DIY Business

Marketing guru Seth Godin (author of Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside) has released a previous book in a free PDF format for a limited time only: The Bootstrapper’s Bible.

The 103-page PDF covers the typical “bootstrapper” in business, the person who picks themselves up by their own bootstraps, making a business happen with few resources. A nice (free) source for ideas and inspiration. Godin also comments on his own blog about the successfulness of spreading an idea when it’s offered for free.

The Complete U2

A ridiculous 446 U2 songs are availabe on iTunes in The Complete U2, which includes every studio album, tons of singles, EPs and b-sides, as well as several concerts and a collection of unreleased and rare tunes.

Surprisingly it’s available a day early (or it’s late enough the night before that we can call it close enough), but happily you can buy most some songs for 99 cents and don’t have to shell out $150 for the set (UPDATE: though most of the rare and live cuts are now available “album only”). But despite the title I can think of a few U2 tracks missing. Not many, but a few, including the covers “Beat on the Brat” (The Ramones) and “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” (Johnny Cash), as well as “Fortunate son “(Creedence Clearwater Revival) and “Paint it Black” (The Rolling Stones), though the latter two are available on the Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses EP. I could probably go on, but it seems like a dorky, fan boy thing to do, and I’d probably get schooled by a real fan.

And if you haven’t heard, U2 stormed the streets of New York today.

The new album comes out tomorrow, so I’ll stop the obsessive U2 posting. I promise.

Downtown Dandelions in Print

Now that I’ve finished my novel, I’m thinking about what happens next. Today is the first day in 21 days when I haven’t written at least a page of text. It’s kind of weird. Not sure I like it.

My novel writing experience has been good enough that I will consider editing my novel and seeing what happens with it. I don’t really know anything about the world of novel publishing, but I’d love to see if mine has what it takes. Eventually I’ll solicit feedback from everyone who’s read the thing and see what I can do with it. I’m not expecting miracles, not expecting much really, but it seems worth a try. That kind of hardcore editing probably won’t happen right away.

Immediately, though, I am considering doing a cheap form of self-publishing through Cafepress. It’s basically print-on-demand, and would enable me to put my novel in quasi-professional paperback format for around $15 per copy. Yes, it does seem a bit pretentious, but hey, it’s my first novel. I’m allowed to be pretentious. I could also make these rough draft versions available to the public, though that would strictly be for those who want to curl up and read my novel but find a laptop to be a bit cold and sterile.

Such a self-publishing venture would probably require a small bit of editing (can’t let all those typos and missed words get through, can we?). There’s a few scenes I’m not happy with (or at least embarrassed enough to want to change for a rough draft printing) so I might spend the remaining days of November fine-tuning the draft. It wouldn’t be a real editing job, but enough to iron out the wrinkles and not thorougly embarrass myself if I find this paperback 20 years from now.

It would also require designing a cover. The image at the top right is a potential design I whipped up tonight. I could spend weeks perfecting a cover design and still not be happy, so I’ll probably end up settling for something. And I doubt Cafepress’s printing is anything worth getting excited about, so it’s probably not worth hours and hours of design time.

Basically a self-publishing deal would fulfill that tiny, prideful spark inside that wants to see my name on the cover of a book. After all, publishing is shit. I’m just happy I made it.

And what comes next? I don’t know. I definitely think I should write more. I should definitely do this novel in a month thing again, and I might not want to wait a year.

In the meantime I’ll be reading the adventures of Charlie Parker.

U2: Live on Radio 1

You can catch a live five-song set of brand new U2 material on the BBC’s Radio 1. If you’re really a U2 fanatic, you can listen to Zane Lowe’s entire show for the occasional bit of interview, otherwise skip to 1:38:XX into the show for the music (and good luck with the BBC’s goofy player that has no rewind or fast-forward buttons). You can also tune into Jo Whiley’s show for more interviews spaced throughout her show and cuts from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

The live set includes “Vertigo,” a rollicking song called “All Because of You,” the song “Miracle Drug” with a typical Bono introduction, “Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own” (which Adam revealed during Whiley’s show was originally written for All That You Can’t Leave Behind), and “Beautiful Day” as the finale with some changed words for Dublin.

Don’t worry, the new album comes out next week and I’ll shut up about U2.

Another Obsessive U2 Post

In case you’ve missed one of the umpteen posts on this site, U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb comes out next week. Until then the album is being played on radio stations in its entirety and streamed online. NME.com has the exclusive for now (it requires a slow, arduous registration process), though VH1 and MTV are supposed to be streaming it later today.

Though MTV takes the approach of not mentioning it anywhere on its site while VH1 hypes it with ever changing text, first “You can listen to the band’s new disc right here on Tuesday,” and now “… right here this afternoon.” I can’t help but wonder what this says about the two former music video channels. Something about one being entirely too hip and the other trying way too hard.

UPDATE: Both MTV and VH1 are streaming the album now but they’re both PC only. Rather ironic considering the band’s close relationship with Apple. NME.com is the place to go for Mac users, and it has the added bonus of the extra track “Fast Cars,” which is included on every version of the album except the U.S. release.

How to Overwork a Unique Title: First Reaction to How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

My first listen reaction to U2’s 11th studio album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, heard legally on San Diego’s 91X online radio (though first listens can be deceptive, so take it with a grain of salt. I wasn’t impressed with All That You Can’t Leave Behind on first listen; now it’s my favorite U2 album):

Continue reading How to Overwork a Unique Title: First Reaction to How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb