Publishing-industry thinker Sean Cranbury linked to this article in the Globe and Mail: The rise of the e-book lending library (and the death of e-book pirating).

The voice of the article, along with some of the people quoted within it, struck me as… naïve. To say the least.

But enough about that. As an author, here’s what I think about digital publishing, ebook lending and piracy. In reverse order.

My books have been pirated. To be clear – my only-released-in-print books have been pirated. I know, right? Makes me feel special that someone, or some people, took the time to scan an entire book of mine and put it on the internet. My reaction when discovering such piracy has not been the same as that of other authors whose outcry you may have encountered. Surprisingly, my response to the piracy of my books is, “Well, I hope the pirates tell their friends how great the book is.” And then I forget about the piracy and go do other things.

Coveted digital files will be pirated. This is not news. Or, perhaps it was news a very long time ago. But right now this is simply the status quo. (Contrary to what the Globe article asserts, there’s rampant ebook piracy. The commenters on the article are correct.)

In my opinion, the best way to avoid allowing piracy to kill a business is to make coveted digital files readily available to absolutely everyone for a competitive price, immediately. Don’t want that shiny new, much anticipated book to be pirated? Release an ebook version the same day print copies hit shelves – not just a Kindle version, but preferably an EPub version without DRM.

Piracy didn’t kill the music business, the music industry simply chose not to make coveted music files readily available for sale to consumers. iTunes did it instead, and iTunes took a lot of money from the music industry. I don’t think we’re seeing a single, dominant iTunes-like entity taking the publishers’ money; at first it seemed like Amazon was The One, but there’s a lot of competition now. Which means the time for business-model innovation hasn’t passed yet for publishing.

Ok, lending. I’m all for it. Before ebooks, libraries lending print books didn’t kill the publishing industry. Libraries are a hallmark of our sophisticated society. Lending digital files is sort of weird, of course, on account of digital files not at all being the same as tangible objects, but whatever. If someone wants to test out one of my books for two or three weeks by borrowing the digital file and pretending there’s only one of it, all the power to them. I might recommend they pirate it instead, since it takes just as little effort, there’s no queue because there actually is an unlimited number of copies of the file, and then at least they can keep it forever. But that’s just me.

Of course, this lending business would be great if my books were actually available legitimately as ebooks so libraries could by digital copies and readers could borrow them. To my knowledge, only my first two books with Wiley are available as ebooks, in Adobe Digital Editions format – the first edition of Teach Yourself Visually Crocheting and Crochet Visual Quick Tips. They are not competitively priced, especially since the sale is final and non-refundable, and to my knowledge only a couple dozen digital copies of either book has sold, ever. (I don’t know if any libraries have digital copies available.)

I did get a letter from Random House a few months ago (via snail mail, of course), asking my permission to publish one of the Get Hooked books – I can’t remember which – digitally. Why only one? I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything about it since.

I have no reason to believe any of my published books will be released as DRM-free EPub ebooks, and that is a disappointment.

Now, crafts books are a special kind of problem when it comes to e-publishing, and that’s because of the heavy use of imagery. EPub is crap at handling images. Which means that most crafts ebooks are PDFs. And with lots of images, PDF files are gigantic. Not ideal. Also, most apps and devices can’t re-flow PDFs (correct me if I’m wrong on this), which limits the reader’s ability to customize the reading experience. Also not ideal.

So.

Digital publishing isn’t the future, it’s the present. I love seeing what my pals in the crafts world are doing independently with digital publishing. Like bundling a digital add-on with the print book for only a couple more bucks. Or simply building an ebook-only imprint.

I’ve been kicking around a book idea for a while. I don’t yet know too much about it, but the idea is persistent and occasionally it grows. Once it’s ready, I may not take it to a traditional publisher, but maybe to an indie. Or maybe I’ll self-publish it (using a professional editor, guaranteed!). I want independence and flexibility and ownership of my ideas, and with that ownership the freedom to spread them around however I want. I’m confident that the books I’ve published over the last few years aren’t able to be spread around in the ways many readers would like them to be – and I do firmly believe that most readers would pay for the privilege.

