The Open Author

I was talking to a friend who mentioned that a company is paying her a certain amount of money each month to say good things about that company. This friend uses some social software as a medium to say these good things. It wasn’t much money, and this friend isn’t being dishonest in what they say, but thinking about this arrangement brought up several issues in my mind.

Things get sticky when it comes to endorsing products. There is a fine line between me giving you my opinion of something, and me being paid to sell you something. You, the reader, should always know the difference. Let’s say I go to a restaurant and I write a review on my blog. That is me giving you an opinion; nothing wrong with that.

Now let’s say the restaurant pays me to place an advertisement on my site. Nothing wrong with that, either.

What is wrong is if the restaurant pays me to say nice things about their food, and I don’t disclose the fact that I’m being paid. Even if my review is honest, it is vital that I disclose that I’m being paid to review the restaurant. Why is this so important? Well, it comes down to trust.

If I don’t disclose that I’m being paid for a review, and you the reader finds out, then there is a loss of trust. This loss is a huge deal. Trust is something that you don’t gain back. If I didn’t disclose advertising dollars, then my readers would forever more wonder if what I was saying was really my opinion, or just something for which I was being paid. My opinions would be worthless, and I would likely lose many, many readers. Why read a site when you don’t know if you’re getting an honest review, or a paid-for pitch?

Even worse are the problems for the restaurant. Every time you hear a review of that restaurant, you will wonder if what is being said is true, or just another sneaky pitch. The restaurant would lose all credibility. There is nothing wrong with advertising, but you can’t do it behind people’s back. They will never forgive you.

I need to decide what I want to be when I grow up. I need to focus.

The way I see it, if you want to do something well, you need to devote a lot of time to it. I’ve spent the last 37 years messing around with all sorts of things. I like being a Jack-of-all trades; my interests tend to wander. But if I want to be good at something, I feel like I should focus. The good news is that after all these years, I’ve got it narrowed down to five professions.

Instructional Designer

I have a master’s degree, and hope to have a doctorate, in this field., so being an instructional designer is definitely a front runner. I love this kind of work. I wouldn’t mind teaching in this area (hence the doctorate), but if I want to continue to excel in this field, I need to work at it. I haven’t done any doctoral work for over 2 years. I don’t read up on the field like I should. Of all the possible professions, this one has been neglected the most.

Author

I guess technically I am an author, since I’ve had two books published, but I can’t support my family on it. If I want to be a serious author I need to spend more time on this profession as well. I haven’t written for over a year. I have a novel complete and I’m shopping it around…ok, who am I kidding–I haven’t sent out a query in over 6 months. And I’ve only sent it to 13 agents total. If I want to get this book published, I need to spend more time on it. And I need to spend WAY more time writing.

Entrepreneur

So if I haven’t been spending time on the two professions above, what have I been spending time on? Well, I have a few business ideas. I think they’re pretty good, and I’ve shared them with a few friends. The friends think they’re pretty good ideas as well, so I’ve been spending a lot of time pursuing this profession. Although actually what I’ve been doing is spending time on contract work so that I can fund these ideas. What I really need is a business partner who can help out, since all my time is spent coming up with capital. But how does one go about finding a business partner. Any out-of-work MBA graduates out there?

Teacher

I love teaching. I mean really love it. I’m currently doing some work for the Open High School of Utah, and there is a chance I could teach for them. I would LOVE to be involved with this organization on the long term, but I don’t think I can make it work financially.

Once I get my doctorate, I could also end up at a university. But I’m not sure if that is what I’m cut out for. I don’t like the ‘publish or perish’ side of academia. I would enjoy the teaching side of things, but don’t know if I would enjoy all of the other things that professors have to deal with.

Technological Tinkerer

The rest of my free time has been taken up by my tinkering. Tinkering is important. If you don’t want to be left behind, you have to play with the latest technology. To this end, I started a web site on a whim. I called it TwHistory, and the general idea is reenacting historical events via Twitter. The good news is that it has generated a lot of interest. The bad news is that it’s generated a lot of interest. You see, there is no real revenue stream tied in with this, but it’s such a cool idea, I can’t seem to give it up. I’m working on a few grant proposals, hoping to make the site what it needs to be to really get off the ground. I’m glad that the idea seems to be resonating with people, but it is taking up a lot of my time.

And then of course there are all the little things in life that need to get done. Shovel the walk, fix dinner, clean up the house, play with the kids, hang out with my wife, etc. It’s no wonder that I’ve been averaging about 6 hours of sleep each night.

You know, in looking over this list, if I could come up with one more possible profession, then my troubles would be solved. I could number them, roll a die, and let chance dictate the rest of my life.

It’s that time of year again. This may end up being a tradition on my blog. Some may see this as blasphemous, and it’s very possibly that this is nothing more than a joke. But part of me hopes that this version of the story behind the song is real. That there is some guy out there who ‘sang like nobody was listening’, threw caution to the wind, and created this Yuletide masterpiece. What it lacks in just about anything, it makes up for in guts and effort. Enjoy.

