Guy LeCharles Gonzalez (aka glecharles) (aka loudpoet)

An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Spindle: New Content for March

Just in time for our impromptu open mic/party tonight -- Spindle gets a little bit LOUDER -- I've posted another round of great content up on Spindle for your reading pleasure! * New poetry by Celeste Doaks, Don Pomerantz and Jacob Rakovan * New short fiction by Diane Simmons and David Winter With this latest update, I've now published over 100 poems, stories, articles and photos by 62 different contributors! Stop by and check out the latest contributions, and poke around and catch up on any you might have missed. I'll be reading a couple of my favorites at the…

Continue ReadingSpindle: New Content for March
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Your Entitlement Slip is Showing

Stop Whining by ChrisB in SEA

Among the most tiresome memes dominating the publishing world right now — memes that I’ve admittedly contributed to at times — the worst are the self-righteous rants about self-publishing, Amazon, and the long-rumored death of print.

There are the writers who think their publishers should be doing more for them while smugly looking down their noses at the writers willing to do it all for themselves; and the passionate-to-a-fault DIYers who feel the need to answer every single ill-considered critique with defensive point-by-point rebuttals.

There’s the indie publishers and bookstores who complain about Amazon’s success while having no real online presence of their own to speak of, nor the good sense to leverage their respective strengths and develop their own niche communities around the two things Amazon will never be able to compete with: content and relationships.

And, of course, there’s the much belabored death of print, an arguably self-inflicted wound that’s far from lethal, unless whining and navel-gazing continue to be the priority.

Blame it on the state of the economy and the debatable bailouts of mismanaged, seemingly undeserving companies and/or homeowners, but underneath it all there is an overwhelming sense of entitlement, a belief that someone — publishers, writers, readers, the Internet itself — owes them something and their current plight is someone else’s fault.

My short response: STFU and GBTW.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus] "We live in an amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots that don't care." [1:30] I've never seen Louis CK in action before, but my favorite humor is the insightful observational kind and this clip is hilarious, primarily because it's all so true. I say burn it all down and start over. (h/t @torrento)

Continue ReadingEverything’s amazing, nobody’s happy
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

On Twitter: Always Add Value

My flock of Twittersheep

I find it hard to believe that as recently as six months ago, I was dismissing Twitter as a pointless ripoff of Facebook’s status update, without any of the extras that make Facebook a “real” social network. From what I’d seen, it lived up to its negative reputation of mindless updates about eating lunch, waiting in traffic and unimaginative opinions on the pop culture distraction of the moment.

(Note: I’ve certainly been guilty of the latter, though in relative moderation; I vow to NEVER live-tweet a whole episode of American Idol!)

When I decided to start using Twitter for more than updating my Facebook status, and began to actively seek out quality tweeters in the publishing and media world to follow, I had a revelation.

The image above is from Twittersheep, “a word cloud generated from the bios” of the 200+ people currently following me on Twitter. The emphasis on “writer”, “media”, “book” and “marketing” tells me that I’ve tapped into the niche I was looking for and am, theoretically, adding value to that niche as the majority of my own tweets match up with those keywords. In fact, the number of people following me spiked dramatically a few weeks back during the Tools of Change conference, largely as a result of my following along on Twitter and adding my two cents to the conversation.

I’ll often throw in a little something about politics (check out @nprpolitics), pop culture (@Latinoreview), sports (@matthewcerrone), or how much I want to stab someone on any given day, but I expect the same additional personal spice from those I follow, too, as long as their primary focus remains on publishing, or in some cases, my peripheral interests.

Twitter is not for everyone, but I find the precision required to get your point across in only 140 characters without resorting to “text speak” a particularly inspiring endeavor that’s useful in many other forms of communication, from email to poetry. I’m actually rather surprised at the number of poets I know who dismiss it, especially slam poets, instead of rising to the challenge and turning it into a new creative form.

