Join The Blog Express
August 15, 2008
Many of us blog to promote a product, or service, or intend to do so later on. But we all know that it can be really tough to get folk to visit our blogs – especially in the early days. And marketing your blog can be extremely time consuming.
As I mentioned, earlier in the week, I’ve been thinking of ways that we can work together, to attract more visitors to our blogs.
It’s a simple idea: The Blog Express – An ebook collection of our best blog posts – linking to our blogs. And anyone is welcome to join it (aside from spammers) – it’s ours, not mine. And it doesn’t matter whether your blog has 10 visitors a month, or a million. Things like Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank, or any other rank are not important either.
The only rule is that all contributers have to promote the book on their own blog. But I’m guessing that’s a rule we’ll all want to follow. After all, if 100 contributers can persuade only twenty people a week to read the ebook, that’s 104,000 readers in a year.
But to make this idea work, we’ll all need to contribute our thoughts and ideas.
So what do you think? Does this sound like a worthwhile venture? It won’t take long to put together if we work together. Is it worth the small amount of time we’d each need to invest?
If so, what else do we need to consider?
How do we come up with a title – do we choose from the outset, or wait to see what categories are submitted?
Do we choose posts we’ve already written, or do we choose a broad theme we can all write on?
Do we give the book away free, to attract more readers? Or do we charge a small fee, in the hope that those who are willing to invest the money, will also invest the reading time?
If we charge a fee, what do we do with the money – split it, invest it in marketing the book, or donate it to charity?
If the ebook is free, should it contain affiliate links or ads?
Do we include blog comments in the book, or not?
Do we include pictures of the authors and a small “about me” section?
Please share your thoughts and ideas on how we can make this work. Would you like to be involved? Is there a better way to do this than via an ebook?
Comments
51 Responses to “Join The Blog Express”
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Successful And Outstanding Blogger
This sounds like a great idea Cath! I don’t feel qualified to make suggestions on most of your questions (and it’s after midnight and I am at Mum’s). I’d like to be involved (sorry not to be more helpful at the moment).
Robin’s last blog post..Letting Creativity Just Slip In
Great idea!
Some of my thoughts are:
The book needs a theme. I’m assuming this is about personal development, but we need to make sure. More focus may be good, too, or we can set up chapters in the book.
Resource box for each contributor would be necessary. And you might want to decide the max number of posts a contributor can have in the book.
Akemi – Yes to Me’s last blog post..Paving The Way For Online Entrepreneurs: Darren Rowse
sounds like a great idea. i like the idea of giving away stuff for free. people also put their affiliate links in their ebook…i guess it could be the gift that keeps on giving….to you…no matter who gets it. why not. sure go ahead.
no comments and yes an about me page of the authors
Natural’s last blog post..Traffic: Flaw in Design or Drivers?
I love this idea Cath!
I think we should let the title marinate. But I’d love to hear any creative idea that grabs someone
I’d like to include the comments because this adds to the “personality” of the blog, but I’m not sure about the legal implications on this. Vered might be able answer that one???
We could have different sections in the book. One could display our best posts. We could experiment and have a few of us write about the same topic to show how blogging offers up different perspectives. We could include past interviews to show how we “love and support each other” awwww.
We could highlight different sections: i.e., humor, wordless wednesdays, personal development, blogging tips, etc.
We could leave it up to each blogger about including their photo, but an About Intro/Bio would be a good idea.
I think we should charge a small fee, donate a portion of this to a charity and split the rest. Anyone know a good accountant?
That is my 2 cents worth.
Davina’s last blog post..I Dreamt I Died
PS, Vered I hope it was ok that I suggested you might have advice about publishing the comments. I probably shouldn’t have spoken for you. Yikes! Please don’t be mad
Davina’s last blog post..I Dreamt I Died
Davina, why would I be mad?? As far as I know, the comments in our blog become ours once they are posted, so there shouldn’t be any problem with including them.
However, personally I would just publish the posts, not the comments. Posts can always be edited to include comments that significantly added to the discussion.
I am happy to participate. Cath, are you willing to orchestrate this? It will require the most work from the person who does.
