Aspiring Public Relations Agent for Authors It is a time of both tragedy and opportunity in the book publishing industry. Charles Dickens wrote “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” about the French Revolution in his famous novel A Tale of Two Cities. The book sales industry is under a technological revolution right now. Small, independent book stores are closing and large book stores like Indigo/Chapters/Coles are selling “lifestyle” products to stay afloat. Some authors are publishing books themselves and make their writing available to the consumer directly through apps like Wattpad, while other authors publish their work directly to e-reader format through large distributors like Amazon who promise authors a commission of sales. The publishing company is slowly being eliminated as the middle-man between book creator and distributor. This means that both printing costs and promotion are now the responsibilities of the distribution company and the author. Authors are now learning to become their own Public Relations agents. Some authors have thrived in this new promotional climate. Margaret Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) has famously taken to using social media to promote her writing and her brand like a fish to water. She is an active user of Twitter with 400,333 followers to date. She is also a vocal supporter of Wattpad and has collaborated on projects that are free to the consumer through the app. Christopher Carter Sanderson (@1000thenovel) famously wrote and published a book on Twitter through a series of 1000, 140-character tweets. Authors understand that they must interact with their audiences directly for both work-promotion and self-promotion and they are using a variety of social platforms through which to both create buzz and distribute their material. It would seem a natural skill for authors to interact with their audience and promote themselves through writing. Writing is their special craft after all. But being able to write and being able to create a brand are two separate skills. Keeping brand messages consistent and interacting with various publics in a polite and interesting manner would be difficult, I would imagine, when the brand is you. I love Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. Cooking is not my forte so I rely on the detailed instructions and pretty pictures of the Barefoot Contessa At Home. I love the aspirational photos in her books and her quaint stories about hosting dinner parties for friends or cooking a special meal for her husband when he returns home from a long business trip. But I would be disappointed if Ina Garten started blogging about how much she enjoyed reading Fifty Shades of Grey. That’s not my Ina! She is the classiest broad in cooking and that is her brand. Social media has transformed the methods of networking and relationship-building essential to the practice of public relations. Social networking has made it easier than ever for authors to self-publish and self-promote but there is a reason that Public Relations is a practice done by trained professionals. In the spirit of self-promotion: if you are an author looking for someone to help you manage your brand contact me on twitter at @Nicole_Nurse_ In the words of Charles Dickens “For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. Try to hold me in your mind, at some quiet times, as ardent and sincere in this one thing.” Happy reading. ~Reading Red. Aspiring Public Relations Agent for Authors It is a time of both tragedy and opportunity in the book publishing industry. Charles Dickens wrote “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” about the French Revolution in his famous novel A Tale of Two Cities. The book sales industry is under a technological revolution right now. Small, independent book stores are closing and large book stores like Indigo/Chapters/Coles are selling “lifestyle” products to stay afloat. Some authors are publishing books themselves and make their writing available to the consumer directly through apps like Wattpad, while other authors publish their work directly to e-reader format through large distributors like Amazon who promise authors a commission of sales. The publishing company is slowly being eliminated as the middle-man between book creator and distributor. This means that both printing costs and promotion are now the responsibilities of the distribution company and the author. Authors are now learning to become their own Public Relations agents. Some authors have thrived in this new promotional climate. Margaret Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) has famously taken to using social media to promote her writing and her brand like a fish to water. She is an active user of Twitter with 400,333 followers to date. She is also a vocal supporter of Wattpad and has collaborated on projects that are free to the consumer through the app. Christopher Carter Sanderson (@1000thenovel) famously wrote and published a book on Twitter through a series of 1000, 140-character tweets. Authors understand that they must interact with their audiences directly for both work-promotion and self-promotion and they are using a variety of social platforms through which to both create buzz and distribute their material. It would seem a natural skill for authors to interact with their audience and promote themselves through writing. Writing is their special craft after all. But being able to write and being able to create a brand are two separate skills. Keeping brand messages consistent and interacting with various publics in a polite and interesting manner would be difficult, I would imagine, when the brand is you. I love Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. Cooking is not my forte so I rely on the detailed instructions and pretty pictures of the Barefoot Contessa At Home. I love the aspirational photos in her books and her quaint stories about hosting dinner parties for friends or cooking a special meal for her husband when he returns home from a long business trip. But I would be disappointed if Ina Garten started blogging about how much she enjoyed reading Fifty Shades of Grey. That’s not my Ina! She is the classiest broad in cooking and that is her brand. Social media has transformed the methods of networking and relationship-building essential to the practice of public relations. Social networking has made it easier than ever for authors to self-publish and self-promote but there is a reason that Public Relations is a practice done by trained professionals. In the spirit of self-promotion: if you are an author looking for someone to help you manage your brand contact me on twitter at @Nicole_Nurse_ In the words of Charles Dickens “For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. Try to hold me in your mind, at some quiet times, as ardent and sincere in this one thing.” Happy reading. ~Reading Red. Aspiring Public Relations Agent for Authors It is a time of both tragedy and opportunity in the book publishing industry. Charles Dickens wrote “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” about the French Revolution in his famous novel A Tale of Two Cities. The book sales industry is under a technological revolution right now. Small, independent book stores are closing and large book stores like Indigo/Chapters/Coles are selling “lifestyle” products to stay afloat. Some authors are publishing books themselves and make their writing available to the consumer directly through apps like Wattpad, while other authors publish their work directly to e-reader format through large distributors like Amazon who promise authors a commission of sales. The publishing company is slowly being eliminated as the middle-man between book creator and distributor. This means that both printing costs and promotion are now the responsibilities of the distribution company and the author. Authors are now learning to become their own Public Relations agents. Some authors have thrived in this new promotional climate. Margaret Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) has famously taken to using social media to promote her writing and her brand like a fish to water. She is an active user of Twitter with 400,333 followers to date. She is also a vocal supporter of Wattpad and has collaborated on projects that are free to the consumer through the app. Christopher Carter Sanderson (@1000thenovel) famously wrote and published a book on Twitter through a series of 1000, 140-character tweets. Authors understand that they must interact with their audiences directly for both work-promotion and self-promotion and they are