Chicken Scratchings

Archive for the ‘Computers’ Category

I read a discussion item posted by the LinkedIn professional group BookLink . To quote David Bennett who was responding to an invitation to introduce himself, “When I consider the changes over the past 10 years, I wonder how life will be in another 10 years! Incredible! I sometimes feel so overwhelmed by all these new ‘gimmicks’, ‘widgets’, ‘plug-ins’, ‘blogs’, ‘snippets’, etc. that I’d just like to lean back and breathe…” I got that. Is there anyone out there who doesn’t feel overwhelmed, confused, and not quite up to speed?

There are many in cyberspace claiming to know all of the secrets — but do they? Do they really? If you want access to those secrets it’s gonna cost you a bundle. Honestly I wish I had the kind of extra cash to learn what the experts know, but I don’t, so I’m feeling my way around in the dark and shinning a light on anything within reach that I find interesting. Those out of reach will just have to wait. My belief is that once something is learned it changes anyway, so how do you keep ahead?

Photo by Debbievators

My father was a computer programmer. The company employing him as an accountant decided to install computers and tested their employees to see who was the most trainable. Dad and one other man, Norm, got the jobs. Sometimes the computers were busy during the day, so my father would take me with him to keep him company at night. It was fascinating. Computers back then filled a large room and the support machinery took up nearly as much space.  The computing power of these behemoths was less than the typical cell phone now. Unlike computers and printers today which are virtually silent, the old Univac’s with their tape reels, the tractor-fed dot matrix printers, and the punch cards made a loud racket. Most of the readers of this blog will have never seen a computer punch card sent out with billings from power companies and the like. The instructions on the cards were very clear and became a joke, “Do not, fold, spindle, or mutilate.” Of course the reason for this was that the cards had to be returned in reasonable condition for them to feed correctly into the sorter.

By the time the PC tidal-wave hit the world, Dad was retired. He had worked with the computer languages COBOL and FORTRAN. Today’s programmers speak other languages based on many of the old ones, but more advanced. He bought a PC and tried to catch up, but he really couldn’t. Even with his years, and years of programming and systems analysis knowledge the technology moved too fast. He was left behind, but he was retired so it didn’t really matter.

When I get overwhelmed I like to reflect on the past. This blog has made me a little nostalgic. I don’t know how you cope, but writing, especially writing poetry helps me. And since I am a legitimate published poet, I thought it would be okay to share one of my poems with you. Maybe you’ll find some respite here.

Rocking Chairs

I wanted to write about a porch/ the kind my grandmother / had with a view of the street / and chairs enough to welcome / anyone to sit a spell and reminisce / about Tin Lizzie’s, nickle gasoline, / and Roosevelt, while taking turns / cranking the stiff handle / of the wooden ice-cream maker.

I wanted to write about the night / thick with cricket calls / and how just-picked peaches / mixed with rich cream / fresh from the morning’s milking / melted in the mouth like sweet / snowflakes caught on the tongue.

But most of all, I wanted / to write about the thrum / in my grandfather’s chest / as the conversation bobbed / like fishing line on the river / and how an old patchwork quilt / felt when wrapped around / a small boy held and rocked, / held and rocked, until the night/ folded into itself and disappeared.

Bill Ruesch

A budding self-publisher said to me, “I can layout my pages on my computer, why would I hire designer to do that for me?” Everyone with graphic design software suddenly thinks they are an artist. Don’t kid yourself–it isn’t true. That would be akin to providing someone with a car and turning them into an instant Indy driver. Although, I have to say, that particular delusion runs rampant among the mostly younger members of the population. You can observe it on just about every street in America. Pedal to the metal driving is scary to us who find ourselves dodging the wild and crazy drivers out there–you know who you are.

An artist's touch can make the mundane beautiful.

GIGO

If I sit you in front of a canvas and hand you a brush and tubes of oil paint you would probably say something like, “Oh no, I’m no artist,” but if I sit you in front of a computer all of a sudden you think you are Rembrandt. What’s the difference? The computer isn’t a magic wand, it’s a tool. A tool wielded by the capable can produce excellent results. A tool in the hands of a neophyte or worse will produce poor results. Guaranteed. The old software programmer’s saying GIGO (garbage in/garbage out) is still true.

An amateurish book in hand is not worth two in the bush.

