Preparing my Novel for Publication

Showing vidoes on new youtube channel page

2012-01-05T20:20:00.011Z

I hadn't realized it had been so long since my last post - I thought maybe a couple of months but it's been nearly 8 months!

I have been busy editing my novel Inspector Hobbes, which is now ready to go out to agents. Wish me luck.

I've also been making changes on my author platform. The latest changes have been on youtube, prompted by the change to the channel page.

When the channel page first changed, it appeared my poetry videos were no longer available from it, so I selected the option to go back to the previous format. Anyway this is how we resolved it.

Logon to youtube

Use the dropdown list for your account on the top right and select 'My Channel'

At the top of the channel page, again in the top right (just under your account name), select 'Edit Channel'

(if you want, you can use this to reselect the old channel layout)

At the top of the channel settings, select 'Info and Settings'

Enter the title you want to appear at the top of your channel page

Enter the description, although this is only shown (currently) if the channel view asks for more information. Fill it in anyway as it will help with channel searches

If you don't have any already, add some tags

Tick if you want the channel visible or not

Select the 'Default Tab' - this is what I had to change to make the channel open with my videos as the default. By default it opens on your feed, showing what you've liked or favourited (depending on whether these have been marked to be shared - more on this below). To change this select the 'Videos Tab' and also untick the 'Always take subscribed users to the feed tab'

At the top of the channel settings, select 'Featured Tab'

Tick the 'Enable featured tab' and if you want to show your playlists, then select the first option for 'creator' (selecting it just highlights the layout)

At the top right of the channel settings select 'Finished editing'

What is shown on your 'feeds' tab also appears differently, but you can select the options you want:

Logon to youtube

Use the dropdown list for your account on the top right

Select 'Settings'

On the left hand side of the settings, choose 'Share'

Tick the options 'On youtube' that you want to appear on your 'feeds' tab. I've now selected all the 'On youtube' options, but I may change it again later.

If you like my poetry vidoes then you should visit my channel again soon as I'm putting the finishing touches to a new poem which I intend to record.

I'm also on the lookout for some writing competitions and plan to try my luck in some of these.

Short funny rhyming poems on youtube

2011-05-15T18:09:00.036+01:00

I've put 5 short poems onto Youtube but there will be a short break before I put up anymore. This posting gives the procedure used to create and upload the videos, so I know how I did it when I come to make the next one! I hope you find it helpful.

Shooting the video

After an unsuccessful attempt to buy a camcorder from Tesco, I found my digital camera allowed me to record a video that was long enough for my short poems and had adequate sound recording. My videos have, therefore, been recorded with a Canon IXUS 8515.

Choose the location to film and what you're going to wear.
Take a few photo stills first to check the background and to get any snaps you might want to use in the finished video.
Turn off any background sounds - any fans or filters (for instance in a fish tank).
Stabilise the camera and put it into position.
Once the recording has started, wait for about 3 seconds before speaking - so you can edit out any camera click at the beginning - and, for the same reason, wait for 3 seconds when you've finished before switching it off.
Don't speak too quickly.
Take the card out and transfer the files to your computer.

Make into a movie

In Microsoft Movie Maker, make a 'New Project'.
Use 'Import Media' and import your video files and any snaps you want to use that you have copied to the computer.
If not already selected, tick 'View' ->'Timeline'.
If not already selected, use the drop-down box at the top of the screen to select 'Imported media'.
Select the video or photo you want to use and drag it down to the timeline at the bottom and drop there. Drag and drop in all the items you want and put them in the required order. Try to make sure the actual video content starts before 14 seconds or people are likely to stop watching.
On the left hand side, select 'Titles and Credits'.
If the video has clicks at the start or end, drag the beginning or ending bar in so they are missed.
Select 'Starting title or ending credits', enter the text you want.
Choose 'Change the text font and color' to pick the color, font type and size.
Choose 'Change the title animation' if you want to add an effect to how the text is shown (ticker tape, flying in etc).
If you want to add text over the video at different points, right click the video and select 'Title on the selected clip', or use the 'Titles and Credits' option on the left. If you want to add a lot of text at different points, then at the top of the Timeline section select the + magnifying glass to expand the timeline - it then shows smaller intervals and makes it easier to match the size of the text area to the length you want it to display.
For each text section and for each video or photo choose any special effect (eg fade in or fade out etc) but don't use too many as they slow down the loading of the video.
Select the photos and the opening and closing titles on the Timeline at the bottom of the screen and drag in or out the right hand end to make the time they display shorter or longer as wanted (I think the default length is a bit too long).
Right click the photos or video and select 'Effects' to add any effect (don't use too many as it slows down the load time).
You can also add audio tracks, although I used the audio on the original recordings.
Play the movie at any point to check your settings.
When you have something you are happy with select File ->'Publish Movie'. These are the settings I used for this:

Publish to this computer
Next
Enter filename and choose folder
Next
Best quality for playback on my computer
Publish
Play movie when I finish
Finish
Change and re-publish the movie as many times as you want, and don't forget to save it.

Make into a flash video

Once you have something you are happy with then you can upload the Microsoft Movie you made above to Youtube. However, if you want something that will be in a smaller file and will load and run quicker (though with reduced quality) then convert it into a flash video. I used 'Free FLV Converter' from http://www.koyotesoft.com/.
Open 'Free FLV Converter'.
Select 'Conversion to FLV'.
Browse and then select the movie you made above. 'Open' it.
Change the 'Output path' if you want to change the path or name.
I didn't change any other settings as the default ones were the settings recommended by Youtube already.
Select 'Convert'.

Load to youtube

Sign in to Youtube.
At the top of the screen, select 'Upload'.
Select 'Upload video', and select your .flv file.
While it is uploading you can change the details of the video, set the 'Privacy' to 'Private' so you can select the settings you want before you publish it. Or you can change any of these settings after it has uploaded.
Add a title and description.
Set some tags (find ones on similar videos and use similar settings as these will help people to find your video).
Select a category.
If this is the first video then you will have to wait for a thumbnail image to be available. Youtube will give you 3 to choose from, select the one you prefer.
Set any other settings, comments, voting, responses and location if you want to etc.
Run the video and check you are happy with how fast it loads.
Once you are happy, set 'Privacy' to 'Public'.
It is now available to the world (if Public) or to selected users if you use a list.

Change settings on youtube

You can go back and change the settings at any time by selecting 'My Videos', select the video, and 'Edit'.
If you have Youtube friends or subscribers then they will get an update about your video anyway, but you can also send them a note using Youtube messaging or sharing.
Create a 'Playlist' and add your video to it.
Like it and add it to your favourites.
Select your Channel page, make sure your channel has channel tags and is visible.
Select the 'Videos and Playlist' tab and select the playlist you put your video into and decide how you want all playlists to appear on your channel page and configure any other settings.

Don't forget to tell people it is there - facebook, twitter etc, and, if you have them, put a link to it on your website or facebook page (you will need to allow 'Embedding' of the video in the settings if you want to do this - though this is enabled by default).

Making a video is great fun and it only takes a few minutes to perform the above and upload it. Once it is loaded you can use Youtube->Account->Insight to see how many views you are getting and where in the world it has been seen. Amazing.

Let me know how you get on.

My Related Postings

Add an artist page in facebook

Susan Gibbs at Writers in the Brewery, 31 March 2011

2011-04-08T16:59:00.031+01:00

The Call of the Litany Bird, by Cirencester writer Susan Gibbs, is to be released today, 11^th April 2011. As a trained nurse, newly married to the son of the Governor of Rhodesia, Susan writes compellingly about bringing up a family on their farm in Matebeleland in the midst of the unfolding terror and growing number of atrocities, as rival factions battle for control in Rhodesia, soon to become Zimbabwe. On 31 March, she and Arthur Cunynghame of Loose Chippings Books http://www.loosechippings.org/ talked to Dr. Rona Laycock at Writers in the Brewery.

