Tomorrow we're heading off to Berlin for the EMI song-writing camp. There are twelve songwriters from around the world and I am the only UK representative! Well excited. Many thanks to Peter Ende and the chaps at EMI Berlin for giving me this amazing opportunity to collaborate with some of the world's top writers. The event is taking place at the Gibson Guitar Showroom in Berlin, so no doubt I will be playing on some pretty swish geeee-tars! Yay!

After the EMI Camp, we have also been invited to attend Popkomm which is a fantastic world music and entertainment business international conference and festival. There will be a lot of music industry bods and up-and-coming musos there, so i'm gonna get my finest glad rags on! Ha! We've also been invited to Midem in Cannes which is another music conference(January 2009). Woop woop!

www.popkomm.de

www.midem.com

Just got back from an amazing few days in Hamburg. We have been offered a Major European Record Deal which is stupendously good news. It's a new model deal based around some great international partners, including a great distribution network, some amazing venues/stadiums across europe, a kick-ass marketing company and some incredibly successful directors / producers. I'm not really allowed to say anymore until the negotiations are well under way, but I will keep you all updated - it's all massively bonza and very artist friendly! To be honest, i'm pretty bowled over that all this is happening so quickly. Our management KRMB have done so so much for us in such a short period of time, and we're all incredibly grateful. Thanku kindly :)    

We are finishing our debut album "Parrysland" in "Home Studios" (Hamburg - www.home-studios.com) with throughout December 2008. I recorded a handy-cam perspective of our first visit to check out this amazing studio complex, graced by the likes of One Republic, Lauryn Hill and Mariah Carey in recent months. One Republic were recording new material as we arrived. Scary! Acclaimed producer "Franz Plasa" will be working with us, as well as the "National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Germany" on string duties! Ahhhhhhhhhh, so excited. The desks were something else, and apparantly they will have the new hybrid SSL desks by december so we will be the first to use them! They also had the coolest gibson robot guitars and a gorgeous Taylor Acoustic that fell in love with. My heart aches. Watch the video and check out the chipmunk voice at the end - priceless:

Ashley Hicklin - First visit to "Home Studios" (Hamburg)

Being on the road all the time has meant that i've had loads of time to get some really cool lyrics and melodies down, so there are lots of new songs in the pipe-line, and i'm really pleased with them. More to come in due course. Off to Berlin now, will blog upon my return! 

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I've decided I'm going to try and keep a regular update on what the band are up to at the moment, what we send out and what cool stuff we get back from people. The reason being is that if I keep blogging on here it'll keep me focused on working on promoting the band and getting the music out as much as possible (and if any bands read this, it also shows what we've done, how we've done it and how we managed to get alot of our gigs and music placements, feel free to take notes and share advice with us).

Again if this is a bit of a catch up and slightly unstructured

So to start with we have gigs!.

Its been a bit quiet for a while because we decided to spend some time working on the new recordings but we have one gig confirmed in the Agincourt in Camberley. Hopefully if everything pans out, it should be an awesome night. We're working with a new promoter who wants to put on all age events, provide transport to and from the venue and also work with us to promote the event as much as possible which is really refreshing because it's nice to work with people who are as committed to the event as you (I'm sure every band in the world has had a bad experience of a really unorganised gig at some point or another) . The gig is on FRIDAY 7th November and channel 4 are also going to be down for the event. The other cool thing about this gig is we should be going to Eagle FM (96.4 in surrey) to promote the gig and play a couple of acoustic tracks live.

Sonic Bids, Broad Jam, SXSW and American Visas.

We've spent alot of time looking into how an unsigned band would be able to get over the pond to play a few gigs in the states. We knew of a couple of conventions that took place throughout the year that showcased unsigned bands, the main one was South By South West, it's based in Austin Texas, showcases and books around 1,700 artists each year and the only way we have any possibility to be in with a chance of being selected was to submit our music and presskits to the organisers.

We applied through Sonic Bids and signed up this weekend. It was something we never even thought about before but the amount of content, contacts and opportunities they have on the site is awesome for a band. There is a sign up fee and submissions do cost a couple of dollars which may put people off but to be honest the only reason any of us are still living in this band and working crappy jobs is to make the band work and so far the moneys been justified. We've also submitted our music to be played on online radio stations and featured in podcasts, so far we've managed to get No End featured on a Dark Sky Records podcast and are submitting a couple more tracks to an online station who've shown interest in our tracks.

