I have been publishing my own work since 1980, so this book caught my eye. I’ve read countless books written from the author’s perspective, and many more written by publishers, but there aren’t a lot from booksellers. For a mere ten dollars, getting to learn from people who are in the trenches every day is definitely worthwhile.

That said, there is also plenty here to gleam regarding all areas of the business.

Some contributors offer a fascinating history of zines and self-publishing, while others discuss the practicality of distribution and what works at retail.

One of the best chapters is by Liz Mason, manager at the venerable Quimby’s in Chicago. (Where, ahem, you can find many of my current publications.) She describes how the store manages its massive consignment operation, which is not only interesting, but will also likely leave you sympathetic to their operations.

In today’s world, sadly, “commercial” and “bigger is better” tends to cast aspersions towards those whose passion leads them to take on the role of both writer and publisher. But historically, this is precisely how it was done. Even if you’re not so inclined yourself, this book will provide entertaining insight into this world.

I got my copy at Quimby’s (duh) but you can also obtain it from HalfLettter Press

I recently ran out of cloud space for the backup of my Synology NAS. I have been using their C2 Service for years, but its costs have increased beyond my budget, so I used this opportunity to re-jigger my back up strategy.

Part of this reconfiguration included adding a larger USB drive for local storage. However, I found that adding an additional external drive to the Synology NAS presented a few challenges.

The first of which was that the Synology NAS only has two USB ports, both of which were already in use. To solve this, I added a powered USB Hub.

Solving this problem, however, introduced a new one. Much to my surprise, the Synology OS (DSM, as it’s called) dynamically renumbers the address of USB devices. Connecting my previous drives (which had years-long backups) and the new drive caused each to “move” to new addresses. Which meant that not only did I have to reconfigure all my backup sets, I also had to start all over and wipe out the previous back ups. (This is just one of the many deficiencies of Synology’s Hyper Backup app.)

If there’s a solution, I don’t know what it is. But if you’re planning on adding more USB drives to your Synology NAS, be advised that it’s a major headache. Once you have a drive plugged into a port, don’t you dare touch it, unless you want to all start over.

Me (at bar): Hi, I’d like a Pina Coloda and a Nun Nun please”

Bartender: A Nun Nun?

Me, grabbing cocktail menu: “This drink here, on the back”

Bartender: Oh! A Nui Nui

Me: Maybe you should turn up the fucking lights in here

If you look at social media these days, especially Instagram, you’ll soon be convinced that you need a Linktree page and a QR code for your website. All the cool kids have them.

Sadly, many of the people who fall for the fad find themselves trapped in a costly and not very useful third-party service. And worse than the expense, these service are nothing but a barrier between you and your customers and friends, from which the services profit by selling activity or showing ads (or both).

Fortunately, QR codes and “linking pages” are easy to construct with very little effort, and no expense. In my opinion, you should “roll your own” instead of signing up for one of these services.

Here’s a real-world nightmare scenario: A friend of mine signed up for one of the “free” QR code services, and had the code printed on thousands of postcards that advertise his show. What he didn’t realize is that the free service was limited, and soon after publication, his code stopped working unless he paid hundreds of dollars a month to reactive it. Now he has a thousand postcards that send his customers, not to his website, but to an extortive third-party.

Make your own QR Code

It’s easy to make a QR Code that points directly to your website.

The simple way is to by going to DuckDuckGo.com, and entering into the search field something like “qr https://gordonmeyer.com”. The first result will be a QR that you can save and distribute.

A fancier way is to use the Shortcuts app on macOS or iOS. There’s a built-in Generate QR Code action that you can add to any workflow.

Make your own linking page

You probably already subscribe to a service that lets you share documents that can contain links, via the web. For example, iCloud, Dropbox, Craft, Microsoft Word, or Google Docs. Below is an elementary example; you can get as fancy with this as your time and talent allow. Once you’re finished, share your page as a public read-only document, and use that link in your social media profiles.

What do you lose?

So, you might be asking yourself, what are the disadvantages of using these methods? What you lose is that you won’t get the usage statistics that the third-party services offer (to those who pay extra). So you won’t know how many times your links were clicked, or how they came to your page, such as via Instagram versus Facebook versus Blue Sky.

However, as a small, independent creator, do you really care? Unless you’re engaged in a fancy marketing campaign, none of that information is actionable. It’s interesting to see, for certain, but that’s about it. I could also argue that not getting the measurements frees your psyche to worry about things that actually help your business or social life.

This 2013 book by Roy Peter Clark, which is subtitled “Word Craft for Fast Times,” is apparently already considered a classic text. Somehow, I didn’t discover it until 2024. (Well, not “somehow,” I was busy practicing what it preaches.)

When I spotted this book on the shelves at Unabridged, I was immediately hooked by the title of the introduction: When Words Are Worth a Thousand Pictures. Now that’s a philosophy that I can agree with!

Clark begins the book with the advice that a test reader or editor can come to the writer’s rescue for the final polish. I was always delighted when my editors — Wendy and Susanna in particular — would cut an additional word or two from my own work.

The book is made up of short chapters that discuss and demonstrate each strategy, and which end with writing exercises that drive the points home. In all, there are 35 chapters. It would be difficult for me to narrow down the list to my favorites; I enjoyed each of them.

Writing short, Clark teaches, is the result of wit, focus, and polish. These are the literary values of textual brevity:

Remember that great writing in an informal style is the product of a set formal practices, including the intentional deletion of function words; the use of contractions and other abbreviations; and the employment of slang dialect, and other idioms.

Here are just a few of the many tidbits that spoke to me:

• Practice writing plain sentences that contain a grace note — one interesting word that stands out.
• Miss Belinda Blurb is an eponymous fictitious character whose exaggerated praise was used to sell books and magazines.
• Silence — or white space — creates the canvas on which the best work can stand out for full appreciation.
• While reading, notice how patterns of two and three emerge. Two elements divide the world for analysis; three expand and encompass the whole.
• The shorter the passage, the greater the value of each word.
• Brevity comes from selection and not compression.
• SEO is killing the craft of writing and is replacing it with algorithmic blandness.

I highly recommend this book for any writer. Your local bookshop probably has it, but you can also find it at the Amazon, of course.

PS: Note how the clever design of the cover utilizes forced perspective to create an optical illusion.