STORYIST

Joel Friedlander has posted a very important review of Storyist, a word processor for the Mac [$59.00], aimed at novelists and script writers — but with an important new feature:  saving one’s work in ePub format.  That’s a really big deal, as Joel explains.  Read his post — one of the more important ones for writers I’ve read lately.  After reading the review, then head over the the Storyist homepage.  Then, while you are at it, look at a post on The Bookwright:  Do iPad or Do I Kindle, which is an excellent overview of all the options writers should keep in mind as they look to the future.

JOTPRESS – THE EASY WAY TO BLOG

New to the internet is JotPress.  Posting messages on the web has never been easier.  Just write your post in your email program and send it to post@jotpress.com.  Done!  No software maintenance, no fuss, no cost.  But, of course, first you’ve got to sign up, which is simple to do.

This service is so new that it is difficult now to foresee just how it will shape up.  Take a look at the KillerStartups description.  The JotPress website is currently so spare that it doesn’t give you much information to go on.  But it looks like it may have to potential of becoming an interesting open community where one can attract new people to one’s work.

DOCS PORTAL

If you use Google Docs and own an iPad, you may wish to look into DocsPortal for iPad, by Kabukivision.  This $4.00 application allows one to find, view and import/export documents from a Goggle Docs account.  While one cannot edit documents within the application, one can export them to iWorks for editing.  The applica;tion is available in the iTunes Store.

READ ANY BOOK

I don’t know how this website has managed to do it, but Read Any Book  is making a lot of books, even contemporary best sellers by Dan Brown and Dean Koontz, available for free online reading.  There are limitations.  Books cannot be downloaded.  They must be read in the site’s online reader, which is certainly not quite up to standard.

RUMBLEFISH & FRIENDLY MUSIC

Have you ever wanted to create a YouTube video but have been worried about access to “legal” background music?  Rumblefish can help.  This website has been around for a couple of years, specializing in music licensing aimed at productions for businesses, TV and other commercial enterprises.  It has a huge library of pre-cleared music, along with a handy “rate calculator” to indicate cost for one’s projected useage.  If you are a big-time writer with a major advertising campaign, Rumblefish can save time and money with your music licensing.  Just visit its Music Licensing Store.

  But what about a “personal” video, rather than a major advertising piece, something you intend to self-produce and throw up on YouTube?   You can now turn to the new Friendly Music service, which already offers over 35,000 selectionsc available  for $1.99 a pop.  With careful writing — hey, you’re a writer, right? — you can bring attention to your books, your characters, your writing projects as your personal creations, not as blatant advertisements, accompanied by licensed music.  No more worries about potential copyright infringement.

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I’m sharing here just the very best of the best for writers concerned about building their careers — blogs and websites that I recommend that you visit on a regular basis.

THE CREATIVE PENN — productivity and more

Joanna Penn and I tread down similar pathways with our blogs.  The difference?  She does it so much better than i do!  Every time I come up with a new idea to introduce into my blogging life, I discover that Joanna’s already doing it.  E-books, podcasts, screencasts, Aweber mailing list management, harnessing of the social media and more.  And Joanna also writes blog posts on many of the topics that I cover.  Visit her site — and be sure to click on the Author 2.0 free download, a virtual road map to building your professional career.  Insider tip:  follow Joanna on Twitter.  She scours the internet for the best posts of the day and shares her findings via tweets, rather than in her blog.

SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER — building your platform

The brain-child of Michael Stelzner, whose blog White Papers has long been popular with copywriters, the Social Media Examiner promises to guide you through “the social media jungle.”  Stelzner has attracted a group of experts to share their knowledge on how best to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media.  While many blogs cover this area, none is as comprehensive or as helpful as this one.

THE BOOK DESIGNER — how your writing “looks” matters

Writers often don’t pay much attention to how their work “looks.”  Many just shove that responsibility off on a publisher or simply follow the easiest route to self-publication, which too many times takes the form of a drab Microsoft Office document turned into a PDF.  Blogger and graphic designer Joel Friedlander aims to help writers do better with his new blog The Book Designer. His subject matter, in fact, stretches way beyond just book design and is becoming indispensible for writers serious about their career.

SELF-PUBLISHING REVIEW — tips about the right way to self-publish

Self-Publishing Review is an online magazine which should be on every author’s frequent reading list.  But it is more than just a collection of news stories.  It is developing into an engaging community of writers and readers.  Here’s the way it describes itself:

“Self-Publishing Review is a central site devoted to self-publishing news and reviews. It is also a social network where writers, readers, and everyone can join and connect, so please register. The aim of the site is to improve the attitude toward self-publishing and help authors find readers.”

