My writers group has been passing emails back and forth today re: Apple’s new iBook EULA.  I know this is also a hot topic across the ‘Net today, so I wanted to share with everyone what I sent to the writers group.

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I would put forth that EULA’s are, for the most part, universally bad for the end user and intended solely to benefit and cover the ass of the service provider – no matter who that provider might be.  They are also a contract not unlike any other contract you might encounter in your life, albeit one that 99% of us never bother to read.  We check the box to continue and move forward.  (South Park did a particularly gross episode on this very subject)

A plain English breakdown of the Microsoft Windows EULA, posted online by a lawyer, explained that by installing Windows on a computer, you agree that you have no expectations whatsoever that the software will wok, run, or be compatible with the hardware in your computer or any other software you might have or install, or with any peripheral equipment you might have such as printers, monitors, scanners, etc.  Anything that the software does outside of that is considered an ‘unexpected benefit’ of the software.

In other words – if it works, good for you. If it doesn’t, oh well – you can’t hold MS accountable for it because it was never intended to ‘work’ in the first place.

The Apple EULA’s have been criticized quite a bit for iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc and so on – and in a lot of those cases, the criticism is justified.  But we click ‘accept’ anyway.

DropBox, a popular online cloud storage solution, used quite a bit by writers and content creators because they developed seamless integration/backup for wireless devices, laptops and smart phones, last year changed their EULA to state that by using their service, you agree that they own all content uploaded to their servers.  Essentially, this meant that if you wrote a book, and you used DropBox to store a copy of that book digitally, you released the rights to that material over to DropBox including copyright.

This was heavily criticized on the Internet and DropBox saw a massive reduction in its userbase, prompting a change in the EULA’s wording.  Many authors still avoid this service.

Amazon’s EULA’s have also been heavily criticized for, among other things, giving Amazon the right to remove content from your Kindle if they want to or are pressured to by a copyright holder.  They don’t even have to tell you they’re doing it.  There is also a provision on each individual download/purchase of a Kindle eBook stating how many times that book may be downloaded to your device per purchase.  What this means is that some people found that books purchased for Kindle 1 could not be downloaded to their shiny, brand spanking new Kindle 2′s because the publisher had a download limit associated with the eBook.  It’s in the fine print.  No one knew this and there has been a lot of outrage over it, but Amazon has not changed the EULA.

Have a website hosted on one of those $4.95/mo discount web hosting companies?  Ever read the EULA?

When you signed up for web hosting, you agreed to their terms of service (EULA) which includes things like:

• You agree not to engage in unacceptable use of any of (Web Hosts) products and/or services
• It is a violation for anyone to employ posts or programs which consume excessive CPU time or storage space
• You are responsible for ensuring that there is no excessive overloading of (Web Hosts) DNS system or servers
• You agree to follow generally accepted rules of “Netiquette” when sending e-mail messages or posting to newsgroups
• You affirm that you are not a spammer
• You affirm that you will not host or distribute any material that, to a reasonable person may be abusive, obscene, pornographic, defamatory, harassing, grossly offensive, vulgar, threatening or malicious;
• You affirm that you will not host, distribute, disseminate or transmit files, graphics, software or other material, data or work that actually or potentially infringes the copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property right of any person
• If You elect to sell or resell advertising or web space to a third party then You will be responsible for the contents of that advertising and the actions of that third party (and you affirm it won’t be porn)
• In the event that You exceed Your allotted bandwidth and thereby overload (Web Hosts) DNS or servers, You shall be assessed any and all fees, costs and penalties associated with such overloading

Lastly, have you ever seen some of the things publishers try to slip into their version of a EULA?  (book contract)  Non compete clauses (if you write an epic fantasy for me, you agree not to write one for someone else until after our series is complete), character locks (you write this character for us and we have first rights and refusal rights on any other stories involving this character so you can’t write other books with other publishers after our contract is up).

How about this one: Upon termination of the Contract, the Publisher retains the right to sell or dispose of any media format, of inventory. The Author will receive applicable or adjusted royalties on these copies, and the rights not used by the Publisher, will revert to Author for the manuscript, but not for the cover art. The Publisher will have an inventory amounting to 1000 copies per any media format at termination of Contract. Rights for the book will stay with the Publisher, until all copies are exhausted. This is any media format…e-book, print, pod, audio, etc., which the book is published. All media formats are considered published and in inventory, when they go up for sale.

