lwidmer | Words on the Page

Carving Out Biz Time

Posted on November 8, 2011 by lwidmer

Nano count: Still 10,001 words Very long day yesterday, but I accomplished two of my three goals. I had time-sensitive projects that had to go out ASAP, so they took priority over even my personal writing. Nano suffered. But since Nano doesn’t pay the bills, I made that sacrifice without any reservation. Besides, I have…

Morning Quarterbacking

Posted on November 7, 2011 by lwidmer

Nano count: 10,001 Wow, that weekend went by quickly. I spent a bit of it working. I have a large project in that is time-sensitive, and I took it on knowing the weekend was going to be sacrificed to some extent. I’m glad I spent those few hours on the project – I think I…

Link Love Friday

Posted on November 4, 2011 by lwidmer

Nano word count: 7,555 After spending a nice lunch wishing a good writing chum happy birthday (hey, Bob!), I landed back in this chair close to 3:30 yesterday afternoon. I have two pressing deadlines, one of which is about to arrive via Fedex and the other I’ve had enough time to read through once and…

Many Irons, Fires are Starting

Posted on November 3, 2011 by lwidmer

Nano count, Day two: 5,126 words I decided to keep track of Nano work right here. I’m accountable for everything else monthly, why not Nano daily? Feel free to post your own writing results here during this month (or any month, for that matter). I had a good day yesterday. I met with a prospective…

Monthly Assessment: October 2011

Posted on November 1, 2011 by lwidmer

Why did I think I’d get a thing done yesterday? I had a scheduled MRI in the morning. There went the morning. Then I had a few small issues to clear up, plus contract odds and ends to finalize, and some insurance-related documents to dig out. By the time I looked up, it was 4…

Freakishness and Weekends

Posted on October 31, 2011 by lwidmer

That was weird. I could smell it on Friday. Any of you who are used to impending snow storms coming know what I’m talking about. The air becomes heavy, static, and the sun has troubles cutting through…haze? What is that? It’s a storm coming, and if you’re paying attention, you’ll know about it a full…

Friday Link Love

Posted on October 28, 2011 by lwidmer

Thanks to everyone who participated in the LinkedIn Secrets & Success Webinar yesterday. It was a fantastic presentation – Susan Johnston walked us through both her presentation slide show and LinkedIn’s pages, giving us strategies all the way. Yesterday was also a great day in terms of marketing. I had sent out plenty of LOIs…

Event-ful Opportunities

Posted on October 27, 2011 by lwidmer

Today’s the day! If you’ve not signed up yet, please join us for the LinkedIn Secrets and Success Webinar with Susan Johnston today at 11 am PT/ 2 pm ET. If you join both the Webinar and the Five Buck Forum, you get the entire enchilada for $15 – ten bucks for the Webinar, five…

Clause for Trouble?

Posted on October 26, 2011 by lwidmer

Tomorrow’s the day! Please consider joining Anne Wayman and me along with our guest Susan Johnston, Urban Muse and author of LinkedIn and Lovin’ It, for our LinkedIn Secrets & Success Webinar. The price: $49. However, if you join the Five Buck Forum, you can get entry into the Webinar for $10, plus you get…

Cathy Miller

October 26, 2011

Argghh-my loong comment got eaten by the gremlins. I'll try again.

I found this post from 2009 webtechlaw post. It essentially says the LI Agreement is worse than FB.

I wrote a post a while back on 7 things in the LI Agreement that you might not know. Much mellower than this, but surprising just the same.

I think it's another fine example of closing the barn door after the horse escaped. If the 2009 post is still accurate, even if you terminate, LI retains their "rights."

The Company Page and Published work are two areas that could be of concern. Of course, there's always concern about what's shared in Groups or Q&As. It amazes me what some people share.

I'm not sure how (or if) this will change the way I participate in LI. I do share my work from a promotional standpoint. What are the odds that they would use it in a manner I would have a problem with? I'm not sure.

Thanks for the thought-provoking post, Lori.

Lori

October 26, 2011

Cathy, thanks for the links. I do remember your post regarding LI.

I share my resume, my background, my skills, and my thoughts in forums on LI. I share links to articles, but since they're copyrighted elsewhere, good luck to LI facing a litany of magazine lawyers! LOL

I don't find it all that disturbing because I don't share unpublished work there. Maybe it's more of a lesson in what NOT to share rather than what rights are being stripped away.

Yes, it's disturbing on one level, but on another level, it doesn't really apply.

Jake P

October 26, 2011

Dammit, Jim — I'm a doctor, not a lawyer!

I read this as "if you post any intellectual property of any type on this site, we're not responsible for how it gets used and BTW you can't sue anyway." I have no idea if it would stand up in court, but common sense would dictate that anyone posting valuable information in a public forum without understanding the implications…is a fool.

To put a finer point on it: If they assemble a book of "LinkedIn's 101 Most Unbelievably Fantastic Marketing Ideas" and your lovingly crafted post was one of them and it becomes a NYT bestseller: tough noogies. You're not going to see a dime. And, as with HuffPo bloggers, I'll feel nah pity for ye.

Yesterday was a big invoice day here. Mmmmmm…invoices.

Lori

October 26, 2011

Invoices….tasty! 🙂

That's how I would interpret it too, Jake – right down to the "is a fool" part.

Lori

October 26, 2011

BTW, LOVE the McCoy reference. 🙂

Paula

October 26, 2011

I've only posted one thing on LinkedIn (I shared it here as well, I believe)- an old essay I wrote about how little per-word article rates have gone up since the 1940s. (As Hugo Lydecker said in the film noir classic, Laura, "Sentiment comes easy at 50-cents a word.") That piece had already been published and is a bit outdated, despite the still stagnant per-word rates at most publications.

The clause you posted reads to me more like a kitchen sink / shotgun approach to covering their collective butt, just in case. After all, millions of comments are made on LinkedIn every day – finding one or two reprint-worthy items buried in those posts would be like finding a needle hidden in a 10K acre field of side-by-side haystacks. (The one way great posts might come to light is if hundreds of people "like" them.)

That said, it's always better safe than sorry. I've never understood why some people share their own poems and things in public forums.

Paula

October 26, 2011

Blogger's eating posts again. It's acting like you never feed it.

Devon Ellington

October 28, 2011

I agree.

That extends to posting drafts of fiction on your blog. First of all, posting work on your blog constitutes "first publication rights" to most publishers. You post part of your draft of a WIP on your blog, you've blown most chances at publication

Second — why would you put a DRAFT out in public? Yeah, share with trusted readers, but do you really want people to see your work in the nude, before it's been polished? Out there in its worst form for all eternity?

Reading a badly written draft is not going to entice me to buy the book if it ever is published.

Also, I get paid to read and comment on drafts, outside of my circle of Trusted Readers, where we do swaps. Why would I comment on someone's first draft on blog?

Devon Ellington

October 28, 2011

PS –once you're under contract and have a release date and have polished your work with an editor, definitely post excerpts for marketing purposes — that's fun.

But don't post drafts of WIPS!

Lori

October 31, 2011

Amen, Devon. Amen.

I had read a "sample" posted on a famous author's website once. I don't know if it was a pre-edited sample, but after that one chapter I swore off all her work. She's a BIG NAME AUTHOR, and I was stopped in my tracks by bad analogies that conjurred up wildly impossible images.

Author: lwidmer