What do you think? Are you in a spitting rage about piracy? As a reader, what do you want? And as a writer?

My Authorly Thoughts on Ebooks and Piracy is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

Last month the second edition of Teach Yourself Visually Crochet came out! Cecily spent a ton of time updating and adding stuff (um, hello Booties Master Pattern*!), and she did an amazing job.

Also, I’m very glad that Wiley changed the title from “Crocheting” to “Crochet”. That seems much more right.

So. If you or a loved one or a casual acquaintance could use a comprehensive, full-colour-photo-illustrated, clearly written crochet compendium, get thee to your favourite local book or yarn store!

And thanks to everyone who’s bought a copy of this book over the last several years. Your kind comments have brightened many of my days.

Go crochet something.

–
* Cecily also wrote a sock master pattern!

Teach Yourself Visually Crochet: 2nd Edition Now Available! is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

So behold, a list of apps I find most useful as a crafty, writerly, editorly freelancer in the social media age:

On the Web

• For us creative types, 2010 was the year of Pinterest. It’s like a public corkboard of imagery. Find something you like that you’re allowed to share, pin it. That’s it. I’m hoping 2011 brings more diversity to the styles and tastes represented on there, for it’s about the coolest way to scan lots and lots of images in a very short time. It’s great for crafty, design and general creative inspiration.
• Other than Pinterest, I’m mostly using the same apps I used last year, but I hate Facebook more. I set up a Facebook page for myself and one for Mighty Ugly, and I culled a lot of people I don’t actually know from my friends list. I wish Facebook didn’t make it so damned convoluted to manage a page; my page shouldn’t have to be in any way related to my personal profile, yet there seems to be no other way to manage apps and the like. Which is confusing and annoying.
• Twitter is still the end-all be-all for me for chatting, for networking and for general connectedness to the people and organizations I want to keep up with.
• Tumblr‘s experiencing growing pains, but this year more and more crafty types started using it. I still love it, and I’m trying to be patient as they try to scale during this time of insane growth. If you’re still unfamiliar with it, Tumblr is like a macro-microblogging too. Why use it if you already have a long-form blog and use Twitter for microblogging? I’m not saying you should. But I love it. I use it to share images, video and quotes that strike a chord. It’s very quick for me to create posts, where it takes me quite a while to write a proper blog post. And sometimes I need more than 140 characters. Tumblr allows you to queue up posts, too, and publish them on a schedule of your choosing. Which, especially for someone like me whose content output ebbs and flows, is awesome for keeping a steady stream of fresh content coming.
• Evernote. This one is going to appear in most of the sections of this post, since the reason I find it so useful is that it works on pretty much every platform and syncs between them so you always have your info with you. Evernote is like a personal database for collecting thoughts, texts, images, notes, and pretty much any kind of information you want to keep track of. I use it to store craft patterns so I always have them with me, I use it to write first drafts of patterns, I use it to keep track of recipes I want to try, I sometimes draft blog posts in it. Though I signed up very early after it launched a few years ago, it’s taken a long time for this app to worm its way into regular use. But I kept it around knowing it’s very powerful, and I’m glad I’m finally figuring out how to harness that power.
• Dropbox. If you haven’t been hearing a lot about cloud storage, you need to unplug your ears. Though I’m not planning to rely on the cloud as my end-all storage plan, I do love keeping certain files and folders out there so I can access them easily from anywhere, on any device. Dropbox is about the cleverest way to do that, because it syncs with a folder on your computer. Which means I don’t have to manually transfer files, and when I update a file from anywhere it’s automatically updated everywhere. (Note: The link I used is a referral link; if you sign up using it, we’ll each get more free storage space.)
• Vimeo and Blip.tv for videoblogging (which, by the way, I’m enjoying immensely. Look for a new video early in January, launching a major project I won’t tell you any more about right now. Nyah nyah). And also YouTube, but it’s just not as elegant or fun to use.
• Gmail. Duh.
• Ravelry. Duh.
• ETA an egregious oversight: Flattr. Flattr makes online micropayments easy as pie, and I wish everyone in the creative, crafty, bookish world would sign up so I could Flattr everyone’s work and we could all create a blogging world where we get paid even a tiny amount for the work we do. (Last month I made enough money for popcorn, pop and a movie. Not too shabby for a system that hasn’t yet been widely adopted.)