I know this will sound like a massive marketing scam but a few months ago I felt like I hit a brickwall with regards to getting gigs and contacts for the band. Even if we don't apply to all the gigs offers its raised our awareness as to what's going on around the UK, europe and also the states. We found out Canadian Music Week is the week before SXSW and that there are a couple of UK companies who specialise in showcasing talent at SXSW just from the confirmation email we got back from applying for SXSW. Sometimes when you least expect it, a new door opens and you suddenly feel like a 7 year old listening to Bon Jovi in your parents car dremaing of being a rockstar (wait no....thats just me). Anyway, if you haven't had a look at it, it's cool and you really should. There's no guarantee of getting anything out of it but if it means some more people sit up and just take notice of the band it seems worth a go.

Also at the same time as SXSW, there is an unofficial event running in Austin called Red Gorilla Music Festival which has a similar idea to SXSW but for all intents and purposes, it has nothing to do with the other event, it is just conveniently placed when there are ALOT of industry reps in the city.

Submissions are done through a similar format to sonic bids but use an alternative site (Broadjam, if you search for red gorilla music festival on broadjam and then click the submission link from there, you get a 6 month free trial of the services - nice of us innit). Right now I'm in the middle of updating the relevent details for the band to be made available on Broadjam. When it comes to MP3's it almost feels like you're writing an essay on your own songs with the amount of information they ask you about it. It's all relevent so it's all good.

Andy is sitting across the lounge from me and he's sending out the electronic press kits from sonic bids to email addresses we collected from the unsigned guide. Once I finish the sodding broadjam page I've got to finish the mix for another track called Committing Murder that we've been working on. We're also going to be sending out ALOT of demos out to every single relevant record label, publisher, manager, magazine, fesitval and radio station under the sun. We've gone through the entire unsigned guide and starred every single organisation who we think may like our music. It's going to take a while but it'll be worth it in the end.

In summary what we've applied for this week so far (well from friday to Monday evening 9pm)

SXSW - Austin Texas
Red Gorilla - Austin Texas
Secret Garden Party - Cambridge UK
Support Slot - Hamburg Germany (in november)
Dark Sky Records - Underground Rising Podcast - we got featured as the first band on the podcast
Radio Ugly.com - streaming  radio station - we sent All I Needed to be played and have been asked for 2 more tracks in order to be put in for consideration
Eurosonic 2009 - Netherlands - A music conference in january next year

At this moment in time andy has sent out about 30 emails to record labels just to make contact and get them to read our press kit and listen to the tracks

Plan for tomorrow - this really wasn't how I imagined how this blog would end up looking like, hell who cares, this is our checklist and plan of attack tomorrow

Sound on Sound - Some people may or may not be aware of the magazine but they specialise in music technology and have a section called Mix Rescue where users can send in  their music files for consideration to have the tracks remixed by their Editor Paul White. Its read by alot of people and has the potential to reach alot of people who may like the music. Seeing as everything was recorded with 6 mic's it'll be interesting to see what comments we'll get about the recordings if we're lucky enough to be selected

Work on the Mixes - Days Like this is practically finished, I'm going to mix Committing Murder as these tracks have been fully tracked. The last 2 tracks have a couple of vocal lines and backing vocals we need to finish off but will hopefully be done pretty soon.

Free mp3 giveaway - When Coldplay released Violet Hill, it was a free download for their fans, a pretty cool approach, to make the most of this massive giveaway, the only way you could really get it was to sign up to their mailing list, so its a pretty fair deal, we're looking at doing something similar for "Days Like This" before it goes online at myspace and facebook. We also have an acoustic version of my 3 words knocking around on the computer and a free version of that will be available for download from our 7 digital indiestore by the end of the week.

Drummer search - christians been cool enough to play the agincourt gig and we've had quite a few people get in touch about joining the band, I've got make cd up of our setlist for them to learn before the audition, we really need them to learn the entire set as quickly as possible so we don't lose any momentum we're trying to build.

Carry on sending stuff out - yeah there'll be an update of what else we've applied for and any more status changes to the stuff we've already sent out.

