Recordings of the police interviews (interrogations?) of Casey Anthony have been released by the authorities, and audio versions are available for downloading online. (Get the audio here.)
Take these, compare them with the transcriptions contained in the 400 pages of police files previously released for download and you've got some interesting source material for consideration. (Get the 400 pages here.)
For example, listening to Casey Anthony's smooth delivery about her work at Universal, dropping off the baby with Zanny the Nanny, etc., is very educational when you've read the corresponding transcripts in the 400 pages. Consider both the questions and the answers surrounding her admission that she's been lying to the policemen....
Personally, I think this is a great help in learning how to write dialogue. I'm particularly fascinated with how she pauses, her choice of words, the ramblings and the sparceness ... absolutely.
As a lawyer, deposition transcripts have held some of this information for me. Video depos were always preferred, if they were cost-effective, because the jury would get so much more information from them. Having a lawyer take the stand to read from a transcript isn't the same at all: a tremendous amount of information is lost, even if you do get to read the question, "were you lying then or are you lying now?" and the inevitably doomed response (those are the moments that a litigator lives for) ...
Juicy depositions notwithstanding, these Anthony police interviews are much more enlightening than any deposition I've seen or heard or read. And, it's not often that the real world provides such an opportunity.
One last thing -- remember how Dean Koontz is adamant that the only word to be used when writing dialogue is the word "said"? No 'he explained', no 'she exclaimed', no 'he gasped' ... you get the idea.
Well, that Koontz rule makes so much more sense to me after this Casey Anthony lesson. Not only do I believe that anything aside from the word "said" serves only to distract, if the dialogue is authentic, it's the only thing that's needed - or that even makes sense.
IMHO.
September 16, 2008
August 8, 2008
Getting Stories From Real Life: the Casey Anthony Saga
Along with most of the country, I'm watching the Caylee Anthony saga unfold daily - almost hourly at this point - praying that the little girl miraculously will be found alive.
As an attorney appointed to represent abused and neglected children in our local Children's Court, I think I come to the case with a bit of a different perspective than others might ... and as a writer, I can't help but note a few things in my fiction-writing journal, as well. Such as:
1. The Anthony family has become so overwhelmed that they're seeking personal assistants to help them with the media, etc. - at no cost to them.
Source: the Orlando Sentinel, August 5, 2008.
From my notes: personal assistants? They're seeking free personal assistants? What happened to asking for volunteers to help search for a missing child? Even Scott Peterson wasn't this stupid.
2. Casey and the rest of her family all refer to the mysterious Zenaida Gonzalez as the "nanny."
Source: WFTV - Orlando.
From my notes: nanny? Even my wealthiest friend, in her mansion on Town Lake with a real live nanny, doesn't refer to the nanny as a nanny. Please. An unemployed 23-year-old? How about the word "babysitter"??? Talk about high falutin' ....
3. The relationship between Casey and her mother Cindy is a fountain of character information, not only in the way that Cindy first called 911 to report her granddaughter missing - and to ask that her daughter be arrested for stealing from her; but also in their discussions about Cindy being in the media, and Casey's irritation that the family seemed to be more concerned about Caylee than about Casey.
Source: Investigation Discovery.Com
From my notes: There's lots of talk about Casey Anthony's surreal demeanor - to the point that personality disorders and other forms of mental illness are being bandied about ... but Cindy Anthony seems rather bizarre in her own right, from my perspective. The tour of the home on Greta's show was fascinating - Cindy doesn't seem depressed or anxious or grieving either.
One has to wonder about the dynamics in that home prior to Caylee going missing. Looks like Caylee was the apple of everyone's eye - her room was a toy store, out back she had her playhouse, her sandbox, and more toys. Lots of photos of the tot.
I found it curious that Cindy pointed out a framed collage of photos surrounding a copy of Caylee's birth certificate to Greta during the tour. Said she had made it for the shower - which happened after Caylee was born. The certificate was surrounded by photos of the newborn. I think it's telling that it was hanging not in the mother's room, but in the tot's room. Fascinating, really.
Boundary issues? Cindy not respecting Casey as Mom? Cindy wanting to replace Casey as mom?
Was this child seen as property? They both seem to have the emotions more appropriate to a stolen or missing car than for a stolen or missing two year old girl.
What has to happen for a mother to have her daughter arrested for taking property? Some might say tough love, but I'm wondering.