Susan explained that she began writing for her children, who retained few memories of those turbulent times, after coming across some old notes and press cuttings. It tells of the tensions and horrors of the bush war and the difficulties and pleasures of maintaining a reasonably normal life with Robert Mugabe in power and of the final straw that made the family leave their farm and lifestyle for an uncertain future in Britain. One of the passages she read told how, as a trained nurse, she was dealing with the aftermath of a terrorist atrocity and how her young son was traumatised by what he witnessed. She hoped her book would help the family come to terms with the past and found that writing it all down was a cathartic experience.

She originally thought of self-publishing for family and friends but was persuaded to take it further. She was fortunate to be introduced to Arthur, who after telling us how he became a publisher, explained why he is so enthusiastic about her writing, telling as it does of her family’s survival at a time when many of her friends and neighbouring farmers lost their lives.

After a break for drinks and chats, other local writers read from their work until we ran out of time. Susan is a regular attendee at Writers in the Brewery, and member of Catchword writers group, we are all thrilled to see the success of one of our own writers. A good evening and good luck to Susan!

Susan's book has a forward by Lord Carrington. Lord Hurd of Westwell describes the book as 'Deeply Moving'.

For more on Susan's book at LooseChippings http://www.loosechippings.org/Call_Of_The_Litany_Bird.html

Susan's book is available from Waterstones stores or online http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/susan+gibbs/lord+carrington/call+of+the+litany+bird/8393419/

from amazon as hardback http://www.amazon.co.uk/Call-Litany-Bird-Surviving-Zimbabwe/dp/190799100X

or in kindle http://www.amazon.co.uk/Call-Litany-Bird-Surviving-ebook/dp/B004Q9SRS8/ref=tmm_kin_title_0/279-1850253-2605847?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM

Other events coming up at Writers in the Brewery

28 Apr 2011 - Simone Mansell Broome

Previous Writers in the Brewery Evenings

World Book Night at New Brewery Arts - Saturday 5 March 2011

Anna Saunders at Writers in the Brewery - Thursday 23 February 2011

John Richardson at Writers in the Brewery - Thursday 27 January 2011

See Mac McFadden's Writers in the Brewery performance

Roshi Fernando at Writers in the Brewery 25 November 2010

Mac McFadden at Writers in the Brewery 28 October 2010

Skip Walker at #WritersintheBrewery, editor of Wilts and Glos Standard

World Book Night at New Brewery Arts - Saturday 5 March 2011

2011-03-07T17:29:00.013Z

This was an evening in support of World Book Night. A decent crowd turned up at New Brewery Arts, lured by free Seamus Heaney books. Local writers read from their own work and this was interspersed with readings of favourite pieces by the great man. I really enjoyed Cora Sild, who was brought up near where Mr Heaney lived, reading Blackberry-picking. There wasn't just poetry - I read my fairy story/allegory, All in the Same Boat, and Sarah King read an excerpt from her novel The Durian Tree.

Another good night. Thanks to Dr Rona Laycock for organising it, to New Brewery Arts and Cora Sild for the facility, to everyone who read and turned up to support the evening and, of course, to Seamus Heaney for making great poetry.

More About World Book Night
http://www.worldbooknight.org/

Seamus Heaney's New Selected Poems 1966-1987 from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0571143725/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0571230962&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1RPPRWZWBV4PWTXK3EDJ

Other events coming up at Writers in the Brewery

31 Mar 2011 - Arthur Cunyngham and Sue Gibbs

28 Apr 2011 - Simone Mansell Broome

Related event coming up - Cheltenham Festival of Poetry

31 Mar 2011 - 3 Apr 2011 Whats on at www.cheltenhampoetryfest.co.uk

Previous Writers in the Brewery Evenings

Anna Saunders at Writers in the Brewery - Thursday 23 February 2011

John Richardson at Writers in the Brewery - Thursday 27 January 2011

See Mac McFadden's Writers in the Brewery performance

Roshi Fernando at Writers in the Brewery 25 November 2010

Mac McFadden at Writers in the Brewery 28 October 2010

Skip Walker at #WritersintheBrewery, editor of Wilts and Glos Standard

Anna Saunders at Writers in the Brewery - Thursday 23 February 2011

2011-03-07T17:27:00.009Z

Anna Saunders was the guest writer at Writers in the Brewery. Apart from being a poet, she is the director of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival (31 March - 3 April 2011) , which will include John Hegley, Angela France, John Cooper Clarke, Sam Riviere, Alison Brackenbury, Pascal Petit plus many others (see www.cheltenhampoetryfest.co.uk).

Anna read a number of poems, inspired by such things as Suze Adams' photos, the sea, romantic love, television, pet names. pet names, a daddy longlegs, illness and sex. The poems were warm, funny, insightful and very enjoyable. I liked that she gave a little explanation before reading them - it helped make them accessible.

After Anna, Sue Chad read a couple of her poems, good as usual, followed by Nicola, a singer-songwriter who played guitar and sang a fun and witty poem about sitting on the Cerne Abbas giant's phallus - she was in fine voice. I read my short story, My Friend Simon - about an alien misunderstanding.

A good evening.

Coming up - Cheltenham Festival of Poetry

31 Mar 2011 - 3 Apr 2011 Whats on

Coming up - Writers in the Brewery

31 Mar 2011 - Arthur Cunyngham and Sue Gibbs

28 Apr 2011 - Simone Mansell Broome

Previous Writers in the Brewery Evenings

John Richardson at Writers in the Brewery - Thursday 27 January 2011

See Mac McFadden's Writers in the Brewery performance

Roshi Fernando at Writers in the Brewery 25 November 2010

Mac McFadden at Writers in the Brewery 28 October 2010

Skip Walker at #WritersintheBrewery, editor of Wilts and Glos Standard

#WritersintheBrewery 27 May 2010 Nigel McLoughlin

John Richardson at Writers in the Brewery - Thursday 27 January 2011

2011-03-07T17:24:00.018Z

This evening Writers in the Brewery welcomed John Richardson ( aka Jay Arr) of Swindon's BlueGate Poets (http://www.bluegatepoets.com/). John read a selection of his love poetry. They were, so he said, part of a lifetime's work that was still in progress. Apart from love, John's poems were inspired by such things as numerology, the power of names, Roy Orbison, Valentine's presents, marriage, wills and the country. I particularly enjoyed one about Isfahan, Iran's third city - wonderful imagery and very evocative.

After John, there was more poetry from local writers. Liz Carew's Woodchester poem was excellent.

John has a number of books published http://www.blurb.com/user/jayarr

His latest (as Jay Arr) is nietsa http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1785036?alt=nietsa%2C+as+listed+under+Poetry

and and what do you want? http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1785024?alt=and+what+did+you+want%3F%2C+as+listed+under+Poetry

and he has compiled the BlueGate Poets 2010 Anthology http://www.bluegatepoets.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=277 and BlueGate Poets 2009 Anthology http://www.blurb.com/books/872625

plus a machine for measuring blue is a collection of poems selected by Jar Arr is a first collection of abandoned and neglected poems http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/221545?alt=a+machine+for+measuring+blue%2C+as+listed+under+Poetry

John also has some videos on youtube, check out this playlist http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C8801FC4A84F4BDA

To find out more about John (Jar Arr) and the BlueGate Poets visit the website http://www.bluegatepoets.com/

Previous Writers in the Brewery Evenings

See Mac McFadden's Writers in the Brewery performance

Roshi Fernando at Writers in the Brewery 25 November 2010

Mac McFadden at Writers in the Brewery 28 October 2010

Skip Walker at #WritersintheBrewery, editor of Wilts and Glos Standard

#WritersintheBrewery 27 May 2010 Nigel McLoughlin

Writers in the Brewery April 2010 Blue Gate Poets

Helping your book on Amazon

2011-02-26T10:59:00.012Z

I've been keeping an eye out for tips on how Amazon works and found a few things on Amazon Setup that you can change to help with Amazon sales and with the books profile.

