Here at The Publishing Spot, we won't judge you by your books. You can read whatever you want--from pulp fiction to deconstructed literary fiction to comic books--and we won't make fun of you.
I will alert you to situations where somebody might be judging your bookshelf. Jeff Bercovici (one of my favorite writing-world reporters right now) reminded me of a couple New York Times articles that you must read.
Don't let your next literary date sneak attack in the bookshelf battles. Save the college-epiphany books for the first-year anniversary:
"Judy Heiblum, a literary agent at Sterling Lord Literistic, shudders at the memory of some attempted date-talk about Robert Pirsig’s 1974 cult classic 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,' beloved of searching young men. 'When a guy tells me it changed his life, I wish he’d saved us both the embarrassment,' Heiblum said, adding that 'life-changing experiences' are a 'tedious conversational topic at best.'"
I won't judge, and neither will our special guest journalist Jeff Gordinier (check out our interview about interviewing).
What's more, if you are looking for some free entertainment this evening, he's reading at the Tribecca Barnes and Noble at 7 p.m.--feel free to discuss any pop culture book you want with his fans.
Nobody actually visits blogs anymore. We read them on RSS Readers instead.
On a panel discussion at Hudson Valley Writers' Center this weekend, a couple different people asked me about RSS feeds and blog subscriptions.
Just in case you need it, I'm going to give you an introduction to RSS feeds and subscription services on this blog.
If you click the orange RSS button on the right hand side of the page (or click this Subscribe link right now), then you read my blog using Google Reader or other blog aggregator. As my network explains: "By clicking on this button (
), you will be subscribing to this content for free ... An aggregator is some service ... that receives the content you have requested and displays it in some personalized format. So each time a new entry is published, a copy of that article will be sent automatically, at no cost, to the aggregator that you have chosen. This free subscription is a result of RSS, which stands fro Really Simply Syndication."
If that sounds too complicated, look in the upper right hand corner of this blog, there is a very special option, "Enter e-mail below to subscribe." Sign up today and receive two free writing posts a day, delivered personally by a computer program from me to you. No spam, no distractions, just posts.
Don't waste anymore time clicking on my site. Don't waste anymore time clicking on anybody's blog. Subscribe and let the blog send you posts instead. If your personal blog lacks any of these features, you need to add them--you could be missing out on readers.
“Hey Professor, I’ve always wanted to know something. Why is our site set up like a blog instead of some other type of site?”
“Well, a blog gives us a way to categorize our updates, and to arrange them in order. We can also publish a feed to other sites so they can publish our updates too. Our feed uses the RSS format, so most browsers can list our updates in their bookmarks menu in real time. Our readers can also comment on each article.”
“I guess that does make good sense. We have a ton of updates around here, that’s for sure.”
“We’ve had over 300 updates so far, not counting the pages or chapter lists.”
“Whoa. That’s two tons of updates. Grab those RSS feeds folks! This site gets busier by the minute! We’re out!”
