Writing for the Web

Ken Auletta's media maxims

Having recently completed a book about how Google has changed everything, Ken Auletta has published a cut chapter as an online stand-alone: Media Maxims. Very much worth reading and pondering.

Is Cory Doctorow the future of webwriting?

Via the Globe and Mail: Meet publishers' enemy No. 1: Cory Doctorow. Excerpt:

The traditional publishing industry's worst nightmare arrived in Toronto this week when science-fiction author Cory Doctorow addressed the TD National Reading Summit on the burning question of “How to Destroy the Book.” 

As one of the world's most successful bloggers, a writer who freely gives away his work as well as selling it – and not least, a genuine expert in the suddenly fraught world of international copyright – this Toronto-born phenom knows as much about wrecking traditional publishing as anyone alive.  

For serious students of the art, Doctorow is currently conducting an experiment in both giving away and selling his latest work of self-published fiction, Makers , in every way possible – and scrupulously documenting the financial results in a series of columns in Publishers Weekly. 

The novel, about the struggles of technology hackers in a future economic upheaval, is being made available in a dizzying variety of forms – from downloads and “aps” to a deluxe limited edition of 250 copies made at a family-owned bindery near Doctorow's London home, priced at $250 a piece. 

But like Little Brother, Doctorow's bestselling young-adult novel of 2008, Makers will be free on his website to any reader with the hard-drive space to store it. Those who want a $15 paper copy will be able to order it from print-on-demand publisher lulu.com.

'Fakeosphere' latest Web trap for consumers

Via Jerz's Literacy Weblog: 'Fakeosphere' latest Web trap for consumers. Bogus blogs are now being used as advertising gimmicks.

I've seen a few in Flublogia, where some sites are clearly trying to part visitors from their money in exchange for "cures" for H1N1 and other ailments.

The Fake AP Stylebook

Anyone who writes for the online news media will welcome the Fake AP Stylebook (FakeAPStylebook) on Twitter. This may be the best collective translation effort since the committee that produced the King James Bible.

Now we can await web text that rigorously follows the new style.