tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58342541370776491202024-03-13T05:09:47.917-07:00BD CrowellThe Official SiteAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07255771286089778497noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-36318177438489007472022-01-30T12:38:00.001-07:002022-01-30T12:38:00.157-07:00Email Subscriptions are Back<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMoadIyk0Lg-d4hKhAhsJP4VYsNRrDfcB7u_m4_lxrZmlqyA1Nc5kaiXKMwenTDf0qOAgos152o8XKDg2QjYe6Hv0wpqakO_aSG2drGHafrf5UyWbgqFXXPutPAW1Ki2m8oRV2jyQpQ2bdPDdbXisCJ160b12-aQgkCTvLhgElT3H-EqzjoQlvhj7t=s1920" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1344" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMoadIyk0Lg-d4hKhAhsJP4VYsNRrDfcB7u_m4_lxrZmlqyA1Nc5kaiXKMwenTDf0qOAgos152o8XKDg2QjYe6Hv0wpqakO_aSG2drGHafrf5UyWbgqFXXPutPAW1Ki2m8oRV2jyQpQ2bdPDdbXisCJ160b12-aQgkCTvLhgElT3H-EqzjoQlvhj7t=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Subscribe to Newsletter (photo credit: <a href="https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=368420&picture=subscribe-to-newsletter" target="_blank">Gerd Altmann</a>)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In another case of Google killing off a service that a lot of people use, they killed off the RSS to email subscription feature of Feedburner, which is what this site (and many, many others) used to provide email subscriptions for updates. After a lot of hunting, I settled on <a href="http://follow.it">follow.it</a> to replace that functionality. It’s completely free for subscribers and has a lot more options than Feedburner offered.
</p><p>We’ve imported our previous subscribers who had previously confirmed their subscription. Any subscribers who were still in pending status did not get imported. Sorry, you’ll have to re-subscribe. For those and anyone else who’d like to subscribe, just enter your email address and click the Subscribe button along the right or click on the email icon at the top of the page. If at any point you want to unsubscribe, just follow the link in any of the emails from follow.it. </p><p> If you prefer RSS, that’s still available from the RSS icon at the top. While you’re up there, feel free to click on the appropriate icon to follow me on social media. </p><p> Let me know how the transition to follow.it is by dropping a comment below or sending me a note through the contact form over at the right. Thanks!
</p>BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-7143704780059634872020-12-20T16:25:00.001-07:002020-12-20T16:25:38.706-07:00Smashwords End of Year Sale<p><em>Derrick the Dog</em> is free for the rest of the year through <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bdcrowell1" target="_blank">Smashwords</a> with coupon code <strong>SEY25</strong>.  Merry Christmas!</p> <p><img alt="Smashwords" src="https://dwtr67e3ikfml.cloudfront.net/static/1/swlogo.png" width="250" height="67" /></p>BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-88186422108887231512020-10-24T12:42:00.000-07:002020-10-24T12:42:25.926-07:00Site Update<p>It was overdue that I needed to update my site.  The old one not only looked dated, but it was also not responsive (as Google kept reminding me).  Thanks to a new premium template from <a href="https://www.soratemplates.com/" target="_blank">Sora Templates</a>, the site is now:</p> <p><strong>Responsive <br />Mobile Friendly <br />Fast Loading <br />Minimalistic <br />Simple <br />SEO Friendly <br />Clean Layout <br />Clear Design Using HTML5 & CSS3 <br />Improved Modern Browser Compatibility</strong></p> <p>I also took this opportunity to update the <a href="/p/gallery.html">Gallery page</a>, as the old gallery plugin from <a href="http://bdcrowell.deviantart.com/gallery/" target="_blank">deviantART</a> had stopped working.  </p> <p>Please have a look around and let me know what you think (and if you find anything broken).  Before we go, here’s a last look at the old site.  Thanks, old template, for many years of faithful service.</p> <p><a href="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1TdCqvDSY3E3eIEv0vgHnz2Z96_SwClm9"><img title="bdcrowell-welcome-10-24-2020-old-design" style="display: inline; background-image: none;" border="0" alt="bdcrowell-welcome-10-24-2020-old-design" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1JmhAmpDEzjaTu_Bfl_9lto8Ijruwep9C" width="604" height="496" /></a></p> <a href="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=15ElPtAQ5xXh-kBu7l_ApLIIfRMbmPFst"><img title="bdcrowell-blog-10-24-2020-old-design" style="display: inline; background-image: none;" border="0" alt="bdcrowell-blog-10-24-2020-old-design" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1Y6HES2mXcuTYMJlUsPNUzlew__H-QgQm" width="604" height="479" /></a>BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-39177559016832960582019-06-26T19:20:00.000-07:002019-06-26T19:20:01.790-07:00It’s Been a Long Time ComingIt’s been a long time coming, getting this blog post written. I wish I could say that I’ve been busy writing and illustrating, but that’s not true. I have, however, been busy. Since I last checked in, I’ve changed jobs, sold a house, moved across the country, moved into an apartment, bought a house, and moved in there. Whew! Things are finally settling down on the job and home fronts, and I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things on the creative front. Someday, I’ll get some new content out.<span id="goog_841339822"></span><span id="goog_841339823"></span><span id="goog_841339820"></span><span id="goog_841339821"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qSf2URDJZBU/XMRDXfs6MyI/AAAAAAAAnlQ/anUZpIOt6wUZb2BbTzwrxN_FHUPiIip_gCKgBGAs/s1600/20181104_072516.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qSf2URDJZBU/XMRDXfs6MyI/AAAAAAAAnlQ/anUZpIOt6wUZb2BbTzwrxN_FHUPiIip_gCKgBGAs/s320/20181104_072516.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A hot air balloon in the distance near our home.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This move has also been a long time coming. After 26 years away, I’m finally back in Arizona. I love the desert! The views, the weather, the much lower pollen counts. Sorry, Georgia, but I don’t miss you. OK, I miss the <a href="https://thepirateshouse.com/" target="_blank">Pirate’s House</a> in Savannah and <a href="https://www.tedsmontanagrill.com/" target="_blank">Ted’s Montana Grill</a> in Peachtree City, but that’s about it. Fewer bugs, lower humidity, better traffic, no <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time" target="_blank">daylight saving time</a>… I could go on and on. I’m home!<br />
<br />
Not much in the way of other news. Shortly before the Surface Pro 6 came out, I got a great deal on the <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-pro-5th-gen/8nkt9wttrbjk?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab" target="_blank">New Surface Pro</a> aka the Surface Pro (5th Gen) aka Surface Pro 2017 (great naming decision there, Microsoft). I love this thing. Fanless, it runs cool, battery life is decent. A very nice upgrade from the Pro 2 (personal) and the Pro 3 & 4 (work). The i7 Pro 4 was especially hot, while the battery life wasn’t. I have plans to disentangle D Lee Warren from BD Crowell on each other’s sites. The two genres have nothing to do with each other, I don’t expect there’s a lot of crossover in the readers, and I don’t want kids to stumble onto the non-kid stuff. I’ve already made some progress there and plan to continue down that track.<br />
<br />
There were some dark times this decade for me and my family, but things seem to have finally turned around for us. I’m looking forward to creating some new art. Stick around. I think you’ll like what you’re going to see. BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-10885336699409299392018-03-31T04:06:00.000-07:002020-10-24T00:30:58.041-07:00The Fitbit Versa. It's Almost There.Hello. As any long-term reader of my blog knows, I usually talk about the arts, specifically writing, publishing, and illustrating. But occasionally, I hang a sharp right and go off-topic. This is one of those times.<br />
<br />
I recently received an email from <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.fitbit.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Fitbit">Fitbit</a> showing off their new <a href="https://www.fitbit.com/versa" target="_blank">Versa smartwatch</a>. I've used a <a href="https://client.fitbit.com/shop/one" target="_blank">Fitbit One</a> for years and love it, but I recently discovered that product <a href="https://community.fitbit.com/t5/One/One-Availability-and-Alternatives/td-p/2271754" target="_blank">has been discontinued</a> (boo!). With that being the case, I've been looking into their wrist-worn devices. Thus, I followed their link, and I read and watched their videos about the Versa. I think that it's a pretty good-looking watch (much more so than the Ionic or Blaze), but it's not there yet. It could be so much better. So, Fitbit, here are my suggestions for what would make the Versa 2 an awesome, must-buy product.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Swap out that touchscreen for an extra button and an e-paper display. This provides all kinds of benefits:</li>
<ul>
<li>The screen would always be on, like a proper watch.</li>
<li>Throw in an ambient light sensor and a backlight that only kicks in when you need it, and you could read the screen under any lighting conditions, indoors or out.</li>
<li>You could operate it with gloves on.</li>
<li>You could also operate it without looking at the screen by memorizing button pushes, like launching or interacting with your music or podcasts, which depending on your activity (such as driving), would be a lot safer.</li>
<li>Increased battery life. With that screen swap, you should be able to provide 10 days on a charge. Maybe even more. We're talking industry-leading battery life that blows away the competition.</li>
</ul>
<li>A gently curved back that conforms to the shape of your wrist. Major comfort boost.</li>
<li> While still maintaining water resistance, throw on a microphone for voice responses and notes.</li>
<li>A "timeline" interface that shows your upcoming and past calendar events as well as other items of interest, like the weather or this day in history. Now you need to pull out your phone even less, which is a good thing. By opening that up to developers, who knows where that could lead?</li>
</ul>
Here's what I imagine such a watch could look like:<br />
<br />
<img alt="Pebble Time 2 from 3 angles" src="http://blog.getpebble.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/01-Pebble-Health.jpg" height="360" style="display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="" width="640" /><br />
<br />
You're on the right track, Fitbit. Make those few tweaks, and I'd buy one in a heartbeat. In fact, I predict that priced the same and with the proper marketing push, you would sell tens of thousands of such devices on pre-order alone, equating to millions of dollars in sales, and could go on to sell a million or two more devices easily. Heck, with your retail presence and brand recognition, I could be underestimating. <br />
<br />
Or to put it another way, you're almost there Fitbit. You're at like 80% of your step goal. Push a little harder, and you can do it! I have faith that you have the proper technology and people who can make that happen.<br />
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BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-5172044091835419492018-02-03T05:52:00.000-07:002018-02-03T05:54:42.048-07:00Hello 2018!It's 2018! I know, it has been for over a month, but I've been busy. Sadly, that busy time has mostly been made up of real life and work. I didn't have turnover at the day job this past year (yay, finally!), but I still stayed incredibly busy. We spent a lot of 2017 fixing up the house. So, at the end of the day, not much time or energy left for writing or illustrating. So, what did my 2017 look like?<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grabrovnica.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="English: Christmas fairy tale, light show, Gra..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="262" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Grabrovnica.jpg/350px-Grabrovnica.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">English: Christmas fairy tale, light show, Grabrovnica, Croatia Hrvatski: Božićna bajka na imanju obitelji Salaj u Grabrovnici kraj Čazme (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grabrovnica.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
68.58 hours worked <br />
15,134 words written <br />
452 average words per hour <br />
1 illustration finished <br />
4 blog posts published <br />
0 new books published<br />
<br />
God, that's depressing. I did make some progress, though. I finished a rough of another illustration, and I'm almost done coloring a third. That last is, so far, the most complex illustration in the upcoming Derrick and Max book, and it's taking quite awhile.<br />
<br />
I also finished writing the 1st draft of <i>A Christmas Tale</i>. I finished editing the 2nd draft of <i>Bound</i>, and I'm now working on the 2nd draft of <i>A Christmas Tale</i> (I like to give them some breathing room between drafts, so I work on another project). Since editing tends to involve a lot of time with little progress in terms of words written, my words per hour were rather low last year.<br />
<br />
I also attended the first four <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.brandonsanderson.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Brandon Sanderson">Brandon Sanderson</a> lectures. I can't believe they're free. If you've not watched them, you should. It's time well spent. Here’s the first one:<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N4ZDBOc2tX8" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
So, that was my 2017. In looking back, I didn't hit a single one of <a href="http://www.bdcrowell.com/2016/12/new-years-resolutions-2017.html" target="_blank">my resolutions</a>, but I made some progress. I didn't achieve what I'd hoped to, but it's a new year. Just because I didn't hit my targets doesn't mean I'm going to give up. So, here's what I hope to achieve this year:<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Stop reading news stories about Trump</h2>
They're so depressing. I don't want to hear anything else about that man unless it's about a successful impeachment.<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Get a book published</h2>