If you actually read all that I commend you, I really don't mean to make them as long as this honestly.

take it easy anyway

Jon

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So I recently had one of my short stories, Woman Called Witch, turned into a podcast by the folks at The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine (http://dunesteef.com/). Okay, some of this is just bragging, but it also brings up the conversation of where podcasting fits in the bigger scheme of publication.

I’m a pretty big fan of podcasts, at least in the form of short stories and serialized novels. I regularly listen to Pseudopod (http://pseudopod.org/), Drabblecast (http://web.mac.com/normsherman/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html), and Scott Sigler (http://www.scottsigler.com/).

I also believe that the publishing industry is a little behind the times. I remember an agent telling me in 2007 that she just got a book deal for one of her authors and that it would be published in 2012. That’s 5-6 years out. Holy cow!

Now, I may be wrong, but an industry that’s locked in 5-6 years out in this fast-paced, Internet-rich society seems to be a little out of touch. At the speed technology is growing, in 5-6 years we will have solved problems we don’t even know will exist yet.

Now that’s not to say that podcasts will replace the publishing industry. I don’t think it will, at least not for some time, but it is an interesting niche. You see, podcasts aren’t just like audio books. They’re more like the old radio broadcasts of the thirties and forties. They incorporate some sound effects, like gunshots or footsteps.

So what’s the answer? I don’t know. What I do know is that the Internet and technology will play a much larger role than they do today. What that will turn into is anybodies guess, but I think it’s an exciting time to live and help formulate.

~Doug

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Top: On your newsstands, Lucire no. 26, with cover by Kelly Thompson. Above: The cover to thedownloadable free supplement, with cover by Morand/Zwirner Photography (the full shoot appears in the newsstand edition).

[Cross-posted] Issue 26 of Lucire is on the newsstands, but we realize some readers overseas mightn’t want to order it online if they can’t get it in their countries. Plus our regular readers might want a few extra articles. Therefore, you can download, once again, the Lucire supplement, featuring articles that go beyond the regular print edition. Jack Yan talks about the passing of Yves Saint Laurent, Nathan Gray reports from Beijing, Tiago Espirito Santo looks at Moda Lisboa, and Gordana Sermek photographs Croatia’s Cro-à-Porter fashion show.
   You can download the supplement as a 150 dpi edition (under 29 Mbyte) or a 72 dpi one (11 Mbyte) as a free PDF.

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I bitch enough about the part of writing that isn't fun: researching agents and magazines, querying and submitting, getting my hopes up and swallowing rejection.

Today, let me just mention the part of writing that's fun.  I mean, really, laugh out loud fun.

It's when a story idea hits me like a bolt of lightning.  I'm out walking and by the time I get home, the whole story is there: characters, plot, dialog, climax.

It's when I spend several hours a day feverishly writing everything I can think of to do with the story and the characters.  Not just the important, dramatic stuff, but the mumbled conversation two characters have over breakfast when they barely know each other or what a character thinks about as he's pumping gas, watching a stray cat sniff around a trash dumpster.

It's when I spend the rest of the day thinking about the story.  Sitting at the dining room table, having what amounts to a conversation with a character, in which I say, "Why would you do that?  What were you thinking?"  And getting answers.  Having him lean back, light a cigarette, and say, "I'll get to that, but do you got something other than this faggy import beer?"

It's when I look forward to boring situations, because I spend that time thinking about the story.  Or I miss out on interesting things because I'm far, far away.  Halfway through a movie, I don't know anything about it, because I haven't been paying attention.  I look up from my desk and Hubbicula is moving his lips, has been moving his lips for a long time, and then I realize, "Oh, he's talking to me.  I wonder what about?"  (sorry, honey, that's just how it is.)

Above all, it's fun when I've been doing all of this for months and then one night I sit down and realize, I really only have one scene left to write and I know what's going to happen in it.

So, pardon me if I'm giddy as a school girl, but the rough draft is done.  Now begins the really fun part: editing!

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I've talked before about making sure you produce a good quality book video.  It can be homemade, but please no more bright red text on bright yellow backgrounds!  There's one thing I didn't go into before, however, and it's been a huge pet peeve of mine since I began Way Out Sortie.

