auria “Hussein” cortes

A few years ago, Peter, the facilitator of a writing group I sometimes frequent mentioned that every writer has multiple writing partners - her readers. This discussion came about because one of the writers in the group read her story and when she finished everyone in the room had a different interpretation of the character. Different scenes resonated with different people. We all filled in the backstory based on our own perception of the writer’s motive.

Once our work is made public its no longer our own. In a way, our orginal intention loses its integrity to the interpretation of others. Maybe that’s not a bad thing. Writers get what they need out of the story (i.e. developing an intriguing plot, creating believable characters) and readers get out of a story what they need (i.e. a mini vacation, reflection). 

Earlier this week I posted info on Barbara Bauers lawsuit againt Wikipedia. Judge Jamie S. Perri dismissed Bauers’ complaint against Wiki.

Perri said, “Perri cited the Communications Decency Act, enacted by Congress in 1996 to promote free speech over the Internet. The act immunizes a provider of interactive computer services from liability for publishing content provided by another.”

According to the report, “only Wikimedia challenged the lawsuit in court today, and complaints against the other defendants will stand.”

The other defendents include 19 bloggers and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

What piques my interest even further is that a call was put out by a fellow writer to help one of the 19 bloggers with donations. Getting sued, even if you win the case, is costly. These bloggers have to pay for attorney’s fees regardless.

Hardly anyone donated. A few days have passed so the donation may have increased by now. I doubt, however, that the fund is over flowing with cold hard cash. 

So if you agree with the blogger’s/writer’s position and feel generous today, make a small donation. Even a donation of $5 can make a difference. Donate HERE.
 

A few months ago, Linda started an online promotional campaign for her book. Every hour she went on Amazon.com to find out her book rank. Yes. Yes. Yes. We’ve all heard it’s a waste of time to check because Amazon rankings mean ”nothing.”

 Well, Linda deagrees with that. Mainly because publishers have asked her to provide her Amazon ranking along with competitors. So although we may not know how Amazon rankings work, the numbers are of interest to publishers Linda has spoken to.

Okay, back to Linda’s promotional campaign.

As expected, her book ranking fluctuates. And she wanted to know what the fluctuation meant in terms of sales. After all, that’s all that matters.

She came across a site called RankTracer where the site states the following benefits (in part):

• Keep a record of its historical performance. This piqued Linda’s interest because a book’s history is more important than a one day performance.

• Hourly data can give you a responsive, real-time method of tracking changes in sales. Linda loves this feature because when she receives an email that one of her articles has been published, she can check - in real time - if the article is translating into book sales. 

• Obtain weekly or monthly PDF reports. This report is helpful because Linda doesn’t have to check Amazon every few seconds. 

Unfortunately for Linda, she discovered RankTracer.com at the tail end of her promotional campaign. So she doesn’t know the exact results of her efforts. But based on the information that RankTracer provided, she was able to determine that her campaign doubled her book sales. Because of this, she’ll start another campaign in September and she’ll be sure to track her books performance from the start of a strategic promotion campaign.

Of course Linda always promotes her book in one way or another and she’ll enjoy the benefits of RankTracer throughout the year.  

Barbara Bauer’s literary agency was named by author advocates as one of the “20 Worst Literary Agents” for charging fees to authors with little in return.

Now Bauer has filed a lawsuit against Wikipedia, 19 bloggers and anyone who has said anything negative about her on the Internet.

Wendy at Writes in the City repped me on AW regarding a song meme. Below I posted the songs that I”ve been listening to. Sorry, they’re all in Spanish.

No Tengo Dinero - This song is about a man who doesn’t have money and because of that knows that his girl can’t love him.

He Tratado - This is a song about a guy who is trying to forget his girl.

El Cantante - The video has the lyrics

Hasta Ayer - He’s singing about a breakup.

More cheap meme cruft:

Welcome to the new 2008 edition of getting to know your family and friends. Here is what you are supposed to do, and try not to be lame and spoil the fun. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then [send this to a bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person who sent it to you] post it. Some of you may get this several times; that means you have lots of friends. Have fun and be truthful!

