August 2010
54 posts
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Write for Your Life goes mobile →
Last month I relaunched my other blog, Write for Your Life, with some slight restructuring and a wonderful new design by the marvellous Matt Pearce.
However, it didn’t quite work on mobile phones. The design was fine, but the podcasts and videos simply wouldn’t function.
So this weekend I set about creating a custom mobile version of the site using Mobify, which I can now highly...
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“The Kindle is now very affordable and the iPad is like the sexiest book in the...”
– Self-publishing and ebooks do not create a level playing field for writers | Write for Your Life
A choice quote from a video and post I’ve just put up on Write for Your Life about ebooks, technology and us scribblers. If you’ve been reading this blog over the last month, you’ll...
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Canned – iPhone App Designed by Sky Balloon →
minimalmac:
Send a canned message in under 2 seconds!* It’s as easy as launch, select, send!
We have all been in the situation. Perhaps while driving (which I in no way advocate), or in a meeting, you need to send a quick text message to someone. Usually, it’s the same person or group of people – your spouse, your daycare, your team. Usually, it’s the same message – “Stuck in traffic, running...
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Minimal Mac: What's in your Simplenote? →
Some of the old timers may remember one of Apple’s most famous ad campaigns – “What’s on your Powerbook?”. In it, celebrities and some regular folk were pictured with their Powerbooks and revealed in text were some of the things they used it for. Even back then, I was highly fascinated by the tools people use and how they use them and this fed that crave quite nicely.
With the new release of...
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Publishing is Dead, Long Live Publishing →
Time will tell whether other leading authors adopt a similar model [as Seth Godin]. For an author, nothing is better than being able to get closer to your reader. The question is whether this model will work and whether other authors have the personal brand, the distribution platform and most importantly the courage to try something like this. I’d argue that if book publishers followed the...
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Watch
I was asked by Mary Clark on Twitter if I would share a synopsis of my novel. I realised it’s something I haven’t really done, despite having my own little corner of the blogosphere.
So I recorded this.
Rest assured the novel itself sports a considerable amount more clarity and order.
This was on my recently abandoned Posterous blog. It belongs here, really.
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“Books are one of the last refuges in our world from the constant cry by...”
– Epublishers Weekly: A Protest Against the Commercialization of Ebooks
Not for long, I suspect. Not for long.
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Forget Ads In Books, Lit-Lovers Face An Even More... →
It’s much more appropriate to draw a parallel between books and film. There’s a reason why movie theatres don’t show commercials in the middle of films: advertising jars you away from the narrative, like a boxing glove on a telescopic arm suddenly punching through the fourth wall. People go to the cinema, or slip in a DVD, to escape from the commercially saturated real world; much the same...
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The Highest-Paid Authors | Forbes.com →
Fellow authors of new literary fiction, look away now:
Publishers are feeling the heat, with hardcover sales weak and the rise of e-books promising to upend their business models. But the world’s 10 top-earning authors are making out just fine, earning a combined $270 million over the 12 months to June 1.
James Patterson’s $70 million in earnings vaults him to No. 1 on our list, up...
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“And indeed, if we do not dwell on both on what is extraordinary about the...”
– Bobulate
Such a great quote, and, more importantly, a fantastic point.
We torture ourselves with things-we-haven’t-done-yet and really, there’s no need. Instead, we should find a balance and be content with what we know, instead of obsessing about what we might know if we keep on...
Between grammar and a coffee place →
bobulate:
Lynne Rosenthal, an English professor from Manhattan, was forcibly ejected from a Starbucks after a lexicon dispute with a barista:
According to the New York Post, Lynne Rosenthal ordered a “toasted multigrain bagel” and was outraged that a barista had the nerve to ask her “butter or cheese?” “I refused to say ‘without butter or cheese.’ When you go to Burger King, you don’t have to...
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A free, accessible video player →
We’re big on accessibilty at The Workshop, my splendid employers. So much so that we’ve decided to release our accessible video play for free.
Some users need captions or an audio description to make video accessible. Others use technologies like screen readers to help them use the web. This means that websites must be designed and created in a certain way to remain accessible. Our...
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“It doesn’t matter where you stand on the traditional book versus e-book debate,...”
–
Jill K. Robinson. In her current Five Places column in the San Francisco Chronicle she looks at five West Coast bookish destinations.
Five places: Ones for the books
(via bookpatrol)
(via teachingliteracy)
Well, yeah, I guess that’s true. But that’s not what the debate’s...
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Open your writing mind with the morning papers |... →
Morning pages include as much bitching and whining about anything and everything that you can muster. They are a useful way for you to exorcise any worries or problems before you embark on your journey through the day.
Here’s an interesting guest post by fellow Tumblr user, Helia Pheonix, on my other site, Write for Your Life.
It’s a really interesting technique and one I’d...
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WatchVideo: The Edinburgh festival’s oddest theatre locations | Culture | guardian.co.uk
I performed at Edinburgh a couple of years ago. It was to an audience of very young children. I had a crocodile on my hand. True story.
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“People are replacing — whether recycling or just disposing —...”
– Why the Book Publishing Industry Hates the iPad | Computing | GreenBiz.com
Another great article on the ‘greenness’ of e-readers, this time focusing on the iPad. By the way, I am still getting an iPad as soon as financially possible.
