virtualDavis

I’ve come to see book bloggers as indispensable to authors, especially first-time authors.

~ Miriam Gershow

When Miriam Gershow (@miriamgershow) published her novel The Local News she landed coveted reviews in The New York Times, Marie Claire andLadies Home Journal. Home Run! Or not…

It turns out that even a top drawer print run and allstar mainstream media buzz, the job still fell to her to keep the novel visible and selling. And she did, due in part to her discovery that book bloggers are an essential (and friendly) ally.

One of the most surprising things about book publishing is that after the initial fanfare and reviews and readings… there is almost a deafening silence… suddenly it was my responsibility to keep the buzz going. (Guide to Literary Agents)

For Gershow, and for an ever-increasing parade of authors, the blogosphere and its social media cousins offer affordable word of mouth relationships directly with readers. As the data maelstrom grows louder and more overwhelming, more and more readers are tuning out. Traditional marketing channels are less effective than they used to be. But bloggers invest themselves day after day in cultivating a loyal readership. Blogger recommendations are respected, trusted and acted upon.

I do know that when a book is talked about in the blogosphere—especially by the insatiable bloggers with their insatiable readership—it keeps that book alive in the public consciousness.

Besides, authors have far greater accessibility to bloggers than they do to mainstream media outlets. So time and effort invested in courting bloggers is far more likely to pay off. But that’s not all, Gershow confides. Writers need book bloggers for their delicious soul food!

And… bloggers are good for the writer’s soul… They remind me that what I’m doing matters. And for that alone, they are worth their weight in books.

1. Complete Your Profile
2. Increase Your Connections
3. Customize Your Website Links
4. Answer Questions
5. Update Status
6. Join Niche Groups
7. Post Comments In Groups
8. Add RSS Feed to Groups
9. Create a Group
10. Add the Blog Application to Your Profile

(Graphic and list via problogger.net)

2min15 is a video blog to share urban life in different cities around the world. Videos with a length of 1min to 2min15 using digital cameras and basic editing software is the base of the project. This blog was created with non commercial purposes.

2min15 is interested in expressing a personal side of life in cities and the way people live it through different cultural situations. The increase of disposable technology as digital cameras, telephones, iPods and webcams makes it easy to express it without losing its essence and making it accessible for everyone. Every city has its own sounds, colors, languages and even smells. 2min15 would like to create a place where simple videos show their people, streets, cafes, women, architecture, parks, subways and specially, the flow between them.

via 2min15

Photo via copyblogger.com

Brian Clark (@copyblogger) had me at, “confidence is compelling and downright sexy… I’m not talking about arrogance. Arrogance is an indication of fear, not assurance.” If you agree, you might want to read another one of his postings in which he proposes three helpful hints for bloggers, writers, etc. Don’t take criticism/disagreement personally. Finish each writing project. (Get it done!) And push yourself!

Back at it again after an intermission. Still not convinced that this is the perfect solution, but see plenty who are using it well. Just wish I could figure out how to properly redesign my template to seamlessly match my website, but so far close will have to be good enough. In any event, back to hosting this on Blogger.com rather than on my own server. And for now, just making certain that I have an easy way to post during my upcoming return to China (Sept. 15-29) in the event that I have limited ability to publish on the main site. A safety net then…

Another pea soup day in NYC. A super productive 16 hr. day yesterday seems to have prompted a backlash today. A little too much procrastination, but what better time to update the blog?!?!

Glad to see that the October 18th entry on my homepage is once again making the successful link to two spirit-lifting, buttock-waggling audio and visual treats. If you haven’t visited yet, seize the momentum before inertia or techno-gremlins interfere. For a while they weren’t loading and the main site they derive from (see the entry for details) was offline or maxing-out its bandwidth or, well, or something else… A new link today, for a different flavor of soul raising, was discovered by my mother and forwarded. Visit Lo, How a Rose e’er Blooming or just go to the Oremus Hymnal homepage and search for one of your own. I’m no goddie, but this is cool, no? And, before slipping back into the ether, check out DanWinckler.com for another blogger who’s managed a pretty slick interface for the curious voyeur. Apparently he’s a friend of Beth, the woman behind The North Carolina Experiment and The Study of Design. Of primary interest is his video blog, an idea that appeals to me and that I’ve tried to figure out an easy way to experiment with. So far, no dice. The downloads are slow and I can’t find a reasonably efficient way to upload, update, present, etc.

A few experiments that are online, but which remain painfully slow for visitors to access are The Pompidou Fountain, Les Halles Juggler, and Les Halles Musicians. Well, how’s that for a link-heavy blog? Cheers!

Peculiar. These seem to update to the file on my website, but the insert page which combines the destination file with the output page refuses to update with the new information. The new entries… So, some bugs still to work out. Hmmm…

Seems to be a better day for trying to work out the kinks. Not positive that all of the strange bugs are gone, but I seem to be getting more or less the results I want. This will enable me to plug in blogs through blogger.com, or rather to permit CRD, III and GGD, Jr. to keep their homepages updated through this free service. Hmmm… still having some problems with CRD’s insert though. Not quite sure why.

This is a test to see how this new blogger option (blogger.com) might work for virtualdavis.com… Well, seems to have failed during the first try, so I’ll tweak the code a little and then try, try again. Here goes. Well, the second try is giving a little more reason for hope. But a great many kinks still to work out. I’ll keep plugging away. Okay, it seems that I’m making a little progress. But still can’t figure out how to control the size of the content page when plugged into the embedded destination page. The insert overrides my table width settings when it inserts the blog into my template… Hmmm. So still having problems. Now the font style is being overridden!

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