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Sunoasis X 2006 V3 Issue 7
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David Eide
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Jul 31, 2006 22:09 PDT
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S U N O A S I S X 2 0 0 6
Volume 3 Issue 7
July 2006
"I shall live bad if I do not write, and I shall
write bad if I do not live."
- Francoise Sagan
_____________________T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
1) [Editor Notes- On The Long Tail Dancing Like Bees...]
2) [Resources]
3) [Job Lead - Markets (Aviation and Space publications]
4) [C/Oasis - Three stories, book reviews]
5) [Community - Writer Conferences]
http://www.sunoasis.com/sunoasisblog.html
Switch to the online version right now!
http://www.sunoasis.com/honor.html
I'm not charging for subscriptions but if the spirit
moves you please use the Amazon Honor System. Thanks.
Enjoy this issue! Forward any comments to:
eide-@earthlink.net
__________________E D I T O R N O T E S
In the heat of the unbearable days several things occurred
to me:
Writers must use the new and old with equal skill.
New markets appear, old markets die in the bits and bytes
of the new era.
All kinds of original writing can be put on the Net to
find audience, increase credibility, gain confidence on a
new and not-going-away medium in a variety of ways. Blogs,
for instance. If not blogs, then columns as I write
on Sunoasis.com. And, by the way, a writer can offer
to readers a print-on-demand copy in real space/time for
those who like the security of holding a tangible object
in their hands.
And the mainstream publishing system with all its magazines,
book publishers, newspapers, and newsletters chugs along
despite all the taunting they are subject to.
They are, happily, not toast and the writer is advantaged
as a result. In fact, the writer becomes a crucial actor
in the remaking of the literary system.
At the peak of the hottest day in July I remembered an old
trick from childhood. You simply strip to your underwear,
turn on a hose, and squirt it skyward right above you and
let the fiery cold water fall down on you. I thought, as
the water plucked down on my closed eyes, "if you aren't
going to be a Stephen King or Tom Clancy why would you even
enter into the mainstream publishing system?" I didn't
answer my own question feeling goosey and cool in the burning
heat of a bad California summer.
Well, there are career advantages to publishing in the
mainstream.
We are fast on the "long tail" as explained by Kurt
Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired. The marketplace is
moving from the head down into this long, sleek, wonderful
tail filled with niches, mini-niches, sub-sub-niches all the
way down to the one guy who does what he wants on the
internet and gets nice notes from women in Istanbul. In
other words, when the poet becomes a millionaire know that
the pyramid has been turned upside down and we are in a new
era.
This head is rather dizzy and perplexed by the sudden power
of its tail.
We are on that tail dancing like drunken bees who have
tasted the nectar from some heavenly bloom.
Enjoy this month's issue. It's organized a bit differently
but is its usual resourceful self.
We bring you the most important developments in writing,
publishing, editing in the past month.
T R E N D S I N T H E M A R K E T P L A C E
http://tinyurl.com/jcvgv
One of the hottest items in magazine titles is "parenting."
http://weblogs.jomc.unc.edu/talkingbiznews/?p=1146
And some of the coolest are business publications.
http://tinyurl.com/fbrcc
Baby-boomers and those who write for that demographic might
be interested to know that, as a group, they carry $2
trillion in annual spending power. Ergo, new magazines like
GeezerJock have arisen to target some of this largesse.
http://www.minonline.com/topstory.htm
A new travel web site is coming on line. It's targeted for
affluent travelers. The founder is the former editor in
chief of Yahoo! Internet Life magazine. He says, "All of us
print guys who have found perches in the online world are
happy, because that is where the future is." Did new car
owners yell out in derision as they passed men on horseback?
http://www.wwd.com/issue/article/107849
Who are the most influential women? Those who read the Wall
Street Journal. And the WSJ is reorganizing its fashion and
style reporters as it lays the groundwork for a new fashion
and design bureau.
We mentioned "The Long Tail," and this is a review of it.
It's a dangerous time to be a passive writer. She needs to
actually pursue and, in some cases, help create new markets.
http://tinyurl.com/o8qpq
"The self-publishing success of Lulu.com is another cited
by Anderson to make the point the Long Tail equates to
infinite choice. Our interests, says a media analyst
quoted in the book, have always been fragmented. But those
scattered desires have not, in the past, been met. We
have been told what we like."
P R I N T F I G H T S F O R S U R V I V A L
It will survive. But it will be marginalized and may end up,
ironically, a status symbol in the future since print will
be expensive and produced for the elite's. Who knows?
