fear of writing with Jacques Derrida

Being an artist:

from tomes to taps; getting your feet wet with apps

*The following article was previously published on young adult author Laura Elliott's website, Laura's Magic Day.  I met Laura at Wordstock in Portland last fall.  She is a super dynamic individual, so you should check her out.

So you are thinking about publishing an eBook?  Maybe you have a book in ink and paper already published and want to get in on all this App action.  Or maybe you haven’t been published yet, feel empowered by the self-publishing option and think the App rage looks like easy money.   Where do you start?  How easy or hard is it?

A few years ago my friend, artist and author Carol Bolt, called me up and asked if we at salty snack studios could and would make an App.  As a happy coincidence, my partner, Bruce Tribbensee, and I make movies and had just started making iPhone apps. Carol’s books were already on our list of apps we wanted to make.  And Carol was on our list of people with whom we wanted to work.

Carol has written and published several books starting with The Book of Answers™.   The Answers series began as a large one-of-a-kind hand-bound artist’s book.  Many people wanted to buy a copy.  She had it published and it snowballed into one playful theme after another (Movie, Love’s, Literary, Mom’s, Dad’s, Soul’s) in multiple languages and countries.  The books draw on the ancient wisdom of bibliomancy, the art of fortune telling through using a book. As a divination tool, it provides guidance to any yes-or-no question.  You hold the book closed and concentrate on your question. While visualizing or speaking your question, you stroke the edge of the pages. When you sense the time is right, you open to the page where your fingers landed and, “Voila!” There is your answer.  It’s simple, endless fun.

Carol is a warm and generous dreamer who makes whimsical drawings and sculptures and clearly enjoys the turn of a phrase. While I describe Carol as a dreamer, she’s also incredibly grounded with a deep reverence for objects and things made by hand.  Did I mention? She’s also a fantastic baker!  Her connection to books and their meaning could not be stronger.  Even so, her adventurous forward-thinking spirit led her (and us) into an exciting collaboration. 

And as for salty snack studios, we prefer to work on inventive projects that personally and creatively engage us and we welcome a challenge.  Working with artful people to help them manifest an idea is what we do.  I’m the Producer, guiding projects from their concept and design through production and onto the market.  My training is in art and I’m a compulsive organizer.   Bruce is also an artist with many years of experience computer programming.  He writes code in multiple languages, including for iPhone, Android and Blackberry.  He’s also an imaginative and fearless problem-solver.

What kind of App were we going to make?

The three of us set out to make an app for The Book of Answers™. We knew it would not be a proper eBook like you find on a Kindle or the like. We wanted to make a related but different experience to compliment the physical book. The app would be more than a sequence of virtual pages bound together inside a screen.  We spent months working through how the user interface would look and feel.  Bruce labored over the foundation, the motion and the function. We shared sketches, early design layouts and notes over the Internet.  Between Seattle and Montana, we spoke on the phone often. Frequently outside her technical comfort zone, Carol powered through and was in there with us the whole way open to change and suggesting new ideas.  

And we did it.  We built a native app with a resemblance to a book, with the look and feel of pages, but a book that you don’t properly read.  It has the essence of a book but is not an eBook. We used the mobile device’s ability to detect location so when you tilt the device, you get an illusion of weight and object-ness.  Sound effects heighten touch features. The interactive thumbing across a book’s end-pages fabricates a window into the ‘magic’ of the app.  We built something unique that we are all proud of and that compliments Carol’s printed works.

 What’s the moral of Carol’s app story so far?  To make an app, 1) you don’t have to be a geek, and 2) you can think of something new.  If you are starting with already published material, like Carol, it might be ideal to have an App that compliments your published material rather than duplicate it.  Even if you publish, digitally and/or in analog (ink and paper), you might want an app that expands the world of your book. The sky really is the limit.  If you can imagine it, someone can probably make it.  I’m not even exaggerating. 

First, what kind of app do you want to make?