No matter how good the quality of your production is - just like a book - if it's not published right, it doesn't matter.   YouTube, MySpace, MetaCafe, etc. etc. all are great for what they do.   And I'll always continue to distribute my videos for my authors to over 10 different popular sites.   However, their quality is not top-notch, and using them takes control away from me and my authors.   So the important things:

• High quality final video
• Start playing quickly
• Simple player, with the ability to stop, pause, full-screen, and adjust the volume.
• Easy to distribute/use and inject into sites

Since I've begun Way Out Sortie, I'm more than happy to talk shop, and even get into the technical stuff I do - but I'll save you all from that here.  If you're interested in some of the tech behind all this, just drop me a line.   However, I've made a significant investment into a better way to compress videos, licensed a quality player, and got a server that can stream these videos for my authors.   I'll be including this free of charge with all videos I design from here on out (which, as a quick note, will likely cause me to increase my prices, but I won't do that until March 2009, so sign up before I get totally booked through that time).   Shameless plug off.  :)

Let's take a look at the difference.    Oh!  Quick note.   I was going to post the Dutch version of Nickie Fleming's Diamonds For The Devil, since I was talking about working on that in the last post.   But I decided to go with Shelby Reed's simply because the effects I use in Shelby's show a lot of the common compression problems with YouTube.    So, if you'd like to see Nickie's De Medici Diamanten video teaser, please visit my portfolio at http://www.wayoutsortie.com/portfolio.html   Thanks!

Here's Shelby's video on YouTube:   It's really not *bad*...  (since I create these videos in high resolution, YouTube's compression doesn't hurt it like it does some other videos)

Shelby Reed - Erotic Romance Author Video Teaser

But now here's Shelby's video on Way Out Sortie:

(Due to Vox's limitations, I can't directly embed the video.   It's a shame, because I love Vox's blog, but it can be too limiting at times.   Check out Shelby's video for comparison at http://wayoutsortie.blogspot.com/ )

Whatcha think?    Aside from the lack of advertising and some other random problems with YouTube (like, maybe your network guy has it blocked so you can't surf YouTube at work.  bleh.) it comes across sharper, crisper, more... snappy!

I spent so much time trying different things and not being able to track down answers on compression and web videos, like it's some amazing secret that only a few know about, that I will likely post about my workflow in another blog post.   If you'd like to hear it, let me know also.

Finally, if you're interested in a book or author video teaser...  You know where to find me!  It's http://www.wayoutsortie.com/!

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Web guru and new media and modern publishing expert Derek Powazek, who believes "if you can consume media you can also create it," joins the speaker lineup at An Event Apart Chicago, October 13-14. Derek joins the lineup of An Event Apart Chicago to present The Wisdom of Communities, where he will deliver practical tips and tricks on how to design and manage positive community participation on websites.

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Okay guys!
If you love Gennita Low's wonderful action and suspense novels and
look forward to her next book maybe you can help her out. This is
the email I received that talks about her next book:

Dear Groups' List Contacts:

Quite a few of you have been asking me when Gennita Low's next
terrific romantic suspense, VIRTUALLY HERS which is the sequel to
VIRTUALLY HIS (May 2007) will be released by MIRA. Unfortunately
the news is not good and Gennita Low tells you about it below and
how you can help her see her next book published. (see below)

Gennnita and I thank you in advance for your help!

Fondly,
Pat Rouse
Author PR

Hi Everyone,

I hope this email finds you well. I've received so many encouraging
emails from all of you in recent months and I'm very humbled by and
grateful for your generous support during the difficult months. I'm
sorry to have to tell you that MIRA has delayed Virtually Hers and
this time, I'm not even sure when it's coming out. My agent is in
communication with the powers-that- be on how to solve this problem,
and needless to say, I'm feeling depressed and devastated about this
bit of news. I'm still holding on to some hope that my publisher
will find a way to get this book out.

I can't give you all the details but the main reason why MIRA is
reluctant to put out Virtually Hers is because Walmart didn't pick
up Virtually His (the first book) and that killed my "retail"
numbers, which is the number the marketing department bow down to.
If the retail # is low, no matter how strongly your book does, MIRA
doesn't recognize it as a success and without Walmart, that's a loss
of at least 15-20 thousand sales.

So anyway, the reason given to me and my agent was that basically,
without Walmart (or a high retail number), I'm doomed. Not a very
happy feeling to live with, let me tell you, since I'm being blamed
for something that isn't my fault. It's not my responsibility to
make sure Walmart buys my book; it's the marketing department's.
But my pointing this out hasn't gotten me any closer to getting my
book out.