I'm wondering if Caylee became the princess of the household, and Casey became an embarrassing bother (high school dropout, no job, etc.) ... did Casey fight back by taking away Caylee? I think it's in the 911 calls that Cindy threatens to take Caylee away from Casey ....
Why do I think of the mother played by Sissy Spacek in the movie "In the Bedroom"?
There's evil in this story.
Appearances seem so important - a story where the mother wants to get rid of the daughter but has to do it through socially acceptable methods (like arrest), a story where a daughter becomes so needy that she's skipping from man to man, preening for the cameras, deceiving herself as well as others, presenting herself to others as someone glamorous (telling folk she works for Universal, she has a nanny, etc. - even the "hot bodies" contest plays in here), unable to face cruel truths in her life.
There's shame in this story, too.
As an attorney appointed to represent abused and neglected children in our local Children's Court, I think I come to the case with a bit of a different perspective than others might ... and as a writer, I can't help but note a few things in my fiction-writing journal, as well. Such as:
1. The Anthony family has become so overwhelmed that they're seeking personal assistants to help them with the media, etc. - at no cost to them.
Source: the Orlando Sentinel, August 5, 2008.
From my notes: personal assistants? They're seeking free personal assistants? What happened to asking for volunteers to help search for a missing child? Even Scott Peterson wasn't this stupid.
2. Casey and the rest of her family all refer to the mysterious Zenaida Gonzalez as the "nanny."
Source: WFTV - Orlando.
From my notes: nanny? Even my wealthiest friend, in her mansion on Town Lake with a real live nanny, doesn't refer to the nanny as a nanny. Please. An unemployed 23-year-old? How about the word "babysitter"??? Talk about high falutin' ....
3. The relationship between Casey and her mother Cindy is a fountain of character information, not only in the way that Cindy first called 911 to report her granddaughter missing - and to ask that her daughter be arrested for stealing from her; but also in their discussions about Cindy being in the media, and Casey's irritation that the family seemed to be more concerned about Caylee than about Casey.
Source: Investigation Discovery.Com
From my notes: There's lots of talk about Casey Anthony's surreal demeanor - to the point that personality disorders and other forms of mental illness are being bandied about ... but Cindy Anthony seems rather bizarre in her own right, from my perspective. The tour of the home on Greta's show was fascinating - Cindy doesn't seem depressed or anxious or grieving either.
One has to wonder about the dynamics in that home prior to Caylee going missing. Looks like Caylee was the apple of everyone's eye - her room was a toy store, out back she had her playhouse, her sandbox, and more toys. Lots of photos of the tot.
I found it curious that Cindy pointed out a framed collage of photos surrounding a copy of Caylee's birth certificate to Greta during the tour. Said she had made it for the shower - which happened after Caylee was born. The certificate was surrounded by photos of the newborn. I think it's telling that it was hanging not in the mother's room, but in the tot's room. Fascinating, really.
Boundary issues? Cindy not respecting Casey as Mom? Cindy wanting to replace Casey as mom?
Was this child seen as property? They both seem to have the emotions more appropriate to a stolen or missing car than for a stolen or missing two year old girl.
What has to happen for a mother to have her daughter arrested for taking property? Some might say tough love, but I'm wondering.
I'm wondering if Caylee became the princess of the household, and Casey became an embarrassing bother (high school dropout, no job, etc.) ... did Casey fight back by taking away Caylee? I think it's in the 911 calls that Cindy threatens to take Caylee away from Casey ....
Why do I think of the mother played by Sissy Spacek in the movie "In the Bedroom"?
There's evil in this story.
Appearances seem so important - a story where the mother wants to get rid of the daughter but has to do it through socially acceptable methods (like arrest), a story where a daughter becomes so needy that she's skipping from man to man, preening for the cameras, deceiving herself as well as others, presenting herself to others as someone glamorous (telling folk she works for Universal, she has a nanny, etc. - even the "hot bodies" contest plays in here), unable to face cruel truths in her life.
There's shame in this story, too.
July 11, 2008
Dean Koontz, Dreyer's Almond Crunch Bar, and You
Over at Amazon.com, Dean Koontz has given writers a little juicy tidbit on writing angst ... not only did he spend hours in deliberation non-writers would dismiss as silly or (ahem) mad, but he did the obviously wise thing to do when faced with a dilemma.