using a variety of social platforms through which to both create buzz and distribute their material. It would seem a natural skill for authors to interact with their audience and promote themselves through writing. Writing is their special craft after all. But being able to write and being able to create a brand are two separate skills. Keeping brand messages consistent and interacting with various publics in a polite and interesting manner would be difficult, I would imagine, when the brand is you. I love Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. Cooking is not my forte so I rely on the detailed instructions and pretty pictures of the Barefoot Contessa At Home. I love the aspirational photos in her books and her quaint stories about hosting dinner parties for friends or cooking a special meal for her husband when he returns home from a long business trip. But I would be disappointed if Ina Garten started blogging about how much she enjoyed reading Fifty Shades of Grey. That’s not my Ina! She is the classiest broad in cooking and that is her brand. Social media has transformed the methods of networking and relationship-building essential to the practice of public relations. Social networking has made it easier than ever for authors to self-publish and self-promote but there is a reason that Public Relations is a practice done by trained professionals. In the spirit of self-promotion: if you are an author looking for someone to help you manage your brand contact me on twitter at @Nicole_Nurse_ In the words of Charles Dickens “For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. Try to hold me in your mind, at some quiet times, as ardent and sincere in this one thing.” Happy reading. ~Reading Red. Aspiring Public Relations Agent for Authors It is a time of both tragedy and opportunity in the book publishing industry. Charles Dickens wrote “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” about the French Revolution in his famous novel A Tale of Two Cities. The book sales industry is under a technological revolution right now. Small, independent book stores are closing and large book stores like Indigo/Chapters/Coles are selling “lifestyle” products to stay afloat. Some authors are publishing books themselves and make their writing available to the consumer directly through apps like Wattpad, while other authors publish their work directly to e-reader format through large distributors like Amazon who promise authors a commission of sales. The publishing company is slowly being eliminated as the middle-man between book creator and distributor. This means that both printing costs and promotion are now the responsibilities of the distribution company and the author. Authors are now learning to become their own Public Relations agents. Some authors have thrived in this new promotional climate. Margaret Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) has famously taken to using social media to promote her writing and her brand like a fish to water. She is an active user of Twitter with 400,333 followers to date. She is also a vocal supporter of Wattpad and has collaborated on projects that are free to the consumer through the app. Christopher Carter Sanderson (@1000thenovel) famously wrote and published a book on Twitter through a series of 1000, 140-character tweets. Authors understand that they must interact with their audiences directly for both work-promotion and self-promotion and they are using a variety of social platforms through which to both create buzz and distribute their material. It would seem a natural skill for authors to interact with their audience and promote themselves through writing. Writing is their special craft after all. But being able to write and being able to create a brand are two separate skills. Keeping brand messages consistent and interacting with various publics in a polite and interesting manner would be difficult, I would imagine, when the brand is you. I love Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. Cooking is not my forte so I rely on the detailed instructions and pretty pictures of the Barefoot Contessa At Home. I love the aspirational photos in her books and her quaint stories about hosting dinner parties for friends or cooking a special meal for her husband when he returns home from a long business trip. But I would be disappointed if Ina Garten started blogging about how much she enjoyed reading Fifty Shades of Grey. That’s not my Ina! She is the classiest broad in cooking and that is her brand. Social media has transformed the methods of networking and relationship-building essential to the practice of public relations. Social networking has made it easier than ever for authors to self-publish and self-promote but there is a reason that Public Relations is a practice done by trained professionals. In the spirit of self-promotion: if you are an author looking for someone to help you manage your brand contact me on twitter at @Nicole_Nurse_ In the words of Charles Dickens “For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. Try to hold me in your mind, at some quiet times, as ardent and sincere in this one thing.” Happy reading. ~Reading Red. Aspiring Public Relations Agent for Authors It is a time of both tragedy and opportunity in the book publishing industry. Charles Dickens wrote “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” about the French Revolution in his famous novel A Tale of Two Cities. The book sales industry is under a technological revolution right now. Small, independent book stores are closing and large book stores like Indigo/Chapters/Coles are selling “lifestyle” products to stay afloat. Some authors are publishing books themselves and make their writing available to the consumer directly through apps like Wattpad, while other authors publish their work directly to e-reader format through large distributors like Amazon who promise authors a commission of sales. The publishing company is slowly being eliminated as the middle-man between book creator and distributor. This means that both printing costs and promotion are now the responsibilities of the distribution company and the author. Authors are now learning to become their own Public Relations agents. Some authors have thrived in this new promotional climate. Margaret Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) has famously taken to using social media to promote her writing and her brand like a fish to water. She is an active user of Twitter with 400,333 followers to date. She is also a vocal supporter of Wattpad and has collaborated on projects that are free to the consumer through the app. Christopher Carter Sanderson (@1000thenovel) famously wrote and published a book on Twitter through a series of 1000, 140-character tweets. Authors understand that they must interact with their audiences directly for both work-promotion and self-promotion and they are using a variety of social platforms through which to both create buzz and distribute their material. It would seem a natural skill for authors to interact with their audience and promote themselves through writing. Writing is their special craft after all. But being able to write and being able to create a brand are two separate skills. Keeping brand messages consistent and interacting with various publics in a polite and interesting manner would be difficult, I would imagine, when the brand is you. I love Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. Cooking is not my forte so I rely on the detailed instructions and pretty pictures of the Barefoot Contessa At Home. I love the aspirational photos in her books and her quaint stories about hosting dinner parties for friends or cooking a special meal for her husband when he returns home from a long business trip. But I would be disappointed if Ina Garten started blogging about how much she enjoyed reading Fifty Shades of Grey. That’s not my Ina! She is the classiest broad in cooking and that is her brand. Social media has transformed the methods of networking and relationship-building essential to the practice of public relations. Social networking has made it easier than ever for authors to self-publish and self-promote but there is a reason that Public Relations is a practice done by trained professionals. In the spirit of self-promotion: if you are an author looking for someone to help you manage your brand contact me on twitter at @Nicole_Nurse_ In the words of Charles Dickens “For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. Try to hold me in your mind, at some quiet times, as ardent and sincere in this one thing.” Happy reading. ~Reading Red.

