indicate mentality

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Sinkhole swallows building complex in China

Sinkhole swallows building: An enormous sinkhole opened up beneath a building complex in China's southern city of?Guangzhou Tuesday, swallowing five shops and one building.?

By Eoin O'Carroll,?Staff / January 29, 2013

A sinkhole swallows an entire building complex in China's southern Guangdong province.

The ground gave way beneath a building complex in?Guangzhou, China, on Tuesday afternoon, sending several buildings plunging into the earth, but causing no injuries.

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Relying on reports in Chinese media, the blog Shanghaiist describes the gaping hole as more than 3,200 square feet in area and almost 30 feet deep, and still expanding.?

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the sinkhole opened up near a subway construction site. Workers noticed that the land was sinking and managed to evacuate the 300 or so people inside the buildings before they collapsed. It is not clear whether the construction caused the sinkhole.

Sinkholes are often caused by the underground erosion of salt beds or soluble sedimentary rocks, such as limestone or dolomite. Groundwater flows through these rocks, creating subterranean caverns that can suddenly collapse.

In the past couple of years, large sinkholes have appeared in?Guatemala City; Tampa,?Fla.,?Quebec; Milwaukee; as well as Germany and Florida.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/iczH-3lc6uU/Sinkhole-swallows-building-complex-in-China

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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Israel suggests responsibility for Syria airstrike

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak gestures during a meeting at the Security Conference in Munich, southern Germany, on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. The 49th Munich Security Conference started Friday until Sunday with experts from 90 delegations. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Ehud Barak, Defence Minister of Israel, left, gestures next to Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Security Conference, during a meeting at the Conference in Munich, southern Germany, on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. The 49th Munich Security Conference started Friday until Sunday afternoon with experts from 90 delegations. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, center, arrives for a meeting of the Security Conference in Munich, southern Germany, on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. The 49th Munich Security Conference started Friday until Sunday with experts from 90 delegations. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

MUNICH (AP) ? Israel's defense minister indicated Sunday that his country was behind an airstrike on Syria that U.S. officials said targeted anti-aircraft weapons bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

It was the first public comment by an Israeli government official on the Wednesday strike.

"I cannot add anything to what you have read in the newspapers about what happened in Syria several days ago," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in Germany at a security conference with top diplomats and defense officials from around the world.

But then he went on to say: "I keep telling frankly that we said ? and that's proof when we said something we mean it ? we say that we don't think it should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon." He spoke in English.

Israeli leaders in recent weeks have expressed a growing concern that Syria's civil war has led to President Bashar Assad losing his grip on the country and on its arsenal, including chemical weapons.

In Syria, Assad said during a meeting with a top Iranian official that his country could confront any aggression, his first comment on the airstrike.

"Syria, with the awareness of its people, the might of its army and its adherence to the path of resistance, is able to face the current challenges and confront any aggression that might target the Syrian people," Assad was quoted as saying by the state news agency SANA.

He made the remarks during a meeting with Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator. Iran is Syria's closest regional ally and Jalili, on a three-day visit to Syria, has pledged Tehran's continued support for Assad's regime.

Syria has vowed to retaliate for the airstrike.

The chief of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that Tehran also hopes Syria will strike back against Israel. The report by the official IRNA news agency quoted Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari as saying:

"We are hopeful that Syria gives an appropriate response to the strike in the proper time."

The Syrian military has denied that the target of the attack was a weapons convoy. It said low-flying Israeli jets crossed into the country over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to target a military research center in the village of Jamraya, near Damascus.

U.S. officials have said the strike hit both the research center and a convoy of anti-aircraft weapons that was next to it. They said the weapons were bound for the Islamic militant group Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon, an ally of Syria and Iran.

Syrian television station Al-Ikhbariya TV on Saturday aired the first purported images of the targeted site, showing the twisted and battered remnants of cars, trucks and military vehicles.

A building appeared to have broken widows and damaged interiors, but no major structural damage. The caption said: "Consequences of the Israeli aggression on the Jamraya center."

In the days ahead of the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials repeatedly warned of the dangers of Syrian weapons falling into the hands of Hezbollah and other hostile elements in the region.

"Hezbollah from Lebanon and the Iranians are the only allies that Assad has left," Barak told the security conference. He also said that in his view, Assad's fall "is coming imminently" and when it happens, "this will be a major blow to the Iranians and Hezbollah."

"I think that they will pay the price," he said.