One thing is certain: the churn in writing markets is going
to be like the white-water of the Rogue River.
http://www.stud.hum.ku.dk/rikkebj/bookonlinep.htm
All published reports tell me that print has money, is still
supporting large staffs, pays out to contract writers, and
doesn't intend to leave the scene without a fight.
The young are instructive. Students who have questions here
ask a lot about working for magazines. None ask about
newspaper jobs. The young avoid the dying it seems.
The newspaper may end up serving very localized markets
just as trains serve markets inaccessible to air traffic.
http://tinyurl.com/nfc5m
I mentioned to someone recently that the key to power
is to capture the 14-year old girl market. Go ask the
Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Stephen King about that. Lord
help us if a Hitler comes around and the 14-year old girls
are screaming nuttily for his presence. Anyway, the 14-year
old girls are not reading magazines like they used to but
are reading web sites.
http://tinyurl.com/otps3
Real-time gossip is quite popular on the blogosphere and
perhaps ends the run of weekly print rags. And what will we
read at the check-out counter?
http://tinyurl.com/gzvby
(Subscription from WSJournal is required.)
Newspapers are starting to adapt to the internet. The
buzz-phrase now is, "Journalism is a conversation." Of
course, there is a difference between baby-talk, teen-
babble, techie-arrogance, hate-talk, screamie-jeebies,
stupid mumbling and other types of conversation.
But, yes, it is a conversation.
http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=110685
Many media execs can't admit that they will have to explore
the possibility that there are more reader-friendly and
cost-efficient ways to produce their content than in print,
writes Scott Donaton. "The day will come when a print-to-
digital conversion is feasible. Could be two years, could
be 10."
The head of the snake is always the last to know.
A N D T E C H L A Y S D O W N A F L A T - L I N E
Writers have every right to be fascinated and involved in
the internet since it's the first new major technical
innovation that directly impacts writing and publishing.
Cars, TV, movies, among other items of interest either had
no, little, or negative impacts on writing and publishing.
But, the internet is shaking the old pumpkin with wicked
ease. And we all live inside an old pumpkin.
http://tinyurl.com/hmdur
This paper by Gregory Rawlins of the University of Indiana
is over fifteen years old but is one of the best surveys of
the future for publishing technology. It is a long survey
but useful for anyone interested in getting a full
background on some of the impacts he forecast in the
early-90's.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13989046/site/newsweek/
An "Espresso Book Machine" is being tested at a bookstore
in Washington D.C. It can print and bind whole books in
under five minutes. Cost=one penny per page. However, the
book machine itself costs $100,000 so don't go looking for
it any time soon.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/22/apple-to-do-ebooks
Apple is rumored to be developing an iPod with a reader-
friendly screen. We know how sensitive Apple is with secrets.
An "iPod for reading" would be "a huge advantage for us,"
says Slate editor Jacob Weisberg.
http://tinyurl.com/msa6b
Futurologist Ian Pearson says, "The magazine --
a few pieces of paper glued together -- isn't going to be
what you're doing in a few years time." He recommends for
publishers to personify content and surrender to the
available technology.
http://tinyurl.com/jbfkc
Have you ever heard of Digg?
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There are terrific writing resource sites online: Here is
the Sunoasis.com top five writing resource sites.
http://www.writerswrite.com
WritersWrite
http:www.mediabistro.com
MediaBistro
http://www.bellaonline.org/Site.asp?name=Writing
BellaOnline Writing Site
http://www.writing-world.com/
Writing-World.com
http://www.writersmarket.com
Writers Market
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E V E R Y M A N I S A J O U R N A L I S T
No, everyman is a potential journalist, actualized by
someone who devotes herself to the task and is paid
for the effort.
Wide-spread interest continues about "citizen
journalists." At first I thought it was a cynical attempt
on the part of editors and publishers to get a lot of very
cheap content.
That is a shadow of the effort.
There are some very devoted, professional, conscientious
editors and writers who want to ply their trade away
from the pressures of commercial publishing.
That is the potential light of the effort. Time will tell.
http://tinyurl.com/j9oq7
New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen
explains his new venture NewAssignment.net that aims
to produce "great journalism," as well as "new ways for
journalists to earn a living."
http://tinyurl.com/q3ep9
This article from Corante delves into the same subject.
There is something intriguing about professional
journalists running the show, sans the corporation always
fearful of bad reactions by stockholders and advertisers.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13283168/
Some of the most aggressive celebrity reporting is now done
on the Internet, writes Jeannette Walls. Bloggers make
"dingy newsprint" seem "so last millennium."
S t o r i e s W i t h A M e s s a g e
http://tinyurl.com/mxgep
This is a powerful story by Spoon Jackson, a lifer in
the California Penal System about the significance of words.
