NY Times Co. Chairman gives the Globe until May 1

Check out last night’s coverage from NECN on the latest Globe woes and Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.’s hopes to keep her going despite the need for 20 million in Union concessions. The Boston Newspaper Guild (made up of over 700 Globe employees) has a petition and is holding a rally this Friday at Faneuil Hall. BU Journalism Chair, Lou Ureneck, voices Phil Bronstein’s comments that distributing news for free is not sustainable. The NY Times Co. is keeping to its 5/1 deadline for the Union to meet its demands.



Help support the Globe by buying a paper to read on your commute (your eyes will thank you for avoiding the typos in the Metro). Or sign up for home delivery like I just did. The Globe is offering 50% off home delivery subscriptions. Every little bit helps at this point. If you’re mooching off free news (hey, my hand is raised too), it’s time to support those writers about to get the ax.

Phil Bronstein on the Colbert Report

I'm sure most of you had heard of the Globe's recent financial troubles. Check out San Francisco Chronicle VP and Editior, Phil Bronstein, on The Colbert Report discuss the current state of newspapers. He says that sources like AOL and Google should pay papers for linking to their content and points out that financing stories, like the Globe's breaking piece on the Catholic Church sex scandal, cost those papers lots of moolah.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Phil Bronstein
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

Get your muse on

Are you a Calliope fan? Get down with Melpomene? Or does Urania do it for you? Not sure what I’m talking about? All the more reason to find your muse at Grub Street’s eighth annual The Muse & The Marketplace April 25-26 in Boston. Expect a weekend jammed with networking opportunities with literary agents and editors, workshops, lectures for veteran and newbie writers, and—for an additional fee—the chance to park your keister and manuscript down with an agent at Manuscript Mart for a twenty-minute critique. For a bit extra, you can also have lunch with Grub National Book Prize Winners. Don’t forget breakfast and lunch are included with registration! (One can't learn and schmooze on an empty stomach, right?) This year’s keynote speaker is Ann Patchett, among a slew of participating authors (30!).

Strapped for cash and not sure you can make it both days? A friend who went last year recommends going Sunday for the keynote speaker and said that one day of workshops should do the trick. Keep in mind that the “casual” lunch with the GNBP Winners is on Saturday. For more info visit museandthemarketplace.com.

Blogger Spotlight

The Fringe editors aren't the only ones getting all the buzz: our bloggers are doing pretty well for themselves too!


Cindy has had three poems published in the Winter 2008/9 issue of Conversation Poetry Quarterly, and one poem in both the Women. Period (2008) anthology from Spinster's Ink Press and the Empowering Women Through Literacy (2009) book from the Women Expanding Literacy Education Action Resource Network.


Sean's poems appear or are forthcoming in Exquisite Corpse, Elimae, Diode, In Posse Review, Willow Springs, Taiga, Weave, Willows Wept Review, Oranges & Sardines, RealPoetik, New York Quarterly, Copper Nickel, Juked, Eratio, Ditch, Pineapple War, Redactions, and Quarter After Eight. His book reviews wil be featured in Rain Taxi. He is currently working on two books: a 500-trail hiking guide for Oregon, and a nonfiction manuscript, Smoking Waters. His blog site is theimaginedfield.blogspot.com.

Cat had two Soapbox columns in Boston's Weekly Dig in 2008: Liberla Schmarts and Broken appendages cause bonding . She has also taken over as Head Copy Editor for Fringe!

Julie also found success in the Weekly Dig, with her Soapbox column in December. She also recently had an article published in Sirens Magazine about the ways in which overly-educated women are coping after a job loss.


Please, no photographs.

