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I'm still experiencing a bit of a holdup on releasing my new book, "Corporate Ties," for a number of reasons. The biggest, though, is that I want the book to be super awesome and not cause too many issues, which of course, is causing a delay. In the meantime, I've picked up a bit with the marketing side. I've enlisted two graphic designers to assist me with artwork for the book.
As a writer of workplace novels, I try to stay up on the latest and greatest new business books that are out there. There is generally a clear distinction between self-help and narratives, but I do not think it always has to be like that.
I received an email recently about a new movie and a contest for a trip to New York. The new movie, "Fix" starring Olivia Wilde, seems like it could be pretty decent. It's based on a true story, centering around the director trying to bail his brother out of jail in a single day.
I'm sitting in my cube right now, wearing shorts, a T-shirt and tennis shoes. On the other side of the sensibility coin, analyst firm Gartner is predicting that avatars will have business dress codes by 2013. How do people come up with this stuff?
The Library of Congress is up to its old tricks again. Chronicling America has a number of scanned newspapers from 1880 to 1922 from various American states. The site, which is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program, allows users to search based on topics and zoom in to read papers from the more than 100 years ago.
During high school and college, I worked at Kentucky Kingdom amusement park in Louisville, Ky. Besides battling racuous crowds and the blazing heat, one thing that was interesting to me was trying to keep track of the different people I was seeing throughout the day. As a games attendant (a.k.a. carnival barker), I would attempt to personally say things to people that I saw multiple times, whether at different games or at different parts of the park. This was mostly just a sales tactic, and I think the customers likely thought I was training to have my own magic show.
While I've heard possible book groups picking up "The Developers," I just recently found out that one is taking the next step and actually reading it. The Crawfordsville (Ind.) Public Library is in the process of reading the novel, and the book discussion is set for 6:30 p.m. Dec. 4. I will join the group via audio chat to discuss the book and anything other questions I can answer, at least I hope so!
Have you ever seen an advertisement and wondered how truthful it was? For example, does the leading toothpaste really fight cavities, gum disease and world poverty? Is your favorite politician's opponent actually planning to raise taxes while lowering tooth decay?
I'm really not sure what I expected at the Baltimore Book Festival ... more well-known authors, more freebies, a new car. Nevertheless, I did expect a little more. I learned, however, a few things to be prepared in greater detail for next year:
1. Check the schedule: I had seen a brief schedule, but I didn't bring it with me, nor did I attempt to obtain one at the festival. There were a handful of things, including a tour of the Peabody Library, that I wish I had attended.
So you've got your Web page created. You have a great design, with every feature except a toaster. It's the greatest Web site you've ever seen, well, second to this one. But there's just one problem ...
How are you going to make it live?
The next thing you need to figure out is where the site will be hosted. Or better yet, you need to figure out what you expect from a provider.