I'm making slow progress on <i>Bound</i> and <i>A Christmas Tale</i>. Maybe I'll get one of them finished. Fingers crossed.<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Make a major life change</h2>
I don't want to jinx it, so you'll have to wait. If I pull it off, you'll hear about it here.<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Read 24 books</h2>
I usually hit that, but I didn't last year. It's <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/7501-2018-reading-challenge" target="_blank">my Goodreads goal</a> again this year.<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Log at least 80 hours</h2>
Like I said, I'm in an editing phase, so I don't expect a high word count this year. But I think I can manage to invest more hours in the craft than I did in 2017. I broke 80 hours in 2015, and I almost hit 80 hours in 2016. I'm shooting to get back above that point in 2018.<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Finish the Sanderson course</h2>
I'm caught up on <i><a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.amctv.com/shows/fear-the-walking-dead" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Fear the Walking Dead">Fear the Walking Dead</a></i>, so I plan to get back to Sanderson on my lunch breaks. <br />
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BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-26598432950743915202017-09-22T02:36:00.000-07:002020-10-24T00:34:54.027-07:00Quotes I LikeFall is here! Fall is here! I thought it might be fun to kick off my favorite season by gathering some of my favorite quotes together. Some of these I find funny, others are inspirational, and some give pause. They’re in no particular order. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, and most tend toward art. I've given credit where I've known the source. Anyway, hope you enjoy. And happy Friday! Let’s party like we’re Lacey!<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_Wilde_time_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="English: Oscar Wilde, photographic print on ca..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="239" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/A_Wilde_time_3.jpg/350px-A_Wilde_time_3.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">English: Oscar Wilde, photographic print on card mount: albumen. (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_Wilde_time_3.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<ol>
<li>It's later than you think.</li>
<li>Perfection is the enemy of done.</li>
<li>Let's eat Grandpa! Let's eat, Grandpa! Commas save lives!</li>
<li>Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. ~ <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Calvin and Hobbes">Calvin and Hobbes</a></li>
<li>We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. ~<a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Oscar Wilde">Oscar Wilde</a></li>
<li>You know you're a writer when you have more half-finished novels and ideas for stories than friends.</li>
<li>If you hear a voice within you say that you cannot write, then write. Silence that voice.</li>
<li>What you are now is not all you have the potential to be. ~ Brian Rathbone (Twitter)</li>
<li>It's Friday, and I like to party! And by party, I mean read books until I fall asleep... ~Lacey London (Twitter)</li>
<li>Writing is good for the soul; editing is good for the audience. ~ Brian Rathbone (Twitter)</li>
<li>Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. ~<a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._L._Doctorow" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="E. L. Doctorow">E.L. Doctorow</a> </li>
<li>Never argue with fools, as this makes it impossible for others to tell you apart. ~ Brian Rathbone (Twitter)</li>
<li>Be generous when you can, and when you can't, be kind. ~ Brian Rathbone (Twitter)</li>
</ol>
You may notice Brian Rathbone earned several spots on this list. I don’t know him personally, but I’ve been following him for awhile online. Besides having a pretty awesome first name, he’s quite an entertaining fellow. If you’re not following him on <a href="http://twitter.com/brianrathbone" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, let me encourage you to do so. You should also pick up one of his books and give him a try. After you’ve finished reading all of mine, of course. <img alt="Winking smile" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-winkingsmile" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v81-TMCH-eA/WWNLVjKIf_I/AAAAAAAAdRo/DUOXyNf6jaMt_EPnI0BMPVgY89G_syUQACHMYCw/wlEmoticon-winkingsmile%255B2%255D?imgmax=800" /><br />
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BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-63152754037642164862017-07-24T02:27:00.002-07:002020-11-24T18:11:11.333-07:00ArtRage 5 ReviewAs any reader of the blog knows, I’ve been an <a href="/search/label/ArtRage">ArtRage user for years</a>. I started off with 3.x and moved onto 4.x when it came out. It’s not the only tool in my tool belt (I also have <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clip_Studio_Paint" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Clip Studio Paint">Manga Studio</a>, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Illustrator">Illustrator</a>, <a class="zem_slink" href="https://www.adobe.com/devnet-apps/photoshop/fileformatashtml" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Adobe Photoshop">Photoshop</a>, and Paint.NET), but it’s the one that I use almost exclusively for illustration work. I noticed a few weeks ago that it had been awhile since I’d gotten an update to my 4.5 install, and I thought that perhaps the next version was out or would be soon. So, I went over to the ArtRage site and found my suspicions confirmed. Version 5 was newly available. I was all ready to plop down my money for an upgrade (once you’re a user, you get new versions for 50% off, or so it has been since I’ve been using it) when I noticed that they were offering review copies. Oh, ho ho. I could get something I was prepared to pay for – not that they needed to know that – for the cost of a review? Something I would have chatted about anyway? Yes, please. So, I threw my hat in the ring, and a few days later, the lovely Hannah from Ambient Design got back to me with a code for a free review copy. Yes, score! I’ve been putting it through its paces for the past few weeks, looking for new features, bugs, whatever little tidbits I could find that struck a chord with me. Here’s what I’ve found.<br />
<br />
The first thing I noticed was how incredibly quickly version 5 opened. 4.5 was no slouch, but it would usually take 10-15 seconds to open on my desktop computer. 5 took 2 or 3 seconds. I was seriously impressed. The next thing I noticed was the toolbar at the top. Here’s a screenshot of my latest WIP in 4.5, which is the look I’ve always known.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LwBPDMA73ZQ/WVt78WRFXtI/AAAAAAAAdQc/EVmtm-wNdecU5kA7SO9KniJzrGzPagUlACHMYCw/s1600-h/image7"><img alt="image" border="0" height="644" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WTezw0WhTDY/WVt7-FRtxGI/AAAAAAAAdQg/pf4ZUhkDGHEnzN-YDvqqhm7pd_2fTbyjQCHMYCw/image_thumb5?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="1028" /></a><br />
<br />
Now, here’s a pic of 5.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-apBLCKZlyWQ/WVt7_gUBGSI/AAAAAAAAdQk/LuI6FelccaMka13X8VSrjUHOtF7V8oDQgCHMYCw/s1600-h/image13"><img alt="image" border="0" height="644" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lwt8EHrmZkQ/WVt8BP4IB7I/AAAAAAAAdQo/YmeMwn0zLYkEIM3VeLDogtKWxnGjC4ZEwCHMYCw/image_thumb9?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="1028" /></a><br />
<br />
So, a couple of things right off. Notice how the top toolbar stretches across the entire top of the screen. It’s also a little narrower as far as height goes. For me, the toolbar is a big improvement. The old always felt like it was floating over the top of whatever I was working on. The new feels like a proper toolbar that’s out of the way*. I think this also opens up the top toolbar for future expansion, which is already what I’m seeing (a new tool was added to the lower left panel, and the tool it replaced was moved to the top). The only downside I’ve found is due to muscle memory: I’m used to the zoom controls being on the left, and I’ve several times clicked Undo when I meant to click zoom out. At least there’s a redo button, so it’s easily fixed. Still, I sort of wish you could customize what’s on that toolbar and its placement like you can with <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Scrivener">Scrivener</a>.<br />
<br />
As you can see from the second picture, things are a little darker. The new version comes with a Lights Out mode, which cuts down a bit on the amount of white. I love a good, dark theme, and this is especially appreciated for those early morning drawing sessions when the last thing you want to look at is a bunch of white light. Not much you can do about the canvas, but at least the rest isn’t so white.<br />
<br />
There are a bunch of <a href="http://www.artrage.com/whats-new-in-artrage-5/" target="_blank">new features</a> that come along with 5, just as was the <a href="http://www.artrage.com/artrage-4-5-update-released/" target="_blank">case with 4</a>. For me, the killer feature with 4 was paint symmetry. Derrick has that classic soda bottle shape, the 2-liter variety. Paint symmetry means I don’t have to redraw the one side multiple times to get it to match up with the other. 5’s killer feature is even better, which brings me to a confession: coloring is probably my least favorite part of an illustration. I use the fill tool whenever I can to speed through it. But if there were gaps in the line work, and there frequently are with my illustrations, the paint would bleed out. I’d have to undo and paint with the paintbrush tool. It was very time consuming, and I’d frequently wind up getting a bit of paint mix along the edges, throwing off the color. But now, 5 has a gap tolerance setting on the fill tool. I can turn that up a bit and fill away without it escaping the intended area. Brilliant! That alone was worth the cost of the upgrade to me. Or would have been. If I hadn’t gotten it for free. Squee! There’s also a slow motion option for paint fills, so you can watch as it fills. Useful if it’s going to bleed out, you can stop the process so that there’s less to undo.<br />
<br />
I could go on and on about how great ArtRage is, but you should check it out for yourself. Go grab a <a href="https://www.artrage.com/demos/" target="_blank">demo copy</a> and get creative. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* I realize it’s still taking up space at the top of the screen, but it feels different.BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-41791014695671541532017-03-21T02:42:00.000-07:002017-03-21T02:42:53.465-07:00Two Writing ContestsTwo emails recently came through my inbox about writing contests that are under way and that carry monetary prizes. I don’t know if these are legitimate, and I’m not endorsing them, but I wanted to share with my readers so that you had the opportunity to check them out. If you have any feedback about them, please post in the comments below. Without further ado, here are the details.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Shame Kills</h2>
<br />
Shame Kills and Swift River are sponsoring a spring essay contest titled, “My Mother, My Hero.” <br />
<br />
Shame Kills is dedicated to eradicating the stigma associated with substance abuse disorder. <br />
<br />
This contest is free and the winning essay receives a $200 cash prize. <a href="http://www.swiftriver.com/my-mother-my-hero/">http://www.swiftriver.com/my-mother-my-hero/</a><br />
<br />
<h2>
The Lascaux Review</h2>
<br />
The Lascaux Prize in Flash Fiction is open for <b>two more weeks</b>. Stories may be previously published or unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are accepted. Winner receives $1,000, a bronze medallion, and publication in <i>The Lascaux Review</i>. The winner and all finalists will be published in <i>The 2018 Lascaux Prize Anthology</i>.<br />
<img alt="mimi covers" height="302" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/oFksNsMqyP7eLZ3pbYFJ6ax-cSquZ9ykmKkHYdojHwPf0GYbg4uUJuFY1bL1C9sYkmGbi9VoYjd8BR8lgfdJBp11g508DjlLmh2mV0s8hvVMsaf0s26JL4HOQ56PfS8dKmai_tTGQzMTQX7mz-356A=s0-d-e1-ft#https://cascade.madmimi.com/promotion_images/1099/9548/original/mimi_covers.jpg?1473940942" width="400" /><br />
Two copies of the anthology will be supplied to every writer appearing in it. Entry fee is $10. Writers may enter more than once, and as many as three stories may be submitted per entry. Maximum story length is 1,000 words. All genres and styles are welcome.<br />
<img alt="medallions combined 300" height="233" src="https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/wEBEW9FpUR0W7D8bqJmLqUEKbbjz6pW72FdqJobVvjI-YkIN_vranlSiNYcouNQOSw685aLJKhTc-p9AQby4wdSbXEzwkZea1eUPh6L6i825fSW0mL3TTyIkc-FpMHHVBWrZTkqmiFgJnKRrxCFDK_zidLTCbi1F3OaOoQ=s0-d-e1-ft#https://cascade.madmimi.com/promotion_images/1192/7777/original/medallions_combined_300.jpg?1473940943" width="400" /><br />
All contest participants receive free downloads of the prize anthologies published to date. <b>Submissions close 31 March</b>. <a href="http://lascauxreview.com/contests/">http://lascauxreview.com/contests/</a>BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-62405281006629155182016-12-31T05:23:00.000-07:002016-12-31T05:23:20.929-07:00New Year’s Resolutions 2017Well, another year is drawing to a close. So, it's time to look back at the year nearly passed, as well as my resolutions <a href="https://www.blogger.com/2015/12/new-years-resolutions.html">from last year</a>. <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NewYearsResolution1915SecondPostcard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="English: New Year's Resolutions postcard" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="447" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/NewYearsResolution1915SecondPostcard.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 293px;">English: New Year's Resolutions postcard (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NewYearsResolution1915SecondPostcard.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In 2016, I was still dealing with turnover at work, which robbed me of a lot of illustration and writing time, but I managed to improve my habits this year. I more consistently got up early to invest the time in the craft. And it paid off. As of the start of this blog post (which I began on 12/16/2016), I had logged 74.98 hours, wrote 21,144 words, completed 4 full-color illustrations (one of them just this morning), and have 2 more in progress. I managed 669 words per hour, on average. I published two blog articles with a third nearly complete. I participated in <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="NaNoWriMo">NaNoWriMo</a> this year, something I hadn't done in years, and managed 11,887 words on that new novel alone. I stopped writing <i>Bound</i> to work on it, but I'm now back to <i>Bound</i>, and the first draft is done save for the epilogue. I hope to have that finished by year's end [edit: yep, I finished it]. Oh, and we've not had Internet at our house since late August because AT&T are incompetent, or at least uncooperative. I hope to have that resolved soon, as it's greatly hampered my research abilities (thanks to the public library for having <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Wi-Fi">Wi-Fi</a>). All in all, 2016 was more productive than 2015. I'm pleased at the increase, but hope to do even better in 2017.<br />
