WEbook Blog: A Writer's Resource

Day Two at Book Expo America

Friday is here, and with it the Book Expo crowds. There are at least three times as many people in the Convention Center today as yesterday. I saw one man in an elephant suit, a cadre of hip-looking black-haired teenagers escorting a plush red character with X-ed out eyes, and several sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal romance booths staffed by busty women in low-cut black velvet and lace. Everyone is wearing color-coded badges so we can tell the publishers from the industry professionals from the exhibitors – though, frankly, what the difference is, exactly, can only be explained using a Venn diagram. I spent my morning weaving my way through the exhibition halls, introducing myself to writers and publishers (and, I’m sure, a few industry professionals).

Everyone was very friendly, and very interested in WEbook, with one exception – the woman at the Mystery Writers of America booth firmly rebuffed my advances, telling me that, “We’re about getting traditionally published. We’re a professional writers’ association.” Well! A glance at their website tells me that “MWA is the premier organization for mystery and crime writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and folks who just love to read crime fiction.” I guess that doesn’t include me.

My encounter with MWA reminded me of something Jeff Howe said yesterday in his talk on crowd-sourcing: The internet enables and encourages “amateur culture.” It’s no longer necessary to be a professional designer in order to get your t-shirt design recognized and created by Threadless. You don’t have to be a professional humor writer to get a cartoon caption in The New Yorker. The vast majority of people populating LibraryThing are definitely not professional librarians, which is why the site’s bibliographic information is so rich, meaningful, and downright fun.

Dictionary.com defines amateur as “a person who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons.” The word stems from the Latin amator – lover. I’d like to think pleasure and financial benefit aren’t mutually exclusive, but in any case I’m all for loosening the boundaries that determine who can create books (or t-shirts, or cartoons, or songs). And I’d much rather read a book written by a lover than by a professional.

In other news, I never found Clay Shirky, and downtown L.A. is an empty skin of a town, with no guts, no heart, and no place to buy lunch. But the weather’s nice.

-- Melissa

 

Day One at Book Expo America

I landed in L.A. late last night, all keyed up for Book Expo America. At today’s sessions, everyone was buzzing about what appears to be the new holy trinity of the publishing world: Social Networking! Crowd-Sourcing! Digital Content!

The prevailing attitude towards Web 2.0 around here feels a little schizophrenic. Lecture halls were filled with publishers and writers looking alternately terrified, electrified, and totally lost. Everyone seems to know that something is happening – something to do with communities of people gravitating around shared interests and passions – but not everyone knows what it is, and even fewer people know what it means or how to be a meaningful part of it.

The air in the L.A. Convention Center was thick with fear and urgency, and I wondered if this was how the recording industry felt around the time rock ‘n roll was invented. Then I remembered that this kind of thing has happened many times before, and will happen many times in the future. Rock ‘n roll, jazz, reality TV, Web 1.0.  Something new is being born, and those who are on the outside – both stuffed suits and creative types – are scrambling to get a foothold, bombarded by increasingly shrill proclamations that this is going to change everything and nothing will ever be the same again. More than anything, people are afraid of being left behind, rendered obsolete. Again and again, I heard these questions:

“Will online content kill offline content?”

“Is the book a thing of the past?”

“Do I need a Facebook profile? A Twitter feed? A MySpace page?”

And most plaintive of all: “Who are all these people, what do they want, and how can I make them like me (and my product)?”

Personally, I think a lot of this anxiety is misplaced. Every established entity fears being replaced by the new. In some cases this fear is well-grounded – we don’t do a lot of riding around in horse-drawn carriages anymore, for instance. Cars replacing carriages is something like MP3 replacing CD replacing cassette tape replacing 8-track replacing vinyl. The format changes, but the essential product (transportation vehicle; audio recording) stays the same. That’s part of what we’re seeing in publishing: Paper gets replaced by e-books, various digital readers, and other alternative delivery sources. These changes aren’t a real threat to publishing. The book remains the book, it just looks a little different.

