
made-up -- 1980
pear-shaped -- 1983
It comes in three flavors: free, $20 for GPS device support, the ability to import spreadsheets, drawing tools and better printing, and industrial strength for $400. You can discover the System Requirements and see Products to find more applications of this technology. [Tectags: writers' technology]combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips. Google Earth puts a planet's worth of imagery and other geographic information right on your desktop. View exotic locales like Maui and Paris as well as points of interest such as local restaurants, hospitals, schools, and more.
I have met very few authors (especially of fiction) who are not captive to the "white-dress wedding" vision of the publishing experience: handsome hardback first edition, stacked prominently on front-of-store tables, reviews appearing in all the major papers the same week as the publication date, sit-down interview with Katie (not Matt, and definitely not Al or Ann), Charlie, Terry, Larry . . .Seibold offers insight into the complicated workings of the book publishing/selling industry that too few authors realize until they've been ground up in the machine. Plus, you'll learn about "French flaps" and "rough-cut trim". Ah, so that's what they're called. The extra fold-out part of a cover, the uneven page edges do give a paperback book a cachet not felt about its plainer cousin.
One of my students mentioned that she seldom goes to book signings of her favorite authors because she doesn't want their reality to affect her enjoyment of their books. I knew what she meant, because I had such an experience seeing Garrison Keillor perform his radio show, "Prairie Home Companion", in Louisville in the 1980's. Afterwards, I stopped listening to the program, not that anyone did anything overtly objectionable. It was as if a peek behind the wizard's screen spoiled the magic! I now live in one of America's major metropolitan areas and have many opportunities to view "big name" writers at close range. I seldom succumb. How did I arrive at this state when I began forty years ago by chasing Alan Ginsberg through a New York hotel lobby, just to get a glimpse of the famous poet? It's not that I don't care. Ray Bradbury remains one of my all-time favorite authors, and he's in town at the Comic-Con, but I wouldn't attend just to meet or hear him present. As my students and I discussed this phenomenon, one asked, "You don't want to meet him at all?" Oh, no, that's not it, I realized and told them I'd love to interview these people, to have conversations with them. Maybe that's maturity finally kicking in? [Tectags: writers]
We're getting better at protecting authors' copyrights, according to this EContentMag.com article:
The incomparable M.J. Rose has done it again, come up with a novel notion for promoting her book, The Halo Effect (pun intended!) using VidLit and the Reading is Fundamental charity. She's calling it the GOOD BOOK/GOOD CAUSE BLOG-A-THON series with the first event shown here (needs a broadband connection to view). Read about the project in her blog, Buzz, Balls & Hype. [Tectags: VidLit]
Soon after Google announced its library project in December, Jean-Noel Jeanneney, president of the National Library of France, issued a call to arms to European librarians, exhorting them to mount a large-scale digital library of their own. ... His argument has led to action: In May, 23 national libraries in the European Union, including France's, announced their support for the European digital-library project.reported The Chronicle of Higher Education. Apparently it wasn't soon enough, for the French newspaper Le Figaro has reported, via the UK Guardian, thefts of 30,000 books and priceless documents from the Bibliotheque Nationale, the French national library, founded in the 16th
century and France's principal copyright and legal deposit library, with 35 million books, documents, manuscripts, maps, plans and photos. Perhaps they should be less occupied with digitizing and more with retaining. [Tectags: library books Google Library Project French]
The National Trust placed Finca Vigia: Ernest Hemingway House, San Francisco de Paula, Cuba on a list of eleven most endangered places. It lies 12 miles outside Havana, Cuba, filled with original furniture, 9,000 books, artwork, and several thousand irreplaceable letters, photographs, documents, and manuscripts. Nine thousand books!!?? It's a wonder Papa ever had time to write at "Lookout Farm", which "was Ernest Hemingway's home from 1939 to 1960, the period when he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea and the posthumously-published A Moveable Feast and Islands in the Stream." The Hemingway Foundation, Inc. website also provides information on this project, along with beautiful photos of the property, inside and out."Ernest Hemingway is one of the world's most celebrated authors, and Finca Vigia is the home he loved best," said Richard Moe, president of the National Trust. "Even though it stands on foreign soil, this house is part of the shared cultural heritage that defines us as Americans. Yet its very survival is threatened with critical infrastructure problems, which can not be fully addressed unless significant restoration funds can be raised and allowed to be used to preserve this remarkable property."My real Papa, whom I called "Daddy" as did Sylvia Plath call her father, owned few books. One was The Old Man and the Sea. In the late 1940's my parents visited Cuba, but I recall no stories about seeing Hemingway. Last week my mother turned 88. Note to self: ask Mother about Cuba trip before she dies. [Tectag: writers writers' homes]
