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Tag: Writing

Published March 6, 2009

Something for the Weekend, March 6th, 2009

Abecediary — Steven Heller on alphabet books (Die Flucht Nach ABECEDERIA by the French comic artist Blexbolex pictured above).

Imprints in the 21st Century — Admittedly HarperCollins new Imprint It Books is an easy target (NB use of “tap into the zeitgeist” in a sentence = fail), but Mike Shatzkin does a good job of explaining why their strategy is past its sell by date (and beginning to smell):

General trade publishers need to see, and apparently don’t,  that their legacy brands are B2B [business-to-business]. They should be exploited that way. They need brands that can work B2C [business-to-consumer], but it will require discipline, focus, and an audience-first picture of what to publish to accomplish that.

Writing for a Living — Luminaries such as Will Self, Joyce Carol Oates, and AL Kennedy (quoted below) discuss whether writing is a joy or a chore in The Guardian:

“The joy of writing for a living is that you get to do it all the time. The misery is that you have to, whether you’re in the mood or not.”

Hugh at BookOven is angry this week.  He wants to know why publishers are not selling directly to customers from their website and why they make e-books so complicated. I think Hugh underestimates the time/money/skill-deficit obstacles publishers face in regard to both problems. I suspect Hugh thinks I’m an apologist and will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.


Book Design Made Easy — cartoonist Tom Gauld is making his genius cartoons from The Guardian available on Flickr (via Drawn!, source of so many life-improving things).

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Published November 17, 2008

Monday Miscellany

A bolt of electricity: PW polls publishers on the challenges and opportunities facing their digital publishing programs. It’s a fascinating glimpse of where the likes of Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin are heading… A must read I would say…

Narrative medicine: Exposure to literature can influence how young doctors approach their clinical work according to the New York Times (via Guy Kawasaki):

“The idea of combining literature and medicine — or narrative medicine as it is sometimes called — has played a part in medical education for over 40 years. Studies have repeatedly shown that such literary training can strengthen and support the compassionate instincts of doctors.”

In need of a good editor: Book Lover Cynthia Crossen laments the decline of editorial rigour in the WSJ:

“Editors are the invisible heroes of the publishing industry, and as publishing companies cut corners, they cut editors… But without strong editors, writers are like cars with accelerators but no brakes”

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Published September 25, 2008

BASIC Principles for Online Content

Whether you are an author, editor, publicist or marketer writing for the web is different than writing for print.

The BASIC principles of Online Journalism identified by Paul Bradshaw in a five-part series for his Online Journalism Blog provide useful guidelines. Here’s a summary:

  • BREVITY: Most people struggle to read long documents on a screen so break lengthy articles into ‘chunks’. Keep paragraphs succinct and focused on one idea.
  • ADAPTABILITY: Writers must be adaptable because websites utilize a range of media in addition to text. Information and content must be  adaptable so that they can be easily re-purposed by the reader or another writer.
  • SCANNABILITY: Reading word-for-word is rare online and most web users scan pages looking for headlines, subheadings, and links that help them navigate the text on screen. Scannability also improves your accessibility.
  • INTERACTIVITY: Think about how you can give control to your readers.
  • COMMUNITY: Learn how to join communities and engage in their conversations. Persuade people to join your networks by organizing and informing them.
  • CONVERSATION We’ve moved from lectures to conversations. Moreover, “the distinctions between conversation and publishing in an online medium are being eroded. Everything that we say is recorded, linkable, distributable. Conversation is publishing.“

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