This is my afterthought for the SWF Publishing Symposium.
Writers and publishers were arguing about whether printed books and e-books can co-exist and complement each other in terms of marketing strategies, or would cannibalism occur between the two. My view is that does it really matter? What is the fundamental purpose or objective in publishing a book (besides making money)? I would think it is to let people know about the work and I believe this is what most writers wanted in the first place. Well, if that's the case, I would think it is no longer important whether the information is presented in printed on digital format.
I shall continue with Day 2 of the symposium. Though the content is not so relevant to me, I've still benefited from the session.
1. The Role of the Author
I didn't jot down any notes for this session as the content is not really relevant to me.
The most important message that I received from the speaker was that it is very important to remember why one writes.
2. How to Get Noticed by a Commissioning Editor
The speaker shares with the audience the process of getting a book published.
She strongly encourages writers to find an agent who will have the connections and experience to find the right publisher and editors to review their manuscripts.
She also shares insightful tips such as decisions made by the editors are mainly based on a forecast of the market 2 years down the road, and that new writers will usually have their work published from Jan to July (and it is important to time when one's manuscripts should be sent to a publisher).
3. Marketing Your Book: The role of the Publisher and Author
Kids market: The book should appeal to the kids (on the contrary belief that we should appeal to the parents who buy the books). Words such as cool and funky should be used.
Teenage market: Market the books as if you are marketing to an older age group as teenagers like to behave as if they are older.
The speaker claims that word-of-mouth is the best marketing policy and social networking is a good platform to create that.
4. The Future of the Publishing Industry
It's a dialogue session revolving on the topic: printed books vs e-books.
5. Print and E-book Author Contracts
The speakers are a lawyer and a publisher pointing out the common terms and clauses to look out for in a contract.
One e.g. is the difference between assigning a right and granting a right. In the case of assigning, the writer will no longer be the owner of the work whereas granting means that the rights are only licensed to the publisher, the author remains as the owner of the work.
All in all, I think the symposium is a great event for local writers to interact with fellow writers, publishers and agents, and also a platform to promote their work.
Initially, I thought it'll be a boring session but it turns out to be an eye-opener for me and I've learnt a lot about the writing scene in Singapore.
The symposium took place over two days. The first day was mainly about e-books and self-publishing. This is more relevant to my work as I'm an instructional designer for educational digital resources for kids. The second day revolves mainly on the role of an author and what should a writer do to get his/her work noticed by a commissioning editor. The advices given are very useful to aspiring writers.
1. Loyalties, Royalties and the Balance of Power
The speakers talk about the emerge of the e-books era and how it's changing the roles of publishers, agents and authors
It is being forecasted in the next five years, 50% of the books sold would be e-books.
It is also mentioned that it's so much easier and convenient to self-publish nowadays, especially with e-books being pushed to a new height of popularity by the launch of Amazon Kindle.
2. E-book Conversion and Distribution
A company's speaker talks about the technology of converting printed books into e-books through EPUB, which is an XML-based file format that reflows text according to screen size.
One of the audiences also talked about the rumours that SingTel is launching an e-book application.
3. E-book Marketing
The speaker talks about the importance of letting people discover the e-book that one has written.
He also mentioned the effectiveness of using social media to achieve this purpose.
4. E-books for Kids and Young Adults
This is the most relevant and enjoyable session for me!
The speaker analyses the different markets for kids and young adults.
Toddler's market: resource should be simple and focused. E.g. flashcards, pronunciation (voice recognition technology), learning vocabulary etc.
7 to 13 yrs old market: game-like activities with the completion of tasks and earning credits/tokens are popular with them
14 to 17 yrs old market: social network lovers and prefer to read text-based e-books, unlike the previous two groups that will go for interactive ones.
Institutional market: lucrative market to enter as MOE's initiatives encourage the usage of IT in class lessons
The speaker mentions that the consumers market in Singapore is too low.
Another speaker from GuideGecko talks about travel writing and publishing in the future. (This is a personal interest for me! *Wink*)
GuideGecko is a site that helps one to self-publish an app (mind you, not a book!). It helps with the creation, distribution, monetization and promotion of the app.
He advises aspiring writers who are thinking of using this service to write on a destination that's not so competitive. This will help their apps to be ranked higher in the app store for the chosen destination.
5. Cross-platform
There were 2 speakers for this session. Personally, I think the 1st speaker was ill-prepared for the presentation and was not able to share things that are very helpful.
The other speakers are from Peach Blossoms. They demonstrated one of their interactive e-books for kids, Taoshu Warrior.
