Author: Dan Blank

Preserving Your Legacy: Backing Up Your Digital Media

Oftentimes, when we talk about protection in the digital realm, we are referring to the fear that “others” will misuse our data, steal what we create, and abscond our identity. I work with a lot of writers, many of whom create and share a wide range of digital media: photos, blogs, videos, and the like. What I find is that:

The greatest threat to what we create is ourselves.

That we don’t take basic measures to preserve what we create – to ensure it will be a lasting legacy, either personally or publicly.

Oftentimes, we create and share things online as a momentary act, whose shelf life is brief. In a culture of Tweets, we rush to create and share, create and share, create and share, rarely looking back. But what is lost in this constant stream of digital media? What body of work have you created, but gets lost in the flow?

For a writer or artist, what you share is not just a work in and of itself, but part of your creative process. The photos, the blogs, the status updates. And we often treat it like garbage. Posting it is akin to disposing of it. We create it, and move on, doing little to protect our work from failing hardware or transitions to new platforms.

We keep no backups of our digital files; we work on the same computer for 4 years getting a new one only when the old one dies; we take all our photos on our phones, over-processing them with Hipstamatic; we scatter our personal narrative across devices of varying degrees of obsolescence, all without backups.

So today I wanted to share my process of backing up the digital media I create and what I share online, with the hopes of establishing good practices that protects the legacy of what you are creating.

Photos
I have 72,000 family photos on my hard drive. This is a mixture of those I have taken myself over the years, and family albums I have scanned in. I also make sure I preserve all the photos my wife has taken with her camera and on her phone. I have spent countless hours on this, organizing the library and adding annotations to the images. This is the primary archive of my family’s history.

Preserving your digital media is often a process that starts before you even snap the picture. For photos I take every week, I take them on the highest quality setting possible. For my main camera, it is a RAW image file, which means each photo is about 25mb each. For someone who takes dozens and dozens of photos each week, that quickly adds up. The opposite of this is what I see many doing: talking ALL of their photos on their phones, which are usually 1-2mb each, and taken with a tiny lens. Nowadays, those images are then filtered with Instagram or Hipstamatic, degrading the image quality of the photos so they can look “retro.” It is very trendy right now to use vintage filters, so your photos are washed out, similar to snapshots from the 1960s and 70s. It’s a fun and dramatic look, but not really suited for archival work.

To store my photos, I use Apple’s Aperture, a professional photo software program. It’s similar to Adobe’s Light Room. It sometimes feels weird to CHOOSE to buy software in an age online services are largely free. Besides the photo editing capabilities of these programs, they are designed to organize and archive large bodies of photos in a flexible manner. I can easily modify the date of photos, tag them, add captions and keywords, create albums, and rate them. But what I love most is that they easily create backup archives.

Once a day, I backup my photo library onto an external hard drive. This means, that if my computer dies, I have a full backup of everything. The way Aperture works, it automatically senses what has changed from the previous day, so it just backs up the few files I added or modified. It’s very quick.

I also have a third backup – another external hard drive that I keep in a safe deposit box. This one I update about once a week. This may sound paranoid, but if our home ever burns down or is robbed, I don’t want to lose every photo of my son. A friend told me a story of a musician who had his computer and all of his backup hard drives stolen. All of his recorded music was digitally stored on this equipment – the man’s entire life’s work. Gone.

Blogs
For my blogs (and my wife’s blog), I typically backup once a week. This is really easy. In WordPress, I simply go to “export,” and it creates an xml file on my desktop. If you have other files in your blog such as images, you can back them up via FTP.
I have a folder on my desktop that just stores old backups of each of my blogs. I have spent years writing on my blog each week – it shares my largest body of creative work. It would take a simple glitch in the server of my web host to wipe it out entirely.

Files on My Computer
One of the reasons I like Apple computers is that they have backup software build right into it. I use Apple’s Time Machine to backup my computer once a day – in the same process as I do with my photo library, including the third backup off site in the safe deposit box.