Yes, he did eat ice cream. And, yes, he recommends it.
Personally, I've just found these cute little Ben and Jerry individual cups for a buck, they even come with a little spoon in the lid. Thanks to Dean Koontz, I now find them to be a writing necessity not merely a mindless temptation and I'll be stocking up those little jewels this weekend.
This is not the first time that I have thought: Thank God for Dean Koontz.
PS On a serious note, Dean Koontz's tidbit on the Amazon site is important to read from a writing standpoint - don't miss it - and don't let my fixation on Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream this afternoon distract you from some very good writing information from one of the masters.
June 20, 2008
Finding An Agent - 3: Read Agent Blogs
Lots of agents are blogging these days, and it's informative to surf through some of these blogs to learn more about the agents, as well as the industry. Among them:
Guide to Literary Agents' Editors Blog - Writer's Digest Books offers its annual Guide with an accompanying website. This is the blog that tag-teams with that site. Great info and it's been updated regularly for the past year. Looks like it's here to stay. Definitely bookmark this one.
BookEnds - Agency blog that's been around since 2006, providing steady, lengthy posting. Wish they'd add a Labels listing in their sidebar (it's a Blogger blog).
The Rejecter - Proven blog, written by an anonymous assistant to a literary agent. Gold mine. (Another anonymous blog with lots of good scoop was Miss Snark; alas, she quit blogging but the archives are worth a surf.)
Et in Arcaedia, ego - Jennifer Jackson's blog (she also has a website) which not only is informative in its own right, but her posts are chocked full of links to other blogs (including agent blogs) that pertain to the subject at hand. Very helpful. (I've also noticed lots of agent blogs link to this blog - it's well liked among her peer group.)
Query Shark - a service to the profession, the fabulous Shark guts query letter after query letter in post after post. Not for the faint of heart.
Folio Literary Management Blog - This is a newbie (it's less than 90 days old as of the date of this post). Posts thus far are very good, and they're coming from more than one agent. Hope it sticks around.
For the Christian market, here are two agent blogs to read: Rachelle Gardner and Chip MacGregor. Chip MacGregor's at MacGregor Literary; Rachelle Gardner is at WordServe Literary.
Guide to Literary Agents' Editors Blog - Writer's Digest Books offers its annual Guide with an accompanying website. This is the blog that tag-teams with that site. Great info and it's been updated regularly for the past year. Looks like it's here to stay. Definitely bookmark this one.
BookEnds - Agency blog that's been around since 2006, providing steady, lengthy posting. Wish they'd add a Labels listing in their sidebar (it's a Blogger blog).
The Rejecter - Proven blog, written by an anonymous assistant to a literary agent. Gold mine. (Another anonymous blog with lots of good scoop was Miss Snark; alas, she quit blogging but the archives are worth a surf.)
Et in Arcaedia, ego - Jennifer Jackson's blog (she also has a website) which not only is informative in its own right, but her posts are chocked full of links to other blogs (including agent blogs) that pertain to the subject at hand. Very helpful. (I've also noticed lots of agent blogs link to this blog - it's well liked among her peer group.)
Query Shark - a service to the profession, the fabulous Shark guts query letter after query letter in post after post. Not for the faint of heart.
Folio Literary Management Blog - This is a newbie (it's less than 90 days old as of the date of this post). Posts thus far are very good, and they're coming from more than one agent. Hope it sticks around.
For the Christian market, here are two agent blogs to read: Rachelle Gardner and Chip MacGregor. Chip MacGregor's at MacGregor Literary; Rachelle Gardner is at WordServe Literary.
June 17, 2008
Great Interview with Janet Evonovich
Click on the title to jump over to a nice, and not too long, interview with Janet Evonovich -- where she discusses writing with humor and promises that "good people do not die in this series!" Whew.
June 6, 2008
Inspiration: JK Rowling's Harvard 2008 Commencement Address
JK Rowling's commencement address can be watched, or read, in its entirety at the online site for Harvard Magazine (a good read, by the way). It's worth your time to do so.
Here are some excerpts that I want to make sure I remember, so I'm quoting them here but this is far from her entire speech, and the speech is important -- it's important to read, word by word:
Personal Responsiblity
"There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you....
"... choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice...."
Personal Happiness
"...personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.
Poverty
"... [Poverty] is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.