Syrian opposition leaders and rebels have criticized Assad for not responding to the airstrike, calling it proof of his weakness and acquiescence to the Jewish state.

Since the outbreak of the uprising against Assad 22 months ago, Israeli leaders have repeatedly expressed fears that if Syria were to disintegrate, Assad could lose control of his chemical weapons and other arms.

On Saturday night, Netanyahu, who is in the process of forming a new ruling coalition, said his new government would have to deal with weapons "being stockpiled near us and threatening our cities and civilians" ? an apparent reference to the deteriorating situation in Syria.

____

Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Barbara Surk in Beirut contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-03-Israel-Syria/id-8a9994e2ee554016a2d4683903833338

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Monday, February 4, 2013

DNA reveals mating patterns of critically endangered sea turtle

Feb. 4, 2013 ? New University of East Anglia research into the mating habits of a critically endangered sea turtle will help conservationists understand more about its mating patterns.

Research published February 3 in Molecular Ecology shows that female hawksbill turtles mate at the beginning of the season and store sperm for up to 75 days to use when laying multiple nests on the beach.

It also reveals that these turtles are mainly monogamous and don't tend to re-mate during the season.

Because the turtles live underwater, and often far out to sea, little has been understood about their breeding habits until now. The breakthrough was made by studying DNA samples taken from turtles on Cousine Island in the Seychelles.

The hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) was listed as critically endangered in 1996 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), largely due to a dramatic reduction in their numbers driven by the international trade in tortoiseshell as a decorative material -- an activity which was banned in the same year.

The Seychelles are home to the largest remaining population of hawksbill turtles in the western Indian Ocean. Cousine Island is an important nesting ground for the hawksbill and has a long running turtle monitoring program. It is hoped that the research will help focus conservation efforts in future.

Lead researcher Dr David Richardson, from UEA's school of Biological Sciences, said: "We now know much more about the mating system of this critically endangered species. By looking at DNA samples from female turtles and their offspring, we can identify and count the number of breeding males involved. This would otherwise be impossible from observation alone because they live and mate in the water, often far out to sea.

"We now know that female turtles mate at the beginning of the season -- probably before migrating to the nesting beaches. They then store sperm from that mating to use over the next couple of months when laying multiple nests.

"Our research also shows that, unlike in many other species, the females normally mate with just one male, they rarely re-mate within a season and they do not seem to be selecting specific 'better quality' males to mate with.

"Understanding more about when and where they are mating is important because it will help conservationists target areas to focus their efforts on.

"It also lets us calculate how many different males contribute to the next generation of turtles, as well as giving an idea of how many adult males are out there, which we never see because they live out in the ocean.

"Perhaps most importantly, it gives us a measure of how genetically viable the population is -- despite all the hunting of this beautiful and enigmatic species over the last 100 years.

"The good news is that each female is pairing up with a different male -- which suggests that there are plenty of males out there. This may be why we still see high levels of genetic variation in the population, which is crucial for its long term survival .This endangered species does seem to be doing well in the Seychelles at least."

Lead author Karl Phillips, a PhD student in UEA's school of Biological Sciences, added: "This is an excellent example of how studying DNA can reveal previously unknown aspects of species' life histories."

The research was funded by UEA and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Biomolecular Analysis Facility (NBAF).

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of East Anglia, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

David S. Richardson, Karl P. Phillips, and Tove H.Jorgensen (all UEA) and Kevin G. Jolliffe, San-Marie Jolliffe and Jock Henwood (Cousine Island). Reconstructing paternal genotypes to infer patterns of sperm storage and sexual selection in the hawksbill turtle. Molecular Ecology, Feb 4, 2013

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/KttOog3Zo3c/130203212417.htm

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Oh the drama! Super Ads go epic

This screenshot provided by Volkswagen shows the Super Bowl teaser advertisement for Volkswagen called ?Get In. Get Happy. (AP Photo/Volkswagen)

This undated screenshot provided by the Milk Processor Education Program, known as MilkPep shows the company's Super Bowl advertisement. The Milk Processor Education Program, known as MilkPep and popular for its "Got Milk?" print ads, is featuring actor and professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in a 30-second ad in the second quarter that is directed by Peter Berg. (AP Photo/Milk Processor Education Program)

This undated screenshot provided by Calvin Klein shows the company's Super Bowl advertisement for the company's Concept brand. (AP Photo/Calvin Klein)

