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The Day The Self Publisher Took A Vacation

I should have been in New York for Tools of Change this week, as evidenced by an inbox full of invitations to press events, but I stayed home. This is no reflection on Tools of Change, which I think is THE conference for publishers trying to stay ahead of the curve and for working media in the publishing field. However, I'm trying to get away from blogging, and conferences are primarily about networking, establishing relationships. Since I'm not interested in any consulting or speaking work, I don't see the point.

Instead of traveling to Manhattan, I ran five miles this morning, will do laundry this afternoon, and follow-up with McGraw-Hill about getting the rights reverted for the last book I authored for them. "Build Your Own PC - 4th Edition" was published in 2004, and is horrifically obsolete at this point, but they only exhausted the stock from the last print run in recent weeks. I haven't done any writing in that area since 2004 because the original contract (signed in 1998) included a non-compete that's open to interpretation. Rather than interpret, I've just stayed away. But when I get the right reversion, I'll build a couple new PCs for the website, at least it will give me a definable project.

In the meantime, I'm reading the works of Charles Lever, which have the most interesting illustrations I recall seeing in years. Both the plates and the embellishments that start each chapter reflect the text, are well executed and clever. I'm not sure how that's supposed to help me as a self publisher, but it's good for a pleasant few hours every evening.

That's all the news from Northampton, Massachusetts this faux spring day. It took eleven minutes to write, so I think I'm finally on my way to beating the blog disease. All I need now is to see my subscription number start dropping in Google:-)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've said it before: instead of quitting blogging, just abandon the feeling of needing to write regularly; instead, post a blog entry when you are excited and passionate about sharing something. If this is once a week, or month, or year, fine. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Some of the best blogs I read are only updated every few weeks or less.

Interestingly, I'm always scared to death of vacations because I feel they will derail my business momentum, but I always come back from them refreshed, refocused, and most importantly, with increased creativity. So, vacation away!

Bryan

Morris Rosenthal said...

Bryan,

I've been trying to follow your advice, I'm just not doing very good at it:-)

But I sound like a self-indulgent whiner on the blogging subject, so I'm beginning to wonder if a clean break is the only way out.

Morris

Anonymous said...

Reason rarely applies when it comes to getting between a man and his addictions :-)

If you stopped blogging, I'm not sure where I would go for my weekly dose of higher level thinking and business planning. I guess I could read the archives of your blog a few times, but the newer posts are always more relevant and up to date with current happenings.

Bryan

Anonymous said...

Im writing a story, about my life. I need to talk to someone about,how to get it started!

Morris Rosenthal said...

Anonymous,

I write about publishing as a business so I discourage people from even thinking about autobiography:-) And I'm about as far from a writing coach as you're going to find. I'd suggest searching your local area for memoir writing support groups, there are lots of them.

Morris

araceli Collazo said...

I enjoy your blog postings... and your communications with your followers :)

i sent you an email with the code you indicated, so hopefully it will not end up in Spam...

Hopefully you can help :)

Cheers to you and Bryan...

Araceli Collazo
araceli.collazo@gmail.com