Why does it matter? Isn’t a page a page? It’s constructed of sentences and paragraphs, right? That’s the kind of thinking that gets a self-publisher in trouble. And it’s the kind of thinking that is supported by any number of Internet Publishing Companies whom I won’t name but are associated with POD, Subsidy Publishing, etc. who will help you get a book out as cheaply as possible and generally looks like it too.

Font selection is an art in itself.

Let me tell you a little story. My brother, Dan Ruesch, is a prominent graphic designer. I spend most of my time in the printing business and so we find ourselves working together on projects from time-to-time. I rushed over to his office one day to find out the status of a print job that had an extremely tight deadline. I was expecting to pick up the art, but Dan was still selecting fonts. Argh! I found him by his table with two samples of type–one in each hand. He was holding them up and describing each as a connoisseur would talk about wine. “This one has the flavor of…” This other has a bouquet of…” “The first one has an undercurrent of…” I swear I watched as the clock’s hands spun and my hopes of meeting the deadline were rapidly sliding away.  It turned out that I was being prematurely negative. We did meet the deadline after all.

It’s all about harmony–not discord.

What does all of this have to do with designing a book? Communication is more than the writing. We as human beings judge things by their appearance. If you see someone dressed nicely in fashionable clothing you will make a determination about them, probably favorable. Take that same person put them in their work-in-the garden jeans and your evaluation will be different, maybe less favorable. Book design is the same thing. Before someone will lay down money to buy your book they need to have a favorable impression of it.

What a book designer does that you probably don’t know:

Some of the things a good book designer will do are:

• Makes sure the front matter, copyright page, table of contents, title page, acknowledgments etc. are set up correctly and are complete.
• Lays out the document so that odd numbered pages are on the right hand side; if a chapter ends on a right hand page the next is blank.
• Makes sure the chapter treatments, and other graphic touches are consistent throughout the book.
• Watches the leading (pronounced Ledding) is the space between lines must be adequate for comfortable reading, too tight and the eye will skip line, too distant and it becomes tiresome.
• Keeps an eye on kerning, the space between letters needs to be comfortable, not too tight, and not too distant.
• Chooses a style of type for page numbers and position.
• Decides whether or not to have headers or footers and what style should be used?
• Decide between serif fonts (those with feet) or san-serif (no feet). It is generally accepted that serif fonts are easier to read.
• Selects font and font size. Decides what font best reflects the purpose and meaning of the book.
• Chooses the right paper. Does it need to be heavier or lighter weight? Should it have a texture or be smooth? What about color? Should it be white, cream, or some other color?

This is only a partial list, and I haven’t even gotten to cover design which employs yet another set of questions and decisions to be made. The point being, don’t try to layout a book by yourself. Use the skills you have and let the people with other talents help you do it right. Good artists are worth their hire. Find the best you can afford, and let them help you create visual communication that is worthy of your writing. After all, ugly isn’t a crime, it’s a sin.

What good is a book without a reader? A book is worthless until it is read. Selling, or marketing if you prefer, is as important as writing. You have to get the books into reader’s hands. How do you do that? I recommend TAP (The Author Platform). It is custom made to teach the self-publishing author how to use Social Networking, Blogging, Amazon, Book Parties, and other means of marketing. You need it. Just click here.

Last Saturday I presented a workshop at the Toastmasters District 15 fall convention. I called it Every Speaker Needs a Book. It is the truth; every speaker does need a book. If someone is going to stand before you in the capacity of “expert,” don’t you have the right to know that they are qualified?

We are living in a new age of publishing. We are seeing the rapid rise of the self-publisher. I liken it to the changes in the music business during the 1960’s. It started with Rock and Roll. This new music hit the music industry so quickly and so hard that the entrenched establishment couldn’t wrap their minds around it. Then came the Beatles, and the British Invasion. Every album the Beatles cut redefined the genre. Music experienced an era of creativity pushing up from the grassroots (no pun intended for the band called Grassroots). Every high school in the country had at least two or three starry eyed groups practicing in their parent’s basements or garages.

60's World Shakers

I try to imagine myself in the position of a record executive. Music is flooding in from everywhere. Groups with strange names, strange sounds, and strange behaviors are climbing the charts. What do I do? I can get on-board or try to wait out the insanity. The problem is that I don’t have any point of reference. There isn’t a definition of Rock and Roll. Almost anything goes. So, what do I do? I shrug and open the studios to just about everyone, hoping to find something the boomer kids will buy.