Failure Can Help You If You Let It
"...Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.
"...the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.
"Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.
"The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.
Imagination Is a Responsiblity
"Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s minds, imagine themselves into other people’s places. Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
"And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. ...I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
"...What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
"...Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
Here are some excerpts that I want to make sure I remember, so I'm quoting them here but this is far from her entire speech, and the speech is important -- it's important to read, word by word:
Personal Responsiblity
"There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you....
"... choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice...."
Personal Happiness
"...personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.
Poverty
"... [Poverty] is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.
Failure Can Help You If You Let It
"...Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.
"...the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.
"Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.
"The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.
Imagination Is a Responsiblity
"Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s minds, imagine themselves into other people’s places. Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
"And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. ...I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
"...What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
"...Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
May 19, 2008
Amazon Publishing Great 4 Writers?
Forbe's Sramana Mitra has some very interesting perspectives on Amazon.com's potential to help authors in the long run.
Mitra points out such things as:
Currently, book at $24.95, author receives around $1 -1.50 per book. If Amazon is acting as retailer, marketer, publisher and agent, taking 65% of the book, then author would get 35%.
Same book at $24.95: author gets $8.73 per book.
Lots of discussion of Amazon looking at vertical integration, pointing to BookSurge (see post over at Writer/Lawyer for more on that deal) ...
...best news from her article (emphasis added):
"Over the next few years, Amazon likely will use its power to build direct relationships with authors and gradually phase out publishers and agents. It will first go after the independent print-on-demand self-publishers and get the best authors from that world. Amazon will then take on the large publishers."
Makes that Amazon self-publishing company even more interesting to ponder ....
Mitra points out such things as:
Currently, book at $24.95, author receives around $1 -1.50 per book. If Amazon is acting as retailer, marketer, publisher and agent, taking 65% of the book, then author would get 35%.
Same book at $24.95: author gets $8.73 per book.
Lots of discussion of Amazon looking at vertical integration, pointing to BookSurge (see post over at Writer/Lawyer for more on that deal) ...
...best news from her article (emphasis added):
"Over the next few years, Amazon likely will use its power to build direct relationships with authors and gradually phase out publishers and agents. It will first go after the independent print-on-demand self-publishers and get the best authors from that world. Amazon will then take on the large publishers."
Makes that Amazon self-publishing company even more interesting to ponder ....
May 16, 2008
Edgar Allen Poe Awards - 2008
The Mystery Writers of America announced the 2008 winners of their Edgar awards -- here's the list of nominees with the winner appearing first, in boldface type.
Best Mystery Novel
* Down River by John Hart
• Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
• Priest by Ken Bruen
• The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
• Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman
Best First Novel by an American Author
* In the Woods by Tana French
• Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell
• Snitch Jacket by Christopher Goffard
• Head Games by Craig McDonald
• Pyres by Derek Nikitas
Best Paperback Original
* Queenpin by Megan Abbott
• Blood of Paradise by David Corbett
• Cruel Poetry by Vicki Hendricks
• Robbie’s Wife by Russell Hill
• Who Is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall
Best Fact Crime
* Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi
• The Birthday Party by Stanley Alpert
• Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit by Kerry Max Cook
• Relentless Pursuit: A True Story of Family, Murder and the Prosecutor Who Wouldn't Quit by Kevin Flynn
• Sacco & Vanzetti: The Men, The Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind by Bruce Watson
Best Mystery Novel
* Down River by John Hart
• Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
• Priest by Ken Bruen
• The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
• Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman
Best First Novel by an American Author
* In the Woods by Tana French
• Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell
• Snitch Jacket by Christopher Goffard
• Head Games by Craig McDonald
• Pyres by Derek Nikitas
Best Paperback Original
* Queenpin by Megan Abbott
• Blood of Paradise by David Corbett
• Cruel Poetry by Vicki Hendricks
• Robbie’s Wife by Russell Hill
• Who Is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall
Best Fact Crime
* Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi
• The Birthday Party by Stanley Alpert
• Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit by Kerry Max Cook
• Relentless Pursuit: A True Story of Family, Murder and the Prosecutor Who Wouldn't Quit by Kevin Flynn
• Sacco & Vanzetti: The Men, The Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind by Bruce Watson
January 15, 2007
Moleskines
Moleskines - if you're a writer, you gotta have one. According to moleskines.com, a moleskine "is the legendary notebook, used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin." (Yes, I agree - I never thought of Hemingway as a European artist....)Wikipedia has a nice history of the notebook, which is currently manufactered in Italy by Modo & Modo since the original manufacturer, Tours, went out of business in 1986.