1. (If you haven't done so already) you can go into Amazon and claim your book(s). You will need an Amazon account - you may want to create a new one so you can make any purchases/comments (or reviews of other books) under your author profile and not your customer one. Then simply go to the bottom of the book screen where there is an 'I am the author' connection, as shown below.

2. You can also change the product details, correct names etc in 'update product info'.

3. Add some product tags so that your book gets listed in different searches - anyone can add their own tags to their book (or any other book).

4. And you can help make suggestions to Amazon that increase the chances of your book being listed in these sections when people look at other books (these sections don't necessarily all appear for your book):

Find other books on Amazon that are related to yours and always view them (ask you friends to view them as well) whenever you view your own. (You could even buy them!)

5. Amazon rankings are worked out all the time, but if you ask people to buy your book on a particular day then you have a better chance of getting up the rankings (though it doesn't last long ...). It doesn't have to be just on launch day.

6. Add some reviews of other people's books, especially if they are in the same genre. Use your author profile when you do so. Don't use the review as a chance to plug your book or to rubbish the opposition. It is just a way to help direct people to your profile and from there to your book.

7. On your author profile, make sure you have a public profile, and check the details are correct. Add a photo. Check how much of your data you want to share in past purchases etc. Add a webpage address - this can be your Facebook page.

My Related Postings

Add an artist page in facebook
Decide on a genre

Adding my blog to facebook using NetworkedBlogs

2011-02-20T20:34:00.019Z

Some writer's blogs have an option that allows the blog to be followed using facebook. This is by using the facebook app networkedblogs. As it looked a handy thing, I've added it to mine.

To Add facebook app

In facebook, on your home page

go to the apps (select from the right)

at the bottom select the apps directory, and enter networkedblogs

click on networkedblogs to open the application

then go to the application

allow it permission on you your facebook

NetworkedBlog settings

in networkedblogs application

select the profile

complete the profile information you want

and then add your blog

select blog categories

at the bottom, select advanced and enter a name. This will allow you to access the blog later by using this sort of address
http://www.networkedblogs.com/blog/blognameyouenterinadvanced
so you can easily get to and change the settings

Add blog to facebook

on your author page

select apps and add networkedblogs

your selected blogs will appear as a seperate tab, select to post onto the wall and/or onto the tab

at the top right (in networkedblogs from facebook, page or direct) select syndication

Set facebook permissions

grant permissions to access facebook

select the blog from the list of those you have added to networkedblogs

and select to show the blog on your facebook page, or facebook author page

Add a follow me widget

then add the 'follow with networkedblogs' widget to your blog and website

under the syndication button (during setup) select widget and collect the code

in your blog, add an html gadget and paste the code and adjust the size if it is too big

if you are adding the widget later, then, while logged into facebook, go to http://www.networkedblogs/blog/blognameyouenteredinadvanced

at the bottom of the page select 'visit the blogpage on facebook'

next to the 'blog feed details' select 'widget'

choose the widget or badge and get the code

then in your blog or website add the widget/badge code

Each new follower

when users select the option to follow the blog to use this app they have to enable networkedblogs access to facebook

My Related Postings

Add an artist page in facebook

See Mac McFadden's Writers in the Brewery performance

2011-01-26T16:06:00.026Z

Mac McFadden's performance poetry at the Writers in the Brewery evening on the 28th October 2010 was a great evening (see my earlier posting Mac McFadden at Writers in the Brewery 28 October 2010). Those of you who were there may remember a camera close to the stairs and the video from this is now available if you want to see him again. Any of you who missed the evening this is a chance to catch-up.

Mac McFadden at the Brewery Arts Centre Cirencester 2010 (38.01 mins)

Also see Mac's other recordings loaded to vimeo: Mac McFadden on vimeo

Mac McFadden - Tea with the Queen (5.23 mins)
Mac McFadden - Something For The Weekend Hammer & Tongue 2010 (2.22 mins)
Mac McFadden Short Set at Oxford Theatre (6.18 mins)

Follow Mac on facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php#%21/mac.mcfadden

Other Writers in the Brewery evenings

For more about Writers in the Brewery

http://www.newbreweryarts.org.uk/join-a-group/writers-in-the-brewery-c-312_361.html?p=shop

Coming up :
all at Cirencester New Brewery Arts, 7:00pm

27 Jan 2011 - John Richardson
24 Feb 2011 - Anna Saunders
31 Mar 2011 - Arthur Cunyngham
28 Apr 2011 - Simone Mansell Broome

Roshi Fernando at Writers in the Brewery 25 November 2010

2010-12-01T16:05:00.018Z

This evening celebrated National Short Story Week.

Roshi's first book, Homesick, a composite novel featuring inter-linked short stories about Sri Lankan immigrants in the UK, was published in September this year. She is currently working on a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Swansea and writing a novel. She won the Impress prize for new writers in 2009.

Roshi gave the brave few who ventured out on a bitterly cold evening a fascinating insight into her work. She said that she had been trying to work on a metafiction (fiction about the nature of literature) novel, which wasn't working well, so she tried her hand at short stories. Some of these worked really well. She was influenced by the way immigrants cling to aspects of their own culture, often observing traditions that are neglected in their country of origin. After one of her stories won the Impress prize, an agent wanted to see her work and after much hard work she was published.

At first she was pleased but then found it awkward when stories that had been private were in the public domain, getting attention. This was especially embarrassing with stories that had sex in them. Her editor found the book was sad and Roshi realised that it was because of the issues she raised in it. She does not intend writing another 'issues' book in the immediate future. Now she has been recognised as a writer, she finds it something of a mixed blessing, although it does offer her opportunities. For instance, she has been invited to speak at a literary festival in Galle Literary Festival(Sri Lanka) about Freedom of Speech in Sri Lanka.

She produced some hints for aspiring writers.
- Winning a literary prize is a good way of getting noticed!
- Use disparate elements to make a good story (e.g. she wrote one about a mute Muslim boy who was a fan of Charlie Chaplin).
- When a story gets stuck, put some movement into it.
- Make sure you do enough research.

After Roshi, some local writers read some of their work - unusually (possibly as a reflection of National Short Story Week) there was only one poem. I read, No Bed of Roses, a short ghost/horror story that seemed to horrify the audience. Well, someone had to lower the tone.

Roshi on Amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=books-uk&field-author=Roshi%20Fernando

Some previous Writers in the Brewery evenings

Mac McFadden at Writers in the Brewery 28 October 2010
Skip Walker at #WritersintheBrewery
#WritersintheBrewery 27 May 2010 Nigel McLoughlin
Writers at the Brewery April 2010
Jenny Jones at #WritersintheBrewery 25 March 2010
Cherry Gilchrist at #WritesInTheBrewery
Sue Chad at Writers in the Brewery 28 Jan 2010
Writers in the Brewery Nov and Dec 2009 review
Writers in the Brewery Writer's workshop

About Writers in the Brewery

http://www.newbreweryarts.org.uk/join-a-group/writers-in-the-brewery-c-312_361.html?p=shop

Coming up:
27 Jan 2011 - John Richardson

24 Feb 2011 - Anna Saunders

31 Mar 2011 - Arthur Cunyngham

28 Apr 2011 - Simone Mansell Broome

Mac McFadden at Writers in the Brewery 28 October 2010

2010-10-29T18:10:00.009+01:00

Mac McFadden is a performance poet originally from Merseyside but who now lives in Bicester, Oxfordshire. Mac treated us to some very funny and often touching poems, many based on growing up, getting mucky, tragic relations with girls and the difficulties of being a poet in a macho community. Others, such as one about taking tea with the queen in a kebab shop and about a girl with rice crispies in her hair may have been more fanciful. Mac uses ingenious rhymes and satisfying rhythms and tempos while moving between funny and thoughtful works.

