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May31
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 Via an off-handed link lodged in Nick Mamatas' virtual battle of wits with Jason Pettus, I just discovered a happy little publishing company.
Go check out BenBella Books, a sweet house with a LiveJournal page and an even sweeter book series called Smart Pop.
I dig the company style, mixing up academic publishing with the obsessive, interactive love of fan fiction. In the future, these nimble, community-centered companies will set the publishing standard.
Check it out...
"We only publish books that we care passionately about, books that are exciting, fun or profound. We'd rather publish fewer books than publish anything we aren't crazy about. But we aren’t snobs. Just because a book is intelligent doesn't mean it can't also be fun."
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May31
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We can't stop with the do-it-yourself writing links, as my interview with Jim Munroe continues. First off, here's a great article by Hamish MacDonald about how to do-it-yourself for the next book:"When I self-published my first novel, doubleZero, in...
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May30
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Since taking control of his own distribution in 2000, Jim Munroe has built a small publishing business around his work--complete with podcasts, featured writers, and tee-shirts. His cross-platform media site built a community of varied interests, mixing up everybody...
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As our week-long interview with cross-platform scribe Jim Munroe continues, I wanted to point the way to a few do-it-yourself writing links.Jim Munroe wrote a passionate defense of public and private funding for artists of all stripes, generating a...
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May29
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"You have a lifetime of conditioning to fight, which will keep telling you that you are wasting your time putting hundreds of hours into something you may never get paid for," wrote Jim Munroe in this dazzling essay about...
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Just in case you were daydreaming about the long weekend and missed a post last week, here is our web writing week in review...The WYSIWYG Talent Show reminded me that I need to get out of the house more....
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May28
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A couple weeks ago, one of my favorite writers--Jim Munroe over at No Media Kings--built an MP3 Interactive Radio Drama for the iPod.Check it out..."Thanks to various sites, I’ve been enjoying the old time radio drama on my MP3...
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May27
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We've spent the last week with Michael McColly, a yoga teacher, journalist and writing teacher who just finished a new memoir about his journey from Chicago to Africa as an AIDS activist. "I wouldn't be alive if it weren't...
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May26
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We were just talking about how Joseph Bednarik caused a stir with an essay entitled "The Law of Diminishing Readership." Bednarik runs the poetry publishing house, Copper Canyon Press, and worries that we are producing too many writers for...
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Michael McColly's new memoir, The After-Death Room, began when AIDS activists begged him to help battle the spread of the virus in Africa. But unlike most people, McColly had a dramatic, immediate answer to these pleas:"So I sold my...
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Over at Poets and Writers magazine, Joseph Bednarik has caused a stir with an essay entitled "The Law of Diminishing Readership." Bednarik runs the poetry publishing house, Copper Canyon Press, and he has some unnerving thoughts about the business...
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May25
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Today I finally caught up with my Erika Dreifus reading for the week, and I felt guilty for not sharing her some of her recent wisdom. Check out two open submission events, a free, painless way to test your...
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While our week-long interview with activist and writer Michael McColly has focused on HIV/AIDS groups, there are many personal websites that record stories about living with HIV."Less Than 50" is a tough LiveJournal where an HIV-positive blogger describes all...
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May24
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Michael McColly spent two years in Peace Corps Senegal before moving to Chicago to study philosophy. "Both Senegal and Chicago were fertile grounds for an empty minded, small town, Midwestern white kid," explained McColly in an interview. "They turned...
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As my week-long interview with HIV/AIDS activist and writer Michael McColly continues, I wanted to link to a few great blogs that explore the social and scientific impact of the HIV/AIDS virus.If you are looking for a scientific exploration...
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I read at the WYSIWYG Talent Show last night, and I left with re-affirmed faith in webby writing community. Everybody treats you like family over there, and I inexplicably ended up interviewed by a Dutch reporter. A Dutch reporter!If...
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The WYSIWYG Talent Show reminded me that we web-based writers need to get out of the house more. After the show, I met some new writers with great communities of their own. Check them out...I shared a beer with...
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"Eighty-five per cent of those infected in Africa will use some form of traditional medicines to treat the spiritual and physical suffering which accompanies HIV and AIDS," writes Michael McColly, journalist and AIDS activist, in his new memoir."Yet, if you...
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May23
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I wanted to plug the WYSIYG Talent Show one more time, partly to show off my 12-year-old prom picture and partly to distract myself from my storytelling anxiety. If you are in New York, come to the Bowery Poetry...
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"The result is a revelation," wrote New Yorker journalist William Finnegan after reading The After Death Room, Michael McColly's memoir about his life as an AIDS activist and yoga instructor. "An epic twenty-first-century canvas on which the themes of courage,...
