BlogHer PRO

BlogHer Pro LINK

I'll be speaking at BlogHer PRO next week on Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct 22-23. You can still join and attend.

Just click here to register and you'll be in full-on "California Here I Come" mode. Would love to see you there.

I'll be speaking about self-publishing, how I used Kickstarter to fund my book, Founders Less Than Three and signing copies of my book as well. Here's my book on Amazon, check it out!

The Age of Context: Why it's headed for a bestselling future.

The Age of Context

It's fun to look at the New York Times Bestseller List like an anthropologist. Browse the titles and ask yourself, "what does this strange tribe of humans really want?"  Two things jump out at you immediately.  They are the basic questions all humans ask about their lives.  Is there life after death?  What's the future going to be like?  These have always been questions no one could really answer with authority, but that's about to change. 

You want to know about life after death? Now the bestseller, Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander can answer that first question for you. You'll see it's No. 6 on the bestselling nonfiction list this week.  Heaven and nonfiction don't seem to go together to my mind, but obviously many people want to know about life after death.

And how about the other question -- what's the future going to be like?  There's a new book out called The Age of Context that's headed for a bestselling future, since we all want to know about what comes next and how to prepare for it. 

The book caught my attention from the very beginning when it described a future full of amazing things:  "Cars without drivers. Calendars that send messages on your behalf. Front doors that unlock and open when they see you approach."

And what does it mean for business and for you on a personal level?  In their intellectually thrilling and thoughtful book, The Age of Context, geek authors Robert Scoble and Shel Israel help you grapple with those big questions about the future -- especially the concerns with privacy and context. They answer, "what's the future going to mean to me?"   

But relax, you don't have to be a mega-nerd to understand where we're headed and how to prepare for it. They break it down for you and help you understand what context means in specific areas and then they point out the financial upside.  "All five of these forces--mobile, social media, data, sensors and location—are enjoying an economic sweet spot."

How can we participate fully in this exciting economic future?  How can we avoid the privacy pitfalls?  As you read their book, you'll suddenly realize that Robert Scoble and Shel Israel are already living in the future and they can't wait to welcome you to it. The Age of Context is the ultimate travel guide to a future you're going to navigate with ease and love living in, just as much as the authors love describing it. With Robert and Shel's insights into an amazing future,  you really will be ready to live long and prosper. 


Halley Suitt Tucker is the author of  Founders Less Than Three, a novel about startups and the fun of founding a new company that might just change the world. 

My new book, Founders Less Than Three is done!

The ebook is done!* Check it out on Amazon. 

The Boston Globe says it's a great beach read and the best way to read at the beach is using the Kindle of course! 

What's it about?  Startups and sex. (That's the short version.) 

The longer version:  Founders Less Than Three is a funny, sexy novel about 10 start-ups with 5 CEO girls, 5 CEO guys and their race for funding and fun.

A quotation from the Boston Globe piece, when asked about the entrepreneurs who inhabit the startup world I invented in my novel: 

The startup world can feel very exclusive – like it happens exclusively in Silicon Valley in California and only young white males need apply. My startup world has lots of women, LGBT entrepreneurs, geeks of color – all colors – and is a very inclusive world. I want anyone reading it to know that great ideas have no gender, race, age or sexual preference. 

I also believe Boston will be increasingly important as a place for breakthrough ideas, since we have the best talent in the world right here in Boston when it comes to mobile technology, biotechnology and educational innovation, to name only a few areas of our expertise.

Here's the link to my successful Kickstarter crowdfunding program.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/181348442/founders-less-than-three

*The paper book is coming soon. 

Need to get in touch -- I'm @halley on Twitter.

Writing: A Medium of Quiet

I write most mornings.  Today I'm in Connecticut on the shore at South Norwalk.  I'm waking up in my best friend's mom's house, like I did many mornings in junior high school and high school.  We lived in Greenwich then and their house was right on the water by Byram Shore Road. We could walk or swim before school in the early summer months on warm days like today.  Of course the water was freezing, but we were young and foolish.

I'm here for the Book Expo in NYC, a busy noisy place I also used to live in, but now, I crave this quiet sunrise and slightly dewy porch furniture waiting for a new day to start. No hustle and bustle need apply.

No noise here, just so much quiet and as I finish my book, I was thinking about the privacy and quiet neighborhood of a book. It's a place you go to find the thoughtful quiet, reflective musings of another person. I can share the delicate noise of one bird on the porch and the peaceful silence of this shore at sunrise with you in a book and it's hard to find that peace many places these days.