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Is e-reading really greener? →
The emergence of e-book readers, starting with the release of Amazon’s Kindle in November 2007 and through the launch of Apple’s iPad in April 2010, is changing the book industry. No doubt about that. But is it also making reading more sustainable? Is it really greener to abandon the good old print-on-paper book for a cool gadget that holds hundreds of books without causing back strain?
I...
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California Coffeehouses and Book Culture →
In defining their values and the values of their customers, owners working to remove electronic devices from their cafés have drawn a definite distinction – print books are cultured, electronic books are not.
The problem with defining the values of your customers, and for sake of argument let’s say all readers, is that a) it won’t work, e-readers are here and they’re here...
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In order to write plainly...
I’m a copywriter with a thing for plain English. There are plenty of copywriters (and writers in general) who don’t have a thing for plain English. They think it stifles creativity and brings about uneccesary limitations. But that’s nonsense.
Plain English is about writing for real people. It’s about speaking clearly and concisely to an audience.
Yes, you have to make...
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FirstPlaces. A prototype thing for digital... →
A great post by Chris Thorpe, developer extraordinaire and all-round good egg who was part-responisble for the Guardian’s wonderful Open Platform.
A while ago I had the privilege of being invited by the lovely Tiina Carr and Joanne Mateer of The Workshop to visit Sheffield and their lovely offices for the day and help come up with ideas around Digital Inclusion. It produced some really...
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Why writers should always have more than one...
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British Book Design and Production Awards 2010 |... →
As a writer who works for a design company, things like this tickle my fancy.
We all judge books by their covers. We can’t help it. Especially since the publishing industry uses them so explicitly to ‘tell us what it is’.
Black cover + Gold Serif + Something that could easily be used as a weapon = Crime novel
So when thoughtful, considered design gets rewarded, well,...
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“How quickly our perception of a situation can change. On a day when I’d been...”
– Why Blackouts Are Perfect Creative Time! « Creativity’s Workshop
It’s the endless clutter and I’m as guilty as anyone. It’s also why I think the notion of a muse is just a nonsense. Remove the clutter - my internet connection, my gas bill, my constant daydreaming - and...
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Things this blog was almost called
Quick disclaimer. I did not sit and spend time thinking of these on my own. It was a group activity, including much laughter at my expense.
Broominations
Panic Broome
Chat Broome
Broome with a view
Broome for movement
Broome at the top
Broome 101
Dressing Broome
Dark Broome
Feel free to add to the list.
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WatchBruno Maag on Helvetica (by The Workshop)
This clip is taken from a talk Bruno gave at one of The Workshop’s (where I work) Design Talks sessions.
I’m no font-master, but to hear one of the world’s most celebrated typographers speaking with so much passion and energy was an absolute treat.
He doesn’t think much of Helvetica, mind you. ‘I mean… look at...
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Critiquing etiquette: six ways to provide gracious... →
Give yourself a deadline to return the feedback – or even better, get the writer to provide you with one. If you can’t in good faith provide feedback in that timeframe, don’t agree to take the piece.
This is taken from an excellent guest post on my other blog, Write for Your Life. I’m pretty good at giving feedback, but must admit to falling into this trap from time to time. It really...
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20 classic works of gay literature →
fwriction:
“Today U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker struck down Proposition 8, ruling that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry.”
Thank you, Carolyn Kellogg! This is a wonderful list.
I’m from the UK, so consider this reblog a transatlantic high-five.
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“Get your story moving or get it the heck off the freeway. If you’re going to...”
– Precision Writing | Tumblemoose
There’s a fine line between perfectionism and being over fussy. But I do agree with this last sentence. Although I suppose it depends on the definition of ‘out there’.
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Self-Publishing: Who Needs a Publisher Anymore? →
Until recently, reviewers and booksellers looked down on self-published authors the way Anna Wintour scorns Dress Barn. Now new writers and established authors alike are increasingly taking publishing into their own hands, and the publishing establishment is paying attention.
I refer you back to my post yesterday about this. I’m more than happy for the publishing industry to change, so...
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“Screen Yorkshire distributes Regional Investment Fund for England (RIFE) lottery...”
– CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FROM WRITERS & PRODUCERS
Well hooray for that.
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To Posterous
What on earth were you thinking with that awful campaign to attract new users by slagging off other platforms? You big idiot.
Bye then
Iain
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Dearest Tumblr
I am sorry that I left you. It was a mistake. I thought other platforms were better suited to my muddled needs. But I was wrong. And now I’m back. Back with my proper username - my actual name - and a new URL and blog title, which is silly but appropriate.
You are now my everything. My place to post about writing. My place to post about writing that is mine.
Love and bookmarklets
Iain
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Should photos in photo-sharing sites have... →
(via laurawhitehead)
One for my fellow copywriters this. And for those non-copywriters who think that copywriting is all about straplines and, yer know, just writing stuff. Turns out there’s more to it than that.
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“Jokes aside, there’s something we need to talk about that I reckon will have a...”
–
Pages of Hackney, via looceefir - an v interesting question posed here about whether ‘if we lose the very idea of big name, big reputation authors will people stop reading ambitious and literary work?’ (via jeanhannah)
Despite being a techno-minded writer, I’ve struggled to accept the idea...
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