The real revolution happens when the way a book gets created, and what a book actually means, gets turned on its head. That’s what people are really thinking of when they invoke the trinity of social networking, crowd-sourcing, and digital content. Suddenly the power shifts into the hands of communities, where the boundaries between creator, publisher, and consumer blur.

I’m with everyone else in not knowing quite what this means for the future, but I’m not too worried about the death of the book – or, at least, not about the death of reading and writing. A few years ago, we all predicted that reality TV would take over the airwaves. And, sure, there are a lot more reality shows than there were when there were none. But there are still plenty of scripted shows, too. As a consumer, now I have one more type of entertainment to choose from than I did before. Even the music industry, the ultimate example of what happens when bigwig corporate types fail to see the writing on the wall – and the embodiment of every publisher’s fear of impending obsolescence – experienced a revolution in how its product gets distributed and consumed, but not a revolution of its product. People might not buy albums anymore, but they still make and buy and listen to music.

I predict that in the future, readers will have a lot more choices when they’re looking for reading material. Crowd-sourced Civil War history? Check. Bite-sized stories just right for a two-minute wait at the supermarket? Check. Collaborative contemporary political analysis? Check. Old fashioned 453-page novel written by a single author? Check, check, check. The Web 2.0 revolution, as far as I can tell, will be one of big gains, for readers, writers, and the most flexible, savvy publishers.

Of course, every publisher wants to be flexible and savvy. Which is why they brought in the experts to stand at podiums and drink bottled water and tell us what’s up. I jumped around from session to session, scribbling furiously. These were the highlights of my day:

Jeff Howe of Wired and author of the forthcoming Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business.

Jeff talked a lot about models like Threadless, where the community creates, selects, and ultimately markets and buys its own product.  Threadless makes cool crowd-sourced T-shirts. WEbook makes cool crowd-sourced books. As you can imagine, I listened intently – and afterwards I had the chance to shake Jeff’s hand and slip him a copy of Pandora, WEbook’s first published book and a particularly gutsy example of crowd-sourcing – a novel written by 17 authors and 17 other contributors! Of which I am one. </own-horn-tooting>

Tim Spalding, founder of LibraryThing

First of all, LibraryThing is the coolest site devoted to reading and books that I’ve seen in a long time. If you’re not a member yet, check it out. Second of all, Tim is one smart cookie. He spoke eloquently about the limitlessness of the digital vs. the physical world, and he introduced me to a word I’d never heard before: “Book sales are epiphenomenal.” He also pointed out the key to all the user-generated, crowd-sourcing hype: “Give users the opportunity to do something for themselves, not the opportunity to do something for you.”

I, for one, am taking heed. What opportunities does WEbook offer you, dear WEbookers? I’d love to hear it from the collective horse’s mouth.

Tim was also kind enough to accept a copy of Pandora. Who knows, maybe he’s reading it in his hotel room right this second.

Tomorrow? Notes from the exhibition hall.

-- Melissa

P.S. I was totally bummed that I missed Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. Word on the street is that he’s bald, so I may spend the rest of the expo tapping the shoulder of every bald man I meet, hoping to strike gold.  Wish me luck.

Our Train Tales Makes the Mundane Memorable

Here’s a nifty idea: Take an experience many people have shared, and invite people to share their experiences. Add the timelessness, romance, and adventure of a train ride, and you’ve got a recipe for great story-telling. That’s the concept behind Our Train Tales, a WEbook collection of short non-fiction stories that take place on the various point-to-point railway systems around the world.

Says Project Leader iMorpheus, “Our Train Tales is an extension of my approach to photography: The Minutiae of Everyday Life: Making the mundane memorable. Your average day is just that: average. Most people, in developed countries, do not experience catastrophic events on a daily basis. So what is their day made up of? Well, going to the supermarket; dropping the kids off at school; reaching work on time; and interacting with coworkers and recalcitrant machinery or software. So, via retelling, my goal is to make these events significant.”

Whether it’s the daily commute or a three-thousand-mile journey, share your train tale on Our Train Tales.