Writer’s beware explains: This puts a unique spin on a publisher’s traditional right to dispose of unsold inventory when a book is taken out of print or a contract term ends, either by selling the inventory through traditional sales channels (and paying a royalty on those sales) or remaindering (in which case, usually, no royalty is due). The publisher can’t produce more inventory, it can only sell off what it has on hand; and “inventory” is understood to mean “physical inventory”–i.e., not ebooks, which should be removed from sales channels immediately (though it usually takes a little while for vendors to comply). Moreover, the fact that the publisher is allowed to try and recoup some of its expense for unsold product does not delay rights reversion, or indeed, affect reversion at all.

With this publisher, however, termination triggers a refill at the inventory pump. Whatever the publisher may have on hand (and ebooks are never really “on hand”), termination causes inventory to magically shoot up to 1,000. Worse, it delays the reversion of rights, making reversion contingent on all inventory being sold, down to the last book. Suppose your book was available from this publisher as an ebook and a POD print edition; just imagine how long it might take a small publisher to sell 1,000 copies of each format.

In effect, termination isn’t really termination–it’s an indefinite extension of your original grant of rights, rendering the official 3-year contract term moot. And–talk about a Catch-22–because the contract has officially terminated, you’re no longer covered by its guarantees and protections. Is this even legally enforceable? Perhaps a lawyer or two will weigh in.

Plus, you’d have to trust the publisher’s accounting. This particular contract does include an audit clause–but with the contract terminated, the publisher could argue that your right to audit had terminated too.
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SO – What the hell is this all about, P?

• All EULA’s are in place to benefit the service provider, not the end user
• All EULA’s pretty much screw you, the consumer
• Always read a EULA (or attempt to read it) before you click that little accept button – if something bothers you, don’t click it.  You can actually do that, btw – there are other places/websites/service providers/vendors/publishers out there
• Realize that services providers like Amazon & Apple are out to be the only game in town (they don’t exactly hide this fact any more than Microsoft does), so they release tools like this one to make it easy for content publishers to use their systems, but almost ALWAYS have a gotcha hidden somewhere in the agreements.  I believe Amazon’s CreateSpace has exclusivity clauses in some of their agreements.
• If it looks too good to be true, it probably is
• Nothing is ever ‘free’
• Money should always flow towards the Writer/Content Creator (not away) (whole other subject) (probably) (ie Never use Publish America or any other service that wants upfront money from you)

~P

Make me famous:

I’ve been invited to co-host The Geeky Pleasures Radio Show tonight at 8 PM Mountain / 10 PM Eastern.

About the show:  Julia “Jules” Sherred is a mother, writer, author, radio personality, blogger, gamer, tech enthusiast, science nerd, sci-fi and fantasy freak, hard core Trekker, has an unnatural obsession with Optimus Prime and so much more. She emerged from the womb fully embracing her geeky tendencies, with a book on Astrophysics in one hand and a deck of cards in the other. Growing up, games were always an important part of her family, including family board game nights, Christmas family poker games and trying to pry the ColecoVision® and later NES controllers from her mother’s hands. She has now passed on this tradition to her own children and is raising the next generation of geeks and gamers.

The Geeky Pleasures Radio Show took to the airwaves in September 2008 and is now part of The Look 24/7 network.

I’m looking forward to geeking out with Jules and invite you to tune-in and join us in chat so that you can participate in the conversation.

~P

Make me famous:

So, one of the things that has always bothered me about WordPress is the Site Stats plugin.  I understand Akismet and why it links off to a 3rd party database filled with spam fighting stuff, but why must Site Stats?

I mean, it’s data about MY site, right?  Why not simply track that internally?

I suppose it comes down to control and marketing.  If it’s hosted somewhere else, the developers can control it. They can also use the information being tracked similar to the way Google uses the information culled from Analytics.  Still, it irks me.

I am one of those folks who likes to login and click on the Site Stats link and see what’s been going on with traffic.  Yes, I also have the Google Analytics plugin but there’s just something about the site Stats plugin that is easier on the eyes and better at a glance, if that makes sense.

So imagine my dismay this weekend when I logged into atfmb.com this weekend and saw this:

Click for a larger view

I’d had a couple other times in recent weeks when Site Stats gave me messages saying it was down for maintenance, so I decided to let it go and see if it was working in the morning.  It wasn’t.  Then I got busy and it was out of sight/out of mind for a while until I logged in again yesterday (Sunday) and noticed the message was still up there.  This lead me to Google the message.

I found this thread on the WordPress.org forums discussing it.  Apparently the maker of Site Stats has a new product out called ‘JetPack’.  When I posted something about this on Twitter, I got a few replies telling me that other folks had received the same message and simply switched to JetPack – problem solved.  But the WordPress.org thread had people complaining that when they switched to JetPack, none of their legacy data was showing up (so, nothing from months or years past – only current information) and worse, some reported installation errors from the plug-in saying it wasn’t working at all.

