WRITING ON THE ETHER: Burning Up the Bunting

agent, author, books, digital, ebooks, Jane Friedman, Porter Anderson, publisher, publishing, Writing on the Ether, Tools of Change, Pearson, Penguin, Random House, O'Reilly Media, Writer's Digest, Writers Digest University, webinar, author platform, blog, blogging, journalism

By Porter Ander­son | @Porter_Anderson

 

From November 8, 2012

Part of my series of columns on pub­lish­ing, Writ­ing on the Ether, appear­ing Thursdays at the invi­ta­tion of Jane Fried­man at JaneFriedman.com

 


agent, author, books, digital, ebooks, Jane Friedman, Porter Anderson, publisher, publishing, Writing on the Ether, Tools of Change, Pearson, Penguin, Random House, O'Reilly Media, Writer's Digest, Writers Digest University, webinar, author platform, blog, blogging, journalismWhat Blogging Authors Need to Know
Tuesday, November 13
1pET / 10aPT / 1800 GMT
Webinar & Critique with Porter Anderson

You’re all platformed up. But where are you going?
Could you use an expert critique?
Are you getting traction? Or dying on the vine?
Join us for this special Writer’s Digest webinar — precise guidance on best practices and professional performance points. And your fee includes a critique — a web post or page from your site, your choice — meaning your work gets individual attention and personalized feedback. http://www.writersdigestshop.com/what-authors-bloggers-freelancers-need-to-know/?=lid/wdpapromo

Click here for full details & registration for this November 13 webinar.


 

Ether for Authors: Starts Tuesday

A programming note on the gas here. I’m glad to tell you that we’ll be starting a new weekly edition of the Ether on Tuesday (November 13) at Publishing Perspectives.

agent, author, books, digital, ebooks, Jane Friedman, Porter Anderson, publisher, publishing, Writing on the Ether, Tools of Change, Pearson, Penguin, Random House, O'Reilly Media, Writer's Digest, Writers Digest University, webinar, author platform, blog, blogging, journalismEther for Authors will focus on some of the best craft guidance and commentary, much of which we tend not to have room for here in Writing on the Ether.

“Craft,” in Ether-eal terms, comprises essential points of writerly process and “hyper-craft” elements of the business, from self-publishing issues to the marketing and discoverability quandaries faced by all empowered authors — traditionally published, self-published, and “hybrids.”

Writing on the Ether, Books in Browsers, Internet Archive, StoryWorld, Writer's Digest Conference, O'Reilly Media, Tools of Change  agent, author, books, digital, ebooks, Jane Friedman, Porter Anderson, publisher, publishing
I’m featuring today some newly designed covers for children’s classics from Vintage Books. This one features the design of Stephen Parker and its illustration is by Gianni De Conno. Henri Rousseau, anyone?

An especially exciting part of Ether for Authors is Publishing Perspectives‘ keen internationalist stance, something I value highly.

We’ll be able to explore the experiences writers are having in many parts of the world.

And our setting is one that for some four years has provided a global view and myriad talented voices and initiatives.

Ether sans frontières.

Worldwide domination is at hand.

Join us Tuesdays at Edward Nawotka’s Publishing Perspectives for Ether for Authors — and, of course, on Thursdays for Writing on the Ether, as usual, right here at the sturdiest web site in the known universe, JaneFriedman.com.

Onward and outward, into the gathering effluvium.

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Burning Up the Bunting: What’s in a Handle?

Mercifully, the 18-month U.S. presidential election cycle has come to an end. Think of how many substantial efforts could have been mounted — from infrastructure improvements to educational, economic, and environmental efforts — by the army of partisans who worked so diligently to persuade you to think as they do. All those get-out-the-vote volunteers. All those potholes. We’ve missed our chance again.

agent, author, books, digital, ebooks, Jane Friedman, Porter Anderson, publisher, publishing, Writing on the Ether, Tools of Change, Pearson, Penguin, Random House, O'Reilly Media, Writer's Digest, Writers Digest University, webinar, author platform, blog, blogging, journalism
Steve Inskeep, Doby photo/NPR

On NPR’s Morning Edition Wednesday, Steve Inskeep reported that at the peak of ballot bedlam on Tuesday night, there were 327,000 tweets moving per minute. Those things may have flown by so quickly Tuesday that you missed the interesting divide between those in the industry! the industry! who do — and those who don’t — think it’s good to trumpet their political preferences on Twitter and other media. And in the most colorful language.

This is something some of us in publishing have quietly discussed for months now. It can be curious when someone usually so articulate on a publishing panel suddenly pummels us with their crudest tweets about national leaders they’ve never met.

(The tweets I’m dropping in here, by the way, are completely innocuous, not the partisan material I’m talking about. We don’t need to see those again.)

 

I invite you to think of people you know in the biz who did not do this Tuesday. They, too, might have been tweeting and pinning and Google+-ing and FB-ing and Tumbl-ing their views. But if they were, they weren’t doing it on their professional accounts. Not on the same handles with which they interact with clients and bosses and associates — that would be us — and with others from whom they might like some respect.

 

What’s important is that you make a conscious decision for yourself whether your most vociferous political curses or cheers belong on the conference-room table. Because that’s where your stuff just landed. And if you seriously start thinking of how many colleagues weren’t there swearing along with you — and then picture them around that table looking at you — you might realize that “everybody” is by no means doing it.

The publishing community has a vibrant life online. And since the analysts all woke up Wednesday yelling “demographics!” at us, it’s not a bad idea to acknowledge what a diverse-o-rama we are in books. We are not a choir to whom you are preaching. We may not agree with you at all. And even if we do, we may not need you to share sensitive beliefs with us in the vulgarity of the shopping-mall vernacular.

If you want to vote with your tweets on your professional account, this is your decision. But I’d suggest you not cave in to what you think “everybody” is doing. Because everybody is not doing it.

Click to read this week’s full Writing on the Ether col­umn at JaneFriedman.com.

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