Perfect insight on today’s fast-changing publishing scene! :)
(Cartoon copyright © Harry Bliss. Used by permission of Pippin Properties, Inc..)
The late Edward Rondthaler was a typographist, a simplified spelling champion, and chairman of the American Literacy Council. When he was 102 years old, he recorded this video showing the challenge of properly spelling English. Enjoy.
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Reporter Lauren A. E. Schuker of The Wall Street Journal interviews bestselling author James Patterson, who had 11 books released last year and has 13 coming out this year.
To date, the 65-year-old author has published 95 books and according to Nielsen ranks as the country’s top-selling author. Those numbers have added up to big business: Mr. Patterson earns more than $80 million a year, according to people familiar with his publishing empire.
Mr. Patterson works seven days a week out of a two-room office suite at his Palm Beach, FL oceanfront home. White bookshelves line the first room, where he does the bulk of his writing, all in pencil on white legal pads. There’s no computer; just a telephone, fax machine, an iPad, and a bag of bubble gum. The second room looks like a traditional bedroom, but the bed is covered by books, loose-leaf papers, and manuscripts.
When it comes to writing, he has a well-practiced system: he writes a detailed outline and then hires someone—often a former colleague from his advertising days — to write the ensuing scenes, usually in 30 to 40 page chunks. He will review those pages every few weeks, sometimes providing notes on them and other times re-writing them entirely.
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Linguist David Crystal describes English as "a vacuum cleaner of a language" — speakers merrily swipe some words from other languages, adopt others because they're cool or sound classy, and simply make up other terms.
Crystal believes every word has a story to tell, even the ones as commonplace as “and.” In his new book, The Story of English in 100 Words, he compiles a collection of words — classic words like "tea" and new words like "app" — that explain how the English language has evolved.
On NPR’s Talk of the Nation (@totn), he tells about the challenge of compiling this list and the idiosyncrasies of the English language.
Read and hear this interview in full.
This interview clearly sets the foundation for the reason the new Common English Bible (@CommonEngBible) was just published: because the digital revolution is accelerating changes in the English language and its everyday usage and understandability. The popular Common English Bible, ranking #7 on the Christian retail bestseller list for April, is necessary to clearly communicate God’s Word since 9,000 new words and meaning revisions are added yearly to the English lexicon. The Common English Bible is today’s freshest translation and uses natural, 21st century English.
Sample the CEB on its website.
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Author, speaker, and futurist Leonard Sweet (@lensweet) scouted this article in the World Future Society’s (@WorldFutureSoc) magazine, The Futurist (@Theyear2030) (March-April 2012): A Future of Fewer Words?: 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Language by Lawrence Baines (in an earlier article, Baines offered 6 manifestations of the retreat of the written word:
1. The power of image-based media to influence thought and behavior;
2. The tendency of newer technologies to obliterate aspects of older technologies;
3. The current emphasis on school reform;
4. The influences of advertising and marketing;
5. The current state of books as repositories of the language; and
6. The reconceptualization of the library.)
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Sweet says,
I tried to say the same thing in chapter 9 of my upcoming book Viral ("Turning a Tin Ear to Poetry"), but Baines is more comprehensive and scientifically compelling. “As the world recedes from the written word and becomes inundated with multisensory stimuli (images, sound, touch, taste, and smell), the part of the human brain associated with language will regress. While visually astute and more aurally discriminating, the areas of the brain associated with language are also associated with critical thinking and analysis. So, as the corpus of language shrinks, the human capacity for complex thinking may shrink with it.”
“Losing polysyllabic words will mean a corresponding loss of eloquence and precision. Today, many of the most widely read texts emanate from blogs and social networking sites. Authors of these sites may be non-readers who have little knowledge of effective writing and may have never developed an ear for language.”
Read The Futurist article in full (membership required).
Read Baines’ earlier article (pdf).
Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you navigate the changing communication scene to most effectively reach your consumers.
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In Fast Company (@FastCompany), NYU journalism professor Adam L. Penenberg (@penenberg) interviews self-published author Charles Orlando, who’s written two volumes of The Problem With Women… Is Men. Orlando has sold upwards of 15,000 copies of his work as a Kindle, iPad, and iPhone ebook, as well as a traditional paperback, generating around $130,000 since its release in November 2008.
Which self-publishing service did you choose?