And isn't it interesting that a convict, whose freedom has
been lost, is more in touch with and aware of the necessity
to know words than the ignorant, illiterate people who run
around like they are owed freedom. Very instructive.
[ CODA ]
Enlightened teachers I had in grade school made the kids
study the newspaper. We were assigned one story either in
features, front page, editorial, local, sports, or business.
The students had to clip the story out, research it, and
take the clipping to class and explain its meaning.
The newspaper is the last vestige of something good and
excellent in the life of a democracy. The function of the
newspaper was to make sure everyone reading it got a little
bit of what was going on in the community, whether they
cared or not.
If that is passing then something great and crucial is
passing and it is the responsibility of the new media to
figure out how to get readers/watchers to think as though they belong
to a large, diverse, complex community.
So much depends on the news. Here are the best places to get
a variety of news:
http://www.theworldpress.com/
The World Press
http://www.memeorandum.com/
Memeorandum
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/
Real Clear Politics
_________________________________R E S O U R C E N O T E S
If you are a beginning writer or thinking you want to get
involved in the writing life please use the articles here:
http://www.sunoasis.com/freelanceresource.html
There are many useful tips, links, and features that can
set you on your way.
There is also a rich array of links for every type of
writing resource here:
http://www.sunoasis.com/newmanna.html
Sunoasis.com was developed with the writer and editor in
mind. Enjoy your stay!
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I have honed my craft for over 20 years, have sold two
novels and many shorter pieces, have edited and proofed
countless articles and book-length mss (non-fiction, light
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_________________B U S I N E S S O F W R I T I N G
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf
Looking for books that answer marketing and publishing
questions?
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/packagers.pdf
Book coaches, consultants and packagers:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/links.html
These are software package reviews of programs available
to writers to help organize projects. I can't recommend
any of them except as a stimulus to use the tools you
already have to develop effective ways to organize
your writing life.
______________W R I T I N G O R G A N I Z A T I O N S
http://www.beaweb.org/
Broadcast Education Association
http://www.facsnet.org/
FACSNET: "Better journalism through education."
http://www.icahdq.org/
International Communication Association
http://tinyurl.com/hdlag
JourNet: Global Network for Professional Education in
Journalism and Media.
http://www.mediabloggers.org/
Media Bloggers Association
http://www.nahj.org/home/home.shtml
National Association of Hispanic Journalists
http://www.splc.org/
Student Press Law Center
There are many more links to writing organizations here:
http://www.sunoasis.com/newmanna.html
____________________J O B L E A D S A N D M A R K E T S
Writer
Vanguard
Valley Forge, PA
Vanguard, one of the world's largest investment management
companies, seeks a strong writer to create and/or revise
text in proposals for prospective Institutional clients,
and to assist in managing the database that stores responses
to questions in Requests for Proposals (RFPs).
You'll write clear, concise text, or revise existing text
that answers questions in the RFP database making sure
that database content is current and accurate. Your style
and language should comply with accepted Vanguard standards.
You'll help maintain the database by communicating with
subject matter experts on a regular schedule and revising
the content as necessary, and you'll assist in editing ad
hoc responses. You'll gather feedback from editors,
editorial managers, subject matter experts, and any other
appropriate reviewers and be expected to work
collaboratively with experts across the company.
For Full Ad:
http://www.sunoasis.com/edvanguardwrite.html
____________________________________________________________
EXP. BUSINESS GHOST WRITER
Location: Telecommute
Immediate Opening! Top Dollar paid.
Author business workbooks on managing---50-75 pages per
workbook--this is multiple workbooks assignment.
For Full Ad:
http://www.sunoasis.com/bizghostwriter.html
____________________________________________________________
Sr. Editor - San Francisco Bay Area, Peninsula
Our client provides marketing content and custom publishing
to hi tech clients such as IBM, Intel and SAP. We are
looking for a Sr. Editor to add to the team that provides
quality assurance for all projects. Editors handle a
variety of marketing content and many types of projects
because of the varied nature of the clients and their
products.
For Full Ad:
http://www.sunoasis.com/custompub.html
____________________________________________________________
Contract Writing/High-Tech Market Research Assignments.
(NOTE: MULTIPLE, sequential assignments available)
BCC, Inc. (www.BCCResearch.com) is seeking seasoned market
researchers/WRITERS who are capable of preparing complete,
self-contained technical/economic market research reports
discussing niches in most PHYSICAL or LIFE SCIENCE sectors
of the economy including: biotechnology, chemicals,
healthcare, technical ceramics and advanced materials,
electronics, transportation, energy, flame retardancy,
food/beverage, Internet, telecommunications,
membranes/separations, plastics, packaging, waste, water,
and air treatment, and many other industries.