Other than that, I agree with Akemi that we should decide on a theme. Each participant will submit one article – it can be something that they already published, as long as it fits within the theme.
I say give it for free, no ads.
Definitely include an About and a photo.
Personally, I will need some freedom in how exactly to promote it on my blog – so if, for example, I am to place it on my sidebar, it’s important to me to have control over how it will look – ideally I will want it to blend into my sidebar so that I can keep a clean look.
Vered’s last blog post..Are You A Parent? Stressed Much? You Should Check Out UpToUs
If this ebook is to be for self-promotion, then it should be given away for free, in my opinion. Fundraising is a great idea, but it will reduce the number of people who see the ebook — which is of course the whole point of this, isn’t it?
I also strongly agree it should be theme-based. “7 Bloggers & 7 Posts: How to Attract More People to Read Your Blog”. Contributors should use a post on the theme that has already been posted, but I think it is allowable to “polish” it up a bit if the author feels it is necessary, and perhaps even include some ideas from the comments (if comments won’t be included).
On that note, if comments will be included, I think that it would be appropriate to contact the people who commented to get their permission, or to simply use initials.
Great idea — love to come aboard! (I could also contribute by doing the layout and PDF generation — unless there is a graphic designer in the house that is…)
~Graham
Graham Strong’s last blog post..Blogging Au Naturel
Very interesting idea, Cath.
I will have to think on this one for a bit and come back to it.
However, a few of my first thoughts while reading this was:
- I think we should leave out comments. That might clog up the book too much. A simple, clear, and informative post would be great. The title can link to the actual article or comment section if people are interested in participating.
- My first thoughts on a title is something that will show how this ebook brings X amount of ideas or blogs into one place. I’ll think more on it, though.
- A great table of contents is key.
Ok, I’m off to ponder.
John Hoff – eVentureBiz’s last blog post..The Continuity Of My Blog – Putting It All Together
Cath, I like your idea very much. My two cents … I favor the approach of using existing blog posts. Original posts around a single theme is being done now on the Age of Conversation project. That project focuses on marketing. The AOC formula works, and would be a good model to follow, even using preexisting posts, on the theme of personal development. On the other hand, collecting old posts into a “best of” collection is unique, as far as I know. Would people be interested in reading the 100 posts judged to be the best by their author? I think so, but the TOC and page titles would have to describe the topic clearly and cleverly to hook readers.
Brad Shorr’s last blog post..Words for Nerds – Portmanteau
Fabulous idea, as always. (That’s why I subscribe to your RSS because you’re full to overflowing with great ideas.)
My take:
Ebook should be free. (it makes it so much easier on all fronts)
Comments – no
affiliate links -no
about authors-yes
Once readers visit your blog for more information, then you can make your affiliate sales.
Theme based is an essential key to success. Who is the target audience? Other seasoned bloggers? New bloggers? Internet newbies?
For example, Graham’s suggestion: “7 Bloggers & 7 Posts: How to Attract More People to Read Your Blog” is strongly positioned to speak to established bloggers.
On the other hand, “Blog Express: 7 blogs & 7 posts that will change your life” would be targeting a self improvement audience.
It’s a marvelous idea. Count me in. I’d love to be a part of this,but the change your life/self improvement theme will be a stretch for me, but not everyone else who has commented.
Kathy’s last blog post..This is How Web 2.0 Works?
Cath,
I like the idea very much. Although I may change my mind on some items as the conversation evolves, here are my initial thoughts:
- I think the e-book should be free, both to keep it simple and to get wider distribution/more readers. Affiliate links and ads should not be included—we are trying to “sell” our blogs, not products.
- As Brad suggested, bloggers pick their best/favorite posts rather than writing to a theme. Having a theme might make it difficult for everyone who wants to participate if the theme doesn’t fit their blog. Also, not having a theme would better show the variety in the blogosphere. It might be a good idea to have sections of different themes so readers can choose topics of interest rather than wading through lots of things that don’t interest them. Maybe the categories could be determined, then bloggers could choose posts for a specific category.