THE BOOK PROMOTION BLOG — how to sell yourself and your books

While there are a number of fine blogs and websites about promoting and selling one’s books, in my view John Kremer’s blog and his related sites are the very best.  One can subscribe to receive this blog via email. John will not inundate you with posts, but they will come frequently enough to remind writers to continually think about book promotion.  Be sure also to check out John website, which contains a lot of useful resource material.  John is also the main force behind The Bookmarketing Network, an invaluable forum for writers.

MEDIA BISTRO — joining the community

Writing is, of course, a solitary craft.  But writers should not spend all their time in the garret.  In fact, it’s important to feel like one is part of the bigger community of writers.  Media Bistro and its constellation of activities offers just that kind of community.  No matter where you live, Media Bistro will bring you into the fold.  It’s Daily Morning Briefing email newsletter is one of the first I read every day.  I’ve joined its affiliated membership group AvantGuild.  I’ve taken some of its online courses and have even arranged my travel schedule to attend a couple of its events.  Even though I live in far-off Manila, I still feel like I’m part of the thriving community of writers in the US.

READ WRITE WEB — my Sunday morning read

Read Write Web has grown beyond its original purpose of covering topics of interest to professionals who find themselves writing on the web.  It now covers the web more generally, with lots of articles about social media, new software applications, cloud computing and so forth.  I make it a habit to review the site every Sunday, when it publishes a list of its top stories of the week.  I, as a writer, almost always find something worth a full read.

A BONUS SITE:  LIFEHACKER — not just for writers

Lifehacker is the grand-daddy of the personal productivity websites.  It covers a broad sweep of topics — but they all boil down to how to get things done better, faster, cheaper.  The blog has many contributors and its audience is huge.

CONCLUSION

In our busy world, who can possibly keep up with 101 websites?  For me these seven will suffice.

But what about Becoming A Writer — Seriously,  you ask?  [You did ask, didn't you?]  Well, I view this site more like a reference book handy on one’s work table.  I try to catch important information for writers as soon as I can.  But all that gets shoved into one of the “chapters” listed on the right sidebar, where it’s always available for reference.  Three to four thousand unique visitors come to this blog from search engines each month, all searching out some particular piece of information.  I’m pleased to see that many stick on the site for awhile, digging around for other material.

So do keep us in mind.  Still, bookmark the sites above for a weekly visit — those are the ones that can make a real difference to you and your career.

QUESTION:  WHAT SITES WOULD YOU ADD TO THIS LIST?

Do you have a website or blog that you yourself consider indispensable to you as a writer?  Share it with us — and explain why it is so important to you.

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IPHONE & IPAD:  EXTENDING THE REACH OF EBOOKS

While most of the attention at last week’s announcement of the new iPhone OS 4.0 focused on application multi-tasking, writers will be most interested to learn that iBooks will be supported on the iPhone.  In other words, one will be able to read many of the books in the iBook store on their iPhone, as well as on their iPad.

TWITTER CHEAT SHEET

If you are still unsure about how to use Twitter, take a look at the Twitter Cheat Sheet post at Web Worker Daily.  This is the best short summary of Twitter inner-workings I’ve come across, so useful that I’ve saved a copy into my How-To file in EverNote for easy reference.

GOOGLE DOCS MAJOR UPDATE

Google has upped the ante in its competition with Microsoft Word, with a major upgrade of its Google Apps announced today.  Mashable reports the changes in a particularly detailed post.  A particular focus of the upgrade is in the online application’s collaboration features, where it moves to the head of the class.

The MICROSOFT PERSPECTIVE

The Telegraph UK reported some time back that Microsoft has released a beta of its own online Office tools via Windows Live, taking on Google Docs and Zoho on their own turf.  As you’ve probably heard, the forthcoming Microsoft Office 2010 intends to integrate its desktop application with online capabilities.  Included will be free online storage of documents via Sky Drive.  Hmmm, I wonder who will win this particular war?  I’m betting on Microsoft.  What do you think?

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WHAT AN EXTRAORDINARY TIME it is for “the book.”  Just what it “is” keeps getting redefined, as new technological innovation keeps coming up with different interpretations.  The latest I’ve come across is Text 2.0, which introduces rather remarkable physical interaction between book and reader.

What if, for example, the physical book might somehow know exactly what words one is reading at any given moment?  And what if the book could somehow respond, offering new content, translations, word pronunciation and more?  It’s a bizarre concept, difficult to comprehend.

Well, there are people working on such a thing.  Words don’t do the concept justice, so take a look at this video.

As a writer, do you see any utility for this kind of innovation?  To understand what the tech world is making of it all, read the articles linked below, all of them published online today.

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This comic strip came along at an appropriate time for me.  Just a few days ago here in Manila, we had a major awards night for Philippine graphic novels.  Bet you didn’t know that graphic novels — book length comic strips, more or less — have been popular in the Philippines for quite awhile, and some of the best anonymous illustrators now in the US are Filipino.