This undated screenshot provided by PepsiCo shows the Super Bowl advertisement for PepsiCo's PepsiNext.For its halftime intro spot, Pepsi, the sponsor of the Super Bowl halftime show, created a collage of 1,000 user-submitted photos that are stitched together to create a 30-second video that looks like one person jumping to the tune of Beyonce's "Countdown." The spot introduces the pop star's halftime show. (AP Photo PepsiCo)

This undated screenshot provided by Taco Bell shows the Super Bowl advertisement for Taco Bell. Gone are the days when Super Bowl spots were closely-guarded secrets. With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, it's no surprise that more advertisers like Taco Bell are releasing ads online up to a week or more before Game Day. (AP Photo/Taco Bell)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Super Bowl ads this year morphed into mini soap operas.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson shrugged off aliens so he could get more milk for his kids in a Super Bowl spot for the Milk Processor Education Program. Anheuser-Busch's commercial told the story of a baby Clydesdale growing up and returning to his owner for a heartfelt hug years later. And a Jeep ad portrayed the trials and triumphs of families waiting for their return of family members.

The reason for all the drama off the field? With 30-second spots going for as much as $4 million and more than 111 million viewers expected to tune in, marketers are constantly looking for ways to make their ads stand out. And it's increasingly difficult to captivate viewers with short-form plots involving babies, celebrities, sex and humor ? unless there's a compelling story attached.

"A lot of advertisers are running long commercials to tell these stories that engage people often in a very emotional way," said Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. "These spots that tell stories really stand out in the clutter."

TEAR-JERKING MINI EPICS

Chrysler started the long-format commercial trend last year, with a two-minute spot starring Clint Eastwood that became very popular.

This year, Chrysler led the trend again with its two-minute salute to troops and their families. The ad featured Oprah Winfrey reading a letter from the Jeep brand to encourage families to stay hopeful.

"Wendy Ochoa, a high school teacher who lives in Novi, Michigan, said the ad was very emotional. "It tugs on your heartstrings," Ochoa, 44, said. "How can it not?"

Anheuser-Busch also pulled at heartstrings with a spot about a baby Clydesdale growing up and moving away from his farm and his trainer. Years later, the horse remembered the trainer after returning for a parade. He raced down a street to hug him.

"The Budweiser commercial with the Clydesdale made me cry," said Wendy Ponzo, 49, who was watching the game in Pont Pleasant, N.J.

USER-INSPIRED TALES

Lincoln's 90-second ad was inspired by tweets by fans about road trips. The company asked people to send their stories, and Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," decided on which tales would be used.

The ad, which was based on more than 6,000 tweets from fans, shows adventures during a fictional road trip. A woman picks up a German hitchhiker, and they go to an alpaca farm, get stopped by turtles crossing the road, and drive through a movie set.

Rap pioneer Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons and Wil Wheaton, who acted in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," made cameos in the spot.

Coca-Cola created an ad based on an online campaign that pit three groups ? a troupe of showgirls, biker style badlanders and cowboys ? against each other in a race through a desert for a Coke.

Starting Jan. 23 and continuing through the end of the Super Bowl, viewers voted online for their favorite group. The group with the most votes ? the showgirls ? were revealed when the Super Bowl ended.

Audi also went with an ad that told a story ? and was inspired by viewers. The company's 60-second ad featured an ending that was voted on by viewers prior to the game.

In the ad, a boy gains confidence from driving his father's Audi to the prom, kisses the prom queen once he arrives at the dance and gets decked by the prom king. In the end, he drives back home with a smile on his face.

The Audi mini-epic was a favorite of Super Bowl viewer Stephanie Bice, 39, a business development director in Oklahoma City.

"It was fun and whimsical," Bice said.

COMEDY GOES LONG

Not all of the storytelling ads were dramatic, though.

Samsung's two-minute ad showed Seth Rogen ("The Guilt Trip" and Paul Rudd ("Role Models") getting called in to do a "Next Big Thing" ad for Samsung. But they're agitated once they realize that they're sharing the spotlight. LeBron James, an NBA basketball player for the Miami Heat, makes a cameo, appearing on the screen of a tablet.

The ad won over some fans in the ad world.

"I could watch the Samsung ad over and over again," said David Berkowitz, vice president at digital marketing agency 360i. "It's as good as any Seth Rogen movie."

