Random Thoughts

[Neclord]

My food budget is pretty minimal, I eat a lot of beans and brown rice and whole grain pasta with some veg thrown in there. Eggs, cheese, apples. Oatmeal. I rarely dine out, don't drink soda and only occasionally indulge in dessert. I'm not sure it's the most well rounded diet, but it's simple, I don't think I regularly spend more than $80 a month on food, and I'm at a healthy weight.

However, while I'm unemployed, things aren't dire for me financially, and I haven't experienced true desperation. But you can get a lot of mileage out of beans and rice, and they are cheap. Just boring. Kind of like me.

[Dukefrukem]

Agree with Q. There aren't enough calories here to get a grown man through an entire week.

How will you make a meal out of any of this? "Ok, I guess for dinner I'll have corn on the cob .. with a side of ... yogurt?"

This list doesn't read like you went shopping. This list reads like you went dumpster diving.

The four pounds of chicken can't produce 7 meals? Yes it can.

[Mara]

Does anyone use wordpress? Can you explain it to me the simple way?

Like, how much does it cost? Do you have to install software? And does that mean you can only update from one computer? Can you customize your address? Does it provide e-mail hosting? Is it hard?

Yeah, I think I finally need a blog. I'm overwhelmed and nervous.

[Mara]

Or, alternatively, just tell me who to use.

But I would really like a custom address. (Don't want, like, .blogspot.com at the end.) And, obviously, I'm cheap. But I would like it to look more or less professional.

[Dukefrukem]

Wordpress is free. There is stuff you can buy like templates and themes but you can just customize it yourself if you feel choose. If you dont' want to go through the hassle just use the Google Blogger... also free.

[number8]

Artboiled is on wordpress.

[Dukefrukem]

What's with the dislike for "blogspot"? Is "Wordpress" that much better?

[Dukefrukem]

Artboiled is on wordpress.

Yes but you've done your own custom code to make it look amazing.

[number8]

What is your blog going to be for, Mara?

[Mara]

What is your blog going to be for, Mara?

Well.

I went to another writer conference this weekend, and it was amazing as always. One thing that I am hearing over and over again is how the publishing world has changed, and how the onus of marketing it put almost exclusively on the writer, now. Apparently, once a manuscript is seen as interesting, the agent/editor immediately google you to see if *you* are marketable, as a person. The Writer. You are supposed to be able to do interviews and blog tours and tweet at your readers and interact with them on Goodreads and so on and so on.

So, here was the big question: will you pass on a writer if they do not have enough of a social media presence?

And the agents and editors squirmed and then said yes. They said that if a writer does not have, minimum: Twitter, Goodreads, and a blog, it's a huge red flag. (Optional: a FB "fan" page, an author-specific webpage to buy books [um, unpublished, hello] etc.)

AND I MEAN WHAT.

So, basically I need a blog to impress an agent or an editor? Which means I need a blog to attract followers. I'm doing Twitter and Goodreads and that's... okay. But what do I write about?

Well, it would basically be an author blog. Talk about writing. Talk about books I have read (positive reviews only-- more of recommendations than reviews.) I could probably give reviews of films and theater. I sure hope I could get away with talking about gardening and cooking sometimes or this is going to get super boring. Most published authors have a blog attached to their actual author website, but I just think it's super weird to have a "Here are my books and appearances!" website when I have neither books nor appearances. So I guess my job is to be super charming.

It's also good for my long-term career, but guess what? I already have a job that is kind of time-consuming and, you know, pays me a salary. It's hard enough to find time to write, let alone... anyway, I don't need to rant. You get it.

I need to BRAND myself because the world is a sad and weird place.

[number8]

Ah, yes, that's exactly what I've been hearing for a couple of years now. The reason is because unless you're JK Rowling, book publishers will do very little to market your books, so most authors (even very successful ones) have had to build their own fanbase to get the word out of a new book, so naturally, nowadays literary agents are more keen to look at manuscripts from new authors who already have that built-in fanbase from social media.

[Mara]

So, side note, they really recommended doing a thorough google search on yourself (with and without quotes, with and without middle name, etc.)

And so I did.

And... well. The results were not what I expected. I found a lot of stuff, and some of it was really strange. Not bad, but strange. Stuff I wrote when I was fifteen. Religious articles I've written. (Oof.) And... other stuff. I found an article I wrote cited and quotes, with my name and several lines in a book that was published this year. I had no idea.

For an example: remember Just Press Play? I wrote an article about time loops and included a blurb about The X-Files episode "Monday." I rated it A-. Well, that review, including several lines, are cited on the Wikipedia article for that episode, including my name in the body of the article.

It's disconcerting.