Applicants must have excellent knowledge of their chosen
industry and excellent economic/market research skills.
BCC pays a MINIMUM of $5,000 on author’s HAND-IN of document
PLUS royalties!
For Full Ad:
http://www.sunoasis.com/bcc.html
___________________________________________________________
Staff Writers Needed
Washington D.C. area
LRP Publications is a thriving publisher of business-to-
business newsletters, magazines, books, software, online
services and more. In business for 29 years, we are
recognized as the leader in many legal and professional
markets.
We currently have 2 available staff writer positions in our
Rosslyn, VA office. First, we are seeking a reporter to
cover education issues on Capitol Hill for daily print and
Web-based publication, Education Daily. We need people who
can cultivate and report news quickly and accurately.
The second staff writer position will cover Congress, the
White House, federal agencies, associations, think tanks
and experts for LRP's Federal Group products that service
the federal human resources, labor relations and workers'
compensation communities. Foremost among these products is
the Web site, cyberFEDS®.
For Full Ad:
http://www.sunoasis.com/lrpwrite.html
____________________________________________________________
GUIDELINE and CONTACT INFORMATION ABOUT:
Aviation and Space Publications:
http://www.airandspacemagazine.com/ASM/Mag/WritersGuide.html
Air & Space Magazine
Pays $1500 - $3000 per article
http://www.alpa.org/?tabid=248
Air Line Pilot
Pays $100 - $600 per assigned article
http://thehistorynet.com/contact/
Aviation History
Pays $300 for articles
http://www.generalaviationnews.com/contact.html
General Aviation News
Pays up to $500 per article
http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/content/submsn.html
Plane and Pilot
Pays $200 - $500 for articles
http://propilotmag.com/Permanent/about.html
Professional Pilot
Pays $200 - $1000 per article
For more guidelines go here:
http://www.sunoasis.com/sunoasismarkets.html
___________________________________________________________
C / O A S I S
http://www.sunoasis.com/ithappenedlondon.html
IT HAPPENED ONE COLD, RAINY DAY IN LONDON by Roy A. Barnes
"Love has many prices. One of them is accepting the
imperfections of the person, place, or thing that has
found its way into your heart. The sum of my love of
the many geographical twists and turns that make
London what it is, is made more complicated by my
uncanny ability to get lost when blazing a new trail
for myself and anyone with me."
___________________________________________________________
http://www.sunoasis.com/diva.html
DIVA by Elizabeth Varadan
"It’ll be nice to see my grandbabies," Renee chattered
nervously. Since they’d left the bus depot the taxi driver
had only made noncommittal grunts to her comments.
"Six months old," said Renee. "Twins. A boy and a girl."
Rose had sent her a picture with the birth announcement.
They both had shocks of dark hair like her daughter’s above
their wrinkled faces.
___________________________________________________________
http://www.sunoasis.com/ontherocksstory.html
On The Rocks by Liam Rands
"Are all bodies this heavy?" Brad asked. He struggled to
maintain his grip around Wayne’s thick legs.
"He’s a dead weight alright." Todd chuckled. He looked
down at the overweight man they carried between them. "It’s
all those chocolate cookies the kids in his class
make for him. They stick like lead to his waist."
_________________________________________C O M M U N I T Y
The international Cat Writers' Association (CWA) will hold
its 13th annual writers' conference in Foster City, CA near
San Francisco on November 17-19, 2006. The conference is
open to anyone interested in pet writing and will feature
two days of professional seminars with nationally known
speakers on topics including contracts and copyright, book
promotion, online writing, the human-animal bond and feral
cat issues, and a magazine editor panel.
For More Information:
http://www.sunoasis.com/tips.html
http://www.glcc.org
Green Lake Writers Conference
Green Lake, WI
August 5- August 12, 2006
http://www.goucher.edu/cnf
Mid-Atlantic Creative Nonfiction Writers' Conference
Goucher College
Baltimore, MD
August 9- August 14, 2006
http://www.middlebury.edu/blwc
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
Middlebury College
Middlebury, VT
August 16 - August 27, 2006
_______________________________________E T C/ E T C/ E T C
Editor/Publisher: David Eide
E-Mail: <mailto:eide-@earthlink.net>
Sunoasis X 2006 is fully protected by copyright.
Please ask permission if you are going to use any or
all of this publication.
Reprint rights belong to the authors.
Contact them if you wish to use their material.
Unauthorized use of any material is strictly
forbidden.
Our hope is that we can help and enhance the world
of writing, publishing, and editing.
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