Yikes.

Then I checked something else for grins – I opened up FunctionalNerds.com and clicked on Site Stats.  I saw this:

Click for a larger view

WTF?  They are both attached to the same account/key!  Why does one work and the other not?

As of right now – I’m not sure what to do.  Site Stats works on a couple of my sites but not on the other two.  It still works on the blog I run for work.  Jet Pack has it’s defenders and detractors so I’m not sure whether or not to trust it – and that’s really the problem here, Trust.

The makers of Jetpack (WordPress.com – plug-in site is here), have eroded my trust and confidence in them in a couple of ways.

1. Not telling me they were making a change.  Have they dropped Site Stats altogether?
2. Turning off the service for my site but not really turning off the service for my site since the account still works on other sites?  Sort of?
3. By not simply doing an upgrade to Site Stats. (maybe they can’t do it that way – I don’t know)

Why didn’t they just upgrade Site Stats – a plug-in everyone had installed and were using, to Jetpack if that’s the future?  Why make it a new installation?  Why break the old plugin forcing people like me to search Google for answers?  Is Akismet going to stop working now?  Without warning?

Just really frustrating.

~P

Make me famous:

The smallest things can sometimes turn us off.  At least, that’s what I have always found.

Take Borders, for example.  They announced today they are closing 200 stores costing them $2million a week.  These unprofitable locations are spread out across the U.S. and the long reaching effects on the publishing industry won’t be known for a while yet.

But for me, it’s kind of odd. See, I have never liked Borders and you may be surprised to learn why.

The first Borders I was exposed to was in Fresno California where I grew up.  I moved into a place out near a new, developing retail center called River Park.  They had an IMAX theater, a Best Buy and a slew of other places in various stages of construction – including a new bookstore called ‘Borders’.

As you can imagine, this spot became quite the draw.  People were moving into the area, buying up houses and condos as fast as builders could slap them together or renovate em.  This area used to be nothing but fields, now it was a booming shopping area.  It pretty much killed older malls like Manchester Center and Fashion Fair (which I believe did survive, if by a thread).

Prior to River Park, I bought all my books from Waldenbooks in Manchester Center, sometimes from this other place in Fig Garden (I know, I know – I’m tossing out all these names you don’t know – bear with me!) that I liked.

Borders promised to be something different.  Not only were they going to sell books, and have a huge selection of titles to boot, they had music, a coffee shop – all sorts of things.

(Meanwhile, another new bookstore was getting ready to launch in a more centralized location – Shaw & Blackstone, a two story, massive store called Barnes & Noble that would also feature a coffee shop but no music at first)

My first trip to this Borders place was punctuated by really loud music blasting throughout.  It was similar to Tower Records, not any book store I’d ever been in before.  I’m not against music, or loud music, but in a bookstore?  Plus, it was so loud you couldn’t really talk to anyone.  My friends and I were trying to point out cool or interesting things we found and couldn’t do it over the music.

Weird.

I tell a story now and then about this loud music.  One time, we went in there because there was nothing else to do, so we decided to go in and wander around until it was time for our movie to start.  The music was blasting, all bass and distorted – couldn’t really understand what it was.  As I was wandering around, I started to recognize the beat, the rhythm – then it dawned on me.

It was the live, acoustic version of “Hotel California” from the Eagles ‘Hell Freezes Over’ album.  You couldn’t hear the words/melody because they had the treble turned all the way down, so all you could hear was the ‘thump’ of the bongo drum…

So, yeah…

I also realized, as I thumbed through their books, that Borders was about the Highlights.  Most of their book sections were small across the board, carrying only the ‘highlights’ and bestsellers.  Same with their music – it was pop music for the most part and I was into Blues heavily at the time, which barely had a presence.  For me, for the SF&F Blues loving guy, there wasn’t a huge selection to choose from, which, of course, puts me off.  I’m sure the John Grisham fans had no such problems.

But that’s not why I found myself turned off by Borders.  I could deal with the loud, distorted music.  I could deal with not being able to hear myself or my friends speak.  I could even deal with a small section of books to interest me because a small selection was better than NO SELECTION, right?

What I couldn’t deal with was the little sticker they slapped on everything in the store – including the books.

I admit – I’m a collector.  I like to have and keep things like books, just ask anyone who has ever helped me move…

Having that sticker on the back of a book bugged the shit out of me.  If I bought a book there, I was peeling the sticker off before I got to my car – it just bugged the shit out of me so bad.  Plus, those stickers covered up the price on the book, replacing it with the Borders price which felt like it was usually higher – also a negative for me.  Worse was when the sticker didn’t want to come off, so bits stuck to the book – my book, the book I want to keep pretty much forever!!  Marred by this freaking little sticker placed there, apparently, to piss me off.

