Where do you place the courage of your convictions in your work? When events such as the shootings in Orlando and West Yorkshire are so compelling, can ‘never talk about religion or politics’ remain true in an author’s life and work? Read More
Books' Prices and Writing's Value
As painful as pricing issues may be in the marketplace and in authors’ efforts to put together a living, the real question is what happens in the public mind when pricing goes through the floor? Read More
Amazing Disgrace: The ‘Pride’ of The Huffington Post
What happens—to the economy of writing careers and to the readers’ perception of writing’s value—when bloggers work free for The Huffington Post? Read More
Truth Be Told? Truth Is on Thin Ice
‘Your Capacity for Change’ Go slowly. Makes it easier if you take this one line at a time: Authenticity is equal to your unique voice, multiplied by truthfulness, plus your capacity for change, multiplied by range of emotional impact, raised to the power of imagination. This is the “Authenticity Formula.” It opens designer and author Marc… Read More
Looking for Truth in Time of Hype
‘There’s Never Been a Better Time To Be A Writer’ You’ve read that line, of course, we all have. Sometimes here at Writer Unboxed. I’ve seen this mantra frequently over the past few years in blog posts, conference reports and news items. And I don’t disagree there’s been a lot to celebrate. This is… Read More
'Why Wasn't I Consulted?!' — Beware Online Dragons In St. George's Clothing
Are You Sick Of The Publishing Crusaders Yet? In my recent Writer Unboxed essay about online anger among books people, several readers assumed that I was talking about anonymous people and trolls. I wasn’t. iStockphoto / MR1805 In Our CyberVillage: So Much Anger is about people in the publishing community who seem to be personally, continually… Read More
Get Porter Alerts: Publishing Coverage On The Fly
Know When The Tweets Take Off Publishing’s conference and trade-show events stack up like the cities of Troy, one atop the other, right? It’s always springtime for publishing somewhere, and who can keep up? Now, you can: Let my boarding passes be your guide. Sign up at my site for my free newsletter, Porter Alerts! By having these notices… Read More
The Dreaded Training Debate: What If It Can’t Be Taught?
“Like toadstools,” one seasoned observer calls it. It’s this sudden proliferation of “author services,” especially the ones there to teach you, instruct you, train you. They’re everywhere, these kitchen-sink companies, and many of them seem to be peddling (or claiming they do) parts of the job we’re not even sure can be taught. Today’s provocation is about… Read More
#DBW15: So Shall You Reap? Success and ‘Investment’
Shot Out of a Cannon I’m told that there are people who find the holidays restful. I have yet to meet one of these extraordinary creatures, but I think they would find holding the publishing industry’s first grand-slam conference of the year in the second week of January to be a dandy thing. Bright-tailed and… Read More
When ‘There Are No Words,’ I Can’t Even
One of the most perceptive regulars in #FutureChat, The FutureBook digital publishing community’s weekly live discussion, is Carla Douglas of BeyondPaperEditing.com in Kingston, Ontario. And in a recent doing of the discussion, Douglas pointed out that writing, while once among the most isolated and solitary of careers has been made one of the most social by digital… Read More