<br />
Now, for <b>last year's resolutions</b>. <br />
<h3>
Read a bunch of books</h3>
<br />
Well, I didn't read as many as the previous year, and it looks like I won't meet my <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/4342686" target="_blank">Goodreads goal</a> of 24, but I still managed a respectable number. A few of the books I read were quite large. I read the first two books in <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="A Song of Ice and Fire">the Song of Ice and Fire</a> series and am working on the third. You know how long those are. I plan to set the same goal for myself for next year.<br />
<h3>
Lose some weight</h3>
<br />
Didn't happen. Spent most of the year trying to get back on <a href="http://www.paleoplan.com/" target="_blank">Paleo </a>and not succeeding. Just recently, we've had a pretty good go of it, about two weeks. I feel much better. And bad when I stray, so I know I'm getting back into the swing of it. And like the last time, I'm seeing the weight start to creep down.<br />
<h3>
Master my email</h3>
<br />
Not much to report there. I have a great handle on it at work, less so with Gmail, but it's still more efficient. <a class="zem_slink" href="http://google.com/calendar" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Google Calendar">Google Tasks</a>, <a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dayup.gtask&hl=en" target="_blank">GTasks</a>, and <a href="http://www.rainlendar.net/" target="_blank">Rainlendar Pro</a> continue to be my go to solutions for tasks management, but I’m also incorporating <a href="http://trello.com/" target="_blank">Trello</a> for larger projects. I also use <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/" target="_blank">Thunderbird</a> to get through large chunks of email at a time.<br />
<h3>
Write and draw more</h3>
<br />
As I discussed above, I've met both of those.<br />
<h3>
Finish what I start</h3>
<br />
Doing better. I'm focusing more on one writing project at a time and not splitting my focus. True, I broke off to participate in NaNoWriMo, but once it was done, I got back to work on <i>Bound</i>. Which I then set aside to write this blog post, and I'm going to finish it before I get back to <i>Bound</i>. And I continue to move forward with the illustrations for the next Derrick and Max book. I'll finish those before I start on the next.<br />
<br />
<br />
Alright, so now for <b>2017</b>. I'm going to go more specific for my goals this coming year since that's supposed to be more effective. Here's what I have.<br />
<h2>
Read 24 books</h2>
<br />
True, I didn't meet that goal this year, but it seems like a good number and generally reachable. However, I'm not going to fret if I don't reach it.<br />
<h2>
Write 25,000 words</h2>
<br />
My stretch goal is always 50,000, but I never hit that. I think with the improved numbers I saw this year and by being a little more disciplined in the first half of the new year than I was this year, I can reach 25k. Unless I spend a lot of time on editing and 2nd drafts, but I'm OK if that's what causes me to miss the mark.<br />
<h2>
Publish a book</h2>
<br />
I didn't publish anything in 2016, but I have a few things that are completed or nearly completed. A bit of polish, and they'll be ready. I want to get to where I've something new out every year. Maybe even two somethings.<br />
<h2>
Spend more quality time with my family</h2>
<br />
Work has settled down. I'm working on ways to make it more efficient so it doesn't take so much of my time in training when we must bring new people on. I'm working on my sleep with the help of my <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_%28watch%29#Pebble_Steel" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Pebble (watch)">Pebble Steel</a> (*sniff* I'll miss you, <a href="http://blog.getpebble.com/2016/12/07/fitbit/" target="_blank">Pebble</a>) and <a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.urbandroid.sleep&hl=en" target="_blank">Sleep as Android</a> so that when I'm awake, I'm more alert, productive, efficient, and hopefully less irritable. I'm keeping my writing and drawing hours to when the kids aren't around so that they're not competing for my attention. And I'm trying to be more accessible and attentive. I may not be able to increase the quantity of hours, but I can try to increase the quality.<br />
<h2>
Lose 20 pounds</h2>
<br />
I'm planning to stick with Paleo and will try to encourage my wife to stick with it, too. We both lost weight when we were on it last time. If we can stick with it, 20 pounds is well within reach. Truthfully, I was losing 1-2 pounds per week before, so even 40 pounds wouldn't be unreasonable, but I'm shooting for 20.<br />
<br />
So, those are mine. Please let me know what you think in the comments, and share your resolutions, if you're of a mind to. I hope you all have a safe, peaceful, and enjoyable holiday season! <br />
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BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-4414215791051492912016-10-21T19:14:00.001-07:002020-10-24T00:35:10.047-07:00Indispensable Writer's ToolsAll you really need to be a writer is something to write about, on, and with. That first one's pretty important, but the last two could be as trivial as some paper and a pencil. In fact, there are writers who just use those. Or even typewriters. If that's you, and that works for you, then this post isn't for you. But if you have gone, or are considering going, the digital route, then read on.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Live_Writer_2011.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="Windows Live Writer" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="276" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bf/Live_Writer_2011.png/350px-Live_Writer_2011.png" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">Windows Live Writer (Photo credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Live_Writer_2011.png" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I've been writing for awhile now and have, what's for me, a pretty good work flow in place. Along the way, I've tried a number of tools and thought I'd share my experiences. Certainly there are others out there, but these are the ones that have worked for me, that I find indispensable. Hopefully, some new writer, or maybe even a seasoned one, will find this post useful. There may be some crossover between this post and my <a href="https://www.blogger.com/2013/06/links-for-writers.html">Links for Writers post</a>, so apologies for repeating myself. I'm focusing on software tools here, but let's not forget that there are plenty of non-software tools a writer should have in his or her arsenal, not the least of which are a dictionary, a thesaurus, and books on the craft, although I suppose these days, those are all available as "software," too. Anyway, without further ado, here's my list of my indispensable writer's tools.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
1. An Operating System (OS). </h3>
<br />
<b>tl;dr: Windows, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.intenseschool.com/boot_camp/linux" rel="intenseschoollinux" target="_blank" title="Linux Boot Camp">Linux</a>, Android.</b><br />
<b></b> <br />
Unless you're writing on paper via pen, pencil, or typewriter like I mentioned above, you're likely writing on an electronic device of some sort, and you need an OS to make that work. There are plenty of choices out there including Android, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.apple.com/ios/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="IOS">iOS</a>, Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. I've used them all. I currently do my writing on Windows, Android, and Linux, so my choices that follow will stem from those. Apple and other users may need to find substitute choices. For what it's worth, my Windows machines run 8.1 & 10, all with Classic Shell. My <a class="zem_slink" href="http://code.google.com/android/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Android">Android devices</a> are on versions 4 & 5, and my current Linux flavor of choice is Mint 17.2 Cinnamon.<br />
<br />
Let me digress and put on my IT hat for just a moment. I'm not going to get into the debate between Windows & Macs; that's been done to death. My preference between the two is Windows. But let's rather talk about Linux, because there are a lot of flavors, and I've used a lot of them, so my choice of Mint may be surprising. Yes, I know there are issues with <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.linuxmint.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Linux Mint">Linux Mint</a>, such as blacklisting upstream patches that cause problems with Cinnamon and renaming packages that then creates namespace collisions. You know what, I don't care. There's always a balancing act between security and usability. Mint is simple, stable, and intuitive. I would feel confident recommending it to your run-of-the-mill Windows or Mac user. It's easy to install and use and feels familiar. I've gone through my share of Red Hat, Debian, and other installs. A Mint install is a breeze by comparison. And yes, I've tried Cinnamon on Debian. Not really the same. Cinnamon on Mint is just more cohesive and polished. I have to agree with their marketing: it's elegant, simple to use, and comfortable. And despite some of their issues, which I hope they address, I'd say you still have fewer security concerns than with Windows or Mac. OK, IT hat off.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
2. Writing software. I've used a lot of those, too. Let's break it down.</h3>
<br />
<b><i>tl;dr: Open <a class="zem_slink" href="http://download.live.com/writer" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Windows Live Writer">Live Writer</a>, Scrivener, Evernote (with Swype+Dragon)</i></b><br />
<b><i> </i></b> <br />
<b>a. Blogging.</b> I'm currently composing this post on gedit. Later on, I'll copy it into Open Live Writer on Windows to finalize before posting to the blog, and then I'll use <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Zemanta">Zemanta</a> in Blogger to add in a photo and maybe some links. I used to compose and publish through Live Writer almost exclusively with Zemanta built in, but Zemanta dropped support for Live Writer, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.microsoft.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a> stopped developing Live Writer, and then I added Linux into the mix which doesn't support Live Writer, so now it's a bit more convoluted. If you're blogging and on Windows, I'd say it's worth your time to check out Open Live Writer. Unlike the older Live Writer (which was excellent), Open Live Writer is being actively developed, works with the new Blogger security features, and hopefully has a bright future. I hope Zemanta comes back with a plugin for it.<br />
<br />
<b>b. Writing.</b> I use Scrivener. I bought the Windows version a few years ago, and I've been using the Linux version lately, also. Sadly, the Linux version has been abandoned but only recently and they decided to put the final versions out for free (it had been an unpaid beta). I hope they reconsider taking back up Linux in the future, as I would gladly pay for it. There are plenty of other choices out there, but for my money, Scrivener is where it's at.<br />
<br />
<b>c. Mobile.</b> I don't do a ton of writing on my mobile devices. What I am likely to do is send myself a quick email. However, I have dictated some blog posts, story ideas, and even parts of stories while driving. I do that through Evernote, which is free, and Swype+Dragon, which is paid. For me, though, the price of Swype+Dragon is worth it. Unlike every other Android keyboard I've used that stops listening to you when you pause, you can tell Swype to not automatically detect the end of speech, which means it will keep listening to you until you tap to pause or it loses its data connection. And because it's powered by Dragon, you can use the familiar Dragon verbal commands, like "new paragraph" or inserting punctuation marks. This is indispensable for hands free dictation where there may be long pauses between speaking (for instance, only dictating when you're stopped; I don't think we need any more causes of distracted driving).<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
3. Miscellaneous.</h3>
<br />
<b><i>tl;dr: Dropbox, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.rainlendar.net/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Rainlendar">Rainlendar</a>, Gmail, Blogger, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.mailchimp.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="MailChimp">MailChimp</a>, Excel, Gtasks</i></b><br />
<b><i> </i></b> <br />
<b>a. Tracking:</b> There are things you need to keep track of when you're a writer. You have your todo list, dates you need to keep (deadlines, events, etc.), and you may even be keeping track of your writing progress. Let's talk about those first two. I use Gmail primarily, which includes a calendar and basic tasks list. My tasks needs are fairly simple, so Google meets my needs. Plus, I have a couple of great tools that work with it. On my Android devices, I use an app called GTasks, which works nicely syncing with my <a class="zem_slink" href="http://mail.google.com/mail/help/tasks/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Google Tasks">Google tasks</a> list and let's me view and update from my phone or tablet. On the desktop, I use Rainlendar Pro. I used the free one for years, but with me working from so many places, Pro lets me see and update my Google calendars and tasks across multiple desktops, Windows and Linux (it works with other calendar/todo list solutions, too, but I've not tried those). And something I stumbled across by accident: I waited until the end of the trial period to buy and wound up getting it for half price, which was a nice surprise (I totally would have paid full price). I don't know if I just got lucky or that's a regular incentive, but it can't hurt to try to wait.<br />