Aspiring Public Relations Agent for Authors

It is a time of both tragedy and opportunity in the book publishing industry. Charles Dickens wrote “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” about the French Revolution in his famous novel A Tale of Two Cities.

The book sales industry is under a technological revolution right now. Small, independent book stores are closing and large book stores like Indigo/Chapters/Coles are selling “lifestyle” products to stay afloat. Some authors are publishing books themselves and make their writing available to the consumer directly through apps like Wattpad, while other authors publish their work directly to e-reader format through large distributors like Amazon who promise authors a commission of sales. The publishing company is slowly being eliminated as the middle-man between book creator and distributor. This means that both printing costs and promotion are now the responsibilities of the distribution company and the author. Authors are now learning to become their own Public Relations agents. Some authors have thrived in this new promotional climate. Margaret Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) has famously taken to using social media to promote her writing and her brand like a fish to water. She is an active user of Twitter with 400,333 followers to date. She is also a vocal supporter of Wattpad and has collaborated on projects that are free to the consumer through the app. Christopher Carter Sanderson (@1000thenovel) famously wrote and published a book on Twitter through a series of 1000, 140-character tweets. Authors understand that they must interact with their audiences directly for both work-promotion and self-promotion and they are using a variety of social platforms through which to both create buzz and distribute their material.