1. What is your occupation right now? Self-employed
2. What color are your socks right now? I’m barefoot.
3. What are you listening to right now? The voices in my head
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Tostones (fried plantains)
5. Can you drive a stick shift? No
6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My big sister. Who said she would call me back and never did.
7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes.
8. How old are you today? 35
9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? The last five minutes of a basketball game.
10. What is your favorite drink? Water
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes. The sun lightened my hair. I wanted  to darken it. And yep, you guessed it, my hair turned blonde. Which is not a good thing. So I was blonde for about three months. I couldn’t help but laugh at myself every time I looked in the mirror.
12. Favorite food? White bread.
13. What is the last movie you watched? Sex and the City
14. Favorite day of the year? I don’t have one.
15. How do you vent anger? I cry.
16. What was your favorite toy as a child? I can’t remember.
17. What is your favorite season? Fall
18. Cherries or Blueberries? I’ll take Diane’s answer. Grapes.
19. Do you want your friends to e-mail(blog) you back? Yes.
20. Who is the most likely to respond? I’m not sure who I’ll send this to.
21. Who is least likely to respond? See above.
22. Living arrangements? Live alone in my house.
23. When was the last time you cried? I don’t remember.
24. What is on the floor of your closet? Sneakers.
25. Who is the friend you have had the longest {that you are sending to}? Not sure who I’m sending this to.
26. What did you do last night? Wrote.
27. What are you most afraid of? Being sick.
28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? No burgers.
29. Favorite dog breed? Not a fan of dogs.
30. Favorite day of the week? Friday
31. What is your favorite number? I don’t have one.
32. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds.
33. What is your favorite flower? I don’t know the names of flowers. But I like wild ones.

Aaron Crocco’s post on Why I Write inspired today’s Thursday Thirteen. Writers have different reasons for putting pen to paper. Some say it’s passion, but I say it’s ego. Here’s thirteen reasons why:

1. It’s egotistical to think we have something to say that the world is meant to hear. Who are we? Most likely nobodies. Nobodies just like the rest of the population. But we writers think we’re somebody. And that our voices must be heard.
2. It’s egotiscal to think that a story that does fits in the “must be told” category should be written by us. Why us? Yeah, some stories need to be told, but that don’t mean we gotta be the ones to write it.   
3. It’s egotistical to think you aren’t egostical. Did that make sense? ::scratches head:: Let me put it this way: there are some writers that say they write for themself. Give me a break. If you write for yourself then you’d be quiet about. Stop trying to get published.
4. It’s egotistical to hand over your work to a publisher. Yeah, that’s right. When you submit your work the implication is that your story is good enough to be on bookshelves. Talk about an ego.
5. It’s egotistical to submit your work to a vanity press. I mean it’s called a vanity press for a reason. Right?
6. It’s egotistical to daydream about our books making the bestseller list. I mean really. Out of the hundreds of thousands of books published every year, we dare dream that our story will reach millions. You know, because it’s that special. ((she says sarcastically))
7. It’s egotistical to call yourself a writer when you rarely write. But the label “writer” sounds cool so you buy into the old, but tired, adage: when you put words to paper you are a writer. Um, no. You aren’t. If you are in the writing club for the label, it’s all about ego, baby doll.
8. It’s egotistical to think we can take a story that has been retold time after time and give it a different spin. Can’t we come up with our own original ideas? Oh, there are no original ideas? That’s kinda true isn’t it? All the books out there are recycled versions of older stories. So if that is the case, then why retell a story. Oh yeah, because we can tell it in a better way. That would be called an ego, my friends.
9. It’s egotistical to write something, sit back and say, “Hey, this is good stuff. People may just be interested in reading this.” Newsflash: I could care less about a dragon in another universe who is being chased by a unicorn.
10. It’s egotistical to ask your publisher to send you 50 copies of your book when you know you aren’t going to give any away. You just want a box full of your book. ((Linda are you listening? The books are gathering dust. You know that, right? But you don’t care. Do you? Because you get a kick every time you peek in the box))
11. It’s egotistical to write specifically to get positive feedback. Almost all of us have been part of a writing group where a participant is shocked that there were recommendations on how to make a story better…and this brings up point number twelve.
12. It’s egotistical to think that we know so much about writing that we can beta read someone else’s work. Who are we really? Yeah, say it with me. Unpublished. That’s what we are. 
13. It’s egotistical to think that just because one book of yours is published that you can consider yourself a writer. Linda learned this lesson the hard way:

         13 year old: What do you do?
         Linda: I’m a writer.
         13 year old: What have you written.
         Linda: I wrote X.
         13 year old: You only wrote one book and you call yourself a writer?