Emdashery Blog

How to build your brand (book) with young adults--

Myspace, piczo, friendster, orkut, bebo, facebook--we're all a twitter over the social networking options. QuickSprout lays out three ways to use them to build a brand: creating a profile, networking, and inviting stickiness. It's just one more way to network in your pajamas (at your computer where, you know, you actually might still be able to do some writing). The blog Mashable also adds some thoughts:

With all that’s going on with social networking these days, we’re seeing a lot of figures leverage the popularity of social networks to gain visibility for themselves. We’ve seen it a lot with musicians, films, and especially politicians, who recognize the potential of reaching out to the teen and young adult demographics that connect over social networks and are hoping to get the young vote for the 2008 Presidential elections.

Read both blogs here and here...

Listening to Your High Calling--

Howard Butt, Jr. is a long-time advocate of Christian lay leadership. He has spoken about faith and work for over fifty years, first addressing this critical need through his preaching with Billy Graham Crusades. The High Calling Web site, which I posted about on Tuesday, provides one-minute audio clips of his messages.

They can be just what you need for a day of heavy writing...

On the Fast Track

Bailey's Blessing

Truth in Advertising

What We Do Every Day

Shackleton

You can listen to more clips here. As I also mentioned before, The High Calling is conducting a blog tour this week. You can find out what other people are saying about their new Web site at these blogs:

Gordon Atkinson, L. L. Barkat, Gina Conroy, Craver VII, CREEations, Milton Brasher-Cunningham, Mary DeMuth, Karl Edwards, Every Square Inch, Green Inventions, Amy Goodyear, Marcus Goodyear, Al Hsu, Jennwith2ns, Charles Foster Johnson, Mike McLoughlin, Eve Nielsen, Naked Pastor, Ramblin Dan, Charity Singleton, Stacy, Camy Tang, Writer… Interrupted

The Higher Calling--

When we get bogged down in the business of writing, such as promoting our books or querying agents and editors, it's easy to forget what got us in this crazy business in the first place. The spirit-numbing onslaught of daily tasks can overwhelm us. In fact, I've known several people who have given up a writing career because the business tasks ultimately defeated their passion.

Many people start a writing career because they feel a divine calling; they believe God has given them certain gifts that need to be used and shared. If this is the case with you, how do you stay focused on your higher calling? How do you remember what launched you on this adventure, and how do you keep from turning back to shore?

One resource that might help in this regard is the recently revamped Web site from TheHighCalling.org called The High Calling of Our Daily Work. The mission of TheHighCalling.org is:

to be a resource for people seeking to understand and live out the eternal significance (the high calling) of their daily activities. We help lay people see their lives as an opportunity to serve. Service is ministry—wherever God has placed us. We encourage each other to do the best we can for the glory of God.

Each week, this great site publishes one audio message and two articles built around one of the following themes: work and family, gifts and talents, leadership, excellence, integrity, attitude, professional relationships, and service. Those messages remind us, that even when our work is purely secular, we have a higher calling to follow.

You can review their large archive of items, or listen to or read these items to get a better understanding of their concept:

Audio Message: Tim McGuire
Bible Study: When Smart Decisions May Not Be Right Decisions
Personal Story: Where's My Job and Where's My Work?

I personally liked this article on the need for a burning bush (I'm constantly in search of clear signs for my daily work) and the audio message on selling what you love (an important reminder when it comes to book promotion). If you like the audio messages, you can also get them through podcasts.

Check it out. If you like what you see, you can become a member of the service here. TheHigherCalling.org is currently conducting a blog tour, so you can also check out what other people are say by going to these sites:

Gordon Atkinson, L. L. Barkat, Gina Conroy, Craver VII, CREEations, Milton Brasher-Cunningham, Mary DeMuth, Karl Edwards, Every Square Inch, Green Inventions, Amy Goodyear, Marcus Goodyear, Al Hsu, Jennwith2ns, Charles Foster Johnson, Mike McLoughlin, Eve Nielsen, Naked Pastor, Ramblin Dan, Charity Singleton, Stacy, Camy Tang, Writer… Interrupted

How to publish a blovel--

Yesterday, I mentioned the CAN! Blog, which shares tips and experiences in the world of book marketing and promotion. In this post, one of the blog's authors, Sarah Anne Sumpolec, discusses her innovative attempt to stay connected to her readers while between published book projects.

I found myself with a book idea I was passionate about and no publisher willing to take a risk on it. I could choose to sit around with my lemons or figure out how to make lemonade with what I had.

The trick though, is to be risky and experiment, but be smart about it.

