Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 217

Writers' Software ~ Is It Necessary?

Every writer's needs, as they dance the dizzy path of creation, are different—except, of course, those writers who copy their work habits from other writers :-)

Sure, there must be many groups of writers who have similar routines and one of them is Writers Who Use Special Software.

I like to choose free software—basically 'cause I'm poor.

I use WriteMonkey for quick note taking and may use it for rough drafting on my next book. It's been called "Zen" software because of its minimalistic, distraction-free design. (Windows only)

I use TomBoy Notes for projects that need inter-note linking and strong searchability. (Linux, Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X)

I'm checking out, again, a more versatile piece of software—something for novels and other multi-structured books–called yWriter. (Windows and Gnu/Linux)

yWriter is the work of Simon Haynes, novelist and programmer. Here are a few of his words about his software:

"I really struggled with my first novel because I wrote slabs of text into a big word processor file and I just couldn't make sense of the whole thing at once. No real overview, no easy jumping from scene to scene, nothing.

"Next I tried saving each chapter to an individual file, with descriptive filenames, but moving scenes between files was a nuisance and I still couldn't get an overview of the whole thing (or easily search for one word amongst 32 files).

"My last attempt to use Word involved saving every scene as an individual file – e.g. Chapter 01 Scene 01 – Hal Spacejock Gets a Job.doc. That was fantastic until I decided to move one scene three chapters ahead, and had to manually rename all the files. Then I decided to put it back again! I could never remember which of the 200+ files contained a note I was looking for either.

"As a programmer I'm used to dealing with projects broken into source files and modules, and I never lose track of my code. I decided to apply the same working method to my novels … and yWriter was the result.

"I realise Word, OpenOffice and other modern word processors have outlining features, but they don't have snapshot backups to sequential files like yWriter does. Roll back scenes to where they were half an hour ago, or re-read a version from four months ago – yWriter stores them all, automatically."

Here's a link to Simon Haynes books on Amazon.

I also use Jarte (Windows only) for my ever-growing collection of .rtf files that contain others' writing.

And, when I need all the formatting I can get, I take files produced in those other programs and put them into LibreOffice. (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X) I can also pop out .pdf files with this.

Do you use writing software?

Do you know an author who does?

Have you heard any glowing reports about particular types of software?

Have you heard any horror stories about particular types of software?

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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

Tagged: LibreOffice, Linux, Mac OS X, Simon Haynes, WriteMonkey, Writers Resources, writing software, yWriter [image error] [image error]

What Sells Books?

Over 2,000 books are published, world-wide, every day.

Hardly any of them sell more than a few copies.

Why Do Authors Do What They Do?

That post I just linked to explores the lonely aspirations of authors and this post will point to more resources to make sure any would-be famous authors out there still need a wake-up call…

My recent book, Notes from An Alien, is for sale yet I still give it away (check the link in the right side-panel).

I give it away for two reasons—with the absolutely most important listed first:

* I want folks to read it.

* Free = Sales ~ Give It Away & Sell More…

Even if a person has the cash to cause massive media attention, it still takes one person telling another about a book for its sales to gain traction and take off.

Jane Friedman has a post called, Using Word of Mouth (Not Media Attention) to Sell Books, which has some gems of authorial wisdom. The quotes are from the author Jane is interviewing, John Warner:

"It's impossible to know what mention or connection will lead to some kind of tipping point, so every single last one of them counts."

"Right now, if the low price induces someone to take a chance on the book, that feels both good for me, and good ultimately for reading and books in general, but maybe I'm just trying to have it both ways."

"I think the tour has the potential to build word of mouth and draw media attention and therefore drive sales, but none of those is my reason for doing readings and appearances. I'm primarily doing it because it's going to be fun."

"For most books like mine, to sell 'well', interest has to come from the ground up, rather than the top down, it's driven by readers rather than by media attention….If any media attention does come from the book, it's going to be because some reader with those connections made it happen."