So this includes everything I write, all of my business files, and the backups of my blogs. For the file structure on my desktop, I won’t pretend to have found a good system. I essentially create folders by year, and then rely on my computer’s search function to find stuff. Not ideal, but it works.

Devices & Machines
It can be a pain to always be updating software and purchasing new equipment. No one likes change, and every software upgrade means that SOMETHING won’t work as you expected. But… I think it’s smart to stay up-to-date with software and hardware.

I buy a new computer every 2-3 years, and a new phone every 2 years. I just got a new iMac. My old one was still “fine” but there were lots of small ways I was outgrowing it. The nice thing about Apple products is that they have strong resale value. So, selling my old one now and buying a new one won’t cost me any more money than if I waited another year or two.

For software, upgrades can often head-off your exposure to viruses or bugs in the system. I update WordPress when updates come out, and the same with my computer’s operating system. For other software, I have a mixed track record. Usually, if Photoshop or MS Office worked, I would leave it alone.

Social Media
I will admit, I haven’t even looked at ways of backing up my Tweets, status updates or friends list on Facebook and Twitter. It would be impossible to recreate them if somehow one of the services accidentally deleted my account. So, I am open to suggestions if anyone has them!

Everything listed above requires that one be proactive instead of reactive in terms of managing what they create digitally. That you will replace your laptop before the hard drive starts making a horrible loud sound. That you will make the time to organize and backup that which is precious to you.

I think the key is that many people only realize certain things are precious once they are gone. We offload the responsibility to others: that our web host is responsible for not corrupting our blog files; that our computer is responsible for not dying, taking all of your work with it; that whatever settings come standard in your phone are the best way to take archival photos of your family and loved ones.

The wealth of words and images on the web sometimes make them seem like a commodity that we can never keep up with. But the words and images that YOU create are invaluable. Be the curator of your own work – of preserving the legacy of what you create.

Thanks!
-Dan

Debbie Stier Interview – Building Your Author Platform While Writing Your Book

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Debbie Stier – who gives us a behind the scenes look at her efforts of building her author platform – engaging her audience while she writes her book.

Debbie is the Founder of The Perfect Score Project, and author of book of same title. After two and a half decades working in publishing, she has given it all up to spend all of her time trying to ace the SATs. Our full discussion is below:

You can find Debbie in the following places:

Thank you so much to Debbie for taking the time to chat!
-Dan

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Robin Sullivan Interview – How to Make Six-Figures in Self-Publishing

I had the pleasure to speak with Robin Sullivan – founder, president of Ridan Publishing, publicist for author Michael J. Sullivan (her husband), and commentator on publishing in general. We discuss the following topics:

  • Why now is the best time to be a writer
  • How she is helping writers build stable writing careers, and significant income
  • Specific numbers as to how many books Michael is selling, and why
  • Tactics she has taken to build an audience and book sales for writers she works with

… and many other topics. Please watch the full interview below.

You can find Robin in the following places:

Thank you so much for Robin for such a wonderful chat!
-Dan

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Bethanne Patrick Interview – The Imperative for Authors to Connect With Readers

I had the pleasure of speaking with Bethanne Patrick, who has a longtime presence in the publishing world, is the Founder of the Twitter hashtag #FridayReads, and is the Editor at Shelf Awareness.

We discussed:

  • The origins, growth and evolution of #FridayReads
  • The necessity and challenge of reaching out to readers
  • How she amassed more than 100,000 Twitter followers
  • Why authors need to be entrepreneurs, balancing writing and marketing

… and many other topics. Please watch the video below to hear our conversation.
You can find Bethanne on Twitter at @thebookmaven, and on her website: http://bookmavenmedia.com.

Thanks so much to Bethanne for chatting!
-Dan

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Why I Love Writers, Publishers, and the Community that Supports Them

My business – We Grow Media – reached it’s one year anniversary of active business recently, and I wanted to take a moment to talk about my view of publishing, of the world writers are facing, of the opportunity in front of all of us, and give you a behind the scenes glimpse at my business. I created a video talking through things – but you can also read through it below:

I am constantly working with writers, with editors, with publishers – each trying to create something new in the world. This is not just “some bright idea” for a book or product, but rather, deeply wrapped up in their identity, their personal journey, how they affect the world, how they serve others, and what they hope their legacy will be.