Last night I wrote a post on the publishing industry and then scrapped it. This morning, Jaime Theler points me to a blog post written on the exact topic. So I’ve decided to try once again.

Rachelle Gardner poses an interesting question, over on her blog. She is talking about Harlequin moving into the self-publishing world. The end result, according to Ms. Gardner, will be a decline in the quality of literature. She even goes so far as to say that “”Literature” as we know it could be a thing of the past.”

She then poses the question, “Am I totally off base?”

Respectfully, I say yes. Way off base. Here is why.

Imagine a wall. Readers are on one side, authors on the other. Authors have great stories in their heads; readers would like to hear them. Under the current system, literary agents, editors, publishers, and business folks have served as the gatekeepers (as Ms. Gardner calls it). They make sure that only certain authors and their stories are allowed through the wall. They must past certain levels of quality before they are allowed to move through the wall.

Rachelle says this is a good thing because there are a lot of authors with bad stories. They have not mastered their craft, and so, the gatekeepers tell us, we the readers don’t want to listen to them.

There is a serious flaw in this line of thinking. The self-imposed gatekeepers are not always the best judges of what is good. I know that is a bold statement, but take a look at this list. Gatekeepers, skilled as they may be, are prone to make errors just like the rest of us. Books like Harry Potter, The Diary of Anne Frank, Catch 22, and Animal Farm, and authors like Stephen King, Tony Hillerman, and Ursula K. LeGuin, could very well have never made it over the wall. Agents and editors do very well at spotting bad books, but I think it’s clear they can often miss the good ones. The really good ones. The paradigm shifting, world changing ones. And who suffers? The readers. How many really good books have never been published because the author gave up after rejection 52?

The simple fact of the matter is that in a digital world, we don’t need gatekeepers. What we need are more holes in the wall. Lots of them.

Look at blogs; 25 years ago, how many people had a medium by which they could share their thoughts with the world at large? Newspaper editors had a medium. Television personalities had a medium. You and I did not. Now, every grandmother and her cat has a blog. True, most of them are poorly written, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. The cream rises to the top without the help of gatekeepers, because in the digital world it all comes down to merit. You create a fantastic blog, and people will come. You churn out mediocrity, and the world will say, “meh.”

I argue that contrary to Ms. Gardner’s statement, tearing down the wall will not lead to the end of literature, but in fact be the beginning of a new, exciting era. Readers will realize there is much more than the same tired fare that we’ve been fed for years by the publishing industry. Authors will realize that contrary to what agents and editors have been telling them, they do in fact have a good story, and there are people out there that want to read their work. Yes, crap will be produced, because crap has always been produced. And in the digital world the crap sits on the same browser as the good stuff. But we all know that there is good stuff out there, and we all know how to find it.

The publishing industry is one of the last industries to be affected by the digital revolution. The record industry, movie industry, TV industry, and newspaper industry have been grappling with this for almost a decade. Now it’s our turn.

And I, for one, couldn’t be more excited.

Overheard at my parent’s house last night.

[5-year-old] – Uncle Mike, I have the funniest knock knock joke in the world.
[Uncle Mike] – Oh yeah?
[5yo] – Yeah, you start.
[Uncle Mike] – Knock knock
[5yo] – Who’s there?
[Uncle Mike] – Interrupting cow
[5y0] – Inter…wait, no, you’re supposed to-
[Uncle Mike] MOOOOOOO!

You can post pictures or documents and then talk about them. No, not as in write about them–as in talk about them. One person starts the discussion, and then others can join in.

If you want to see it in full screen, you can click on this link. http://voicethread.com/#q.b692014

Greetings, friends and readers.

I’m starting a project and I think it’s going to be fun. I’m looking for volunteers and I expect the time commitment to be very small. I’m thinking 15-30 minutes a week, for maybe 15-20 weeks.

This summer I tweeted the Battle of Gettysburg. I found journals of fifteen Civil War Soldiers, and I followed them in ‘real time’, tweeting as I wen. I did this for about two and a half months. The end result for those that followed was the opportunity to experience history in ‘real time’, from original sources.

The Gettysburg project attracted attention from folks in the LBJ Presidential library, the National Archives, and historians from around the US. We ended up with almost a thousand followers.

I spoke with my brother the other day and he mentioned how the first pioneer group (those that came with Brigham Young) was by far the best documented. He said that the people who came over knew they were involved in an historic event,and so they kept good journals.

What I would like to do is recreate this pioneer trek in real time, on the right day. So by next July 24, Brigham Young will ‘tweet’, “This is the right place,drive on.”

Anybody who volunteers will be given a journal of a person or family; they will be responsible for coming up with tweets for that person for each day of the trek. However, we will do this in advance in a Google spreadsheet. This way you can sit down, come up with tweets for a week or two, and then I will take care of it from there. You do NOT need to sign up for or know how to use twitter. As I mentioned, I suspect that it will only take 10-20 hours to do a complete journal, and you can spread it out over the next several months.

