feeding my mind one installment at a time
Since my internship is officially over for the summer, I plan to use my personal blog for the majority of my blogging. A post might show up here and there on this one, but for the most part, go to Midwest Meets Manhattan for the majority of blogs.
Thanks!
Hello all, time for a new Free Read Friday – I promise to catch up with my blogging today and this weekend!
Today, I choose to offer you 1632 by Eric Flint, a contemporary science fiction book about “the ultimate Y2K glitch.”
1632: In the year 1632 in northern Germany a reasonable person might conclude that things couldn’t get much worse. There was no food. Disease was rampant. For over a decade religious war had ravaged the land and the people. Catholic and Protestant armies marched and countermarched across the northern plains, laying waste the cities and slaughtering everywhere. In many rural areas population plummeted toward zero. Only the aristocrats remained relatively unscathed; for the peasants, death was a mercy.
2000 Things are going OK in Grantville, West Virginia. The mines are working, the buck are plentiful (it’s deer season) and everybody attending the wedding of Mike Stearn’s sister (including the entire membership of the local chapter of the United Mine Workers of America, which Mike leads) is having a good time.
THEN, EVERYTHING CHANGED . . .
When the dust settles, Mike leads a small group of armed miners to find out what’s going on. Out past the edge of town Grantville’s asphalt road is cut, as with a sword. On the other side, a scene out of Hell; a man nailed to a farmhouse door, his wife and daughter lying screaming in muck at the center of a ring of attentive men in steel vests. Faced with this, Mike and his friends don’t have to ask who to shoot.
At that moment Freedom and Justice, American style, are introduced to the middle of The Thirty Years War.
Sound interesting, eh? It’s 222 installments, so it’ll keep you occupied until early next year. Sounds like a long time, doesn’t it? Well, the time is going to pass anyway, so why not read this while you’re at it? It’s only five minutes a day, and you might find you really like this and order more installments right away.
So head over to DailyLit and check it out!
Eep, I guess I haven’t updated Free Read Friday in a while! So here are a few of my suggestions:
My first Free Read Friday is actually DailyLit’s July Big Read – HELL-HEAVEN, a short story by Jhumpa Lahiri, excerpted from her book UNACCUSTOMED EARTH.
The acclaimed collection explores the secrets at the heart of family life. It enters the worlds of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers. Rich with the signature gifts that have established Jhumpa Lahiri as one of our most essential writers, it exquisitely renders the most intricate workings of the heart and mind.
This short story is available completely free (duh) and comes in only 10 installments – that’s only two weeks of reading! If you’re skeptical about the DailyLit format, give this short one a try and see how you like it.
And can I just say that this story is great? I haven’t read Jhumpa Lahiri before (I know, last person under the sun), and I absolutely loved it. She’s a wonderful, engaging writer, and I wasn’t able to stop reading. Even though I read it while I was working on coding it for the site and therefore didn’t have it in email, I’m sure that if I had gotten the installments I would’ve just rushed through to learn what happened.
If you enjoy stories about family relationships and integration of cultures, then you’ll like this story. It’s very touching and rather sad, but at the same time I felt like it was strong enough to make me keep going – I wasn’t so sad that I couldn’t read further.
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My second Free Read Friday is another one of our new additions, PARANOIA by Joe Finder. Now, I hadn’t heard of Joe Finder before I started coding this book, but apparently he’s kind of a big deal in the thriller genre, especially “business” thrillers (whatever that means – sorry, business thriller readers).
This book was made free by its publisher, Macmillan, for which we’re ever so grateful. Here’s a quick blurb:
It was only a prank: diverting cash from Wyatt Telecom’s executive slush fund to throw a retirement bash for a member of the loading dock crew. But when corporate security catches up with Adam Cassidy, a low ambition junior staffer at the high-tech behemoth, they call it something else: embezzlement, to the tune of nearly $80 grand.
Ruthless CEO Nick Wyatt is impressed by Adam’s scheming, and offers him one way out-take on the role of a rising corporate hotshot and infiltrate Wyatt’s rival, Trion Systems. His mission is to get close to Trion’s legendary founder Jock Goddard, and his ultra-secret “Project Aurora,” and report back to Wyatt.