"Before I was a writer, I was a reader, and the sensation that comes with really connecting with a book simply can't be duplicated by any other medium. It is true virtual reality, where your consciousness joins another in a deep and inexplicable way, and it is awesome."

That last quote is especially meaningful to me because of my decision to chuck the normal social networking channels and spend more time making friends in the virtual world, Second Life.

My post, The Courage To Move Forward . . ., gives some of the reasons…

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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

Tagged: authors, book marketing, book promotion, Jane Friedman, John Warner, Notes from An Alien, Second Life, Sell Books

Literary Theory ~ Is It Worth Anything?

I've been having a certain book thrust into my awareness repeatedly, from many directions, lately.

The latest appearance was in an article about literary theory—oh, my, fiction can teach us enduring truths? Really??

In a post I wrote back in March, World Crises And Fiction Writers ~ Can They Help Humanity?, I posed a number of questions. Here are a few of them:

* Is fiction a proper tool for purposely proposing solutions to world crises?

* Does it go against some "law" of creativity to ask writers to make their fiction conform to some response to world conditions?

* What is the role in society of the fiction writer?

So, this last thrusting of a certain book into my awareness happened in the New York Times Opinion piece, 'Quixote,' Colbert and the Reality of Fiction, by William Egginton.

In response to an argument that "naturalism", the theory that science is the only way to real truth, is a better guide to life than literary theory, he said:

"As a literary theorist, I suppose I could take umbrage at the claim that my own discipline, while fun, doesn't rise to the level of knowledge. But what I'd actually like to argue goes a little further. Not only can literary theory (along with art criticism, sociology, and yes, non-naturalistic philosophy) produce knowledge of an important and even fundamental nature, but fiction itself, so breezily dismissed in Professor Rosenberg's assertions, has played a profound role in creating the very idea of reality that naturalism seeks to describe."

I do recommend you read the full article…

I does require more than average reading concentration but it's not rocket science :-)

What was the book that kept thrusting itself at me—the one I now have two copies of on my computer's desktop?

The book that I really want to read because of the previous glowing recommendations and this most recent use as an example of literature that informs us about truths?

The one I'm having extreme arguments planning sessions with myself about; like where I'll find the time to read it?

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

William Egginton says, in that NY Times article, "…Cervantes created the world's first bestseller, a novel that, in the words of the great critic Harold Bloom, 'contains within itself all the novels that have followed in its sublime wake'."

He even goes further and says:

"…in writing those volumes Cervantes did something even more profound: he crystallized in prose a confluence of changes in how people in early modern Europe understood themselves and the world around them. What he passed down to those who would write in his wake, then, was not merely a new genre but an implicit worldview that would infiltrate every aspect of social life: fiction."

Now, to make  time to read it………

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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

Tagged: author reader connection, Don Quixote, fiction, Literary theory, Miguel de Cervantes, New York Times, reader, William Egginton

The Courage To Move Forward . . .

My previous post about seriously reducing the time I spend on Google+ and Diaspora revealed a huge decision for me.

The best I can affirm about it right now is that it just feels  right…

Joel Friedlander said it best in his recent post, The Parable of the Little Book of Stories:

"Often, we can only guess at our own motives for what we do. Standing up, where we can be seen by others in a completely new way, takes a certain kind of courage."

The post is about a woman who'd written enough short stories to self-publish a volume just for her loved ones.

Or, so she believed…

She's ended up releasing it to the public. Do read Joel's post for the story but let me add this further snippet:

"…my friend started out with no intention of 'publishing'. She had no ISBNs, no marketing, no distribution, no publishing company name, nothing. She did it just for the enjoyment of doing it. "

I've already published my book and I'm preparing to write its companion volume. Still, moving away from common social networking and investing more time making friends in Second Life is definitely something I'm pursuing, "just for the enjoyment of doing it."

The anxiety I'd been feeling over the time spent maintaining communication in the popular social networks, while realizing the connections made were mostly shallow, is slowly ebbing away.