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May22
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I've been meaning to show you two contagious contests created by writers with amazing web communities. Just reading a few of these wacky, deranged pieces could inspire a networked novel.More importantly, these punk-rock exercises are like calisthenics for writers,...
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In 1988, The Last Temptation of Christ tanked after weeks of angry protests organized by Catholics around the world. This weekend, The Da Vinci Code opened with the had the thirteenth biggest opening weekend in America, ever, and the...
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May19
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As my Stephen DarkSyde interview concludes, I need to introduce you to the Science Blog community. They were founded by Seed Media, the company that publishes this great magazine and this weekly blog roundup that dwarfs my puny list.Ed Brayton...
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That's me, twelve years ago. Ponder that, and the WYSIYG Talent Show over the weekend. Thanks to Chris and her crew for delightful graphic. If you are in New York, come see me. If you aren't in New York,...
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In April 2004, the flourishing political site DailyKos opened wiki-feature called dKosopedia, inviting readers to contribute political articles to this community-guided archive. Since then, over 6,000 articles have been added, including threads about the 2006 election, Hurricane Katrina, and...
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May18
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Describing the political juggernaut of DailyKos, The Stranger had some clear cut advice for political leaders: pay attention to bloggers."If one looks at the entire liberal blogosphere, which encompasses DailyKos and about 70 other well-trafficked progressive blogs, one finds...
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May17
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In the Maybe We Aren't All Doomed After All Department, I got some good news today... On (next!) Tuesday, May 23 at 8 p.m., I will be reading about the girl who dumped me for a trombone player at...
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Our regularly-scheduled Steve Bryant Link has just arrived, straight from the Intermedia blog. Steve gets to go to all sorts of fancy-pants conferences, while we trail behind him--picking up breadcrumbs of publishing wisdom. Get a load of this..."Jupiter Research...
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As our week of science writing continues with Steven DarkSyde from DailyKos, I asked my journalist friend Apurva Narechania for some reading advice. He told us to check out Sean Carroll, a professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison who...
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May16
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Hurricane Katrina changed journalism forever. When the disaster shut down the Times Picayune, reporters moved online to keep the paper alive. Technorati traffic surged to nearly one and a half million posts a day as thousands of new blog readers...
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While researching my interview with Stephen DarkSyde, I discovered plenty of intelligent design devotees attacking evolutionary science on web. Like DarkSyde, I do not endorse intelligent design. However, I love watching these sprawling debates.Over at Telic Thoughts, a group...
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"Take a look at this comparison of search volume for 'pharyngula' vs. 'discovery institute,'" wrote science professor PZ Myers last week. "There's perspective for you: one wild-eyed guy with a blog is gaining on a whole gang of creationists...
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As our week-long interview with Daily Kos science writer Stephen DarkSyde continues, I have a few science blogs for you to explore. Dust up on your science, because we will be discussing evolution, Hurricane Katrina, and wiki-science this week.For...
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May15
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Stephen DarkSyde is a freelance science writer with one of the most exciting gigs in the world, writing political and science-oriented columns over at Daily Kos. In an email interview, DarkSyde explained his job at this popular blog in...
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I literally wasted days and days and days of my childhood playing simple text-based TI-99 Adventure videogames in my basement. They combined the interactive thrills of Choose Your Own Adventure with the mysterious promise of computers. Nowadays, I literally...
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Over at Wired magazine, tech guru Eliot Van Buskirk has a speculative article about the future of podcasting. Right now, podcast (or videocast) subscriptions involve complicated (for a layman) negotiations with RSS feeds and URL's and whatnot. The future...
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May12
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We've spent most of the week exploring Nick Mamatas' community on LiveJournal, but I've been meaning to show you some writers that plug web communities into their books.The Insititute for the Future of the Book coined the term networked...
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May11
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"My father Daniel, on the other hand, didn't remember anything but the nuclear weapons," writes Nick Mamatas in his new book coming out from Soft Skull Press. "Dirty bombs, WMDs, suitcases filled with high-tech stuff; that was all he...
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In 2004, a fledgling writing teacher got busted giving this stunningly bad advice to fledgling writers about cover letters to publishers:"No awards? Ask your best friend—let's say her name is Martha Green—to give you the 1999 Martha Green Award...
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As part of our Nick Mamatas Extravaganza, I have more favorite links from our literary friend... Lenin's Tomb is a world politics blog that covers political events and debates political blogs. The founder lists Slavoj Zizek as his favorite...
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May10
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In 2003, epic flame wars errupted after science fiction godfather Gene Wolfe resigned from a writing workshop. The conflict between workshop-regulars and workshop-haters still simmers like a smoking volcano in the writing world.At the height of the debate, Nick...
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YouTube has created the most vibrant video community that ever existed, and naturally, struggling news organizations want a piece of that interactive action. Two of my favorite media blogs are looking at what happens when Dan Rather hits YouTube.Over...