Do you want an eBook, the digital equivalent of black and white print on paper?  Do you want an Enhanced book fitted with motion graphics, hyperlinks and interactivity?  Would a mobile-optimized website be enough for you? Or do you want a stand-alone native App that operates separately and differently than a book? Should you go DIY or hire someone?

Can you imagine your story’s ideas in motion, with sound? What about with gestures and interactive qualities?  What’s really hot right now are Enhanced Books.  Before you imagine the CD-ROMs of old, take a look at Enhanced Books. They have so much artful potential it’s mind-boggling. Like pop-up books, they maximize on the interactivity of their medium.  By integrating the power of touch screen with sound, motion and more, these books delight and demand one’s attention. The most compelling and visually stunning that I have seen so far is The Fantastic Flying Books. 

Can your story be a game?

Can you take the content of your book in new directions from printed words? Can you imagine the characters on an adventure or in a competition?  If so, a game App might appeal to you.  The entire mobile app world is still young and a bit like the Wild West.  The rules are still being made.  The most competitive app category is games but it’s also one of the most exciting and liberating.

What if I want to do it all myself?

Whether you are a novice or an established published author, I would first point you in the direction of iBooks Author.  I haven’t used it yet, but I took a peek and it looks super user friendly with enough features to have fun and potentially make something on your own that you would feel good about.  I’ve encouraged Carol to poke around in there too.  Honestly, once she got a taste for the creative possibilities with mobile technology, she’s become a wannabe geek monster! If you want to get started with the least amount of money to produce a simple eBook and you have plenty of time and energy to DIY, I say, “Go for it!”  Let me know how it goes for you, too!  Be sure to look at ‘pubit’ and other self-publishing tools, too.

The next question is arguably the biggest: what can you afford?  If I had a nickel for every pitch I’ve heard from people who think an app (or movie, but that’s another story) costs less than a thousand dollars to make.  The next part of that fantasy includes lounging on a beach while the dough rolls in. Don’t let those 99¢ price tags fool you.  To build an app from code up is not a cheap venture.  And know right now that what you consider ‘simple’ might not be so simple to make. A ‘brand quality’ native app costs at least $30,000 to design, code and launch.  If that knocks you back into a dusty library in shock, consider why you want the app in the first place.  If you are publishing yourself and you want to easily share your work with a young contemporary audience on the most popular platform of our time, 30 grand might be reasonable. Also keep in mind that maybe you don’t need a native app. Perhaps you can have a mobile-optimized website built for a bit less and it will fit your needs. Maybe iBooks Author or pubit software is plenty for you.  Explore your options.

Did you read the fine print?

Apple’s take is 30% of sales and so is Kindle’s. Barne and Noble’s ‘pubit’ takes more or less depending on the price of your book.  They are all operating somewhere between old school publishers and booksellers.  They give you a storefront, but they don’t help with editing, design and marketing. Conventional print publishers take upwards of 90% after an advance, and theoretically they promote your work.   It’s up to you to decide if their take is worth it or not.  Be sure to carefully read the contract.  It might say that you can’t take your material that you just published and put it on another platform. You wouldn’t be able to go from Apple to Android for example. I highly recommend that you have an intellectual property lawyer advise you so you understand your situation.

What is the best platform for my app?

An App on one mobile platform will not work on another.  You can’t simply plop the binary of an iPhone App into an Android.  They are completely different languages and the screen sizes for images are different dimensions.  Within Android devices, there are several screen sizes.  I’ll save the raging debate over which is better between Apple and Android for the tech sites.  The debate keeps shifting and both platforms are powerful.  Personally, I prefer the cleaner aesthetic of the iPhone but I also covet the larger real estate of some Android platforms.  If you can afford it, I suggest you do both.  If you can’t afford both, you just have to pick and not look back.     

What can I do to about discoverability?