That anxiety was robbing me of the spirit I need to maintain the friends I already have in Second Life.

In a post I wrote back in January, Publishing Progress ~ the Highs and the Lows…, just before I'd published Notes from An Alien, I said:

"Kicking my Social Media Pre-Publication Networking into high gear was mostly a high with many low troughs that had to do with sifting the wheat from the chaff—an ongoing slog through oceans of mundane trivialities to find and connect with sources of creative and progressive relationship."

Relationship…

Back in March, in the post, Do Pre-Publication Promotion And Sanity Go Together ?, I stated my basic philosophy of Book Promotion:

"Let people get to know you, share your goals and philosophy, give them support in what they're doing; then, maybe they'll be interested in your book…

"And, even if they don't want your book, they may know someone who does."

The common social networks were not letting me follow that basic philosophy—I persisted for six months till the anxiety was so great I had to admit a few things to myself:

* Second Life lets me really get to know people and they really get to know me.

* The common social networking platforms demand, from me, an inordinate amount of effort to produce, at best, limited relationships.

* I better be sure I'm doing what helps me maintain deep relationships or I'll go crazy…

So the pain from six months (much more actually) of panning for gold in the wrong streams has called out a measure of courage—courage to go where I have the greatest odds of finding good people who I can really get to know.

It may help book sales but that's quite secondary since I , even though the book is for sale, still give it away :-)

Check out my post, Free = Sales ~ Give It Away & Sell More…

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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

Tagged: book marketing, book promotion, Diaspora, Google Plus, Joel Friedlander, Second Life, self-publishing, social networking

My Cure for Social Networking Anxiety

There are many reasons to pursue social networking.

There are as many reasons to not pursue it.

One thing I've learned is that social networking can induce anxiety…

Readers use it to find books.

Writers use it to find readers.

Publishers use it to make money.

I'm a self-published writer who would like to make some money but would, at least, like to have folks read my books.

I've been involved in social networking for over ten years and heavily involved for the last year and a half.

I've written quite a few posts about it. Here are just a few:

Social Networking and Insanity . . .

Social Media and Authenticity

The Author's Platform ~ Community of Interest

Selling Your Soul With Social Media

Book Promotion & Social Networking Frenzy ~ Pondering Google+

I'm the last person to tell anyone they should use social networking sparingly or, perhaps, not at all.

I'm the first person to tell everyone that social networking can cause anxiety…

It began for me when I started acquiring "friends" on FaceBook. I think I stopped at 1,500. I couldn't keep up with what they were posting and what they considered important enough to post was, to me, trivial.

Yet, I had a book that would be published and I needed people who knew me and, eventually, my book.

I added the task of acquiring "followers" on Twitter; tried to make the work easier by incorporating my FaceBook stream into an app called TweetDeck–had four columns of mostly trivia pouring down the screen.

Yet, my book was near publication and I needed to attract folks to it…

Eventually, because the interest I was generating was less than overwhelming, I stopped using both of them.

That's when Google Plus became available.

I fooled myself into thinking it would help me more…

Then, I discovered an open-source social network called Diaspora.

It only took a couple months for me to experience the same lack of interest and notice the same lack of deep response.

Two things to keep in mind:

* I still feel there are valid and productive reasons to use social networks.

* I know there are some wonderful people on social networks.

Still, my book was published five months ago and sales are still slow.

I should point out that I consider this blog a social networking platform–less obvious, perhaps, yet more capable of in-depth engagement…

Please understand, there are a few "passive" things going on, too. Mostly, this blog feeding into GoodReads, Amazon, and a few other spaces.

Then there's my work as Events Manager on Book Island in the virtual world, Second Life.

