Time to Write

Two simple ways to make videos - Flip & iPod Nano

I've had some inquiries from writers and others wanting to create simple videos for their websites and blogs. I have two simple video cameras--a Flip and a recently-acquired iPod Nano 16GB. I thought it might be interesting for you to see both of them. First, here is the Flip, as shot by the iPod Nano:

And here is the Nano, as shot by a Flip:

Of course both of the original files have been made smaller in order to be placed on YouTube and this blog.

My verdict: for a sharper image, go for the Flip, but for the ultimate in portability, go Nano.

So what's a Vook?

A vook is a hybrid of a book and a video and they're here courtesy of Simon and Schuster and a San Francisco company named Vook. There are four titles so far, two fiction and two non-fiction, each selling for $6.99. I've just bought one of the fiction titles and will give you a report soon. In the meantime, courtesy of Beet.tv, here is an interview with Judith Curr, Executive VP and Publisher at Simon and Schuster.

Two free resources you might like: Photoshop course & ultra-simple blogging

Here are two resources you might find helpfu:

FREE PHOTOSHOP COURSE ONLINE

If you’ve wanted to learn Photoshop but have been put off by the high prices of most courses, how’s this for the price of an online course spread out over six months: free!

 It’s offered by CreativeTechs and you can get the full info here (there’s no catch, as far as I can tell):

 http://creativetechs.com/freephotoshopcourse

It's geared to Mac users but Windows users are welcome, too (how's that for a switch?)

SUPER SIMPLE BLOGGING

If you’ve wanted to start a blog but have been put off by the technical side, check out www.posterous.com . You can add a post by just sending it as the text of an email to the posterous site and attach to your email any graphic or other file (like audio or video) that you want to have be part of that post (although you do need to resize any picture to the size you want it to appear, unless you don’t mind it appearing maximum size).

You can try it out with one post without signing up, and if you proceed it’s free and you can choose what to call the blog and get assigned an address. (If you start one, let me know so I can have a look.)

(for tips and techniques for being more creative and productive, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request now to BstormUK@aol.com.)

A cool little tool for writers and others (the Mikey)

The other day I mentioned how useful it can be to record stuff, and my newest bit of kit in this regard is a Mikey microphone (from Blue Microphone) that fits onto my new iPod Classic. It makes it really easy to record your own thoughts and interviews.

Confession: I already have a perfectly good (and expensive) Edirol digital recorder but was not using it much because the interface is kind of complicated. With the iPod it’s a matter of pressing a few obvious buttons and that’s what made the sale.

If you’re looking for a way to record, you might consider this approach (the Mikey works with most kinds of iPods). 

(For tips and techniques for being more productive and creative, sign up now for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request to BstormUK@aol.com)

Pen + Digital = Amazing new devices for writers

Writing by hand isn’t dead, and a new breed of digital pens may help it survive.

Trendhunter magazine featured 45 unusual writing utensils, including several digital pens:

Digital pens – one example is the Nokia Digital Pen SU-1B (pictured). You write on special note pads and the pen remembers everything you’ve written (including diagrams and doodles) and allows you to download it all to your computer via Bluetooth. Price is around $200 (£120).

Logitech has a version that writes on any paper and stores the information on a self-contained Flash disk that can also hold music, images, etc. (Logitechn io2).

The D-Scribe goes one step further—it converts your writing into digital form that can be sent as either text messages or via a Bluetooth connection to your phone.

One I find tempting is the Pulse Smartpen from LiveScribe. The drawback is that you have to use special paper (and it’s kind of expensive) but the advantage is that it’s also a digital audio recorder. The 1GB version can hold up to 100 hours, the 2GB can hold 200 hours (less if you opt for the higher quality setting).

If I do buy one it’ll be on my next trip to the US. In the UK a  Pro Pack (pen, notebooks, etc.) is £185 (which is about $309), in the US it’s $239 but they don’t ship outside the US. 

(for tips on how to be more creative and productive, subscribe to my free Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request to BstormUK@aol.com)

Book piracy and angry monkeys

A service that helps fight book and article piracy is gaining popularity. Called Attributor, it scans billions of pages on the internet to find the locations where books or other textual material is being housed without authorization and asks for it to be removed. It works in 13 language and its first two publishing clients are Hachette Book Group and John Wiley & Sons.