From the Modo & Modo site, "...in Ernest Hemingway's memoir, Moveable Feast, he chronicles Paris in the 1920s just after World War I while spending time writing in various Paris cafés. Hemingway reflects on the quintessential moments ordering a cafe au lait and pulling out his notebook and pencil from his pocket to start writing. It is this simple ritual that he describes so well. That comfortable feeling, when even in the mist of a bustling café that one can immerse oneself into thoughtful prose or a delicate sketch. During this time in Paris, Hemingway apparently had also been working on The Sun Also Rises using his trusted Moleskine. Not a surprising notion to those that have come to know and love Moleskine."
For how people are using their moleskines, check out Moleskinerie.com.
How to Write A Book Proposal - 2 (the Platform)
A relatively new publishing concept is the writer's platform. Publishers are looking for writers who have established outlets to promote the book they've written: this can be a website, a newsletter, or a known reputation in their community outside of being a writer. Other examples include writing a syndicated column, giving speeches, being a well-known blogger, and hosting or regularly appearing as an expert on a local radio show. Synergy is the industry word used to describe how this platform works together with other marketing avenues to promote the book.
Writers are responsible for their platform: it's one more thing to build alongside that book proposal. According to Scott Mendel, your book proposal is premature if your platform isn't ready to go. Mendel advises:
"If your description of your platform strikes even you as slight, this is probably a sign that you have put the cart before the horse. In this case you should spend more time and resources building your platform before circulating your book proposal for the simple reason that, even if an editor falls in love with your book and convinces her colleagues to publish it, the most likely scenario for your book would be a small advance, and a quiet launch with very modest resources for promotion and publicity, resulting in part in unimpressive sales. Such mediocre or poor sales will be an albatross around your neck the next time you want to circulate a book proposal for another book. They will deflate the perceived value of your future projects, and could trap you as a so-called mid-list author when what you may want to be is a front-list bestseller. Unfair? Maybe. But today’s market-driven nonfiction publishing is driven by sales and inventory numbers available to almost everyone in the book business."
One example of a platform? Read Jenna Glatzer's story of building AbsoluteWrite.com and how it helped her reach #4 on the Amazon.com charts. Another platform? Attorney/blogger Glenn Greenwald hit #1 on Amazon.com after he posted about his new book on his blog, Unclaimed Territory.
Sources: www.wordsmitten.com (interview with Katherine Sands); www.forewordmagazine.com (article by Patti Dickenson); www.backspace.org (article by Scott Mendel); ChurchoftheCustomer (post, 10 Things About Writing Your First Business Book by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba); Seth Godin's 19 Tips for Authors.
Writers are responsible for their platform: it's one more thing to build alongside that book proposal. According to Scott Mendel, your book proposal is premature if your platform isn't ready to go. Mendel advises:
"If your description of your platform strikes even you as slight, this is probably a sign that you have put the cart before the horse. In this case you should spend more time and resources building your platform before circulating your book proposal for the simple reason that, even if an editor falls in love with your book and convinces her colleagues to publish it, the most likely scenario for your book would be a small advance, and a quiet launch with very modest resources for promotion and publicity, resulting in part in unimpressive sales. Such mediocre or poor sales will be an albatross around your neck the next time you want to circulate a book proposal for another book. They will deflate the perceived value of your future projects, and could trap you as a so-called mid-list author when what you may want to be is a front-list bestseller. Unfair? Maybe. But today’s market-driven nonfiction publishing is driven by sales and inventory numbers available to almost everyone in the book business."
One example of a platform? Read Jenna Glatzer's story of building AbsoluteWrite.com and how it helped her reach #4 on the Amazon.com charts. Another platform? Attorney/blogger Glenn Greenwald hit #1 on Amazon.com after he posted about his new book on his blog, Unclaimed Territory.
Sources: www.wordsmitten.com (interview with Katherine Sands); www.forewordmagazine.com (article by Patti Dickenson); www.backspace.org (article by Scott Mendel); ChurchoftheCustomer (post, 10 Things About Writing Your First Business Book by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba); Seth Godin's 19 Tips for Authors.
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