If you've never created an avatar for yourself and walked down a street full of shops run by authors, editors, publishers, and artists; never sat your avatar down in a virtual cafe, ordered a cup of espresso, and listened to a poet, then engaged with them in discussion; never stood in front of a group of people from many different countries and shared your written work; never just hung-out on the beach or at the houseboat or up on the mountainside and chatted and laughed with friends; if you've never experienced the Reality of a virtual world, you'll find it hard to understand why Ive made a firm decision to halt my attempts at interaction on the familiar social networks and use that time to visit more places in Second Life, make more real friends, let them discover, naturally, that I have a book they can read, with another to follow…

Of course, my new wanderings in Second Life will be mostly as an "ambassador" for Book Island. I work there, I love it, it has value for Readers, Writers, and Publishers, and it has more capability to generate lasting friendships and memorable experiences.

I let the prevailing opinions of the value of common social networks invade my planning, upset my life, and keep me from the activities that can help me find worthwhile interaction without the anxiety of sweating out ineffective attempts to engage in what, to me, has become the most raucous, disrespectful, tiresome, and time-wasting Space on the Internet—FaceBookTwitterGooglePlusDiaspora………

I'm going to shift gears–from overdrive to cruise–settle back and enjoy the ride–right here on this blog and in Second Life :-)

I certainly don't disrespect anyone who finds value in social networking. There is value there but, very personally, I can't take what comes with it…

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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

Tagged: Diaspora, Facebook, GoodReads, Google Plus, Second Life, social media, Social network, Twitter

Social Networking and Insanity . . .

Do you care about the people you're connected with online?

If you answered Yes, how deep is that caring?

I ask because we often need a shock to wake up to realities—to bring us to our senses—to cure us of electronically-induced ills.

Recently, a well-known social networker committed suicide. Those he was connected with thought they knew him………

Certainly, there are cases of folks in non-electronic relationships who shock their friends with actions completely unexpected but I would venture they're fewer than the shocks from social media "friends".

Jay Baer recently wrote a blog post, Social Media, Pretend Friends, and the Lie of False Intimacy, in which he talked about that social media suicide.

Jay is a man who proudly displays his book about social media at the top of his blog and says, in his profile, that he's a "hype-free social media strategy consultant and speaker" and "a digital marketing pioneer".

Yet, in the blog post linked-to up there, he says: [There is] "…the underlying premise that interacting with more people is inherently better than interacting with fewer people. I have always believed this to be true, and in fact have delivered the lines above in presentations and on this blog. But today, I'm no longer convinced. Instead I wonder, what if we have it ALL wrong?"

A bit later in the post he says: "Maybe we should be focused less on making a lot of connections, and focused more on making a few real friends?"

Ever since I began a push to connect with more people on-line, well before I began to write my recently-published book, I wondered about the quality of the connections.

As I was digesting all the information about "building an author platform"—working to increase my "friends" on FaceBook and my "followers" on Twitter—I struggled with the lack of Relationship in the connections.

I finally dumped FaceBook and Twitter, joined Google Plus. It didn't take long to feel the struggle against what felt like wasted time.

I've most recently joined Diaspora and I'm still struggling…

I'm an author (a poor author) with a book to promote in a world that publishes over 2,000 books a day and I need to make connections.

I may eventually dump Google Plus and Diaspora if the Relationship Factor declines much further…

I feel more comfortable right here, inside this composition box on WordPress, writing  from my heart and knowing that, of the 50 or so people a day who arrive here, a few of them read what I write and Relate to it.

Naturally, I post teasers with links to my posts on Google Plus and Diaspora—sometimes they spark discussion…

In Alcoholics Anonymous there's a definition of Insanity: Doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting different results.

I've tried to do Google Plus and Diaspora differently than FaceBook and Twitter but I'm starting to feel the signal-to-noise ratio is still too low.

Perhaps this blog is my most sane response to making on-line connections, even if I may not know I'm connecting due to the fact that most folks who read a post never comment, even if they liked it…

I'm actually finding more meaningful connections in my work as Events Manager on Book Island in the virtual world, Second Life.

