Everyone thinks they know where digital publishing is going. Everyone, that is, except for all of us. Take Exhibit A and Exhibit B, brought to my attention by fellow blogger Dan Reid.
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Author: Andy Le Peau
I've been an editor and writer for over forty years. I am passionate about ideas and how we can express them clearly, beautifully, and persuasively. I love reading good books, talking about them, and recommending them. I thoroughly enjoy my family who help me continue on the path of a lifelong learner.
Giving Them Takeaway
How do you keep a reader reading? Inquiring writers and editors of nonfiction want to know. There are many ways to do so. No one single formula should always be employed, but one that many writers and editors use effectively is to provide takeaway.
What’s takeaway?
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JFK’s Speech: Still a Model Fifty Years Later
On January 20, 1961, John Kennedy gave what some consider to be the greatest presidential inaugural speech of the twentieth century. What made it so effective rhetorically? Max Atkinson identifies several key techniques:
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I Have Two Sons in Tucson
I have two sons in Tucson. Dave and Phil have been deeply touched by the recent violence that rocked that Southwestern city. Such tragedies have hit our country before. With all their heartbreaking similarities, each is unique. For my sons, this one felt different. Closer to home. They, as I, have many times driven by that Safeway and been in the McKale Center where the memorial was held.
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In Praise of Lists
Reasons to Make Lists
– My work swarms with miscellany—large and small.
– Emails, phone calls, meetings, interruptions, text messages and more are all coming at us faster and faster.
– Multitasking [doesn’t actually work](http://andyunedited.ivpress.com/2010/08/the_shallows_4_the_net_effect.php).
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The 2011 Andys
You’ve been waiting anxiously for a year since the last awards were given out. Who will receive the coveted 2011 Andys for the books from my reading list? Who will walk on stage to claim the prize, to thank their parents, their mentors, even their editors? Well, the wait is over. The winners are . . .
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What I Read in 2010
Maybe you’ve noticed the “What I’m Reading” list on the right-hand column of the Andy Unedited homepage. Of those books I finished this year, by the numbers they represent fourteen novels, seventeen nonfiction books, eleven audio books, six books purchased, one given to me as a gift, seventeen from the library, one borrowed, five read for our neighborhood book club, four I blogged about and five published by InterVarsity Press (books I read off the clock after publication).
Here’s the full list for the year:
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When Smart People Say Stupid Things
I’m always amazed when very intelligent people say very stupid things. But it’s happened again. This time it’s in The Grand Design, the latest book by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge for thirty years, a chair held by no less than Sir Isaac Newton, himself no slouch. Mlodinow has his own pedigree to be proud of. So what did they say?
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Unpaid Critics
A friend, David Horton, once said, “Some get paid to be critics. Everyone else does it for free.”
We, like any organization or business, get our share of criticisms and complaints. How do we deal with it? Here are my guidelines.
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Google Editions Is Here
With almost as much delay and anticipation as the launch of Kindle, the Google e-bookstore opened its virtual doors yesterday.
When I met with Google at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, they gave me chocolate, smiled broadly and said it was really, really coming after months of delay. But they still wouldn’t give me (or anyone) a date. Now it’s here.
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