Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

Focused Fandom Countdown: 2+ Months To Go

I've decided it's time I start documenting my latest fan-to-pro effort - my next book "Focused Fandom: Fanart, Fanartists, and Careers."  It's about the career value of cross-national linguistic software.

Wait, no it's about how fanart can lead to and enhance your career.  Sorry - it's been a long week.

Unlike our own Rob and his wife I don't have the energy for a day-by-day discussion, and the book isn't due to April anyway.  In fact, that's part of the story.

News from the North - Jan 29

Erotica? On My E-Reader?
With e-readers like the Kindle and Kobo lines, sales of erotic literature has soared. Canadian e-publisher eXtasy had sales take off in 2010 and double in 2011. Part of the advantage of the e-erotica (e-rotica?) is that no one can tell what is being read. There's no lurid cover to have to hide. And, it looks like my NaNoWriMo project from last year may have a potential publisher.

Dial Up Internet For Cheap
The National Capital Freenet is still around and still going, providing cheap dial up serivce and inexpensive DSL. The NCF was one of the first providers in Ottawa and still has over 4000 subscribers and is a good example of a community-based ISP.

--Scott D

Why You Shouldn’t Keep Your Projects A Secret

As someone who works with intellectual properties, and someone who knows a lot of people who also work with intellectual properties, I can safely say that a lot of us like to keep our ideas to ourselves.  There is a fear that if your idea is leaked, then there’s a team of coordinated and efficient coding enthusiasts that will take your idea and do it faster than you.  Probably better than you too.  And they all wear sunglasses and matching black leather uniforms with lightning bolts...

Where was I?  Oh, right, the fear of being copied.  This fear has a less-paranoid-but-still-paralyzing twin: the fear of someone coincidentally doing the same thing as you, making you look like the copycat nonetheless.

My advice to you is to fight that fear and show off (or at least talk about) your works in progress.  There are several reasons why this will help you rather than hurt you.

Review: "Get Noticed" By Marcus Taylor and Rob Lawrence

Get Noticed: How to master the process of getting noticed

By Marcus Taylor and Rob Lawrence

Amazon Kindle

http://www.wegetnoticed.com/ 

PROS:

• Systematic guide to networking by being noticeable.
• Encourages you to ask important questions.
• Easy, intelligent, readable style.
• Easy to re-read

CONS:

• WIll cover familiar territory for some.

SUMMARY: A good guide to networking by getting noticed - that helps make it into a system and helps you explore your goals and options.

The Future Of Independent Bookstores is As Publishers?

So says one journalist.

I can't say I'm sure about this, but it does fit the function of indie bookstores - as social spots.  Becoming publishing groups/companies/collectives does make sense and gives them some additional business options.

I can also see this becoming highly specific - travel, comics, etc.  Thus the store/house picks a speciality.

- Steven Savage

Tales from the Ashcan: Proof Identity Design is Important

Merry Christmas!  Right now, you're probably drinking egg nog, cozying around the TV station playing the picture of the fireplace and beating that cousin you don't like and haven't seen in a while at Call of Duty, so you can ignore this.  For the rest of you who aren't, however (read: me), I've got a new Tales from the Ashcan for you.  This month, we're talking about identity design.

As a graphic designer and typographer, one thing that I've really noticed since my great wide entry into the world of comic publishing is exactly how horrifically bad some of the identity design (aka logos) some people have.  Seriously.  Granted, horrific logo design is something you see on a regular basis - it's everywhere.  But I've noticed that it's exceptionally bad in the realm of comic logos.  Without pointing fingers (because that's bad), I can find you within ten minutes some of the most afterthought (if even that much) series logos out there.  Likewise, aside from our own, I can point out what I think are some of the most incredible ones.  While the former are afterthoughts, the latter have clearly been thought out in terms with the scheme of the story, or are intentionally aping a particular style.  The difference between a monstrosity (you can find one within five minutes by looking at any webcomics aggregator) and something as beautiful as the logos for Woody After Hours or Powernap or Delve into Fantasy are immense.

But as a professional, it's even more important to have the proper identity for your business, regardless of whether or not your business is a comic artist, bookseller, travel agenty or coffee shop.  Why?  Well, it can really hit you hard, and I'll give two examples; the first one now, the second after the jump.

Take, for example, a conversation I had one day with an individual who handed me his business card. It was a simple affair, with black and blue ink and looked very sleek and stylish for a technology company. There was just one problem: the gentleman was in the food services industry, something that the average person would not have known by looking at the card. While his logo and branding needed work, the colors and fonts chosen did even more to confuse potential customers, thus making a simple food producer look like a great tech company (which was not even close to his intent.)  I ended up doing a much warmer and more accessible logo for their business, and their business is doing swimmingly.

But I had another customer who had an even bigger issue, and his I'd like to share with you.

Lost in Translation - Recap 2 - Eclectic Boogaloo

Over the past ten weeks, I've looked at a mix of hits, misses, and cannonball caroms. What can we take away from the morass? Well, again, taking care of the original work plays an important part.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a sterling example of not only having the creator take part in the process but also finding the right people. In contrast, Johnny Mnemonic, shows what happens when the creator is left out of the loop. The former had Dr. Seuss involved at several levels, including producing and lyrics. The latter had an exec take the final product and recut it before sending it out to theatres.

