Sunday, November 30, 2014

Random Short Things

I have a bunch of short things to tell you/ask you.

First up, Anandi over at The Papercraft Lab is running a really cool sounding class starting in January. It is a 14 day "get your photos organized" project, with a goal of leaving you not just with your photos organized, but also with a plan for keeping them organized. Mr. Snarky does our main photo organizing, or I'd probably be signing up for this. Check it out. The timing is perfect for helping you deal with the gazillion photos you'll take over the holidays and you can make "get the photos organized" one of your New Years Resolutions and get an easy win in the first month.

She has kindly offered me a free spot in the class to giveaway. Let's do this the old-fashioned way: leave me a comment that says you want the spot, and I'll do a random drawing to pick a winner.

Update: I forgot to say when I'd pick the winner! I'll do it Friday at noon pacific time.

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Sincere thanks to everyone who has shared my call for short ebooks to publish. I've gotten some very interesting queries, but I'm still looking for more- so please keep telling people about it.

I'm also sending emails to people who might be able to help me find good things to publish. This is the song I hear in my head every time I send one of those emails:



Except, I hear the Erasure version, because I am a child of the 80s. (I put the ABBA video in here because having seen it makes the Erasure video make waaaay more sense.)

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One of the people I've known on social media for a long, long time recently came back to Twitter after a long break and posted a link to one of the things that'd been keeping her too busy for Twitter- namely, a series of craft and eat events. Those were in Montreal, but following the links on that post led me to her business website where she makes "modern heirloom" quilts.

I love seeing (and sharing!) what my online friends are up to, so if you have any new endeavors to share, put them in the comments or tweet them at me or something, and I'll post them sometime.

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Do I have any social media mavens out there? I have two questions for you.

First: my Twitter feed is getting overwhelming. I have been dealing with it by unfollowing or muting people from time to time, but honestly, that is the reverse of what I want to do. I'd love to follow even more people, but can't handle the volume all the time. I split the following among my accounts, and that helps a bit, particularly since I engage with my different accounts with different frequency. But that is just a stop gap.

What I really want is to have a big, diverse feed that I can dip into when I have the time to read a lot, but a smaller subset that I can follow more carefully. I suspect the answer is lists, but since people can see what lists you put them on, I'm stuck on how to do that without being a jerk.  Maybe I'd just have to give my lists nonsense names?

Anyway, if there is anyone out there who has solved this problem, please tell me how! I was recently feeling a bit overwhelmed by email, too, now that I get more work-related emails on what used to be my "personal" account. There turned out to be a fairly straight-forward fix to that, involving adding a few custom labels and making some minor changes to my email using behavior. I'm hoping for a similar miracle with my Twitter problem.

Second: I think I need to get on Facebook. I don't have much desire to use it for its intended purpose, but if I have an account, I can create a page for "M.R. Nelson, children's book author," and I've had a few requests for that. However, once I have an account, I don't see how I can avoid friending some people (again, without being a jerk) and once I've done that, I don't have a clear idea for how I can avoid getting sucked into the vortex of doom in which I end up hating a bunch of people and they end up hating me. So- any successful Facebook users out there who just post occasional updates and see cute baby pictures from their friends? If there are, please share your secrets.

I don't really have much desire to be on Facebook. I'm more tempted to revive my personal Pinterest account and use it for fashion and home ideas like everyone else does. I wonder if there is some way I could do that and also make that the place for people who want to keep tabs on my children's books? I can't really see how to do that, though. Again, I'm very open to ideas for how to make that work.

Or maybe I should just set up a website for "M.R. Nelson, children's book author" and leave it at that. Thoughts?

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I have a little snippet of personal good news: Navigating the Path to Industry has sold enough copies to earn back the money I put into publishing it (e.g., paying for an editor and the cover design). That was my goal for it for 2014, so I'm quite happy with this result. In 2015, I hope to make it earn enough money to compensate me for the time I put into writing and publishing it!

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That's all, folks. Weigh in on any and all of these things in the comments!

24 comments:

  1. I am interested in the 14 day photo class giveaway!

    And, good news: Twitter lists can be set to private prior to populating them, so as you add folks they aren't notified either way.

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  2. Anonymous11:41 AM

    I sympathize with your social media dilemma-- that's why blogging is my only addiction currently and I'm cold turkey on everything else.

    What happened to your links post?

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    1. I don't know! It somehow unpublished itself. I put it back.

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  3. I would love to win the photo organizing class!

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  4. Thanks for the shout out. :)

    I would also urge people to watch the video for Atelier Six's Modern Heirloom Quilts that you linked to. It made me weepy - it's THAT good.

    Re: Facebook - I have a friend who does exactly what you described. She has a personal page where she friends just a handful of people she wants to keep track of, then a business page that is her main reason for being there. She declines friend requests she doesn't want in order to keep her list small on her personal page, and tells people that directly. I think she also has her settings so that she doesn't come up in searches, doesn't have a profile photo, etc (on her personal page only).