For a sample of his work then see this playlist of Mac's videos on youtube, there are not from his performance at Writers in the Brewery but do include one from the night, Marmite:
Mac Macfadden playlist
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=31765B20DB1B7431

His set went down extremely well with a packed audience and caused a few qualms for local writers who were to come after - it was a definite case of 'follow that!' However, we did and, I think, we acquitted ourselves well. Amongst the other readers were Annie - 'poet laureate' from the Forest of Dean and Peter Wyton Gloucestershire 1000 'poet laureate' from Cheltenham. There was a good mix of poetry and prose.

I read Rebel Spirit, a silly poem about my great grandfather's sticky end in a pool of jam. One member of the audience claimed it was brilliant - I should have got it in writing!

My earlier postings on Writers in the Brewery

Skip Walker at #WritersintheBrewery
#WritersintheBrewery 27 May 2010 Nigel McLoughlin
Writers at the Brewery April 2010
Jenny Jones at #WritersintheBrewery 25 March 2010
Cherry Gilchrist at #WritesInTheBrewery
Sue Chad at Writers in the Brewery 28 Jan 2010
Writers in the Brewery Nov and Dec 2009 review
Writers in the Brewery Writer's workshop

Add an artist page in facebook

2010-10-25T15:45:00.028+01:00

Facebook includes an option to create a customised page as well as a normal personal account. Separate pages on facebook get listed in search engines like google.

This is how we added a page.

logon to facebook
go to http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=904#!/pages/create.php
complete 'Official Page'
select 'artist' then 'writer'
enter the name for the page (take care - this can't be changed after it is created without deleting and recreating the page)
if appropriate, confirm that you are the right person to be doing this
'Create official page'
go though the steps to add some content
upload an image
edit page information
complete the wall settings
add some 'info'
complete the settings, switch off 'publicly visible' until you are ready to publish the page
on left hand panel, select 'write something about' and complete some basic information.
If you want additional tabs
select 'Home'
on left panel expand 'more' under 'applications'
select 'adverts and pages'
at the bottom of the list select 'Static FBML' application
and 'add to page'
select 'Home'
on left panel expand 'more' under 'applications'
go through the options one at a time
for additional tabs
edit application 'FBML 1' which is your new additional tab
edit the name of the tab
and enter the text or html for you want to appear in it
'save changes'
'add another fbml box' if you want another one, this is at the bottom of the page
at the top select 'edit' next to your page name
then under applications select the new 'FBML 1' and edit and save as before
if you want to add youtube videos on your additional tab, see http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-customize-your-facebook-page-using-static-fbml/
select 'edit' at the top by your page name, then select 'view page'
drag and drop the tabs to the order you want
remove any you don't want
select 'wall' then add any links you want to be on your link page
select 'Home'
on left panel expand 'more' under 'applications'
select 'wall settings' and change the landing tab to be the one you want to appear first when people open your page
'view page' to check it appears as you want, and, if you are happy, set its profile to public
Connect to twitter if you want your page updates to be notified to twitter
If you have a blog or website, select 'promote this page..' and copy the html given onto them

To edit the page later,

Home
in left hand panel, expand 'more' under 'Applications'
select 'Adverts and pages'

My Related Postings

Linking twitter to facebook and adding twitter to blog
Starting on facebook

Like my facebook page

The easy way to share a blog on social networking

2010-09-02T14:50:00.013+01:00

There are so many different directories and social networking sites that allow sharing of links that it is difficult to keep on top of them all. However, we found a nifty little gadget that does this for you by allowing direct links to many different networking sites all from one simple little icon that you add into your blog (or website).

Go to http://www.addthis.com/

choose the server (website, blogger, wordpress, myspace)

choose the icon you want

then follow the instructions to add it.

Much easier than trying to maintain a list of them.

Staying alert

2010-08-25T12:40:00.016+01:00

I wish I'd found out about this earlier but it's never too late. With Google Alert you can get automatic notifications about new blog, website, etc, entries. When I want to keep track of what is happening at any other event, for instance a literary festival, and to see what others have made of it, then I now use Google Alert. I can even get it to tell me when sites link to my youtube videos. You just enter a set of characters giving the information you are looking for and how often you want it and Google Alert does the rest for you. Switch the Alerts off whenever you want to. Very useful.

I've also seen some recommendations that you setup random searches for any material that you put online, so you can see if anyone else is using it.

Very simple to do. If you have a blogger, google or youtube account (etc), just click on 'my account' at the top and then select google alerts and add any you want. Go to the same place to change them.

(paper stand image from http://www.freefoto.com/ .
This image http://www.freefoto.com/images/04/24/04_24_61_thumb.jpg?ffid=04-24-61&k=Newspapers )

Which blog directories to use

2010-07-28T16:13:00.064+01:00

Whether a blog is a necessary part of generating your author's platform depends upon how you feel about blogging and whether you have anything to write about on a regular basis. This posting is related to how my blogs are being published. As this is a technical one I'm handing over to @whispproduction.

Good luck.

************
Hello authors, and thank you Wilkie.

We have helped with some aspects of setting up this blog as just writing it isn't enough and you have to do some legwork as well. Although having interesting postings is the best way to get your blog noticed, a blog directory needs to have regular postings. Until there are several entries some blog directories will ignore it, no matter how good the content.

There are lots and lots of blog directories around, some of which are no longer used (or don't seem to be). So which should you register with? And what do you have to do to register, and what do you do once you have registered?

When setting up you will need to create an account your chosen directory. Make sure you have your email details and the rss/atom/feed address (in blogger you can get this by logging on and going to 'Settings'->'Site Feed' and copying the link from there), and the URL of your blog (http://xxx.blogspot.com). Consider what type of blog you have (Technical, Entertainment, Arts etc) so you know where you want it listed. Also, create a blog description you can copy during the setup. If you have a picture handy you can add this with the profile details, where this is allowed. It's obvious, but do remember to save the logon id, email and password information you use so you can access the directory later.

Once you have created the account and linked to the blog, look in your email for a mail from each blog directory service as they require confirmation that you are the owner and this is normally done through an email prompt. Technorati and bloglines send a unique code which you will need to include in a posting. Until this is done you are not identified as the blog owner.

We logon and check the blog directory entries at least every couple of weeks. We've found they benefit from regular maintenance in the form of visits and searches using the blog search tools the directory provides just to make sure it is refreshing with the new postings. It makes sense to use the blog directory anyway as it is providing you with a free service and it is only polite to use it if you want to reference your blog. For this reason we'd recommend not using all of the blog directories that exist (though it depends how much time you want to dedicate). The ones you use are up to you. To provide you with a starting list the ones we have registered Wilkie's blog with are below. If you have found this blog entry then one of these is likely to have helped you find it - if you know which, then we'd love to know. If you have no idea then don't worry.

Directories:

www.technorati.com
This was going through a period of change when we registered the blog and was reconfirming ownership of all blogs registered in a bid to tidy up it's lists. It took two goes but it did eventually accept the blog. It has good search facilites and regularly updates with the new blog postings. It seems to be quite widely used and we have found references to it from quite a lot of places. If we do a Google search on the blog then it's reference for the blog appears in the results.
http://www.bloglines.com/
It was only after registering on this blog directory that searches using http://www.ask.com/ started to show results on Wilkie's blog, so this is a good one to do. This is also the one that Wilkie uses most to view other blogs.
http://www.blogcatalog.com/
This has good referencing in it and has the advantage of allowing you to link to other social media like twitter, facebook and others. It also allows you to establish a blog network. We logon and check the blog regularly with this. There is sometimes a bit of a delay in picking up new postings so occasionally we have asked it to refresh the entries. If we do a Google search on the blog then it's reference for the blog appears in the results.
http://www.bloggernity.com/
If we do a Google search on the blog then it's reference for this blog appears in the results. Registering on this directory moved the returned results in Google for it up the results.
Google reader
This is available as part of the google set you get when you start a blogger blog. Just login to Blogger, and choose 'my account', and add google reader.