BookSurge Publishing (now CreateSpace, @CreateSpace). BookSurge was partnered with Amazon.com, and once I was published, my book was automatically included on Amazon.com (this was 2007/2008, before there was a real ebook publishing effort). It was print-on-demand with really good quality, so I didn't need to hold an inventory and I didn't need to be part of the backend stuff: shipping, fulfillment, returns, chargebacks, etc. Plus, I would get all the benefit of being grouped with best-selling authors, receive reviews, and more. They had multiple levels of service – editing, marketing, public relations, custom covers, and much more – but I elected to go with a flexible offering (allowing me a custom interior, custom cover, and no more than 10 interior illustrations).
What did all this cost?
Editor: $500 (flat fee)
BookSurge publishing package: $900 (now priced lower)
Cover design and all artwork: $750
25 copies (for review): Free.
Total: $2,150
He goes on to explain how he marketed his book.
I started a blog: three posts a week. Simultaneously, I spun up my Facebook and Twitter (@charlesjorlando) efforts and started publishing my blog posts to my Facebook Page. But I could see that readers had to leave Facebook or Twitter to interact with what I had written. As a test, I just wrote on Facebook, using the Notes application on my Page. And... voila... increased engagement and interactivity; more comments, more sharing on individuals' Walls. I took down my blog at the end of 2009 and in an effort to meet my audience where they "lived" I transitioned all my efforts to Facebook (and some on Twitter). My Facebook Fan Page was now a few hundred strong.
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Wayne State University’s (@WayneState) Word Warriors (@wordwarriors) has as its objective “to retrieve some of the English language's most expressive words from the dank closet of neglect, in hopes of boosting their chances of a return to conversation and narrative.” See how many on the list you can work into your vocabulary today:
Antediluvian – Antiquated; old-fashioned; out of date.
Erstwhile – Former; bygone. Rampantly misused.
Execrable – Atrocious; wretched; abominable.
Frisson – That sudden, involuntary shiver we may feel at times of great emotion.
Parlous – Dangerous or risky.
Penultimate – Next to last.
Sisyphean – Actually or apparently endless and futile.
Supercilious – Contemptuous; disdainful; condescending.
Transmogrify – To change completely, usually grotesquely, in appearance or form.
Truckle – Submit obsequiously; be subservient; kowtow.
Michigan Radio (@MichiganRadio) reporter Jennifer Guerra (@RadioJenG) uses all 10 words in her radio report.
What words would you like to bring back into common usage? Parsimonious? Bellicose? Pedestrian? Parlance? Keen? Mendacious? What others?
“Tergiversate” – pronounced “ter-JIV-er-sate,” (“to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate”) – is Dictionary.com’s (@dictionarycom) 2011 Word of the Year. The Huffington Post (@HuffPostBooks) observes: “So we could say that, in 2011, the stock market tergiversated; or that the public tergiversated about Occupy Wall Street.”
Shelf Awareness (@ShelfAwareness) reports that Jay Schwartz, Dictionary.com’s head of content, said, “We’re taking a stand on this choice. We think that it’s immensely rewarding to find existing words that capture a precise experience, and this year, tumult has been the norm rather than the exception. There are contested public spaces around the world, where people are demonstrating in one direction or another. Opinions and circumstances have been oscillating so much.”
This year’s verbal shortlist included “occupy,” “austerity,” “jobs” (both the noun and the person), “zugzwang,” and “insidious.”
Oxford Dictionaries (@OxfordWords) declared its Word of the Year 2011 to be “squeezed middle” (“the section of society regarded as particularly affected by inflation, wage freezes, and cuts in public spending during a time of economic difficulty, consisting principally of those on low or middle incomes”).
Other words and phrases considered by OED included Arab Spring, hacktivism, phone hacking, sodcasting, bunga bunga, crowdfunding, facepalm, and fracking,
Also see OED’s “What Makes a Word of the Year?”
Merriam-Webster’s (@MerriamWebster) word last year, as listed in its archive, was “austerity.” In 2011, Merriam-Webster lists the words that “spiked in lookups” each month because of events in the news (such as “vitriol” in January, “inclement” in February, and “prefecture” in March). For its 2011 word of the year, Merriam-Webster selected “pragmatic.”
Wikipedia chronicles a history of words of the year as selected by the American Dialect Society (@americandialect) (#woty11). ADS will chose its 2001 Word of the Year at its annual meeting in January in Portland, Oregon. Last year’s word was “app.”