Beyond poetry, though, there are niches were it is an invaluable social networking tool, a perfect complement to blogging, an in-the-moment StumbleUpon, and absolutely nothing like Facebook or LinkedIn.

Publishing is definitely one such niche.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

When in doubt, follow Frank’s lead

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl95eDA_uR4]

…and do it YOUR way.

ETA: Okay, I hate posts of videos with no real content, especially on a day Seth Godin challenges everyone to blog something interesting.

I woke up this morning with Sinatra’s “My Way” stuck in my head on repeat and it was a good thing. A timely reminder to clearly know what you stand for; know when to compromise, when to hold your ground and when to simply walk away.

It’s an especially timely reminder in light of the economy and the sense that having a job is the new merit raise.

It also reminds me of one of my favorite poems, one of the first “personal narratives” I wrote as I was moving past my initial ranty political phase, and the one that I most often get random emails from teachers or students about, informing me that it’s been used in a school performance.

Breathless

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Let’s Go Mets! Let’s Go…Knicks?

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QRZnGEjNvQ]

I’m thrilled that the Brett Favre fiasco is officially over and I can look forward to being a 100% Jets fan again, but right this minute, I am so ready for Spring and the baseball season to get started!

Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog.com has been whetting my appetite the past few days with his great on-field reports and video clips of the early days of spring training as Jerry Manuel puts the team through their paces with an emphasis on a “Team First” mentality. The last two seasons have ended in huge disappointment, but I don’t believe there’s any question that the Mets go into 2009 as the frontrunner again, not just for the NL East pennant, but the League Championship, too, and Manuel’s upbeat personality is a big part of the reason why.

No disrespect to Willie Randolph, but his Zombie Joe Torre impersonation just wasn’t the right fit in Queens — just like it wasn’t the right fit in the Bronx once Torre had to stand on his own two feet and actually build upon what he’d inherited from Buck Showalter and Gene Michaels — particularly because he was never able to develop the same rapport with the media and turn them into drooling sycophants like Torre did. Manuel loves talking to the media, and the media loves a good Manuel quote, so I think the “collapse” meme will be relatively muted in comparison to last Spring, especially with A-Roid hogging the spotlight and having zero acting ability to spin the moment to his advantage.

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Continue ReadingLet’s Go Mets! Let’s Go…Knicks?
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Peter Shankman on the Future of Social Media

When my CEO sent me a friend request on Facebook last year, I had to rethink how I was using the site.

When Facebook changed its Terms of Service earlier this month, before quickly backtracking in the face of a growing uproar, I started to rethink my approach to social media overall.

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a presentation/Q&A with social networking guru Peter Shankman — who suffers from a self-described extreme case of ADOS (Attention Defici- Oh, Shiny!) and an abundance of eccentric charisma (one of his many claims to fame is as the original creator of the “It Sank. Get Over It!” t-shirts) — and while it was targeted to PR professionals and focused on his terrific Help a Reporter Out initiative, there were a lot of general marketing-related takeaways that I found interesting.

I wish I had taken notes, or live-Tweeted some of his comments, but I was so engaged in the moment that I didn’t want to be distracted by trying to share it with others!

PR is the most effective form of marketing and, these days, we’re all marketers at some level, no matter what our actual job title is or income bracket we’re in. We’re all influencers, and while our respective tribes might be small, through social networking we have exponentially more individual power than ever before. It’s something publishers are slowly realizing, though some might argue, much too late.

Shankman spoke a lot about Twitter, but went beyond the usual hype of it being the platform du jour, offering some excellent tips on communicating effectively that were just as applicable to email, telephone and in-person communication. We’re bombarded with an average of 17,000 separate demands on our attention every day — from family and co-workers to email to “don’t walk” signs —  so getting to the point quickly is crucial.

On Twitter (he’s @skydiver), brevity also happens to be a requirement: 140 characters to get your point across; always add value to the stream.

ie: don’t just Tweet “I’m eating yogurt.” Instead, Tweet “Pinkberry has 50% off coupons all day, today only.”

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