R. Canepa's Blog, page 5

WIP Update And Change In Editing Process

I've been a somewhat on the quiet side lately as far as Actual Blog Posts are concerned, mostly because of being busy working.

Hey, there are worse reasons, right?

I've also reinstated my rule that my work gets done first before I check into the world.  This means no checking Facebook/Twitter/flickr/message boards/statistics/whatever until my work is done.  Otherwise, if I do, it derails my mind into marketing and promotion mode instead of creative mode.  Not a good thing.

I'm in the middle of r...

How Will We Find the Good Stuff

I see a lot of talk lately on the subject of independent/POD ebook publishing and the vast deluge of new, unproven authors that people expect to see.  People ask, "but how will we find the good stuff in this flood of newbies?"

Wailing that we won't be able to find anything "good" seems a bit over dramatic.  Some possible ways off the top of my head are: friends (the original social network), social media sites (another word-of-mouth style), search engines, rankings, and reviews.

There were...

Online News Paywalls: Will a Subscription Model Work?

Just read an article about the Sunday Times (A UK newspaper) justifying its paywall.  The link to the article doing said justifying is of course behind the paywall, but you can find another link here (put up by the original author, I believe; remember this for later): http://www.dianestormont.com/jmscbackup/?p=229

The driving argument is this:  good journalism costs money.  Barring the celebrity crap, it costs time for research and digging and it costs money for airfare and other such...

Daily and WIP Update: 2010-06-15

Let's see.  What've I been up to lately.

The Norton's Ghost book trailer is out.  It appears to meet with approval, so that's definitely a good thing.

I've been doing planning for FUTURE. I don't normally outline, but due to the nature and scope of this story, I think it would be a pretty good idea to try this different approach with my writing.  As I wrote last week (I think), I just wish there was a convenient way to measure how much progress I'm making.  It feels like slow going, but right n...

Funny I Mentioned That

I wrote the other day about getting an ebook copy of a work whenever you buy the print copy and that this could also apply to CDs and MP3s.  Lo and behold, I saw this article today: How Download Cards Connect Physical Music to its Digital Future:

Enter download cards. The foreign slips of paper and plastic started showing up all over record stores at the beginning of 2007, each scrap entitling the owner to a full MP3 download of the record they just bought. Now fans could take the songs on...

Is An Ebook a Book? And What Does It Mean When You Buy It?

I've been weighing in on a fairly interesting post on the Amazon Kindle forum.  The focus is on the idea of getting an ebook version of a physical book when you buy it.  Myself and the original poster think that it'd be a great way for a publisher to add value to their product (I hate using that phrase, though):  a sort of bonus, a thank-you, an incentive for the customer.  Some of the others in the thread feel that that's basically asking for two copies of the book for the price of one...

Norton's Ghost Official Book Trailer Released

I'm excited that I can finally release the finished trailer. This was a side project for me over the past 3-4 weeks.

How Do You Measure Preparation?

I began work today in earnest on codename FUTURE after unearthing it a few days ago and blowing off the dust.

How funny-odd it is to come back to the blank page (or screen).  To a set of jumbled notes and thoughts and things ending in question marks.  To a pile of acquired flotsam that I will endeavor to turn into something that resembles a coherent narrative.

I remember a quote (that I cannot now find online; a fail for google and a fail for my own notes) that went something like:

You don't...

Connect the Dots

Sometimes I feel my job as a writer is best summed up by Pee-Wee Herman: "Connect the dots, la la la la."

June 5th, 2010

I've spent some time the last few weeks–including the time since finishing STRANDED–on working on a side project for purposes of promoting Norton's Ghost.  It's finished now and I hope to be able to release it sometime next week.  To say I'm excited about sharing it would be an understatement.

I got new glasses.  Five or so years overdue, but better late than never, right?  Apparently I have an extremely big head–no one had anything that fit right.  So in the end, I had to settle.  I'll be...