-- Melissa

WEbooker of the WEek Candice Tells the Truth

In the overview of her WEbook project Creative Nonfiction, candice writes:

I'm no good at creating characters or devising plots. Poems only come to me once in a blue moon. But I still love to write! Under my bed and in my closet are chock full of 'stories' in countless journals and over time these true stories or viewpoints have been written in a kind of style that's beyond factual, technical reporting. I've come to learn that this 'style,' this thing I automatically do, has a name; creative non-fiction!

In addition to Creative Nonfiction, you can find candice’s “true stories and viewpoints” in her project Dreaming On, a collection of “recurring, strange, erotic, terrifying, or prophetic” dreams from WEbookers far and wide, plus a handful of other WEbook projects-in-progress, including Motherhood and  Rhyme + Rhythm = Reason for Living. She’s also written over 2 dozen reviews of work by her fellow WEbookers!

In recognition of her quality submissions and insightful reviews, candice is the recipient of the coveted WEbooker of the WEek award. What better way to introduce her to her soon-to-be-adoring fans than to ask her to share the true story of her writing life?

Here it is, WEbookers! Enjoy.

***

I was born in Manhattan in 1977 (year of the big blackout and Son of Sam) from Puerto Rican and Dominican parents. I was mostly raised in Queens and have been living in Brooklyn for about 7 years. I lost my mom to cancer 10 years ago. She gave me my middle name, Candice, so it is the penname I give myself here in order to honor her.

 

When I am not writing or thinking of what to write, I am raising my 1 year old son, Alex. I try to take part in the local La Leche League meetings once a month, a group of mothers who breastfeed. Once a week I teach Spanish to Senior Citizens that are mostly African Americans from the South and who have wanted to better communicate with Latinos in their community.

 

Like many people, I’ve had my share of odd jobs, enjoying some more than others; receptionist, tutor, note taker for Deaf students, babysitter, pageant model’s assistant, park cleaner, cashier, summer English teacher. I am almost done with my studies at Hunter college in Latin American Caribbean Studies.

 

When I was about 12 or 13 I was given a diary. I pretty much haven’t stopped writing since. Aside from the cathartic venting I get to do, it took me awhile to realize that writing could be done with more flair, style, and fun, so I started to take it more seriously. My thing seems to be creative nonfiction, memoir-type pieces.

***

As an extra bonus, I asked candice to share her least favorite work in the English language. The verdict: Horny. So if you’re going to write a steamy submission on WEbook, and you want a good review from a WEbooker of the WEek, be sure to use the words aroused or in the mood. Anything but horny.

Till next time, happy writing!

-- Melissa

Today on WEbook

We’ve made a few improvements to the way things work around WEbook. I thought you’d like to know.

Ratings: All WEbook submissions can now receive a rating along with feedback! If you’ve given feedback to submissions already, you can go back and add a rating. Since WEbook submissions are constantly being revised and improved, you can change your rating at any time. Ratings are a great tool for writers to gauge reader response at a glance, and for leaders of multi-author projects to decide which submissions should be included in the finished project.

Search: You can now filter your search for projects by genre/topic and language. You can also search for groups by name or description.

FAQ: We updated our FAQ, so if you’ve been finding yourself with frequent questions, check it out. A particularly nifty video overview can be found at “What is WEbook About?”

I hope you’re as pleased about all this as I am, WEbookers. As always, we’re dying to hear your feedback and suggestions for how we can make WEbook an even better home for writers, readers, reviewers, and other creative folks. Leave feedback on the forum, or email us at info@webook.com.

Happy writing!

-- Melissa

WEbooker of the WEek Survives the New Millenium With a Name from the Fifties

Visit Bobby_Nelson’s profile and you may suspect that this is no ordinary WEbooker. You’ll be right. With two projects underway – "Laugh It Up, Mandy" Anecdotal Fame: Celebrities and Our Stories and How to Survive in the New Millenium With a Name from the Fifties – and submissions with titles like “Where’d you get this afro pick?” and “The pug’s gift,” the man clearly has a flair for words. Click a bit deeper and you’ll find insightful reviews, intriguing poetry, and perhaps the world’s most original method for getting out of a speeding ticket. (No, I’m not going to tell you what it is. You’ll have to go over to 101 Things Every Man Should Know How to Do and find out for yourself.)