- I think one post per participant is fair, assuming the good response I expect to this idea. I’m not sure whether a photo and about should be included or just a resource box with brief info and a link to the blog.
- Who decides what bloggers/posts are included? It’s great to make this open to everyone, but it seems there should be some sort of quality control if we want to motivate people to read blogs. And who determines “quality” – I definitely don’t want to be associated with subjects/styles I find offensive, and as an editor, I wouldn’t want to see posts filled with spelling and grammar errors. I’m talking glaring errors, not violations of strict grammar rules, but we all know there are blogs that don’t seem to pay any attention to grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
- The title might be best chosen after we have a better idea of content.
Thanks for coming up with this idea, Cath.
Lillie Ammann’s last blog post..Guest Post: Your Competition Stinks – Isn’t it Great!
Cath
You’re such an ideas woman it’s easy to see why you’ve been so successful in business. I think this is a wonderful idea and of corse I want to be involved!
My initial thoughts are this could be a series and the first one would be FREE with no advertising or affiliate links. Aim: To increase exposure of everyone’s blogs and showcase the great writing that exists int he blogasphere. After that, if we were onto a winner we could look at selling.
I wouldn’t include comments. And I think a theme is good and it can still apply for everyone because we could choose a broad enough topic at first and then have lots of different perspectives.
At SHE-POWER I say I write about LIFE and I add my own humorous twist because I don’t like to take life too seriously. Anyone here can write a post or give one of their existing posts for a BLOGS FOR LIFE style book (example). This can include personal wisdom, self improvement, humor, family, entrepreneurship, time management skills, better writing/grammar skills, and even a piece on why you should start a blog and ways it can add value to your life. It’s broad but we can still have a theme to pull together on and it makes it easier to promote.
I’ll ponder this some more and I’d be happy to help you organize it.
Kelly@SHE-POWER’s last blog post..Kelly Comes Clean With A Weekend Meme
This is an awesome idea Cath. My 2 cents:
No to comments.
No to affiliate links (just a link to each blog).
I think we should choose a broad theme.
Each author can decide whether to send in an old post or write something new.
Yes to an about page.
Free.
No ads.
What about the costs of putting an e-book together (such as creating a title page, and so on?)
Seriously Cath, very good idea, count me in
Marelisa’s last blog post..Slow Down – 32 Ways to Start Now
@Vered, I had remembered that you prefer not to give advice and here I was offering you up for that very thing.
Davina’s last blog post..I Dreamt I Died
Sounds like a pretty cool idea Cath!
My thoughts:
No ads
No comments
Use existing posts
Give it away
Keep it simple
Keep it small (file size)
Lance’s last blog post..Maintenance, Do You Do It?
Hi Cath,
Your idea is very powerful and can potentially be the start of something bigger than we can comprehend right now. However, I like to second some of the comments already written here. Lillie mentioned about editing for quality content. While this sounds easy, it isn’t. So where do you draw the line.
Also, this needs to be setup in terms of a proper venture, otherwise it will fizzle into nothing. We would need a person who is good at graphics and willing to contribute a groovy looking ebook cover. We’d also need a person who orchestrates the lot. I’m fine with you, since you came up with the idea, but are you willing to chase stories and contributions?
Graham already mentioned the layout and that he is willing to contribute.
Here are some more questions:
* where do you stop? How many contributors, how many stories
* who is going to decide whether the submitted stories are worthy of inclusion?
* how big do you want to go in terms of ebook size?
As for your questions, I’m certainly interested to participate and also help if I can contribute in any way.
Here is my take on the setup of the book:
no to cost
no to affiliate links
no to ads
no to comments
yes to author pic and a small about section with one or two backlinks to their own blog
use existing posts
yes to a themed approach
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Sucked Into The Lion’s Lair
I’d be keen to join in too. But I agree…a theme would be great!
Do keep us posted!
Evelyn
Evelyn Lim | Attraction Mind Map’s last blog post..How To Build Intuitive Awareness For Inspired Actions
Thanks for sharing your ideas everyone. I’ll try to reply collectively otherwise the thread will become complicated. It looks like we’re going to have to have a few discussions to get this right. But we’ve got some great ideas to begin with.
