Everyone wants to write a book. And now everyone can.This seems sort of true, though who and what “everyone” means is certainly relative. There are pirates off Somalia and desperate poverty in every region of the globe.
But indeed everyone means a lot more of everyone than it did one hundred years ago, even fifty.
It's FFFin' beautiful. Look at me write here. It ain't no book, but it sure is published.
But on the other hand the printed book industry's crapped out. A good friend who just had a really successful run on a new book says her publisher could care less about the writer.
And according to recent OpEd in The New York Times by Timothy Egan:
I know: publishers say they print garbage so that real literature, which seldom makes any money, can find its way into print. True, to a point. But some of them print garbage so they can buy more garbage.
My mind is still processing the time I spent reading Chris Anderson’s Long Tail, The, Revised and Updated Edition: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.The time is dispersed and filled with lingering, third-mind like connections of listening to the radio, reading the newspaper and living while I took in as much of the book as possible.
I will not complete these thoughts now. They are are liminal.
Following are a few:
* THE BURROUGHS-GYSIN COINED PHRASE: THE THIRD MIND
(note: the pic above is of Burroughs and Cobain)
You and Brion have described your collaborations over the years as products of a "third mind." What is the source of this concept?
Burroughs: A book called Think And Grow Rich
Gysin: It says that when you put two minds together. . .
Burroughs. . . . . there is always a third mind
Gysin: . . . . a third and superior mind. . . .
Burroughs: . . . . as an unseen collaborator.
Gysin: That's where we picked up the title. Our book The Third Mind is all about cut-up materials.
* THE QUALITY AT THE "TOP" IS DETERIORATING
Grammy nominations a snooze
Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic
Friday, December 5, 2008
So-called illegal downloads may no longer be the gravest danger faced by the imperiled recording industry: Just plain bad music may be what ultimately does the business in, and if you're looking for evidence, just scan the list of Grammy nominees announced Wednesday night in a prime-time TV special that was anything but.
It's not just that the biggest selling record of the year is rapper Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" - last year's top seller was "High School Musical II," followed closely by Josh Grobin's Christmas album - or even the uninspiring lineup of dull, predictable Grammy nominations.
It is the complete and utter absence of any major work by an industry that once shipped masterpieces weekly.
* IS THE NICHE THE NEXT: CAN SMALL NFP'S PROFIT AS A NEW INFINITE?
In his Annual “cutting the Long Tail down to size” roundup, Anderson writes:
My answer to that is that fortunately social media creates an infinite number of networks, many of them focused on niche subjects, so that many winners can take “all” of their micromarket, while still having the collective effect of redistributing demand in the entire market over more variety.
* justreeeead this one.
Chris Anderson posted on November 15, 2008 --
Does the Long Tail create bigger hits or smaller ones?.
* DOES DWINDLING QUALITY AT "THE HEAD" CREATE VALUE FURTHER DOWN EVEN IN THE STAID CULTURE OF FINANCIAL SERVICING?
Seeking Financial Guidance on the Web
By Claire Cain Miller
December 21, 2008
Amid the big slump, many people are turning to the Web, as I wrote in an article on Saturday. Disillusioned by banks and the stock market, they are logging on to sites that pull together their financial data from across the Web, help them create budgets and offer a community where they can talk about their finances with others.
* WRITE A NFP SUPPLEMENT CHRIS ANDERSON. AND HOW CAN I HELP SINCE I THINK YOU LIVE VERY NEARBY IN BERKELEY?
I do think that Anderson should be exploring an edition for the Not-for-profit Sphere. There are different standards there, and in much the same way Jim Collins produced Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great.
* VALUE?
In the non-profit world there is more room to explore shifting definitions of VALUE as “goods which can be exchanged.” The economic and relative meaning of VALUE is very important in the not-for-profit world.
At the upcoming California Association of Museum’s conference in S.F. in late February, I am on a panel about monetizing websites.
And I am leading sessions at the 2009 Western Museums Association.
In both I will explore different meanings of value and seek feedback.
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