<br />
<b>b. Syncing:</b> I use Dropbox to sync most items between my computers. It's great to be able to just pickup on whichever computer I happen to be working from. I don't do anything special with Scrivener other than save my files to my local Dropbox folder, and it handles the rest. Dropbox has saved me a couple of times, too. I had an OS crash that corrupted my Scrivener file. I was able to use Dropbox' previous versions to get back to a working state (there are a lot of moving parts in a Scrivener document, so it took some doing, but I eventually got it. I wasn't using Scrivener's backup feature, which would have made that a lot easier). There was another occasion, though, where I had a spreadsheet get corrupted, but Dropbox was convinced that I had no earlier revisions. I would up restoring from backup, so you still have to keep those. Speaking of backups, I backup my Windows computers using Windows Home Server 2011. I don't backup my Linux setup, but it's pretty vanilla with very few installed programs and everything I care about in Dropbox, so I could be back up in half a day, if needed.<br />
<br />
<b>c. Research:</b> I mostly use Instapaper. It is great, really easy to save a page for later perusal. I've paid for it on iOS and Android, and I'm a subscriber to get search functionality. Scrivener can also store research, which is great, but you have to have Scrivener on the device you're doing your research on or when you run across that thing that would be great to reference later, and that's often not the case with me. With Instapaper, I can just clip it, store it in the right folder, and it's ready to go for later.<br />
<br />
<b>d. Communications:</b> My web presence and email run through Google. I got in back in the day when you could get a custom domain for your Blogger blog for $10/year. Unlimited bandwidth, traffic, Google apps, and a custom domain for $10/year? That's a deal! That's for bdcrowell.com and included @bdcrowell.com email addresses. I wish I would have gotten in for dleewarren.com, but I waited too long and Google stopped offering that. Now, I pay $15 a year just for a redirect over to Blogger. My only concern is that Google sometimes decides to stop offering services, including ones that I used to use (like my beloved and dearly missed iGoogle and the Tea House Fox), but until they sunset Blogger, I'm happy with it.<br />
<br />
For social media, I'm on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter, but Twitter's really the only one I pay much attention to. I primarily interact with those through HootSuite, and I have some automated stuff going through IFTTT and Zapier. Oh, I'm also on Goodreads. I love Goodreads. I primarily use it for tracking my reading, but I sometimes use it for social interactions, discovery, etc. <br />
For the newsletter, I use MailChimp. You can't beat totally free for the first 2,000 subscribers. If I ever get past that point, I'll happily give them my money.<br />
<br />
<br />
That's about it for my list. I hope you found something useful here. These should apply whether you're a hobbyist or a pro, indie published or traditionally. Next time I'll talk about some additional tools that I find indispensable for the tasks an indie needs to take on. If you have a tool that you find to be indispensable, please share in the comments. Thanks for reading! <br />
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BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-1969605077667209112015-12-30T23:49:00.000-07:002015-12-30T23:49:06.450-07:00New Year’s Resolutions2015 is almost in the bag. This year has flown by for me. However, most of the reason it flew by was because of the day job. While there was a welcome promotion in January, my old position wasn't backfilled, so many of those duties followed me. Then, one of my direct reports left, and I was back to doing my old job, plus his, plus the new job. Eventually, the direct's position got filled. I spent a couple of months training him, and then it was right into a big Office 365 migration. All that has meant much unpaid overtime and little time and energy left to illustrate and write. I only managed, not counting this piece, to squeeze out 12,649 words so far this year (as I write this, it's 12/09/2015) and 4 full-color illustrations. Very sad.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Postcards2CardsNewYearsResolution1915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="English: Two New Year's Resolutions postcards" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="270" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Postcards2CardsNewYearsResolution1915.jpg/350px-Postcards2CardsNewYearsResolution1915.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">English: Two New Year's Resolutions postcards (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Postcards2CardsNewYearsResolution1915.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
No, actually, that's not the way I want to look at it. Despite everything that interfered with writing and drawing this year, I still managed to crank out almost 13,000 words. I completed 4 illustrations and immediately jumped into a fifth, which means I'm roughly half-way done with the 2nd Derrick and Max book (and to be fair, it has probably double the number of illustrations of the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/p/library.html#derrick1">1st one</a>). I put out 2 new pieces of <a href="https://www.blogger.com/p/library.html#pink">flash</a> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/p/library.html#boundless">fiction</a> and 7 blog posts on this site. My <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bdcrowell.com%2Findex.html&ref_src=twsrc^tfw&screen_name=BDCrowell&tw_p=followbutton">Twitter</a> followers count exceeded 1,000 for the first time this year. That's 2 stories, 7 posts, and over 12,000 words that I produced that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't tried. Hell yeah! It wasn't a fail because I didn't hit the goals I set for myself; it's a success because I produced that much art, way more than most people I know.<br />
All of which is a slow build to talking about my New Year's resolutions. I don't typically make New Year's resolutions, mostly because I know most of them won't stick. But I think this year I will. So, in no particular order, let's hit it.<br />
<h2>
Read a bunch of books</h2>
This one's easy, because if there's one thing I like more than writing, it's reading. I'm also going to try to keep a healthy mix of fiction and non-fiction in my reading list. I've set a goal for myself in <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7149963.B_D_Crowell">Goodreads</a> for the past few years, and I'm going to do it again. Speaking of which, I love Goodreads. It's neck and neck with Twitter as my favorite social network. In fact, if we haven't already, we should connect on Goodreads. If we already did, and I ignored you, sorry about that. I've not had much time for social media this year. I'm going to try to do better this next year, but still not great because I should be writing or illustrating rather than spending too much time on social media. Only so many hours in a day, you know, what are you going to do?<br />
<h2>
Lose some weight</h2>
Before I started working full-time in IT, the most I'd ever weighed was about 170-175 pounds. Now, I'm between 220 and 230. Very sad. Last fall before Miranda's dad passed away and everything went to hell, we'd switched over to a mostly <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Paleolithic diet">Paleo diet</a>, and I'd gotten down to between 205 & 210 and was still dropping weight. All my bloodwork was coming back good. We need to get back there. Neither IT work nor writing and illustrating are particularly good calorie burners, but we can certainly make healthier choices about what we put in our bodies. We're planning to do <a href="http://amzn.to/1Yrm33k">a juice reboot</a> over the winter break to jumpstart us back onto Paleo. Wish us luck.* <br />
<h2>
Master my email</h2>
I've implemented the <a href="http://amzn.to/1YvZ5mk">Total Workday Control with Microsoft Outlook</a> system at work. It's been great and has saved me so much time and lost productivity. I highly recommend you check it out. I don't have quite the same situation in my writing/illustrating job: no deadlines, no particular order things need to be completed (other than the natural flow an individual project moves through). I'm still going to take some of the things I learned in that book, though, and see if I can't do a better job with my gmail, but probably sticking with <a class="zem_slink" href="http://mail.google.com/mail/help/tasks/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Google Tasks">Google Tasks</a> since that already works for my workflow and with the excellent <a href="http://www.rainlendar.net/cms/index.php">Rainlendar Pro</a> on my desktops and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dayup.gtask&hl=en">GTasks</a> on my <a class="zem_slink" href="http://code.google.com/android/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Android">Android devices</a>.<br />
<h2>
Write and draw more</h2>
It's too easy to say that I'll do it later. Before my father-in-law passed away and before the crazy work schedule at my day job, I was very disciplined about getting up at 5 AM, working for 30 to 45 minutes, and then getting ready for work. I'm going to get back there. No excuses. I feel better and less guilty when I've done my work for the day. <br />
I'm also going to try to be more vigilant about using my <a href="http://amzn.to/1YrmpH2">Surface Pro 2</a> (a promotion present from my excellent wife) in the evenings when we sit to watch TV or read. I've discovered that I don't do well working out the rough stages of an illustration on it because the screen's too small, but the portability of it is awesome. So, I'm going to make sure I'm doing my roughs on the desktop PC with the big screen and <a href="http://amzn.to/1YvZCon">Bamboo tablet</a> in the early mornings, and then I can do the inks and colors on the Surface.<br />
<h2>
Finish what I start</h2>
I supposed everyone does this to some extent. You lose steam as the story progresses, or you get stuck at a certain point, or you get tempted by some shiny new story idea. I'm terrible about wanting to edit as I go along instead of getting the first draft out as quickly as I can. Then, I get mired down and I lose my grip on the story. No editing as I write the 1st draft this coming year! I have a handful of stories in <a href="https://www.blogger.com/p/library.html#wip">various stages of completion</a>. I need to plow through them, even if it turns out that I write crap to get through the sticking points. I can always edit out the crap later after the story's done.<br />
I do something similar with illustration work. If I can't clearly see in my mind what an illustration should look like, I tend to get stuck. I either don't want to pick up the work or I spend an enormous amount of time working out what should be there. I tend to work through them in chronological order, but since the story's already written, it doesn't really matter the order in which the illustrations are completed. I think I'm going to skip over the ones that I don't have a solid grasp of what they should look like to work on the ones that I do. Maybe something in the later illustrations will inspire the missing ones. If not, I'll just forge through what's left with their multitude of drafts until I get something workable.<br />
<br />
I could probably go on, but I think 5 is a good number. I hope everyone has a good holiday season. May 2016 be a happy, productive, and blessed year for you. If you have some inspiring resolutions, or thoughts on mine, please consider sharing below. Until next time, peace!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* A quick note about eating Paleo. It's not a diet; it's more a change in the way you eat and approach food. I thought it was total BS when I first heard about it, and reading some of the message boards, I thought those people were crazy. It totally flew in the face of everything I'd been taught about nutrition and the food pyramid. Then, a couple of things happened. My doctor told me what I should be eating was totally different than what I'd been taught. When I went looking for a "diet" that corresponded to what he'd said, I rediscovered Paleo. This time, I also found <a href="http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10/04/the-beginners-guide-to-the-paleo-diet/">this great article at Nerd Fitness</a>, which made a lot of sense. Then, a guy at work told me about <a href="http://www.paleoplan.com/">Paleo Plan</a>. We looked into it and discussed it. The wife was on-board, so we started the Paleo Plan. Once we got past <a href="http://www.paleoplan.com/2011/03-02/the-dreaded-detox/">the detox stage</a> (I had the headaches and weird cravings; she had the flu-like symptoms and the cravings), we felt so much better and the weight started falling off. Seriously, if you're overweight or on a bunch of medications, read the Nerd Fitness article, discuss it with your medical professional, and if he or she's on-board, get the free trial from Paleo Plan (read the comments on the recipe pages because sometimes their recipes are a bit off). Try it for 30 days. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much better you feel and how much better your numbers are. Plus, it's kind of fun to watch the expression on cashiers' faces when they see all that produce they have to manually weigh and enter. And in case you're curious, no, I don't have any relationship with Nerd Fitness or Paleo Plan except as a consumer, and I've been neither asked nor compensated to recommend them. I just like them and so I am. Actually, that's true of everything I've mentioned in here. The only "compensation" would be if you followed the <a href="http://amzn.to/1YrnsqH">Amazon</a> links and bought something, I’d get a small affiliate fee from Amazon. It doesn’t change what you pay, but it helps pay for the upkeep of this site.<br />