The more often you post the more likely other blog directories will find the blog. We didn't specifically register with any of these (or we hadn't at the time of this posting), but after several months of postings their robots or search bots started to pickup up this blog (we know this from the list of bots given in the stats for the blog in feedburner.com).

SimplePie, Caibu, BlogPulse, BlogSphere, Cuill, IceRocket, MSN News Blogs, Moreover, Planet, PubSubHubHub, Radian 6, Search Bot, Sphere, Twingly, ia archiver bot

Each of the ones we manually linked to (apart from technorati's which is still under development) also allows you to create a button with a link from your blog to the blog directory. The buttons created look like this:

If you register with the same directories and you want the same buttons as this blog then you can use the following code. To add it to a blog created in blogger (in blogger designer create a new gadget of type html and copy this code into it). Here is the code:

For individual buttons:

bloglines - do a google search for bloglines buttons as this is the easiest way to find them, choose the one you want and copy the code (http://www.bloglines.com/about/subscribe)

bloggernity - at the very bottom of the webpage select 'link to us', select the button and copy the code

blogcatalog - logon, on you page, select 'blog catalog button', select the button and copy the code.

If you found any other directories helpful, then let us know.

If you want to register with lots of blog directories and are looking for a list then we found this very good, resonably recent list, compiled by iWoodpeckers http://www.iwoodpecker.com/submit-blog-to-50-free-working-blog-directories/

Good luck with your platform and book.

Sprucing up the website

2010-07-26T20:12:00.002+01:00

Building a website and an author's platform can be a big distraction, or would be if I had to try to do it all myself (finding out how to first). Luckily when I decided my website wasn't up to scratch and wanted to rebuild it I had help. In the review with Whisp Productions, we looked at what other writers were doing on theirs, how they laid them out etc. What follows is a guest posting from Whisp Productions with details of the changes they have made to my website that we hope will be useful as we're assuming that other writers, like me, need some technical help with some aspects of building a platform. So over to Whisp.

********************

Wilkie's previous website was a fairly simple site as it was built using Frontpage with a few buttons to navigate around the page. This worked ok, but the main problem we found was that the website took up the whole of the screen and wasn't very easy for a reader with a wide screen to read. When we reviewed other websites with Wilkie we found that the ones we liked best were those with a more blog-like layout, that didn't display text across the whole width of the screen. The rebuilt website now has more blog-like pages that appear in the middle of the screen. It also allows the website to look similar to this blog (which was previously changed using the new template editor - see Using Bloggers new template designer).

It was rebuilt using the RVSiteBuilder tool on Wilkie's hosting service, so unless you use on the same service, sharing the instructions on how it was generated won't help. However, what may be of more interest are some of the additional bits and pieces that we added to the website. We hope you find the following useful.

ADD ADDITIONAL META DATA

1. We do not want search engines to archive every page (especially those with time dependent material or competition information. So we added a meta setting to each page where Archiving isn't wanted:

<meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOARCHIVE" />

2. We added another meta settings, to tell mobile phones to format the information differently for the small screens.

<meta name="viewport" content="width=670, initial-scale=0.45, minimum-scale=0.45" />

ADD A SITEMAP

3. The file sitemap.xml is for search engines. If you keep it up to date it tells them which files on your site have been changed so it doesn't have to search them all. Put it in the root directory. For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
- <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
- <url>
<loc>http://www.yourwebsitename.com/index.php</loc>
<lastmod>2010-07-20</lastmod>
<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
<loc>http://www.yourwebsitename.com/pagetwo.php</loc>
<lastmod>2010-07-20</lastmod>
<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
...
</url>
</urlset>

ADD A ROBOT FILE

4. The file robots.txts also gives instructions to search engines. This tells them which parts of your website not to look at. Put it in the root directory of the website. For example,:

User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow: /

User-agent: taptubot
Disallow: /iphone/
Disallow: /mobile/
Disallow: /m/
Disallow: /mobi/

User-agent: *
Disallow: /adirectorynottobesearchedbyanybot/

Sitemap: http://www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml

ADDING WEBSITE ICONS

5. We added a favicon.ico file. This is a very small image file that appears in internet explorer at the left of the address box. Again, this is in the root directory.

6. We added an apple-touch-icon.png file. This, like the favicon.ico file, is an image file that is used by iphone apps to display with the website.

ADD A LINK TO YOUTUBE

7. Add a connection into Wilkie's youtube videos. For this we've used a video strip. The code for this can be built on youtube, but we added a line before and a line after the code that youtube gave us. The lines we added are:
<div>
...
</div>

We built the youtube code as follows:

Goto youtube home page. You don't need to logon.
At the bottom of the page click on the 'Developers' link.
Click on the 'Widgets' link.
In the 'Widgets' description in the middle, click on the link to the Video bar wizard.
Fill in the information:
Horizontal or vertical.
Untick the popular video feeds unless you want these too.
Fill in the name of the youtube channel you want.
Then click to show the code and copy it to your website.

ADD A LINK TO TWITTER

9. Add a connection to Wilkie's twitter so that a subset of it shows in the side bar.

In twitter.
At the bottom of the page, select 'Goodies'.
Click on 'Widgets'.
Click on 'My website'.
Then on 'Profile widget'.
Complete the Settings, Preferences, Appearance, Dimensions to what you want.
When it looks like you want, click on 'Finish & grab the code'.

ADD A LINK TO THIS BLOG'S POSTINGS

10. We also added a link to this blog on the website so that the titles of the last 5 entries are shown. We've done this using the www.feedburner.com services that can be linked to your blog.

In feedburner.com.
Logon.
Choose your blogname.
Select 'Publicize'.
Choose 'BuzzBoost'.
Change the settings to get what you want.
Copy the code that is given.

Wilkie's Related Postings
Some of the above settings and files were used before the site was rebuilt and the instructions for these were included in some of Wilkie's previous postings.

Changing my website for #iphone users
How to #twitter your blog updates and add twitter to #website
Adding a website icon for iphone and stopping page not found for mobiles
Adding free blog subscription options
Add blog to website
Starting an author's platform

Skip Walker at #WritersintheBrewery

2010-07-15T15:14:00.012+01:00

On 24 June, Writers in the Brewery were pleased to welcome Skip Walker, editor of the Wilts and Glos Standard.

Skip spoke about her career, as a reporter and editor. Following Oxford, she became a trainee journalist at the Daily Express, where she spent far too long in the pub but did receive a good training. After three years she moved on to working for Distillers, becoming assistant editor of the house magazine (where she was not allowed to mention Thalidomide). She moved on to be editor of the SWEB in-house journal and then to working on an encyclopaedia for Robert Maxwell. After time spent at Weapons and Warfare and Camera magazine she moved out west. She became a district reporter in the Forest of Dean, then editor of the Marlborough Express (which failed, though it was failing before she got there!), and worked for the Dursely Gazette, the Stroud News & Journal and finally the Standard.

Skip suggested that writing as a journalist was not difficult, providing you like sticking your nose into other people's business. You have to be interested in people and then start writing the story at the beginning and end when it stops. Accuracy is important.

She talked about how easy it was for a writer to get into print in the Standard, if they were not expecting to be paid, though up to 40 stories per week are not published due to space constraints. If a writer wants a little money, she recommended approaching Cotswold Essence, which pays £60 for articles!