Despite the many ways you can write now (blogging, tweeting, facebooking), a book still has a solid weighty feel like no other.

No surprise there. For goodness' sake, a book is made of trees, like any good neighborhood. The medium has a luxurious quiet and whispers a story person to person, which we share, writer and reader, because as the writer I get up early and carve out the time to take you to the places I see and imagine.

Her house stood in Hurricane Sandy while many to the right and left of her house did not, because it was built in the 1960's by a contractor who already knew how rough Mother Nature could get.  He'd shored it up on a higher level with a rocky undercarriage to keep it out of harm's way, never knowing in 2012 his house would have the last laugh on this street, as his house stood up to the proverbial test of time. That's my idea of a good story with a happy ending.

How to Keep On Keeping On

Found it!  Cleared my desk and found the three most important pages from APE, Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch's book on self-publishing.  I printed them out last summer and they surfaced again just when I needed them most.  When it comes to writing books, they are so right on here:

How to Continue:
-- Control your doubts,
-- Remember the value you're adding to peoples' lives.
-- Ask for help.
-- Don't hide under a bushel.
-- Write every day.
-- Embrace the pain.
-- Don't let successful writers awe you. 

How to Finish:
-- Edit on paper.

Paper!  Wow!  I remember that stuff and it works so well!

And didn't Guy also recommend drinking tea and eating gobs of toast with tangerine marmalade on tough mornings when it's hard to get started?  Let me take a look at the book again, I'm sure it's in there somewhere.

Painted Ladies and Golden Retrievers

Here's my mug that features the Painted Ladies houses in San Francisco's Alamo Square, my tea ticket, my Kindle hiding behind the cup.  I'm ready to start the day but this will be a heck of a day for my manuscript -- have to pull it apart big time to reassemble it just the way it should be.  Thank God I have the greatest editor in the whole wide world.  I need your help big time today Erik!

I'm thinking of my friends in San Francisco who host us when we visit the area.  They have vacation rentals that are a great deal -- houses in North Beach near Coit Tower and their house at Alamo Square.

Here's their site for more info.  They filmed the TV show Full House near here, so their place is often rented for film shoots these days, making it hard to book as an overnight stay location, but their other houses are great too and you can do long stays there since they have full kitchens, multiple bedrooms.

The golden retriever puppies were born in December, three fluffy little balls of crazy energy.  I had no idea they get so big so fast.

I'm keeping a trip to San Francisco in the front of my mind as an incentive to get this book done asap.  I hope we can all get out there for a visit after it's done.  We try to see our friends there at least once a year.

Here's a picture of the parents with their baby on the front steps! If you get a chance, go to my FB page, check out the pix and link to Hakan and Ebba, the parent dogs' FB page.  They are the greatest.

Warm Up

In the morning before I jump back into writing and editing my novel, I do a warm-up exercise of sorts, a writing warm-up, but also have a few other warm-up activities.

First, we have two thermostats -- one for the first floor and one for the second floor -- so at night we leave the downstairs at around 55 degrees,  even in winter and keep the upstairs fairly cool too.  We are NEW ENGLANDERS for God's sake and have quite the selection of blankets, duvets, you name it.

My book: Founders Less Than 3

I write on the first floor, so it's cold when I start and the first warm-up is putting on the tea kettle and cranking up the heat.  I almost always pull on a wool hat to start my early morning writing too.  Don't you? I favor the Peruvian with ear flaps lately. "What?  You want to talk to me?  Sorry, can't hear you!"

A little bending and stretching is good too, a small physical warm-up, but I find if I put my exercise before my writing, it's so easy NOT to get the writing done.  If you're someone who puts their exercise before everything in their day, you know what I mean.  I would rather exercise first, but as I'm finally getting near the end of this book, I can't risk it.  A B C D E F G ... Z come first.

That said, I start by writing something unrelated to anything.  Not part of the book, not part of a story, not part of anything, I open a file and just start scribbling.  Sometimes I pull out a fountain pen and start scribbling on paper. Either method works, just to get the words flowing.

The house is warming up.  The tea is warming me up.  The hat always warms me up.  And now here come the words. Sound the bugles! 

Most Fun Ever / Working with Guy Kawasaki

One more APE fan!

