Successful Blog

We Were Hot! Link Leak Virus Was Hotter!

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Imagine How Hot!

Open Comment Night started out very NOT HOT as we discussed the MS phishing bug that bj told us about. But Steve came back and brought Milton the Skinny Moose, who is definitely HOT.

The Link Leak Virus seeped into out hot not hot talk. — The Link Leak Virus is a special strain of the indie virus with blogtipping mutations that occur in threes at Open Comment Night they become a link free-for-all.

Welcome to all of the new folks who came. It was great fun having you!

Cool and HOT links were shared.

So What WAS Hot?

HOT: Joe saying “Me first, me first…I think I beat Steve and Milton.” And he had by at least an hour or more.

not hot: BJ telling us all about IE7 and McAfee phishing issues that threaten eccommerce sites.

HOT: Ben with a great Basil update. He’s in beautiful Nova Scotia with Derek Andrews. You have to go read about his adventures in Halifax.

HOT: Sean said, “my friend Joe launching an automatic way to convert a static HTML site into a WordPress theme.”

HOT:Sasha told us, I’d like to say I am whenever I’m blogging but usually I’m in my PJs whenever I’m blogging/working. Hahaha. I guess I’m not cool enough yet, eh? I really should stick to naming the hot blogs and bloggers in my “little black blogroll”

HOT: Rick Thanks for the pizza, Seanrox. I haven’t eaten all night.

Then Steve Says:
Not hot – snow
hot – milton in a pink tu-tu

STEVE and MILTON ARE BACK!!

HOT: Dossy House MD is hot.

not not Ah Pek server down

HOT: Cat Liz is blogging over at Blogging Times.

HOT: Doug I think my mother may be blogging soon

HOT: Yvonne is hot and so is The Superficial, Prison Break, and Google IG.

Hendry Lee Full feeds + RSS ads

HOT: Katie jumping in without reading the comments before you.

HOT: Candice I found this gorgeous pair of cole haans — They’re superwoman shoes.

not hot: Trisha still not feeling so good.

HOT: Michael came to check it out.

We also talked about WordPress 2.0.5, Getting Dugg, Stalker phone calls, Dr. Demento, Weird Al, bad behavior

not hot: Paris Hilton, that cold that’s going round, Akismet eating people we like, cats on the keyboard, server outages, everyone’s feed that got stuck in feedburner at partial feed, bloggers who hijack,

Great Quote: Holy sweet Jesus, OMG. Sasha Manuel is *hot*. So, who’s going to put together the “Babes of b5media Calendar, 2007″ for next year?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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The Mic is On! What’s Hot and What’s Not?

How Many Words Does It Take to Make a Book?

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Bookcraft 2.0 SERIES

An Average Book . . .

As an introduction to Bookcraft 2.0, I wrote Write a Book? Assemble the One in Your Archives! In the comments, Chris showed serious interest in finding out more about it.

. . . My new venture, SuccessCREEations has been up and running for less than a month and already has 23,000+ words, all fairly focused topically. So perhaps in a few months I’ll have enough there to put something together (provided I keep the pace steady).

Of course it begs the question, how much material does it take to become publish-worthy? If you figure an average of about 250 words per page, then what about 60,000 words or so for an average book? Is that anywhere near right?

My apologies. Chris, for trying to answer a BIG question with a small answer. I should have said, “Yes, Chris. you’re more than near right . . . because you write well, you might even have two books there.”

Let me try to explain it better in this post.
[Read more…]

Bookcraft 2.0 Why Read the Date Archives Not the Categories?

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What’s Established vs. A Fresh Look

books

I’m still sorting the pages I printed out when I read through Phil’s monthly archives. As I was sorting, I thought someone must have this question.

Why not just use the categories Phil already has?

It’s a great question and it’s an idea with value. Staying with the categories that are already established offers these benefits.

    It saves time.
    The structure is visible.
    The categories are familiar to Phil’s readers.

There are compelling reasons to ignore the categories and take a fresh look. [Read more…]

Help! I Need an Editor — Too Many Choices and Only One Manuscript

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What Do Editors Do Anyway?