And so, ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to present to you: Bobby_Nelson, WEbooker of the WEek.

When he’s not busy WEbooking, Bobby_Nelson is a substitute high school teacher. Come December, he will be an officially licensed saint/superhero – also known as a “high school English teacher.” He’s 24 years old and he lives in Fairfax, Virginia.  According to his own claims, Bobby_Nelson enjoys abbreviating common words in everyday speech. An example? "Hey, can you hand me that penc'? Sweet, much apprec'."

In answer to the pressing question, “What the heck is that all about?”Bobby_Nelson answers, “I figure I'm saving air and syllables for when I really need them, like if I sink to the bottom of the sea and I encounter very speech rhythm-conscious fish.”

Hey, he’s WEbooker of the WEek, he can abbreviate all he wants.

Finally, in response to my entirely undignified begging and pleading, Bobby_Nelson agreed to share a sneak preview from what he calls his “half-life memoir.”  (Whatever that means.) This is some very exclusive stuff, WEbookers – enjoy.

From How to Survive in the New Millenium with a Name from the Fifties

"Triumphant Dan, my co-pilot for this trip and friend for this life, turned the volume knob to the right, blaring Vince Neil’s vocals just as he bellowed “Girls, Girls, Girls” for the 786th time in the song. I forget why I gave Dan the “Triumphant” moniker. In fact, I’m not sure that he, or I for that matter, had done anything triumphant enough in the definitive sense of the word to truly earn the distinction. But I had called him that for so long when we first became friends, so changing the name seemed absurd to me just to fit the word’s parochial dictionary definition. Maybe he would triumph in some way by the end of this trip. Maybe I would triumph in some way by the end of this trip.
       

We arrived in Ann Arbor, a city I liken to an uncle with a Ph.D., but who also has a house complete with an ice luge and a penchant for Wendy’s late night drive-thru. The town had grown along with the University of Michigan; stone-faced city buildings were situated between regal and historic university landmarks and townhouses inhabited by undergrads living and dying with every shot in their game of beer pong. Ann Arbor was the perfect middle ground for a union between young and old, mature and otherwise, eloquence and locker room talk. It only made sense that we had come to the city for our friends’ wedding."

***

"I took I-94 East into a city that had been as damaged verbally as it has been by history and crime: Detroit. I didn’t care about the maladies of this once thriving metropolis, this was reality. D.C. sometimes seems too polished, like it’s hiding something, be it a president getting to third base, a massive monetary kickback financing a private vacation to the Bahamas, or a member of congress getting hot via an instant message with a 16-year old boy. Detroit, on the other hand, can’t hide that kind of filth; the people here know that fault exists and refuse to pretend it can be covered up easily, their collective conscience won’t let them. Their mayor is a philanderer and a thief, abandoned houses rot into urban prairie while many struggle to find a decent home, buildings gutted by fire serve as known drug dens. These visible scars that draw the jeers of outsiders are more a sign of an acknowledged past that strengthens the core of a city’s resolve to improve, rather than a symbol of inability to prevent urban blight."

Read more (and let Bobby_Nelson know what you think) here.

Congrats, Bobby_Nelson!

-- Melissa

 

WEbooker of the WEek Goes to Drunken Uncle Anowalk

In keeping with a glorious new tradition here at WEbook, Monday marks WEbooker of the WEek day. This week’s recipient is anowalk. Anowalk is no stranger to WEbook. In his own words: “In terms of the WEbook family, I’m the uncle that refuses to grow up; the one who always shows up for family functions, but drunk or without pants on.”

I don’t know about the pants, but I do know that anowalk’s been around the block. Along with 33 other writers, editors, and other contributors, he helped create Pandora, WEbook’s first published book. (Once you buy the book, flip to Chapter 53 to read anowalk’s contribution.)

