Want to know how to write and sell a children's book? Children's book publishing works in a different universe from adult publishing. Educating yourself on the basics by exploring the excellent resources of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Go to meetings of local
Read MoreWriters and Editors (RSS feed)
The interviewee's right to "edit" a transcript or story
December 12, 2011
A reader asked: When I am going to interview (unpaid) interviewees and publish an account of their experiences, do I give them the transcript? Do I have sole discretion about how what I write is written or does the interviewee have the right to revise? What should we discuss and agree to in advance about what's going to happen? Read More
Metadata, explained, with Tweeted examples
November 17, 2011
Today, via Dublin Core, I stumbled on great explanations of the whys and wherefores of "metadata" (data about data): The Role Of Metadata In Video SEO, Part 1: The YouTube Creator Playbook, which starts: "One of the great mysteries among those who don't work inside Google headquarters is how a search engine decides who the cool kids are on the Internet." Read More
Mark Twain on writing autobiography
October 10, 2011
Mark Twain's insights on writing a life story could keep many memoir writers from getting stuck: "Finally, in Florence in 1904, I hit upon the right way to do an Autobiography: start it at no particular time of your life; talk only about the thing which interests you for the moment; drop it the moment its interest threatens to pale, and turn Read More
Connecting the dots: Steve Jobs' wisdom
October 7, 2011
Read Steve Jobs' commencement address at Stanford (2005) to get a sense of what drove him. To quote him: "Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect Read More