With Wyatt pulling the strings and a dramatically improved identity, Adam is set up as Trion’s new boy genius. Suddenly, he’s got a sweet new Porsche, a closet full of $1,500 suits, and even a lovely lady who thinks he’s a dream. But it’s all just a mirage, because Adam is about to learn that nothing is what it seems and that it isn’t paranoia…everyone is out to get him…
Honestly, this isn’t the type of book I’m into. Usually I scorn things like this because I think they’re kind of silly. But I actually really enjoyed reading this book as I coded it (talk about speed reading). I definitely recommend it! And it has 170 installments, so it’ll keep you occupied for a few months – or not if you’re like me and have to speed through it!
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My third Free Read Friday holds a special place in my heart: CLASSIC SHORTS: EIGHT STORIES FOR SUMMER, chosen and compiled by Poets & Writers magazine. Why is this so special? Well, this was the first book I worked on when I came to work for DailyLit. So I can personally guarantee that all the stories here are fantastic.
What’s in this collection of greatness, you ask?
A Doctor’s Visit by Anton Chekhov
A Respectable Woman by Kate Chopin
The Jelly-Bean by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville
The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe
Ivan the Fool by Leo Tolstoy
Author! by P. G. Wodehouse
My favorite is probably THE YELLOW WALLPAPER, but to friends that’s old news. I really enjoyed THE JELLY-BEAN, as well.
With 62 installments, this is the perfect way to round out your summer – it’ll only take you two months to finish, and since these are short stories, I bet you’ll be clicking ahead before you know it.
I think this is my final theme change. I like this one, along with the custom header so cleverly created in MS Paint. Fantastic cropping skills, I know.
In other news, it started sprinkling when I was at the post office just now. I hope this doesn’t keep up – I forgot my umbrella. And it would be nice to have one day without rain. Just one.
Other than the fact that I just checked my blog stats and they apparently completely flatlined over the weekend, I had a good one.
I bought a camera, so I hope to be able to start doing some photo-blogging. Plogging? Phlogging? I think it’s just photo-blogging. But with the rise of “vlogging” as a word (probably mostly thanks to The Vlog Brothers, John and Hank Green – PS, if you haven’t read any of John’s work, you’re missing out), I figured I might as well throw my hat in the ring with the weird names. I mean, if “Web 2.0″ is now officially a dictionary word (and apparently an important one at that), I figure I can add “phlogging” in there.
I already have a decently nice digital camera at home, but I wanted to buy a smaller point-and-shoot for the summer, so I took the 1 train down to Adorama on 18th st and 7th ave, and bought a Nikon Coolpix S52. I know. A Nikon. I swore on my life that I would only buy Canon, but my mom swears by Nikon (and she just bought a little bit nicer model Coolpix to replace the ancient hulking one she had), so I figured I would give it a shot.
Surprise, I actually love it. It’s a deep red and the screen is magnificently huge – something like 3″ diagonal or something. I don’t know. I don’t buy digital cameras that often, so it seems pretty huge to me.
Now, if only I could take a picture of the camera to show it to you…
Anyway, back to work. Look for a post about my extern project either late today or tomorrow sometime.
Sorry for all the parentheses today. Apparently I had a lot of commentary.
One thing I like about DailyLit is its spirit of innovation. They’re always trying to find new ways to spread information using the Internet, and one thing I think is extremely unique and creative is the Wikipedia Tour.
What exactly is a Wikipedia Tour?
The Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, the Sistine Chapel—these are some of the most beautiful and iconic images in all of the art world, and they’re just a few of the pieces included in our Wikipedia Tour of the Masterpieces of Western Art. From Haystacks to Soup Cans, the western canon includes a dazzling array of subjects, media, and styles. Each piece is a crystallization of an artist’s vision, possessing a unique brilliance that speaks to something beyond our physical senses. Take advantage of the riches left to us by these visionaries; see the pieces that have defined ages, moments, and movements; and nourish your sense of beauty and wonder with these masterful works.
The great thing about this one is that it’s only 23 installments, so even if you choose to see only one installment per day, you can finish it within a month.