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BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-88007259030182065662015-11-05T22:02:00.000-07:002015-12-21T11:32:23.464-07:00Easy Epubs with Scrivener & Sigil, Part 1I make my own epubs because I like having control over the final product, I don’t find it terribly difficult or time-consuming to do, and I can update it whenever I want. However, I find myself forgetting which settings to choose between sessions, so I thought it would be best if I wrote out the directions. Thinking it might be useful for someone else, I thought I’d post it here. If it’s useful to you, good deal. If not, well at least the price is right. <img alt="Winking smile" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-winkingsmile" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-w7Bx9s9U-Ko/VQxTNyAWULI/AAAAAAAAAuk/qVMHoMhz1pU/wlEmoticon-winkingsmile2.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none;" /><br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h1>
Background:</h1>
I’m using Scrivener 1.x on Windows and Sigil 0.7.x. Sigil is free. Scrivener is not, but it’s well the worth the money, in my opinion. If your time is worth anything, it’s worth moving up to Scrivener. <br />
To complete this guide, you should have a basic understanding of html or be willing to learn. If that’s not you, then you should skip all this and hire a formatter.<br />
The Windows version of Scrivener doesn’t quite have all the bells and whistles that the Mac version has. For instance, in the Mac version, you can just point to where you have your front matter stored. In Windows, we need to drag it into place. Mac users may find some value here, but this is written for Windows users.<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h1>
Introduction:</h1>
You’ve written your masterpiece, edited it to within an inch of its life, and are ready to send your file out into the big, bright world (or cold, cruel world, for the cynical types). Depending on where you want to send it, you’ll probably need 2 files: a Word file for Smashwords and potentially for your POD printer (although if you want to go hardcore, you’ll send the POD folks a pdf made from <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/main.html" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Adobe InDesign">InDesign</a>; that’s what I did with the paper version of <i>Derrick the Dog</i>), and an <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="EPUB">epub</a> for just about everybody else (even Amazon’s KDP will accept a good epub, so you don’t need to bother with a mobi file; I’ve not yet seen any problems with their conversion). I’m not going to talk about Word here. There are plenty of good templates out there and <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bdcrowell" target="_blank">Smashwords </a>has its own <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52" target="_blank">easy-to-follow guide</a>. I’m going to talk about producing a fair- to good-looking epub with a minimum amount of time and effort. For this tutorial, I’m going to use my novelette <i>Repetition</i>.<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h1>
Scrivener setup:</h1>
Here’s the setup of <i>Repetition</i>:<br />
<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-TxDqqKP2ttU/VQxTSH1xNbI/AAAAAAAAAus/fvepN8XTiY8/s1600-h/scriv16.png"><img align="left" alt="scriv-1" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-39GjleWWezM/VQxTSaz_k9I/AAAAAAAAAuw/1IhkZ1X7qP0/scriv1_thumb4.png?imgmax=800" height="480" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 5px;" title="scriv-1" width="120" /></a><br />
You can arrange your files and folders in any way that makes sense to you. I chose to separate out my front and back matter from the rest of the text to make it easier for me to see.<br />
You’ll note down under Research, I have a separate front/back matter folder. This is where I can keep track of the different versions of my copyright page and, if there was going to be a print version, my newsletter page (I use different links/QR codes depending on the format so I know where users come from). Then, I just drag the one I want up into the story when I’m ready to compile and drag the other out.<br />
I also keep an orphaned scenes folder. For the most part, I tend to write linearly, but sometimes I have a really strong idea for a scene and want to get it down. I can stick it in here and then worry about where to put it later. Alternately, if I don’t like a scene, I’ll stick the older version here and rewrite (if it’s just an edit, I use the snapshots feature). That way, it’s always accessible to me later on. In the case of <i>Repetition</i>, I had the idea to put a couple of these scenes that didn’t make the final cut at the end of the book.<br />
Besides all that, I have the standard places to store my character and location sheets. I didn’t do much with those here, as it’s pretty short. I make more extensive use of the feature in longer works with more characters to help ensure I don’t forget details and have to go hunting through the text.<br />
The point is, you can set this up in whatever way makes the most sense to you. It won’t matter once we get into the business of compiling for epub, as I’m about to show.<br />
One final note, I don’t get fancy with fonts, sizes, alignment, etc. in Scrivener. I make sure my text is bolded or italicized where I want it, but that’s about it.<br />
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<h2>
The compile screen:</h2>
<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-8Ukmh62tVrg/VQxTS6Oq3hI/AAAAAAAAAu8/F3ujeGC-otE/s1600-h/image%25255B1%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-uz75kdyVFhA/VQxTTXP71mI/AAAAAAAAAvA/QrmVYQ4F7ZY/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" height="184" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="240" /></a><br />
<h3>
Contents:</h3>
Here’s the first compile screen for an epub. Notice there aren’t too many options on the Windows version. That’s OK. We have what we need.<br />
This is what I was talking about with not worrying about the structure. If we don’t want something to compile, like the folder names, we just uncheck Include and poof, they’re gone from the epub.<br />
I start out with the Format As: E-book. Once you change something, it will change to Custom. Once you get it exactly the way you want, you can save it as a Preset. I don’t, because chances are I’ll want to review each time to make sure it’s the way I want it to be, but it can speed things up if you’re consistent about your setup in Scrivener.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Separators:</h3>
<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-oRfuyV1GVAE/VQxTThV5cRI/AAAAAAAAAvI/PImSNm8TGXo/s1600-h/image9%25255B1%25255D.png"><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-ljohl5YTsu4/VQxTT63HCDI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/sAFg2prkUks/image9_thumb.png?imgmax=800" height="184" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="240" /></a> This defaults to Empty Line, Empty Line, Empty Line, and Page Break. Look at your original setup. I want page breaks between each of my scenes, as they’re each a chapter so I set mine to Page Break all the way down. Yours may not be, though. You may have multiple scenes per chapter. If so, pick which works best for you. The good news is, if you don’t go up and change the Format As and save before exiting the compile window, it will remember how you’ve set it for this book so you don’t have to start over again every time you want to recompile.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Cover:</h3>
<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-W8v97f5dUc0/VQxTUPxUA4I/AAAAAAAAAvY/POAW2oSB6KY/s1600-h/image13%25255B1%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-1DrjHzuLuRY/VQxTUgUyXDI/AAAAAAAAAvg/xLiQMFgENzw/image13_thumb.png?imgmax=800" height="185" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="240" /></a><br />
To get your cover art in, you should place it somewhere in Scrivener. I stick mine under Research. Presumably, you could put it elsewhere. Once you select it, it will fill that window and look awful. That’s just a preview thing, though. It still has its original dimensions when you compile it.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Formatting:</h3>
<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-NiOTuzlbF84/VQxTVEZMsFI/AAAAAAAAAvs/-vC7ZcPYgmQ/s1600-h/image26%25255B1%25255D.png"><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-_Dp1kQ6K-n0/VQxTVTXRCuI/AAAAAAAAAvw/JEcIZBK-CVI/image26_thumb.png?imgmax=800" height="185" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="240" /></a> <br />
Here’s where you can really get in and make things fancy. And where you can get in and screw things up. I have not spent a great deal of time playing with this section, preferring to do my tweaking in Sigil. If you want to see some of the power, you should check out <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17280359-how-to-format-your-novel-for-kindle-nook-the-ibookstore-smashwords-a" target="_blank">Ed Ditto’s book.</a> In it, he talks about page padding, which you can get to by clicking the <b>Modify</b> button. I do not recommend using page padding within Scrivener. It produces ugly code, which I’ll show when we get to the epub in Sigil.<br />
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<h3>
Transformations:</h3>
<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-OPbGo4yQ0Xk/VQxTVn84SNI/AAAAAAAAAv4/FV_AI84nXrY/s1600-h/scrivener-transformations%25255B9%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="scrivener-transformations" border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-ERafViisPRs/VQxTV5SMrNI/AAAAAAAAAwA/cCaj6HBJODQ/scrivener-transformations_thumb%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" height="185" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; float: right; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="scrivener-transformations" width="244" /></a><br />
I mostly just go with the defaults here. Epubs should be able to handle ellipses, italics, and the like. If I was using different colored text, I would have wanted to uncheck the <b>Remove text color</b> box, but I wasn’t. By checking the box, I make sure that no unintended text color changes get introduced into my epub file.<br />
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<h3>
Replacements:</h3>
My replacements screen is blank, so I’ll not add a screenshot here. If for whatever reasons you wanted to define words and phrases that should be replaced in the text during compile, you can do that on this screen.<br />
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<h3>
Footnotes/Comments:</h3>
<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-nxE7OBCxl38/VQxTWV2E8II/AAAAAAAAAwI/h5W-pSmnn3c/s1600-h/scrivener-footnotes%25255B13%25255D.png"><img align="left" alt="scrivener-footnotes" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-LV7tfk09glA/VQxTWzR909I/AAAAAAAAAwQ/3Rn1fzqcjOg/scrivener-footnotes_thumb%25255B9%25255D.png?imgmax=800" height="185" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; float: left; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="scrivener-footnotes" width="244" /></a>Scrivener lets you insert notes to yourself as comments and annotations. Unless perhaps you were sending this out to an editor, you likely don’t want those in your final epub, so you’ll want to check them. If you were using footnotes in a similar way, you might also want to remove them. I’m not using them, so no need to uncheck the box.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Meta-Data:<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-tdxQWa5ShrQ/VQxTXfmRccI/AAAAAAAAAwY/kU7M0uhvskM/s1600-h/scrivener-metadata%25255B10%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="scrivener-metadata" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-92eUMYX_FsE/VQxTXv8H1SI/AAAAAAAAAwg/V--TYXw94JA/scrivener-metadata_thumb%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" height="185" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; float: right; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="scrivener-metadata" width="244" /></a></h3>
Here, I’m switching to the flash fiction story <i>Pink</i>, since I hadn’t set this up for <i>Repetition</i>. Here’s the behind the scenes details. This is where you can put in the credits: the author, contributors, subject, descriptions, publisher, and rights. This will then get built into the epub file and you’ll be able to see, and later edit if necessary, in the final epub file. This stuff shows up if you import the file into Calibre.<br />
<br />
Once you have everything set to your liking, you probably want to save your own preset so the next time, you only have to tweak things like the meta-data. When it all looks good, click the <b>Compile</b> button, pick your file name, and you now have a pretty good epub file. But we’re going to use Sigil to make it even better, which we’ll talk about next time. If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-50151268320988986612015-09-22T23:41:00.000-07:002015-09-22T23:41:00.164-07:00Book Review Etiquette for AuthorsI’ve been thinking about book reviews lately. I use them when I’m deciding whether a book might be worth my time (along with the description, genre, etc.). I’ve even <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/7351618?sort=review&view=reviews" target="_blank">written some</a>. Now I find myself on the receiving end of book reviews. So, what’s an author to do about reviews of his or her books?<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Open_book_01.svg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="English: Open book icon" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="350" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Open_book_01.svg/350px-Open_book_01.svg.png" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">English: Open book icon (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Open_book_01.svg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
That’s kind of an important question. Pick any random book from your favorite online bookstore. See those reviews? Except for the ones who have but a few or the sad ones without any, those reviews and ratings run the gamut. Some readers love the book, some hate it, some more are indifferent. And that’s ok. In fact, in time, I hope to have enough to run the gamut myself. How’s that saying go? You can’t please everyone all the time, etc., etc. I’ve yet to find a widely read book that was beloved by everyone. <a href="http://b.holyjeeb.us/post/19626903116/painful-twilight-fans-review-bram-stokers" target="_blank">Even some classics</a>.<br />