Being one of those people who tries to the bitter end, I'm mounting
one last effort and I'm hoping that you'll help me. I've been
talking to some book buyers and they had suggested for my readers to
write to WALMART HQ in Arkansas asking them about Virtually Hers.
The idea is to get the main head buyer(s) at Walmart to see that
there are many readers from all over the States looking for Gennita
Low's books and they will then contact my publisher to order it.

For example, one reader has written: "Hi, I belong to a book club
and we plan to read Gennita Low's Virtually Hers coming out soon.
She writes for MIRA books and I know Walmart stocks their books. I
was wondering if and when Walmart will have her book so I can give
this information to our book club."

Another example: "I've bought Gennita Low's books at Walmart in the
past and was wondering when you'll have her book, Virtually Hers,
in? I've been waiting for this book to come out."

I admit this is an ass-backwards way of doing things but I'm out of
ideas right now. My editor has been kind and supportive, and has
been fighting very hard for my cause, so if you can drop her a line
in the mail so she could have hard evidence to show her boss, I'd
appreciate that too.

If you'd like to help me, here are the three addresses to write to:

Book Dpt (?) or Sales Dpt (?)
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville, AR 72716

Gennita Low's editor
225 Duncan Mill Road,
Don Mills, Ont. M3B 3K9
CANADA

Gennita Low's editor
c/o Keyren Gerlach
233 Broadway, 10th Floor,
New York, NY 10279

One last thing. As a way to thank you, I'm giving away a free
serial e-book on my blog, www.rooferauthor. blogspot. com. I'm up to
Chapter 8 already. Just click on each link to read the chapters.
It's my gift to you for being such wonderful and enthusiasts
readers, always emailing me to find out more about my characters and
stories.

The Virtual series was sold as a three-book contract about a
couple. That's why I'm very disappointed because each book moves
our couple, Jed and Hell, into a deeper level. Virtually Hers is,
as many of you know, Jed's story. Much of it is in his POV and I
hope that I can get this story in book form so I can share him with
you.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Best,
Gennita Low

Well, that's it!

Steph

**As a side note, Brenda Joyce has also been having the same
difficulties with her historical suspense series Deadly with
Fancesca Cashill. I guess the publisher, which I believe is also
MIRA does not think there is enough of an audience for this series.
If you love this series please write her publisher. I love her
series and want to know what is going to happen! It would be a real
shame it ends with her last book just when things are getting so
interesting!

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Wow! What a creepy trailer.

Although most of this trailer is made from still photos, the animated transitions and foreground images give it a real sense of motion. For instance the shadows on the prison wall that barely move are a nice touch. As are the spreading bloody stains on the newspaper article.

The sound effects are also very unusual. Instead of using a music track, the creators opted instead for a rhythmic droning that really pumps up the sense suspense and dread created by the disturbing images of death, car crashes, prisons and the rest.

This Circle of Seven trailer really stands out.

Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain Book Trailer

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Dinner Time!

Since I have some time before Barack Obama speaks at the DNC and that I'm finish cooking dinner and my Redskins are lagging in this last pre-season game against Jacksonville, I think I have time to scribble some things in a blog.

*deep inhale and exhale*

Where to start?

I guess I'll begin with a rather amusing matter that probably doesn't deserve any real energy or thought. Since it took up just a tiny portion of my day I guess I'll share what happened. At some point I was doing my usual, checking and answering pressing emails and catching up with my online writing group. I opened a posting from the group that contained a link to an article. The article (poorly written) gave an account about an author that crashed a literary conference that is widely known throughout the the literary realm. Authors, mainly African Amercan, who are well know, debuters, self published or mainstreamed are either invited or MUST register to attend this event.  the article focuses on a particular author who was neither invited or registerd for the event. He crashed. He was approached by the coordinator of the event who initially started a conversation with him with a remark about how he didn't appreciate him just showing up. However the remark ended with "well it's alright make yourself at home."