Of course, I want to thank Guy and Shawn for mentioning me in the acknowledgements of their book APE, Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur. Before I get going on why it's so much fun working with him -- I must stop and ask you -- did you read his book yet!? Go get it!

We met when I worked on Enchantment since I was one of many other excellent contributors to the book and his social media push for the book. I really didn't know all that much about him. I knew he was an Apple Evangelist for the Mac. I knew he'd done 9 books before Enchantment. I knew he was smart, but I didn't know how funny he was, or how ANNOYING he can be.

Seriously, he is as annoying as some brainy younger brother who is always asking you questions about why something is done the way it's done and why not try something new.   I use the word "annoying" here as a high compliment, since he is relentlessly innovative. There's not one thing he takes for granted.

He's the original "push the envelope" guy and "think out of the box" guy and "why not" guy. I'd worked with him on his book Enchantment, met him online, met in person, connected with him on social media often, then worked with him on the What The Plus: Google+ for the rest of us and still, for some odd reason, had never heard him speak at any conference. He speaks at lots of events and conferences, and I was busy most times he was in town to speak, but then I finally heard him speak in Boston after knowing him for about two years.

Maybe I'm a little critical of speakers, because I was involved in putting on events and hearing many speakers at Harvard Business School Publishing and at TTI Vanguard. I figured he would be good. I did not expect him to be TERRIFIC. He's serious, smart, funny and hilarious at times. He also speaks the truth when it needs to be spoken, which most people don't do. So this makes him even more fun to listen to. Anyway, if you have been busy and have some good excuse for not having read his last few books, I forgive you, but go get them! Read them! Enjoy them! I know you will!

People Going Gorillas for APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch

I know a few million of you have probably already bought and read APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur - How to Publish a Book by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch which came out last night at midnight Pacific Coast Time, but for the rest of you, what's taking you so long? Just kidding, a little, but this is a book that so many people will find

FUN
FUNNY
INFORMATIVE
INSPIRATIONAL
INSPIRING
THOUGHTFUL
VIGOROUS
VISIONARY and
WONDERFUL!

Full disclosure, I know Guy and Shawn and worked with them on the last book, What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us, so I am a friend. Guy gives me cred in the acknowledgements section of this new book for just about forcing him to write it, so I am biased. But this book has so much more to offer than I thought it would in the beginning, I'm seriously impressed. It's so useful and practical, as well as amusing and inspiring, which you can count on from any Kawasaki book. As I wrote in a review of the book on Amazon, I can't think of anyone who shouldn't read this book. If you're a reader it's a must own. If you're a writer, it's essential. If you're a publisher, you can't live without it. And of course, entrepreneurs will love it.

Getting Down to the Wire!

My Kickstarter project has one week to go! Please feel free to back me for $25, $50, $100. Best of all, if you pick the $125 level, you help me create a fictional start-up company and even make up a fiction CEO male or female. And that fictional way they will change the world with their fictional product -- it's all waiting for you!


Click here to check it out!

Kickstarter LIVE!

So here goes! I'm kicking off my Kickstarter project today, with a little help from my friends. It's called Founders Less Than Three and you can support it right here!

It's a novel all about entrepreneurs -- five CEO guys and five CEO girls and their teams are building new companies from scratch and racing to get funding.  Boston is the best place in the world to found a start-up and my enterprenerds come from all over the world.

It's early here in Boston and I am thinking about my characters getting up, washing their faces, getting ready for the day. It's 5:30am, so a bunch of them have been working all night at their offices at Kendall Square. It's just one of those things, you figure you'll grab the T in time to get home late and then you just keep working through the night instead.

If you haven't tried Kickstarter, this is a great time to join. You can support my project for as little as a $1.00 and there's no complicated sign-up process and all that. Have you ever bought anything from Amazon? If so, then that's all you do with Kickstarter -- it all runs through Amazon and you don't even pay for a month (and only if my project gets fully funded.) So try it out and be sure to peruse the other amazing creative projects over at Kickstarter as well.

Guy Kawasaki New Cool Stuff

Guy Kawasaki's set up a mailing list if you want cool stuff about his upcoming books and other projects he's been working on.  Just go to this link.

Kindle Fire Test Drive

I loaned my Kindle Fire to a friend since she was thinking about getting one and wanted to give it a try. I loaned it to her a week ago ... and big surprise, she still has it and keeps coming up with good reasons to keep it longer. Makes me laugh. I knew she would LOVE IT! Who doesn't it?

