[Marketing] Your New Facebook Fan Page

You may have noticed by now that some of the brands and fanpages that you follow on Facebook look a little different.Well that's because the inevitable has finally happened, Facebook is insisting that the product pages reflect the new layout changes that were applied to user profiles.   So if you as an author manage a fan page for your property or community or if you are thinking about starting one, you should take a peek at the new Facebook Fan Pages and get acquainted with the new bells and whistles. The layout is almost identical to the new profile pages so it won't be too jarring of a transition.  Come March everyone will get switched over so I would start playing around with it now and get comfortable.

[Anime] Angel Beats: Death is War

I finally got the chance to see the second epilogue of Angel Beats and the special bonus episode last week. It's been a couple months now since I've seen the bulk of the episodes, but I'll try to review the show from memory as best I can.

Summary: High school student Yuzuru Otonashi wakes up in a strange new school with no memories of his recent past.  The school turns out to be a purgatory for the souls of teens who have died but are unable to pass on to be reincarnated on Earth.  At the school the students are expected to fulfill their youthful dreams and come to terms with their deaths; however, there is a group of students called the Shinda Sekai Sensen (The Afterlife Warfront or SSS) who rebel against these expectations.  Afraid that when they are reincarnated they'll loose their personality and thus truly die, the SSS create havoc on the campus on an almost daily basis.  The theory is that by resorting to delinquency and by spurning all the rules they'll never have to face their unfulfilled dreams.  There is a single student with the ability to transform her body into a weapon that is trying to restore peace at the school.  It is believed by the other students that she is an Angel sent by God to force them to cross over, and they want none of that.


My Thoughts: Angel Beats is an exceedingly high-energy show, almost annoyingly so at times; however, the high-energy hi-jinks work most of the time. The cast is purposefully stocked with various anime cliches, but the creators are aware of this and frequently poke fun at these tropes which I always like to see.

The soundtrack of Angel Beats is also pretty awesome. The opening and closing endings are appropriately haunting, but the real stars of the show are the songs released by in-story band, Girls Dead Monster.  They are so much fun!  My favorite song from the soundtrack was the one called Alchemy (in-story) or Crow Song  in the real world which is sung by Marina.



You get the picture.  It's pretty catchy.

I know I make this sound like a light-hearted comedy, but there are two things that I would like to point out.  The first of which is the sheer amount of blood and cartoony violence that each episode brings.  This is a world in which you can be hurt, maimed, killed and you will always wake up in the nurse's office completely uninjured. Despite this obvious fact (that everyone is perfectly aware of) every death is treated as dramatically as possible.  The show gets points for creativity too.  I think the only thing that I didn't see was someone getting thrown into a wood chipper.  There's not a lot of gore so the faint of heart and stomach need not worry; however, expect to see some comical blood fountains and nosebleeds.

And secondly, over the course of the thirteen episodes and one special, Angel Beats takes on a level of depth that I wouldn't have expected from the show based on the first three episodes.  The students are forced to grapple with some pretty big issues.  What does it mean to be alive?  Do we exist as merely the sum of our experience or is there a more permanent quality to the human soul that endures? Are our dreams worth everything?  What is God?  What does it mean to rebel against him?  They have to deal with death on multiple levels: their own and the grief they feel after the disappearances of their close friends whenever one of them accidentally finds peace.  There are typical teenage struggles but many darker problems too.  Some of these children remember exactly how they died, and it isn't usually pretty.  There is so much going on beneath the surface of Angel Beats, and yet amazingly it never loses the fun factor. 

I'm shocked by how long this review has gotten.  As I said it has been months since I've seen all thirteen episodes, but it's the kind of show that does stick with you for a little while at least.  I don't believe the show has been licensed yet, but it was rumored that Aniplex was expected to bring out the North American release.

[Marketing] Stat Junkies

Hi, my name is Laura and I am a Stat Junkie.  I know I'm not alone.  I know many of you will have already checked your bookscan numbers, your Google Analytics, your Facebook Insights at least once, twice....maybe even three times today? 

What You Are Doing Right

It's important that you understand your sphere of influence and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.  As an author, writer, artist, or any industry professional you need to have a solid understanding of your own platform in order to grow it quickly, efficiently, and in new and original ways; however, stat checking can also be a big time distraction.


What You Might Be Doing Wrong

It's true that stat checking might seem like a more "productive" distraction than Farmville, but in reality it is just one more thing that eats up the time you might have otherwise spent writing.  For your analytics to truly be effective you have to allow for enough time to eclipse so that the number will show you some real data.  Watching your page views climb might be uplifting, but what will be the true boon to you in your marketing efforts are the conclusions that you will draw from those numbers over time.