I know that it’s a silly thing to get worked up about, but there it is.  I got it in my head that that sticker allowed them to charge more even if it didn’t always mean that (logically, my brain tells me that if they wanted to use a custom barcode system, for example, they would need those silly stickers.  But also, logically, my brain tells me that adding an extra level of complexity to their inventory process – ie, the silly stickers – means that they have to do something to recoup the cost of printing the silly stickers, paying someone to peel and stick them – SOMETHING LIKE CHARGE ME MORE!).  So to my mind – Borders = expensive.

That’s a perception and I don’t think I’m the only one to see it that way.  Over the many years since that first visit, Borders was relegated to the very end of the list for me – if I could not find the book I wanted anywhere else in the free world or online, then and only then, would I bother with Borders.  Usually to find that they did not, in fact, have the book I was looking for anyway.  They only had the highlights.

Sad, I know.

There are places, towns, cities, where Borders is the go to place, I’m sure.  It’s going to be interesting to see what happens in those towns and where people turn to find their books now.

~P

Make me famous:

I’m looking at making some changes around here.

Websites

Among the changes I am working on is a change to my websites.  Chiefly, atfmb.com and FunctionalNerds.com.

Although I like the design and layout of atfmb.com for the most part, and it really is much better than what I’ve done in the past, I feel like it’s become far too cluttered.  There are a lot of different ways to navigate around and I don’t know that people really take advantage of them because they are everywhere.  It needs to be simpler, more consistent.  Plus, I find that a lot of people will come in on a link to something, but they don’t branch out into other stuff and I want to give them the opportunity to explore more.  There really are some cool things round here if you look around a bit.

As for FunctionalNerds.com – John Anealio and I have never particularly known what to do with that site beyond having it for the podcast.  I started doing the daily nerd news round ups to try and drive traffic to the site, and then later handed that over to the most capable Scott Suehle, which is great – but we think there needs to be more there.  We’ve approached some people about writing some original content for the site so it’s going to need a more dynamic design that can showcase those folks and reward them for their efforts.

With all of that in mind, I’ve built myself a sort of development playground, a place where I can mess around with different themes and designs for the sites, get them looking the way I want before publishing them live to the web.  More on that as things progress.

Writing

If you pinned me down, I would tell you that I am a novelist.  Brevity is not my best friend.

Since I started considering this post, I’ve been trying to pull my thoughts together coherently and what I’ve come up with is this – everything has its pros and cons, including calling yourself a novelist.

Being a novelist is like playing the lottery with the same six numbers all year long or, as they used to say, putting all your eggs in one basket. You’ve done it, you’ve written this epic (in your own mind) piece of long fiction and now it’s time to bring it to the masses.  This may involve querying publishers/editors, agents, etc. and so on.  That can take a long time, as long if not longer than it took you to write your novel in the first place and there’s no guarantee that anyone will ever bite – so what do you do in the meantime?  Write another novel?  Maybe a sequel?  Rewrite the first novel?  Resubmit?

In my case, I looked at writing as a whole and I saw that there were all these potential markets and opportunities out there that I was completely ignoring by calling myself a novelist and writing long fiction alone.  Worse, it might even be a little easier to break through in these markets in the short term but if I’m not writing short fiction…

Consider this – you write an epic fantasy novel that comes in at 100,000 words, which you then try to sell.  Or, you write 15 short stories at around 6,500 words each, give or take.  That’s 15 possibilities to be published, 15 opportunities to get your work in front of people who might actually buy it and publish it.

I am really taking this to heart.  Don’t get me wrong, I am still writing novels – I don’t think I could stop doing that, but I do want to explore what short fiction has to offer.  I’ve done a little of this in the past with my Flash Fiction Fridays but moving forward, I am going to take this to the next level and really try to hone my skills and produce short fiction – and I mean SHORT!  A recent attempt ballooned out to 24000 words (Cahill’s Homecoming, a cowboys in space story set in a far off future) – I want to rein in my long fiction mind and shoot for 3,000 – 6,500 words max and see what I can manage.

It’s not easy, I’ve already begun and found myself at nearly 3,000 words while feeling the story had only just begun.  I need to break myself of the habits that lend well to long fiction but bloat short fiction.  Actually, I need to turn those skills into tools that I can use when I need them and put away when I don’t.