It was an interesting, informative, encouraging and amusing evening. Thanks to Skip.

There will be no Writers in the Brewery in July, because of an exhibition. Our next speaker, on 26 August, will be broadcaster, writer, poet and ecologist, Matthew Oates.

Contact Skip

http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/contactus/aboutus/
mailto:skip.walker@wiltsglosstandard.co.uk

Writers in the Brewery

http://www.newbreweryarts.org.uk/join-a-group/writers-in-the-brewery-c-312_361.html?p=shop

My Related Postings

#WritersintheBrewery 27 May 2010 Nigel McLoughlin
Writers at the Brewery April 2010
Jenny Jones at #WritersintheBrewery 25 March 2010
Cherry Gilchrist at #WritesInTheBrewery
Sue Chad at Writers in the Brewery 28 Jan 2010
Writers in the Brewery Nov and Dec 2009 review
Writers in the Brewery Writer's workshop

Using Bloggers new template designer

2010-07-07T20:00:00.013+01:00

I've just had to redo a step in generating my #author's #platform. My posting Making a blog on #blogger look more like a website detailed the many changes we'd made to my blog to customise it and to make it look more like my website. We lived with it for a few weeks while we looked at other people's websites and blogs, and came to the conclusion that we had gone the wrong way. Instead of making the blog look like the website we should have made the website look more like the blog! The shorter lines of text generally found on blogs was much easier to read than the wide lines allowed on the website. So we decided to change both the blog and the website again. We started with the blog and found that blogger now makes customisation changes much easier. Although you can still amend the html as we mentioned before, there is now a template designer that does it all for you.

In blogger,
go to 'Design'
then select the new option 'Template Designer'.
Choose the template you want and customise the fonts and colours, and choose a new background. The template will be applied to your current blog.

The only problem we found with this was that all the gadgets we had on the site were moved into the side bar, including those we had at the bottom of the blog. However, the 'Layout' option in the new 'Template Designer' allowed us to move them back where we wanted.
Then the only other thing to do was to reapply a couple of the html change that we had before.

This included adding back the options available from feedburner to add links at the end of every post to share the blog. See Include options on #blog to add the posting to #social #bookmarking sites
And also, to remove the blogger navigation/toolbar bar that appears at the top of the blog (if you want to that is).
Near the top of the code, just before
/* variable definitions
insert the following code

/*remove toolbar start*/#navbar-iframe {display: none} /*remove toolbar end */

The next job was to make the website look more like the new layout of the blog. This was also easier to do that we expected as the site hosting my website now also includes a design tool. So we have rebuilt the website too.

Good luck .

My Related Postings

Making a blog on #blogger look more like a website

Include options on #blog to add the posting to #social #bookmarking sites

#WritersintheBrewery 27 May 2010 Nigel McLoughlin

2010-06-09T20:53:00.018+01:00

On 27 May 2010, Nigel Mcloughlin http://www.nigelmcloughlin.co.uk/ an Ulster poet, now based in Cheltenham, visited Writers in the Brewery. Nigel has been short-listed for the prestigious Hennessy Award and placed in the Kavanagh Awards and The New Writer Poetry Prizes. He is Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire and Course Leader on the MA in Creative & Critical Writing, as well as being editor of Iota magazine. http://www.iotamagazine.co.uk/ . In this role, Nigel said that contributors’ poems are judged anonymously so that content stands on merit, not on the writer’s reputation. He talked about his life and read from his works, including his recently published collection Chora. He read poems about Ulster, homelife, wildlife, music and observations. It was a witty, warm, moving and compassionate collection that I enjoyed very much.

After the interval, I read my short story "The Love Rat" about Cupid appearing as a rat to bring love to two lonely people.

My Related Postings

Writers at the Brewery April 2010
Jenny Jones at #WritersintheBrewery 25 March 2010
Cherry Gilchrist at #WritesInTheBrewery
Sue Chad at Writers in the Brewery 28 Jan 2010
Writers in the Brewery Nov and Dec 2009 review
Writers in the Brewery Writer's workshop

Writers at the Brewery April 2010

2010-06-09T20:52:00.017+01:00

On 29 April 2010, Writers in the Brewery welcomed some of Swindon’s BlueGate Poets http://www.bluegatepoets.com/. They are a poetry group which aims to advance the enjoyment and development of reading, writing and listening to poetry by encouraging local talent and voices at every level. The group’s founders are local poets, who, collectively, have years of experience of organising and running poetry groups, workshops and participating in the Swindon Festival of Literature. The group takes its name from the blue gate at the Richard Jeffries house, where it meets. Richard Jeffries http://www.richardjefferiessociety.co.uk/ was a famous writer and naturalist living in Coates near Swindon.

It was an enjoyable evening with this warm and friendly group, who presented their work with great enthusiasm and chatted about their poetry to a disappointingly small audience. We did clash with the final pre-election leaders’ debate but I’m glad I attended the brewery instead. I especially remember a great little poem about a seahorse and a very effective sestina but many of their works struck a chord.

After the interval, I brought the tone down with my nonsense poem about the sad demise of a gardening gourmet.

My Related Postings

Jenny Jones at #WritersintheBrewery 25 March 2010
Cherry Gilchrist at #WritesInTheBrewery
Sue Chad at Writers in the Brewery 28 Jan 2010
Writers in the Brewery Nov and Dec 2009 review
Writers in the Brewery Writer's workshop

Making a blog on #blogger look like the website

2010-05-18T16:19:00.002+01:00

Is it really a month since my last post? And 6 weeks since the Festival of Writing in York? Well it is, and it is also time for my next post.
The rewrite of Inspector Hobbes is now on Chapter 9. But this posting is actually a more technical one. In my posting Setup a blog on #blogger so it looks like a website blog I showed how I made the address of my blog on blogger look like it belongs to my website. This was because I'd read about separate blog and websites being one of the The top 5 author website mistakes on http://www.authortechtips.com/. A mistake was not to have a common look to them. So we have made some changes to the blog so it looks more like the website. These changes are in progress, and fall foul of one of the other top mistakes - having a non-professional website that relies on someone making changes for you when you have time. We are still perservering with doing the website and blog ourselves, and hope to give both a revamp. If you have a blogger blog that is using the scribe template, then the following can be used to make it more individual.

This is what we changed on my blog template, which was originally the scribe template.

Good luck. If you change the standard template take lots of backups of it so you can go back to what you had before.

Template Changes

This assumes you have a blog on blogger, and that you have a blog with the 'scribe' template. Other templates may have different code, so the following probably won't work for them.
This also assumes that you want a blog that doesn't have the standard backgrounds, and one that isn't down the middle of the page with a clear space around it. The standard backgrounds are replaced with white.