There is a sea of apps and eBooks out there.  The App stores (for Apple and Android) are behemoth imprecise places.  It feels like you need an experienced librarian and a card catalog to guide you.  How do you get yours noticed?  Marketing Apps and eBooks is unpredictable and changing fast right along with technology.  If you can get your app in Apple’s App Store promotions, you’ll have significant results. Success stories come from all angles, not just the top down, so be patient and tenacious.  Ideally, you should hire a marketing person.  After you’ve invested so much in your work, don’t drop the ball now. Use all of the free marketing tools and social networking that the Internet makes available to you (Facebook, Twitter, Blogger reviews) and use the paid ones, too.  Advertise. Pull out all the stops as soon as you can. 

First steps to your App development:

1.     Do your research.  Study eBooks, enhanced books and game apps to understand the differences.  Get an idea of how your material could best be represented digitally.  You’ll probably discover many ways, which is exciting, so then decide what is the best one to start your App Adventure.  Make lots of notes and sketches of what you imagine your app could be.

2.     Figure out how much money you can spend.  Some people might say this should be the first step, but I recommend one dream first then roll up their sleeves.

3.     Build a team.  Find an App Developing Firm with people you trust, whom you can talk over ideas and with whom you feel comfortable.  Not every studio works as collaboratively as Bruce and I do, either.  Maybe you prefer to pass off the material and have someone get it done.  When shopping for your ideal App Dev team, the best might not be the biggest hipsters and the worst might not be the cheapest.  They just need to make a good match with you.

4.     Be open to change.  Show the team your sketches and notes but keep an open mind for different ideas.  There is no one way to make an App.

5.     Consult with an Intellectual Property Lawyer before you sign and submit your material to anyone – iBooks Author, Kindle, pubit! or app developers.

6.     Study Internet marketing and pay attention.  Spend time on different App review sites, and find reviewers that reflect your content and style.

7.     Make friends wherever you go (virtually and in reality.) 

Our collaboration with Carol was so satisfying that we went on to make The Love’s Book of Answers™ iPhone App with her and this year we will release an Android version of The Book of Answers™.  Look out, cause Carol has jumped head first into animation software and you’ll be seeing many more clever things out of her. 

Enjoy this short movie by one of our interns, Cassandra James, featuring The Love’s Book of Answers™ App.   

Want a few more details?

For more information on the costs and creativity with apps and eBooks, I recommend these:

3 Things no amount of code can fix. by Carisa Kluver, August 18, 2011

http://digital-storytime.com/wp/?p=616

Are Reports of the Death of the Book App Premature? by Edward Nawotka, January 31, 2012

http://publishingperspectives.com/2012/01/are-reports-of-the-death-of-the-book-app-premature/

This is an excellent detailed article on the cost of app development and more:

“The development of the typical app cost $35,000 and the median paid app earns $682 dollars per year after Apple took its cut.”

Full Analysis of iPhone Economics - it is bad news. And then it gets worse. June 22, 2010

http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2010/06/full-analysis-of-iphone-economics-its-bad-news-and-then-it-gets-worse.html

9 Truths About ePublishing, Submitted by Emma Wright on Tue, 02/07/2012

http://futurebook.net/content/nine-truths-about-e-book-publishing

The digitization of the music industry vs. the book world: the ultimate overview (part IV), Submitted by Timo Boezeman on Thu, 11/17/2011 http://futurebook.net/content/digitization-music-industry-vs-book-world-ultimate-overview-part-iv

What’s the difference between native apps and mobile-optimized websites?  See:

Is Developing a Mobile App Wirth the Cost? By Aaron Maxwell, Mashable, Feb. 24, 2011  http://mashable.com/2011/02/24/mobile-app-dev-cost/

Self-Publishing Services, Statistics and more links through Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America: http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/pod/

Pricing and Payment Terms, Pubit! By Barnes & Nobles, http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=support

bravo to freakish success and to falling short of it

Being an artist:

Even though I did not like the book, Eat, Pray, Love, I respect Elizabeth Gilbert's voice, especially when so many women my age connected so deeply with it. In this 2009 TED video, she delivers a wonderful pep talk on nurturing creativity.  The TED blurb: 

"Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk."

patti's proud moments

Being an artist:

A quick interview with Patti Smith on recent honors, what she's listening to and what camera she's shooting these days.