Budweiser, a long-time Super Bowl advertiser, also told a continuing story in two of its ads. One showed rival 49ers and Ravens fans each creating a voodoo doll for the other team with the help of R&B legend Stevie Wonder. In the other ad, fans go to great lengths to curse a rival fan's "lucky chair."

"It's only weird if it doesn't work," the words in the ad read.

Mercedes-Benz's 90-second ad had a Faustian plot.

A devilish Willem Dafoe ("Spider-Man") shows a man everything that comes with a Mercedes-Benz CLX: A date with supermodel Kate Upton, dancing with Usher, driving around with beautiful girls, getting on the cover of magazines including Vanity Fair and GQ, getting to drive on a racetrack.

The man almost signs his soul away for the car. But then he sees a billboard that says the car starts at $29,900, and doesn't sign.

NOT EVERY AD TELLS A STORY

Although many advertisers tried to pull people in with lengthy story lines, there were a few that stuck with short, quirky spots with no particular plot.

GoDaddy.com's ad was one of them. It showed a close up, extended kiss between supermodel Bar Refaeli and a nerdy guy wearing glasses to illustrate GoDaddy's combo of "sexy" and "smart."

Some viewers thought the ad was too explicit for the Super Bowl.

"I don't care who wins the game. I just don't want to see that commercial again, ever," said Stephen G. Smith, 63, an editor at The Washington Times in Washington, D.C.

Stephanie Malone from DeKalb, Ill., agreed: "GoDaddy should be ashamed."

Striking a less controversial note, Best Buy's 30-second ad in the first quarter starred Amy Poehler, of NBC's "Parks and Recreation," asking a Best Buy employee endless questions about electronics.

"Will this one read '50 Shades of Grey' to me in a sexy voice?" Poehler asks about an e-book reader. Then, when the staffer says no she asks, "Will you?"

M&M's spot showed its red spokescharacter singing Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love," and wooing beautiful women. But the M&M stopped short when the women try to eat him.

And Oreo's ad featured a showdown in a library between people fighting over whether the cookie or the cream is the best part of the cookie. The punch-line? The fight escalates into thrown chairs and other destruction, but because the fight is in a library, everyone still has to whisper.

The ad directed users to follow Oreo on Instagram photo-sharing site, where they could continue the "cookie vs. cream" debate. Meanwhile, Oreo was quick to capitalize on the blackout that hit the game for about 30 minutes in the third quarter. It tweeted a picture of an Oreo in the half-dark with the words: "You can still dunk in the dark."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-03-Super%20Bowl-Advertising/id-3c5b2d5879334a38bb91259314e1e02c

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Friday, February 1, 2013

In Little Canada man's deputy videotape case, charges altered

Andrew Henderson's attorneys say they will seek to have charges dropped against their client. Henderson was charged after filming Ramsey County deputies making an arrest in the parking lot of his Little Canada apartment building. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

The city of Little Canada has revised the charges against a man whose video camera was taken by a county sheriff's deputy, attorneys said after a hearing Wednesday, Jan. 30, in Ramsey County District Court in Maplewood.

Prosecutors dropped a charge of obstructing legal process against Andrew Joseph Henderson, who recorded an incident involving an injured man outside Henderson's apartment building.

In its place, they added a charge of interfering with or obstructing a member of an ambulance crew, a violation of state law that is rarely applied.

A charge of disorderly conduct was unchanged.

Henderson's attorney, John Lundquist, told Judge Salvador Rosas at the hearing that he would be filing a motion to dismiss the charges. A trial date was set for May 20.

Henderson, 28, was sitting on a bench outside his building's front door the night of Oct. 30 as a man with a bloodied face was patted down by deputies and loaded into an ambulance, he said. The bench is about 30 feet from the curb where the ambulance was parked.

In the revised complaint, prosecutors disputed portions of Henderson's account.

"(Henderson) videotaped the medical assessment from approximately three to five feet from (the victim) and (a paramedic)," the complaint said.

The injured man "became uncomfortable when he observed Henderson videotaping while he was being loaded into the ambulance and asked the paramedics to stop the individual from videotaping him," the complaint said.

One

paramedic asked Henderson to put the camera away, but he refused, the complaint said. The paramedic had to stop attending to the man so that he could walk over to Deputy Jacqueline Muellner, who was writing a report in her squad car, and ask for her assistance, according to the complaint.

"Henderson engaged in offensive conduct tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in (the victim) when he intentionally videotaped the medical assessment, knowing or having reasonable grounds to know that it alarmed or disturbed (the man)," the complaint said.