Logon to blogger
Go to 'layout'
Go to 'fonts', and choose a font that matches your website.
In the layout, select 'edit' for the navigation bar, and select the transparent light option.
In the layout, select each text and 'edit/html' gadget
In the html for each add the following to set the text (if you want font georgia that is)
at the start add
<span style="quot, serif;">
at the end add
<\span>
Preview the template
Go to 'edit html'
Tick 'show widget code'
At the top of the page, download the current template (in case this doesn't work!)
Then near the top of the code, just before the /* variable definitions
insert the following code (if you don't want the blogger tool bar to appear at the top of the page)
/*remove toolbar start*/#navbar-iframe {display: none} /*remove toolbar end */
preview the template and if you are happy save it, and continue editing to change the blog display as below
In the html code, search for

/* Defaults----------------------------------------------- */
body { margin:0;
padding:0;
font-size: small;
text-align:center;
color:$textColor;
line-height:1.3em;
background:#483521 url("http://www2.blogblog.com/scribe/bg.gif") repeat;
}

and add /* and */ around the 'background' line so that it isn't used

/* background:#483521 url("http://www2.blogblog.com/scribe/bg.gif") repeat; */

This stops the background that appears around the edge of the blog.
Preview the template and if ok save it.
Search for

/* Layout----------------------------------------------- */
#outer-wrapper {
background-color:#473624;
border-$startSide:1px solid #332A24;
border-$endSide:1px solid #332A24
width:700px;
width:0 margin:0px auto;
padding:8px; text-align:center;
font: $bodyFont;
}

Put /* and */ around the background-color and width

/* background-color:#473624;*/
/* width:700px;*/

This removes the background color around the blog inside the blog box.
Preview the template and if ok save it.
Immediately after this code find

#main-top {
width:700px;
height:49px;
background:#FFF3DB url("http://www2.blogblog.com/scribe/bg_paper_top.jpg") no-repeat top $startSide;
margin:0px;
padding:0px;
display:block;
}

And comment this with /* and */

/*#main-top {*/
/* width:700px;*/
/* height:49px;*/
/* background:#FFF3DB url("http://www2.blogblog.com/scribe/bg_paper_top.jpg") no-repeat top $startSide; */
/* margin:0px;*/
/* padding:0px;*/
/*display:block;*/
/*}*/

This removes the empty area above the blog.
Preview the template and if ok save it.
Immediately after this, search for

#main-bot {
width:700px;
height:81px;
background:#FFF3DB url("http://www.blogblog.com/scribe/bg_paper_bot.jpg") no-repeat top $startSide;
margin:0;
padding:0;
display:block;
}

And add /* and */ around the background

#main-bot {
width:700x;
height:81px;
/*background:#FFF3DB url("http://www.blogblog.com/scribe/bg_paper_bot.jpg") no-repeat top $startSide; */
margin:0;
padding:0;
display:block;
}

This removes the background from behind the blog.
Immediately after this, search for

#wrap2 {
width:700px;
background:#FFF3DB url("http://www1.blogblog.com/scribe/bg_paper_mid.jpg") repeat-y;
margin-top: -14px;
margin-$endSide: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px;
margin-$startSide: 0px;
text-align:$startSide;
display:block;
}

Add /* and */ around the background and margin-top and width.
And, set the width to 90%

#wrap2 {
/* width:700px;*/width:90%;
/* background:#FFF3DB url("http://www1.blogblog.com/scribe/bg_paper_mid.jpg") repeat-y; */
/* margin-top: -14px;*/
margin-$endSide: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px;
margin-$startSide: 0px;
text-align:$startSide;
display:block;
}
Preview the template and of ok save it.
Immediately below this, search for

#wrap3 {
padding:0 50px;
}

Comment /* */ around the padding

#wrap3 {
/* padding:0 50px;*/
}

This removes the blank space before the blog starts.
Preview the template and if ok save it.
A little further down, search for

#main {
width:430px;
float:$endSide;
padding:8px 0;
margin:0;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}
#sidebar {
width:150px;
float:$startSide;
padding:8px 0;
margin:0; word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

Change the two widths to 80% and 20%

#main {
/* width:430px;*/
width:80%;
float:$endSide;
padding:8px 0;
margin:0;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}
#sidebar {
/* width:150px;*/
width:20%; float:$startSide;
padding:8px 0;
margin:0;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

This proportions 20% of the screen for the left hand gadget area, and 80% for the blog text area.
On 'layout'
select 'add a gadget' of type #html' and paste this code into it
<a href="http://blogger.com/" title="BLOGGER"><img src="http://buttons.blogger.com/blogger-powerby-blue.gif" /></a>
As the blogger tool bar has been removed above, this inserts an acknowledgment that the blog is powered by blogger.
Or use one of the other buttons from http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41435

All my website pages have a common block at the end that gives 'Send' and 'Receive' contact options below. By opening the webpages html we've copied the code for this. Then in blogger, in 'layout', we've 'add a gadget', of type 'html' and pasted the code from the webpage in to it.
By default, when one of the other pages is open, the template I use (scribe) puts a 'Home' link at the end of the post. As this has been renamed to 'blog' this should be changed so that 'Home' means the website.
After the <body>section look for

<b:if cond='data:blog.homepageUrl != data:blog.url'>
<a class='home-link' expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><data:homeMsg/></a>
<b:else/>
<b:if cond='data:newerPageUrl'>
<a class='home-link' expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><data:homeMsg/></a>
</b:if>
</b:if>
change <data:homeMsg/> to Blog

There may be better ways to do this, but this is how we've change it (so far). It gives us a blog that has the same banner and font as the website, and overall it has a similar look.

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

My Related Postings

Setup a blog on #blogger so it looks like a website blog
Linking twitter to facebook and adding twitter to blog
How to add additional pages in #blogger
How to #twitter your blog updates and add twitter to #website
Include options on #blog to add the posting to #social #bookmarking sites

Ducks, Geese and Writing

2010-04-19T18:00:00.008+01:00

The Festival of Writing (#festivalwriting) happened at York University over the weekend of 9 -11 April 2010 and I was there. So were about four hundred other writers, literary agents, publishers and book doctors. I think this was the first event of its kind in the UK but plans are underway for next year. I went there to learn from published authors, for a couple of one to one sessions with agents, to find out about the publishing industry and to meet people. I thought it might feel strange to be a student at University again, after a gap of thirty years, but it wasn't. I'm sure that was because nearly everyone I met had a similar interest. They were friendly, good fun, hard working, hard drinking and entertaining. Student accommodation has improved immensely since my time and I did miss the old squalor, degradation and misery but, then, I'm funny like that. The University grounds contain the largest plastic-bottomed lake in Europe and the noisiest, nosiest collection of ducks and geese.

The weekend was divided into keynote addresses, workshops, one-to-one meetings with agents and literary death matches. Best selling author Katie Fforde, a Stroudie, kicked off the event with a witty address built around her ten rules for writing success. Perhaps the most important one is to persevere; it took her eight years of hard writing to get published, which is not an unusually long time-scale.

Then there were workshops. I attended ones on creating a sense of place; the likelihood that Ebooks are the future of publishing; plotting; publishing and using the media to promote a book. These consolidated workshops and courses I'd done before and provided some valuable new insights. Claire Siemaszkiewicz's Ebooks workshop was particularly insightful. In addition she brought some sample e-readers, which have come a long way since I first saw one. I was surprised that this workshop wasn't better attended, though I suspect some were put off by Claire being an erotic fiction publisher. They missed out on a very informative session. Her surname should be borne in mind, if only for use in the new version of Scrabble.

I had one-on-one sessions with a literary agent and a talent scout. Though neither said (as I'd hoped in my more optimistic moments) that my novel was the best they'd ever read, they provided insightful criticisms that I think will enable me to get it right in the end. They certainly provided the impetus to rewrite the first chapter as soon as I got back.

On Saturday evening we enjoyed a gala dinner, followed by the Literary Death Match! In this a selection of established and unpublished authors read and performed pieces of their work in an effort to win over the audience and judges. This was great fun, with the unpublished writers holding their own rather well. The popular vote went to Adele Geras for her moving episode based on the sack of Troy but Mary Flood, unpublished as yet, won the judges' vote. From the also reads, Veronica Henry's erotic story was hilarious, as was Toby Frost's bizarre fantasy (from an excellent book - which I am now reading The Wrath of the Lemming Men http://bit.ly/9sa9HB). I also loved John Taylor's moving and evocative piece.

Roger Ellory provided the Festival's finale. His was a funny but revealing address. He referred to a poll that suggested that being a writer is the second most desired profession, after Premier League footballer. For those believing it to be a romantic and lucrative profession, he provided some thought provoking figures: 80% of books published in the UK sell fewer than 500 copies; the average published author can expect to make £7000 a year; only 2% of published books published can be classed as 'best sellers. If you're going into writing to make lots of money, then you may be disappointed. However, if you write because it is a passion then you have a chance of success. He, like Katie, stressed the importance of persistence.

