Light On and Light Through

With client books in various stages of evolution, plus the new blog part of this business, I’ve been quite busy for the past month. There is a renewed interest in blogging of course, which is growing exponentially, but this doesn’t eliminate the book as a method of keeping, transmitting and retaining information, thought, and meta-concepts.

When a person learns to speak another language in a rudimentary way, she may be able to communicate the basics, but the subtleties and metaphysics in the language can take a very long time to evolve.

I feel new media still has a long way to go in this regard, before it can embody the rich and deep interior landscape that has been the realm of literature for the past many-hundreds of years. The place of the book is still ensured, even if the book is in an electronic version. What comes to mind here is McLuhan’s studies in the effects of light “on” a screen as in movies, and light “through” a screen as in television.

We have all felt the fascination and seduction of a strong jewel-like visual image on the computer screen, followed by a let-down when that image is printed and looks flat, and rather emptied of the illumination. “Light through” brings it to life, “light on” – not so much. With text it is a different story. The “light through” makes us feel as if we were viewing, rather than reading, and other aspects of the brain and our sensorium are activated. The process is more rapid, scanning and viewing. “Light on” – the printed word – we are back in the realm of reading. Both methods are complementary, and we prepare differently for each.

Although the books we prepare are put together on the screen, written in Word, or some such program, then laid out in InDesign, their destination is not the screen, but the page. They are created as books, not as screen-experiences, not even as documents of screen-experiences. The process is one of projecting the mind to imagine the words on the page and to imagine the page in print, working from that point of view.

Diversity of Video Blogs: Vlogs

I’ve been doing video for client blogs for some time now, and it’s been a wide range. Here are two clips from recent postings:

Alma Pasic, Mortgage Broker, on new mortgage opportunities for the self-employed.

Robert Meyer, Double Bassist, on conductors.

Finding the Centre

I’m working with a client to help organize a vast quantity of her previous materials, which include writings, presentations and workshops. There is no shortage of content to work with, and our challenge is to find the centre.

Together, we are defining the centre of the work which she has been doing over the years, which (despite its various aspects) is all grounded in her approach and expertise. Then there is another centre, which is perhaps a deeper and more meaningful one, which is the directive or result of this work to date, and how that work relates to her audience and her clients. What is the centre for them? How does her work define that as well? By finding both her centre within her materials, and the centre in her audience, we can define the two in the place where they match. Bingo! We have the centre of the whole work, and can proceed from there. All the materials then radiate from this centre.

This way of concept definition is a wonderful process in which discoveries made can help to redefine the work of decades. As a process for the client it is both empowering and satisfying, giving a clear direction for future efforts.

Overview of Alpha Glyph’s First Year

I just felt that it would be good to sum up where we are to date, before launching into the next phase. So here’s a quick overview of what’s been going on since Alpha Glyph began active operations in January of 2006. I’ve helped many clients with various stages of their book and publications projects, and have produced some work myself that had been waiting for my attention.

Coaching I’ve found that the book coaching service we offer has been very helpful to people who are in the process of defining their project or if they need the accountability that a book coach can provide. It’s been wonderful to be able to participate in the early stages of a writing project through book coaching.

Website and Blog I created the website for the company very early on, and have adapted it over the year with a few changes. The blog came on-stream partway through the year, and has given me the opportunity to reveal more about what we do, for anyone who is interested in finding out more about this endeavour.

Some client questions, which have come up over the year:

• Is self-publishing for you?
• Is this the right time for you to put out your work?
• Is print the right medium, or do you want a website, a blog, a video blog, a podcast?
• Do you need to go back and look more closely at your work before bringing it out?
• And so many more questions have appeared from various clients, and clients-to-be, each specific to their needs.

The first full book I worked on was a comprehensive educational publication for early childhood teachers. From substantive editing at the manuscript stage to the final layout, cover design and publication, I worked closely with the author, despite our physical distance from one another. The book was challenging as it was comprised of five very different sections which needed a unifying theme in order to be seen as part of one whole. As well, it was illustrated with photographs and line drawings, and also included musical notation. The whole project was a success and the author was very happy with the resulting book.