Muellner approached Henderson and took the camera out of his hands. "If I end up on YouTube, I'm gonna be upset," she said.

Henderson said he was within his rights to record the incident.

He eventually got the camera back, with no recording on it. He believes it was erased.

The revised complaint adds details from the state about what prompted the deputies' presence at the apartment building that night.

According to the new charges:

Ramsey County dispatchers received a call the night of the incident from a Wisconsin woman. She could not reach her brother and was worried about him, she said. He was an alcoholic, had recently been in a car accident, was arrested for drunken driving and had quit his job.

The man was identified only by his initials in the complaint.

Deputies went to the Little Canada apartment building in the 200 block of East County Road B2 and knocked on the man's door.

He answered, saying he was "into his second liter of vodka," the complaint said.

"(He) was void of emotion and had a bruised face, which he said was from his traffic accident," the complaint said. He agreed to go to the hospital. Deputies called an ambulance.

Lundquist, Henderson's attorney, is a private defense attorney with Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis who is providing his services free of charge, along with co-counsel Kevin Riach of the firm and Teresa Nelson of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.

The defense contends that Henderson had a legal right to be present in a public area and to record the surroundings, including law enforcement.

The firm of Kelly & Lemmons is prosecuting Henderson on behalf of the city of Little Canada.

Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522. Follow her at twitter.com/emilygurnon.

Source: http://www.twincities.com/crime/ci_22481476/little-canada-mans-deputy-videotape-case-charges-altered?source=rss_viewed

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OpenKit aiming to fill OpenFeint-sized hole, launches in private beta tomorrow

OpenFeint seed investor Peter Relan is fed up with his former creation's lack of existence -- the open source software once powered the social integration behind many mobile games. After Japanese social gaming giant GREE bought OpenFeint in April 2011 -- primarily to stifle competition with its own, similar service -- the service continued until it was closed this past December. Relan responded in turn, announcing plans for a new, similar service, called "OpenKit," that same month. Tomorrow, that service goes into private beta, with a variety of mobile devs already signed on.

The service can be employed across Android and iOS, implementing cloud data storage, leaderboards, achievements, multiplayer functionality, push notifications, and in-app purchases -- essentially exactly what OpenFeint once aimed to provide. Given the open nature of OpenKit, and Apple's already existing Game Center (which serves very similar purposes), we'd say this is gonna be a bigger hit with Android devices than iOS. Whether it gets adopted at all, however, remains to be seen. For now, it's in private beta, and "over 500 developers" have already signed on -- head to the main site if you'd like to take part. And do it quick, as only another 20 developers can get into the beta starting tomorrow. If you do miss out, there'll be more openings in the future, though Relan wouldn't tell us exactly when just yet.

Gallery: OpenKit

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablets, Software, Mobile

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/31/openkit-private-beta/

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The Writers Vineyard: Is Self-Publishing Worth It?

It?s true that the hardest thing to do for any writer is to have their work published. With thousands of manuscripts flooding the desks of literary agents across the globe every month, seeing your word in print can be the most challenging aspect to any writer. I myself was one of these, and although fortunate to have a literary agent, the first manuscript I wrote still failed to place with any publishers. So, in the grand scheme of things, it can become even more difficult to get your work published than you may think. As authors, we all share a belief that our work is good enough for others to read, whether it be family members or the wider reading community. We like to think that our work can entertain at least someone out there willing to give it a chance.

???? For any new author attempting to have a work noticed, you have to place yourself in the publisher?s position. What makes your work stand out? What makes you stand out against the other submissions from new authors? Why should the publisher invest in you?

???? After some sound advice I took it upon myself to answer these questions. I did it the long way around, but anyone who?s prepared to put the work in has every chance of getting published, as long as the effort is there.

???? I started by self-publishing my first book, The Dark Army. I took out a basic package which meant no extras or anything else, and had the book published on a print-on-demand basis. There in was the first step I took to becoming an author. With an actual, physical book in my hands, there was a product I could market. I knew that if I could draw attention to the book I could at least show people it was out there and available. Back at the beginning, my first book was aimed at a younger market, 10 +, so I bombarded my local schools with information and offers of signings, talks, assemblies, that kind of thing. One thing I learned about the schools was that it didn?t matter about my name, if you have a book with your name on it, to my target audience at least, I was as famous as any top named author. Book signings went well, the local press became involved, and the basic website I had created back then was receiving hits and emails. I also gained my home county of Northamptonshire, UK ,some interest as this was where my book was set. My first piece of advice to any writers looking to get published is to know your target audience. Know who to sell the book to, and have a plan about doing it. You?ll find that if you can appeal to those who may be interested in your book, people will help you. My first two books and the subsequent trilogy edition all involved characters that were animals, and could be found in rural England, and I found that many wildlife charities and organisations were more than happy to help because I portrayed the wildlife in a positive way. This in turn reached an even further audience of readers, as anyone affiliated with these organisations were already interested in wildlife which helped my cause.