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One of my favorite parts of this job is cataloging the sites that guest writers like to read. It's like spelunking in somebody's brain and mining great ideas. As part of Nick Mamatas Week at The Publishing Spot, here...
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China Mieville called Move Under Ground "an intense crossbred bastard homage-cum-critique-cum-vision." Reviewers at The Believer and The Village Voice all dug Nick Mamatas' literary horror novel. Seeing how the trade paperback edition comes out soon, we caught up with...
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May 9
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Within hours of our Nick Mamatas interview, we have his LiveJournal-ed analysis:"Also, it's day two of me week on The Publishing Spot though I warn you that today's question turns the event into a blogger interviewing a blogger about...
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Thanks to Gawker, I found The New York Times' second article about zines. For the second time in a month, the paper of record is looking at those hand-crafted, independant publications produced by generations of starving writers. Turns out...
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May 8
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Yesterday, novelist Nick Mamatas asked us a pretty good question: "Why would I pay $50 for a good old-fashioned horror novel when I can go to Goodwill and buy used good old-fashioned horror paperbacks for fifty cents?" Truth is,...
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For the last six years, BreedingGround Productions put together stage shows, films, and other projects in Brooklyn. Over the weekend, they launched a stylish edition of their publication, ReadingGround.If you are looking for a good place to start, check out...
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As we begin our week with genre-shattering novelist Nick Mamatas, I've got a couple spooky writing sites for you to explore, each with the Mamatas Seal of Approval... Check out Brian Evenson, a professional librarian with six books under...
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Reading Nick Mamatas, I feel like I'm having a crazy late-night conversation with somebody who loves all the same books that I love. Granted, we love some strange things. Just check out this quote from Mamatas' novel, Move Under...
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May 5
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As I go stumbling off into the first balmy New York weekend all year, I wanted to leave you a few things to contemplate...Chartreuse has a birthday today. As a coincidental sort of birthday present, a new video-blogger just...
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As we head off into the weekend, I wanted to recap the last month's worth of Five Easy Question Action, just in case you missed a single, thrilling day.Tom Kealey gave us a week's worth of creative writing links...
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In a 2003 profile, one of Jenna Freedman's mentors gave a glowing review of the young librarian in Library Journal. "Jenna speaks truth to power, and we need more young librarians like that," said Kathleen de la Pena McCook.Since...
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May 4
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Steve Bryant, our Lost-Loving, prophetic pal over at Ziff Davis Media, tipped me off to a new writing project from the Daily Kos community. They just published a book full of science essays called Kosmos: You Are Here. The...
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"There's been much discussion about blogs replacing zines which i find very interesting," writes ThePublishingSpot reader, Stacey Greenberg. "i think you have to distinguish between mommy bloggers (i hate that term!) and mama zinesters. it's a pretty different aesthetic....
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"In 20 years you will not be able to find out what really happened at the protests against the Republican National Convention by reading old newspapers," Jenna Freedman told Utne Reader in "The New Monastic Librarians." "They didn't cover...
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May 3
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After exploring the world of zines with Jenna Freedman, I turned up some multimedia links that bring zines and librarians together. Greig Means published the definitive text in this area, a little publication called Zine Librarian Zine. Means has...
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May 2
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When most people think about buying zines, they imagine paying a dollar to a grubby kid at a coffee shop or grabbing a dusty copy in the foyer of a bookstore. What they don't realize is that these home-made, paper-based...
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Robert Boynton was one of my favorite writing mentors, teaching me enough about writing to fill five blogs. All the journalists in the audience should check out his book, The New New Journalism--it's full of interviews with great writers. Then,...
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Too many people brush off zines, thinking the whole genre is overloaded with teen-aged hormones. Over the course of my week-long interview with zine librarian Jenna Freedman, we discussed mothers with zines--an unexpected sub-genre of the zine universe. I...
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"Zines, although they’re called ephemera in library lingo, are actually a lot more permanent than blogs," writes Jenna Freedman in her essay, Zines Are Not Blogs. "The zine reader gets to keep the thing forever. When the reader returns...
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May 1
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I am about to quote a large chunk of text from Ron Silliman's analysis of readership patterns between poetry websites--but not because I'm lazy. First of all, Silliman's post contains enough web publishing wisdom to launch your own website...
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"I'm not even trying to be dramatic, but to the world at large, I am a freak. My voice is downplayed, ignored and/or made into a joke in the mass of verbal and physical disapproval that bombards me every...
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As we bid farewell to John Coyne and Peace Corps writing, I'd like to welcome you to Zine Week.This week we will study zines: home-made, paper-based publications lovingly produced by writing communities around the world.If you are looking for...
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Via an off-handed link lodged in Nick Mamatas' virtual battle of wits with Jason Pettus, I just discovered a happy little publishing company.