There are four books that I have handy when I am on the internet, because the right quotation from them can kill any argument. They are “The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli, “Rules for Radicals” by Saul Alinsky, “Democracy in America” by Alexis de Toqueville, and “Tao Te Ching” by Lao Tzu.
Home » Writing (Page 51)
Category Archives: Writing
The musings of someone who picked it up on the streets.
Travel
One of those many phrases that pass beyond language to take on a meaning of their own is, “Travel broadens the mind”. I’ve never been sure what that means. If you’ve been traveling this week, as many of us have, perhaps you can figure it out.
Mechanical PR
You may have heard of the “Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest”. As a way to promote their createspace service that allows a wide variety of self-publishing, from books to music to movies, Amazon had an open manuscript submission for the first 5000 novelists. All valid entries would be read (!) and judged by a panel. The winner is to have their novel published by Penguin.
Smarts
I’ve been hearing for twenty years that the future of the USofA belonged to “knowledge workers” – people who are visionaries who break outside of the usual boxes we live our lives in.
Sad that it’s all bullshit.
Platforms
To be a successful writer, you have to first develop a “platform”. This is a publishing term for a loyal fan base that will buy just about anything you write. It only makes sense, in the way that cultivating regulars at a bar gives the owner a stable base to pay the mortgage from. What’s funny about it is that you have to have the “platform” before you are likely to publish a book. That’s why you see celebrity cookbooks and the like getting precedence over cookbooks from people who are professional chefs. Celebs always sell, at least at first.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 