So the author in question goes along and does his usual. Apparently he is known to just show up to literary events and set up a station where he self promotes/sells his books. He also sets up a camera and begins to interview other authors and fellow readers for whatever media he represents since he is a programmer for various internet broadcast channels. In another moment he is approached by someone else that questions his presence and before he knew it he was being asked to leave and escorted out by police. The next day, the author send a message to the coordinator asking basically asking what was up with that?  A couple more lines are exchanged with the coordinator rudely telling the author to "kiss his ass."

In the end, the coordinator explained his position by saying,

"Bottom line, we have to stop with this notion of trying to get over. This is a professional organization and it is run professionally, and so the proper protocol was needed to participate. Period. Nothing against him; I don't know the guy. But we as black people have to set new standards on how we function. Crashing someone's event is not the route to a better way. And he was not the only author who just showed up and tried to be a part of the event. They [the other authors] were discharged from the event, too, and with much less the drama he tried to create."

Of course this sparked a small conversation in our writing group to which I responded with.

I actually agree with the coordinator in this. However, if he did in fact send that "Kiss my ass " text to (author) that was unprofessional as well.

Getting back to the event itself... any event like this it is a MUST that you register, either before hand or on site. What Coordinator should do is set up an on site registration for the authors who just show up. As for what Author does, being that he also conducts interviews.. he SHOULD know and learn the proper protocol for ANY media/press relation type work.. that NOT ONLY should he have registered as author, but seek the proper permission to conduct interviews on site as well.

It's just common courtesy.. especially when media relations is included.

Being that the site the article is actually posted on allows for an open forum on articles, I posted my comment on the site under the article as well. There was a good debate on who was right and who was wrong. Little did I know the author, himself, was responding to comments. Of course my comment was no exception. He went full steam ahead to let me know his thoughts.

Unfortunately, his response to me came off a bit curt and childish as he accussed me of not reading and that he was clearly in the right because the guy TOLD him it was okay to be there. His long and drawn out response went on to call the event bourgie, calling some authors cowards and spitting overly used lingo like "Get your game up!" Then ended with "Anyone else care to kick it about this subject, you got the RIGHT ONE. Plenty of time on my hands."

I responded with one other comment.

Waitress (Full Screen Edition)

In other news, I FINALLY saw the movie Waitress late last night. When I did some background checking, I saw that the character "Dawn" is played by the lady who actually wrote this movie. I feel like I could hunt her down, find her and give her a big hug... ok I know that sounded a bit stalkerish. Still she conveyed every thought I had when I was going through my pregnancy so perfectly, especially when the main character "Jenna" played by Keri Russell, began writing letters to her unborn baby.

Gotta love the letter "Dear Damn Baby!" (cracking up)

Needless to say, the movie did make me cry as I thought that some of it still relates to my current situation in a way. I really balled when Jenna tells that guy that has fallen in love with her (that happens to be her OBGYN) that she didn't need to be saved. She appreciates him, but she didn't want him to be her savior. I just balled all over the place.

The end was a tear jerker as it showed Jenna with her toddler daughter. That couldn't be a better picture of me and my snickerdoodle. Except we aren't in the pie business... more like artists... well me the writer and my daughter of course can be anything she wants to be. However, now days I'm picking up gymnist/dancer vibes. She runs, climbs and jumps on and off of anything. Of course, like me, she loves music so she has to move her head and her hands.  Then there are days I don't know what kind of vibes they are.. when she flings her toys across the room and breaks out laughing.

Anywho... I must add Waitress to my collection now.

There are other things going on, but at the moment I'm press for time as Obama is due to speak in another 20 minutes (then again I'll just catch it on repeat if I miss it) and JM just returned my call. It's time for girl talk!

Good night.

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Octopus Intelligence by Timothy Quinn

Truth be told, I also had an ulterior motive with octopusintelligence.com. The question I think every writer dreads upon finishing a book or a film or a play or whatever is, "so what's it about?" Innocuous question, but just about impossible to answer in twenty-five words or less, especially after you've spent several years working the whole damn thing out on paper. Now, if you've memorized your publisher's blurb, you can go with that, which is going to be weird because it's probably filled with words like "dazzling" and "wunderkind"... or you can do what I usually do, which is sputter something about loss and desire and then make a quick feint for the bar.

The website gives me a third option. It's a much broader canvas to work with -- there's text, there's video, there's audio clips—so it saves me having to extemporize a capsule summary every time the subject comes up.
 
