An author's year long book tour

William Dalrymple begins a year long book tour riding pillion behind a naked sadhu.

Dalrymple's new book is Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

Publishing is free

"...new media is largely free. So why teach it in school as if it were a scary theory? Why encourage people to be afraid? Just do it. Build your own platform. Appear in the places that seem productive or interesting or challenging or fun. Experiment quietly, figure out what works, do it more." So says Seth Godin.

Write articles for "free" eZines. Write your novel, one page a day, in your blog.

As Godin says, "spread yourself thin, don't be afraid of failure." And quietly figure out what works.

pre-release book reviews by true fans

Stephen Elliott sends advance copies of his book to readers. He writes:

"A few months ago, sitting on a bunch of advance copies of my new book, The Adderall Diaries, copies that were supposed to go to well placed media outlets, I decided to start The Adderall Diaries Lending Library. My plan was to allow anyone who wanted to read an advance copy of the book the opportunity to do so, provided they forwarded the book within a week to the next reader...."

Next he plans to follow up with a book tour in which he speaks in people's homes.

A brilliant plan.

What is facebook, really?

I've been experimenting on Facebook lately.

I've decided that Facebook is like a meeting of friends on a front porch.

- All your friends can hear what you say, but not everyone will
respond.

- Occasionally people will get up and leave, and occasionally new
people will arrive.

- People won't share *everything* on the front porch, but they may
share surprisingly intimate things.

- Using the front porch as a forum to sell one's wares is in very bad
taste.

Over and out.

Curriculum guide for Digital Video Secrets

Here's a 15 week curriculum guide which draws upon the exercises in my book, Digital Video Secrets.

This guide is intended for a class in introductory digital video production in a two or four-year course that culminates in a film degree.

Use it as you wish in your classes.

Morrie Warshawski on "crowd funding"

Morrie Warshawski, author of Shaking the Money Tree comments on something I wrote about Kickstarter.com.

"There's definitely a new paradigm, and "crowd funding" is one part of that.

"A more egalitatiran site for this for film is indiegogo.com. I believe that kickstart is by invitation only.

"I'm seeing more and more indie filmmakers try this type of fundraising. Unfortunately, the downside is that it doesn't normally raise "big" bucks, so it can only be part of the strategy used for raising support - unless you are doing a film of modest budget where $30 - $50K is considered major.

"When I did research for my new 3rd edition of SHAKING THE MONEY TREE (due out in January) I ran across Robert Greenwald's success in raising large amounts from thousands of small donations nationally for his work.

"The key to his success was his luck in being able to partner early with MoveOn.org, which has a huge email list.

As I say in my book, one important "shift" in thinking is to forget about chasing an "audience" and concetrate on creating a "community."

(Shaking the Money Tree is the classic among fund raising books for filmmakers.--TL)

Indiegogo.com -- DIWO for filmmakers

Indiegogo.com is a Do It With Others site for filmmakers who are looking for resources for their films.

"Whether you're a filmmaker trying to get your project started, finished, marketed or distributed or a fan eager for more personally relevant and interesting films, IndieGoGo is where both can take action and influence what projects are brought to life."