[Raiders]

But... you've had a play adapted to a film! You're HOLLYWOOD!

In all seriousness though, it does seem that with the way the Internet ubiquity works nowadays, it is basically up to you to get the word out. People use Amazon reco's and online book clubs to decide what to buy so much these days.

[Mara]

I really wish there was a way to delete every post from various forums. Does anyone know a way to do that?

Mostly RT and Icine.

[Mara]

I mean, I don't say my name out loud on the forums, but anyone with sense could figure it out in three clicks.

[Mara]

But... you've had a play adapted to a film! You're HOLLYWOOD!

Seriously. My garden was on a blog last week. WHY WOULD I NEED ANYTHING ELSE?

Also, my mother loves me lots and thinks I'm awesome.

[number8]

For an example: remember Just Press Play? I wrote an article about time loops and included a blurb about The X-Files episode "Monday." I rated it A-. Well, that review, including several lines, are cited on the Wikipedia article for that episode, including my name in the body of the article.

It's disconcerting.

Haha, yes. It's always a trip to find something like that. I think the proudest day of my writing life is when I found out recently that I'm on Battle Royale's wikipedia page.

[Raiders]

I really wish there was a way to delete every post from various forums. Does anyone know a way to do that?

Mostly RT and Icine.

If you delete the account completely, does it change the posts to "Guest" or at the least make it so it is not able to be linked to you any longer?

Not the best solution, but without access to the database the best you could do is have someone create a bot for you that finds all your posts and edits them to a "blank post" (a short phrase like "removed" or something). Irish did this before the site move when he contemplated cleansing his history from Match Cut... not sure if he could help. Otherwise, there are sites who can do it, though I imagine it would cost something. Or you could spend a week doing it manually.

[Raiders]

For an example: remember Just Press Play? I wrote an article about time loops and included a blurb about The X-Files episode "Monday." I rated it A-. Well, that review, including several lines, are cited on the Wikipedia article for that episode, including my name in the body of the article.

It's disconcerting.

Yeah, this happened back when I was doing the Twilight Zone stuff on JPP and Imdb would always update with the reviews. It was very weird.

[Mara]

I mean, in the long term, there's no point in trying to hide anything on the internet. It's who I am; and I should just own it.

But I felt really exposed after all the searching.





Also.

I mean, it's a good thing to have my writing on the internet, or being able to do a search and see that I am a writer. (Most of the stuff I found were references to my play, the film, reviews of the play and film, articles for magazines, articles for websites, etc. THAT'S GOOD.)

But at the same time I feel like a huge fraud. Like the internet knows that I'm a writer, but I don't really feel like I am a writer? Like I've sort of accidentally been posing as one for so long that I've fooled everyone? There was my play, and I was so crushingly overwhelmed by that experience that I had pretty much A DECADE where I was too terrified/depressed to write a word. And writers don't do that. Sad, scared little girls do that. Waah, this is hard! I peaked at 20! Waah!

So now that I am trying to do this for real I'm embarrassed and awkward. I still feel like I'm faking it; just on a larger scale.

[number8]

Anyway, I customized wordpress and host my own site because I want the site to be its own entity, but if your goal is to market just your name as an individual, something more community based like blogspot or tumblr is probably the better platform. I think Veronica Roth's official website is still her blogspot page.

[Mara]

Maybe blogspot is best, then. I don't want to micro-blog, so I don't think I'll do tumblr.

[Mara]

I'm really glad I was never the sort to take naked pictures.

/side note

[Mara]

Well, I spent my whole lunch break browsing the blogs of writers to see what they look like.

And what's crazy is that when I am in the moment, trying to customize a template, I completely forget what I like. I think I am a person without opinions and I'm so paralyzed with the thought of looking stupid that... well, I end up looking stupid.

But then I found a blog look that I really, really like: http://alisoncherrybooks.com/

And I think... oh, of course this is what I like. I like clean design with bright colors and bold graphic looks. These are the same things I like in book covers; of course I'd like it on a blog.

So, here's what I'm thinking: one symbol that doesn't have to mean anything, but is memorable and graphic. Then, having that symbol repeated in an interlocking pattern into a wallpaper. (If there's any way to make that look like fabric, as if it was a picture of a piece of cloth, that would be ideal.) The same symbol incorporated into a header (like in the corner of a border) around the blog title, and then an icon version of the symbol that I could put on a business card.

The "me" symbol, you see. I don't know what it looks like because I am not creative that way.

Anyway, if any of you graphic artists / artists in general on MC think they could design those three things for me, I will pay you money. Seriously.

[Mara]

Possibly a triskele.

/yesI'mstillworkingonthisdon'tj udge