You are the author of Octopus Intelligence as well as the creator of its trailers. Do you have any film/design/web/animation background? If so, what is it? If not, what was it like to learn Flash and animation to make them?
 
I'm a Canadian novelist, which is a nicer way of saying I'm hanging onto my day job. I'm the Director of Production with a Toronto-based web agency, and I've got a background in Internet design and development, so I'd had some basic experience with Flash when I started tinkering with book trailers.

Flash is a good technology for this sort of thing because it's as complex as you need it to be; you can do some extremely sophisticated vector-based animation using the programmatic capabilities of ActionScript, or you can do simple pans and fades and floating text, which is pretty much all I did.

The big challenge in building a trailer for a book is trying to create the illusion of motion without actually having any video footage. I spent a fair bit of time looking at how various directors have handled static content—Ken Burns' documentary work is great because he uses music and narration to make you forget you're basically looking at archival photographs, but honestly, even the opening credits of Law & Order do a decent job of conveying dramatic narrative through still images.
 
How did you come up with your concept for your trailer with the numerology?
 
One of the themes of the book is the search for meaning, and specifically the relevance of a message discovered by one of the characters under unusual circumstances. I wanted to play around with the idea of hidden meaning by burying that message in various formats within the trailer: a street address, a telephone number, a column of figures. The "Messages" trailer was built specifically to reflect the viewpoint of one of the two main characters. "Rewrite History" was designed through the eyes of my other main character.
 
Your choices for music are refreshing and unique. How did you choose the music for your trailers?
 
The music for "Messages" was relatively easy; I liked the way Chopin's Nocturne No. 7 in C Sharp Minor builds from quiet melody to a sense of impending crisis. The music for "Rewrite History" was more difficult; I wanted something operatic but modern, so it took me awhile to find David Byrne's Au Fond du Temple Saint—once I did, though, that became in my mind the de facto theme song for the book. For the final trailer, "The Hunt," I wanted a tone more than a melody, and I ended up sampling from a few different sources, including Peter Gabriel's venerable Birdy soundtrack.

I should mention there's a bit of a legal gray zone here around copyright. On the one hand, sampling any recognizable piece of music is risking legal action by the performers and their labels; on the other hand, YouTube and other video distribution channels recognize some degree of liberty around "fair use." To further complicate matters, some book trailers clearly serve a commercial purpose, while others (like those designed by individual authors or small presses) are meant more to build a sense of community around the work than to hustle people through checkout at Amazon. So it really becomes a judgment call on the part of the author or publisher whether or not to incur legal risk. Clearly, if you know a composer or otherwise have access to license-free music, that's a big advantage.
 
What advice do you have for creators of book trailers?
 
I think it's possible both to underestimate and to overestimate to limitations of the medium. Frankly, if you're aiming for Michael Bay on an Errol Morris budget, it's just going to look camp. That said, it's a mistake to think you can throw one of these together in a few hours and save the cost of hiring a decent designer or animator. The science fiction author Greg Bear released a slide show trailer a few weeks ago for his latest book, and some of the comments on Boing Boing were eviscerating. Greg Bear trailer

If at all possible, get someone else to write your trailer. Although I wrote my own copy, I had the benefit of working with a great editor on the manuscript and some of the promotional text, so I could leverage that vocabulary when I scripted my trailers. The advantage to having someone else write your trailers is that you're going to get a lot closer to your audience's perspective instead of being blinded by what you happen to like about the book.
 
And finally, are there any other book trailers out there that you love?
 
There's a lot of this sort of thing on YouTube that's really unwatchable, and much of it seems to be promoting vampire erotica. Who knew?

I saw you posted a link to Michael Chabon's trailer for The Yiddish Policeman's Union, and I think that's really well done—it plays to the strengths of the medium by limiting itself to narrative and simple design. I also liked the trailer Boom Studios released for their North Wind series; again, they took the material they had and did something interesting with it. North Wind trailer

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I've added listings at Kale Ink for some books that have all been around for a while: Chalking it Up, Tritcheon Hash, Laylek's Song, Fields of Fire, Rogue State, Dear Heart, How Like You This?, and Journo's Diary.

All of these titles are published by Metropolis Ink, who I can unashamedly say is an excellent small publisher, because I'm exactly half of the workforce there, along with Kurt Florman of Proof-it.com.