On My Computer

• I’ve added but one new app into regular rotation. Clips allows you to copy more than one snippet to your clipboard at a time and to choose what to paste when you’re ready for it. I use this daily. Partly because I’m disorganized and often copy something new before I remember to paste the first snippet, and partly because it’s surprising how frequently I find myself needing to paste the same two or three things over and over again – this app saves me from having to repeatedly copy each of those things.
• I’ve been using iMovie more, what with the video blogging. I anticipate 2011 will involve a lot more experimentation with video editing.
• I’m still using NeoOffice for editing work, and I’m still confident all the people I swap files with in .doc format don’t know I don’t use MS Word (and haven’t for years).
• Pages. Last week I used it to create a template for a crochet pattern (look for it early next month). It was easy peasy, making this my go-to program for desktop publishing.
• Dropbox (see above).

On My iPhone

Oh, iPhone 4, how I love thee. The phone itself was new this year; I upgraded my clunker 3G. A-#1 mind-blowing phone app: the video camera. I feel like I’m properly living in the modern era now. When I fell in love with Braxon the dog in Utah, I took a video of him to show Greg when I got home. And there’s again the videoblog. Here are the other apps I love:

• Twitter. I don’t like the Twitter iPad app, but for the phone the app is fabulous. I manage multiple accounts using it, and the new push notifications for @-replies and direct messages are key.
• Evernote (see above).
• Instagram. It’s more predictable than Hipstamatic, since you choose the filter to apply after you’ve taken the photo, and it’ll upload to Tumblr, Twitter, Flickr, etc. Great for quick, creative image updates.
• Tumblr. It’s a great mobile app for the site I love so much (see above).
• iTimeLapse. This app records and renders time-lapse videos. It’s dead simple to configure, with lots of useful options that manage not to be confusing. I’m surprised by how often I use it. It’s rad for documenting crafting.
• Momento. This is such a nifty app. In addition to being a personal daily journal, it’ll import your posts from a host of different social media sites to result in a very nifty daily snapshot of the things you’ve been up to and talking about.

On My iPad

Oh, iPad. At first I didn’t want to adopt you early. I wanted to wait till your second or third generation. Then I thought you’d be neat. A cool gadget. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about you. And then I got you. And then I found a multitude of uses for you. Here are the apps I like best:

• Flipboard. Everyone with an iPad and a penchant for consuming information in a stunning interface has raved about this feed reader. Its recent additions of Google Reader and Flickr make it about the best app of any sort, ever. Without it I’d have a much harder time enjoying keeping track of blogs and other feeds.
• Twitterific. I really dislike Twitter’s own app for iPad. Twitterific does everything except indicate new replies or DMs, which is odd. But it doesn’t stop me from enjoying the app anyway.
• Dropbox. (See above.) Many other iPad apps work with Dropbox, which is what makes it so useful on a device that doesn’t have non-app-specific file storage.
• Evernote. (See above.)
• Kobo. This is the year I took up reading books in electronic format. I still love having a paper copy of a book if it’s one I anticipate wanting to lend out, but I read a lot of genre and YA fiction and our overflowed bookshelves don’t need more paper around. Kobo is my ebook source of choice because they sell books in universal formats that don’t need to be read on Kobo apps or devices, and their app also happens to be great for reading.
• FlickStackr. This Flickr app made my trip to Utah a total blast. It’s a full-on Flickr manager, and I uploaded photos of our trip through it each night, including descriptions, tags, etc.
• WordPress. I always think I’ll use this app more than I do, but it’s a great app all the same (except when it’s buggy, but the potential is there). I draft posts in it, then I usually use the full web interface for final formatting, insertion of Flickr photos, etc.
• Chimpadeedoo. This app provides a very simple interface for folks to sign up for your MailChimp newsletter. I used it at CreativeMix for Mighty Ugly, and though I didn’t do a great job pimping the list, it was great to have this handy app right there.
• Adobe Ideas. I’ve shouted from the metaphorical rooftops about this app that goes hand in hand with my foray into screen printing, and is in general a wonderful, simple drawing app.