A brochure for a financial planner hit the skids, however. It didn’t see the light of day, as the client wanted a look and feel that was quite different from the approach that I had taken. Instead of “BUY “NOW”!! (flash flash red yellow flash flash) and Win the Race!” (photos of racehorses), I had taken a more subdued and reliable-seeming direction, saying with colour and form “your investment is safe with us.” Ultimately he took the project back and did it himself, adding his own personal flair and pizazz.

First E-Book The next book I worked on was simple book design and layout for an e-book. It gave my InDesign skills a workout and also enabled me to try the download system.

Archive Site and Blog The comprehensive Shamcher archives are an ongoing Alpha Glyph project. Last year I produced two websites for these archives – one static site and one blog site, which is being kept up on a regular basis. I’ve prepared articles as PDF downloadable documents available from the site, to accompany the other materials that are posted on the regular archive. Categories and tags are important here, and the process also involves document scanning, editing and posting.

Poetry Book In the last year I edited and laid out a book of poetry which includes full colour images inserted into the publication. With this book I worked closely with the author, and found it was important to do so as each word could have an alternate spelling. With poets every space can be as important as the words themselves, while some word could be invented for its sound quality when read aloud, or for the image of the type on the page.

Facsimile Book I produced an archival facsimile book of images taken from a 1970’s early zine-format book. Here the original was scanned and reduced to become a commemorative book for a small community. A fun project, and a good example of publishing for a small audience using print on demand.

I Self-Publish I also published two books of my own, from material that had been circulated earlier in various forms. One had been self-published, but not as a perfect-bound book in a standard size. This was laid out with some copy-editing and republished. The other had been published episodically in a periodical but never as a single volume, so I laid it out and published it as well.

Additional writing projects have always been a part of the Alpha Glyph work this past year.

• Business Plans I helped to coordinate the material and finesse the business plans for three very different businesses in the past year.
• Project Proposals As well, I produced two complex project proposals, compete with rationale, full outline of content, timeline, milestones, personnel and itemized budgets; one for a broadcast video series, the other for an interactive media production.
• Copyright Search I also did comprehensive copyright search and permissions for a client.

Manuscript Assessment I’ve done manuscript assessment for various books and one book series in the past year, and have met with many individuals regarding their book or card projects, either in person, by phone or through email.

Blogging has been a very busy activity for the company, which has seen over 800 articles posted in the blogs we’ve created over the past year, many including links, illustrations, photography and video.

Video blogging has been a fun part of our services and so far we have produced 44 short episodes that have been posted to clients’ websites or blogs, and on YouTube. These range in length from 1 minute to 7.5 minutes.

Other Materials For one book which is still in the first draft stage, I have also been engaged in creating fundraising and ancilliary materials to be used to gather interest in the project as a whole.

Professional Contacts I’ve participated in the monthly Blogger’s Meetup Group and various networking groups for entrepreneurs, as well as the Northern Voice Blogging Conference, all as part of professional development and for potential client contacts.

In process as I write this are three books in the layout/final copyedit stage, almost ready for the printer. There is one book in the manuscript stage (still in early days) and two nascent long-distance projects in the works.

Promotion of the company Being so busy with actual projects, we have had to leave some of our plans for promotion for the company on the back burner. We keep this blog going as one of our main forms of contact.

In fact, we are expanding the company’s blogging capability, through alphablogs (which I mentioned in my last posting). In this post, I haven’t mentioned all the blog experiences or the refinement of the blogging processes that we’ve been developing, but watch this space!

alphablogs

Focusing on the needs of small business and independent entrepreneurs, we have been working to create alphablogs, as a division of Alpha Glyph Publications Ltd.

We know blogging and we can help you get started and keep your blog going. We also help your blog find its audience, ultimately reaching many more clients and contacts through application of the latest web technology.