Some of you want a theme and some don’t. Maybe Kelly’s suggestion of a very broad theme would work. Or as Brad said, maybe having no theme would be original.
Most of you seem to agree that we shouldn’t be monetizing this at all. I guess that will keep it simple.
Vered asked if I would be willing to orchestrate this. I am – but I would prefer to share the workload with all contributors as I want you all to own this idea.
Most of you are saying no comments and no affiliate links too, so I guess that’s more or less decided.
Now a few of you – Monika, Rita and Lillie mentioned editing. And I can understand that. As much as we want to keep this as open as possible, we can’t allow folk to submit crap that they’ve put together in 5 minutes. I doubt that any of my readers would do that, but the Internet is a huge place.
I think I will need help on the editing. While I’m good at spotting crap, I’m not tactful enough when I ask folk to change things. Someone recently sent me a guest post and I told them they’d need to edit it a lot. They took offence with the suggestions I made and refused to rewrite the post.
As Monika said – Maybe now is time to think about size. Should we agree on a maximum number of contributers and posts now? How long is too long. Do we want the size of an average length book? Or she would consider the short attention span of people on the Internet and create something shorter?
Titles have been mentioned and I guess we’ll have to wait to see whether we decide to use a theme or not before we decide on a title.
I’m going to put all this info together after everyone’s given their thoughts and we can take the next step from there.
If it goes well, I’d like to add some additional joint marketing ventures. I’ve noticed that many bloggers are struggling to find time to write and market their bloggers.
This is particularly challenging for you freelancers, so I’d really like to see everyone working together to save time and produce great results.
By the way Graham – thank you for volunteering to do the layout and pdf creation. That would be wonderful.
Cath -
This is a great idea! Sorry for chiming in a bit late.
I agree it should be free and shouldn’t contain affiliate links. Otherwise, I’m pretty to open to whatever else – title, about, picture, etc.
I’m willing to help however would be beneficial. I can also help Graham with layout, pdf creation and contribute some artwork if desired. Just let me know.
~ Annie
Annie Anderson’s last blog post..Bumps, bruises and links
Addressing the issue that are still open:
1. Theme: I like Kelly’s idea of a broad theme too. “Blogs For Life” is pretty good, by the way.
2. Submissions: I would do what Liz Strauss did – once we decide on how to do this, post an announcement and invite people to submit articles. Give a cutoff date and time (3 days?). Explain that the first 50 articles that are deemed quality and in line with the theme will be included. I think we should also limit the length of the articles (up to 1000 words?)
3. I wanted to say that I can help with reviewing and editing articles, and I think that normally I would be great at that, but frankly, I am so busy right now, that it would mean too much pressure. I’d rather give up on this venture than become so involved that I need to sleep even less than I do now. Sorry.
4. I seem to be the only one concerned with this, but I would need to know how exactly are we expected to promote this on our own blogs: a blog post? A button on our sidebar?
5. Legal issues I can think of – there are several disclaimers that we would need to add, and make it clear that by submitting articles, people agree to them:
a. Deciding on what is “quality” and what gets in is completely in your control.
b. You have the right to edit submitted material, change the layout and the photo, add a photo etc. You will send it back to the author for a final approval and they would have 48 hours to OK it, or the article is out of the book.
c. Include a content disclaimer similar to the one on MomGrind’s legal page and add that each author is only responsible for their own article and cannot be held responsible for the other articles. Any claims regarding an article should be addressed directly to the author – and we should all include a contact email.
d. You need to make sure you are comfortable with being the “face”, or the name, on the legal page. In an ideal world we would have incorporated for this venture, but this is not an ideal world.
e. Personally, I am going to include a disclaimer on my own article that says I am not responsible for the content, images and links in other articles.
I’m sure there’s more, but this is what I can think of right now.
Vered’s last blog post..Are You A Parent? Stressed Much? You Should Check Out UpToUs
As a parallel effort, don’t forget the audio version. I will be glad to narrate anything as long as I can use my Darth Vader voice.