It would seem a natural skill for authors to interact with their audience and promote themselves through writing. Writing is their special craft after all. But being able to write and being able to create a brand are two separate skills. Keeping brand messages consistent and interacting with various publics in a polite and interesting manner would be difficult, I would imagine, when the brand is you. I love Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. Cooking is not my forte so I rely on the detailed instructions and pretty pictures of the Barefoot Contessa At Home. I love the aspirational photos in her books and her quaint stories about hosting dinner parties for friends or cooking a special meal for her husband when he returns home from a long business trip. But I would be disappointed if Ina Garten started blogging about how much she enjoyed reading Fifty Shades of Grey. That’s not my Ina! She is the classiest broad in cooking and that is her brand. Social media has transformed the methods of networking and relationship-building essential to the practice of public relations. Social networking has made it easier than ever for authors to self-publish and self-promote but there is a reason that Public Relations is a practice done by trained professionals.

In the spirit of self-promotion: if you are an author looking for someone to help you manage your brand contact me on twitter at @Nicole_Nurse_

In the words of Charles Dickens “For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. Try to hold me in your mind, at some quiet times, as ardent and sincere in this one thing.”

Happy reading.

~Reading Red.

May. 23 2013
#books #authors #public relations #book publishing #book publishers #twitter #blog #ina garten #barefoot contessa #augusten burroughs #margaret atwood #buzz #promotion #writing #profession #public #charles dickens #a tale of two cities #quotes #social media revolution #christopher carter sanderson #wattpad #amazon.com #chapters #indigo #coles
Measure What Matters, Katie Delahaye Paine #getit?got it.good #ccpr #indigo

Measure What Matters, Katie Delahaye Paine #getit?got it.good #ccpr #indigo

May. 21 2013
#indigo #ccpr #getit
strandbooks: Nice collection of photos! Favorite: lower right corner - reading in the stacks. youlyingsonofabitch: Favorite Place Strand Bookstore strandbooks: Nice collection of photos! Favorite: lower right corner - reading in the stacks. youlyingsonofabitch: Favorite Place Strand Bookstore strandbooks: Nice collection of photos! Favorite: lower right corner - reading in the stacks. youlyingsonofabitch: Favorite Place Strand Bookstore strandbooks: Nice collection of photos! Favorite: lower right corner - reading in the stacks. youlyingsonofabitch: Favorite Place Strand Bookstore strandbooks: Nice collection of photos! Favorite: lower right corner - reading in the stacks. youlyingsonofabitch: Favorite Place Strand Bookstore strandbooks: Nice collection of photos! Favorite: lower right corner - reading in the stacks. youlyingsonofabitch: Favorite Place Strand Bookstore strandbooks: Nice collection of photos! Favorite: lower right corner - reading in the stacks. youlyingsonofabitch: Favorite Place Strand Bookstore

strandbooks:

Nice collection of photos! Favorite: lower right corner - reading in the stacks.

youlyingsonofabitch:

Favorite Place

Strand Bookstore

May. 13 2013
Via stabstabregret
#strand bookstore #bookstore
365 notes

Running Chicken: Here We Are Now Entertain Us ➔

kohenari:

Here’s Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales, putting forward what might be the motto of the contemporary edutainment industry:

I was taking an advanced calculus class and my instructor was reputed to be a fabulous researcher, but he barely spoke English. He was a very boring and bad teacher and I was…

May. 13 2013
Via explore-blog
#teaching #entertainment
475 notes
What shall I reread today? #bookshelf

What shall I reread today? #bookshelf

May. 12 2013
#bookshelf
1 note
#bookshelf

#bookshelf

May. 12 2013
#bookshelf
What shall I read today? #bookshelf #decisions #oldschoolradio

What shall I read today? #bookshelf #decisions #oldschoolradio

May. 12 2013
#bookshelf #decisions #oldschoolradio
Great advice and belly laughs. Love this book. #augustenburroughs #thisishow

Great advice and belly laughs. Love this book. #augustenburroughs #thisishow

May. 12 2013
#augustenburroughs #thisishow
teachingliteracy:  (by Sebastian Dávila Art) Love this photo. Should represent an app I saw today called “The Novel That’s Inside You”. ~ Reading Red.

teachingliteracy:

 (by Sebastian Dávila Art)

Love this photo. Should represent an app I saw today called “The Novel That’s Inside You”.
~ Reading Red.