<br />
So, again, what’s an author to do? I’ve got some ideas.<br />
<ol>
<li><b>I’m not going to read the reviews of my books</b>. Well, not all of them anyway. Perhaps the ones that have been voted up as the most useful. And I always need a few positive ones to put on my Library page, so I have to look at the first few of those at a minimum. Is this blasphemy? I don’t actually think so. Here’s why: <ol>
<li><b>I don’t think reviews are actually meant for the author</b>. I think book reviews are meant for other readers. That’s how I tend to write a review. That’s how most of the reviews I’ve seen read. I think if someone really wants to give me feedback, personally, they’ll seek me out. I would. </li>
<li><b>Keeping up with reviews can be a time suck.</b> With everything else we need to do, do we really need to waste time searching out and poring over reviews? What’s to be gained from that? </li>
<li><b>What’s the benefit?</b> Or to put it another way, how’s your ego? Do you require the good reviews to motivate you to write? Can you take the abuse from the haters? The apathetic? </li>
<li><b>Would it change anything?</b> I know when I hit publish that I’ve done the best job I can reasonably do in a respectable amount of time. It’s passed by multiple pairs of eyes and has gone through multiple edits. At that point, it is what it is, and I’m not going to do a complete overhaul of it or destroy it entirely; someone somewhere might like it. I might tinker with it, fixing little problems that are found, but that’s about it. Are reviews likely to be so granular as to point out the specific items that need fixing? Maybe. How much time do I want to invest going through those to find the pearls? </li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><b>I’m not going to respond to my reviews.</b> Not on a bookstore’s site anyway. That could be awkward for the reviewer. Now, if it was positive and on a blog, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.facebook.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Faceboo">Facebook</a>, etc., I could see maybe saying thanks. Those are social. I think that would be acceptable. What about less than stellar reviews? No. Never. That is a <a href="http://www.pocketfulofbooks.com/p/authors-behaving-badly.html" target="_blank">guaranteed loss situation</a>. It doesn’t matter if the reviewer is an idiot (actually, never argue with an idiot; that is always a losing proposition). It doesn’t matter how clearly and cleverly you support your stance. You will not come out on top. <a href="http://www.bdcrowell.com/2014/08/is-it-art.html">It’s art</a>. Not everyone will like or get your art. Accept it and move on. </li>
<li><b>When I write reviews, I keep in mind the old </b><a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/people_who_live_in_glass_houses_shouldn%27t_throw_stones" target="_blank"><b>adage about glass houses</b></a><b>.</b> Or maybe that whole <i>do unto others as you’d have them do unto you </i>fits better here. I’ve come up with my own reviewing policy on my <a href="http://www.bdcrowell.com/p/press.html">Misc page</a>. It takes a lot of effort and time to write a book. Why would I want to spread bad karma around by trashing my peers. Better to remember <i>if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all</i>. </li>
</ol>
And that’s about it. Short, sweet, and simple. Plus, I’m running out of clichés. <img alt="Smile" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-2uYeM2DzYiE/VQCMoBUtDuI/AAAAAAAAAuM/2Q9S1NGqXAk/wlEmoticon-smile%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none;" /> <br />
<br />
It’s not complicated. Leave the reviewers alone. Be nice*. Be honest. If you can’t do both, then be quiet. Think how much better the Internet as a whole would be if everybody stuck to those?<br />
<br />
*Nice doesn’t mean sugar-coating everything. It’s great when it’s positive, but it can be negative. Then it’s constructive criticism versus destructive criticism. It’s choosing words carefully to help instead of hurt. Hopefully, you get the idea.BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-61100322116702821092015-04-27T02:16:00.000-07:002015-04-27T02:16:00.078-07:00My PreciousRecently, I received a welcome promotion at the ol’ day job. Shortly thereafter, the following dramatized, condensed conversation between me and my wonderful, beautiful, understanding wife took place:<br />
<br clear="all" />
<hr />
<br clear="all" />
Miranda looked at me with big eyes and said, “Congratulations, Brian! You’re awesome!”<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WELCOME_TO_Microsoft%C2%AE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="WELCOME TO Microsoft®" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="263" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/WELCOME_TO_Microsoft%C2%AE.jpg/350px-WELCOME_TO_Microsoft%C2%AE.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">WELCOME TO Microsoft® (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WELCOME_TO_Microsoft%C2%AE.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Twirling my equally awesome, albeit imaginary, mustache, I replied, “Yes, I know.”<br />
<br />
“It’s not every day you get a promotion. We should get you something special.”<br />
<br />
My ears perked up. I made an inquisitive sound akin to <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo_%28character%29" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Scooby-Doo (character)">Scooby</a> Doo.<br />
<br />
“What would you like?”<br />
<br />
Ah ha! This was my opportunity to take one for the team. I could ask for something that would benefit the entire family, but what? A nice vacation to somewhere the kids wanted to go? A night on the town with my lovely better half? Perhaps something for the house? <br />
<br />
Having actually thought of none of that, I cautiously replied, “A <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Surface" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Microsoft Surface">Surface Pro</a> 2?”<br />
<br />
“Are you sure?”<br />
<br />
Here was my chance at redemption. “Yes?”<br />
<br />
<i>Dammit. </i>I forged on, “Then, I could be more productive while still spending quality time with the family, like being able to draw while we relax in front of the TV or taking it with us when we go camping.” Yes, I could work more and pay attention to my family less, even on vacation!<br />
<br />
“OK. Which model?”<br />
<br />
<i>Which model?</i> My wife knows there are multiple models!<br />
<br />
“One of the 8GB (<a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random-access_memory" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Random-access memory">RAM</a>) models would perform better than one of the 4GB models. I’ve been watching them on <a class="zem_slink" href="http://ebay.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="eBay">eBay</a> for awhile, and it looks like most of them are going in the $600-$800 range.”<br />
And by $600-$800, I meant more like $650-$1000.<br />
<br />
“If we’re going to spend that much money, you should get it new with a warranty.”<br />
<br />
She clicked away at her keyboard. <br />
<br />
“Amazon has the 8GB/256GB version new for $865. We can get it from there when our income <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_refund" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Tax refund">tax refund</a> comes in.”<br />
<br />
Much squealing and jumping around like a 12-year-old girl at a Bieber concert ensued. My wife rolled her eyes and walked away.<br />
<br />
<hr />
<br />
Not only did I get the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FRLYUOE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00FRLYUOE&linkCode=as2&tag=bdcrcom-20&linkId=SFIFU5RZKFUDRJOC" target="_blank">Surface Pro 2</a> (which had dropped to $749 by the time we got our refund), but the missus also let me get the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FG7MMDK/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00FG7MMDK&linkCode=as2&tag=bdcrcom-20&linkId=7UWLVPYK2TE5L27F" target="_blank">Type Cover 2</a>, a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BVUQZZ2/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BVUQZZ2&linkCode=as2&tag=bdcrcom-20&linkId=PL66PKATPG6BRJEW" target="_blank">Bamboo Feel Stylus</a>, a <a href="http://www.smudgeguard.com/" target="_blank">SmudgeGuard 2</a>, and a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BYTGLFY/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BYTGLFY&linkCode=as2&tag=bdcrcom-20&linkId=ICAHMIMQ5YCHO6SO" target="_blank">Manvex leather case</a>. Although “let” might be a strong word as she didn’t technically know about all of those before I bought them. Did I mention how wonderful, beautiful, and understanding she is?<br />
<br />
In a future post, I’ll break in the new Surface Pro 2 and talk about some of the accessories. I’ll also do a comparison between the Pro 2 and the Pro 3 (which I have at work) from an artist’s perspective. It’s going to be great. If you have any questions, please throw them in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer them.<br />
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BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-5252503399993296162015-04-23T02:12:00.000-07:002015-12-21T11:32:23.446-07:00Amazon, Pricing, and KDP SelectSomething’s been on my mind for awhile, and after discussing it with my wife, I’ve come to a decision. If you look in <a href="http://www.bdcrowell.com/p/library.html" target="_blank">the Library</a>, you’ll see some free ebooks. I made the decision some time back not to charge for individual <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_fiction" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Flash fiction">flash fiction</a> and short stories. I just feel like they’re too short to justify charging anything for them. Through <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bdcrowell" target="_blank">Smashwords</a>, I can distribute to almost every ebook retailer you can think of except for <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002Y27P3M%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzem-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB002Y27P3M" rel="amazon" target="_blank" title="Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6" Display, Graphite - Latest Generation">Amazon</a> and <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Play" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Google Play">Google Play</a>, and I can mark the price as free. For Google Play and Amazon, I have to publish direct. <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.google.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Google">Google</a> will let me mark the price as free, but Amazon requires a minimum price of 99 cents. Since I feel like these are too short to charge for, this presents a problem with publishing to Amazon.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Amazon_Kindle_3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="Third generation Amazon Kindle, showing text f..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="516" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Amazon_Kindle_3.JPG/350px-Amazon_Kindle_3.JPG" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">Third generation Amazon Kindle, showing text from the novel Moby-Dick. Esperanto: Amazon Kindle de la tria generacio, montranta originan tekston el la romano Moby-Dick. (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Amazon_Kindle_3.JPG" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I could put up these stories for 99 cents and wait for Amazon to price match, but I’d feel bad if somebody paid for them in the interim, and there’s no guarantee that Amazon will price match at all, let alone in a timely fashion. I thought about putting a link in the description, telling people not to pay, but didn’t figure Amazon would appreciate that too much. So, we went with choice number three: I’m going to wait until I have a handful of these short tales and then package them together into collections. I’ll add the collections to Amazon along with the other retailers. I’ll keep the prices low, commensurate with what’s included in the collection (I charge for novelettes and novellas). <br />
<br />
Why not KDP select, where I can have free giveaway days every quarter and Prime members and Kindle Unlimited members can borrow them for free? Even if I only released the collections on Amazon, their TOS is pretty clear that if the individual components are available elsewhere, the collection can’t be in KDP Select. I know there are some who are able to get away with it, but I’m not going to chance it.<br />
<br />
It’s not the best solution. Kindle members who don’t want to bother with <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.smashwords.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Smashwords">Smashwords</a> will have to wait to get the shorter stories (although to be fair, when I release a new book in KDP Select for its first 90 days, everybody else has to wait). But to make it easier for the less technically savvy readers, until such time as Amazon allows free as an option, I think it’s the best option. Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-88021566622469884222015-02-28T07:05:00.000-07:002015-12-21T11:34:05.407-07:00Derrick the Dog Paperback Sale!Hello Dear Readers,<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-akwB67nC0dY/UcoAwcNd1vI/AAAAAAAAAbU/5MNNa21HLss/s1600/BD%2BCrowell_thumb" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-akwB67nC0dY/UcoAwcNd1vI/AAAAAAAAAbU/5MNNa21HLss/s1600/BD%2BCrowell_thumb" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I was scheduling some posts this morning when I happened to notice that the good folks at Amazon have put <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1484121007/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1484121007&linkCode=as2&tag=bdcrcom-20&linkId=RK2F4VP4EAAIHCHL" target="_blank">the paperback version of Derrick the Dog</a> on sale. Normally $6.99, they've shaved $2.44 off the price to drop it down to $4.55. That's a 35% savings!<br />
<br />
