News for Writers: InkPop, 100 Resources, MotherVook

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In my three years of blogging, I do not remember another month with so much important breaking news for writers. First there was the Consumer Electronics Show with its flood of e-book readers. More recently it’s been a series of free and discounted software offers for writers. And now there’s InkPop and 100 tools for students — these two make me feel young again. And there’s even more…

INKPOP: SOCIAL MEDIA FOR TEEN WRITERS

HarperCollins is emerging as one of the most savvy major publishers, as it turns up one new trick after another with novel approaches to social media. Yesterday, it officially unveiled its new website inkpop, a social media hub for teenage writers. Susan Page, president and publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, describes it succinctly:

Inkpop provides us with an interactive platform to engage directly with our audience, encourage a passion for writing, and discover new trends and opportunities in this growing and important community.

The site has already been in “soft” development for awhile and has already attracted 10,000 members and 11,000 literary submissions, according to Publisher’s Weekly. Members are invited to submit their “projects,” be it a novel, short story, poem, non-fiction, whatever. Members can also browse through the submissions and vote for their favorites each month. The five most popular projects are then thoroughly reviewed by a panel of HarperCollins’ staff. And, lastly, the site offers a Forum for discussion, which is already very active. I would think that even adults might learn a thing or two from this site.

100 TIPS FOR STUDENTS — may be tips for us writers too!

Online College – Connecting You With Your Future is a blog aimed at helping students survive and thrive. It loves to pull together 100 of this or 100 of that, compiling lists of helpful resources. I’ve already mentioned several of its posts that have content useful to writers — even though my brain sags under the sheer weight and volume of a typical list. This week the blog has posted another one: Beyond Cliffs Notes: 100 Free and Useful Tools For When Time’s Running Out.

I love that title — because I am always feeling as if time is running out. I like even more its introduction to the list, which reminds me how much writers share with students:

If you’re a consummate procrastinator–despite your best efforts to be otherwise–then you’ve undoubtedly waited until the last minute to start that research paper or read that book more than once.

The blog breaks its list down into several categories: Study Guides, Study Tools, Sharing Notes, Reference, Research, Writing, Presentation, Productivity, Brainstorming and Organizing and Miscellaneous. Aside from the study aids, this list looks very much like the kind of information Becoming A Writer – Seriously dwells on. And, as usual, I found some tools and resources there which I’d never heard about. I particularly like the list of organizational tools. I bet you’ll find something interesting there too.

MOTHERVOOK: MULTI-MEDIA BOOK CREATION TOOL

NOTE: This is breaking news, released only this morning. So far there is no information about how to access this tool, or what costs are involved. For more more about Vook, look at my recent post.

ALAMEDA, CA–(Marketwire – January 26, 2010) – Vook, the company that pioneered the integration of text and video into an innovative new multi-media experience, announced today the creation of MotherVook 1.0, a technology tool to provide a streamlined system for creating multi-media e-books, as well as an exclusive partnership with online video marketing services company, TurnHere. Vook’s industry leading publishing tool and increased video capacity through its partnership with TurnHere position the company to have an unmatched ability to scale to the massive production needs of the digital publishing industry and produce thousands of new titles in the coming year.

While publishers have rapidly increased their plans for multi-media e-book titles, they have grappled with finding the most effective system for creating these new content mediums. The MotherVook 1.0 tool addresses this need by providing a system that can cost-effectively scale to all production needs for multi-media e-books from multiple publishers and partners. Vook’s industry leading digital publishing technology has been developed through the multi-media e-book titles it has created with some of the world’s largest publishing houses and media companies, including Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins and Hachette Fillipacci Media.

Vook’s partnership with TurnHere will provide the company with a significant video capacity, a key element to the multi-media e-book experience. TurnHere’s network of more than 12,000 professional filmmakers across more than 70 countries produces broadcast-quality online video content for companies across the media, publishing, travel, local and small business industries.

“We are entering an explosive time for the digital publishing industry; multi-media e-books will be coming out at a significantly increased pace and we’ve developed the MotherVook 1.0 tool to be able to scale to the quickly growing plans for thousands of new titles,” said Bradley Inman, CEO and founder of Vook. “Our partnership with TurnHere and development of the MotherVook 1.0 tool position Vook to be the leader in the publishing industries’ transition to new frontier of multi-media digital publishing.”

Feature highlights of the MotherVook 1.0 tool include:

--  Central database management of all of the multi-media elements in an
    multi-media ebook (a Vook) including the text, vook jacket, e-commerce,
    pricing, video, links and images.
--  Production of single XML doc that feeds across different devices and
    formats instantly.
--  Streamlined text (epub) or word importing.
--  Instant preview with partners, publishers, filmmakers and authors.
--  Simple insert of assets to edit, preview and create vook to the web
    version, iphone and other devices.
--  Capacity to create multiple titles for the web version and preview
    mode.

VIDEO: EIGHT WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA

Look over in the sidebar for a video by Lewis Howes offering eight simple steps to building identity in the social media. He declares that writers like himself need presence in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. He wrote a guidebook to getting the most out of LinkedIn — it’s titled LinkedWorking, and it is tied to the website LinkedWorking. You can find the book at Amazon, where reader reviews give it 4 out of 5 stars. You can also find this video at VIDEO FOR WRITERS.