To that end, I’m going to try and write a new piece of short fiction every week and see what happens.  I am also going to push to read as much short fiction as possible so I can really become familiar with how the stories are crafted, what works, what doesn’t, what I like and what I don’t so I can then apply my voice correctly.

Habits

Which brings me to the next big change around here.  Me.

We learn to be who we are slowly over time.  It doesn’t happen immediately.  A lot of things influence us including family, friends, work, school – you name it.

I’ve been thinking for a while now that I need to make some changes personally.  The problem with any sort of change is the habits we fall into.  Example: When I’m stressed, when I think that I can’t possibly get everything done because there just isn’t enough time or I don’t have enough energy – I reach for a pop. Usually Mountain Dew.  If I’m home, I might make a pitcher of sweet tea and start guzzling it.

These are habits I’ve developed over time and they are not easily changed.  There are plenty more where that one came from.

I’ve heard about Tobias Buckell for a while now and from a lot of different people, folks I respect and whose opinions matter to me.  He has a story – you can read it here. At World Fantasy, I had the opportunity to sit down with him and have a very candid conversation.

He’s a fairly impressive guy and incredibly engaging.

We talked about weight loss.

I’m a big guy, always have been.  I like to steal Ron White’s joke and say that I’m between six three and six six depending on which convenience store I’m leaving.  I started growing vertically in high school and didn’t stop til it was over.  My eating habits have never been particularly healthy.  Like Wallace and Grommet, I have a penchant for cheese (pizza, mac n cheese, chicken alfredo, lasagna).  I also have always drank a lot of pop or sweet tea.  This has resulted in a lot of weight gain.

I’ve had a lot of people tell me that I seem very comfortable with who I am.  I suppose that’s true for the most part, but I have never been happy with my weight.  I never learned exercise really – some of my P.E. teachers in high school tried to teach us these things but I never paid much attention because it was boring.  I am more at home in front of a keyboard than I have ever been in a gym.  Unfortunately, being in front of a keyboard is a sedentary life which isn’t good for any of us in the long run.

Talking with Tobias, he was basically the opposite of me – a guy who worked out, lifted weights, was into all of that.  Now, he can’t do that anymore (again, go read his story on his blog – it’s worth your time) but wants to be in shape, needs to, really.  I can respect that.  He gained a lot of weight due to inactivity, but is now back on the road and losing weight again thanks to changing how he approaches eating and exercise.  He showed me this app he has on his iPhone, LoseIt!

I downloaded it as soon as I got back from World Fantasy.

Essentially, the concept is to be aware of what you are eating or drinking and the calories of each item. You set a goal weight, when you would like to reach that goal and then start tracking what you eat and drink.

Where this works, where it clicked for me, was when Tobias told me that he was losing weight but eating a donut every day.  That blew my mind! (of course, now comes the story of the guy who lost weight eating twinkies!)  Of course, we don’t want to eat junk food all the time, but the point is that if you are aware of what you are eating calorie wise, it’s okay to have what you like, what you enjoy.

How this really helps me is that there is no cold turkey.  I don’t have to stop drinking Mountain Dew or sweet tea – I just have to be aware of how much and how often.  I started a couple weeks ago, changing my habits slowly.  My habit is to reach for a Mountain Dew?  That’s okay – I can still do that, but I can’t order the large drink.  I get the regular drink, I don’t get a refill and I don’t take it back to the office with me when I leave.  I like fast food?  That’s okay too – just shift what I order rather than deny myself.

Example.  I love the teriyaki chicken rice bows at Tokyo Joe’s.  Guess what?  They’re about 400 calories but oh so tasty – great lunch.  Feeling hungrier than that?  A Subway turkey sandwich is only 600 calories and piled with stuff.

Now when I head out to lunch, I think about it first – how hungry am I?  What’s the plan for dinner?  One of my favorites is Arby’s – they have the only fries I actually like.  My usual is a french dip with a large curly fries and pop.  I was craving that one day last week so I plugged it into LoseIt to see what that would cost me – IT WAS ABOUT TWO THIRDS MY DAILY ALLOTMENT OF CALORIES!  I was blown away.  I shifted my plans and hit Subway instead.  Bigger sandwich and way better in the long run because I was able to snack a little that night after dinner.

So, I am changing my habits gradually, but it is working.  I’m drinking more water, less other stuff.  I’m aware of what I eat before I eat it, I log everything.  When I first started, I weighed in at 285 – then I hurt my back and went to the doctor’s office where they weighed me at 295, which bothered me.  When I was feeling better, I bought a new scale and tried again – it came up 285 so I chalked the doctor’s scale up to all my clothes and the fact I was wearing my boots.