Is It Really 5 Degrees Here? Great Weather For Reading!

Yes, this lovely Sunday morning started out at 5 degrees F... warming up now to 12. What a perfect day for reading. How about Dr. Zhivago?! You can get it here on Amazon.

Andrew Sullivan on ebooks and publishing

Great piece via 52novels by Andrew Sullivan on ebooks and publishing.

Best Books According to Whom?

There are so many "Best Books of 2011" lists circulating and as a book lover, I want to blow a whistle and yell back, "best according to whom?"  


Take this book I had been hearing a lot about -- The Art of Fielding -- by Chad Harbach.  There were endless rave reviews about it and I ended up getting the idea that it was about publishing.  I bought it.  I read it.  I had the completely WRONG idea about it.  This is likely because half the reviews went on and on about how this book was changing publishing forever, or some nonsense.  This book is about BASEBALL and I hate baseball.

I mean, this book is about a shortstop. A guy on a baseball team.  (Insert a big "Who Cares?!" here please.)  I didn't really know what a shortstop did, nor did I care.  I spent the first half of the book figuring the guy who was a shortstop would graduate, go to New York and work in publishing and that was going to be the interesting part.  That never happened.

And I also don't know why anyone thought it was such a great book -- even leaving the baseball stuff aside -- I didn't think it was particularly well written.

So I guess I would say that finding a TRUSTED source for book recommendations is different from trusting a list of someone's idea of "best books."  

Great Stuff (per usual) from J.Konrath's Blog

If you don't read Joe Konrath's blog, "A Newbie's Guide to Publishing" you must not care about books, ebooks, good writing, humor, insight and any of those kinda things.

It's such a great blog and he's put up his list of resolutions for 2012.

Here's a link and here's a quote:

" ... Formats and gadgets come and go. But the world will always need storytellers." 

ebook secrets ... shhhhh!

Leo Tolstoy, Age 20, 1848

Don't tell anyone I told you, but here are some of the secrets ebook lovers have discovered and do not want to share.  This is why they can't go back to books.

Secret No. 1:  No Glasses Required!

Know what this is?    Aa

You probably don't if you don't read ebooks.

"Aa" is the key on the Kindle that lets you set the font size so no matter where you are you can read WITHOUT putting your glasses on.  (That is, if you are myopic.)  And, let me tell you, once you get used to being able to read without having to go HUNT FOR YOUR GLASSES, it's very hard to get used to reading a real book again, where you can't change the font size instantly.  Like that baby on Youtube who thinks a magazine is an iPad, you'll find yourself whacking the paper book expecting the font to get bigger.

Secret No. 2:  No Lights Required!

If you have a dumb old paper book and you read from daylight into darkness, you have to either get up and turn on the light or go find a little clippy light.  With an ebook, you likely have a built-in light with the cute old Kindle cover, or you have the Kindle Fire or iPad which means the book is "lit" without doing anything.  Sounds like no big deal, but there are many times and places you want to read where turning on a big old light overhead is either very inconvenient or disruptive of others.  Ebook readers love not having to mess with lighting.

Secret No. 3:  Effing Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky 

If you read novels, and most ebook readers do, there is something so WONDERFUL about a quick search to find out who the hell a certain character is, with an unpronounceable  name like this one.  I mean, if you read Tolstoy and don't speak Russian, you are lost in a snowstorm of complicated character names.  Who can remember who the hell Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky is anyway?!  And you BETTER remember who Vronsky is, because he's Anna Karenina's lover and she throws herself under the train for the bastard. Not only does the plain old Kindle let you search the name, finding the first time it appears and other important data, but with the super cool upgrades on the Kindle Fire, it practically gives you all the Spark Notes info on the guy.  You start to feel less like a reader and more like a private eye.  What paper book can do that for you in 5 seconds?!

Secret No. 4:  Have I Got A Deal For You!

If you have a Kindle, you get so many terrific deals on books EVERY DAY, it's almost impossible to imagine going into a bookstore anymore.  I mean, maybe you could go into a bookstore, use one of their big comfy armchairs, open your Kindle and see what great books are on sale today at Amazon, download one in a split second and sit there and read, but that would be very rude behavior.  Can you honestly use a bookstore's chair, with no intention to buy their wares as you sit next to a hardcover book, priced at $19.95 or more and read the SAME BOOK in the e-version which you just bought for $1.00?! Please, be fair.  As the Ebook Wars rage, be polite enough to avert your eyes from the hopeless victims.