If anybody is interested, leave a comment here, and I’ll be in touch.

When I came to Logan 4 years ago, a group of my co-workers came to help move me into my house. I didn’t know any of them that well, but I was very grateful for the help.

During the course of the move, Justin Ball, one of my new coworkers, dropped a box of bottled tomatoes, breaking one of the jars.

I felt bad.

Not because of the lost tomatoes. Those are cheap; probably 10 cents for the bottle, and maybe 12 cents for the tomatoes.

No, the reason I felt bad was first, he dropped the box after he tripped down our cement stairs. He hurt his ankle pretty bad. The second reason I felt bad was because I hardly knew all of these people helping me move. They pitched in because it had become ‘tradition’ to help the new member of the team get adjusted into their home. I didn’t want Justin to feel bad because he had dropped my tomatoes. I was going to work with these folks for who knows how long, and I wanted to get off on the right foot.

Last night, I went to a party. It was held at Justin’s house. If he has any ill feelings toward me for making him carry my tomatoes, he’s hidden it well these past four years. Justin, as well as every other member of COSL, including their spouses, have become very dear friends.

The members of COSL have played many a board game. We’ve ran many a raid. We’ve rocked out together, and shared lunches, dinners, and even an occasional breakfast. We’ve built things, and attended and presented at conferences. I can brag about what we’ve done, only because I feel I was a small part of it.

But as I’ve blogged before, my time at COSL has come to an end, and today my family moved. I hired movers because…well, because I’m getting old. And hiring movers isn’t as expensive as I thought.

But just as the movers were finishing up, I walked into the garage. There on the floor was a lone box, with liquid pooling around it. I opened the lid, and couldn’t believe my eyes.

It was a box of bottled tomatoes. And one of the jars had broken.

My time in Logan was christened with a bottle of tomatoes, and it appears my exit is heralded with the same.

My only hope is that second break does not mark the end of my Logan years, but only a pause.

Today my family and I went up Green Canyon. We’ve loved living so close to such a beautiful area, and we will miss it when we are gone.

We decided to take a pleasant stroll along the single trail. We enjoyed the leaves, saying hello to other hikers, and finding the extra special rock that must be taken home and placed in a treasure box.

My oldest son was leading the way when he gave out a cry of alarm.

“BEES! RUN!”

He came tearing down the trail, “It’s a nest of bees!” he called over his shoulder as he ran past us and quickly disappeared up the trail.

I could hear some angry buzzing coming from up the trail. Now, I don’t like bees as much as the next person, but I was curious. I walked cautiously down the trail. There was buzzing, yes, but I couldn’t see bees. What I did see what a bunch of large flies.

And then I spied the ‘nest’.

“No bees here!” I called out.

The rest of the family came up the trail. My oldest was at the rear. “What is it?” he asked.

What my son had thought was a nest was actually what we in the business call canine excrement. It was covered in flies, and when my oldest son walked past, the flies scattered; he assumed the worst and ran.

Needless to say the rest of the family got a kick out of the ‘bees nest’, and my oldest son still hasn’t heard the end of it.

We may be witnessing a serious gap in technology. One that spans thegenerations. But I’m not talking about those wacky old people who don’t know a bit from a byte. I’m talking about the youth. That’s right, people are starting to wonder if these young kids are using technology like they’re supposed to.

A recent report gives us some shocking information. Sixteen percent of people on Twitter are under the age of twenty. While twenty percent are older than 55.

What!

That’s right, there are more people tweeting about their dentures than there are tweeting about acne medication. Today, kids use technology to goof off. In my day, we used technology to hack into government computers and start fake nuclear wars. Oh, and goof off.

I’m fine with this. I’m part of the 60+ percent of twitter users between the age of 25 and 55. I’m starting to think that my generation, the one labeled only with an X, is the greatest generation when it comes to technology.

But you see, this is a real problem. I write books for kids, and the internet gives me a never-before-seen opportunity to reach an very wide audience. I can write a blog post and it can be seen by millions of people. Ok, it’s only seen by a few hundred, but that is not the point.

But all these new-fangled technological ways to reach my audience aren’t coming to fruition because my audience is doing things like…reading actual books. Or playing outside. Or talking with other people. What are they thinking?

Think about it. I can post my book as an e-book, and it can be downloaded onto a kindle or iPhone. But I doubt many 10-year-olds have a kindle or iPhone. I can relase it as an audio book, but again, how many of them have mp3 players? Or for that matter, how many of them even have a commute on which to listen to it? I can let them listen or read it right in the browser; but as good as my book is, it’s not going to be more interesting that something like…Keyboard Cat. Seriously, now; how am I supposed to compete with a cat in a blue leisure suit? I’m not, that’s how.

So, I need a different medium. I need to find a way to get my stories in the hands of my target audience. A medium they are already familiar with. I could try to go the book route, but then I have agents, editors, publishers, and large bookstores standing between me and my audience.

Ah well, back to the drawing board.