Virtual Zen

10 Helpful Work-From-Home Tips for Work-Life Balance

Last week, Ali Brown was a guest blogger on The Wealth Spa. The very first paragraph of her post really resonated with me as a work-from-home Mom:

"Ah, working at home sweet home… Visions of leisurely days, conference calls in comfy sweatpants, increased productivity with fewer interruptions. But the distinctions between work life and home life soon blur. You really should throw some laundry in the wash before you write that proposal. You have an hour before a meeting: Should you balance your books or clean the kitchen? And remember to call that client back right after you empty the cat box."

Has she been peeking through my window?

Ali goes on to provide 10 very helpful tips for those of us who work from home.
Each one is a great tip - enjoy!

Interesting Take on POD Publishing from Mr. Ingram Himself

As a publisher who utilizes POD (print on demand) technology through Lightning Source (LSI), I found the following note I recently received to be very interesting. I never really thought about POD in this way. Can POD publishing be considered a more green and economically smart choice?

"A message from John Ingram
Thoughts on POD and the role it serves in the publishing industry
 
I started Lightning Source with the belief that print on demand was an essential part of the future of publishing. Twelve years later we are living through extraordinary economic times. Our industry is facing enormous challenges. We find ourselves at what I believe to be a tipping point of change for the way in which we publish, print and distribute books. 
 
Now more than ever, I believe is the time for publishers to use print on demand to its full potential. This is no longer an optional novelty; nor is it just about the long tail or self publishing. I believe that it is at the heart of a book's life and the lifeline between a book and the modern consumer.
 
By matching supply to demand perfectly, publishers can be both bold and green in their decision making. They can reduce the restraints and uncertainties they are facing now and will continue to face in the future.
 
I would like publishers to seize the opportunities and stability that the Ingram Content companies have to offer. A single source of services where publishers can explore new content formats, reach more customers, explore new markets, and sell more without taking huge risks. More choices and revenue opportunities while eliminating substantial operational costs. Keeping books alive for consumers to buy and read. "

What do you think?

 

Time Magazine Explores the Evolution of Publishing

Thanks to Dana, The Book Marketing Maven, for pointing out an interesting recent article from Time called "Books Gone Wild: The Digital Age Reshapes Literature" by Lev Grossman.

The article explores the distressed publishing industry and how digital advances such as self-publishing are impacting it.

In it, it says: "A lot of headlines and blogs to the contrary, publishing isn't dying. But it is evolving, and so radically that we may hardly recognize it when it's done."

"It's true: saying you were a self-published author used to be like saying you were a self-taught brain surgeon. But over the past couple of years, vanity publishing has become practically respectable."

"Self-publishing has gone from being the last resort of the desperate and talentless to something more like out-of-town tryouts for theater or the farm system in baseball. It's the last ripple of the Web 2.0 vibe finally washing up on publishing's remote shores. After YouTube and Wikipedia, the idea of user-generated content just isn't that freaky anymore."

Read the entire article here.