To do great writing, read great writing. Here’s the great writing I’ve been reading this week:
OK, I admit it. I haven’t done much reading in the past week. I’ve been too busy playing with Pinterest.
Don’t know Pinterest? It’s the hottest thing in social sharing right now, an online inspiration board that lets you “pin” pictures and other material you find on the web to “boards” that you can organize any way you want. Lots of early Pinterest users share photos of the latest fashions, home interiors and recipes.
But as the site takes off – and boy is it – people are starting to use it in different ways. Companies are getting into it too, including magazine publishers – lots of them. Here are examples from Time, Real Simple and Marie Claire fashion director (and Project Runway judge) Nina Garcia.
I’m experimenting with Pinterest myself. Here’s a peak at my Pinterest boards – follow me!
I’m working on a post about how writers are using Pinterest. If you are, how are you using it? Leave the details in a comment and I’ll share them in an upcoming post.
Here’s some other industry news I’ve stumbled upon this week:
The Constant Gardener (Columbia Journalism Review) – A Patch.com editor shares his two-year experience working at the AOL hyperlocal news site, in the process sharing the effects – good and bad, but mostly bad – that AOL’s changing strategies and purchase of HuffingtonPost had on the startup. A must read for anyone who’s ever worked at Patch, or thought of working there.
How Much Do Kindle Singles Authors Make (PaidContent) – A lot, according to the six writers interviewed by Laura Hazard Owen. Authors’ estimated royalties – price multiplied by number of copies sold less Amazon’s fee, run between $129,544.82 for three singles (Mishka Shubaly) to $8,845.55 for two singles (Will Bunch). Takeaway – now you know what to do with that 15,000-word memoir or travel essay you haven’t been able to get magazines or traditional book publishers interested in.
Scripps Howard Awards Honor National Best 2011 Journalism (Scripps Howard Foundation) – Be inspired.
Jobs Beyond Traditional Journalism (Freelance Switch) – In case you haven’t figured out that if you’re just getting into freelancing, there’s more opportunity outside of writing for newspapers and consumer magazines than inside.
A Code of Conduct for Content Aggregators (New York Times) – The paper’s media reporter David Carr recounts the recent controversies over what constitutes fair use when it comes to aggregating stories to reuse on other sites, and shares two groups’ efforts to come up with standards for the practice. Good reading if you do any type of aggregating or content curation as part of a paid blogging assignment (I do) or on your own blog (of which this post is a great example).
The Perfect New York Times‘ ‘Lives’ Essay (Gawker) – A perfect parody.
Tech tools for writers:
50 (mostly) free social media tools you can use every day (AdamVincenzini.com)