I find it an interesting branch of writing, more to it than immediately strikes the eye.  I bet this genre will be hugely popular on tablet e-readers.  A good thing, as comic strips are beginning to disappear from daily newspapers.

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The International Herald Tribune, in its weekend edition, carried a think piece by Michiko Kakutani that I find very sobering.  In the IHT, it is titled “Snip her, paste there: Onslaught of digital age makes perplexing jumble of our former certainties.” In the parent New York Times, it is titled “Texts Without Context,” and it is available online. As writers and custodians of culture, we should be very alarmed.

Here are some snippets:

• “…online collectivism, social networking and popular software designs are changing the way people think and process information…”
• “…increased internet use is rewiring our brains, impairing our ability to think deeply and creatively even as it improves our ability to multitask.”
• “We all may read books the way we increasingly read magazines and newspapers: a little bit here, a little bit there.”

Kakutani rummages through the growing literature that explores the disruptive consequences of our wired world and cites disturbing observation after disturbing observation.  As I read through the article, I couldn’t help but wonder:  what are the effects on writers?  What role are we to play in keeping our cultures grounded, in underscoring the commonality of the human condition?  Or will the forces of fragmentation simply overpower culture, leading to increasing conflict at every turn.  Will authors simply become irrelevant, except as partisans for increasingly narrow interests and points of view.

I’m not optimistic.  I see nothing but fragments here, fragments there, with nothing stitching it all back together.  Read Kakutani’s article to get a full sense of the situation.

I think it will take a generation at least to come to terms with the new realities.  In the meantime, I’m tempted to just lay down my pen, knowing that anything I write will simply add to the mess.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

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Self-Publishing Review  is the brainchild of Los Angeles novelist Harry Baum.  It’s been around for awhile, but it’s just recently gotten a significant overhaul.  While anyone can visit and browse, writers should consider “joining” the community to gain full access to the site.  Members can post to the blog, though posts are held for approval before they appear online.  They can also participate in group discussions.   These features open up the site to lots of different inputs and points of view.

A major feature of the site are detailed reviews of self-published books.  Most are traditional reviews of a book’s literary qualities.  More helpful to authors aiming at self-publication are more recent reviews of the design of individual self-published books, written by book designer Joel Friedlander.  Joel is very specific in his observations, pointing out exactly what he likes and what he thinks could have been improved.  By reading these reviews, potential self-publishers can pick up a lot of tips about how to approach book and cover design.  I find these reviews fascinating.  Joel also maintains an exceptionally useful blog at The Book Designer.  When you visit his blog, consider downloading the free booklet about prepping one’s files for uploading to Lightning Source — and subscribe to his free newsletter.  He has a Facebook Fan Page too.

Speaking of design, Self-Publishing Review identifies on its Resources page a useful book cover design tool.  I’ve never come across it before.

• Book Cover Pro — a program dedicated to turning out reasonably good covers.  I’ll be trying it out myself.

Following through a series of links, I eventually found another website with a number of tools that may be of interest to self-publishers:  Self-Pub Net.

AND ANOTHER SELF-PUBLISHING REVIEW

Actually, there’s yet another website with similar title, but it’s located as a blog at Blogspot:  The Self-Publishing Review.  This blog is maintained by Jane Smith out of the United Kingdom.  She has been active as a writer, researcher and editor for 20 years.  This blog does serious reviews of self-published books.  If you’ve got a book out already, look into this blog for a potential review.

Jane also maintains How Publishing Really Works, which gets more into the nuts and bolts of publishing.  This site is open to guest bloggers.

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I covered this software back in January.  Hey, guys, keep these tips coming.

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For you novelists out there, here’s a great chance to help create the software of your own dreams.  Pass on your ideas.  And if you haven’t already done so, download the current version 1.70 for a test run.

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What makes it possible is a free open-source software Open Journal Systems (OJS), made available by the Public Knowledge Project.  Once the software is installed on a host server, it will handle journal design, track article submissions and more.  Kroski’s article explains it all.  Central to scholarly journals is the peer-review process:  nothing is published until it passes muster with scholarly peers.  OJS helps to manage this process.

Kroski also gives links to several example journals, including Health and Human Rights:  An International Journal and Ecology and Society.

Having never heard about open source journals, I of course did a Google search. Lo and behold, I discovered a list of 13 open-source journal publishing programs.  And Google lead me to a Directory of Open Access Journals, not really the same thing exactly, but I’m guessing many are published by one of the open-source publishing programs.  Anyway, there are currently 1850 of them listed there!

So…  for those of you who want to Become A Writer — REALLY SERIOUSLY!: Look into scholarly publishing.  And while you are at it, why not use the newly released upgrade to the free open-source suite OpenOffice 3.2.

By the way, do any academics, scholars or teachers read this blog? Would love to hear from you.

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