Poehler's latest venture

SNLer and Baby Mama, Amy Poehler, hosts an internet series called Smart Girls at the Party. Despite being sponsored by Barbie, the show focuses on talented pre-teen girls and celebrates how they "can succeed and make a difference simply by being themselves.” The segments showcase the girls’ hobbies and opinions in honest and entertaining interviews, giving their age group a voice not typically heard in today's media. Check out Ruby the feminist:

Mike Heppner's Novella Series (Third Installment)

When asked if he would recommend self-publishing to writers who want to get the word out about their work, Heppner explained that he already had a foundation as a published author. He questions whether the Internet is a useful enough tool for writers who don’t yet have credentials; however, the attitude toward being published on the Internet has changed drastically in the last ten years. But the problem with making yourself stand out online is the same as “getting out of the slush pile [of other writers]. How do you separate yourself from that?”

For starters, give your readers a voice. In his cover letter accompanying Man, Heppner invited readers to send their feedback, which he would then post on his website. The curious thing is that Heppner is getting more honest feedback and goodwill now than he did in his old school publishing days (e.g., comments on his novels on Amazon). He believes the difference is because readers have an inherent distrust of corporate media that could rest on an author’s shoulders. One Man reader wrote:

My friend J gave me a copy of Man over midnight ice cream, and I read it the next day. I applaud your experiment…I've dabbled in writing for the last four or five years and I know exactly what it feels like... We have to remember that the worthwhile part is intangible, is what's going on in our own heads and lives.

While Heppner wouldn’t call these types of “self-releases” of his work ideal, he thinks it’s better than having it sit in a closet. He likes working with editors and would like to get back to traditional publishing, but he feels that the publishing industry is "so slow moving." Heppner was able to release the novellas every 3-4 months and the process allotted him much freedom and creativity in engaging readers. He is currently working on his next novel entitled Quartered.



For you lucky New Yorkers, Heppner will be reading at the KBG Books on 2/ 27. The rest of us can go to www.mikeheppner.com or www.smallanchorpress.com to learn more.

Mike Heppner's Novella Series (Second Installment)

Utilizing “stagger promotion,” Heppner has released each novella along with hype for the next one, and building momentum, readership, and press along the road. Each part in the series has taken a different medium (released online, left at random locations nationwide, and as a published book), and readers don’t know how the next one will take shape. Heppner is exploring options for Talking—his 4th novella, coming out March 1—but would like to keep it text-based.

The four novellas aren't related by narrative and can be read in any order, “but all are concerned with bridging the divide between people who write fiction and those who read it" according to his site. The first in the series, Talking Man, was published in September ’08 by Small Anchor Press, which specializes in limited-edition chapbooks. “The Making of Talking Man,” interviews between SAP editor Jen Hyde and Heppner, follows the novella’s evolution. Man Talking, the third novella (also the first to come out) was “self-released,” as Heppner terms it, last April via his website, where it remains free to download (and has been—over 3,000 times). He doesn’t consider Man Talking as published but rather as “presented to readers.” He believes to be published means to go beyond self-editing.

Half way through his third novella, Heppner realized it wasn’t sellable due to its length. He entertained others ways to release it—from a marathon reading to the Radiohead route, seeing what readers would offer to pay. Considering the novella “a hybrid between a story and a writer’s manual,” he decided it would be “apropos” for an author’s site (which he happened to be creating at the time).



In my next and last installment, Heppner discusses his views on self-publishing and we take a look at the response to Man.

Self-Publishing Part II: Mike Heppner's Novella Series (First Installment)

This past December Mike Heppner, author of The Egg Code and Pike’s Folly, released his novella, Man, the second in a four-part series. But you can’t purchase Man in bookstores or read it online; it has to be found. In a stunt he describes as “guerrilla publicity,” Heppner sent copies to friends across the country to distribute and leave in coffee shops, museums, libraries, and other high-traffic locations. Man has surfaced at a gym and on an airplane, and the tactic seems to be working: it has gotten a lot of blogger buzz and was mentioned in The New Yorker.

Releasing his work this way is “a public way of calling attention to the problems [in publishing]” that Heppner says can happen to anyone in the business; you don’t get long-term support and you have to make your own way. With large presses, he explains, writers are dependent on other people doing work for them. Those people are overworked and haven’t read your piece, and they put a project to bed a week after it comes out.

