Cryptic Bindings
Digital Dust Jacket: The Review of Independent Fiction
23/03/09 18:30 Filed in: Work
Rocker
John Mellencamp recently published an op-ed on the Huffington
Post, detailing the ways
he feels the record industry slowly destroyed the spirit and
quality of the music biz. To make a long story short, music used to
sprout from grass roots efforts and work its way up 'til it
warranted the attention of the labels and was catapulted into the
stratosphere. Now he feels songs are built from the top down,
frequently at the signing of the record contract, all with an eye
set on pushing the final product. I think this is happening in the
publishing world too. While all this has been going on, music acts
that want to get their music out there and spread to the masses via
word of mouth, much the way the Dave Matthews Band did in the nineties, still produce their own
records and sell them at shows. Best of all, there seems to be no
stigma attached to this long-held tradition. Interestingly, as
self-publishing, or as I prefer to call it, independent
publishing is fluorishing,
the taint of the long ago vanity presses still lingers like a cheap
perfume, seemingly keeping potential readers at a distance. As Eric
Danton pointed out in a January 2009 article, readers don't seem to give the unknown outsider
the same chance music fans tend to lend unsigned musical acts. More
than ever, it seems readers want that publisher-annointed stamp of
approval. Ironically, the publishing business, which is shedding
jobs at all levels faster than the Dow Jones is nose-diving on Wall
Street, seems to be more closed off to new talent than ever.
Therefore I ask, what is a talented writer to do? As a professional editor, I know all too well that writing is a unique skill set, and not every key tapper is a solid writer (though all the guys I work with most certainly are). As an independent publisher, I also know there's a lot of good writing out there that isn't getting recognized. Despite what Zadie Smith might say, there's more powerful writing being written than there are eyes to read it, or publishers to promote it (or even flip through the manuscripts). For all these reasons, starting today, I will be running an additional website called Digital Dust Jacket. The site will have one purpose: To review and spotlight the best independent fiction I can get my hands on. It's my hope that in some small way, I'll be able to lend some clout to the skilled writers out there who have thus far been blocked from the major presses, and are fighting to overcome the stigma of independent publishing, as they try to get there work into readers' hands.
Please check out Digital Dust Jacket for information on submitting your reader copies for review consideration.
Therefore I ask, what is a talented writer to do? As a professional editor, I know all too well that writing is a unique skill set, and not every key tapper is a solid writer (though all the guys I work with most certainly are). As an independent publisher, I also know there's a lot of good writing out there that isn't getting recognized. Despite what Zadie Smith might say, there's more powerful writing being written than there are eyes to read it, or publishers to promote it (or even flip through the manuscripts). For all these reasons, starting today, I will be running an additional website called Digital Dust Jacket. The site will have one purpose: To review and spotlight the best independent fiction I can get my hands on. It's my hope that in some small way, I'll be able to lend some clout to the skilled writers out there who have thus far been blocked from the major presses, and are fighting to overcome the stigma of independent publishing, as they try to get there work into readers' hands.
Please check out Digital Dust Jacket for information on submitting your reader copies for review consideration.
How to Kindle for Fun and Profit.
I recently took the plunge and
purchased a Kindle. The reasons were two-fold, first, my novel was coming out as a Kindle title, and I
needed to be sure the formatting was just right before I'd feel
comfortable selling copies online. The other reason is that despite
my initial reservations regarding this little gadget (I was a brick and mortar
bookstore employee for 8 years), I was starting to get the
feeling that the Kindle would never replace books, but it just
might carve out a new category for readers, authors, and
publishers. I think that's exactly what's happening, and now that
Oprah has taken down her sword and knighted Jeff Bezos' "folly,"
the little-gadget-that-could-but-didn't-for-it's-first-year, is
making some serious inroads (the wait time is 11 - 13 weeks as I
write this).