Her idea that wouldn't sell was a YA novel written in poetry. She still wanted to publish the story someday, so she shelved that particular novel, but wrote another poetry novel to publish on a blog. By posting the story in serial format, she hoped to keep her teen readers happy and keep her name out in public while she worked on getting another contract. She also used the blog novel to attract readers to her other published works.

You can read how she did it here. And you can start reading the novel, Totally Unfamous, here. I believe we're going to see a lot more fiction on blogs in the next few years.

You CAN do it too--

The CAN! Blog is written by a group of writers who belong to CAN--the Christian Authors Network. Twelve authors contribute to the blog, and they post about their experiences with marketing their books:

As published authors, we long to share our victories and struggles with regards to marketing and promotion. No one really ever told us about this part of the business of writing, so, like you, we are learners. Won't you learn alongside us?

The authors have had a lot of marketing experiences to share. Recent posts have included tips on doing radio interviews, working with publicists, and creating a book trailer. Check them out here...

Tales from the bookstore--

Shelf Awareness occasionally includes feature writers who discuss their experiences as booksellers. Small and independent bookstores are dropping like flies these days, and in the latest Shelf Awareness, Kate Whouley offers her memories of managing the waldenbooks in Needham, Mass., which is now in the process of closing.

Another report of a bookstore closing as the year opens: we pause, sigh and shake our heads, perhaps offer a little prayer for the owner and staff. For most of us--independent booksellers and supporters of same--the closing of a small-town Waldenbooks doesn't elicit the same sadness. Hey, it's a chain, one of a zillion bookstores in the Borders dominion, and haven't they finished closing those tiny Waldenbooks stores yet?

But the Waldenbooks scheduled to close in Needham, Mass., is a neighborhood bookstore in a downtown storefront that just happens to have corporate ownership. Wonderful booksellers have worked there, many for long stints; until a couple of years ago, one woman I hired in 1982 was still helping customers.

Whouley took over management of the store one year after it opened. She found a disaster when she arrived, and in her attempts to clean it up, her staff resigned en masse. It's a touching article, and by subscribing to Shelf Awareness, you can read about other insights into the book-selling world.

Real reporting--

While many political or world-event blogs screech written venom or harp tightly along a party line, there are some blogs that give you a real-world view of events and offer far more than any newspaper does today. Michael Totten's Middle East Journal is one of them. He's based in Lebanon, but has traveled all over today's hot spots to repot for his blog.

I don't often venture into political thoughts on this blog--or world events seen through a political view. But I can't say enough about the writing Totten produces. Recently he traveled to southern Lebanon--an area which is essentially a mini-state controlled by Hezbollah--to view the damage caused by Hezbollah's war with Israel last summer.

An excerpt:

As we drove through a small village an imam screamed slogans in angry Arabic from the muezzin’s speaker atop a mosque minaret. It was a sharp contrast to what I’m used to hearing from the mosques in Beirut. There the muezzin’s call to prayer is hauntingly beautiful and genuinely spiritual, as though the muezzin himself is no longer tethered to this world. I miss the unearthly singing when I’m in Christian Beirut and when I’m at home.

“What is he saying?” I asked.

“It is about Palestine,” Said said. He listened. “He is saying If we win this fight against the Seniora conspiracy [the Lebanese government] we will only have Palestine to liberate. We won’t have Israel as an obstacle.”

Totten doesn't work for any publication, so he has the freedom to report things as he sees them, and as he sees fit. It also means no one pays him. No except for donations from his readers.

If you're into world events at all, check out his site and his recent article: "So This is Our Victory."

Chipping in with publishing tips, insights, and wisdom--

Chip MacGregor, who is a popular agent in the CBA world (i.e., Christian publishing) and still finds time to write A LOT about writing and publishing, has started a new blog.

Here's some flavor:

Somebody sent me this question:  "To get a book published, do I need an agent or do publishers still take authors without agents? ...And if I have an agent, what should I expect?..."

WARNING: This answer is coming from an agent! Discount all numbers by half and throw out the rest! And make sure you’ve got your pipe and slippers, ‘cause this guy goes on and on and on…

Check it out...

A writing career and a roller coaster have more than one thing in common--

The Carnival of Christian Writers #2 is up at Writer...Interrupted. Terry Whalin, Brandilyn Collins, and Ane Mulligan start off the list of contributors. I'm in there, also.

Check it out...

Facing the Rejecter--

The Rejecter is an anonymous blog with an interesting twist. The writer of the blog is an assistant literary agent in New York. She tells her readers that she's:

the first line of defense for my boss. On average, I reject 95% of the letters immediately and put the other 5% in the "maybe" pile. Here, I'll tell you how to get past me.

The Rejecter takes questions via e-mail that she answers with the honesty that comes with anonymity. Take a look...