Brad Brown’s last blog post..Tales of Former Girlfriends
Hi Annie – thank you. It would be fantastic if you and Graham could work together on that.
Hi Vered – I know you’re busy, but I knew we could count on you for legal advice. And I don’t mind being the name on the legal page.
And I know there’s a few contributers who might be willing to help with the editing.
Re – Submissions – great idea on the time limit and word limit. A thousand words doesn’t seem a lot in a magazine, but on a blog it’s a whole heap.
Kelly’s idea and blog title are good aren’t they? If others agree – they may be the ones to use.
Hi Brad – an audio version is an awesome idea. Thanks for volunteering. I’m not sure that the others would agree to the Darth Vadar voice though.
If we’re using pictures on the cover of the ebook, I was thinking – you use a Brad Pitt pic in social networking etc. Folk might download the book if they saw that. But we’d be best to run it by Vered first, incase there’s any legal implications.
Disclaimer: I am not a U.S. attorney. So my knowledge is limited and a lot of it is plain common sense. I wouldn’t want anyone to feel that if they follow my advice, they would be 100% protected on the legal front. You won’t. But I WAS trained as an attorney in Israel and I do have that alarmist-worst-scenario type of thinking, so that should be helpful.
(Lawyers always use disclaimers, don’t they?)
Re: using photos of celebrities, I wouldn’t do that. Unless you know for sure it’s a photo that was taken by a random individual (a non-professional) and posted on the internet under a Creative Commons license, SOMEONE probably holds the rights to a celebrity photo – either the celebrity itself, or the photographer who took the photo.
Generally speaking, there are two legal issues here:
1. Protecting you, Cath, from any claims made by unhappy participants, or those that are rejected. I can prepare “submission guidelines” that will include what I said in my comment above.
2. Protecting each participant from claims that are related to content that is not under her control and was submitted by other participants. I can prepare a legal statement that we can put in the ebook, as well as a disclaimer for each participant to put on their own article.
As I said, whatever I prepare is NOT foolproof and should be considered as no more than a helpful recommendation.
Vered’s last blog post..Are You A Parent? Stressed Much? You Should Check Out UpToUs
Hi Catherine,
I read this post shortly after you posted it and started thinking, thinking, thinking…..
I think this a great idea, but as others discussed, there are issues to be dealt with. Vered, being the legal mind, hit on them, and I totally agree, a disclaimer needs to be added to protect each contributor.
I agree with Rita. This idea is beginning to mushroom. Was this your original intent, or has the comment thread taken you brilliant idea into a direction you don’t want it to go?
You’re the founder of this idea, and I would hate to see someone else try to steal the glory.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Casual Friday – Open Mic
Hi Rita – Thank you – that would be great if you could be Editor and I’m hoping a couple of others will give you a hand. Obviously – you’ll need to root out anything that is not suitable for inclusion.
And also, I think you need to make it clear that you’re only going to be doing a minimum amount of editing. You simply can’t waste time on work that needs a complete rewrite.
Re: The stalker. Don’t worry – if you mean the one who keeps popping up on here – I know who he is. I have his IP address and I know exactly who he is and where he lives.
Don’t worry about him – he’s not really a threat. I feel a bit sorry for him. He can’t get what he wants himself, so he goes round trying to damage the reputation of good writers on StumbleUpon.
I’ll put together a list so everyone knows their responsibilities and we’ll get this ball rolling. I totally agree – we should concetrate on the book now. Anything else like video etc can come later.
Hi Vered – that sounds great. I know laws vary in each country, but I trust your judgement and your common sense.
Hi Barbara – I love the way this idea is mushrooming. But as Rita said – we don’t want to go to OTT with video, audio etc all at once.
I’m thinking you’re concerned that some outsiders will read all this and take the ideas elsewhere. I wonder if we should set up a private forum, or chat for all involved so far? A forum may be better because of the time differences etc. And i think it’s fairly easy with Fantastico.
Don’t worry Rita – we won’t get robbed. Remember – this is a marketing machine we’re putting together and there’s lots more pieces we can add as we go along. We’ll get the ball rolling very soon.
