Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, writes about the economics and practical realities of being published in print, in e-books, and through self-publishing (vs. traditional publishing) in How Authors Really Make Money: The Rebirth of Seth Godin and Death of Traditional Publishing. Read More
Writers and Editors (RSS feed)
Even Jane Austen needed an editor
October 25, 2010
"She is the great English novelist renowned for her polished prose, of whom it was once remarked: 'Everything came finished from her pen,' writes Anita Singh, arts correspondent for the Telegraph, in Jane Austen's famous prose may not be hers after all. Read More
Richard Morgan on the life of the freelance journalist
October 25, 2010
"Freelancing is basically just courtship, but the freelancer-editor relationship is nothing more than friends with benefits," writes Richard Morgan in Seven Years as a Freelance Writer, or, How To Make Vitamin Soup (The Awl, 8-2-10). "The editor likes you because you remind the Read More
Scanning photos: what resolution is best?
October 20, 2010
Updated 6-30-19. Helping people with their memoirs or personal histories and organizations with their histories, I am often asked at what resolution to scan photographs to get digital files good enough to print in a book. The photos on Facebook are not high enough in resolution for a quality print or for a book. Photo archivist Brina Bolanz (Restored Stories) ("Preserving family photos one memory at a time") offered a concise answer and gave me permission to share it, below. Read More
Debating the ethics of medical ghostwriting
October 19, 2010
Medical writers who collaborate with scientists are often called ghostwriters. Questioning the ethics of some medical ghostwriting, Adriane J. Fugh-Berman in a recent issue of PLoS, published The Haunting of Medical Journals: How Ghostwriting Sold “HRT” (PLoS Med 7(9): e1000335, 9-7-10). Fugh-Berman examined documents unsealed in recent litigation to see how pharmaceutical companies promoted hormone therapy drugs. Read More
A Historian's Code by Richard W. Stewart
October 13, 2010
I reprint here with Richard Stewart's permission his delightful and helpful "Historian's Code."
1. I will footnote (or endnote) all my sources (none of this MLA or social science parenthetical business).
2. If I do not reference my sources accurately, I will surely perish in the fires of various real or metaphorical infernal regions and I Read More
1. I will footnote (or endnote) all my sources (none of this MLA or social science parenthetical business).
2. If I do not reference my sources accurately, I will surely perish in the fires of various real or metaphorical infernal regions and I Read More
Open Sky turns bloggers into a sales force
October 1, 2010
Erick Schonfeld wrote about Open Sky for TechCrunch in April in Launch: OpenSky Wants To Turn Bloggers Into Sellers Without Sacrificing Their Souls. "While OpenSky sounds at first like an affiliate network, it isn’ Read More