Curious how the most "unreal" thing I do gives me the most Real Relationships………

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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

Tagged: Diaspora, Facebook, Google Plus, Second Life, social media, Social network, social networking, Twitter

Do Creative Writers Have Social "Responsibilities"?

"Some fiction writers feel that their job is to record life; maybe do it with some creativity, but capturing what exists and rendering it is their prime function. I, almost violently, disagree."

That quote is something I wrote in January in a post called, What's The Writer's Job? ~ Recording Or Creating?.

I also wrote, "My firm belief is that fiction's proper purpose is to help humanity raise its sights, improve its situation, and strengthen its resolve to make life really matter…"

I do a bit of analysis in that post of "…a character who's a day laborer, beats his wife and children, and discovers he has terminal cancer."

It wouldn't be hard to find material to create many characters who suffer as much or more than that day laborer, his wife, and his children. That material is all around us…

But, if you're the kind of creative writer who draws their inspiration from the world as it is, is it a truly creative act to merely copy those circumstances in proper language with enough fictionalization to hide identities?

To me, that would be like a painter who works assiduously to copy a garbage dump so faithfully the viewer gets sick from the smell.

Later in that post I linked to, I said, "I'm not trying to advocate some sort of sterile, moralistic fiction. We still need a damn good read and we don't need a book telling us how to live our lives. Still… Showing the reader that even the worst conditions can hold some promise for improvement, even if the characters fail miserably to attain that promise, is, to me, a job that fiction writers should always be working to master."

Really, are people who have the knack of creativity here only to copy reality?

What are the "moral" or "ethical" opportunities in a creative work?

What is the creative person's "responsibility" to society?

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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

Tagged: code of ethics, creativity, fiction, Naturalistic Literature, realism, social responsibility, writer, writing

Trying To Educate Others Can Get You Arrested??

Two quick questions: Ever read a novel that raised ultra-current cultural issues? Ever heard of Jose Ramos Horta and Desmond Tutu?

Horta and Tutu are Nobel Peace Prize laureates who are spearheading a campaign called Education Under Fire.

Seems the government of Iran is throwing educators into prison…

My work of fiction, Notes from An Alien, uses a far distant civilization's efforts toward peace to bring current, Earthly issues to light. If you glance at the Special Page, Can We Create Global Peace?, you'll see a list of issues raised in the book—many of which focus on governmental suppression of human rights.

A letter I received recently says the initiative, Education Under Fire, "…will include a striking 30-minute documentary to be co-presented with Amnesty International; an open letter to the international academic community coauthored by Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jose Ramos Horta, President of East Timor, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and a campaign to take—to campuses and communities across the country—a series of meetings combining a screening of the documentary with conversation."

Having written and published a book that attempts to educate folks, through the power of story, about what's necessary for peace and tranquility, there was no way I could not decide to support Education Under Fire.

The Huffington Post had a recent front-page article, Iran's War Against Knowledge — An Open Letter to the International Academic Community and there's a special web site where you can sign the letter.

Here's an excerpt:

"Freedom of education and freedom of information are integral to freedom of thought. Few advances have been made for humankind which were not preceded by new ways of looking at our world and new schools of thought.

"So it is particularly shocking when despots and dictators in the twenty-first century attempt to subjugate their own populations by attempting to deny education or information to their people….

"…Iranian youth have been expelled from universities for their beliefs or for holding viewpoints determined to be counter to the ruling party, including pro-reform views. Iranian officials have forbidden new delivery of and are in the process of rewriting the course content of twelve social sciences on the university curricula—including law, philosophy, management and political science—to make them more closely align with their own interpretation of the Islamic faith. They have stated that up to 70% of the course content in the social science will be rewritten by government officials."

Please notice they mention that these gross violations of human rights are not specifically demanded by the Islamic Faith, just by the governments twisted interpretation of that Faith…

Another quick question: Ever heard of Rainn Wilson from the TV show, The Office? He plays the character Dwight Schrute, said to be, "…a predictable caricature of a character that demonstrates the futility of most TV."

