I direct your attention to an excellent Newsweek article from June 6 entitled “Don’t iTune Us” by Daniel Lyons. Lyons posits that we content creators are in the same boat now that we’ve been for centuries with traditional publishers: someone else holds the keys to distribution.
But wait, you say, I have my own blog! People read me! So true. But if you want to EARN money by distributing your blog, Amazon.com will do it for a fee - a 70% cut of the profits. If you create music (or spoken word programs) for iTunes, Apple takes about 1/3 of the profits.
Fair? You decide. Them who create the technology reap the profits moreso than those who create the content.
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Still trying to find your way around the New Media landscape - and wondering what all this social networking can do for you? This fall, I presented a course in Orlando called “Make New Media Work For You” for a regional travel writer’s association. My presentation was in an interactive eBook format, and after the seminar, I took it home and kept tweaking it for months, as us perfectionist writers do.
Quite a few people have asked me about it, and a friend said, hey, just get it on the Internet! So here it is, now available for you.
Check out the details and learn how New Media can work for you!
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Your smiling face is a beacon for social networking - at least that’s what experience on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have taught. It’s just human nature. Let people see what you look like - especially when you’re in a good mood - and they’ll gravitate to you. That’s the concept behind Gravatar, a widget that lets you “put your face on” for Wordpress and other applications that opt in to its use via plugins. The concept is simple. You go to www.gravatar.com, sign up for a free account, and upload a profile photo (or photos) to use in conjunction with your email address (or addresses). Instantly, your face pops up next to all the comments you’ve left on blogs where Gravatar is activated … and there are many. Try it today!
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If you write a lot of books - or technical papers or reports - this nifty little tool will help pull together your bibliography section lickety-split. It requires you keep track of your ISBN numbers that you’re using in your research, so make a point of keeping that list in Notepad.
Then, enter it at http://www.ottobib.com
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Tech Tips for Working Writers
Hi! I'm Sandra Friend, a recovering techie turned travel writer. I started writing about travel and developing websites in 1995. I'm here to help guide you through the maze of online options that can make your research and organization easier and put money in your pocket! 