I don't know when they put it on sale or when they'll raise the price back up (they don't tell me these things), so act quickly to save a couple of bucks. Oh, and everybody who buys the paperback also gets the Kindle version for free! How's that for a deal? <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1484121007/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1484121007&linkCode=as2&tag=bdcrcom-20&linkId=RK2F4VP4EAAIHCHL" target="_blank">Click here</a> to see the savings and pick up a copy.BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-14547500367162935742015-02-24T03:05:00.000-07:002015-12-21T11:32:23.423-07:00Now on Google PlayIt took me awhile to get around to it, but I’ve finally started putting the books up on the Google Play store. They’re not all up there, but I have titles from both <a href="https://play.google.com/store/books/author?id=BD+Crowell" target="_blank">BD Crowell</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/books/author?id=D+Lee+Warren" target="_blank">D Lee Warren</a> up, and I’m working on the rest, updating the back matter as I go. I’m updating <a href="http://www.bdcrowell.com/p/library.html">the Library</a> with links as they go live in the store. Just in the short time they’ve been up, with no advertising or fanfare from my camp, Google has already moved several copies. I’m excited and looking forward to what we’re going to accomplish together.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Googlelogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="English: Google Logo officially released on Ma..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" height="120" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Googlelogo.png/350px-Googlelogo.png" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 350px;">English: Google Logo officially released on May 2010 (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Googlelogo.png" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In other news, <i>Pink</i> is back from beta reading and <i>Boundless </i>just went out for beta reading. With any luck, I can get <i>Pink</i> finalized and published this weekend and maybe get <i>Boundless</i> out early next month. I’m also making good progress on <i>Bound </i>and slow but steady progress on <i>A Christmas Tale</i>. I’ve resumed work on <i>Parts</i>. It’s been a challenging piece and isn’t coming easily, but I’m still plugging away at it and hope to see it through to completion one of these days. I’ve limited myself to 4 active writing projects at a time so I don’t get spread too thinly but always have something in the pipe. I’m trying to stick to 80% writing projects, 20% blog posts during my writing time. And I work on illustrations whenever I can (which I plan to ramp up soon, but I’ll discuss that in another blog post). You can always see where I’m at in the queue by visiting the <a href="http://www.bdcrowell.com/p/library.html#wip">Works in Progress (WIP) section</a> of the Library.<br />
<br />
That’s it for now. I hope the rest of your winter isn’t too cold.BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-39687570620942768252014-12-25T04:41:00.000-07:002015-12-21T11:32:23.440-07:00Merry Christmas!!!<p><i><b>Note:</b> Not sure what happened. This was scheduled to go live on 12/25, but it never posted. So, I'll extend the freebie days through the end of the year. Now, onto the original post.</i></p>
Or happy whatever-you-happen-to-celebrate. At our house, it’s <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Christmas">Christmas</a>. If
you’re exchanging gifts this season, then I hope you’ve been a good boy or girl
and get to unwrap a shiny new ereader. If you have, then I have a gift for you,
too.<br />
<br />
In honor of this gift giving day, I'm giving to you, faithful followers, the
gift of free ebooks. All of <a href="https://www.blogger.com/p/library.html" target="_blank">my
ebooks</a> have been marked as free. The price has already trickled out to
<a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Barnes & Noble">Barnes&Noble</a>, and hopefully by the time you read this, it will be free
everywhere. The only exception may be <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002Y27P3M%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB002Y27P3M" rel="amazon" target="_blank" title="Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6" Display, Graphite - Latest Generation">Amazon</a>, where I can’t set it as free. We
just have to hope that they price match soon. If you pick up one or more of my
books and you like it, I hope you’ll consider leaving a review. It really
helps, and I definitely appreciate it. Just don’t delay grabbing your free
copy, because this is a limited time offer.<br />
<br />
That’s all for now. I hope you have a peaceful, safe, and enjoyable holiday
season.BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-13139344650844752612014-09-28T11:30:00.000-07:002015-12-21T11:32:23.419-07:00My Top 6 Twitter Tips<p>I’ve been on <a href="http://twitter.com/BDCrowell" target="_blank">Twitter</a> for awhile, now.  It’s probably the primary outpost in my <a href="http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/09/the-hub-and-outpost-method-of-social-media-marketing/" target="_blank">hub and outpost model</a>, which I’ve been using even before I knew what it was called.  I’m on <a href="http://facebook.com/bdcrowell.author" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/BDCrowell" target="_blank">GoodReads</a>, also, but Twitter seems to be what I’ve taken to the most.  Maybe because it’s so quick and easy.  It’s simple to jump in and out of the conversation.  But it took me awhile to learn some of the subtle uses of it.  To spur you on your way to Twitter greatness, here are my top tips.  Some of these may be author-specific, or at least specific to those who will be using it to market a good or service, but there should also be some good ones for anyone who wants to be a more effective tweeter.</p> <div class="zemanta-img" style="width: 360px; float: right; margin: 1em; display: block"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Twitschervogel01_derived_from_twitter-t.svg"><img style="border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; display: block" alt="English: Tweeting bird, derived from the initi..." src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/74/Twitschervogel01_derived_from_twitter-t.svg/350px-Twitschervogel01_derived_from_twitter-t.svg.png" width="350" height="350" /></a> <p class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em">English: Tweeting bird, derived from the initial 't' of Twitter Deutsch: Twitschervogel, entwickelt aus dem Anfangs-'t' von Twitter (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Twitschervogel01_derived_from_twitter-t.svg">Wikipedia</a>)</p> </div> <p><strong>1. Use it for the right reasons</strong></p> <p>If the only reason you’re on social media is to market and sell, then I wish you luck.  Some people may go there so they can be advertised to, but I can’t imagine there are many. If, on the other hand, you’re getting on social media to connect with your peers, meet and engage your fans, help others, pass along useful information, learn, and generally use it to form relationships, you’ll probably enjoy it more and your followers will enjoy it more.  And when you (sparingly) use it to promote your goods and/or services, I think you’ll find it more rewarding.  See the 80-20 rule below.</p> <p><strong>2. Be active but not hyperactive.</strong></p> <p>If you want followers, you should be active on Twitter, but you don’t want to annoy the heck out of your followers (who will then likely stop following you) by posting dozens of tweets a day.  Space out your tweets.  Consider using some of my techniques from the autopilot section below.  You should focus on quality over quantity.  If you keep screaming, “Notice me,” after you’re noticed for all the wrong reasons, you’re going to be ignored.</p> <p><strong>3. Remember the 80-20 rule.</strong></p> <p>This is the one that goes 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people, or if you’re in Scouting, it’s the 90-10 rule (or is that 95-5? I forget).  For tweeting, this means that (at least) 80% of your tweets should not be advertising.  They should be interesting, helpful, or anything that’s not advertising.  Do you like watching commercials, or do you spin through them (or change channels, etc.)?  If your twitter feed is nothing but you repeating, “Buy my book!” your followers are going to tune you out.  If, on the other hand, you’ve brought value to their day, you might get rewarded with increased mindshare, good feelings, and maybe even a sale.</p> <p><strong>4. Put Twitter on (semi-) autopilot.</strong>  </p> <p>You’re doing stuff through the day or night.  You’re blogging.  You’re reading websites.  Maybe, you’re reviewing books on <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/BDCrowell" target="_blank">GoodReads</a>.  These things can be used to populate your Twitter feed, keeping you visible, providing value to your followers, and helping you meet that 80-20 rule.  So, here’s what you need to do:</p> <ol> <li>Go sign up for <a href="http://ifttt.com/" target="_blank">IFTTT</a>.  Look through their recipes.  There are way more than just Twitter recipes, but that’s what we’ll focus on here.  Well, Buffer recipes actually, since IFTTT had to <a href="http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/09/20/ifttt-removes-twitter-triggers-comply-new-api-policies/" target="_blank">remove all the recipes</a> where Twitter was the “If”.  :( </li> <li>Go sign up for <a href="http://bufferapp.com/" target="_blank">Buffer</a>.  Link your Twitter account to it. </li> <li>If you’re not already using <a href="http://www.instapaper.com/" target="_blank">Instapaper</a> or similar, start.  Really, start now.  Instapaper is to the web what a PVR/DVR is to TV. </li> <li>Find some IFTTT recipes you like and modify them to fit your needs.  Of special interest are the ones that involve RSS and buffer.  Tie in the RSS feed from your blog.  Tie in the RSS feed from your liked articles in Instapaper.  Figure out if there are other information sources you use that would be interesting or useful to your followers and tie that in. </li> </ol> <p>Now, when you tweet, add it to Buffer so you don’t send a barrage of tweets to your followers all at once.  Unless what you’re sending is time-sensitive or you’ve run out of Buffer space, then tweet it right then.  It’s actually a good idea to mix some of that in so you’re getting some tweets in there at your out-of-the ordinary times (hence the semi- up there).  Then, you don’t seem like a robot, and you’re more likely to catch those followers who might not be checking Twitter on Buffer’s schedule.</p> <p><strong>5. Use lists.</strong></p> <p>When I first started getting followers, I would vet them.  Did they tweet all the time?  Were they going to clog up my feed with sales pitches and make me miss out on the people I really wanted to follow?  If yes, I didn’t follow them back.  And eventually, most of them stopped following me, too.</p> <p>Now, I use lists in conjunction with <a title="HootSuite" class="zem_slink" href="http://hootsuite.com/" rel="homepage">Hootsuite</a>, and I follow back most of my followers using <a title="Tweepi" class="zem_slink" href="http://tweepi.com/" rel="homepage">Tweepi</a>.  I can look at my main feed to see everything that’s going on with all my followers, even the ones who scream, “Buy my book” all the time.  But I have a couple of private lists that contain the people I absolutely don’t want to miss.  So, I get the best of both worlds:  extra followers and extra visibility, some of whom I may forge lasting relationships with, without missing out on the people whose tweets I don’t ever want to miss.  </p> <p><strong>6. Use hashtags.</strong></p> <p>If there’s a better explanation than Laura’s, I haven’t found it.  <a href="http://www.30daybooks.com/why-you-need-to-use-hashtags-a-list-of-the-best-hashtags-for-writers-authors/" target="_blank">Click here</a> for a great article and collection of hashtags.</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s my list.  I hope it’s useful.  If you have some tips that need to be shared, please add them into the comment below.  If you found this useful, please share it!</p> <p> </p> <div class="zemanta-related"> <h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em">Related articles</h6> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/the-big-list-of-ifttt-recipes-for-social-media">The Big List of IFTTT Recipes: 34 Hacks for Hardcore Social Media Productivity</a> (bufferapp.com) </li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-blog/dos-donts-hashtags-ecommerce-marketing/">The dos and don'ts of hashtags for e-commerce marketing</a> (bigcommerce.com) </li> </ul> </div> BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-59049795159986445902014-09-08T23:25:00.000-07:002015-12-21T11:34:05.389-07:00Get Derrick the Dog for Free in September!!!<p><a href="http://www.bdcrowell.com/p/library.html#derrick1"><em>Derrick the Dog</em></a> (DtD) has been very well received.  It's gotten some nice reviews, and it even made it all the way to the <a href="http://www.bdcrowell.com/2014/03/im-bestseller.html">number one spot</a> in one of the sub-genre's on <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/derrick-the-dog" target="_blank">Kobo</a>.  However, it hasn't gotten a lot of visibility.  So, for the remainder of the month, I've marked the ebook price down to... FREE!!!  The updated price should trickle out to retailers over the next few days.  Unfortunately, I can't mark it as free at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DLHNRKY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00DLHNRKY&linkCode=as2&tag=bdcrcom-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a> or <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/2940148792109" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a>, but in fairly short order, their bots should pick up the change and price match.  Here's where you can help.<img style="float: right; display: inline" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-xeNhdzpFx24/Ucn-m3ZDsnI/AAAAAAAAAa8/uIShKlW3_As/s400/BD%2520Crowell%255B3%255D.jpg" align="right" /></p> <p>Please help spread the word.  You can help by doing any or all of the following: </p> <ul> <li>Pick up a copy if you don't already have one and give it to or read it to your favorite children. </li> <li>Forward, like, (re)tweet, or share this with somebody you think would enjoy DtD. </li> <li>Leave a review on your blog, site, or at the book review or retailer's site of your choice. </li> <ul> <li>Even if you didn't like it.  