The audience were impressed by the interactions. I like their work but actually the interactions are simple and easy to produce and I'm sure my company can produce the same thing. But I must say the content (the stories) is the main selling point, rather than the interactivity.
Today is my friend's birthday and we've celebrated her birthday earlier on Monday. As she had requested, we went to Shiryoku Yakitori at Purvis Street. You won't miss its bright green signboard that bears the shop's name, 新绿。
I've read some of its reviews and most of them say that its service is slow and bad although the food is nice. For us, we were lucky as there is no crowd on a Monday night, so our food was served to us quite promptly. Another trick we used was that we ordered all the food we wanted to eat right at the beginning knowing that it would take some time for them to prepare the food.
We went for the a-la-carte buffet ($48++) and ordered quite a number of dishes. My favourite was asparagus wrapped in bacon, grilled prawns and grilled chicken wings. My friend strongly recommended the salmon skin salad. As I'm not a big fan of raw vegetables, I shall not comment too much on the dish.
On the whole, I would say it's quite worthwhile if you go for the buffet but I wouldn't say that the food is exceptionally good.
Yesterday, I went to Kuriya Penthouse @ Orchard Central to celebrate a friend's birthday. It is a restaurant that serves authentic Japanese food. I ordered the Premium Chirashi Don set as I love sashimi and sushi. Moreover, the set includes tuna belly! Firstly, a starter (fried salmon) is served followed by tempura. They then serve the chirashi don with potato salad and chawan mushi. After that, dessert (macha ice cream, macha japanese cake and fruits) is served. Lastly, tea is served to clear the palette.
I enjoyed the food very much as the ingredients used are very fresh and I get to eat tuna belly.
On Friday, I've finally visited Universal
Studios in Singapore since its official opening in May. It's my first
Universal Studios experience so I was pretty excited over it!
We started the day early and reached Vivo City's monorail
station around 10 something but there was already a crowd queuing to get their
monorail tickets. Luckily, we are locals, so we used our EZ-link card to get
pass the gates and take our monorail. We got down at the next station,
Waterfront station and bought our entrance tickets which cost S$72 at the
counter. Luckily, the queue was short (since the crowd is still back in Vivo City)
and we barely waited for a minute! And so our adventures started!
Our plan (if you call it a plan =p) is to slowly warm up and
take the easy rides first and leave the thrilling rides till the last. So we turned
left into Madagascar zone and took the kids-friendly river boat ride "A
Crate Adventure". The animals are cute and funny but it's just a pretty
normal ride without any thrills or excitement.
Next, we moved on to Far Far Away land to try out the junior
roller coaster, "Enchanted Airways". It was a prelude to the more
thrilling "Battlestar Galactica" ride later. After my experience on
this junior roller coaster, I told my friend that I don't want to try
"Battlestar Galactica" anymore. Please don't laugh at me! You must
understand that it takes a lot of courage for me to try the roller coaster
rides as I'm slightly acrophobic! =p
After the ride, we decide to go for something more relaxing, so
we went for the 4D animation "Shrek 4-D Adventure". It was a really
fun experience as you can see, hear and feel the action right from your seat as
Princess Fiona and Shrek embark on their fairy-tale adventure. I'm quite sure
that both kids and adults will enjoy the show. Oh, those who are afraid of
creepy crawlies, beware! LOL
The Lost World was next in line. I was hoping to try out the
water raft ride in "Rapids Adventure". I even prepared another set of
clothing in case I get wet during the ride. But much to our disappointment, the
ride was under maintenance and won't back till early next year.
By then, the skies were getting dark and a heavy downpour seemed
to be inevitable. So, we decided to complete the outdoor rides first. We
quickly rushed to Sci-Fi City for "Battlestar Galactica". I finally
mustered enough courage to try the "Human" ride. I was very jittery
during the queue, and when I got into the seat, I thought to myself, "Why
am I doing this?" As the roller coaster made its climb, I couldn't
control but close my eyes and kept them shut during the whole ride while
screaming my head off! But I must say it's really a thrilling ride and a
must-try! For the braver souls, you can try the "Cylon" ride that
goes around and upside down with an intense corkscrew and cobra roll.
Finally, we went for the "Revenge of the Mummy" ride.
A friend of mine claimed that this is the scariest ride and I was really
anticipating the ride. It is an indoor roller coaster in total darkness so I
don't have to worry about my acrophobia. The ride was indeed up to my
expectations. It was full of excitement and surprises. The only con was that it
was too short! The "Mummy" ride was the last ride we had.