Holy smokes, I wrote 1600 words about apps.

I bet I could say anything at all down here and nobody would know because you long-ago closed this post.

Ooh, I know. I’ve been thinking about starting an email newsletter. Is that something you’d be interested in?

2010: A Year of Apps is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

apostrophe, by jimmiehomeschoolmom on Flickr (CC-a licensed)

Way back in school, you were probably taught that contractions had no place in your essays and reports. School was to be for formal writing. You put two spaces after every period, you compiled a perfect bibliography, and so as not to sound like a kid you banished the contraction to the lowly realm of notes to pass to your friends while your teacher blathered on about spelling and grammar.

But this is now, people. You’re not in school. Or maybe you are, but you’re also online. And for all the varied things you write that aren’t written to a teacher, please, for the love of gods, use contractions.

Don’t know what a contraction is? It’s when you combine two words into one, indicating the combination with an apostrophe. “You are” is contracted into “you’re”. “Do not” becomes “don’t”. “I am” becomes “I’m”. (If you have trouble deciding to use “it’s” or “its”, remember that the one with the apostrophe is a contraction. Same goes for “you’re” and “your”, and for “they’re” “their” and “there”.)

Writers who don’t use contractions sound like robots. So yeah, I’m gonna just go for broke and say it: CONTRACTIONS MAKE US HUMAN.

If you’re at all concerned about connecting with your readers, give some thought to your use of contractions. If people tell you your writing doesn’t sound like you, go see if you’re using contractions.

And for the love of all that is holy in style and usage, when you comment on something online – which is perhaps the most informal of all types of online writing – use contractions. (Brother, this is for you! No more, “You are nuts,” on my Facebook wall, okay? Okay.)

An Ode to Contractions, the Key to Your Voice is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

Oh, my glee when I got an email a few months ago from Diane, of Craftypod, and Paul, of Dudecraft, asking if I’d be up for joining a little project they were cooking up.

Through their own blogs, these two have blown my mind pretty much on a weekly basis for the last year. The prospect of them starting a bigger project with a focus on the thoughtful examination of pretty much everything having to do with making and crafting was enough to make me giddy. To be a part of the project sent my imagination into the stratosphere. And I was very, very flattered.

And today, that project is a GO!

The other contributors are Betsy, of Craftivism; Pip, of Meet Me at Mike’s; and Alice, of Futuregirl.

Our first few posts are already up, and given that there are six of us that means you have a good hour of reading ahead of you. I’ve written so far about getting out of a crafting dry spell and about my favourite topic: opinions. I’d love to hear from you about those pieces, and in general I’m psyched about the discussion and community that will hopefully build up around this new project.

In sum: YAY.

New Project: Make & Meaning – Creative Community in Conversation is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

This despite the nagging reality that, at mid-afternoon on November 1st, I have almost no idea what I’m going to write about. I’m pretty sure I’m going to start with a bartender. In a bar. And there likely won’t be anything to do with leaf mold*. Anyway.

Last week I was on a Greyhound for a few hours, and staring out the window I found myself thinking about how I might manage to write 50,000 words in a month, work, attend two weddings, throw our annual massive U.S. Thanksgiving dinner, read and discuss our book-club book, and eat. Where by “eat” I mean nourish myself by ingesting foods that aren’t sitting in the giant plastic cauldron leftover from last night.