When you wish to reach an audience with your message, the blog is the ideal way to contact your clients, both current clients and clients-to-be. With the capability of indepth info (as much as you wish to generate) and the potential for many-to-many contacts that web 2.0 offers you will find yourself in the new universe of 21st century communications. Your blog posting can also be converted to a newsletter which your clients may subscribe to for up to the minute info.

Enter the realm of transparent communications, which the new web offers. It’s much more than just a blog, but can truly replace the old idea of the website completely. You will find that there can be continual updates on your info, and you can make those updates yourself. No need for high setup fees: for under $500 you will have a website ready to go with all the high functionality you will need to be confident in the 21st century marketplace.

We will patiently guide you into the workings of this new communications environment and will give you the tools to do as much of it yourself as you want to handle. Or we can set it all up and run it for you. Get yourself an alphablog, and find out what we are talking about.

Add video or audio to your site easily and inexpensively. Prepare your own information or we can put it together for you. And we help you get hits for your postings. Each blog posting is like a tiny website in itself, and is viewed independently by search engines like google. What this means to you is that you have the potential to reach many more clients through micro-targeted content. It also means that you don’t have to be one-track-minded in your messaging, but can branch out to the subtleties and overtones that are the intangibles that make your business tick, and that make your approach to your business unique.

Ultimately it is up to you. Your vision of your work and field of endeavour can be personally and professionally reflected through an alphablog site. Need a website? We can set that up for you. Need a blog? Naturally – it is our first love! Need a video blog or audio podcast? We can get that started for you and keep it going. Comprehensive sites use many capabilities which we also provide, including writing, editing, research, SEO for blogs, photos and images, links, comments, and community development (if needed).

We are really excited by the potential and possibility of this new aspect of publishing, and will be officially launching alphablogs soon. Meanwhile, for more information, you can reach us through the Alpha Glyph contact info.

Check the blogs page of this site for some examples of work to date.

Networking Entrepreneurs

Anyone who has a self-published book knows that networking and hand-selling really do help get some buzz going around your latest venture. As an entrepreneur with my own business, I often attend various networking events around the Vancouver area, to meet prospective clients and to create awareness around the services we offer through Alpha Glyph. Right now we are expanding our blogging services, which we’ve found more and more interest in from clients. Watch this space for more info on the blogging side of this business.

Last week, I attended a SWAN networking event in North Vancouver, and it was one of the best – very warm feeling, and all women.

As a guest of isabella mori, I went to their breakfast meeting, which featured some lightning networking rounds, in which each woman presented her business to the group at her table. Then we switched to another table, to do the same thing. There wasn’t a possibility of reaching the entire group at that rate, but we did see a great range and variation of women’s businesses in the networking sessions.

At my tables, I promised the group that I’d mention them in my next blog post, so here goes:

First, here’s isabella mori, a therapist and writer, who had invited me to SWAN as her guest.

Tanja Feichtinger, a web designer and graphic designer also offers a dog adventure business.

Joanie Brown is an independent consultant for Arbonne International pure Swiss skin care, in North Vancouver.

Jacquie Wilson is a Reiki practitioner in Deep Cove whose company is called Tierra Sol Mar Reiki.

Anita Ming Lee, D.C., MAOM, has a new chiropractic/acupuncture practice. Their site is still under construction, but here’s the contact page.

Jill Pollard from Clutch (more than a purse) by AutoOne, specialises in car sales and leasing for women.
Francine Legault is a real estate agent in North Van.

Tracey Wait is an advertising consultant for the North Shore Outlook.

Carol Lea is a Mary Kay consultant in North Van.

Vivian Anayian is a web/graphic designer at VG Universe Design.
Linda Beet at does tarot readings and events through her Triple Apple Tarot.

Some of the women at my tables didn’t have a website listed, so I couldn’t create links for them, but I can list them here: Riette Gordon is a designer with Decor&More decorating services; and Oksana Airiants is a consultant with Investors Group.

It was a supportive and rewarding event – thanks!

Musical Reminiscences blog

I’ve really enjoyed working with Robert Meyer on his Musical Reminiscences. A double bassist who worked with Britten, de Sabata, and many others, Meyer participated in much of the classical recording and performance that occurred in London after the war, until the 60s when he moved to Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. His newsy reminiscences are always interesting to me. How do I help him? I take the emails he sends me and help them become bloggable. Then I post them with links to relevant additional information. And I handle any spam issues.

We included his extensive discography which is introduced by a great article that really reveals the life of a working studio musician in London in those days. Through the blog Robert has been in contact with others, and has brought out even more stories than those he includes in his self-published book.

Check it out here.

A blog can really help when you are writing of a memoir, as it is episodic, and can be completed in stages, as it grows naturally. It seems easy, then the compiled blog postings can be edited together in book form. The people at Lulu have named this “the blook” – a book created from blog postings.

Experiencing Self-Publishing for Myself

It’s all very well and good to encourage others to produce their own self-published books, and to coach them and help prepare their material, but it began to seem not quite fair to my clients unless I experienced the heights and depths of the process of self-publishing myself.

So, I took the print on demand plunge, and put together two books of work that I had written and circulated years ago: Documentary Print and Human Ecology.

                   

The experience has been truly valuable, both technically and emotionally. I chose to work with Lulu.com, and now have a little storefront on their site: Carol’s Special Interest Bookstore, that also includes some preview pages.

In future posts I’ll track the process of each of these more fully.

Using Blogs to Present Digital Archives

I’ve found that blogs are an excellent way to manage the content of digital archives, particularly while working on them. To wait until all material is digitized before presenting it is the old way of working. By digitizing and posting the material together, it is possible to get a sense of the body of work, and at the same time use the category functions to sort the material for the future. The posting has the added benefit of giving the material out to the community of interest.

Working with the archives of Shamcher (Bryn) Beorse has been richly rewarding but also very complex. His material stretches from energy and economics to yoga and sufism, with personal history in there somewhere as well. It has been difficult sorting the material according to category, as much of his writing, particularly in correspondence, was a mixture of his interests and approaches. Luckily, most of the materials in his archive are in print version, so that was relatively easy to manage, but there are still boxes and boxes of papers to be scanned and edited. He kept copies of all his typewritten correspondence, as well as various drafts of books and articles. Blogging this material as it is processed digitally means that there is a public record of his work, and aspects of the work can reach others now, rather than in years from now.

Of particular interest is OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion). For decades, he worked to have this energy generating system, which was first introduced in the 1920’s, adopted by US government and industry – despite the opposition from oil, coal and nuclear interests. Since posting of the archives, there has been interest in that work, and there is more opportunity for this material to see the light of day. Particularly in these times when clean environmentally benign energy sources are of prime importance, the OTEC thread of this archive is needed today.

An OTEC Plantship generates solar power from the sea

I really recommend using blogs to manage personal archives, such as this, and using the categories for your own sorting purposes, in addition to using them as tags in the usual sense.

Multi-tasking in Self-Publishing

When you self-publish, you are often expected to do it all yourself, and that can mean some fairly elaborate multi-tasking. If you’re intending to publish your work independently, you might want to redefine “independent” to include some skilled help, so you aren’t out of your depth in certain areas beyond your expertise. Typically, you’ll need someone to help you define your concept clearly, and to help with the main substantive editing to shape your book. But that’s only the beginning of the process that occurs once your manuscript is completed. You’ll need to design your book and lay it out, copy edit and proof it, as well as create a cover, get an ISBN, and bar code, deal with printers and then market your creation. The costs for these and other aspects of the process vary considerably between service providers, so do your homework and go with the people you feel are most sympatico to your endeavour. You’ll be working with them for some time as your book reaches completion, so you need to not only feel trust in their professionalism but also develop a harmonious working relationship.

Or … if you feel up to it, you can multi-task the whole thing, and have that incredible satisfaction of doing it yourself!