What are previous readers saying about this Wikipedia Tour?
“Bloody good, very short
Like all good things, this was very good and short enough to keep you wanting more. A lot of the pieces discussed were things that I had read about in my Art History 101 course, so it was great renewing my knowledge and discovering more about the art all over again.”
-User sharangrandigae, 4/5 stars
“Masterpieces of Western Art – fantastic if you love art!
This is a really useful ‘tour’ which shows you all those famous artworks that you’ve read about and takes you straight to the Wikipedia page to give you all the info you might need about. Not quite as good as the real thing LOL but for those of us marooned in the antipodes, far away from the art galleries of the world, it’s not a bad substitute.”
-User LisaHill, 5/5 stars
So if you wish you knew more about these masterpieces, or if you’d just like to get a refresher course on your favorites, go ahead on over to DailyLit and sign up for this tour.
Great news! Now you can log in to DailyLit using a third-party login, such as your Twitter, Facebook, OpenID – most popular services are now available!
Logging in to DailyLit just became a lot easier. Now you can use your username and password from Google, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, AOL, Windows Live ID, Yahoo, and OpenID to log in to your DailyLit account. And if you haven’t yet created a (free) DailyLit account, you can do that with your third party identity too.
Fantastic, huh? If you were on the edge and you hate having just another password to keep track of, we’ve made it that much easier for you to be able to use DailyLit.
So go ahead and register – it’s really that easy.
And more great news – if you already use DailyLit, you can just as easily link up your accounts to have more integration and flow between your various digital identities. I’m already connected on Twitter, Facebook, Google, MySpace, Yahoo and OpenID. Sounds kind of nutty, right? Well, I think it’s great.
That means I can share with you about my extern project. I’ve been waffling over where it’s a secret or not for a few days, and after we had a group chat on our Ning site tonight, I found out that I’m actually supposed to be blogging about this (I’m actually blogging during the chat, but I won’t tell if you don’t).
So. Extern project. What? Is that a real word?
It’s kind of like interning, except not really at all, because most externs are at least a few years out of college and currently work in the publishing industry. It’s more like getting a hands-on shot at being a part of the “digital revolution,” this part hosted by DailyLit. Right now, we’re all working on our own “projects.”
In terms of me, here’s how I guess I can best explain it. I pick a topic that I may not know a lot about, and I think other people would be interested in. Then I do a bumload of research, which includes your typical ho-hum library research (ok, probably ho-hum Internet research) and then some personal, polling, one-on-one, one-on-forum Internet research, and then whatever else I feel like doing – basically, I find out as much as I possibly can about my topic until I flop over dead from knowing so much about it.
Then, at the end of the summer, my project will be listed as a downloadable “book” from DailyLit, and you’ll be able to subscribe to it and receive one of my installments every day. You could hear my digital voice every day if you chose. For quite a while. Isn’t that something?
So my project – I tossed around a few ideas, hemmed and hawed about a lot of things. Let’s face it – what could I possibly do at least 25 installments of that people would actually want to read? I mean, I could probably do 25 installments about playing the flute, but who would actually read that? Yeah. Like. Two people. Three if I’m lucky.
And there I was, taking a shower the morning project proposals were due, when it hit me. Thus, Road Trip: United States was born. I plan to put together a sort of “virtual tour” of the 50 states, in a “what to do and see” kind of format.
Each state will have two or three installments. Not trying to put down some states, but…certain states have a bit more to do and see than others – such as those with megacities.
The first installment will be a quick blurb and a few “fun facts” about the state, followed by some of the “Things You Are Supposed to Do and See Here,” such as monuments, state parks, famous locations, that kidn of thing. You know, the stuff you go on vacation to go do – visiting the Grand Canyon, for example.
The second (and possibly third) installment will cover the lesser-known experiences to be found in that state, the static things (like lesser-known monuments, parks, etc.) in a list, and then a month-by-month list of festivals, events, things that happen every year that people outside the state wouldn’t generally know about (for example, my home state Oklahoma has both the Mangum Rattlesnake Derby and the Watonga Cheese Festival – how about that for interesting, eh?), and a quick blurb about the state fair (this might go up with the static things). I’m not going to put specific dates because, as we all know, dates are always subject to change and if this is going to be a foundation that might get updated somewhat, I don’t want ti tto be good for only one year. I mean, it might be outdated by then and get scrapped, but I’m thinking positively. Right?
