01/07/2009 In Life, Marketing, Money, Publishing, Technology, Web, Writing by William Aicher
So as you might have seen, earlier tonight I wrote a pretty strong endorsement for Scott Roger’s book, Celluloid Cowboy. Or, if you’re following me on Twitter, you’ll have noticed that I wrote quite a few endorsements for the book there as well. Or… if you use Amazon, Goodreads or Shelfari, you’d notice I endorsed the book there with positive reviews as well.
You get the picture.
Now, I don’t go out endorsing many books. I read too much to write about every book I read, and only the ones that are truly worthwhile get an actual review or feedback from me - which is why I wrote the review of Rogers’ book.
Anyway, I sent him the link to the review so he’d be aware of the positive vibes I was sending his way… and I learned that giving people props just really isn’t worth it.
Rogers’ response in his blog regarding my review was as follows:
Yeah. The guy kind of comes off as a prick, really.
Anyway, I’m not interested into getting into a pissing match with this guy (or his readers)… but seriously?
01/07/2009 In Life, Money, Publishing, Writing by William Aicher
With the experiences I’ve had so far as an independent author, I’ve come across quite a few like-minded individuals. The problem is that some of them aren’t that great at writing something that grabs me (sorry, but it’s true). Some of them, however, are. This is where Scott C. Rogers falls with his debut, Celluloid Cowboy.
To be honest, at first I really wasn’t very interested in reading his book. The cover art definitely screamed indie, and the premise seemed a bit cliche (man’s life sucks, is presented with chance to change), and I am also usually pretty wary of author’s soliciting their works to me to read. (I already have quite a few books on my to-read list.) But Rogers and I emailed back and forth a few times (full disclosure here) and I told him that if he put it up on Kindle I’d maybe read it. He did, he emailed me, and I went ahead and read it.
The thing is, this really isn’t my kind of book. From some of the reviews out there he supposedly has some similarities to Bukowski, who I’ve never really cared enough about to read (and therefore can’t comment as to if he really is like Bukowski). I will say this though: Celluloid Cowboy is really damn weird. (more…)
18/06/2009 In Life by William Aicher
Talk to me, people - and talk to each other.
That’s the most important message I try to get across to my team members. As the Director of both the Web Team and Marketing/Editorial Team at Musicnotes.com, I have a lot on my schedule. I directly manage and work with six extraordinarily talented individuals across these two groups, each of which is truly a master of his or her domain. But along with being masters of their domains, they are also multi-talented individuals who are quite capable of helping each other out by stepping out of their specialty and into someone else’s (or a specialty we didn’t know we even needed).
With such a talented group, and at a continually growing and forward-thinking company like Musicnotes, there’s always a lot going on. When one project ends, another is always there to take its place - and oftentimes there are multiple projects being worked on at once. These kinds of circumstances are the ideal cocktail for confusion and failure to brew; with so much going on, almost all of it “high priority,” it’s easy to see how things could quickly spiral out of control. (more…)
15/05/2009 In Publishing, Writing by William Aicher
I’m a self-published (i.e. “indie”) author, and I’ll be the first to say it: a lot of self-published books really suck. I mean really. They’re horrible - filled with typos, grammatical errors, poor storytelling, bad research, and so on. That’s the biggest problem with how easy it is to publish your own book now - these suckfests bring down the name of self-publishing and tarnish anything with “self-published” immediately as being suspect. (more…)
16/03/2009 In Publishing, Technology by William Aicher
Yesterday afternoon here at South by Southwest (SXSW) I had the chance to sit in on a panel featuring Clay Shirky (author of Here Comes Everybody) and several key members of the traditional book publishing world, including representatives of Penguin and Bloomsbury, titled New Think for Old Publishers. Unfortunately this panel had very little think involved, as the first half of the panel basically consisted of introductions, descriptions of favorite books recently read and attempts to reinforce the importance of the beaurocratic system traditional publishers work in (and why this model is essential for book readers). It wasn’t until the second half of the single hour allotted for the conversation that the audience was told the publishers weren’t here with “new think” but instead wanted to get ideas from the audience. What ensued was quite a show of vitriol from the audience.
Rather than get into the details of the audience discussion (you can get the gist from the Twitter discourse or can get the overview from MediaLoper), I want to discuss a bit the bigger point the publishing industry doesn’t seem to be getting - they no longer hold the keys to the kingdom. (more…)
14/03/2009 In Life, Technology by William Aicher
I’m sitting here on the floor at Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference, waiting f0r the next panel discussion on my schedule to start, but as I sit here I wonder a bit what the point of coming to these conference really is. Sure, there are a lot of smart people here, and for the most part the panels have some great ideas… but are they ideas I couldn’t have acquired by simply reading sites like Mashable, Internet Retailer or other tech blogs and news sites? The answer here is pretty clearly “no.”
(more…)
04/03/2009 In Life, Technology by William Aicher
Lately I’ve been trying to put a lot more focus on the idea of balance. In particular, finding balance between nature and technology within everyday life. I’ve always been a lover of both, but beyond personal interest I am a strong believer that finding an equilibrium between the two of them is key in having a prosperous existence in today’s world. (more…)
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