A familiar thought bubbled up through the hum of the engine and my sidelined wondering about how a cool draft was managing to seep through the heating vent below the window: I’ve felt this way before. I bite off more than I can chew all the time, but the times it ends up being a very good thing are the times I do it in public, online. And, more specifically, when I most certainly don’t do it alone.

So.

There are two things I’m going to do all month, and in both cases I hope you’ll join in on the fun. Not only because I would very, very much appreciate your help, but also because I really do think it’ll be fun for all of us.

Thing the first: When I get stuck (and note that I don’t even have a plot yet, so), I will boil down that stickiness into one, concentrated question. I will ask this question of you. If it’s short enough or I’m desperate and don’t want to wait, I’ll ask it on Twitter. If it’s too long, I’ll pose it here on the blog. And at the end of the month, every person who’s chimed in with an answer via tweet or blog comment will get a shiny PDF of the novel I’ve written, whether I used their suggestion or not. (Note: The novel will almost certainly be crap. Participate at your own risk.)

Thing the second: Hugh over at Book Oven is doing a nifty thing with NaNoWriMo participants. He’s asking writers to upload their novels-in-progress to Book Oven so they can invite people to do bite-size edits as the novel progresses. (The nifty thing Book Oven does is allow members to perform edits on very small sections of text, so a writer doesn’t need to feel awkward about having lovely strangers read their whole project and a proofreader can get a lot done and not even realize it. Read more about Hugh’s Nano idea here.) Book Oven works in such a way that only members can perform bite-size edits and only people I’ve invited can work on my project. If you’d like to have a crack at my half-assed prose this month, leave a comment and I’ll invite you to the project. Everyone who performs bite-size edits will receive a shiny PDF of the (hopefully beautifully proofread by you and you and you) novel I’ll have written. (Note [again]: The novel will almost certainly be crap. But at least you’ll have gotten that impression yourself, one snippet at a time. Participate at your own risk.)

* Amy O’Neill Houck and I started sending each other random notes last week in an effort to spark some sort of inspiration in preparation for today. One such note she sent me was “leaf mold.” I spent a few days thinking about how mould on leaves could in some way tie in to an apocalypse of some sort (we know of my love of apocalyptic fiction, yes?), and then I looked it up and discovered that in fact leaf mold is something to do with composting. So what I’m sure of right now is that my novel will most certainly not be about leaf mold. On Book Oven, my project is called “Leaf Mold: This Novel Is Not About It“.

Writing a Novel in a Month (and Other Fun Stuff) is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

If you’ve disabled commenting on your blog, I’m gonna go ahead and say you’re not a blogger.

I had a conversation with my friend Scott about it. And a bunch of people responded on Twitter. And I talked about it at work with Zak.

@meagangracie asked, “how would you classify @mimismartypants then?” And I replied, “As a writer.”

I mentioned Seth Godin, the master of profoundly stating the obvious*. He has a tremendous impact on conversation in the marketing and publishing worlds, but he’s pretty much inaccessible. How would I classify him? As a writer. (And as a speaker and a consultant and whatever.)

Blogging is about conversation, and not just the conversation a blogger might spark elsewhere. It’s about a conversation on that writer’s blog. Put another way (or perhaps a different way; I’m still working this out in my head): a blogger is a participant in conversation, whether it’s a conversation they start or simply join in on. Just starting it and walking away or watching silently from the sidelines is simply not participating.

What do you think?

* I say that without sarcasm. There’s a true talent in conveying such things to people, and he really, really has it.

What’s a Blogger? is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

First, here’s a link to the interview I did with Mary Beth on Getting Loopy last night. The audio quality isn’t great, but we talked about the new Crocheted Gifts book (on shelves now!), The Creative Life project, my new blond hair, Twitter, and about how we didn’t have time to talk about the future of publishing (which is a shame, because I think that would have been an awesome topic).