(via teachingliteracy)

May. 11 2013
Via Flickr / artsebastiandavila
12 notes
Employee Satisfaction 101  The photo of this police officer prompts my reflection today. He is interacting with the public and gaining the public’s good will. Although he is not apprehending suspects or investigating crime, being a loved and trusted member of the community is part of the police brand promise. The members of the public watching in the crowd are smiling and enjoying themselves and so is this officer. It is important that the public and employees of an organization are both pleased with the brand messages. While taking a business communications course I have learned much about understanding company goals and business objectives and considering those while making plans to communicate brand messages to the public. I have also learned much about communicating the same brand messages to employees. External and internal communications tactics may be different but the brand messages should be consistent. It would stand to reason that happy employees would be more productive and thus would serve as human capital for the company. However, it is shocking at how little time and effort is devoted to strategic internal communications and branding. I have worked for the government, not-for-profit organizations and for-profit entities and the inconsistency between the external brand promise (reliable, attentive, timely, and confidential) and the internal brand reality has been astonishing in my experience. Another critical lesson I have learned from this course is that I am not alone. I am not the only employee who cares about food in the cafeteria, health benefits, proximity of the office to my home, and other perks and creature comforts just as much as the salary. It seems that employees, especially women, are not interested in just a paycheque, but they are interested in all of the lifestyle benefits of working for one company versus another. Company culture is also very important to employees in addition to salary. The happiness of employees is heavily influenced by their fit with company culture. I have certainly experienced a change in my happiness at work with a change in company culture. I am also certain to look for cues on company culture in interviews as I search for internships and full-time work. I even noticed myself looking for clues on company culture during the Public Relations agency presentations to the class last week. Apex PR certainly seemed to have a fun, flexible, inclusive company culture that I appreciate. I agonized over the Summerhill assignment, in which we were challenged to create an internal communications strategy for a Summerhill office relocation. Although the assignment was difficult to discern between the company goals, business objectives, communications priorities and communications objectives it was a very helpful assignment once understood. Classmate James used the analogy of a trip to Montreal as a way to discern goals, objectives, strategies and tactics. Now I have a new appreciation for internal communications strategy and internal branding. Now, before working for any company in future I will be sure to analyze their external branding and communications efforts as well as their internal ones before committing to working with them. ~ Reading Red. 

Employee Satisfaction 101

 The photo of this police officer prompts my reflection today. He is interacting with the public and gaining the public’s good will. Although he is not apprehending suspects or investigating crime, being a loved and trusted member of the community is part of the police brand promise. The members of the public watching in the crowd are smiling and enjoying themselves and so is this officer. It is important that the public and employees of an organization are both pleased with the brand messages. While taking a business communications course I have learned much about understanding company goals and business objectives and considering those while making plans to communicate brand messages to the public. I have also learned much about communicating the same brand messages to employees. External and internal communications tactics may be different but the brand messages should be consistent.

It would stand to reason that happy employees would be more productive and thus would serve as human capital for the company. However, it is shocking at how little time and effort is devoted to strategic internal communications and branding. I have worked for the government, not-for-profit organizations and for-profit entities and the inconsistency between the external brand promise (reliable, attentive, timely, and confidential) and the internal brand reality has been astonishing in my experience.

Another critical lesson I have learned from this course is that I am not alone. I am not the only employee who cares about food in the cafeteria, health benefits, proximity of the office to my home, and other perks and creature comforts just as much as the salary. It seems that employees, especially women, are not interested in just a paycheque, but they are interested in all of the lifestyle benefits of working for one company versus another. Company culture is also very important to employees in addition to salary. The happiness of employees is heavily influenced by their fit with company culture. I have certainly experienced a change in my happiness at work with a change in company culture. I am also certain to look for cues on company culture in interviews as I search for internships and full-time work. I even noticed myself looking for clues on company culture during the Public Relations agency presentations to the class last week. Apex PR certainly seemed to have a fun, flexible, inclusive company culture that I appreciate.

I agonized over the Summerhill assignment, in which we were challenged to create an internal communications strategy for a Summerhill office relocation. Although the assignment was difficult to discern between the company goals, business objectives, communications priorities and communications objectives it was a very helpful assignment once understood. Classmate James used the analogy of a trip to Montreal as a way to discern goals, objectives, strategies and tactics. Now I have a new appreciation for internal communications strategy and internal branding. Now, before working for any company in future I will be sure to analyze their external branding and communications efforts as well as their internal ones before committing to working with them.

~ Reading Red. 

(via mrfrivolous)

Apr. 22 2013
Via postitnohate
#branding #communications #employees #public #external communications #internal communications
62,189 notes
unypl: “Ways of Seeing,” by John Berger Borrow I Read This book is based on films by the art critic John Berger. The films are available here. 

unypl:

“Ways of Seeing,” by John Berger

Borrow I Read

This book is based on films by the art critic John Berger. The films are available here. 

Apr. 22 2013
Via unypl
125 notes