Books, Blogs, and Beyond

Digital Literacy is an Essential Part of Literacy

By Tom Collins

Yvonne and I had a wonderful dinner last night with our friend and client, Sybil Stershic, and her husband Mike. Sybil found us a quiet little Italian restaurant in Canandaigua, NY, Casa de Pasta, where the food and service were excellent ...

But I digress ... it's a part of the enjoyable conversation we had last night, combined with Gord Hotchkiss' Search Insider piece that hit my inbox this morning, The New Speed of Information, I logged in to write about.

"Find Your Passion and Stand for Something Before You Die!"

By Tom Collins

There's some good advice.

It was given by our dear friend, author, and client, Dr. Claudia Thomas — through tears — as she spoke to a crowd gathered to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Africana Studies program at Vassar College.

Claudia spoke with authority. She risked her future, as a Vassar student back in 1969, leading 33 other young women in the takeover of the college's administative offices. Their purpose was to insist on a list of nine demands, including establishment of the experimental Black Studies program as a degree program with its own faculty and facilities. 

From today's perspective, it may be hard to appreciate how much Claudia and her classmates were putting on the line. After all, they won and their story is an accepted part of Vassar's history. 

Promoting Your Book in 2009

By Yvonne DiVita

It's not as hard as you may think. And, it's not as easy as you may think. But, in the end, it's after your book is completed - and published - that the real work begins. Regardless of how you published it, you are still the best person to market your book.

With the publishing industry changing so rapidly - big publishers cutting back on manuscripts, small publishers closing their doors, even POD companies cutting back on personnel, some people may think this is not a good time to write and promote a book.

They would be wrong. Write your book.

Typewriter to Bookstore video: Blogging a Higher Art Form?

By Tom Collins

Wondering why your book took 30 years to get published? How Second Life avatars fit into your book marketing plan? What makes author blogs "a higher artform" — as well as "far more lucrative" — than book publishing?

The helpful folks from the MacMillan Digital Marketing Team explain all (found via Guy Kawasaki's Tweet):

As with most humor (they are joking, right?), there are grains of truth and a serious topic or two in there, so perhaps we'll return to this another time.

Books, Blogs, and Beyond ... Publishing 3.0 ...

What's that all about?

Well, that's what we're going to explore in this blog, pulling together threads from our earlier separate blogs. From 140 characters on Twitter to 300 page hardcover books ... a blog as your social media base camp ... a book as your business brochure ... what does "publishing" mean in our continually evolving digital world?