???? With a small legion of fans emailing me to see if another book in the series would be written, I decided to write the second, which I called The Beast, and again published it myself through print-on-demand. This time I had an author foreword from an author more established than myself, and this came about through social networking. A basic book page on Facebook to this day only holds approximately 66 likes, but the reach to others sometimes strays to a much further audience. Friends of your fans can also see your book page, and anything you write. So, with a second book and a fantastic foreword, I did the same again, hit the schools, assemblies, same old same old, only this time had something different to offer. A good friend I met from a wildlife organisation that cares for many breeds of owl accompanied me on these trips. He would bring some of his birds to display and talk about, and as there were owls in my Tales of Averon books, would go on to explain the differences between the fiction I wrote and the facts of how they lived and behaved in reality. This generated more interest, and was now appealing to an older audience, especially locally, as people were reading my books that were based near their homes.

???? Upon completing the third instalment in my series, my literary agent submitted the manuscript to publishers, and it placed. Not only did it place, but it won the publisher?s prestigious prize award for that year (2012). As the rights to the first two books still solely belonged to me, as they were print-on-demand publications, the publisher took all three instalments and released it as a trilogy edition.

???? With this achievement I entered an international competition to finish a Science Fiction title, and I co-won the honour with another author. I also wrote my first horror manuscript which placed with a different publisher.

???? I strongly believe that these achievements were down to hard work and determination. I spent a year and a half hitting the road, marketing my book, holding talks and writing workshops, speaking to my target audience, chasing the local press, being involved with organisations, and doing this around the commitment to my day job. It was tough and draining at times, but I achieved in getting my work out there and published.

I believe that if any unpublished author feels so strongly about their work, and believe it is truly a work that readers will like, to go ahead, print the work and market it yourself. Make a name for yourself. Show that you are prepared to work hard to do so. That book that you put out there could lead to greater opportunities down the line. When I first started, the publisher reviewing my work asked; ?Who is Alan Keen? What has he published? Why should we publish his work?? the answers were ?A new author, nothing previous, no notable achievements.? You see where I?m going? Having a product and marketing it can help raise your profile, and help you become recognised if you should attempt to publish works afterwards. A simple website I created put me in touch with a readership and social networking allowed me to speak to readers and fellow authors. Knowing my target audience and researching how to utilise promotion to appeal to them was key. For me, the best place to promote these books to begin with was schools. I?ve since found that as the books appealed to adults too, the best place to reach them was through reading clubs and workshops. It?s just a case of thinking outside the box. The opportunities are there, you just have to chase them.

So, in conclusion, to any authors looking to get a book published, my advice would be this; if you can?t get literary representation or cannot place your book, do it yourself. Know your target audience, research thoroughly and explore every avenue on how to reach them. This can be a very creative process on the author?s behalf, so be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time researching this. Never underestimate the power of local contacts. Your local bookshop is also a great place to market, whether it be for stock of your title or book signings. Again, local authors also help the shop to thrive. I?ve often found that book shops are great to mingle, as everyone who enters usually enjoy reading. Having the opportunity to speak to an author can, at times, be unique, and if you engage with anyone interested in you, they usually leave with a copy of your book. Libraries will welcome their local authors and usually encourage them to participate in events, and local press are usually happy to promote a local author in the interest of the area. Hold competitions and offer your book as a prize. If you manage to get a book signing somewhere, entice your customers. Book marks are relatively inexpensive and can be custom created, so why not offer a free one with every book purchase?

Self-publishing, hard work and determination can start the ball rolling on raising a profile. The book you promote may not be the book that gets you the representation, but it will raise your profile if you do the research and invest the time to do so. I followed this sound advice and I?m very glad that I did so.

Alan (A.M.) Keen

Source: http://thewritersvineyard.com/2013/01/is-self-publishing-worth-it.html

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