After we came out of the ride, it was raining heavily. Having no
choice, we went for lunch at the nearby Egyptian-themed buffeteria, "Oasis
Spice Cafe" as we can't go anywhere too far. The Middle Eastern food was
not bad but I must say the taste of the Almond rice dessert was very unique.
We went for a shopping spree after we have replenished our
energy from lunch. We even went for a musical show "Monster Rock". I
would advise those of you who wanted to watch it to give it a miss if you are
rushing for time. Go only if you have lots of time to spare and nowhere else to
go. Enough said.
With that we left the park and promised to return next year when
the Transformers ride is ready.
Every underdog gets its day! The movie, Real Steel shows that one will be able to rise to the challenge if one has the courage and determination to overcome problems and obstacles that seem big. I must admit that I quite like the movie despite the not-so-good reviews about it being a work that lacks originality and focus. Nevertheless, I'll say that it is an entertaining movie, especially Dakota Goyo who acted as Hugh Jackman's son. He's such a talented dancer and actor!
Synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes
A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future where the sport of boxing has gone high-tech, Real Steel stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a small-time promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a championship contender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback. -- (C) Dreamworks
Green Pumpkin is a pastry shop that is located at a shopping mall (NEX) near my workplace. I always walk past it when I go to the mall for lunch. The cakes on display never fail to catch my attention and I'm particularly attracted to the Yuzu (Japanese grapefruit) cheesecake. As the cake cost a bit higher than usual, I always just walk past it without buying.
On Tuesday, I've finally gave in to the temptation and bought the cheesecake. Not just that, I've also bought 4 other cakes as there's a discount of 30% if I buy 5 cakes. I had the Yuzu cheesecake for breakfast the next morning and it was yummylicious! Highly recommended!
Yuzu cheesecake
Left to right: Sakura, Green tea swissroll,
Pumpkin Mont Blanc, Raspberry Chocolate
A friend of mine posted this video on her facebook and I'm very impressed by the great impact of a simple idea! Sometimes, we don't have to think of complicated solutions to problems in life as it is usually the simple ideas that will save the day.
Science Behind the Invention
"When the sun hits the outside part of the bottle, a lot of light reaches the inside part of the bottle. The water inside the bottle makes the light omnidirectional, mimiking an electric light bulb. The bleach keeps the water clear for years. Without the bleach, the water would quickly turn green with algae. Without the water, there would be a bright spot on the floor, surrounded by relative darkness."
On Friday, I rushed down to Plaza Singapura after work to have a quick dinner despite of the heavy rain. I had to finish my dinner quickly so that I could reach Singapore Indoor Stadium in time for the LOUD festival concert.
The concert started off indie-rock band, Soda Green (苏打绿). The lead singer, Greeny (青峰) sang a mixture of old hits such as "A Little Love Song" (小情歌) and new songs such as "Liking Loneliness" (喜欢寂寞). Not only that, the audience were greatly amused by Greeny's jokes.
Landy was the next to make an appearance. She showcased her powerhouse vocals in an aboriginal-esque tune. What really got the crowd excited was not her sexy fast songs but her popular love ballads like "Wishing Me Happy Birthday" (祝我生日快乐) and "Fool" (傻瓜). Everyone sang along to the groovy tunes and Landy was obviously touched by that.
Local band, Ang Mo Pai (红毛派) made a special appearance too, followed by Cindy Yen (袁咏琳). She performed 3 songs, including Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie".
The long-awaited moment had finally arrived when Jay Chou (周杰伦) made his appearance out from a coffin. The crowd went crazy and stood up, screaming loudly for him. Not only did he sang a series of his hits, he also showcased his piano-playing skills by performing "Flight of the Bumblebee". The most interesting song had to be the improvised rock-ballad guitar version of "Nunchaku" (双节棍).
The finale of the concert would definitely had to be Jay and Landy's rendition of the song, "Rooftop" (屋顶). The previous duet performance by the two was like 10 years ago! With that, the concert ended with a resounding note.
Our memories of our trips are usually captured as photos. We used to develop these photos but nowadays with the use of digital cameras, we usually upload the photos to social networks or other platforms to share with family and friends. But personally, I still prefer to flip through a photo album and recollect the bits and pieces of my trips.
Last year, I've bought a voucher for creating a photobook with Photobook Express during NATAS fair. I was given a CD that contains the photobook editing software. All I need to do is to arrange my photos in an interesting layout with text (optional). Upon completion, I just upload my photos online and they will print the photobook for me. I can choose to collect at their workshop or showroom at Peninsula Plaza.
The quality of their photobook is very good and they even adjust the colours and lighting for some of my photos so as to achieve optimum printing results. In all, I'm very satisfied with their service.
