Tag: writing and technology

Self-Publishing: a World of Innovation

author Ben WesterhamGuest Post
by Ben Westerham

Those of us writing today are extraordinarily fortunate to find ourselves living through a period of incredible change in the world of publishing. What’s more, all this innovation is presenting us with a plethora of opportunities. I’ve written this piece to encourage you to embrace all of this change and to maximise the benefits you derive from it. Things won’t be like this forever, so, as they say, let’s make hay while the sun shines. So, where to begin when there’s so much going on? Continue reading “Self-Publishing: a World of Innovation”

The Rise of Technology = The Rise of Indie Authors and Publishers

indie author at work pixabay robot-507811_640The other day, my internet went out. Not a huge problem; there was a cable cut somewhere and it was fixed within 24 hours. I can live without Facebook for 24 hours, right? That’s not a necessity.

But I was working.

Oh, sure, I could still write, and I did, but I couldn’t do anything else. I had been seeing to some last-minute confirmations for a couple of workshops I’m teaching for a continuing education program. I was trying to get a reservation at an upcoming book festival. I was organizing a book signing in a town across the state. I was corresponding with a neighboring library about another book signing. And I was wanting to shout to the world that one of my books was a finalist in a book award contest.

And I couldn’t do any of those things. Continue reading “The Rise of Technology = The Rise of Indie Authors and Publishers”

My Intellectual Prosthetic

Guest post
by Jeff Shear

I discovered the ghost in my computer back in 1987 when I realized my PC worked like an intellectual prosthetic. Of course every computer can be described as an intellectual prosthetic. By itself, the hard-drive functions as a prosthetic memory. The experience I’m thinking about was stranger and more mysterious. And it was all about writing.

About the time the first PC virus spread over the Internet in the early ‘80s, the buzz in the software world was “integration,” employing a common set of commands for word processors, spreadsheets, and databases. I jumped into the market purchasing a program called Framework. An integrated application, Framework was designed for business but was perfect for writing. Better than perfect. Framework took integrated software a step beyond, throttling the stubborn computer and turning it into more than the sum of its parts. That created unexpected synergies, and let the writing genie out of the bottle. Continue reading “My Intellectual Prosthetic”