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I wrote in a previous post that authors are not voice talent and therefore should not be used for voiceovers in book trailers. But, of course, there are exceptions to every rule. In the case of Michael Chabon's trailer for The Yiddish Policeman's Union, the author reads an excerpt from his novel and the result is a beautiful trailer.

I could not find the original trailer on YouTube, so click below to see the English version:

Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union

And embedded below is a Spanish-language version from YouTube.

EL SINDICATO DE POLICÍA YIDDISH de Michael Chabon

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This book trailer for Octopus Intelligence is almost impossible to watch without wanting to go to the website to see what the heck the book is about. http://octopusintelligence.com

Drawing from our fascination with numerology and conspiracies (think Jim Carrey's film 23, the tv show Numb3rs, or Russel Crowe's A Beautiful Mind), the trailer for Octopus Intelligence uses simple yet sophisticated typography to pique the viewer's interest. The classical music, which conveys sophistication and a haunted mood to the animation, climbs to a well-timed crescendo. The train sound effect at the end is a subtle hint that the story might take place in a city.

Three trailers were created for this project. And although this trailer does not deal with the cryptozoological aspects of the novel, in my opinion it is the most successful.

Nicely done.

Messages

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Canvastic LLC announces the update of their Macintosh and Windows software product, Canvastic, an integrated writing, graphics and publishing tool for students in grades K-8 to version 3.5. Developed by a former classroom teacher and computer coordinator, Canvastic was specifically designed with classroom use in mind and provides the correct mix of fun and productivity. The program allows students to publish pages, books, presentations and more.

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65bit Software today announced the launch of the latest version of their database publishing solution for Adobe InDesign, EasyCatalog. EasyCatalog increases InDesign productivity by providing dynamic, two-way, linking of data from a CSV file, XML structure or ODBC database to text or images in InDesign documents. EasyCatalog CS3 3.0.7 adds support for a new module that allows users to work with complex, structured, data.

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It's probably not the best sign in the world when the phrase that describes how you're feeling is lifted straight from a Merle Travis lament on coal mining.  I'd like to say that I don't owe my soul to the company store, but since I owe my soul to the bank, it's not much different.

The debt part I've been feeling for several weeks, but I didn't feel older until the new faculty hire came in to get her keys.  She's ten years younger than I am, just finished her Ph.D., and this is her first real teaching job--an assistant professorship.  It's a big deal, the kind of thing that you have to work hard to get.  I have to keep reminding myself that the reason this 20-something little pipsqueak has achieved this is that it's what she wanted.  I have to remind myself that I didn't want the PhD or the professorship.  Sometimes, working in this environment, it's hard to remember that.

All the same, here I am, the day before my 37th birthday and I feel tired.  I ought to feel a bit cheered up.  Unlike 2007, which was a zero sum year on the writing/publishing front, 2008 has been quite a bit better.  I've had five short stories accepted for publication* and I've gotten a few nibbles on one of my novels.  Still, it seems like there's so much work ahead of me with no guarantee of results.  I guess I am getting old, because I think I need a nap.

*For my friends, who are curious, here's a list of the upcoming publications.

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Two folks whose blogs I read daily (well, that are on my RSS feed) are getting published.

This is awesome. 

You guys should go and read:

Bewbs*, Injuries and Dr. Pepper

and

Dad Gone Mad

Go and read them now.  And then buy their books. 

(i am positively envious of these folks.  genuinely happy.  but envious too!)

*I refuse to pop up on some fools search engine for typing bewbs correctly.

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Sometimes the simplest book trailers are the best. The trailer by Circle of Seven Productions for Julia Robert's Motherhood to Otherhood clearly communicates what the book is about with a lighthearted soundtrack and to-the-point typography. The sophisticated and subtle animation of the book's whimsical art complements the copy wonderfully. This trailer is not a jaw dropper but, given the audience and the book, is an effective and attractive book trailer.

Motherhood to Otherhood Book Trailer

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I was combing the internet for amusing stories when I came across this hilarious skit of how Hollywood PR teams create elaborate publicity stunts to help promote a new film.  Now I’m not sure exactly when the creators of this film actually came up with the concept but as you watch, notice how similar their strategy resembles a modern day Hollywood power couple who just had twins.  Enjoy and feel free to leave a comment.

To View the VIDEO - VISIT: www.flackme.com

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