I've read a number of titles already, some surprisingly fascinating (including Life's a Campaign and Hardball), some promising, but dull as dishwater (Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life), some inspiring, but dripping with snake oil (The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich), and some delivered in a supremely satisfying 30 seconds, despite being sold out at bookstores across the country (Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope). The experience has been book-like and not at the same time. I also have a number of thoughts on the physical design of the reader itself, all of which I'll be covering in a new Cryptic Bindings web magazine in the coming weeks, but at the moment, I just want to point out two ways in which the Kindle can be an invaluable tool for people who work in publishing.
First is the ability to publish your own books without risking any of your own money. Cryptic Bindings (the publisher of this site) just put out my first novel in November. Doing so cost the publisher many hundreds of dollars, including costs for editing, formatting, cover design, database registration, publishing expenses, distribution, and press releases. The Kindle edition of the book didn't cost Cryptic one penny. Sure, there were the expenses accrued in preparing the manuscript for publication, but this second avenue of release was as simple as preparing the digital files and submitting them through Amazon's digital text platform, where the price of the Kindle edition was set, and within days, the book was available as an electronic edition through the world's biggest online retailer. Depending on the subject of your book, and the the timeliness of its release, the inherent possibilities of such accessible and speedy distribution are mind-boggling.
Coming at the publishing world from another angle, the Kindle also makes for an interesting, and as yet little publicized tool for working your way through manuscripts and the slush-pile. Every Kindle comes with its own email address. By sending a Word or html manuscript file to your_email@kindle.com, you can convert this manuscript to a digital file which is then wirelessly transmitted to your reader, all for the cost of ten cents. Now young Joe Editor can enjoy his trip on the Long Island railroad while carrying only his MacBook Air and his Kindle, loaded up with a dozen manuscripts, rather than lugging roughly, say 3600 sheets of double-spaced paper back and forth from Manhattan to the North Shore. Pretty handy. Good for Joe. Good for his back. And doggone it, good for the environment.
As I said, my thoughts on the Kindle, as well as my reviews of the latest and hottest titles, will soon be available regularly at Digital Dust Jacket, but I've definitely found the Kindle to be an invaluable tool for someone working in writing and publishing. If you haven't done so yet, take the leap and give it a try!
I've read a number of titles already, some surprisingly fascinating (including Life's a Campaign and Hardball), some promising, but dull as dishwater (Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life), some inspiring, but dripping with snake oil (The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich), and some delivered in a supremely satisfying 30 seconds, despite being sold out at bookstores across the country (Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope). The experience has been book-like and not at the same time. I also have a number of thoughts on the physical design of the reader itself, all of which I'll be covering in a new Cryptic Bindings web magazine in the coming weeks, but at the moment, I just want to point out two ways in which the Kindle can be an invaluable tool for people who work in publishing.
First is the ability to publish your own books without risking any of your own money. Cryptic Bindings (the publisher of this site) just put out my first novel in November. Doing so cost the publisher many hundreds of dollars, including costs for editing, formatting, cover design, database registration, publishing expenses, distribution, and press releases. The Kindle edition of the book didn't cost Cryptic one penny. Sure, there were the expenses accrued in preparing the manuscript for publication, but this second avenue of release was as simple as preparing the digital files and submitting them through Amazon's digital text platform, where the price of the Kindle edition was set, and within days, the book was available as an electronic edition through the world's biggest online retailer. Depending on the subject of your book, and the the timeliness of its release, the inherent possibilities of such accessible and speedy distribution are mind-boggling.
Coming at the publishing world from another angle, the Kindle also makes for an interesting, and as yet little publicized tool for working your way through manuscripts and the slush-pile. Every Kindle comes with its own email address. By sending a Word or html manuscript file to your_email@kindle.com, you can convert this manuscript to a digital file which is then wirelessly transmitted to your reader, all for the cost of ten cents. Now young Joe Editor can enjoy his trip on the Long Island railroad while carrying only his MacBook Air and his Kindle, loaded up with a dozen manuscripts, rather than lugging roughly, say 3600 sheets of double-spaced paper back and forth from Manhattan to the North Shore. Pretty handy. Good for Joe. Good for his back. And doggone it, good for the environment.
