Cool Things I Found This Week

#3. Bracing for Impact – The Future of Big Publishing in the New Paradigm – A well-constructed rant about big publishing’s mistakes over the past decade, which made the exact same mistake the music industry made before them, focusing their support on the brick & mortar retailer rather than the service their providing to their end users, therefore allowing other companies to swoop in and capture the inevitable new market. My favorite takeaway from this article: the decline of the b&m bookstore does not hurt new authors. e-Publishing provides the opportunity to take a chance on new authors at a fraction of the cost, and  gives those authors the chance to publicize themselves at a fraction of the cost.

#2. Paul Coelho: How I Write – Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week, contacted this renowned Brazilian author with a series of questions about his writing process, and to his surprise, Coelho responded with a half-hour audio response. “If you want to capture ideas, you’re lost, because you’re not going to live your life. You’re going to be capturing ideas. You’re going to be detached from the emotions you need to live fully. … I strong encourage writers not to think about writing every moment they’re doing something else.” My other favorite quote: “There are only four stories: a love story between two people, a love story between three people, a struggle for power, and a journey.”

#1. SMonologue on Failure from Silent Bob Speaks – This is filmmaker Kevin Smith’s blog, I think designed to promote his book Tough Sh*t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good. This post, presumably an excerpt from the book, is an inspirational monologue designed to lift up one of his fans from the ashes. My favorite quote: “Nobody can hold you back in life as much as your own fear that you’ll fail. I’ll save you some time: you will fail. Sometimes spectacularly.”