Executive meddling can be an issue. Flash Gordon had producer Dino DiLaurentiis and his wife casting the leads and making deals for cross-promotions that could have torpedoed the movie. However, the director was able to cast for the supporting roles and brought in veterans who could hold their own and make the inexperienced lead look decent at the same time. Coupled with a kick-ass soundtrack by Queen, the movie survives as a cult classic. Sure, not a financial success, but the movie is remembered. Having the right people can save a movie.

As Steve pointed out, sometimes the best thing is finding the right fit for the work.  A Game of Thrones definitely fit best as a TV series over a movie. There is just too much happening that is too important to cut. The build up of the threats and conflicts required the time that a weekly episodic format allows for. Likewise, the weekly format is working for Once Upon a Time, allowing for the mystery of the story to be built properly. As movies, both would lose far too much in the translation.

Sometimes, going from TV pilot to cinematic feature causes problems. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was originally the pilot to a second Star Trek series. However, the decision was made to turn the script into a full-fledged feature film. Unfortunately, this required the script to be extended. Most of the filler came from loving shots of the USS Enterprise, as the camera flew around and over her. Long shots became the order of the day, giving the movie a far slower pace than a pilot would have. Compare Star Trek: TMP to "Encounter at Farpoint", the pilot for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Both are cerebral, but "Farpoint" builds up the action through character interaction and twists while TMP relies more on lengthy approaches in space.

What about works where the creator is either long gone or a corporation? Where the work is part of a larger franchise? For this, I looked at three movies.  Rookie of the Year adapted the game of baseball into a family narrative. The plays on the field were believable; in fact, there have been stranger in the game. The movie was faithful to the sport while telling its story. It is obvious that the writers, the cast, and the crew have been to a ballgame or two. The other two, however... Oi.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was, in short, a mess. It had several good scenes tied together with a plot a 3rd grader could find plotholes in. The promise of the opening scene - Cobra's assault on an US Army convoy - provided a glimpse of the potential that was never reached. Meanwhile, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li just really wasn't a Street Fighter movie. What happened? In the case of GI Joe, it looks like the license was available and was used with a quick script that did take into account the characters and groups but, well, forgot about cohesion.  Chun Li, on the other hand, felt like an available script was taken and had the Street Fighter aspects grafted on. Both movies had potential never realized.

And that leaves Dungeons & Dragons. The movie had decent scenes and a decent plot, but completely fell apart during execution. It seemed to be suffering from having the wrong people involved. It missed on what made the game D&D interesting and didn't have many of the game's iconic monsters. Unfortunately, many studios decided that the takeaway was, "Don't make movies off tabletop RPGs".

Overall, again, respect for the creator and the work heads the list of how to make an adaptation successful. Followed, though, is making sure the adaptation is in the right format. The right format can get the work's full impact; the wrong one can mute it or draw out the impact to the point where it's not felt at all.

Next time, year-end round up.

 

Oddball Review: "Just Enough"

This is probably one of the strangest book reviews I've done.

"Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green From Traditional Japan" By Azby Brown
ISBN-10: 4770030746
ISBN-13: 978-4770030740

This is a strange book to review, because I'm not really reviewing it as a progeeky career book.  I'm reviewing it as an example of a book that is a product of a very geeky mind and passionate interest.  It may not be a book you want to read - but it's an example of a book you may want to write.

News from the North - Dec 15

RIMpocalypse Update
Research in Motion's revenues are still falling. The lowered levels are blamed on poor sales of the Playbook and on an aging line of smartphones.

Smartphone, Smart Shoppers?
The use of smartphones by shoppers to do product research, price comparisons, and online sales are changing the retail landscape. It might not just be bookstores that will feel the crunch of online shopping.

Triple X'ed
A grab of domain names in the new .xxx TLD came from business and others trying to secure their names away from potential porn sites. Among those trying to prevent a tarnishing of their images include universities, Scouting, galleries, and multinational corporations. PETA has also snapped up their .xxx domain, but, well, given how they've advertised in the past, they probably want to put their purchase to use.

Another Steve Jobs Book to Come Out
The Zen of Steve Jobs by Caleb Melby will be a released as a graphic novel, focusing on when Jobs left Apple to found NeXT. It's a different way to produce a biography. Forbes has a four-page preview.

Google Buzz Gone
Alas, no link. Google did warn, but as of December 14 at 6pm EST (at least locally), Buzz was removed from Gmail. I already miss it.  

--Scott D

Independent bookstores vs. Amazon: Buying books online is better for authors, better for the economy, and better for you. - Slate Magazine

Independent bookstores vs. Amazon: Buying books online is better for authors, better for the economy, and better for you. - Slate Magazine

That's the thesis, anyway. A few good points are made in the article, especially the idea that you can get better recommendations online than in person (which is true but only up to a point).

But the piece is also terribly biased in favor of the economy, rather than the culture, of the book trade -- and when he calls local bookstores "cultish, moldering institutions", you can guess where his initial bias lies.

-- Serdar Yegulalp