As I said, my thoughts on the Kindle, as well as my reviews of the latest and hottest titles, will soon be available regularly at Digital Dust Jacket, but I've definitely found the Kindle to be an invaluable tool for someone working in writing and publishing. If you haven't done so yet, take the leap and give it a try!
RapidWeaver
10/06/08 07:00 Filed in: Work
I have never been savvy when it comes
to web design. I like to think I have visual and design sense, but
I’m an idiot when it comes to the nitty gritty of web software and
html and who knows what else! Java? Flash?! ACK! Every website I’ve
ever been involved in (including this one) was designed by my
college roommate Jay. Until now!
My day job requires the tiniest bit of html know-how -- meaning, I can stumble through the trial and error involved in making a link work in a block of text. If you really hold my feet to the fire, I can try to figure our why a paragraph is coming out looking wonky onscreen, but aside from that, I’ve always been helpless when it comes to anything web related. I recently asked Jay to help me find a program that would let me put up a simple, but professional looking website for my publishing company, Cryptic Bindings. The software he settled on was easier than I could have hoped for. Aside from a couple of snags resulting from my own inability to keep track of my administrative webhosting passwords, I was able to get the hang of laying out a simple website in just an hour or so. After a couple of months of playing around, and after testing out a few different updates to the site, I’ve worked out a few simple, round about shortcuts that have let me make the site seem more complicated that it actually is.
So what’s the software? RapidWeaver (Which is currently only available for Mac OS X)
For $59 (less if you look online for some specials) you get the software, and an assortment of around three dozen professionally designed templates, which you can further customize through predesigned options, working in the html, or (as I did it) by designing the pieces of your page in another program (I used Apple’s Pages and Preview programs) and dropping the “pictures” of text and images into the RapidWeaver window. The software has two options “edit” and “preview.” It’s basically drag and drop. You bring all the text and pictures into the program under the edit option. Center it. Format it. Choose what word is a link. Which is ones lead to what pages on the site. Choose you output template. Then select preview and ta-da there it is! If you like what you see, enter your webhosting information in the appropriate boxes, click “publish,” and in a few seconds, your site is up and running. It really is that simple. You may encounter one or two bumps along the way (in my case it was a mixup in passwords) but if I can get it all figured out, I’m sure you can too.
Here’s my site if you want to check it out.
Try it for yourself and send in the links.
My day job requires the tiniest bit of html know-how -- meaning, I can stumble through the trial and error involved in making a link work in a block of text. If you really hold my feet to the fire, I can try to figure our why a paragraph is coming out looking wonky onscreen, but aside from that, I’ve always been helpless when it comes to anything web related. I recently asked Jay to help me find a program that would let me put up a simple, but professional looking website for my publishing company, Cryptic Bindings. The software he settled on was easier than I could have hoped for. Aside from a couple of snags resulting from my own inability to keep track of my administrative webhosting passwords, I was able to get the hang of laying out a simple website in just an hour or so. After a couple of months of playing around, and after testing out a few different updates to the site, I’ve worked out a few simple, round about shortcuts that have let me make the site seem more complicated that it actually is.
So what’s the software? RapidWeaver (Which is currently only available for Mac OS X)
For $59 (less if you look online for some specials) you get the software, and an assortment of around three dozen professionally designed templates, which you can further customize through predesigned options, working in the html, or (as I did it) by designing the pieces of your page in another program (I used Apple’s Pages and Preview programs) and dropping the “pictures” of text and images into the RapidWeaver window. The software has two options “edit” and “preview.” It’s basically drag and drop. You bring all the text and pictures into the program under the edit option. Center it. Format it. Choose what word is a link. Which is ones lead to what pages on the site. Choose you output template. Then select preview and ta-da there it is! If you like what you see, enter your webhosting information in the appropriate boxes, click “publish,” and in a few seconds, your site is up and running. It really is that simple. You may encounter one or two bumps along the way (in my case it was a mixup in passwords) but if I can get it all figured out, I’m sure you can too.
Here’s my site if you want to check it out.
Try it for yourself and send in the links.