More recently, anowalk has become something of a WEbook superhero. In the past couple of weeks, he’s penned an extremely helpful article for 101 Things Every Man Should Know How to Do, on “How to Tell if She’s Faking it”; a poem about a family reunion; and a Haiku Life Story with my personal favorite sub-title of all time:

First Time Out of NJ, I Land at a California Airport with $40, Half A Pack of Cigarettes, Two Shirts, a Granola Bar and My Uncharged Cell Phone to Discover My Brother Has Forgotten to Pick Me Up, At Which Point I Remember and Finally Understand a Philosophy Lecture I Attended in College About Nature and the Sublime.

So who is this anowalk character?

It turns out that he was born in Washington D.C. a month and a half late in the summer of 1983, the youngest of three sons. His father is a high school math teacher; his mother a “short Hungarian woman who can’t stop reading.” Anowalk left home at 18 to experience the “mystical wonders of working minimum-wage jobs at Wal-Mart, overnights at Shoprite and slinging coffee at Seattle’s Best.”

When asked about his history with writing, anowalk  says: “I began writing sport articles for my middle school newspaper in 7th grade. In the 12 years since I’ve branched out to poetry and fiction prose. Writing is what my mind has always seemed to turn back to:  Bored in class, in church, sitting in traffic, at the dentist’s office.  I dream up characters, try to figure out their history and what their story is, or I jot down haiku and random lines of a ghazal. I turn 25 in August.  That birthday marks a tipping point in my life – 12 years not writing, 13 years writing.  Man, I’m getting friggin’ old.”

I’m not even going to touch that “friggin’ old” assessment, which can only be interpreted as malicious provocation for those of us who saw 25 come and go a while ago. But I do have to ask: Anowalk, what the heck is a ghazal?

I assume it’s some kind of poem, and if I’m right, I’m sure anowalk is an authority. He studied literature and philosophy at Ramapo College of New Jersey, and his favorite type of writing is poetry; he loves “the play between passion and brevity that comes with a good poem.”

When he’s not writing or reading, anowalk enjoys black & white photography, Joss Whedon shows, aggressive women, poker, his exceptionally tall roommate Tommy Two-Tone, clicky pens, politically incorrect jokes, the word buxom, talking about himself in third person, and making lists.

If he could pitch any two animals against one another in a one-on-one arena battle, he’d choose a polar bear and a rabid silver-back gorilla. His prediction? The gorilla would KO the bear in the first round. To which I say: Duh, you made the silver-back gorilla rabid. This hardly seems fair. But I’ll give the guy a pass – after all, he is WEbooker of the WEek.

Congrats, anowalk, and enjoy 25 while you can. It’s all downhill from here.

-- Melissa

Guest Blog: Top WEbooker Sarah on How to Write a Good Project Overview

As the project leader of Ex-Pat Journal, one of the most active projects on WEbook, today’s guest blogger, Sarah, knows a thing or two about attracting readers and writers to a WEbook project. The first step? Write a good overview. Here’s what Sarah has to say about that all-important introduction to your WEbook project.

-- Melissa

***

The project overview is the first thing potential writers or contributors see when they click on your WEbook project, so you want it to be good. It should be inviting, inspiring, informative, and possibly even fun. Here are some tips for making the most of that introductory page.

• Be Broad. If you’re looking for other writers to contribute to your project, you'll want to start off by being as broad as possible. It is important to attract as many writers, readers, and critiquers as you can, because the more active your project, the better the published result will be. To get top notch writers, phrase your subject matter in a way that intrigues people; that way they'll immediately think, "Yes, that's happened to me, too! I should tell my story about that time . . ." The more people who can relate, the more potential writers and readers you'll have. A project overview about the carpet cleaners in Southwestern Washington is probably not quite broad enough. "Love" might be a more universal topic.

• Be Narrow. Once you've established how widespread your project is, you'll want to narrow it down, and give it a distinct slant. "Love" is a topic that many people can speak to, but you might want to ask some follow up questions or propose ways writers can interact with the subject—remember, your project overview does more than just tell about your book. It also acts as a prompt or springboard for great ideas. You might want to suggest a few ways writers can interpret love:      bouncing back from a break-up, the first time, or even internet dating.