I didn’t weigh myself again for a bit.  I didn’t want to do that thing where I am constantly looking at the scale – that could be bad.  I just let it go.  Twoish weeks later, I weighed in at 278 and my eyes about bugged out of my skull!  7 pounds down!

I’m sold.  I’m sticking with it. I am even looking at an exercise bike to add to my office in the basement.

When next I hit a con, I will be slimmer than I am right now by far.  Maybe I’ll even enjoy flying this time!

~P

Make me famous:

A little while ago, I put up a post titled ‘I’d like to blog for you’.  The concept was simple – I’d write a blog post for your blog, based on a subject or topic of your choosing, and vice versa.

The first person to take me up on this was Brian over at The New Author.  I suggested that he write up a little something about the Author Platform, a new concept running around these days.  Here’s his guest post.

The Author Platform
By Brian Knight

Congratulations; your book is done. As you sit back and enjoy the euphoria of finishing your very first novel a cruel specter creeps into your mind. How are you going to get noticed?

Wait a minute; I need to get an agent or a publisher first. They will take care of all that business. My work is done; all I need to do is sit back and wait for the royalty checks to come in.

Hang on partner. You’re not even close to done. The easy part is writing the story. Yep, I said it, writing the story is the easy part. Part of the puzzle when looking for an agent or publisher is your ability to identify an audience or platform for your book. They want to know that people are eager and ready to purchase your book right now; as soon as it rolls off the press.

Well, that sounds great, how do I develop an audience or platform? I’m glad you asked. First you need to understand that there are no magical bullets when it comes to getting readers to buy your book. What you can do is target the audience who will enjoy your book the most and focus on them. For example, if you are writing a mystery/thriller novel then you don’t want to introduce yourself or your book to a book group discussing romance novels. You can but it will not produce much in the way of results. If you wrote a Science Fiction novel then look for groups, functions, networks and individuals who enjoy and discuss Science Fiction novels.

Okay, we’ve identified our audience but that is a little different from an author’s platform. Building a platform is the method in which we gain name recognition. How do we do that? In the age of blogging and social networking, building a platform has gained a global reach. We need to remember though that a platform can start right in our own neighborhood. What I’m getting at is this – start a blog, get on Twitter and other social networks but also get involved in book clubs, libraries and functions in your neighborhood. This grass roots effort will pay off in the end.

This begs the question when do I start developing my platform? Unlike targeting your audience, which you do while you are writing or shortly after completion, we should begin building our platform as soon as we decide we want to be an author. It is never too early to start networking and making connections. The bigger your platform is the better.

You now have your book ready but you’ve also started a blog and jumped on Twitter. Hang on for a second here, you don’t have to start a blog or get on Twitter; look around and find networks you are comfortable with and start there. Alright, back to our regularly scheduled post; once you’re on these sites and you’re making the rounds in your neighborhood there are a few important things to remember.

• We are making connections not selling a soon to be published book or a newly published book. If people feel as if all you are doing is pushing your book on them then they will turn away and reject you. I know, you’ve seen/heard it before and I’m sure it got on your nerves but it’s amazing how easy it is to fall into this practice.

• Be honest. Honesty and sincerity go a long way. Don’t be anything you’re not; just be yourself and everything will work out for the better.

• Get to know those you are connecting with. You never know what you’ll learn from these connections.

• This is the most important one; have fun. Connecting with people and meeting new people is an enjoyable experience. Have fun; let your personality show through in your blog, tweets and social events.

So what we are looking at when building an author platform is making connections in our neighborhood and on the Internet. Reach out to everyone but as soon as you identify your audience make a focused effort to reach out to them too. Don’t sell your book to them; get to know them and allow them to get to know you as an author and regular person. Be honest at all times. Finally, make sure you have fun. If you’re having fun you’ll want to continue building your platform long after your first book is published.

Promoting your name and book(s) starts with the author’s platform. Building this platform is not a sprint; it’s a marathon that will last as long as your passion for writing does. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and build that platform.

About Brian Knight:

Brian Knight is the creator of ‘The New Author;’ a blog for new writers trying to understand the world of publishing. He is also co-owner of Premium Promotional Services which is geared to provide massive exposure for authors and their books.

Brian has dreams of becoming a published author. His first novel is currently being reviewed by a publisher while his second is in the works. Aside from fiction, Brian is a published poet; having poems in both books and magazine.

You can find him on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/thenewauthor

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sb.knight1

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Whoa!

That’s what I said. I said ‘whoa!’ when I saw an email in my inbox from John DeNardo over at sfsignal.com.  It said: HEY YOU! ATFMB GUY! RIDDLE ME THIS:

Q: What are some of your favorite genre crossovers?