Some things to consider about your numbers:

• One of the obvious things that you should be looking for are the topics and features that consistently do well for you in terms of traffic and/or discussion.  (Even if a post attracts low numbers in terms of impressions and unique page views, if it sparks the energy and intellect of your audience then it has done well.)  By honing in on that, you can work towards developing your authority within the community or subject matter.  Variety though is so the spice of life so be careful that you don't let your blog grow into a one trick pony.
• You may notice over time that certain days of the week do more well than others.  That's good to know in terms of scheduling content.  
• It's also incredibly important to look at how people are finding you.  Where does the bulk of your traffic come from?  If it is all from Twitter and Google Reader, is there more that you could be doing to improve the SEO of your site?

You should definitely be checking your stats once a month and it's probably a good idea to take a peak once a week.  More than that, and it get's tricky.  It doesn't take long to fall into the trap of being a stat junkie.

Obligatory Enabling Section
 
Here are a few analytics tools that I use/have used.  Try them out, see if any fit, but remember to check your stats responsibly.

Google Analytics: A lot of blog engines like Wordpress and Blogger already have built-in simple interfaces this data, but if you don't have that, sign up with Google Analytics.  (Blogger bloggers, you're already using Google Analytics even if you don't realize it.)
Twitter Counter:  Good at tracking your growth in terms of Followers.
Goodbye Buddy: Useful in identifying those specific users who have chosen to unfollow, seeing how long they followed you, and whether you follow them back.
Klout:  Honestly I'm still on the fence about this one, but that's a whole different blog post for another time.  Klout is a tool for measuring your influence, but it seems a lot more fun than useful. You can even earn badges like on Foursquare different milestones on the path of building your Twitter brand.
Twitter Grader: I like it better than Klout, and again offers me data on my influence and those users that influence me.  I get cleaner, clearer results and numbers with Twitter Grader and I like that they are so transparent about their algorithms.
Twitter Karma: A simple tool for finding out which of you Following list follows you back. It's a great tool in terms of housekeeping.

[Writing] Creative Approach To Brainstorming Sessions

Ever since I read Engineering with LEGOs: Creating the Ships of Knight Errant I’ve had LEGOs on the brain. Now I don’t have kids and it’s been a good number of years since I played with LEGOs, but I have heard the siren’s call.

John Jackson Miller, author of one of the new Star Wars novelizations Knight Errant writes about how he used LEGOs to brainstorm through the design of the ships and vehicles in his novel.

What a wonderful hands on approach to creating these larger than life mechanical constructions! I’ve sketched my way through the discovery phase of writing and writer’s block before. LEGO therapy definitely sounds like a wonderful alternative.

However, the biggest problem with this exercise is the price point of the LEGOs themselves. They are not cheap by anymeans, so unless;

a) you’ve got the cash
b) your child is willing to share
c) your mom hasn’t thrown out the LEGO collection that you squirrel away in her basement

Then you might be out of luck. Otherwise, go for it. In terms of dealing with writer's block, this gets an A+ for fun.

Separation Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

Long story short, last year wasn't so great, but this is a new year, new resolutions, different commitments.  It is time to give more attention to this blog since I have so sadly let it go by the wayside.

Let's talk about a problem that's applicable to writing, blogging, or any regular activity that you commit yourself to: how does one deal with the guilt that comes with a lapse in discipline.

Not every idea or plan or novel pans out exactly like we imagine it would when the thought first occurred to us.  Sometimes an idea is flawed in its concept, and sometimes life just gets in the way.  It's natural to want to attribute blame to someone or something because hey...we're human. We want to understand the "why" when things go awry. If we can figure that out then the hope is that we can avoid the same mistakes in the future.  But all too frequently I see writers and artists turning that blame back on themselves.  I admit it; I'm guilty of this too. 

Guilt leads to stagnation and that's not a healthy environment to create in. To keep moving forward on your current WIP you have to learn to process that guilt and let it go.  So when you feel that overwhelming sensation creeping up on you, it's time to take a step back and evaluate the causes that have been keeping you from your writing.  Let's say you didn't get as much writing done last weekend as you had planned on because you spent it with a friend who needed the company.  You missed the mark in terms of your writing goals, but instead you were investing your energy in this friend's life and happiness.  Or maybe you decided to invest your energy in your own life and happiness by taking it easy and seeing a movie instead of shutting yourself away in your office for the duration of the weekend.  You decided that whatever it was that you finally ended up doing was more important than hammering away at your current word count.

That can be okay. Recognize those moments for what they are and let them go.  Sometimes you just need it, and sometimes those that are nearest and dearest to you need you too.

Personal confession time: I recently left a long term relationship. I haven’t blogged in ages because it was more important to focus on my emotional health at the time. Sure I felt guilty when I opened up blogger again and noted that it had been four months since my last blog post. Yikes! I work in digital marketing; how pathetic does that look? But I stopped and looked back at 2010 in review. I might have been able to push myself harder to crank out a tepid blog post every now and then, but I probably wouldn’t be feeling as well as I am right now (all things considered).

