S.A. Rule's Blog: Authors in the frontline, page 2
September 27, 2009
Musings on the importance of good design
My father was a graphic designer, so I suppose I grew up taking it for granted that good design mattered.
So few people seem to understand this. They confuse broadcasting with communication - broadcasting is transmitting information to a wide audience. Communication is a two way street. It involves listening and reading as well as talking and writing.
Bad design is just like bad writing. It detracts from the reader's ability to grasp what the person creating the page is trying to communicate. Good design matters.
What prompted this thought? Well, let me just say that stuffing your html masterpiece with the maximum content is not designing a website. And it helps to spell the names of your contributors right.
So few people seem to understand this. They confuse broadcasting with communication - broadcasting is transmitting information to a wide audience. Communication is a two way street. It involves listening and reading as well as talking and writing.
Bad design is just like bad writing. It detracts from the reader's ability to grasp what the person creating the page is trying to communicate. Good design matters.
What prompted this thought? Well, let me just say that stuffing your html masterpiece with the maximum content is not designing a website. And it helps to spell the names of your contributors right.
July 13, 2009
RIP the publishing industry
Quote from Carole Tonkinson, publisher for non fiction at Harper Collins, who claim to be "one of the world’s foremost English-language publishers, offering the best-quality content right across the spectrum"
She is speaking about HC commissioning a biography of Michael Jackson "to fill the space on the bookshop shelves":
"We started the project Monday afternoon, and by Thursday we had to give it to the designer to put together..."
And she's proud of this? What quality of book can they possibly have produced in this timescale?
Apart from the fact that there is a POD biography of Michael Jackson published by Authors on Line filling the UK's bookshop shelves more than adequately, thank you very much, this depressing tale of a scramble for 15-minutes of fame sums up all that is wrong with the publishing industry. It contributes nothing to the legacy of a great pop music talent. And if anyone has the nerve to tell me self-published books are inferior to commercially published ones....
She is speaking about HC commissioning a biography of Michael Jackson "to fill the space on the bookshop shelves":
"We started the project Monday afternoon, and by Thursday we had to give it to the designer to put together..."
And she's proud of this? What quality of book can they possibly have produced in this timescale?
Apart from the fact that there is a POD biography of Michael Jackson published by Authors on Line filling the UK's bookshop shelves more than adequately, thank you very much, this depressing tale of a scramble for 15-minutes of fame sums up all that is wrong with the publishing industry. It contributes nothing to the legacy of a great pop music talent. And if anyone has the nerve to tell me self-published books are inferior to commercially published ones....
June 15, 2009
New Shaihen Heritage trailer
I've just updated the Shaihen Heritage book trailer, and loaded it to YouTube - you should be able to see it by clicking here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b7v6h...
Anyone got any idea if I can publish it to GoodReads? And if so - how....?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b7v6h...
Anyone got any idea if I can publish it to GoodReads? And if so - how....?
June 3, 2009
Musical notes
Last weekend - so I understand from the media hype - saw the final of UK TV talent show "Britain's Got Talent". There's been all sorts of fuss and nonsense about a lady called Susan Boyle.
Susan has a truly wonderful, powerful voice and clearly loves singing. The celebrity nonsense which surrounds this idiot programme and the insane view of the world which claims one talented and creative artist is "better" than another one is doing its level best to destroy both Susan's happiness and her talent.
I wish Susan joy and pleasure in song, and hope someone gives her a copy of Kipling's poem, If.
"If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same..."
That same weekend, I was at the local folk festival I help to organise. Around 350 people in a local pub, and some incredibly talented musicians - but no celebs. It was all about enjoying making music. And boy, did we have a brilliant, magnificent, superlative time - performers and audience alike!
As my partner in crime Keith put it in his "Festival Anthem", "When we all join together, we make a wonderful noise."
Oh yes indeedy. Stuff that in your talent show and smoke it.
Sue
Susan has a truly wonderful, powerful voice and clearly loves singing. The celebrity nonsense which surrounds this idiot programme and the insane view of the world which claims one talented and creative artist is "better" than another one is doing its level best to destroy both Susan's happiness and her talent.
I wish Susan joy and pleasure in song, and hope someone gives her a copy of Kipling's poem, If.
"If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same..."
That same weekend, I was at the local folk festival I help to organise. Around 350 people in a local pub, and some incredibly talented musicians - but no celebs. It was all about enjoying making music. And boy, did we have a brilliant, magnificent, superlative time - performers and audience alike!
As my partner in crime Keith put it in his "Festival Anthem", "When we all join together, we make a wonderful noise."
Oh yes indeedy. Stuff that in your talent show and smoke it.
Sue
May 13, 2009
I shouldn't let it get to me...
...but I do.
The resentment some people - and it is particularly prevalent in the Uk - show writers promoting their work on Good reads still gets under my skin.