Hi Cath,
I just wanted to put my hand up to say that if Rita needed a hand with editing, I’m game. I won’t be a chief but happy to do the Indian part.
Also, I think Vered offered some good tips on the legals aspects of it all.
It seems it is all coming together slowly but as you know, the work has only just started.
As for your question on a private forum, it might just create a whole lot of extra work. In the end, you will always run the chances of copy cats in whatever one does on the Internet.
Personally I don’t think it is needed, you are much easier off to create a private post and send the password to all involved instead if you are worried about unworthy eyes. At least that way you don’t have to setup additional things.
Either way, I’m happy to help where I can, so when the time arrives, just send me an email and command me around. I tink we are all busy so running this with s few key people leading and the rest following and doing might be the right solution.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Sucked Into The Lion’s Lair
I really like the idea Cath, but I’m one of the cautious ones.
I think this could be a great ongoing crowdsourcing project. Someone (there always needs to be someone in charge) picks a theme, then anyone who is interested submits their best archived post as a link.
People then vote for (or rate) the interested articles and after a designated period the top rated articles go into an ebook.
This could be done on a bi-monthly basis using a variety of themes.
Of course this means programming work for someone and compilation/desktop publishing work for others, so there would have to be some sort of revenue generation to make it successful. Three options spring to mind:
1) Sponsorship/advertising
2) Subscribe to submit articles (consider it a marketing expense)
3) Subscribe to receive bi-monthly ebook (selling the book)
As I said, a great idea Cath, but to do it really well, it might be a larger project than many people would be interested in doing (although I’d certainly volunteer to help out).
Cheers,
Alex
Alex Fayle’s last blog post..Watching the Fireworks
Hi Monika – Thank you. I knew you’d help with the editing.
I’ll co-ordinate everything and we’ll keep it as simple as possible. If we’re all doing a small task, it needn’t be so complicated. Thanks for the info on private posts. I had no idea we could do those and it sounds like the easiest idea.
Hi Alex – I do love your ideas. And they may be worthwhile in the future. But what you are describing sounds more like a business than a marketing activity.
I’m glad you’re willing to help out. But we’re going to keep this simple. The purpose of the book is to market our blogs. We can’t let it grow too overwhelming. The book will work fine but only if it is combined with other marketing activities. And we may well be able to add some of your ideas later.
@ Everyone: Now – I think enough people have subscribed to this thread to provide content for a great book. And they’re all good writers, which makes things easier.
A joint effort between us all, will be enough. We don’t need to leave this open to other contributors – unless you would like to invite some members of your own communities to contribute.
The important thing, is that everyone who contributes is willing to volunteer a little bit of effort to make this work and I think that everyone who has volunteered to take part so far will do that. What do you think?
Hi Rita – When I first posted this, I hoped you, Monika and Lillie would volunteer to edit, as I know you’ll do a great job. We might wind up with 60+ articles, so it would be far too overwhelming for just one person.
The areas you mentioned are right on the ball. And fixing the odd typo is fine. But I don’t want any of you having to waste your time rewriting stuff that timewaster have written in a rush – just to jump on the bandwagon.
If we limit this project to those who have jumped in so far, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that problem.
Definitely Rita. The blogger in question would need to be told to rewrite it themselves, if they wanted it included.
I haven’t taken the time to sift through all of these comments, but I’m willing to help out with the editing on this project.
I’m wondering if this might be easier to create a group email of those who want to participate and now take this discussion off the Internet???
Just a suggestion… your call Cath.
Davina’s last blog post..I Dreamt I Died
@ Cath @ Rita: I’m ok with what you guys said on the responsibilities of editing. No re-writes for sure, as this would involve far too much work for each of us., plus it would just turn I think.
