Assistant Editor

I'll go looking outside "the bubble" shortly, but I wanted to let you guys know first: in June we're going to be looking for an assistant editor for Alterati.com (this comes along with an upcoming, substantial re-design and step up across the site.) This person should be under the age of 25- college students are ideal. At first it will be an internship, with the potential to become a salaried position. You will be keeping tabs on emerging trends in media & culture both online and off, and assisting us with other editorial tasks. Knowledge of HTML, design, video editing etc. is helpful but not requisite. Being very familiar with the internet, social media, web 2.0 etc. is necessary, as is being literate and most important of all: reliable. Don't bother contacting us if you're going to be excited for a month and then drop off the planet. (Past experience with this sort of thing is part of why this position only becomes paid when the individual demonstrates results.)

You can be from anywhere so long as you have consistent high speed internet & phone, though it's an extra bonus if you're in the philadelphia PA or troy NY areas, as you'll then be able to occasionally meet in person with the editors.

Contact me at jamescurcio AT gmail DOT com and we can talk a bit about it.

No Write Way 6

(No Write Way 1-6.)

When you quietly complete your first edition, buy a handful of copies and get them off to people who's opinion you trust. Ideally these will be fellow writers or editors, but barring that, well-read friends will do just fine. The caveat of this gift, of course, is that they must actually read it and provide you with useful input.

The value of this kind of input cannot be overlooked, however it takes real skill and sensibility to provide genuine criticism. A good critic suggests solutions to the problems that they encounter, and they deal strictly with the work itself. Also take the time to listen to the people who purchase your first edition- some of them may be valuable critics as well. Just make sure to completely ignore those who go straight for the character assassination. Chances are they haven't even read your book.

If you make your first edition available for free as a PDF, you will also broaden the potential range of people who will be exposed to your work. "For free, you say?" Yes. Cory Doctorow covers the reasoning behind this quite well in this article, so there's no reason to re-state it.

(Alterati.com article.)