I hate this blog.

Note: This was initially posted on our old, feeble blog platform...and is about our old, feeble blog platform.

Fans from all over the world have been contacting me as of late to ask, "Gretel, why haven't you been posting lately? My life is empty without your seething banter and endless wit." (Okay, so I'm paraphrasing here.) But since they—my imaginary friends—brought it up, I think it's time to address my non-blogginess publicly.

As it turns out, there are a few (deliberate) reasons I've fallen off the blog-wagon:

The first is that, about a month ago, I had grand plans of writing a sarcastic post about why brands should ditch their marketing efforts (every single one of them!) in favor of hiring a guy with an accent and running infomercials. Then Vince, the ShamWow guy, who I had planned to profile for the post, goes ahead and makes naughty national headlines, thus rendering my post just a drop in the Vince-parody bucket. Oh well. I've been busy.

We have a ton of stuff going on here at the CVM International Headquarters, not the least of which is launching our new book division (our new model is going to have the publishing world eating out of our hands! Really.), and planning out our new and improved website with actual examples of our cool work (cutting edge, we know).

And then there's actual client work. It gets ya every time, that work. Although, to be fair, I've never let work get in the way of blogging. In fact, I love blogging, which brings me to the number one reason I've been boycotting this blog:

I hate—nay, loathe—it.

To anyone who takes things like lead generation, SEO, and even, gulp, best online marketing practices into consideration, this blog platform is a disgrace on many levels. Being such a person, I've decided not to post anything (well, except this post) until our new blog platform launches next week. Same place. Same time. Same over-inflated ego.

My first post will be a full rundown of why this blog and our old site have shamed our company for the last few months. It will be a cautionary tale--a what not to do case study, and I plan to expose all the gory details. This URL should still be intact, but just in case the launch isn't smooth (stuff happens), just go to our homepage and access it that way.

In the meantime, brace yourself for the post my business partner and colleagues don't want you to see...

Old Meets New

I’ll admit it: Deep in my heart (or really not so deep at all) I am something of an anti-social Luddite. I see the phone as something that exists for my convenience (I don’t want to answer it? I don’t.), I have been known to hole up for entire weekends without talking to a soul, and I love lots of old-fashioned media (you know, from back before they were called media) like books, print newspapers, the theater…that kind of thing.

 
But… I also like my job, which, paradoxically, requires me to embrace new media: Web sites, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, cool mobile applications. No, I’m never going to give up old media for new, but I’ve come to appreciate some combination of the two.

I love looking through Amazon’s latest recommendations for me, what other readers who have a soft spot for Wilkie Collins bought (I’ve discovered all kinds of obscure novels that only Amazon seems to have this way). I like supplementing a read of the Times by wandering through their blogs (and other news and politics blogs), discovering new recipes (I love Mark Bittman) or finding every recent article on somewhere I’m thinking about traveling (London? Hokkaido?) in their archives.

So I was pretty excited when I went to Reasons to Be Pretty (play—old media) the other night and immediately got a little dose of new media thrown into the mix.

As I was sitting with a friend, gabbing, pre-play, waiting for the curtain to rise, on came a voice—the usual I assumed, telling us to turn off our cell phones (not to worry, mine was already on silent—remember? It exists for my convenience…), but no, this was different. Leave them on! We were going to have an interactive text message quiz! Ooh, fun… And, yes, it kind of was.

It was pretty much a silly thing. Basically, we first texted “pretty” to an assigned number to make ourselves known, then we got a few questions:

Question 1: “How would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being Carrot Top and 10 being Angelina Jolie? “

Me: 7 (you’re entitled to a differing opinion here, but this is my blog post.)

Question 2: “Now let’s make this interesting. Scope out a stranger near you. Got ‘em. Good. Rate them on the same 1 to 10 scale.“

People have been mistaking my friend and me for sisters since college, so she got a 7, too.

And that was that. The voice told us to power off our cells, and a text told us to look for results at intermission.

It was a little thing—this wasn’t going to be a groundbreaking survey—but it was a fun way to start the play, it got everyone thinking about beauty, perception and self-perception. Which, in a nutshell, were major themes of the play. Not a bad way to mix the old with the new to make people feel connected and engaged. And I have the feeling that in a more texting-savvy crowd (think about the age of your average theater goer), they could have done even more with it.

Another reminder that new media/old media is not an either/or proposition...

[Oh, and the results? It turns out most people rated themselves a lot higher (6.5) than they rated the strangers sitting near them (4.2). Very interesting.]

Ebooks: The Next Wave in Self-Publishing?

You probably know lots of people who have (or at least believe they have) great stories to share, whether a triumph in overcoming cancer, a family history, or a blossoming novel. And likely many of them are struggling to find a publisher or casting about for self-publishing options. Some of them are itching to be famous authors; others just want to put their experiences in writing for family and friends.

Though these two groups might be far apart on the self-defined literary spectrum, they likely have one thing in common: they've considered publishing their own books. Why? The former group are daunted by the challenge of finding a publisher; the latter aren't much interested in finding one. The result is that publishing on one's own starts to seem like a pretty appealing option. That is, until you start to figure out the cost and the hassle.

Our client, pediatric surgeon Linda Brodsky, falls somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. While she would like to be a published author one day, she isn't quite ready for that yet. But she did want to share her experiences and story. She wanted people to know about her path to becoming a doctor, the challenges she faced along the way, and her ultimate battle with gender discrimination. So we encouraged her to try something different: an interactive ebook. Working with Linda's basic story, we fleshed out the major events of her life into manageable chapters, then our design team (thanks, Cesar!) got to work on design elements and illustrations that complemented and enhanced her narrative. We think the result is really great, Linda loves it, and people she doesn't even know have found themselves sucked into her life story. See for yourself.

Although a number of businesses have created ebooks for marketing purposes (check out our client Tom Searcy's ebooks here), the ebook really hasn't been used much by individuals, but our work with Linda convinced us that the medium really is ideally suited to the personal narrative. First, it's an unexpected and creative way to share writing in a time when people have grown more and more accustomed to reading and sharing stories online. Plus, it can easily be included as a link and the interactive nature of the work means that authors can include links to relevant albums, organizations, websites, or anything else that is relevant to their story.

Based on our work with Linda, we have some general ideas for anyone interested in writing and creating an ebook:

• Figure out who your target audience is. Are you trying to persuade? Entertain? Educate?
• Identify people in your life who can help you with the project. Find someone who can help you edit, people you can bounce ideas off of, enlist the help of an artistic friend for illustrations and design.
• Think about how you want to channel the power of the Internet to help your story. Do you want to include links to photo albums? To nonprofit organizations? Are you hoping to get people to go to your website? All of these elements can be linked to in your ebook!
• Don’t feel constrained by the look and feel of traditional books. You can play around with page size, with the way you use illustrations, and even include video. Dream big!
• Research the companies that provide ebook services. Some are more business-y while others will have a more creative feel. Identify the one that works best for you.

Or, if you decide self-publishing is the way you want to go, talk to us about CVM Publishing. We work with our clients to publish--and publicize--their books.