This is a site for book-lovers. Some of those book-lovers write books as well as reading them. They don't do it to make a fortune, they do it to share stories, thoughts, and images of the world.
I can only assume the snipers are all failed authors themselves who nurse a spiteful jealousy of anyone with a more generous spirit.
I have lots of reviews from readers who delighted in sharing my literary journeys; but it only takes the one naysayer to discount ten good reviews and make me wish I'd left the manuscripts in the cupboard.
Well, what's a blog for if not to have a good old moan? Perhaps, too, pessimism is a British disease!
The resentment some people - and it is particularly prevalent in the Uk - show writers promoting their work on Good reads still gets under my skin.
This is a site for book-lovers. Some of those book-lovers write books as well as reading them. They don't do it to make a fortune, they do it to share stories, thoughts, and images of the world.
I can only assume the snipers are all failed authors themselves who nurse a spiteful jealousy of anyone with a more generous spirit.
I have lots of reviews from readers who delighted in sharing my literary journeys; but it only takes the one naysayer to discount ten good reviews and make me wish I'd left the manuscripts in the cupboard.
Well, what's a blog for if not to have a good old moan? Perhaps, too, pessimism is a British disease!
May 4, 2009
I think it's time I had a blog....
...goodness knows when I'll find time to write a blog. Probably in the wee small hours, so it is likely to ramble around the more obscure regions of my brain.
At the moment, I am in folk musician mode. I have just returned from Rochester's Mayday celebrations, the Sweeps Festival - so named because it was the traditional holiday (THE traditional holi-DAY, there was only the one...) for London's chimney sweeps, including of course the children who used to climb the chimneys. (One band did actually start to play Chim-chim-n-nee from Mary Poppins, but they were French - so we'll let them off!)
It's now a three-day folk festival featuring end-to-end Morris dance teams along the historic Rochester High Street. It's quite a spectacle especially when the sun shines - which it did, this year. It isn't looking back to Merrie England through rose-tinted glasses; it is actually celebrating Britain's folk heritage and having a damn good time with it. Something we simply don't do enough of in England.
The band I play with, Pig's Ear, run a stage in the High Street outside a purple bar called the City Wall Wine Bar. It's an extremely chavvy pub, run by very nice people.
Anyway, we had a great time, though playing 3 hours a day plus setting up and pulling down the PA is pretty hard work. We had some excellent guest acts, and managed to get to see a few of our favourite local bands too. Should you come across any of the following, take time out to have a listen:
The Singing Loins
Moveable Feast
Heretique
The Two Man Gentleman Band (and last year's manic yanks, Truckstop Honeymoon!)
Norcsalordie
Foolproof
Happy Trails
Sur Les Docs
Trouser Trumpet
Phoenix
Wheeler Street
The Dealers
So that's it for another Sweeps festival; the sun shone, the music was great, the restaurants are really friendly even though they're maniacally busy, and there was only one stabbing among the local yobs.
Oh, and thanks to Medway council for sorting out somewhere convenient for us to park! It's very difficult carrying a stage across the bridge to Strood....
At the moment, I am in folk musician mode. I have just returned from Rochester's Mayday celebrations, the Sweeps Festival - so named because it was the traditional holiday (THE traditional holi-DAY, there was only the one...) for London's chimney sweeps, including of course the children who used to climb the chimneys. (One band did actually start to play Chim-chim-n-nee from Mary Poppins, but they were French - so we'll let them off!)
It's now a three-day folk festival featuring end-to-end Morris dance teams along the historic Rochester High Street. It's quite a spectacle especially when the sun shines - which it did, this year. It isn't looking back to Merrie England through rose-tinted glasses; it is actually celebrating Britain's folk heritage and having a damn good time with it. Something we simply don't do enough of in England.
The band I play with, Pig's Ear, run a stage in the High Street outside a purple bar called the City Wall Wine Bar. It's an extremely chavvy pub, run by very nice people.
Anyway, we had a great time, though playing 3 hours a day plus setting up and pulling down the PA is pretty hard work. We had some excellent guest acts, and managed to get to see a few of our favourite local bands too. Should you come across any of the following, take time out to have a listen:
The Singing Loins
Moveable Feast
Heretique
The Two Man Gentleman Band (and last year's manic yanks, Truckstop Honeymoon!)
Norcsalordie
Foolproof
Happy Trails
Sur Les Docs
Trouser Trumpet
Phoenix
Wheeler Street
The Dealers
So that's it for another Sweeps festival; the sun shone, the music was great, the restaurants are really friendly even though they're maniacally busy, and there was only one stabbing among the local yobs.
Oh, and thanks to Medway council for sorting out somewhere convenient for us to park! It's very difficult carrying a stage across the bridge to Strood....
Authors in the frontline
S.A. Rule's Blog about books, publishing, writing, music, Shehaios, fantasy, and anything else that flits through her mind.
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