Power Writing Series Logo

When I got my first job as an editor, I had no idea the kinds of things I would be doing. Nor did I have a clue how hard it would be to answer this question.

What is it that editors do? And what’s a proofreader?
When I’m asked in passing, my answer is usually not too helpful.

I tell my mother-in-law I write mystery novels and that the proofreader checks that the solution really works.

Then I quickly change the subject. Explaining what editors do is like trying to tell a nonblogger about blogging.

The secret is that editors edit about 35% of the time. They also write, rewrite, check changes, go to meetings, discuss with authors, writers, and other editors, problem solve, and work with illustrators, photographers, and designers, among a variety of other things, such as keeping track of the incredible paper trail a single volume can create.

On top of that not every editor does the same kind of editing. Quite frankly it’s a bit of a wonder that other editors can explain exactly what it is we all do.

Still, if you’re looking to publish a work with your name on it, you’ll want a professional editor to look the piece over for you. It’s a matter of credibility — for you and your brand.

So maybe knowing a little more about editors —

More than just the fact that editors were good at term papers in high school.

— isn’t such a bad idea.

[Read more…]

Bookcraft 2.0: Let the Sorting Begin

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Pay No Attention to the Publisher at the Sidebar

books

I’ve completed the content rough cut by printing pages from Phil’s Archives. The next step is to sort those pages into meaningful chunks of related content. I’m doing that now. The process involves a couple of days to let things form and shake out properly.

In the meantime, we’ll speak of other things. I’ll be back to tell you exactly how this part of the process worked.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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Write a Book? Assemble the One in Your Archives!
How to Make Sure Real People Read Your Book
10 Ways to Make It Great!

Archive Mining: How to Get From Working Book Title to Rough Cut Content

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Bookcraft 2.0

books

When I left you in Find a Book in Your Archives the Way a Publisher Would, Phil Gerbyshak and I had agreed on two “working” book titles that can be built from posts in his archives and one “working” title that we’re going to write from scratch.

Phil and I chose one of the two “working” titles that drew from his archives. We made our choice based on these criteria.

  • the amount of content he felt sure was there
  • the success of his current book
  • what his readers would feel was a natural next step

With the working title in my head, I wrote a subtitle — the 25 words or less definition/premise of what the book would be about. That definition would be my tool for deciding what content to keep. Some folks call that statement the “elevator pitch.”

Armed with the premise as my tool, I could effectively mine Phil’s archives for relevant content.

Rough Cut Content Strategy

Rough cut mining for relevant content is what it sounds like, a systematic process of gathering the content that might be useful. Rough cut is the key term. I went to the archives to make a yes/no choice and move on. I used this criteria to gather the content to form the rough cut of the book-to-be.

    1. The content is original.

    2. The content ties to the premise of the book.

    3. The content is of a size worth picking up.

    4. The links are few and superficial (not integral to the point of the text.)

    5. Quoted text is secondary to original content.

    6. Link lists belong in an appendix, if anywhere. They are probably best left behind at this juncture.

The value of each point above changes depending on the type of book being built. The size of content chunk needed in Point 3 is larger, if the book will be running text and smaller, if the book will be a write-in work text. Point 4 changes completely, when my only goal is an ebook. Point 5 takes on new meaning, if the plan is to start each page with a meaningful quotation.

Rough Cut Content Tactics

I went right for the date archives and read them in order. I read to see whether each post meets the premise and the criteria set. Standard operating procedure for dealing with raw content is to get all content in pages of similar size and moveable form. So I also followed these procedures.

    Print each post separately.

    Make sure every print out carries the reference from where it came — in this case, the post date. If necessary, write it by hand. Captured keystrokes are valuable when the time comes to assemble the book.

The pile of pages on my desk is 140-150 pages deep. I’ll guess high and say that 30% won’t work. That would leave me with about 100 pages to play with. I can do plenty with that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related articles
Write a Book? Assemble the One in Your Archives!
1: How to Make Sure Real People Read Your Book
Bookcraft 2.0: Find a Book in Your Archives the Way a Publisher Would
10 Ways to Make It Great!10 Ways to Make It Great!