- video from PS Photo Video Channel.

woolgathering

Goodreads update:


Woolgathering by Patti Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


They just released a fresh printing of this book that I read years ago. Very much worth reading. (Full disclosure: I'm a Patti Smith fan.)



View all my reviews

is midnight in paris a stanky perfume?

One of Tonette Time's friends emailed me about my post on the movie Midnight in Paris then postscripted that she remembered a perfume also called Midnight in Paris.  "It REALLY stank."  

Amused by her message and since we developed an iPhone and iPad app (Stinky Maps) for posting smells around the world, I went  off on some quick research and indeed there are not just one, but TWO Midnight in Paris perfumes.  Technically the first is "Evening" not "Midnight" but it's close enough for our amusement, eh?

Soir de Paris (Evening in Paris) Bourjois for women existed between 1928 and 1969 and was common on the shelves of Woolworth's, then in 1992 a variation of it was relaunched by different creators.  Apparently the reviewers at Fragrantica think "the top notes are fruity fresh."  Many people post on their website with memories of mothers who wore it as well as sweet little 90-somethings who still do.  One commenter claimed the scent is available and I found several online sources for it at about 35 dollars, so if you also have nostalgia for it, you can knock yourself out!  Hehe!

For the most recent Midnight in Paris by Van Cleef & Arpels released in 2010, you'll need to fork over 75 to 115 dollars. Perfume blog, now smell this, has some amusing things to say about what Paris really smells like at midnight, too.  

Watch this video about the more spendy Midnight in Paris perfume by fragrance reviewer Katie Puckrik Smells. 

I wonder if Woody Allen also knew about the perfume?

a letter from Sol

Every artist should watch this video by João Leonardo.

Based on a letter from Sol Lewitt to Eva Hesse in April, 1965. 

more like B-movie Veggie Lust

 

I think this video advertisement for PETA, titled "Veggie Love," is weird and funny and not much worse than most commercials on television that I've seen, but admittedly it is way over the top.  Apparently the networks are keeping it from airing during the Super Bowl (See Good's article.) and since I don't have my own television or watch the Super Bowl, I really don't care.  

In my usual tangential way, I'm more amused with attempts at renaming it.  Garden Porn.  Greengasm.  Herbawhore.  Eve Spreads Seeds.  And as I titled this post, the plane Jane obvious, Veggie Lust.

The stunt has bought some media time just for the Super Bowl rejection alone, so that counts up to some kind of success. No doubt it will get plenty of internet traffic for its absurdity and sex-like appeal, but when I get (slightly more) serious about it, I am interested to know: Does it really make people consider or sign up for PETA's cause anymore thoughtfully or deeply?     

stuck in new blogger editor hell

I've been searching forums and help blogs for solutions but as of yet have not found one.

I cannot change the size of images that I upload to blogger anymore.  I can't align them, left, right or center, either.

Among the suggestions that I have found and tried and that have failed, are:
- log out and back in again
- block pop-ups and cookies
- use the old editor
- dragging images
- cutting and pasting images
- cleared the cache
- switched browsers
- tried all the various variations in another browser

What the what?

I've been having blogger problems more and more... Last month I lost images as I uploaded them (especially the surprising Mabel post).  I finally published the posts anyway just to get the damn things done.

Maybe this will be a good excuse to bag my blog, although I was really starting to like it and was poised to write about more travel, apps and studio work.   Rats!


Are you having these problems?  Have any solutions? 

I guess that I'll be doing dishes until a solution turns up.  Save me!

