books

Focused Fandom Countdown: 7 Weeks To Go

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Thank goodness, the next Focused Fandom Book, “Focused Fandom: Fanart, Fanartists And Careers” is off to my editor.  It’s a huge relief.

First of all, the book got smaller – I tend to write in an include-everything manner then pare down/build up.  Usually starting with the “build up” side and paring down later.  In this case a few subsections were merged or discarded, and one potential extra Appendix was eliminated since it wasn’t needed.

The Edge section is looking good, and I think it’ll provoke thoughts and help you see fanart in a different way.

The Career section is pretty basic, but I think I included some valuable extra detail and thoughts to help people out.  Artists have such varied and potential careers finding the balance between too much (and thus distraction) and not enough (and thus being incomplete) was hard.

The To-Do section is actually deeper than I expected – there’s a lot of “Must-Do’s” for artistic careers, and the psychological ones seem to be the real important issues.

The book is looking good so far, and I think you’ll be pleased – and of course, when it comes out mid-April or so, I’ll hope you can help tell everyone.

– Steven Savage

 

Promoting Professional Geekery #16: Pass On The Books!

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if you're any kind of professional, you have a lot of books that you read to assist you and improve your lot.  If you're any kind of geek, you have a lot of books in various formats.

So if you want to keep promoting professional geekiness, it's time to start passing the books around.

Of you don't have to give them away permanently (though it might be nice to buy some as gifts, hint, hint).  Just make sure that those amazing, life-altering, career-building books get read by the right people – in short, people like you.  If you don't want to give them away for awhile, then recommend them forcefully.

I'm big on recommending and lending (OK, pushing) books to people, as you can kind of tell here with my reviews.  There's reasons:

  • There's a lot of books out there for careers and related subjects, and filtering them is hard.  You can sort through the dross.
  • There's also the case of finding the right books out of all the good ones – you know which ones fit your friends and fellow fans.
  • If you do lend out books, it's a good way to save friends, family, and fellows money.  In fact you save money just helping them sort through the wastes of money.
  • You can find what won't bore or confuse people – which is a big issue in career books.  What excites one person may bore others.
  • It helps keep people reading and improving their careers.  Always good.

And best of all?  Once you start doing it, other people start doing it.  They'll help others, they'll pass books on to you.

– Steven Savage

P.S. Don't forget book-lending for eBooks like Amazon, or just posting good reviews for books.  Anything that gets the word out!

T-9 Days: Cover Me

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So the book is edited and just waiting to be formatted, and now it's on to the cover.

The problem of course is that the cover is for an eBook, and the rules are a bit different.  The cover's really only going to be seen as an icon or a blurb on a screen people go through, so I'm not going to an artist.  If I do a print version, that'll possibly have a new cover, but right now I have to make something that shows up on the eBook stores.

This isn't always as clear as it seems, and it's a strange balance:

  • You have to make it clear.
  • You have to make it interesting.
  • You have to make it readable.
  • You have to do it in the small space that will appear on people's screens.

My previous self-made covers have been mixed bags, so I'm sticking with my retro interest and going for abstract, somewhat colorful, and clear text.

Wish me luck.  Nine more days.

You can find more about the book at the website.

– Steven Savage