Rainn is particularly concerned about what's happening because he belongs to a Faith who's members in Iran are attempting to provide education to citizens, in spite of the government's suppression tactics.

I'm going to include a video by Rainn but first want to caution anyone who feels these issues aren't important to them because such oppression isn't happening in their country.

Are you sure your country doesn't use tactics, though hidden from the media, that suppress various classes of people?

Are you confident, in this age of confusion and global chaos, that your country's leaders are of strong moral fiber?

Do you feel that it's important to support other humans, primarily because we are all in one Global Family?

To me, it's important to note that, even though Rainn will tell you about a particular type of educational suppression, of a particular group of people, in a particularly oppressed country, Jose Ramos Horta and Desmond Tutu are working to support and aid these people… Because they are members of Our Human Family and because inaction is unconscionable…

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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

Tagged: Amnesty International, Desmond Tutu, Dwight Schrute, Education, Iran, Jose Ramos Horta, Nobel Peace Prize, Notes from An Alien

Can You Trust The "News"?

Readers of news, Writers who use it as prompts for stories, and Publishers or producers should all be concerned with Truth; otherwise, they're being either hoodwinked, misdirected, or dishonest.

Yet, finding Truth in news can be tough.

My recently-published book, Notes from An Alien, is fiction created from the angst of living through the pressures from our very real World experiencing the death and rebirth of its Ordering Principles…

News is critical to a complex and progressing society.

It's a crying shame that so much is done to the bare facts before producers call it "news"—-political and/or corporate influences especially distorting the product.

Even some citizen-news, "straight" from phone cameras, can be prejudiced.

There may be better sources for learning to cut through the subterfuge but I've found Noam Chomsky a fascinating advocate for Truth in News.

There's also a member-supported effort called The Real News that produces many eye-opening videos.

You might also want to check out AlternativeNews.net or WorldNewspapers.com.

Do you read or watch the news?

If not, is it because you're too busy or because you wouldn't believe it anyway?

Do you think creative writers should pay attention to the news–let it "influence" their writing?

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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

Tagged: Alternative News, Fair and Balanced, News, Noam Chomsky, Notes from An Alien, Real News, Reporting, Truth

Bloggers Are Self-Publishers

Technically, if you write something and give it to someone else, you've published.

Copyright registration is only necessary to protect either income or form of presentation.

So, many folks are published who don't even think they are…

Back in February, I wrote a post called, Blogging ~ Can It Really Fulfill The Writer's Dictum: "Write Every Day!"?.

[ The post pointed out the Maverick Punctuation in its title and I just got to add to it :-) ]

Today, I read a post by Joel Friedlander called, What's the Same about Self-Publishing and Blogging?.

So far, in this  post, I've brought together writing-every-day, blogging, and self-publishing.

Maybe I should stop and let you read those posts and ponder………?

Naw, it's only fair to add a couple quotes from Joel's post for the folks who never click-through on links:

"Publishing a book without intermediaries has a long and erratic tradition in the United States."

Considering Traditional Publishing, he says: "The author is at the mercy of the contract she has signed, the scruples of the publisher she has signed with, and the vagaries of the marketplace, about which she may know nothing, since the entire structure and mechanism of publishing keeps writers isolated from both their readers and the ways that publishers actually work."

On blogging: "The interactive nature of blogging, and then of other social media innovations, is changing many aspects of our life. But blogging itself has continued to grow and adapt to widely different contexts and means of delivering information, entertainment and opinion to interested readers."

I've often featured posts by Joel here and, if you're serious about publishing–books or blogs–you would do very well indeed to study Joel's blog and absorb all you can…

Are you self-published?

Do you want to be?

Do you blog?

Do you want to?

Did you know that a blog is the Hub of promotion for many self-published authors?

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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

Tagged: blog, blogging, blogs, Joel Friedlander, publish, self-publish, self-publishing, Writers Resources