(He may have actually written it out much nicer than that)

Giddy, I responded (at the last possible moment, of course), and the whole thing is now up over on the site: SfSignal.com

…you read it, right? RIGHT?

If not, what the heck are you waiting for?! A lot of cool people were involved, as per usual.  Worth your time…

~P

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I said I’d do it, I warned you – you didn’t listen, did you? Well, now it’s TOO LATE!

THE RETURN OF THE PODCAST IS HERE!

Episode 9 of the All Things From My Brain Podcast is here.

In this weeks massive, DOUBLE SIZED, MAXI-PODCAST, I am joined by a special guest on his very first podcast appearance as we discuss the iPad, about Apple, Google, Blizzard, Doctor Who, Dollhouse, Torchwood – and the fact that his youngest son may be stalking me via iPhone.

With Episode 9 I am dumping Podbean and everything is going to be hosted here on atfmb.com. If you’ve subscribed to the podcast via iTunes, that link is in the process of being changed and you’ll have to resubscribe – I’ll let you know as soon as that’s ready and available.

In the meantime, click below and stream to your hearts content or you can download via this link by right clicking and choosing ‘save as’.

~P

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Actually spent a little time this evening going through my Google Reader and looking for interesting things to share.

Technology / Science News

Google’s Nexus One phone sparks flood of complaints.

Just eight days after Google opened its online store to sell the new Nexus One smartphone directly to customers, its support forums have been overloaded with complaints on a variety of issues. They stem from coverage and delivery problems, network compatibility, dropped calls and operation woes.

Malware: Android Apps Threaten Mobile Security

Google’s Android Market relies on customers to flag dodgy apps, leaving businesses and other customers’ smartphones open to attack by rogue apps until Google acts, sometimes days later.

Malware banking apps have already been removed from the Android Market, where it seems anyone can post what purports to be a banking application.

The future is here and it’s a damned freaky/scary sex robot (…just, ewwwwww)

At the other trade show in Vegas last week, the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, a company called True Companion threw a coming-out party for Roxxxy, a 5-foot 7-inch, fully functional rubberized “girlfriend” with a personality, of sorts.

Astronaut pee clogs the space station – I can only assume they’re drinking Mellow Yellow and not Mt Dew…

Engineers trouble-shooting a problem with the station’s $250 million water recycling system, which processes urine into clean water for drinking, believe the cause is a high concentration of calcium in the astronauts’ urine, which clogs the system.

The Phoenix Mars Lander may have survived the Martian winter (but not really).

Nasa’s Mars Odyssey orbiter is set to listen for possible radio transmissions from the Phoenix Mars lander, to check if it has survived the Martian winter.

AAAAIIIIGGGHHH!!! WE’RE ALL GONNA DIIIIEEEE!  IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD!!! HOLLYWOOD CALLED IT – IT’S A DANED ASTEROID AND IT”S GOING TO KEEEEEELLLLL US ALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A weird object that left some observers wondering if it was a piece of space junk is most likely just a small asteroid, and will zoom close by Earth Wednesday, NASA scientists say. It may be visible to seasoned amateur astronomers as it passes harmlessly by the planet.

Oh.  Well.  Never mind then.

Scifi

Star Trek Online enters open beta

The open beta of Star Trek Online begins today and runs through January 26th, a week before the February 2nd launch date.

The channel formerly known as ‘SciFi’ Presents Marathon of 1960s Sci-Fi Cult Classic, The Invaders Monday, January 18

(The former SciFi Channel) is bringing back the 1960s sci-fi cult classic, The Invaders, for a special 11-episode marathon on Monday, January 18, from 8AM-7PM (ET/PT). The series, which starred Roy Thinnes — who claimed to have seen a UFO during the filming of the series — ran for two seasons on ABC from 1967-68.

Weird artist re-creates famous sci-fi scenes—with face paint!

Lucky Batman! All he had to deal with was Two-Face. Who knows whether he’d have been able to handle James Kuhn, a wacky artist with hundreds of faces. Kuhn loves painting his face so much that one day he decided he’d do it up differently every day for a year—and when that wasn’t enough, he did it all over again!

Firefly to live on FOREVER! FOREVER I TELL YOU!  BROWNCOATS REPRESENT!

Joss Whedon’s beloved Firefly/Serenity is long gone, but you can’t stop the signal: Fans can look for more adventures of Capt. Mal Reynolds and the crew of the doughty ship in a series of short stories coming soon from Titan Books.

Oh. Yeah. That too.

I’m done.

~P

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Another quick round up of stuff I found interesting on the web today.