In response to his blurb in The New Yorker, Heppner says the key was leaking out word about the novellas to enough blogs. The Man Talking Project has been mentioned in Maud Newton, HTMLGiant, Conversational Reading, AdFreak, Media Bistro, The 26th Story and The Millions.


In my next installment, I’ll discuss Heppner’s publishing history and how the Man Talking Project came to be.

Self-Publishing Part I

Some writers are skipping the traditional publishing channels these days and are getting their writing out on their own. While few can claim the success of Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader—which she released and marketed on her own and then received a book and film deal—writers are using new resources and methods to publish and release their work. In this first part of a two-entry look into self-publishing, I’ll highlight some innovative book-building sites.

San Francisco based Blurb is one of the more popular self-publishing sites, allowing users to download its fancy schmancy software called BlurbBookSmart and to lay out images, text, or just about anything in a variety of esthetically-pleasing templates made by professional book designers. Users have made cookbooks, books of photography, personal family histories, and traditional texts, as well as graphic novels, brochures, and marketing materials. This is also a great service for artists or designers looking into portfolio options. A four-color softcover starts at $12.95 (for up to 40 pages), and hardcovers of the same page count start at $22.95. For more pricing info, go here.

Blurb also offers a heavier, 100-pound premium paper option and allows members to make their work private (to be viewed or purchased by invite only) or public—meaning searchable and available openly for purchase. You’re even able to set the profit you’d like to make on each book sold and you retain the rights to your content (They do have a license to print your work and display it should you wish to have it public. This is fully-paid but royalty free).

Lulu offers a similar service, publishing self-arranged content and shipping them on demand, but they charge a commission on any titles sold. Xlibris and iUniverse follow the more traditional publishing route and charge fees, provide editing, marketing, and distribution services, and pay authors royalties.

My follow-up entry will be an interview with author Mike Heppner and his experience with two self-released novellas.

Finding that oh so hard to find motivation and time

I have been a procrastinator since birth, and also a pack rat, but the latter is for a different piece. I was the person in college in the computer lab until the early a.m. working on papers due that day (with a lot company I should mention so you don’t judge too harshly). I met my college roommate (that I still live with) by pulling all-nighters. She holds the record in our group of friends for consecutive nights without sleep.

But the difference between myself then and now is that I don’t have the energy to pull it off. And I’m old. Or, older. But the thing is that I work best in the middle of the night. It is usually when I get my best ideas to write, and something about the quiet—of everyone else sleeping—makes it the perfect environment.

When I lack the motivation to write, I take classes, go to readings, and just to try to surround myself with inspiring writing. But similar to many I imagine, my job is becoming increasingly demanding and finding the time to write or to be inspired is difficult at times. Staying late at work just isn’t enough anymore, and I’m beginning to take it home with me. The line between my office cube, and futon in my apartment with papers strewn across my coffee table is becoming increasingly blurred.

In my downtime, my creative juices do not flow at will. I come home and applaud myself for actually making dinner and avoiding trashy VH1 television that helps me calm down after a long day. My time off becomes my time before sleep to not get things done, and to try not to think about work. All I want to do is relax, and my writing takes a back seat. Maybe I need to set a schedule for myself. I have been sitting on the same short story for over a year, not sure of how I want to revise (even though I have been given excellent suggestions through workshops). I’ve tried to set aside entire days for writing, but the vast resources of Hulu have gotten the best of me. I find that like in college, I write best when I have little time. Not rushed that is to say, but when I have pockets of time.

So I’m going to try to set a schedule of “pockets,” and let you all know how it goes. Please feel free to leave comments with suggestions, or locations where I may find or steal your motivation.