Every review helps.  Or if you're not comfortable with that, <a href="http://www.bdcrowell.com/p/contact_02.html">send me your feedback</a>.  </li> </ul> </ul> <p>Although I don't respond directly to reviews (it's considered uncouth for authors to respond to reviews of their works), I still read them.  Thanks to the feedback I've received on DtD, I think the next Derrick and Max book will be even stronger:  a tighter, more concise story, more illustrations, and more fun.  And for paper readers, we're going to do some fun stuff with layouts, formatting, and spreads to make it more visually interesting.  Speaking of which, I need to get back to my illustration work!  Thanks for reading!</p> BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-78418156206087646952014-08-16T12:56:00.000-07:002014-08-16T12:56:00.175-07:00Is it art?<p>I was on <a title="DeviantArt" class="zem_slink" href="http://www.deviantart.com/" rel="homepage">deviantART</a> this morning, perusing the What's Hot section of the front page.  It's a nice mix of photography, digital art, <a title="Photo manipulation" class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_manipulation" rel="wikipedia">photo manipulations</a>, sculpture, etc.  I like to keep up with what my peers are doing. <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="640" align="right" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="640"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-j-lk3sPPc8s/U8l9agbetDI/AAAAAAAAAoI/qdtzvahHreE/s1600-h/zentangle%25255B9%25255D.jpg"><img title="zentangle" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="zentangle" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-vDTT67CH71g/U8l9bElI0oI/AAAAAAAAAoM/xv2cB9CYxZY/zentangle_thumb%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="640" align="right" height="272" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="640"> <div class="zemanta-img" style="width: 360px; float: right; margin: 1em; display: block"> <p class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em">Zentangle trio by <a href="mailto:reese1kyla@gmail.com" target="_blank">Kyla Reese</a>. Used with permission of artist.</p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </p> <p>I clicked on <a href="http://www.deviantart.com/art/Magic-Dress-01-462682323">http://www.deviantart.com/art/Magic-Dress-01-462682323</a> and was reading the comments.  Within the comments, the photographer got into a heated discussion with a commenter regarding whether the photo was pornographic and whether it was art.  I found the question of whether the photo was pornographic rather absurd, as there is no nudity or sexual activity depicted in the photo, and indeed it appeared on the What's Hot page with mature content hidden.  There still remained the question as to whether this was art.</p> <p>Later on in the morning, I read an article in <a title="Trailer Life" class="zem_slink" href="http://www.trailerlife.com/" rel="homepage">Trailer Life magazine</a> about a 26-foot-tall sculpture in <a title="Sarasota, Florida" class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarasota%2C_Florida" rel="wikipedia">Sarasota, FL</a>, depicting the famous Time photograph of the <a title="Victory over Japan Day" class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_over_Japan_Day" rel="wikipedia">V-J Day</a> kiss.  It seems that there are some folks there who are up in arms about it and think it should be removed (and, of course, as in every public debate, there are those just as vehemently opposed to removing it).  One of the persons quoted in the article described it as "tacky."  And there was the question as to whether this was art.</p> <p>I respect the opinion that the statue is tacky, whether I agree with it or not (I've not seen it in person, so I reserve forming an opinion).  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and no one is going to produce art that appeals to everyone.  Heck, I think <a title="Mona Lisa" class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa" rel="wikipedia">the Mona Lisa</a> is over-hyped, although I would still consider it art.  So why the debate as to what is art?  I blame the currently held definitions of what constitutes art.</p> <p>Now, for the obligatory definition for Messrs. Merriam and Webster.  Their dictionary defines art as something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings.  I'm not really thrilled with that definition.  How skilled?  As I said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so who's to say whether it's beautiful?  To whom must the ideas or feelings be important?  No, I don't care for this definition.  It's limiting and exclusionary.</p> <p>I would posit that art is a representation of something real or imagined or some combination thereof produced for the intended purpose of expressing the creativity of the artist.  With this definition, it need not be "beautiful" or "important" which are subjective anyway.  It encompasses all forms of creative products, from sculpture to photography to literature to illustrations.  It places the burden of deciding if something is art on the creator and his/her intent, and removes the second guessing or questioning of validity of the consumer of the art.  Under this definition, little children have as much right to consider their drawings art as does any other artist, new or old, master or novice.  It respects the effort that the artists invest in their art and removes the need for them to defend their art (or at least the definition of such). </p> <p>I consider what I write and illustrate to be art.  It may not be good art, and I respect anyone’s right to not like it, but don't tell me it's not art (and no one has, so far, so this isn't me being bitter).  After all, if someone takes the time to bring forth their creation and to share with another, who is that second person to question whether the creation is legitimately art.  If the creator thinks it's art, that should be good enough.</p> BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-38564967140416535522014-07-20T15:08:00.001-07:002014-08-04T02:53:42.737-07:00Site Updates<p>A couple of small announcements that we wanted to make about the site.</p>
<div class="zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin: 1em; display: block"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/42931449@N07/5397530925"><img style="border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; display: block" alt="Frequently Asked Questions - F.A.Q - FAQs on K..." src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5294/5397530925_87102f74b2_n.jpg" /></a> <p class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em">Frequently Asked Questions - F.A.Q - FAQs on Keyboard (Photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/42931449@N07/5397530925">photosteve101</a>)</p> </div>
<ul> <li>There is now a <a href="/p/faq.html">Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section</a> that’s live.  We’ll try to keep that up-to-date with the questions that we get asked most often. </li> <li>We’ve also added a <a href="/p/library.html#wip">Works-in-Progress section</a> to the <a href="/p/library.html">Library</a>.  I (Brian) have been getting asked repeatedly how I’m coming along with the next Derrick and Max book (and also about the next D Lee Warren book).  Well, now you’ll be able to tell where I am with the projects that are actively being worked on.  If it doesn’t seem like they’re going up very quickly, that would be because I work at a snail’s pace.  Slow and steady wins the race, right?  Maybe? </li> <li>Also, if it’s been awhile since you’ve stopped by, we’ve made minor changes and improvements here and there to make the site more visually appealing and easier to navigate.  For example, there’s a <a href="/p/welcome.html">new welcome page</a> when the site loads and a reorganizing of the menu items so that it follows more of a high-level from left down to a more low-level toward the right.  </li> </ul> <p>Please let us know what you think of the changes and if you have any suggestions for further improvements.</p> BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-5106166525366469442014-06-05T18:07:00.000-07:002015-12-21T11:35:41.558-07:00Writing While Driving<div class="zemanta-img" style="width: 210px; float: right; margin: 1em; display: block"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/swype"><img style="border-top: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; display: block" alt="Image representing Swype as depicted in CrunchBase" src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0002/4795/24795v1-max-450x450.jpg" width="200" height="85" /></a> <p class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em">Image via <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/">CrunchBase</a></p> </div> <p><em>Note: I did some minor edits below for clarification, but what you see below is pretty close to what Swype was able to pickup.  I’ve left it rather ugly so you can get an idea as to how well it manages to pickup what you’re saying while driving down the road.  I’ve since figured out how to make better use of punctuation.  I’ve also been working on my enunciation and voice projection, which have helped the accuracy.</em></p> <p>Okay, we're going to try something new here . If you're reading this that means <em>[the] </em>experiment worked .</p> <p>Longtime readers of this blog will know that I have a nice long commute to work . Although I tried to make the time useful <strike>any my time</strike> <em>[by] </em>listening to podcasts, <em>[but that’s] </em>still a lot of time <strike>to</strike> <em>[that could] </em>be better spent on other activities .</p> <p>Last year, I set a rather lofty goal for myself <strike>right</strike> <em>[to write] </em>200,000 <strike>works</strike> <em>[words]</em>. At the end of the year, I had only achieved <em>[less than 10% of that]</em>. Although part of that could be attributed to a lot of time spent illustrating, I still <strike>fill ball</strike> <em>[fell far] </em>short of my goals and was disappointed with the results . This year, I still have a lot of illustration <strike>were headed</strike> <em>[work ahead]</em>, but I don't want my word count goal to suffer. So I got thinking about all that time that I spend in the car as potential writing time . So I started to research the possibility of doing my writing while I commute .</p> <p>It's not as far-fetched as it sounds . There are a number of examples of authors who have managed to write at least the first draft of their books while driving to and from their day jobs. ( insert some examples here <em>[see below]</em>). So, I started researching options that were <em>[able to transcribe what I dictate]</em>. After looking at several possibilities, I discovered that the inexpensive <strike>swipe</strike> <em>[Swype] </em>keyboard includes Dragon NaturallySpeaking technology. I decided to give it a shot . In fact, I'm composing this blog post on my mobile device using <strike>swipe</strike> <em>[the Swype] </em>keyboard, speaking as I drive to work . So far, <em>[it seems] </em>to be working pretty good . True, it's missed some words here and there , but overall it seems to be catching most of what I'm saying. So, I'm going to knock out this blog post and see about doing a couple more before I try something <strike>is waiting is</strike> <em>[as challenging as] </em>working on the first draft of the story . But I will let you know how it <strike>helps</strike> <em>[goes]</em>.</p> <p>( go back up and add Evernote along with Dragon NaturallySpeaking ) <em>[this was a note to myself, complete with opening and closing parenthesis, that I spoke into life.  Indeed, I used Swype with Evernote to record this.]</em></p> <p>If you've also use your <em>[commute] </em>time to write especially if you're using the <em>[speech-to-]</em>text technology , I love <strike>you</strike> <em>[to] </em>hear from you in the comments about your experience . Or if you found other inventive ways to create writing time let me hear about .</p> <p> </p> <p>Examples of writers who’ve put their commute time to good use:</p> <p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/7598842/Commuter-who-wrote-fantasy-novel-on-his-phone-on-verge-of-multi-million-dollar-movie-deal.html" target="_blank">Peter Brett</a></p> <p><a href="http://blog.42floors.com/reclaiming-your-commute/" target="_blank">Jason Freedman</a></p> <p><a href="http://commutingexpert.com/an-example-to-us-all-the-commuter-who-wrote-four-volumes-whilst-other-passengers-slept/" target="_blank">Andy Leeks</a></p> <p> </p> <div class="zemanta-related"> <h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em">Related articles</h6> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2418217,00.asp">Swype (for Android)</a> (pcmag.com)</li> </ul> </div> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px"><a title="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" style="border-top-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; float: right; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none" alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=30856c80-c2af-4741-a5b2-92acdea9d796" /></a></div> BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5834254137077649120.post-82850883279730660902014-03-02T04:12:00.000-07:002015-12-21T11:32:23.460-07:00Read an Ebook Week<h3 align="center">March 2-8, 2014</h3> <p>Smashwords is kicking off its sixth annual <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/ebookweek" target="_blank">Read an Ebook Week promotion</a>!  </p> <p>Read an Ebook Week is an international celebration of ebooks in which thousands of authors, publishers, and retailers feature free and discounted ebooks to help promote the joys of e-reading to the world's readers.</p> <p>During the promotion, all my ebooks will be free through the Smashwords store.  You can visit <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bdcrowell" target="_blank">my publisher page</a> to see all available works.  Or click the image below to find all available books being offered through the promotion.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/category/1/newest/1" target="_blank"><img title="RAEWbanner1" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="Read an E-Book Week, March 2-8, 2014" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-YUsmotdnWWU/UxHBbS0vv3I/AAAAAAAAAlY/jF601LYW8uQ/RAEWbanner1%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="640" height="237" /></a></p> BD Crowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04609824498413769208noreply@blogger.com0