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I have recently had the pleasure of teaching a computer class to a small group of construction foreman who are building a large condo project at one of the local beaches here. I love teaching, and it reminds me that so many skills that the computer savvy take for granted truly seem like some kind of magic to those unaccustomed to computers. It is not that it is difficult to do many of these things, it is more that many people have no idea how they are done, or even that they can be done.
To non-computer people, those with computer knowledge are the current day magicians, and instead of using a wand and muttering incomprehensible words, we use a mouse and mutter incomprehensible words like dll, com, and clsid. Instead of a pouch with herbs and potions to cure the sick and weary, we carry flash drives, usb cables, and of course the ever needed anti-virus software.
Seeing the mountains of paperwork that some businesses have always gets me thinking how computerizing could save a mountain of time and energy. Of course this often means that someone will have to be hired or trained to use the technology, but even so, the savings in the long run would be substantial. Hand written sheets with calculations done on paper or a calculator could easily be replaced by spreadsheets. Manually typed letters can easily be templated for much faster and easier completion.
Those who use technology on a daily basis have no problem seeing the benefits, but those who don't often resist change. Their way has always been done, and they are comfortable with it. So why change? Sometimes, all it takes is showing someone how to use the 'magic'.
Posted by jrfree1 at 09:44 AM | Comments (0)
if you come from african you know that people are brought not to say what want to say. at least you are not expected to say something people do not like. like, yes, what older {person} ones do not like. if you find yourself in the category of ordinary people or at worse poor people you are known to say least likeable words. it is commonly believed that once you are rich or at least belong the middle class you are wise if not intellegent, and you are one person who says the right thing. you have right of freedom of speech, you can say whatever you like at any given time. and you hardly harm anybody, not the group that have no right of freedom of speech to complain. they have no right to protest verbally
it is taught that is respect when you do not speak. it is the greatest form of politeness if you keep calm amidst all insults and every other senseless words that the elders, the righ and famous speak. tradittion, women do not speak while men are talking, even when they are deciding their fates. for those group the are exempted from the freedom of spech thing. you can say things of course, if you wish, but picking your audence might be much difficult. responses usually determine if you have chosen the right one. you must know that in african elders or the rich and famous do not tolerate criticism, especially when they come from the less important of the society.
here we are at europe, the land of freedom. place where everything goes, over the years people have realised the deep sense of equal right. the emancipate of women, the jews, the black, gypsy and of course the arabs. people learn at a very tender age to speak out their mind, children learn from the infancy period that you can always ask your parents to shut up whenver you do not like their parental instructions. while in african you can never use such against your parents or older person. tradittionally everybody is equally and the same amount of right of speech, people have lived long enough to learn how to deal or live with speeches they do not like. people are taught to deal with criticism and stand for your speech, for it is your right.
have they also manage to stay within the respect, meeknes and politness that is expected of any society. has it been all successfull having the right to the freedom of speech and still respect one another including any of form of politness?. is europ a ''say it all'' society?. personally, i have not experience that epsecially when it concerns europeans. there are still huge amount of respect among europeans, and greater number of people still choose to be calm even when they have right to speak. most people still believe that ''say it all'' only bring trouble and iresponsible speeches. so far i think they have manage to maintain the line between freedom of speech and verbal insanity.
Posted by michaels at 01:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Anyone who's ever picked up a good book likely knows the work it takes to create it. The author's job is a daunting task, one that requires hours upon hours of time to perfect, critique, and edit. But until I published my own book (nearly two now) I never had any idea that the authors job is just the first step in a much much larger process.
The work is hard, the rewards are often few, but in the end, there is nothing more rewarding that seeing success, even in the smallest form. Not to mention seeing your own "masterpiece" on Amazon.com et al take a while to sink in.
This is a blog on the all-to-often hidden side of book production...
When you sit down to write your book the blank screen in front of you sometimes can be the most frightening thing on the planet; you can't help but think, "God... where do I begin."
Once you pass that step it's easy until the end... then you have to make sure you end on as good a note as you started. Then comes the stage of proofing, editing, and perfecting the manuscript. Countless friends and family members may help in the process, people you will LOVE after the fact. It's amazing what all you missed when proofing yourself.
Then you go to press... or you get a publisher. But in the modern world most folks opt to self-publish because of the fact they can reap greater rewards, but only if they work for it. Self publishing allows you to maintain complete control over your book, whereas selling the book to a publishing house gives them control and ownership of the material, at least in most cases. A publishing house on average will pay you 4-8% of the total profits (called Royalties). Sometimes, if you are established, they'll also pay you up front for the manuscript. Given the average book only sells 1,000 copies, that's only a few hundred dollars at best. Naturally this discourages many first time authors beyond a level even describable. $400 for all the work it took to write the book hardly seems worth it, but you can't know that until you've been there (or passed beyond that point one). So if you write a book about green algae, well... good luck even with a big publishing house.
That is why self publishing, also commonly called Printing on Demand, and hereafter POD, is becoming more and more popular. No longer are the days when sheets have to be made and molded for every page of your book. Digital printing has revolutionized the industry and more and more folks are taking advantage of it. Furthermore the initial costs are only the printing costs themselves. And since you can order a single book at a time, you have no minimum order. In the old days you had to order, on average, 2000-3000 books at the first printing. Talk about big costs!!
The real benefit of self publishing however is the control of your product, and how much you'll make from it. Beyond printing costs you may have no additional fees and if you get in with the right printer, you're job might be done. Many printers make deal with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, etc to have your book listed there. It's a great way to get exposure. Of course, your topic still makes all the difference in the world.
But the biggest part of self publishing is the "name game." When you have a publishing house they make it their job to promote and sell your book. That's why you make so little from it. When you self publish, that's your job... you are the marketing director and salesman. This is where the real "fun" begins.
Marketing on a store to store basis is honestly, impossible. We write travel guides, but there is no way on earth we can contact every retailer on earth to have them sell our book; that'd be a full time job for a full time staff. There's two of us... it isn't happenin'.
That's where wholesaler's come into the picture, and in the book world, they are called distributors. These are the guys that take your book, market it to their retailers while taking their cut and giving you the rest. In the end you end up with, at best, 10% normally, but that's still better than publishing with a larger company and letting them take all the rewards. We have been lucky in that we have been accepted by two large distributors, but we were lucky. Unless you have a book they believe they can sell, even getting in with a small distributor can be hard. They take, in some ways, as much risk as you do by stocking your book. And even though they can return the products to you at any time (which is where your largest risk comes into play, bc you make nothing until they sell your book, and if they can't, you get all those books back... mind you they stock 300-800 at a time), they still have to devote man power to selling the books. So a distributor is definitely the way to go.
Naturally selling through your own website is another good idea, and often is the most rewarding, bc other than shipping and initial printing costs, you make more profit by not paying anyone to market or sell your product. You did all the work yourself. This is where Google Adwords and Yahoo's Overture can make a big difference, at least until you can get in good with the regular search query results.
You'd also likely be surprised how many people DO judge a book by it's cover. This is a critical step in creating and marketing your book.
So the next time you pick up a book, make note of how fast you judge it by the cover... you might surprise yourself. And when you take the perfect book home, consider that after the words left the authors brain and went onto paper, that only then did the real work begin.
I can say this for sure looking back... if anyone ever says "How hard can it be??," I'll just direct them to this blog. I know I'll certainly never look at a book the same way again.
Posted by jcderrick at 03:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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