For many people the work they are creating is something they have obsessed over for years, and cuts right to their core. This isn’t just a story, a book, a product, a service, an event: this is them making meaning of the world – them reaching out to others. Them, mattering.

If you are a writer, a publisher, or part of the community that supports them: this is who you are. This is the legacy you are creating.

For some, this means carving out a new identity. For others, it means building a new career. There is so much more wrapped up in this. And this is why I LOVE working with writers, publishers, and the community around them.

There is a lot of talk about the ‘future of publishing.’ What is more interesting to me is the PRESENT of publishing. Where anyone can create a brand, can create a work, can share their work, can connect with others, can find an audience, can get involved, can – YES – earn money from their work.

This is where we shape our ideas, let them loose in the world, watch them grow, and connect with like minds. This is where we help each other become a part of something meaningful.

This is why I started We Grow Media. Why I took the risk of launching a business, of making a commitment to writers, publishers, and the community around them. Because of this:

You inspire me.

When I work with clients, I always start with goals. We need to know where you are going if we are going to create a path to get there. And we always end with a plan for sustainable growth and iteration for months or years to come.

I love working with people to not just market a single book, but to build a writing CAREER. Yes, the former is a necessary part of that, and I work with writers on specific strategies and tactics to do just that. But who you are becoming, what you will accomplish, how the power of your work will shape the world, how you will help the community around your work – that is what endlessly engages me.

So who do I work with, and what do I do? Here’s the short version:

  1. Consulting with publishers.
    I work with publishers of all kinds (book, magazine, app, etc) in online marketing, content strategy, branding, business development, social media, search engine optimization, and web analytics. For most – we are baking these things into their core business, identifying core areas for growth, creating ways for them to more deeply engage their communities, and building the skills of those within their company. We are creating a framework that makes this all sustainable.

  2. Working one-on-one with writers.
    Similar to how I work with publishers, I partner with writers to build their writing career, establish their brand, and make things happen. I work with writers of all kinds – fiction, non-fiction, memoir – and have worked extensively with journalists and editors as well.

  3. Teaching classes and workshops.
    I love teaching. I regularly teach online classes in the topics listed above, and offer workshops at conferences. I teach in-depth classes at WeGrowMedia.com and introductory classes through Writer’s Digest University. This is an area that I am planning a lot of expansion in later in the year.

For each of these, I focus on helping people create a roadmap – a real strategy – and the tactics to back it up. There are tons of tips online, all a Google search away. But I offer a framework, choosing where to focus your resources, how to find the highest return on investment, and creating a process of iteration that leads you to your goals.

This goes beyond knowledge alone – it is how we come together to build something. Every time I launch a new class, I am amazed at how quickly we become a community of people working TOGETHER. That students go from struggling by themselves alone to working with a group that is actively helping each other reach their respective goals. THIS is why I love teaching classes and workshops. This is what it is the core of We Grow Media

Chris Rock has a wonderful piece on the difference between having a career and having a job (warning: strong language):

Here’s the gist:

“A job is something you do because you have to, a career is something you do because you love it. There ain’t enough time in the day when you have a career. When you have a job, there is too much time.”

This is my career. I am in this for the long haul. My wife and I have made some major decisions to ensure that we are committed to We Grow Media, for me to work with writers, publishers, and the community around them.

One final quote, this time from Don Draper in Mad Men, when discussing which direction to take on a client’s campaign:


“We have to commit to one thing. They don’t like wiggle room, they like to see us blowing up bridges behind us.”

Making a commitment to writers, publishers and the community around them is not a sacrifice, it is an opportunity. To work with those who inspire me, those who are creating a world I want to live in. If that is you, then THANK YOU.

-Dan