Mildred Pierce

My friend, Kate, recently announced that her favorite movie ever is "Mildred Pierce".  It had been years since I had seen it, so this week we watched it.  Made in 1945, this B/W movie is based on the hard-boiled novel by James M. Cain and directed by Michael Curtiz.  

Kate is right to love this movie.  For starters, the opening sequence launches the story with bold composition and mystery. Ernest Haller's cinematography is outstanding. The film has classic Noir elements, a flashback story structure, plot twists and melodramatic performances between a mother and daughter. The undertones of a feminist and anti-feminist struggle is rich, creepy and ultimately unresolved. The movie features powerhouse Joan Crawford who won her only Oscar for this role, plus one of my absolute favorite supporting actresses, Eve Arden.

With a tagline of "A Mother's Love Leads to Murder,"  obviously, many suggest the film to mothers, daughters and women for some kind of parenting cautionary tale.  I see caution for the precursor stage of love or marriage and for either gender. Regardless, the film is a great mysterious ride.  

Oh, and one more reason to see the film is in preparation for coming theatrical movie releases. Currently, HBO is remaking "Mildred Pierce" with Kate Winslet.  I greatly admire Winslet and wish her a lot, a lot, a LOT of luck since Crawford's are humongous shoes to fill on this role.  

saying it out loud

It's so important for a person to speak their mind, don't you think?  

For the times when you can't find the real someone to direct your voice or when it just isn't polite,  the website Dear Blank Please Blank offers a refreshing way for people to speak up without (hopefully) hurting anyone's feelings.  In fact, the site helps turn grievances into a humorous note.  Literally.  

When you go there, be sure to go to the Moderator section and weigh in on what entries make it to their front page.  Oh, and write your own!  (Let me know if you do!)

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, 2006, directed by Dito Montiel based on his book of the same title published by De Capo Press is a really good movie.

Seriously, one of the best movies I have seen in a long long time. An intense autobiographical story that delivers adolescent fear, hope and recklessness.  Well written and well done.  Fresh performances from a solid cast: Chazz Palminteri, Robert Downey Jr., Dianne Wiest, Shia LaBeouf, Channing Tatum, Rosario Dawson, Eric Roberts, many young actors I plan to keep an eye on, and one actor, Scott Michael Campbell that I just discovered on IMDB was born in Missoula, Montana.

p.s. Not for light-weights.

Dear Neighbor

Do you know you drive me crazy?


I regularly wake to the startled yelps and pleas of your two dachshunds that sit like a mismatched pair of accidentally dropped clown shoes. Heel to heel with mouthy toes in the air, they face the world.  Without any sound, they could be cute.


Big Older Shoe then Little Skinnier Shoe crying out at every single passerby or neighbor's arrival, departure or mere visit to their own yard.  Walkers.  Cyclists.  Drivers.

"Hey! What's that?" 

"Hey! Wa-wa-what!"

"Hey! What? Who's that?"

"Hey! Wa-wa-what?"

When I take a cup of coffee to the porch, they nag.  If I check my mail, they bitch.  Even when I'm driven indoors and they can't see me, they see or hear someone and incessantly bark and complain.  At least a block's worth of dogs follow their lead in a panic: a shepherd at the corner, the pair of boxers at the other corner, the hound to my other side with his big old raspy Labrador buddy, plus the entire freaking menagerie of ankle-biters across the street.  Those are just the voices that I can identify.

I don't blame the tattered fuzzy slippers that have been left sitting in the yard so much, pathetically lost in the place they are supposed to belong.  

When the neighbor guy rolls out of his car at the end of a workday, the racket sounds and he loudly, emphatically claims, "Damn. You. Fucking ass-hole."  

He is talking to YOU. And I have to agree.

What Would Mabel Do

They say necessity is the mother of invention.  I am leaping onto my soap box to shout out that it really, truly is necessary for the world to stop using styrofoam packing peanuts.  For anyone who has wrestled with them, or maybe walked around with a rogue static clinger on their ass until they turned in their chair to squeak it around and discover it, it's totally self-explanatory and obvious. For many reasons, not just a squeaky ass.  Hands down, they are the most unsatisfying packaging material.  Just plain wrong.