When I got home I was exhausted and my head was still spinning. I'd learned a lot, been entertained and met some fabulous people. Looking back, there were other workshops that I would have liked to attend, had time permitted. Maybe next year.

Thanks to the Writers' Workshop for hosting it.

Workshop Notes

Workshop notes http://www.festivalofwriting.com/notes2010.html

Other blogs and comments on the festival:

WritersCircle – York Festival of Writing Report http://www.mywriterscircle.com/index.php?topic=27232.0

Butterfly in flames – Festival of Writing 2010, York http://www.butterflyinflames.net/Site/Butterfly%20in%20Flames%20Studio%20Blog/3D5E7F3C-345A-45EB-AA68-51D85E6F5D38.html

Matt Hoilton – There and back again.. or a Day at York http://matthiltonbooks.blogspot.com/2010/04/there-and-back-againor-day-at-york.html

Jane Lovering – Getting Snappy http://janelovering.blogspot.com/2010/04/getting-snappy.html

Verity Ferrel – York Festival of Writing April 2010 http://verityfarrell1.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/york-festival-of-writing-april-2010/

Miranda Dickinson - Gives Us another view of The York Festival of Writing
http://romanticnovelistsassociationblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/miranda-dickinson-gives-us-another-view.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RomanticNovelistsAssociationBlog+%28Romantic+Novelists%27+Association+Blog%29

Davina Pearson - The festival of Writing – Wow http://www.davinapearson.com/component/content/article/1-blog/45-the-festival-of-writing-wow

The Word Cloud Event – Festival of Writing http://www.thewordcloud.org/events/profile/66

The Word Cloud Forum – Festival of Writing
http://www.thewordcloud.org/forum/top/105

Authonomy Hisghlights from Festival of Writing http://blog.authonomy.com/2010/04/highlights-from-festival-of-writing.html

The Elephant in the Writing Room – York Festival of Writing: how was it for you? http://theelephantinthewritingroom.blogspot.com/2010/04/york-festival-of-writing-how-was-it-for.html

Debbie Alper – York wrapped up http://debialper.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

Julie Cohen – The Festival of Writing in York
http://www.julie-cohen.com/blog/2010/04/12/the-festival-of-writing-in-york/

Emma Darwin Ducks, dreams and cross-channel ferries: the York Festival of Writing http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2010/04/ducks-dreams-and-crosschannel-ferries-the-york-festival-of-writing.html

Sue Moorcroft Tell us about the York festival of Writing 2010 http://romanticnovelistsassociationblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/sue-moorcroft-tells-us-about-york.html

Penny Legg – The York festival of Writing
http://pennylegg.blogspot.com/2010/04/york-festival-of-writing_13.html

Linda Jones – A wonderful weekend at the York Festival of Writing http://www.gotyourhandsfull.com/2010/04/a-wonderful-weekend-at-the-york-festival-of-writing.html

Penny Grubb – First Festival of Writing http://pennygrubb.blogspot.com/2010/04/first-york-festival-of-writing.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Strictly Writing – Diary of 2010 Festival of Writing
http://strictlywriting.blogspot.com/2010/04/diary-of-2010-festival-of-writing.html

Liz Fenwick – the York Festival of Writing http://lizfenwick.blogspot.com/2010/04/york-festival-of-writing.html

Cath Bore – Crime Doesn’t Pay http://cathbore.wordpress.com/

Cath Bore – What Katie said to do next… http://cathbore.wordpress.com/

Davina Pearson – Revisions and Conferences http://www.davinapearson.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44

twitter hashtags for #writers and #writing

2010-04-08T12:52:00.001+01:00

As a newbie on twitter I've found a few hashtags useful to search on when looking for writerly tweets to see whats happening in our world of literature. I found quite a few different tags being used and as I'd like to keep a list of these where better than by putting them, and sharing them, in a blog?

So far, I have found the following:

#amwriting
#askagent
#author
#authors
#bookmarket
#books
#blogtour
#ebook
#festivalofwriting
#fiction
#fictionwriting
#goodstuff
#literature
#literary
#novels
#nowreading
#pblitchat
#publish
#publishing
#pubtip
#read
#reading
#rewriting
#wip
#write
#writegoal
#writetip
#writers
#writerwednesday
#writing
#writingcompetition
#writingcraft
#ww

And these related ones that I've come across while looking around the twittersphere,

#article
#articles
#authonomy
#comics
#copywriting
#freelance
#journalism
#literarycriticism
#lyrics
#magick
#mystery
#poem
#poetry
#poets
#pressrelease
#shortstory
#writer

If you know of any others please let me know.

My Related Postings

Linking twitter to facebook and adding twitter to blog
Include an option on your #webpage so it can be added to delicious.com #social #bookmarking
Include options on #blog to add the posting to #social #bookmarking sites
Starting to use social bookmarking and the favourite sites/blogs manager deli.cio.us
Starting on facebook

Jenny Jones at #WritersintheBrewery 25 March 2010

2010-04-01T14:15:00.002+01:00

Writers in the Brewery welcomed author Jenny Jones. Jenny has been published frequently in the horror and fantasy genres but is now working as a psychotherapist. She has found that her new profession has gives an insight into why she writes horror fantasy and spoke in defence of the genre, which some people look down on as not being 'real'.

She believes the genre is the equivalent of fairy stories for grown-ups, or at least those grown-ups who have retained some of the childlike capacity to use their imagination. The fascination with horror is a left over from our earliest memories, such as the terror of being born and the inability to escape from things that may be frightening. A baby that has been left alone with its own fears for too long may well be damaged for life. A good horror story takes us back to childhood fears. Despite everything, horror is a popular genre especially among teenagers who are going through so many changes. After all, our worst fears may threaten to overwhelm the heroes but normally, by the end of the book, they have triumphed over them.

Jenny recalled that the first story she remembered writing was a horror story. She didn't consciously decide to write stories in the genre; that was just the way they turned out. She found them cathartic. That may be the reason why she has found writers in the genre to be so easy to get on with - they have written out all the bad stuff.

My Related Postings

Cherry Gilchrist at #WritesInTheBrewery
Sue Chad at Writers in the Brewery 28 Jan 2010
Writers in the Brewery Nov and Dec 2009 review
Writers in the Brewery Writer's workshop

Changing my website for #iphone users

2010-03-22T22:30:00.003Z

Continuing the building of my author's platform; we have been considering where the website can be seen and think a few simple tweeks to the site should make it more readable on an iphone. As with a few of my previous posts you may notice the input of someone far more technical than me in this one.

First we added an apple-touch-icon.png file which gives a preferred icon for the website - similar to favicon.ico but used on iphones. (See my posting Adding a website icon for iphone and stopping page not found for mobiles)

Then on each webpage page we added an extra setting that gives some default settings to be used on the iphone.

On the website, for each page

open the html

add a new setting into the same area as the other meta settings to set the default display for a mobile (this is near the top by the <head>:
add the setting

<meta name="viewport" content="width=670, initial-scale=0.45, minimum-scale=0.45"/>

Thank you to http://www.hanselman.com/blog/CommentView.aspx?guid=7cd08e9b-4f31-4035-8411-8c99bf0bcf1e which is where the instructions for this came from.

And thank you to Selene for letting us test this on her iphone.

My Related Postings

How to #twitter your blog updates and add twitter to #website
Include an option on your #webpage so it can be added to delicious.com #social #bookmarking
Adding a website icon for iphone and stopping page not found for mobiles
Adding free blog subscription options
Add blog to website
Starting an author's platform