It is interesting to note that consumers in the US and UK are below the global average (5.7 and 5.3 hours per week respectively) when it comes to reading, but significantly above the average on TV viewing (19 hours per week in the US and 18 in the UK), listening to the radio (10.2 hours per week in the US and 10.5 in the UK) and just slightly below the global average for computer/Internet usage (8.8 hours per week in both the US and UK).A recent Gallup Poll found that "About half of Americans also say they have read more than five books in the past year, not much different from the number reported a decade and a half ago." Yawn! However, this survey reports that Although Canadians spend a bit more time on the Internet at home (5.5 hours on average per week) than they do reading books for pleasure (4.6 hours), there is a positive correlation between Internet use and reading books. [Tectag: reading]
is this bullet point in his chapter on Your Promotion Plan:[Tectags: books promotions]Consider establishing a Web site that will provide world-wide, 24-hour-a-day exposure for your book, enabling you to:
post your cover and a chapter online to promote your book
update your book the moment you have new information
list your appearances
set up links from search engines and other Web sites
stay in touch with your readers
sell your book or include a link to an online bookstore that will give you a commission on the sales your site generates.
She suggests taking your "shitty" first draft (printed out--don't try this on screen because no amount of Wite-Out will remove all the markups you'll make) and subjecting it to discovery, scene checks, and then revising the electronic version. The process also requires a notebook, pens, and space enough for three piles of your ms. and the open notebook all together. Lisle notes:Does one-pass revision sound like a huge amount of work? It is. Does it sound frustrating? It can be. It can also be exciting, and a lot of fun, and you can walk away from it with some very good books. Itls the only revision method I use. Using this method, I can revise a 125,000 word novel in about two weeks. I've never done more than one pre- submission revision, and usually only one, and never more than two, post-editor revisions. My post-editing revisions are usually light.[Tectags: writing revision]
Gender, Punditry, and Weblogs: A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis of Blogging's Challenge to Current Understandings of Political Discourse.Well, anyway, she posted an interesting look at the phenomenon I've been following here, making books from blogs. Naturally Blog-to-Book, Hybrid Genre(s) has a decidedly academic bent. Still, along with the comments, it offers some different views of the trend. I hoped she
would follow up with more posts, but a search of CultureCat turned up nada. For a true view of a blog become book with the BlogBinders.com service I've mentioned, cast your eyes over Philipp Lenssen's From Blog to Book. He even offers a video that displays the book from cover to cover (requires Windows Media Player).
Research and reading the work of other writers comprise much of a writer's efforts. I've mentioned Project Gutenberg. Supplementing that venerable effort is The Online Books Page with listings of over 20,000 books available on the Internet (from other sources as well as Gutenberg). The website is the creation of John Mark Ockerbloom, a digital library planner and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, which hosts the site.Along with books, The Online Books Page is also now listing major archives of serials (such as magazines, published journals, and newspapers). Serials can be at least as important as books in library research. Serials are often the first places that new research and scholarship appear. They are sources for firsthand accounts of contemporary events and commentary. They are also often the first (and sometimes the only) place that quality literature appears. (For those who might still quibble about serials being listed on a "books page", back issues of serials are often bound and reissed [sic] as hardbound "books".)[Tectags: writers resources online resources]
listed were ideas I've carried on about in this blog: reading and no free lunch. The most successful scribblers often read widely, deeply, and often. They usually advise the practice. Similarly, it's nearly impossible to get published if you aren't willing to invest money in your career in a variety of ways. That's the beginning of my rules, and I don't intend the list to be very long, but I'd be interested to hear your ideas on what's necessary to be a successful writer. [Tectags: writers writing rules]
Your Slanguage Profile |
| Southern Slang: 75% |
| Aussie Slang: 50% |
| British Slang: 25% |
| Canadian Slang: 25% |
| New England Slang: 25% |
| Prison Slang: 25% |
| Victorian Slang: 25% |
It's Buy a Friend a Book Week and I've selected you as the recipient of a book. Know that this gift is given for no good reason. If it's your birthday, I don't want to hear about it. Anniversary? Not a chance. This is a no-strings-attached present given just because.[Tectag: books]