Rita, I’m yours if there are no objections.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Sucked Into The Lion’s Lair
@ Cath: On the private posts, all you do is mark it private in the right sidebar in your WP editor. There is a section which allows you to either publish, draft or make private a post. Easy done and since you already have everybody’s email here it will be just a matter of sending our a group email with all the passwords, then we are good to go to discuss there (as long as you allow discussions on the private post, e.g. might have to be ticked)
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Sucked Into The Lion’s Lair
@ Davina, Rita and Monika – that is brilliant. Four of you should make it more manageable. I don’t know if Lillie actually volunteered outright, or if we just assumed she’d help because she’s already an Editor. I’ll check with her to make sure.
There’s other jobs that need doing, so should I send an email to everyone with a password? That way, we’ll all have each others email and also – access to a private thread. Should we keep this one?
@ Cath: I think going private is a good idea at this stage. Unless you want to keep this going. However I feel it might become too unmanageable if you do. It would be good to hear everybody else’s thought on this, but we can discuss these things in private anyway and then take it from there.
If we decide to invite more participants later, you can still post another entry (public) and do so that way. Once those new people are screened you can invite them to the private post with your password too if that makes sense.
You should check with Lillie though, since she hasn’t been back to reply and give her ok.
@ Rita: Good to go. I also look forward to this.
@ Vered: I know you said your suggestions weren’t fool proof as far as rights go, but I think it would be great if you came up with a generic statement we could all use on our articles as far as taking no responsibilities for the whole book goes.
Of course you need to be ok with this in the first place. I think it will help most of us, since many never consider the legal aspects (fine print) when releasing an ebook. It’s an important enough point though and needs to be clarified. Maybe you want to work with Cath and Rita on this so that it can be factored into the whole editing process.
Anyway, just a thought.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Sucked Into The Lion’s Lair
Great idea, Cath. At first I feared that it might be too vast to manage, but now it sounds like things are coming together nicely. I’m a former journalist and newspaper editor currently writing, blogging, and doing free lance editing — which is to say i have skills that may be sufficiently represented already by those who’ve volunteered — but if there’s any way I can be helpful, please let me know. — Bob in Brisbane
Robert Hill’s last blog post..Expat message from down under
Cath & Everyone -
Private posts are great, but could become unmanageable. Has anyone considered, or would everyone consider, possibly starting a private group on google or yahoo? Both services allow private groups, where members are invited only and the group threads are only viewable to signed in members.
The advantage to this would be to move it off Cath’s server and not plug her blog full of private posts. It would also allow for better thread management as well as archiving and searching capabilities. Plus, we could post files and such as we go.
Just a thought.
~ Annie
Annie Anderson’s last blog post..Bumps, bruises and links
@Rita -
Well, of course!
This whole thing is orchestrated at Catherine’s direction and I’m sure she’ll do what she feels best.
This thread will continue to drive traffic for quite some time as it is, whether the discussion moving forward from here is ultimately in private posts or via a group of some kind.
Thanks for your thoughts.
~ Annie
Annie Anderson’s last blog post..Bumps, bruises and links
I was offline for a day and a half and this project has moved way ahead. It looks like we’ve got a good group of interested participants and the prospect of a great marketing tool. Thanks again, Cath, for coming up with the idea and ramrodding the project.
I will be glad to help edit if I can edit on screen. I have vision issues that make it much more difficult for me to read/edit on paper. If the Editor determines editing should be done the proper way, I won’t be able to edit but will help in any other way I can.
Lillie Ammann’s last blog post..A Milestone: Post 400
I forgot to say that I agree with the scope of editing Rita proposed. And I think Rita should be the Editor to coordinate the editorial group.
Lillie Ammann’s last blog post..A Milestone: Post 400
Sorry folks – I got up because I couldn’t sleep (remember I’m on UK time) but I’ve been sitting here writing and didn’t even realise how long this thread was getting.
@ Monika – That sounds like a great idea. I will change this thread to private today.
@ Rita – I’ve been looking at some of the other things that need doing. But if I make a list – it would be great if you could check it out to see what I’ve missed.
Re: Editing – I’m like you – I need to print out to edit well – which is probably why I make so many typos on this blog. But it sounds like Lillie works best on computer and there’s no harm in her doing so.
@ Bob – Thank you. I’d love to have you on board. And I know you’d write some inspirational stuff to include in the ebook. An amazing number of people want to emigrate and start a new life in Australia, as you already know. Will keep you in the loop.
