Digital Detox

I have just completed my first digital detox experience! The holidays and five days in California gave me a rare chance to unplug and relax.

Tempted to try the same?  Maybe you, or a family member, are ready for a detoxification from the constant onslaught of screens, beeps, email, social media and thousands of other tempting distractiong. Oh, they're still out there, but maybe you won't miss them if you take a sanity break for a few days.


Before you start your tech break, consider reading this first-person article: The Digital Detox: How and Why to Do It, by Nora Dunn.

[cross-posted on Computer Clarity blog.]

"Real artists ship."

This should be especially interesting to those of you who, like me, crave more time for writing. We put in a lot of face time at the screen and keyboard, but perhaps the following excerpt from  Notes From My Desk, the weekly motivational blast from Mridu Khullar explains why we aren't shipping the goods, metaphorically speaking...

Productive people ship, as she quotes Steve Jobs who said "“Real artists ship.”

Mridu continues:
"It’s not about how many blog posts you can write or how much you can tweet or how many relationships with editors you can build, though all of those things are important. What matters most, is how many words you can write, how many projects you can finish, how quickly and how often you can ship. How are you going to use those relationships? What is the purpose of the blog posts? Is tweeting taking you away from your goal of shipping?"

You can read her full post here.

Does technology bring us closer or further apart?

Poet Rita Dove, in The Writer's Chronicle, was asked how the audience for her current anthology differs from the audience for older poetry anthologies published in the 1970s. Her response likely resonates with many of us...

"It's tempting to think we're connecting on websites and so-called social networks, while we're actually turning into physical hermits in the guise of social butterflies, fluttering about in our quotidian cocoons of cyberspace."

One can only hope at least a few of us will be as articulate after we survive a few more years of social media and its related distractions.

Helen Gallagher

Do you measure up online?

We used to measure our popularity and successful relationships by the number of friends we had; those who exchanged birthday cards, met for lunch, sat on the front porch on a summer night. now, though, our friends are measured by the activity in our social media sites.

We measure our business success perhaps by a fully booked calendar, making large bank deposits from speaking gigs and book sales, or signing contracts for lucrative freelance writing.

Who knew that today's mark of "Success" is defined instead by social media? How many followers are enough to make you popular? If you have more social media traffic, are you inclined to make more frequent posts?? Is it an effective way for you to keep in touch with close friends?

A recent Writer's Digest article posted counts for notable pageviews for writers trying to prove they have a decent following for their work.

Notable numbers are high, starting with:

Blog page views: 20,000/month 
Twitter followers: 5,000 followers or newsletter subscribers
Speaking appearances to 1,000 people per year
Book sales total:  4,000 for self-published nonfiction, 2,000 for fiction


By those standards, most of us are lurkers - reading just the blogs and Facebook/twitter feeds we can scan in a few minutes.

Don't take it too seriously though. It's summer, and we know where our real friends are - out on the porch, reading a good book.

What's all the interest in Pinterest?

We can't seem to go a day without an inquiry or news item about Pinterest. Like a virtual bulletin board, you use it to pin images that interest you, and share them with others. Or just browse those of interest to get ideas for design, decorating, recipes, style, etc. An attendee at yesterday's blogging workshop mentioned one blog post she put there resulted in 300 new visitors to her blog. Others use it as a design board, idea board, or promotional tool.

Sample Pinterest Board

If it interests, you, you can read more about it here at a post on Freelance-Zone. 


Then, visit Pinterest and see if you want to get started. You have to request an invitation to participate, but you don't have to sign up to browse all the images.Like most social media, it is free, so all you have to lose is time... time... time. 

Klout: Measure your social media strength

At a workshop last Saturday, I displayed the new Klout factor - a measure of your reach on social media.  (klout.com). Here's a small sample screen:



To see the power of this new popularity tool, here's an article from Cision Navigator that displays the top ten crafts blogs based on their scores.

In the grand scheme of visibility, this can teach you two things:

1. See how easy it now is to find, not just blogs in your area of interest, but drill down to the top ten in a category.
2. Shows you the importance of integrating your social media - not just Facebook or Twitter, but staying visible among all social network tools. Some people may be glued to Twitter while others prefer using Facebook, and many focused individuals prefer Linkedin, to focus on their most important contacts and resources.

You may not want to sign up with Klout.com, but knowing its now a useful way to measure online visibility, it may prove useful to you.

Feb. 11, 2012 Lawyers for the Creative Arts hosts DIY Publishing and more...

I have attended this even in the past and it is a wonderful learning opportunity. Hope to see you there:

Pen to Digital Press: DIY Publishing in the Digital Age

Date: Saturday, February 11th Time: 9 A.M. - 6 P.M. Place: John Marshall Law School, 315 S. Plymouth Court, Chicago, IL 60604 On Saturday, February 11th, Lawyers for the Creative Arts and John Marshall Law School will host an all day symposium titled Pen to Digital Press: DIY Publishing in the Digital Age. This day long program will feature a diverse group of speakers from the writing and publishing professions, professors of law and literature, and members of LCA's Staff and Board of Directors. A detailed program will follow. Topics to be covered include: 1. Overview of Publishing in the Digital Age: Perspectives and Alternatives; 2. Choosing a Publisher: Contracts and Other Pitfalls; 3. Taking It to the Bank: Monitoring Your Sales and Reading Your Royalty Statement; 4. Problematic Content: Solving Privacy and Defamation Issues; Collaborating; and Legally Using Third-Party Content; and 5. How to Become an Outrageously Successful Author: Using Social and Other Media. This not-to-be-missed program will include lively round table lunch discussions on hot topics of the day, ranging from how to write a query to idea protection to writing for television to Q & A with literary agents and entertainment lawyers. We will also host a book signing and networking reception at the close and authors are encouraged to bring their books.  Local writers, law and college students, professors, and attorneys are all encouraged to attend.   Full details are available here.   Registration fee is a real value: $85/person, including lunch and our written materials* $55 for each student currently enrolled in a full-time higher education program** * 3.0 MCLE Hours are anticipated. * *Complimentary for JMLS students and faculty. Sponsorship opportunities are available by contacting Marci Rolnik at LCA: mrolnik@law-arts.org or (312) 649-4111.

Tweet like you mean business.

While Twitter doesn't lend itself to deep conversations, there are still ways you can create a good impression and get results with it.

MediaBistro.com has a article on seven ways to network more effectively on Twitter. The full article is here.
Of course, it all starts with following the right people. Two other helpful suggestions are to retweet useful information, which I've mentioned here before, and to ask questions. It is an effective tool for peer opinions and to let people know what you're thinking about or working on.

I'm at twitter.com#cclarity if you want to follow me.

Helen

"Platform" continues to be the operative word in success for writers

I stress the importance of platform when speaking with writers, especially those trying to attract the attention of an agent and publisher. A strong, polished presence on Facebook, a good blog, and lots of friends on Twitter and now also Google+ seems t be the minimum requirement for the foundation of a solid platform.

Now today, I saw an ad for freelance writer/bloggers for a health/fitness site, and their platform request went beyond the basics to this:

"... Send us 3 pithy, information-packed sentences about yourself, along with your CV (cut and paste, no attachments), 3-5 links to your best published work, and at least 2 links to your social profiles
(Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon etc.) "

The hiring firm produces an organic healthy food and lifestyle magazine. By requiring you to prove the strength of your social media connections, you can see they want you to have an audience, so you can not only blog for them, but publicize it everywhere, not just in your online portfolio at Facebook and your own blog. Making money online starts with the sites attracting readers, which pays for advertising. If you can bring the readers, you're ahead of other writers who apply.

If you want the specifics on the above job listing, email me at Helen@releaseyourwriting.com.

Timely quote

I love the imagery in this quote from Geoffrey Nunberg in the New York Times Book Review section on March 20, 2011 about the enormity of data in our world today. He is speaking of the proliferation of information and internet chatter that has removed writing and reading from a solitary pursuit to a community activity.

"It's as if we've torn down the walls of the library, and now the

reading room is full of street people."

I picture the area around the New York Public Library  suddenly becoming the basis for all the chatter and cross-talk taking the place of lovely books. On my first visit to that venerable institution, I enjoyed the beauty of the reading room, years before technology overtook quiet. Not finding a single book available for browsing, I asked the desk attendant, and was told "If you want a book, fill out this slip to ask for it and wait while someone brings it to you."  Growing up in Chicago where I could browse the library from the age of 5, and take home as many books as I wished, the New York experience left a mark on me. I've been collecting books for my personal library ever since.

For Teen Writers: The Right Kind of Social Media

Harper Collins has launched InkPop - a social media site geared to teen writers, and aspiring writers. Book projects are chosen to be reviewed by Harper Collins editors, there is a weekly writing project, pop culture news, videos, teen trends and more.



It looks like a worthy place to hang out, both for teens and adults writing for teens:

Along with searching for more manuscripts from our inkpop community, we’re also working on developing more outlets where readers and writers can just get their ideas in front of editors here. We realize that writing a full novel is difficult and not something that every teen can do every day. We also realize that they are full of great ideas and we want to empower our members to share those ideas with us, so that instead of editors in a room creating books that they think teens will like, teens will really be helping to create the books they want to read.

It's 2011: Do You Know Where YOUR Platform Is?

Writers need visibility online, and in every workshop I give, the subject of platform surfaces. I draw charts, give examples, explain the foundation, yet most writers and authors make a minor, confused effort, groping around in social media without results.

While the state of online media is relatively stable now, use this time to jump in or update your existing presence online. The outreach you can do with the internet costs very little, and is a tremendous benefit in building your platform. In return for greater visibility, your job is to find five or ten sites to set up a profile, keep track of your log-in and passwords, and return frequently to be part of the community.

Here are a few good resources to get you started:

1. authorcentral.amazon.com
2. facebook
3. linkedin.in writing groups
4. mediabistro.com and avantguild (fee)
5. redroom.com
6. shewrites.com

and most important:  YOUR BLOG or WEBSITE..

Publisher's Weekly related article.

Worldwide Blogs

In workshops, I always remind people that the Web is indeed Worldwide. As such, we are missing a huge market if we don't attempt to reach beyond US borders in our blogs. As a reminder, here's where the US stands in the global picture. Notice the tremendous potential you are missing if you aren't targeting our Canadian friends, with useful blog posts, links to Amazon in Canada, etc.   Make a goal for the 4th quarter of 2010 to stretch your reach:  Plan now to expand your reach in 2011.

11-10-11 NOTICE Chart has been corrected by provider:

Graph source: Technorati.com / State of the Blogosphere