Before moving forward I had to stop and consider whether blogging was still important to me, and I came to the conclusion that yes, it is. I still want to blog. Now that things are more settled and I am getting back on my feet again, the desire to blog again has become more important than my moping around the apartment. So bear with me over the next few weeks as I force myself back into normalcy.  I may trip up again from time-to-time.  You can smack me around about it on Twitter. :)

After a lapse in discipline take that moment to evaluate. You might find that you don’t really have cause to feel guilty anymore and then you can move on. And you might also reaffirm your belief in either yourself, your goals, or your WIP. You’ll be able to tackle the problem at hand with new vigor.

Now this doesn't remove accountability from the equation or give you, the writer, a free pass to literally Twitter the day away.  You're going to make bad choices.  You're going to keep checking Farmville. There will be times when you do things like I did last weekend and marathon The Office for twelve straight hours without thinking about writing once.  It's important to recognize those moments for what they are too - huge freaking distractions, but if you beat yourself up over it you're just wasting more time and energy that could be better spent writing.  Remember, guilt is also a distraction. 

So instead of focusing on how little writing you got done and feeling guilty about it, take responsibility for those lapses in your daily routine and move on to the solution that will get you back on  track.  So what if you blew off writing on Sunday because you wanted to take your dog to the park? Look to add at least fifteen extra minutes to your weekday writing sessions.  There may only be 24 hours in a day, but there are 168 hours in a week.  Each day brings you new opportunities to make better choices than the last.

How do you cope with "breaks"?  What keeps you coming back to the worlds that you writers are busy creating?

It's under 9,000? Review: Dragon Ball Z Kai

A lot of people are at least familiar with Dragon Ball Z even if they don’t follow the Anime industry closely. They’ll be remembering its censored Cartoon Network days. I loved Dragon Ball Z as a kid and I still have my Vegeta punching bag. I’ll be honest though, in the intervening years between middle school and my adult life, Dragon Ball Z got harder and harder to watch. DBZ was terribly flawed, but those were different days in the industry. The dubbing and translations were horrible. The filler was endless and the pacing was dreadfully slow. Did it really need to take five episodes for Namek to explode when Goku only had twenty minutes to make his escape? Why couldn’t this have been done in real time?

But now we have Dragon Ball Z Kai, and I am such a fan. It’s a reboot of the series using the original animation digitally cleaned up or redrawn in cases where the cells had deteriorated past the point of being useful. In the first 13 episodes the story already reaches the first exchange of blows between Vegeta and Goku, skipping the all that boring filler along Snake Way and the training episodes. There are a few things we miss out on. Some of my favorite filler didn’t make the cut. Vegeta’s and Nappa’s side adventure on the bug planet is not included. “Nappa’s Best Day Ever” is severely truncated, but sacrifices needed to be made for the sake of brevity (which was characteristically lacking in the original series). The action and story sped along and the sequences fit together well despite the cuts. Overall I was happy with a lot of the changes. And hey, they even redubbed the whole thing. The horrible pronunciations were fixed and in my opinion they got a marginally stronger performance out of the returning crew. The cast members that were replaced, were replaced for the better. Gohan actually sounds like a young boy now.

The first box from Funimation comes complete with 13 episodes on two discs. The exterior of the collector’s box has a much more modern and clean look to it compared to those god awful orange boxes that I hated (and yet still bought).

There is one last thing and I must applaud Funimation for even if it makes me mildly grumpy. They went so far as to change the most iconic line from DBZ so it would match the original Japanese broadcast. So now:

Nappa: “Vegeta, what does the scouter read?”
Vegetta: “It’s over EIGHT thousand!”

Damn, that’s attention to detail but...but..it just doesn’t feel the same anymore. The moment is gone. The original meme is now...retro. In short: I feel old!

Where am I? What year is it? Gah! What planet am I even on?

It’s embarrassing how long it’s been since I last posted. Where have I been all this time? I can hardly even remember the passing of the days, but I seem to have been productive. There are all these finished and unfinished craft projects all around me and even a few thousand new words on a new writing project that I’ve started. I’ve noticed the apartment waxing and waning through various states of cleanliness, but honestly, I have lost track of time.

At some point in the few weeks, a new season of books began. Now unlike the season’s of the year, this does not mean that an old season is all wrapped up neatly. In publishing, you generally work on several seasons at a time. We just got through the Winter 2011 Sales Conference and are now knee deep in Summer 2011. Meanwhile the Summer 2010 books are rolling out into bookstores.

At this point the general shape of the seasonal list is taking shape. Early versions of the manuscripts may be available to the marketing department for in-house reads. Preliminary planning meetings start happening between the departments.

All in all this is my favorite time in-house. Everything is new and exciting. There’s a lot of creative energy about. This is the time to dream big with your plans and scale back later if you have to.