Finding Beauty in a Broken World by Terry Tempest Williams

Last month I met one of my idols. A writer that was introduced to me before I ever thought of myself as one. A woman with a multifaceted voice that comes from a landscape very different from my own but who has an outlook on family and tragedy that brought me in. When I learned that she would be at my local bookstore to read, I screamed and danced around my apartment. I realized I would get to hear her voice, reading her words, and that I might even get to speak with her. I still get sick thinking about the fact that I did.




Terry Tempest Williams came to Porter Square Books, a small but powerhouse independent bookstore in Cambridge, MA, in late October to read from her latest publication Finding Beauty in a Broken World. TTW found her inspiration as she lost her sense of self in a post 9/11 country broken and at war:

We watched the towers collapse. We watched America choose war. The peace in our own hearts shattered. How to pick up the pieces? What to do with the pieces?

It was the “pieces” that inspired Williams to look closer at our fragmentation and the potential to not only rebuild but also for beauty. Her journey takes her to Ravenna, Italy, a town famous for its bejeweled walls, to lean the craft of mosaic and then to Bryce Canyon National Park where she studies endangered prairie dogs for two weeks day and night in what she calls an “ecological mosaic.” Her journey comes full circle when she travels to Rugerero, Rwanda, with a group called the Barefoot Artists to meet with survivors of the 1994 genocide, serving as their scribe and telling the world what many countries, including America, tried to pretend was not happening.

My main concern is that while showcasing the prairie dog for its ecological importance and complex language system (something this blogger admits being completely ignorant of), Williams loses her readers at times discussing political action and detailing her days observing the animals in excess. That is not to say, however, that this section does not hold merit, but it is difficult to get through. (TTW told attendees at the reading that her father claimed he would pay anyone $1 who could get through this portion.)

Finding Beauty in a Broken World finds its voice and journey’s purpose with the tale of the genocide survivors and their ongoing battle to rebuild their country and to find semblance in their everyday lives. There are few words to describe what these people have been through and continue to deal with. Yet there is so much hope and want for progression. Williams captures this essence describing the villagers as they work with the Barefoot Artists—a group experienced with rebuilding and uniting communities through art. Bleak, government-built houses are painted with designs from orphans and a mosaic memorial is built from rubble and overlooked material. Together they create something beautiful out of their destruction and show what humanity is capable of (good and bad).

Wilpers takes Bloggers to Print and then International

According to Universal Hub, Former EIC of the now defunct BostonNow, John Wilpers, is seeking global bloggers for GlobalNews Enterprises. As GNE’s Director of Global Blog Development (fancy sounding, eh?), Wilpers is teaming up with local TV exec and NECN founder Phil Balboni and former Globe publisher Benjamin Taylor, among other notables, to form the “first fully web-based news organization to provide daily coverage of international news.” They plan to get 70 bloggers on board from around the world. While their site won't be up until early 2009, you can register in the mean time as a future subscriber or contributor. Don’t be intimidated by GNE's impressive Nova-esque graphics; if you’re interested in writing, contact them.

Wilpers is known in Boston for his work with TAB, Metro, and AOL's Boston CityGuide and has also worked with the Washington Examiner. He was EIC for BostonNOW for its first eight months in 2007 and then served as a consultant. The paper went under in April of 2008 when its main Icelandic backer, Baugur Group, pulled the plug due to poor foreign credit markets (a little bit of foreshadowing that hits close to home).

Although BostonNow was frequently slammed for its outrageous, often tabloid content and antics, it was the first US print paper to publish local blog content and to seek out and recruit bloggers. Even with the paper’s random and disjointed organization, its influence is undeniable. Since the publication's brief run excerpts from blogs are now printed in many papers, including Metro and The Boston Globe to name a few. Many heavy-hitter publications even have their own staff blogs (cough cough, Fringe?). BostonNow, despite its flaws, played a part in that.

I’m interested to see how GNE develops and whether it will be successful as BostonNow once planned to be. You can read more on Wilpers' thoughts on the evolution of blogging and its importance in the print world here.