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  5. 1, I would love the photo organizing class. It's...ugly over here.

    2. Twitter lists--you can make private ones! That people don't know they're listed on! It's the only way to make massive numbers of people doable on twitter IMO. I use lists and Tweetdeck columns to keep myself sane.

    3. Facebook: hide, hide, hide, hide. That's my solution.

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    1. So, do you follow a bunch of people and then put them on lists, or do you only follow the people you want to see everything from, and then make lists of people you don't follow to read when you have more time?

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    2. I do a combination of things. I have lists for the people I really don't want to miss anything from, lists for businesses/publications/news orgs, lists for locals (handy if I, say, feel an earthquake or something like that), lists for politics, lists for publishing folks, etc. Some lists I made to sort of filter my twitter list that already existed, then some lists I made specifically once I saw people I liked reading from in particular areas, and followed them then. (does that make sense?) And now when I follow people, I can usually figure out at least one or two lists that would be a good spot for them.

      Then I use Tweetdeck when I'm on the computer, and just put the different lists in different columns--the ones I want to see the most are on the main screen, the rest I have to scroll to see. On my phone, I use Tweetbot, but I can switch between lists pretty easily there too.

      It's taken some tweaking, but if you start playing with lists, and using them, I think you'll figure out what works for your personal approach to twitter pretty quickly.

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  6. Oh man - I never thought about photo organizing until I had a kid. Now that our foster/adopt son is here, I take way more photos and actually try to print them. And they're on a million devices. I would love to take this class and get an actual strategy, besides panic.

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  7. I would love the photo organizing class!

    I'm thinking about deactivating my facebook account. I didn't like the amount of time it was sucking up or the "keeping up with the Joneses" type feelings I got seeing updates and pictures from people I wouldn't otherwise be in touch with. I haven't logged on since last Christmas, and the only part I miss is seeing pictures of my cousin's kids. I do have a blog, but I'm pretty sure not even my mother reads it. I don't have a twitter account.

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  8. Zenmoo2:47 PM

    1. Yes please to an entry in the photo organising class

    2. I have a very limited Facebook presence - largely my husband's family & far away friends. My rule is - if I would make an effort to catch up if we were within 50km, then I keep the person on my list. My privacy settings are as high as I can keep them. I very rarely click on shared stories. I don't love it but Its too useful to avoid completely

    3. I love ABBA. I once did a 14 hr ro

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  9. I would very much be interested in being entered into the contest.

    I am just starting to really get into twitter. So far, I am not bothered if I "miss" tweets by people I am interested in and so that keeps it from becoming overwhelming so far.

    I have never found the facebook void to be an issue. I keep my profile pretty boring with minimal updates, hide updates from anyone who tends to post content the annoys me, and really just check in to browse when I'm bored. I find it much less stress-inducing than other forms of social media where I tend to feel the need to keep up.

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  10. Can't you just have a business Facebook?

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    1. They make it very, very hard. I have a page for Tungsten Hippo, but I can't do anything except post to it.

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  11. For Twitter - private lists! I have a bunch. That's exactly what I do.

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  12. What I love about Twitter lists is that you don't have to be following people to add them to a list, so I actually follow a lot more people than my profile shows.

    I personally don't understand why people get crazy about Facebook and who they friend or don't friend. First of all, FB's news feed algorithm takes into account what you press Like on and only shows you the posts you are likely to "Like". So even though I have 300+ friends, I only see posts from my close circle of friends, really. But (and this is an awesome But) the big ticket items from the friends I don't largely follow will make it on to my News feed when their post gets enough likes or comments. So I might not hear their everyday chatter, but I'll hear when they're pregnant. I, for one, am a big fan of FB's news feed algorithm. Sometimes I'm sad that I don't see more of my distant friends' posts. Sometimes I wish FB were more like Twitter. But then sometimes I wish Twitter were more like FB, and I realize this is why I will always have the two accounts and why I will happily follow the same friend's Twitter and FB accounts.

    Second of all, FB is pretty customizable, and if you are getting notifications that you don't want to see, you can mute them.

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  13. I'm interested in the contest for the photo organization class. Kids + university student org work + pets + an interest in developing my photography skills = tons of photos without any discernible storage/finding system

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  14. I use Hootsuite to manage Twitter and Facebook accounts for work. I'm not sure it will work for you but it's easy to organize, view and schedule tweets this way.

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  15. If we were home in January I definitely would have tried out the photo class. I do love those quilts. I'd love to do one with baby clothes and our wedding outfits.

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  16. I would love to take the photo organizing class. My stuff is all over the place.

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  17. As a scientific data curator, I have a professional interest in the photo organizing class. But, I also need to do something w/ my personal physical and digital photos.

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  18. I'd love the photo organizing class! (Sorry if this shows up multiple times. It doesn't seem to be posting, but the posts may just be delayed.)

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  19. Photo organizing class is definitely something I need. YEARS of photos that we haven't done anything with.

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  20. A photo organizing class would be helpful. I'm drowning in digital photos and don't know where to start.

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