Documents of Tabat: Arriving in Tabat

Last week I talked about how blogging on Youtube can benefit writers, so I wanted to cover some of the Youtube basics necessary for a writer who wants to learn how to use it for self promotion. If you’re already technically savvy, much of this post will already be obvious to you, but the thinking about researching what others in the field are doing that’s mentioned at the end would still be a good practice.

First off, create a YouTube account. When picking your username, try to find something close to the one you use on your website. I use catrambo, which is the same username I use on Facebook, Twitter, and most other social networking sites. You want a name that your watchers can connect with your books, so they can find them later on.

YouTube has some social network functions. You can use your account to comment on or “like” other users’ videos and make lists of your favorite videos. You can subscribe to other people’s video streams in order to get notifications when they add new content. Buttons underneath videos allow you to share favorites with other social networks, including Facebook, Orkut, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Tumblr and many more. You can even set your account to publish updates to networks when you like a video or add it to a list as well as when you upload your own videos. Check here for some additional Youtube essentials.

When you start uploading videos to your account (and the post on that is not yet written) , you’re creating your YouTube video channel, which others can subscribe to. You can customize your channel (click on your account name in the upper right hand corner and when a menu appears, select “My Channel”) by giving it a name, modifying the colors and choosing what information to display on your channel’s page, such as event dates, a list of YouTube friends, and who’s subscribed.

But before you start making videos, spend some time poking around and seeing what others in your field are posting to YouTube. You’ll see commentary on book covers, book trailers, book reviews, interviews, readings, news magazines, and more.

Such research will serve you in good stead when you can thinking about what sort of content you want to be using for your blogging on Youtube. But for now – go watch a video or five, all in the name of research.

I had to go hunt for my proof copy of the book in order to be able to look up the art this time. Tod snagged all my extras in preparation for the reading this Friday, at the University Bookstore in Seattle, at 7 pm. I’ll be reading with three terrific writers: Alma Alexander, Corry L. Lee, and Roz Kaveny.

So! Here’s day three of the giveaway. Comment to win!

(left to right)

Image #1 goes with the story “Therapy Buddha,” which is about how much we project things onto objects and coincidences. It’s near future, another one of the eyed creatures, this one peering down, a little inquisitively, a little confusedly. It looks like part of an organic machine, like so many of Mark’s images.

Image #2 accompanies the story, “Close Your Eyes,” which originally appeared in Apex Digest. This is the one I have as a tattoo, from back before I moved to Seattle, given to me one night in a Durham tattoo parlor. I like it for its ability to be wing and eye and fish, all in one. Vicki used it with the Table of Contents as well.

Image #3 looks like a rocket ship and a Greek amphora at the same time, perhaps bubbling over with some sort of pine and summer scented wine. I selected it to go with “Peaches of Immortality” because it seemed to me it looked a little like the machine at the end of the story.

Image #4 is a detail of the larger image that goes with “The Mermaids Singing, Each to Each.” I’m glad Mark pulled it out like this for the jewelry, since it makes a lovely little piece. His work often has a tribal feel to it, and this looks like an orca to me.

Image #5 goes with “Legends of the Gone”. Sometimes Mark repeats images and this is a variant of one that I always see as a large flightless bird, standing looking at the viewer. (You may not see it. That’s okay.)