Next, I wrote and recorded an essay for episode 84 of Cast On. The topic was industrial fashion, and I deliver a rant in two parts. About said delivery: I attempted to speak slowly. This is very hard for me. I think it sounds choppy and ridiculous in places, and I hope that doesn’t make you want to rip your ears off as you listen. That out of the way, the essay is about 30 minutes into the recording; as always, though, I recommend you listen to the whole thing. Brenda puts together a great podcast.

Finally, Sister Diane of Craftypod and I are going to do a bit of an experiment this afternoon. At 1pm Pacific/4pm Eastern time, I’m going to interview her via Twitter. You can follow the conversation via the hashtag #weavebook. We’re going to discuss the three books she’s released in as many months—two self-published, one published with Watson-Guptill, an imprint of Random House. Not only will we talk about the books themselves, but we’ll also go into her varying experiences with self- and traditional publishing. I’m really looking forward to it, as I know Diane has given a great deal of thought to publishing and she’s one of the smartest people I know. After the interview part, we’ll open things up to Q&A, so come ready with questions!

Interviews and Essays is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

One of those cool people is Betsy Greer, whose work over at Craftivism I have long loved. For several months we’ve been writing emails to each other in a sort of throwback to pen pals from days of yore. We come from very different backgrounds, we have somewhat different goals, but our concerns, fears, values, and challenges are very, very similar when it comes to creating a career that is truly fulfilling. What a relief to discover we weren’t alone. A profound relief. And then we wondered if other people might also feel some relief to know they’re not alone.

So we’ve done what bloggers do: we’ve started sharing those email exchanges on a new blog called The Creative Life*. Every few days we’ll post another email from our correspondence and when we’ve run out of them we’ll continue our exchange right there on the blog.

Today’s inaugural post is light, but there’s more to come. I hope Betsy and I have as much fun with the blog as we’ve had getting to know each other, and I have a good feeling we will—especially if you chime into the discussion over there, hey? It’s really all about the discussion.

*TheCreativeLife.net has been the centre of a few different plans over the last half-year. If you’ve been privy to any of those plans, I hope this final incarnation will grow into something along the lines of what you might have been excited about.

New Project! The Creative Life Blog is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

But I’m not really wanting to talk about ebooks. I want to talk about this quote from the post: “Online content is the currency of connection and limiting the way this can be spread undercuts one of the primary functions of reading news in the first place.”

I agree with the second part of this statement: restricting people’s ability to share online content not only stifles one of the primary uses of the web (to share the stuff we like or dislike), but it also consequently inserts a great big barrier to people finding that info at all. That can’t be in the best interest of media sites, eh?

The first part of that quote I’d like to pick apart a little. I don’t think it’s online content, per se, that’s the currency of connection. I think opinions are the currency that makes the online world spin. We share opinions in exchange for content. That content is the product, really; opinions are the figurative coins. Sort of. Really, opinions are the value we place on that content. (This is a difficult metaphor to run with; forgive me.)

People aren’t interested in any old content just because it’s there. We’re interested in things we relate to in some way or another, and we’re interested in things other people we relate to are interested in. It matters to me that someone I like and admire enjoys a certain book, or that someone I know has similar taste to mine loves a new band. I like to engage with people who hate things I love and vice versa.

Opinions are the things that matter, from the passive endorsement of passing along a link without comment, to the commenting on said passing on, to big long rambling blog posts like this one.

What’s your opinion?

* I haven’t really taken the ebook plunge yet, for several reasons. One, I despise the DRM and proprietary formats of Amazon’s Kindle (also, the Kindle isn’t available in Canada yet), and I’ve heard iffy things about the consistent working of the Sony Reader. Also, books are about the one thing we collect chez Werker, and I love full bookshelves; we also lend books to friends all the time. Maybe when Sony puts out a new version of their reader I’ll take the plunge for books I won’t feel compelled to keep or lend out.

Opinions as Online Currency is a post from Kim Werker's blog.