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crochetime

~ So many patterns, so much yarn, so little time: story of my hooky life.

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Tag Archives: Mumsnet

Breakout session at Blogfest 2012: Getting published

12 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by Natasja in My ramblings

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Blogging, Mumsnet

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I was very hopeful going in to this panel that I would come out with a plan of sorts for how to, maybe, one day, have a book on the shelves of Waterstones. Author, Natasja King.

Opening question by the Chair, Geraldine Bedell and the dream was shattered. She asked Louise France (contributing Editor of the Times magazine) whether she looks at blogs to find columnists. Her answer? No, people approach her. And for her to consider them the idea should be sharp, with a “finely honed angle”.

Felicity Rubenstein (of literary agency Lutyens and Rubinstein) answered that she has just recently taken on her first client based on a blog. However, I got the impression that blogs don’t necessarily, or easily, lead to book deals or column spaces. That being said there is a difference between publishing a book, writing a column for a newspaper, and doing a piece for a magazine. Felicity also said that cookery and craft blogs are generally easier to translate from blog to book, so there is hope if you want to get published.

According to Felicity your writing does need to be “finely honed” as opposed to a the “stream of consciousness” style that bloggers use.

Neil Sinclair’s (author of Commando Dad) tip to getting published was to “Believe in yourself and believe in your idea”. He went so far as to describe how he had pictured his book in his hand. The feel of it , the look, the texture, everything. He had the image in his head and made it come into reality.

As a parting point, we have to remember that even if you do get a book deal, that does not necessarily lead to huge amount of sales. In Geraldine’s own words “What makes a bestseller is word of mouth”.

The flip side to all of this is Melanie Clegg (blogging as Madam Guillotine) who is self publishing and making shed loads of money out of. She did however say that she is thinking about, and liking the idea of, holding a hard copy book in her hand and seeing it on a shelf in Waterstones so she may go down the traditional publishing route. Please see her comment on this blogpost. I think I may have gotten things a bit wrong….

When it comes to being published, I think of it in the same way as Commando Dad.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. –  Albert Einstein

See your book, feel your book and in the mean time, keep on hooking.

Breakout sessions at Blogfest 2012: Photography for bloggers

12 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by Natasja in My ramblings

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Blogging, Instagram, Mumsnet, photography

This session was definitely my favourite. It was practical, funny, to the point, had visual aids and led by two very creative knowledgeable people: Carrie and Darren of Digital Bungalow.

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I took notes which I will retype (make legible) in bullet form for you.

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  • Use natural light. Sunlight can sometimes be too bright, so tone it down by putting white paper over your windows to filter the light.
  • Try to keep clutter in photos to a minimum. Darren calls it photographic vomit. Clean up the vomit and the item you’re photographing will stand out more.
  • Follow the rule of thirds. When you photograph people or animals their eyes should be in focus and in one third of the shot, or along one of the lines. In landscape shots keep the horizon on the top or the bottom line. Here’s a link to more info on the Rule of Thirds for photography: http://www.silverlight.co.uk/tutorials/compose_expose/thirds.html
  • Change your perspective. Take a photo from above, standing on a chair. Or kneel down and take it from below.
  • Add character to the photo with items or scenery in the background, but keep that out of focus, so that the only focus is on whatever you’re photographing. The shot will be busier, but as long as the background is out of focus, it works.
  • Take your time to clean up and tidy. If you’ve crocheted something don’t be tempted to immediately take the photo right there on the couch among all the yarn ends, coffee cup, toys, last night’s dinner plate. The crochet will still be there once you’ve tidied up.
  • Take your time to think about the photo before snapping away.
  • Rename your photos so that Google will pick it up in their images search. 324523.jpg Won’t be picked up, but blue crochet beanie.jpg will.
  • Make your pictures the same width as the text column in WordPress, that way the photo will fill the column and you won’t get weird text wrapping problems (something I chose not to do in today’s post.)

Using a camera phone is absolutely fine for blog photos. Just remember the following:

  • Switch on the Grid function on your iPhone. Those grids, are the lines for the rule of thirds.
  • Keep your camera steady by tucking in your arms. Hold your phone in your palm like a camera and use the volume buttons as shutter buttons.
  • Follow the sniper’s rule: breath out before taking the shot. It will keep the camera steady.
  • Instagram is not to be used for blogs. It distorts the colours. Darren calls it The Curse of Instagram. (Needless to say, I don’t necessarily agree with this. Obviously when I’m photographing something I crocheted I want to show you the true colour so I won’t use Instagram for that, but for other things like Alpacas on a farm or a beautiful building I will post with Instagram photos).

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The last very useful tip was to use Google Images reverse image search to see where else on the Internet your image appears. You click on your photo within a published post and copy that link. The go to Google Images, click on the little camera to right of the long white bar. It will expand the bar and then you paste the link and hit Enter.

I tested this with a photo from my Identity Crisis blanket post, and found 9 pages with links to Pinterest and a few other blogs where that photo appears! It’s magic.

I would also like to add a little something that I find very usefull for blog photos: www.picmonkey.com. It’s a web based, free for most of the stuff, photo editing tool. Brilliant! Give it a go.

 

Going to Mumsnet Blogfest 2012

07 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Natasja in My ramblings

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Mumsnet

Ever heard of Mumsnet? I have, but thought Mumsnet wasn’t for me seeing as, well, you know, I’m not a Mum. How wrong was I?!

For my non-UK blog readers I’m going to quote Wikipedia here for an unbiased definition of Mumsnet:

Mumsnet is Britain’s most-trafficked website for parents,hosting discussion forums where parents give and receive peer-to-peer parenting support, as well as discussing a wide range of other topics. Currently, the site receives 5.7m site visits and 40m page views each month, and 2.3m monthly unique users make over 25,000 posts each day.

So it’s big. And full of Mums (and Dads I presume) talking about parenting. See why I never gave it a second glance, not being a Mum and all?

Enter Dilly of Dilly Tante. On 5 October she blogged that was attending Mumsnet’s first blogging conference, Blogfest 2012.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if Mumsnet organizes a Blogging Festival, their members must be Big On Blogging. If my maths is correct, the community of bloggers is around 1500 strong. I found 16 blogs who specifically mention crochet in their blog description. That’s a small number of crocheters, but can you image the wealth of topics in the other 1484 Mumsnet blogs?

Dilly did her Blogfest 2012 post around the time that I saw posts about Meet The Blogger Amsterdam and  Meet The Blogger Stockholm. I remember thinking that I wish someone would arrange a blogging conference in London. I’m looking for a place to meet, talk to, and learn from fellow bloggers, without having to get on a plane to do so. Days later Dilly posted about Blogfest 2012 in London and I was sold. I immediately bought my ticket and since then the excitement level (and nerves) have been escalating.

The list of speakers at Blogfest 2012 is brilliant. The topics they will be discussing is spot on. (I signed up for Photography for bloggers, Getting published and Blog beautiful). The venue looks amazing. It seems like the perfect day for any Blogger and I cannot wait!

If any of my blog readers are attending Blogfest 2012, please contact me – I would love to meet you!

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