Zuckervati Magazine

July 30, 2009 D. H. McKee

Off

I’ll admit, there were times I fancied myself a writer. I even once thought the idea of getting published in print was a lifelong goal, and failing that, getting published on the Internets was a close second. And yeah, once, maybe just once, I thought about what it would be like to publish my blog (going on 9 years now) in hardcopy. You know, a book, or something. This brief flight of fancy soon dissolved as reality set in; I’m pretty sure no one’s actually reading my blog, and that’s fine … but it makes the prospect of releasing it in print kind of, well, laughable.
Which might be why I found this article so funny:
Printed blog publication fails; world dies of shock

It turns out the idea of printing blog posts and distributing them in newspaper form wasn’t such a good idea after all. The Printed Blog, a hybrid blog/newspaper, has announced that it’s ceasing publication after running into funding trouble only six months after it was launched.

I’m pretty sure someone wasn’t thinking if they thought that printed blogs (like, anyone’s blogs, not something geared to a specific industry or trade publication) would succeed where failing print newspapers weren’t. Apparently, Josh Karp had just returned from visiting Bizarro World:

“Last year, I had an idea. I wondered what would happen if some of the business model principles that work online were applied to the troubled newspaper industry… Everyone said I was nuts, but I did it anyway,” The Printed Blog founder Josh Karp wrote in a letter on his site.

OK, got to give the guy props for following his dream, but consider this: Sometimes those fools/bureaucrats/doctors at the university/research institute/hospital were on to something when they called you mad.
Though it does bring me back to that one fleeting second I thought it might be a good idea to see this blog in print. Maybe as a monthly magazine, with articles, ads, and editorials. Maybe with a cool cover or something …

Well, turns out the people at http://bighugelabs.com have just the thing: A magazine cover generator.

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About This Site

As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

Writers often treat the bio like it’s an interview or something. Maybe like they’re having a conversation with you, the reader. While it may work sometimes, the most common way to write a bio is to write in the 3rd person.

I’m like those writers, and I’m talking to you directly, unlike the common way to do a bio. You should see my About page. It makes sense to me, since this is a bit which describes my blog’s website. When I get famous enough that I don’t have time to talk to you, I’ll have an intern write everything in 3rd person. Until then, you get to talk to me.

Like blogs of old, this one is a personal document of the comings and goings of me. Articles I’ve written, links I’ve posted, videos I liked, etc. Here, a first-person perspective is the way to go, at least for now. So, this is my site. I’m D. H. McKee, a sometimes artist, sometimes writer. Mostly just a guy on the internet.