I shop.  I shop online.  Many things come to me in the mail.  eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and so on.  I could confess my shopping addiction here, but I'll save that for another post. Seriously, the shopping would not be as embarrassing if I could hide the evidence of bags and boxes of styrofoam piling up in my closets and basement.  Hear me now:  I avoid buying merch from people that I know or learn use styrofoam packing peanuts.  Yeah, you know who you are, but do you know that you are driving me flipping crazy?  I'm seriously considering compiling a list and advertising it.  Hell, I  might form a non-profit with that as the only agenda.  Now, that small bit could seriously be a good thing for the world.  I found an organization that recommends alternative reuse like filling your pet's bed with them.  Ick.  Squeaky toys I can see but squeaky dog bed?  Forget it.  Oh, and my fav of recommendations: scrapbookers can creatively use them with ink to print on paper.  With the mountain I have accumulating, I could wallpaper the Eiffel Tower.  And, dare I ask, then what do I do with them when I am done with my craft project?

Even Mabel, as patient and tolerant as she is (and a mighty fine shopper to boot), doesn't approve of them and hardly ever uses styrofoam peanuts.  The woman is thrifty and the queen of reuse.  If they come to her, she will reuse them and even then, she puts them in a plastic bag to contain them before sending them out again.  Considerate.  That's what Mabel is.  Now, for all people who ship things, try to be more like Mabel.  Would ya?

Consider - the root of considerate - a green alternative like Cushion Cubes made of recycled paper,  or Paper Nuts which are 100% recycled, and finally the water soluble dealios by Starch Tech.  Pick one or all three.

A society for the reuse of them does exist with drop off sites.  I also take them to shipping stores for reuse, but truly, even though it's better than the trash, that's just passing the buck. They MUST just get out of circulation entirely.  Before I lose my mind.

True That

Maybe I've been watching too many old episodes of The Wire, but I keep thinking "loyalty means something".  Apparently I have been carried away by Baltimore street philosophy. My credit card company sent me a notice that they were raising my interest rates considerably (to nearly 30%.)  Whoa Nelly!  So with great credit standing and having used their card for years, this was their idea of good customer relations?  Oh hell, no.  They must have wanted to get rid of customers like me is all that I can figure.  Why I would expect more of the greedy bastards is silly, I guess, but I do.  Rather than complain to grease the wheels, I promptly changed credit card companies.  It is as close to being Omar as I can get, I guess.

Mud Sling

(Detail of Rhythm © Toni Matlock)

Chicago Art Magazine posted an article on mud stenciling as an eco-activist-expression.  It's not a stretch from my own studio impulses and concerns using rust and plant materials of the late 90s.  Something about the articles images makes me miss Chicago, too.... Check it out.

Blahhhg (aka Disclaimer 101)

So, here I am, doing this blog thing.  I write for the process. There is a cost when you say things aloud. The words take form. And sometimes you can hear yourself.  Spoken thoughts can be like cement blocks on your feet that you finally kick off, or like ripples of oily color on the surface of bubbles, or flat like a piece of stale moldy bread.  I just can't smell the mold as easily when I let the words bounce around between my ears. Hopefully, by writing in this more public sense, I can. Then take the next step, more clearly, to hammer out bumps that I don't like and enhance the ones that I do.

The other potential benefit of this blog is project management.  Once I have said an idea aloud, I feel I have to own it and  commit to it or let it go.  I spin many plates, like most of the people that I know. I have lists as long as my arm of projects and the list grows by the second. By collecting at least some of the ideas, here, to see them together, maybe I'll gain distance to really see them.  Find the objectivity to weed and water appropriately and track the development.  And feel the pressure to report in.  Even if only to myself.