Galactic Hookup Spawns Celestial Offspring comes from Wired (but it’s all over the web). Basically, Hubble caught a photo of galaxies colliding.  I wonder what happens to the stars and planets when galaxies collide and merge?  Man. Wouldn’t that be a great story to write?

“I looked up into the bright sky, full of stars, and knew that we were all so very screwed.”

…okay, so, maybe it needs some work. Everyone is a critic!  Sheesh!

Nice picture on that link.

Dungeons & Dragons Online is now free (and people are playing it again). This is from Ars Technica – talking about how the game has new life thanks to it being free.  Yeah, well – DUH!  That’s why newspapers are failing but blogs and Internet based news sources are THRIVING.

I’ve never played this game cuz I don’t think they have a Mac version, which is stupid.

CNET tells us that Barnes & Noble makes October 20 event official.  Speculation is that this will be the launch of a new e-reader from B&N. I don’t mind all the competition out there – quite the contrary – but I sure wish they’d all settle on a single format.  I don’t want e-readers to become like cellphones – exclusive to a certain carrier and if you switch, everything you bought goes away.  That’s just stupid.

I have a lot of DVD’s (We’re talking a LOT here.  Like, tons.  Way too many.  A whole case, thingie with these doors and lights and stuff – full, top to bottom.  A little overflowing…  God, I need a life…) and if my DVD player breaks I can just go out and buy another one – any brand I want and it’ll work with the DVD’s I already have.  THAT’S what e-readers need to be.

Comic Book Resources has a nice little roundup peice on the 2009 Harvey Awards held at the Baltimore Comic-Con.

Yeah, I got nothing.  Just a good article.

According to GameLife, the guy who wrote ‘Saving Private Ryan’ has been tapped to write the Warcraft movie for Blizzard.  This could mean that the movie won’t suck.  Could also mean that the sequences where the Orcs are enslaved by the humans and sent to camps in Ashenvale will be so intense that any Orcs in the audience will become visibly upset and will have to leave the theater…

Life, Doctor Who and Combom has an amusing video with Rowan Atkinson (whom I love – he is fantastic) as ‘Spider Plant Man’.  worth a looksee.

SFSignal.com asks the question: Does the SciFi label still apply?

Yes.  But not at BestBuy (I plan to blog about this later on this week – BestBuy has removed ‘SciFi’ from it’s shelves, relegating titles to ‘Action’, instead).

Also at SFSignal.com – Tube Bits.  Um… There’s a photo on that page.  Wow.  I don’t remember THOSE costumes in Stargate: Universe.

Rachelle Gardner has a great post on her blog: Protocol – When an Agent Offers to Rep You.  Excellent reading for anyone who is looking for representation and wondering how to handle stuff that comes along.  She always has good advice – well worth your read.

In the ‘odd but interesting’ pile – both from Wired.  Hunting Arctic Asteroid Impact With Hovercraft & 35 Years of the World’s Best Microscope Photography.  Both are very interesting, if a bit off.  The overcraft thing – I keep seeing G.I. Joe in my head – loading up some hovercraft to chase Zartan through the artic tundra or some such.  Don’t ask me why.  And the microscopic photography is very cool, yes strange all at the same time.  Makes me think of Spore.  or that ‘Fantastic Voyage’ (I think that’s the one) where they shrink the ship full of doctor’s and scientists and then inject em into the President (I think) to save him from something that can only be removed from inside his body.  OR, that ride at Disneyland where you are shrunk down and enter the unseen world of the body (which, come to think of it – was probably tied to that movie).

Worth a looksee.

Sam Raimi said something! About Spider-man 4!  And it didn’t piss me off!  Thanks to Slice of SciFi for that link.  And for this one: Actress Jolene Blalock will join the cast of the syndicated series “Legend of the Seeker” for the upcoming second season.

Raise your hand if you think she’ll have a skin tight outfit that pushes her boobs up and barely contains them inside some sort of lace up bodice!  Go ahead – it’s okay!  We know it will…

I think I liked her better on Stargate as a warrior/leader versus her run on Craptaprise.  I promise I’ll reserve judgement on this until I see who she’s playing and how they are interpreting the character.

Probably.

AND SPEAKING OF WOMEN WEARING NEXT TO NOTHING.  20 awesomely hot Slave Leia costumes.

What is it about Princess Lea in the gold bikini that so sets off us males, eh?  I could probably do a blog post on it but I’m kinda busy going through the photos right now, so, maybe later?

Lastly, I offer you this: You can own Firefly’s Serenity for just $2,495. The link!  Not the replica!  I don’t have $2500 to throw around, and if I did, I’d totally have to get a TARDIS first…

~P

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