• Use Specific Details. Nothing makes writing come alive like plugging in some good concrete      details about your subject. Whether it is bagels on a platter arranged in concentric circles or a faded orange t-shirt that reads, "Hugs, not drugs," using real-life details makes even a project overview interesting.

• Be Concise. You only have so much space, so it is important to get your message across in the fewest words possible. Once you've written a draft, go back and tighten it up. Writers can tell at a glance if a project is right for them, so make that glance worthwhile.

• Ask For Help. If you’re looking for a specific type of contribution or feedback, say so in the      overview! Do you want writers to submit articles on a particular facet of your topic to help round out an anthology? Are you writing the first draft of a novel, and you want readers’ first impressions of your characters or plot, or help figuring out what happens next? Are you submitting a more polished manuscript, and looking for intensive editorial guidance? The project overview is the place to establish what kind of collaboration you’re in the market for.

-- Sarah

WEbooker of the WEek KellyNPaterson Will Never See These People Again

Q: What do you do with a WEbooker who has started four WEbook projects and written in six more, for a total of 24 submissions, including a story about a Tanzanian bus and another about a trip to a swinger’s club?

A: You name her WEbooker of the WEek, of course! In keeping with this newly-minted tradition, KellyNPaterson will receive the respect and admiration of her peers, along with a crisp new WEbook T-shirt. One glance at KellyNPaterson’s profile makes it clear that her life story is far too varied and fascinating to be summarized here, so I decided to ask her a few Qs of my own.

***

Q:  KellyNPaterson, you’re the WEbooker of the WEek! How does that make you feel?

A: Oh, Vishnu!  Does this mean I have to write a “Thank You” speech?!  Wow!  Where do I start?  Well, I am going to have to start with all my creditors, because if it weren’t for you, well, I would not have to write for a living…

Q: When was the last time you got into a fight?  Who was it with, and what was it about?

A: About a week ago in London, with a British woman in a wheelchair.  Yes, I fought with a woman in a wheelchair! The woman called me a “spoiled American brat” (to my face—which is NOT very British, I might add…) and, well, I do not care if you are in a wheelchair or not, you call me names and I am going to respond!  What—did you expect me to just WALK away? 

Yes, I know, very bad joke, but I think I already have a reputation for not being very politically-ERECT. 

Q: In your profile, the title of your memoir is “Laughing at Oxygen.” How did you come up with this name?

A: In the middle of nowhere, Tanzania, I worked as a Science Teacher Trainer for the Tanzanian Department of Education.  I spent a lot of time in makeshift laboratories teaching Tanzanian Science Teachers how to conduct science lessons without electricity or indoor plumbing.

Just about everything in Tanzania was funny to me (I was 19, folks!)—from the language (there are 6 ways to say “no problem” in Kiswahili—depending on the problem), to being charged by a herd of Cape Buffalo or getting a bat stuck in my hair (and other close encounters of the large mammal kind), to making an ass out of myself in front of Jane Goodall.  I could not hide my amusement—so the Mhehe (the Tanzanian tribe I lived with) put my work and my incessant giggling together, and named me “Anachecka Oxygena”: She Who Laughs at Oxygen. 

Q:  You find yourself awake at 4:00 in the morning.  Did you just wake up or are you still up from the night before?  What are you up to?  Are you alone?

A: If I am up at 4 AM, I am either looking for a Taco Bell (after a night of partying, even if I happen to be in a Bengali village or Prague), or I waking up to catch a plane to Suriname or such. 

Q:  Anything else you'd like WEbookers to know?

A: My personal motto:  “I will never see these people again!”  It works because it enables one to make an ass of oneself just about anywhere, under any circumstances, and have no regrets.

***

To learn more about KellyNPaterson, check out her stories in Ex-Pat Journal, Life Stories, and What is Your Dangerous Idea?

-- Melissa