So here’s the hard part. I’m down to the nitty-gritty of trying to figure out where to research. If you have ideas, know a hidden state information resource, anything, please feel free to comment. Leave your contact info if I can get in touch with you about this information further. Or if you think something has a fatal flaw and I should do it differently, please, tell me that, as well.
As promised, here are the questions from participants in this month’s Digital Publishing Group lunch event. I completely forgot to write down who asked which question, so please forgive me on that count – I promise I’ll grab names next month.
Since most of these were asked in a sort of rambling, explanatory format, I’ve tried to condense them into actual questions. Gail Glickman Horwood’s answers are also somewhat paraphrased, as I was unable to write as quickly as she spoke.
1. How can blogs be a non-traditional publisher?
Blogs want content, not traditional pitches the way that traditional publishing works. Therefore, blogging is an immediate and sometimes very effective way to generate buzz and readers without having to go through the rigors of traditional publishing. Companies are recognizing this and are now hiring interns purely for social media, sometimes known as “Twinterns.” With blogging, it’s important to know your constituency and be able to hold their attention.
2. What are approaches to curating user-generated content?
Right now there’s an extreme overload and a need for curation of this content. Horwood, who works for Martha Stewart, used the example of their pet section of the site. When they run a contest and ask for user submissions (interaction being an important part of the website), they have specific information they request so that the content can be collected and organized. This becomes easier as it becomes more automated – it’s very labor-intensive for editors to gather and cull all of the information, so it’s nice for things to be more automatic.
Another example Horwood gave was that the company uses Google Insights to track search terms on their website, and the top search for approximately 2 years has been “cupcakes.” Since realizing this, they created a special section on their site devoted entirely to cupcakes, which has become one of the most popular sections of their site to date. This tracking of search terms became a very valuable tool, and allowed them to open up a previously untapped resource.
3. How can larger companies balance moving quickly with their daily responsibilities?
It’s important to do smaller tests and experiments first, rather than call for an overhaul of the entire company. These tests gather information and statistics necessary for greater changes. Horwood recommends having a smaller initiative or project to work on, and finding the proof of concept before changing everything.
Another helpful resource is “co-optition” – meeting with people and companies you might not usually work with in order to meet common goals. Horwood’s example here was a partnership between Martha Stewart and the popular craft site Etsy.com.
4. What does putting your content on other sites mean for your business?
This can be very positive and can raise good relations between your company and the other. However, you want to maintain respectability and keep the trust factor for your company. Don’t let the other company use your products or data in a way that might insinuate something about you or hurt your relationships with other businesses.
5. What is some advice for young publishing employees who have more traditional bosses?
Horwood doesn’t see this as an actual problem anymore because of how technology is affecting all businesses. Companies are starting to hire younger employees whose lives are sewn seamlessly into today’s technology and who are able to step past lines that might be boundaries for older, less accustomed employees. One example of this is how today’s college graduates are extremely knowledgeable about Facebook and are able to use it and other social media to effectively channel business, but older employees may not be as comfortable with this process.
6. Why is an internet presence important for authors?
Honestly, even authors who don’t want an internet presence almost certainly have one, whether it is fan created. Having an internet presence provides a fan connection, and fans love to hear anything about you, whether it’s appearances, behind the scenes information or anything else you’d like to share with them. Besides, a lot of fans will put this stuff up online anyway, so shouldn’t you be ahead of the curve here?
7. What is the proof that social networking sells?
Social networking is becoming about being transparent in business. If you’re transparent in your presence and open with your information, you can create business. Social networking is one way to open yourself up to customer service, public relations, and other ways to create trust in your business and let others confirm for themselves that they’d like to do business with you.
Please join us next month to hear David Karp, founder of Tumblr blogging service, at Random House on July 22.
And as always, track the term #digpub on Twitter to see more about future Digital Publishing Group events.