@ Annie – that is a good point. I find blog threads a huge struggle to keep up with. I’ll email you all today and we’ll have a vote.
@ Rita – thanks for worrying about my traffic. But you don’t need to. I’ve received surprisingly little traffic to this post. I know my Alexa ranking might make it look that way – but rankings can be deceptive.
I’m going to write a few posts on traffic in the future but because you’re fairly new to all this blogging stuff, I’ll email you today and explain what made my stats improve. It’s something that you’ll easily be able to do.
@ Lillie – thank you. Editing on screen is fine if it is wht you’re most comfortable with.
@ Rita – Hey, do you realise it’s 5.24am here. I think I’m around 5 hours ahead of you. I went to bed early but I got woken up at around 1am, which is why I’m still around.
Of course I don’t mind you being in charge of editing. Everyone else seems to be in favour of you doing it and you’re a great organiser. So long as you don’t mind the hate mail when you tell someone they need a complete rewrite. But, hopefully you won’t need to do that.
@ Rita, I’m quite happy to let you take the editorial lead. I’m a bit lost in the details and length of this feed but I’m still into helping out with the editing.
Guess we’ll need to outline the process; i.e., supply the writer with the proposed editing marks and let them say ya or nay? I am familiar with markups as I worked in publishing for 6 years and had to follow editor’s marks to make changes to book layouts.
Working as a proofreader, I prefer to print out the material first and mark it up from there. Then I can provide markups in pdf format for approval.
I agree that it would be best to see what submissions we get before choosing themes or categories.
We should also supply the edited versions in a common format? Not sure who is going to be putting all these submissions together, but I’m sure this will be more clear as we get going.
Davina’s last blog post..I Dreamt I Died
I know we are a little too far down this road already, but I have a few reservations about the editing part. Besides the obvious question of what language we will use (I count at least four different countries represented here…), then we get to editorial styles. AP, CP, UP… who knows? Do we have reason to believe that these blog entries even need editorializing?
The easy answer is that we leave the editing up to the individual writers. But again, perhaps we are too far down this road already.
@Annie – You know, I started using a cedilla in front of my name almost right from the start of my Internet life (circa 1995). It occurred to me that there was no practical way to “sign” your name on the Internet or in emails. I wanted something that would be easy to include and easily recognizable — and I’ve used the cedilla ever since.
The interesting thing (in my mind) is that in all that time I’ve never met another person who did the same. Some use single dashes, but you’re the first I’ve ever come across that used a cedilla! (We should start a club…)
~Graham
Graham Strong’s last blog post..Blogging Au Naturel
Hi Graham – I guess we all write in English. But I’m thinking you’re referring to spelling and different words used – English v American for example.
I think that should be left up to the individual writer. I use both.
Re – the editing – I think it’s going to be pretty basic, just the odd typo etc.
Thanks for sharing, re. the cedilla – I used to wonder what that funny squiggly thing was called.
@Graham,
That’s funny – I’ve been using it for about the same length of time online.
A dash or a slash or some other thing just looked odd to me so I began using the cedilla. Plus, as you say, not many people do and I’m not one to conform so easily to the crowd.
(Except, of course, when necessary.)
What’s even funnier – I even used the cedilla before my “online life” – I always signed my name with one when writing notes to friends and what-not in high school.
~ Annie
Annie Anderson’s last blog post..Sunday evening ramble . . .
Little late to the game, but this project sounds interesting! If you’re looking for more help from other bloggers, please let me know how I can help.
Al at 7P’s last blog post..The Hero with a Thousand Jobs
I agree completely with Rita. I have neither the time nor desire to edit a bunch of blog posts. On the other hand, I do not want to be part of a project that is filled with grammatical errors. All of us make mistakes—editors always say we can catch everyone’s mistakes but our own—so the editing staff will serve as another pair of eyes to catch overlooked mistakes as well as to organize the book. We are not going to rewrite posts or change anyone’s writing voice.
Lillie Ammann’s last blog post..A Milestone: Post 400
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