These are just a few of the secrets, I refuse to tell the others.

Help Wanted: Leader of Kindle and Print Book Editorial

Amazon posted this job on March 31, 2011.  Tall order.  Just think how much has changed in the world of books (and especially ebooks) since March, then you can imagine how difficult writing a five-year strategy would be! 

Job Description:  Leader of Kindle and Print Book Editorial

Amazon.com is looking for a seasoned executive to lead our Kindle and Print Book Editorial Team responsible for developing the vision for furthering Amazon’s position as a world-class book seller, and leading a team of Editors in the execution of that strategy.  The Director of Editorial is a newly created role responsible for the end-to-end Editorial vision for Amazon.com Books, he or she must have deep experience interviewing high profile authors and celebrities, and reviewing and creating compelling book content across all genres of Books, from fine literature to science fiction.  The Director of Editorial works with customers, publishers, authors and the press to ensure a best-in-class book experience for Amazon.com and its customers.

The key strategic objectives for this role include:
1)      Develop a 5 year vision for Amazon.com’s Editorial voice.  The strategy will incorporate existing Amazon metrics on book sales and customer segments, shifting patterns in customer shopping and online behavior, industry and competitive trends and will ultimately become the road map for how we talk with customers, authors, illustrators, publishers and the media.
2)      This leader will help innovate toward a better book buying experience. He or she will establish a best-in-class content experience, as measured by increased number of customers who purchase, the conversion rates at which existing customers purchase from us, increased customer engagement with us, and increased exposure in the media.
3)      This leader will innovate and develop new models for connecting with customers, helping customers connect with content creators, stimulating customer engagement with Amazon, identifying new and emerging sub-genre’s of books to introduce customers to, and constantly seeking new ways to use metrics and data to increase the likelihood of success.

The Amazon.com Books team interacts with over 100 million customers, 40 million books, across 30,000 publishers at any given time.  As book format options continue to evolve, and book publishing becomes increasingly easier for writers, customers look to Amazon to navigate the myriad Books available and help them find the exact book they are looking for.  The Director of Editorial plays a critical role in connecting customers with books in as seamless manner as possible.  The Director of Editorial is responsible for an Editorial vision that touches millions of customers and billions of revenue per year.
Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree is required.

• 10+ years of relevant book experience.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Existing relationships with the media, top authors, and publishers.

• Tremendous editorial credibility with readers, content providers, and the media.

Preferred Qualifications
The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience creating high profile book content, and is considered an influencer by readers, writers, and their peers:

• Creative, forward thinking leader with proven ability to innovate.

• Experience using data to drive decisions.

• Has hired and developed teams of at least 5.

Yes, I Bought an Expensive Hardcover Paper Book on Amazon.com

It's true, the rumor is out there and it's true, I bought an expensive hardcover PAPER book on Amazon the other day.  Why?  Well, it's new, it's a great book ... and duh, as a Kindle lover and a recipient of a million great deals on ebooks on a regular basis thanks to Amazon, it's the least I could do. (And of course, it's not available on Kindle yet.)

See that's the thing, Amazon throws so many sweet deals your way as a Kindle owner or Prime member, you're fine with throwing some money for real books, or porch furniture, or some new software or hardware or a hundred other things their way.  Beyond that, you KNOW they deliver and you love it when they do.

I called my biz here BoOkBoX for a reason -- one reason is how much fun it is to get a BOX from Amazon delivered to your door and open it and find wonderful stuff inside. Another reason is, I think of a book as a little box of letters, all lined up in the way the writer decided they should be. A little Alphabetic Army of Letters waiting for the general to review the troops.

I wish they would make a little e-box as nice as their brown cardboard boxes, with some extra e-offers and stuff thrown in.  I'd love to have a little digital graphic of the cardboard box suddenly appear on my desktop, that I could open by clicking on it.  Please, Mr. Bezos, can't you gift-wrap my digital books too?

So a little box icon appears on my desktop and I click on it and it has a bunch of cool stuff (and a few free Kindle Samples and maybe a Kindle Single, I can say yes or no to with a clickable box)?  Real artists ship and you guys are real artists, when it comes to shipping!

*Picture Credit on the box:  Thanks Connor is Awesome