 I’ve discovered my book, “Your Writing Coach,” on the web in its entirety a couple of times but of course it could be on many more sites without my knowledge—these days the pirates are clever enough to change the title and author’s names so a simple Google search doesn’t necessarily discover them. These pirated works may be hosted on sites that will take them down only if you find them and demand their removal.

 I wonder whether it would work to include a unique combination of words in your book—something like “angry Sicilian monkeys”—and then periodically Google that phrase. Of course you’d have to figure out some way to justify the phrase in the context of your book…

 If you want to read more about Attributor and get a link to a video demo, click here.

 (And for tips on how to be more creative, with and without angry Sicilian monkeys, subscribe now to my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin by sending an email request to BstormUK@aol.com)

Are writers blind to changes in our declining industry?

In an interview on the Personal Branding Blog, Dan Schwabel interviewed Scott Shane, an expert on entrepreneurship. Here’s part of what Shane says:

“People tend to discover opportunities related to what they know. When they don’t know about something, new information on the topic is lost on them and they don’t see opportunities… If what you know a lot about is a declining industry, you are faced with a problem: you won’t see most valuable opportunities and the ones you see aren’t as valuable.  If you’re in that position, you are better off not being the “idea guy” for a new business but are better off joining up with someone who sees better opportunities than you do.”

Are we writers in a declining industry? Certainly magazines, newspapers, and traditional publishing are all declining in their current form. However, what they deliver will always be valuable, so probably what we need to most aware of is new and potential delivery systems. How will we deliver and profit from the content we create in the future?

That includes letting go of our natural resistance to giving up (or at least adding to) the delivery systems we are used to and like. For writers above the age of, say, 30, that’s probably our biggest challenge.

(for tips on how to be more creative and productive, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request now to BstormUK@aol.com)

(for tips and techniques for how to be more creative and productive, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request now to BstormUK@aol.com)

What journalism is going to look like

Is this the face of the multi-media/magazine fusion to come? I’m talking about Flyp (at www.flypmedia.com), which is a b-weekly mix of text, photos, audio and video for each story. For instance, I’ve just looked at a feature on the singer-songwriter-novelist John Wesley Harding, and it included a few of his songs, a video interview, and brief audio comments by him.

According to a story in the New York Times, Flyp is a year old and has a staff of about a dozen in Manhattan plus free-lancers. Senior Editor Matthew Schaeffer prefers the term “experiences” to “stories.”

Maybe it’s just because it’s an unusual format but to me it feels a bit disjointed. However, assuming it can figure out a way to make money, it may be a forerunner of what more journalism will be like in the near future.

(Would you like to get tips and techniques for being more creative and productive? Subscribe to my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin by sending an email request now to BstormUK@aol.com)

Is this the death of audio books?

The new version of the Kindle e-reader from Amazon allows you to hear the book or other material read by a robot voice. Great for people with limited vision, or for use while exercising, for instance—great, right?

 Not so fast--what does it mean for the future of audio books? It’s an issue that is causing a lot of concern among audio book publishers. Although the robotic voices used at the moment aren’t a match for a human reading a book, but that could change in the future. The Audiobook Publishing Association is going to meet with the Publisher Association to try to work out a unified position. 

How much of your writing should you give away online?

If you look at my various sites (www.timetowrite.com, www.yourwritingcoach.com, www.focusquick.com, www.brainstormnet.com) as well as this blog, you'll see that I believe in giving away quite a lot of content. But can you give away so much that people are less motivated to buy what you're offering? 

Maybe, and one example might be the excellent site, www.brainrules.net. It goes with the book, "Brain Rules: 12 principles for surviving and thriving at home, work, and school," written by John Medina. It includes a slide/video/audio presentation that gives the key facts about each of the twelve principles. There's also a blog that goes with the book. Great stuff--but after checking it all out, I wonder whether there's enough more in the book to justify buying it. 

I'll check it out the next time I go to a book store. In the meantime, if you're interested in learning about how the brain works, visit the site--and maybe get the book. The experience might also give you some ideas about how much content you want to give away (or not) on your own website or blog.

(Another way to get information about how to use your brain to be more creative and productive is my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request now to BstormUK@aol.com)