Today the floodgates are open in publishing. Why? Big changes in book print production have created this new era. In the past traditional publishers held all the strings. The cost for an author to go it alone was prohibitive to anyone but the rich. If someone decided to self-publish, their efforts were tagged  with the derogatory title of vanity publishing.

The rise of computer’s word processors and the development of digital printing have made it so reasonably priced that almost anyone could get in the game. Furthermore, there are e-books, and audio books. Finally, the Boomer Generation has grown up and there are millions, upon millions of people that think it would be groovy to write a book. As a boomer myself, I can tell you that our generation loved the spotlight. We marched, we rallied, we protested. We got our pictures in the paper when we did something completely egregious. Boomer was probably the right name because we were loud, intrusive, and obnoxious.

The boomers are the right people to lead the publishing revolution. We have never been satisfied with status quo. We are self-reliant, and don’t really trust the establishment. We know how to organize. The tribe of boomers is enormous and powerful.

If you get the idea that I am in favor of this revolution, you are right. I am in awe of what is transpiring. The Internet, Computers, Alternative Publishing methods, have breached the dam and I’m sure this is just the beginning.

Creating a book is only the first half of the job. It’s like the Yin, the Yang comes with promoting and marketing. TAP (The Author Platform) is a relatively easy program to follow to learn Internet marketing, selling through Amazon, and other methods. Click here for more information.

Okay, I admit it; I am a printed book snob. I want my books printed on nice paper preferably with gilt edges and leather embossed hardbound covers, but that’s just me. When I buy a software upgrade I always pay extra for a disk. I have files full of paper backups from things I store on my computer. I just don’t trust electronics, I guess.

My wife, who is more technologically inclined than I am, insisted I buy a computer for my Print Brokering business some 18 years ago. So I went to my local Office Max, and spoke with their computer expert who looked to be all of fifteen years old. He advised that I buy the latest PC with the brand-spanking-new Windows Operating System. That sounded good, so I bought it and carted it home confident that my wife, who worked on computers at her office, would be able to teach me everything I needed to know. Wrong. She was working with DOS and knew nothing about Windows. I was on my own. It was like being on Survivor without a camera crew, producers, or other participants; I was all alone.

I read tutorials, hired teachers, bought “easy to use software” before I learned that it was easy to use for the programmers who created it, but not for me. Despite my reticence I slowly I started to gain ground on this beast of convenience.

But it wasn’t long before I discovered the meanings of my C Drive crashed, my hard disks collapsed, and the computer froze. The admonition to save often made sense after losing a day’s worth of work. Then I found out about gremlins. Somewhere in the bowels of the malicious computer machine exists an intelligent life form whose only purpose is to make sure that the actions you perform today, will not work tomorrow, even if you meticulously repeat them.

This is the long road around to saying that I like many of us in the 50+ generation; have difficulty accepting anything made of electronic blips as friendly. As soon as you rely on them they erase themselves, become unintelligible, or transform into gigantic city stomping lizards. Well, maybe I went too far with the lizard thing, but you know what I mean. Heaven forbid you slip and drop them on the floor. Whether you are reading through a Kindle, an iPhone, or some other device drop it and like magic you’ll discover whether your credit card is maxed. On the other hand I can drop my printed book, pick it up and go on with my life. My credit card is untouched.

Is it inevitable?

So the question remains, is an e-Book a real book?  Somebody out there thinks so; e-Books are racking up the biggest sales numbers in the entire book market averaging an astounding 55.7% annual growth since 2003.  Compare this with all the other types of books from Adult Hardbound and Paperback, Juvenile Hardbound and Paperback, Book Clubs, Higher Education, etc. which grew a mere 1.04% annually (excluding sales for the Harry Potter series) in the same time period.

Here’s the shocker, do you know who are buying Kindle Readers by the boatload? The 50+ crowd. My peers. e-Book sales grew 183% among seniors aged 65+ and 174% among seniors aged 55-65. And here I was counting on older folks to save printed books.

Must I raise the white flag and surrender? 1.04% annual growth against 55.7% growth in e-Book sales is persuasive. Imagine fighting a war where the odds were 55 to 1. Can anyone say General Custer? My punishment for doubt is to write on the board 500 times, “e-Books are real books, e-Books are real books, e-Books are real books…”

How do you market an e-Book? Use the Internet. How do you learn how to use the Internet to sell e-Books? You can do it the hard way or the easy way. The easy way is The Author Platform. And you can test it for no money down. How’s that for an offer?

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