Quotation for the Week of December 28

"I didn't really say everything I said."
-- Yogi Berra

(PS--check out the link for a laundry list of priceless things Yogi never said)

Facing the Digital Reality and Other Matters

It's been coming a long time and publishers of every sort are grappling with it now. The digital age is upon us--it's overtaken us, engulfed us, swamped us. In short, it's a force to be reckoned with, and one that publishers clearly hadn't reckoned sufficiently on. And magazines as well as newspapers must deal with it, by putting their content online. As this article notes, magazines are way behind newspapers in this regard--but they're finding themselves having to catch up fast. Which means writers have to be prepared to provide content appropriate for online consumption.

But it's not only freelance journalists that must make this adjustment--the e-book, it seems, may finally (perhaps?) be coming into its own. Or so they say. I'm still taking a wait-and-see attitude, even though I know that e-book sales have risen over the past year, while print book sales have dropped. I still wonder what kind of e-books are selling? Do they tend to be non-fiction titles or has e-book fiction also become more popular? (The article does mention an "eReader from Fictionwise," which could suggest that the uptick in e-book purchasing includes fiction.)

In any event, it would be wise for us to pay attention to the "Top 10 Digital Media Trends" blogger Michelle Rafter has identified (via) and consider her advice on how to respond to same.

Meanwhile, fiction publishers aren't just feeling the heat from the digital arena, but must contend with the surge in self-publishing. Apparently (conventional wisdom from some quarters, notwithstanding), not all self-published authors are complete losers, because quite a few of them are being scooped up by traditional publishers after the fact. While this article focuses on children's books, it's also been true for adult fiction authors like Brunonia Barry,whose book THE LACE READER was initially self-published and got picked up by a publisher for $2 million, as well as non-fiction titles like CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL, which started life as a self-published work, got picked up by a publisher and . . . well, the rest is history.

And, on the subject of how self-publishing shouldn't be considered the heinous option some people would have you believe (although, take note--success in self-publishing requires exercising good judgment in deciding which self-publishing outfit to use, having a capable, objective editor give your manuscript a good going-over before you commit it to print, making a lot of strategic marketing decisions and plain old hard work when it comes to the marketing itself), one has to follow up the point that self-published books tend to be of a poor quality with the retort: If traditional publishers provide such great quality assurance, then why do so many of their books suck?

Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone is enjoying a nice break from the usual demands of the writing life and (if you're really fortunate) sitting by a real one of these.

Quotation for the Week of December 21

"You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
-- Jack London

Something for Everyone

For all you book authors out there, some advice from Jungle Red on creating that all-important author platform.

For you freelance journalists, how about five magazines that will outlast the recession, according to Jossip. (And you've always wanted to write for Juggs, right?)

All writers can benefit from this article that tells the truth about networking.

Plus an incident that underscores the importance of copyeditors (especially for criminals).

And finally . . . un petit divertisement. (Does your life as a freelancer ever feel like this?)

Quotation for the Week of December 14

"We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankenstein logic."
-- David Russell

Two Cool Blogs

I just wanted to direct your attention to two interesting new blogs I'm adding to my list o' links.

One is the Sustainable Marketing Blog, which I'm including (under "Small Business Blogs") because a lot of freelancers write marketing material and I'm a big fan of sustainable practices in any business.

The other, coming to you from Dublin, Ireland, is Hell Or High Water (great name, BTW), a cool freelance writer's blog.

As Traditional Media Wither, YouTube Flourishes

More bad news. Local newspapers are disappearing (and John Gapper questions whether they'll be missed). Another publisher is laying off employees and the venerable Newsweek is cutting staff and content. National Public Radio is also downsizing (much of its funding is tied up in an endowment, which is suffering along with the stock market).

However, it appears there's money to be made in YouTube videos. Michael Buckley makes a living hosting his own comical "celebrity chatter" show online.

Mind you, he wasn't an overnight success. "I was spending 40 hours a week on YouTube for over a year before I made a dime," Buckley said. But he was able to quit his day job after working on this show as part of YouTube's partner program.

So, you too can be a self-made Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert. If you have the chutzpah, time and energy, that is.

Imagine what Andy Warhol would have to say about all this. With so many people appearing on YouTube (paid or for free), maybe 15 minutes of fame was an underestimate.

Quotation for the Week of December 7

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
-- Samuel Johnson

They're Calling it 'Black Wednesday'

Last Wednesday was an upsetting day for the trade publishing business. (Hat tip to Editorial Ass for the news roundup.) Random House, the industry giant, is reorganizing big time, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (the one with the reported acquisition freeze?) is laying off employees and Simon & Schuster has cut 35 positions and seen one of its upper management types resign.

A bad day in publishing translates to a really bad day for literary agents, which makes an even worse day for authors.

At The Writer's Edge, Richard Curtis is really sorry to say "I told you so."

And, since we're all crying in our beer, why not take a moment to enjoy something on the lighter side.

Can You Be Too Concise?

Writers are often told to "omit needless words," to quote the famed William Strunk of Strunk and White, who literally wrote the book on good writing style. However, as this article points out, "The problem, for writers before Strunk and since, is identifying which words are needless."

The article goes on to give examples of how a few extra words, while appearing redundant at first blush, can actually serve a purpose. For instance, this sentence: "I just wanted to let you know that I love your podcast." Author, podcaster and grammar maven Mignon Fogarty, also known as Grammar Girl, decried the introductory "I just wanted to let you know" (adding that there was "no need to sneak up on the sentence") and championed simply saying, "I loved your podcast." Period.

However, Dave Wilton of Wordorigins.org had another view on the matter. Wilton wrote that those introductory words "announce that this is the entire purpose of the message and that there are no additional or ulterior motives. Also, simply saying something like 'I love your podcast!' can be construed as abrupt and a tad impolite."

Sometimes a little verbal padding can serve a useful purpose, it would seem. We don't have to chisel a sentence down to the bone to make it well-written, anymore than we have to reduce to a house to four plain walls and a plain roof to make it a suitable home.

Or to quote the article:

"'Brevity is a great virtue,' wrote the rhetorician Edwin Herbert Lewis in 1911, 'yet it may be overestimated. The reader's mind must be permitted to eddy around the subject.' Sometimes more words are merely padding, but sometimes they're the details that help a reader understand, the flourishes that give pleasure, the reassurances that you, the writer, are trustworthy. The goal of writing is not to deliver content efficiently, any more than the goal of dinner is to take in a specific ration of proteins and carbs.

"Yes, brevity is a virtue, 'but we must not make a fetish of it,' wrote Lewis. 'I have small sympathy with the people who worry because we eat up, eat down, drink up, drink down, and so on and so on. Must one never say great big dog because great equals big? Nay, it is a mark of man's overflowing vitality and sheer joy in emphasis to say great big dog.'"

(Hat tip to the (new) legal writer.)