Weekly Round-Up
Yee-haw! Welcome to the Weekly Round-up, where I lasso up the week’s latest news and rootin’-tootin’ literary articles on the Net!
The big news buzzing across the literary blogosphere: JK Rowling is writing a new book–not another Harry Potter, but something targeted for the adult market. (via the Guardian)
To celebrate Pancake Day (or Shrove Tuesday), Joe Moore @ the Kill Zone talks about the pancake rule for writers: your first book is not publishable. Does your WiP suffer any of these flaws?
From the #amwriting blog: the seven deadly sins of the self-published writer.
And from Alan Rinzler’s blog: 4 experts weight in on why writers still need agents in today’s publishing world. And if you’re looking for one, Rachelle Gardner lists the 13 ways to impress an agent.
Finally, something that bloggers have been hotly debating the past week: the use of CAPTCHA codes in comments to determine you’re not a spambot. Now, is it just me, or are the word verifications getting harder and harder to read? Here are 10 reasons to disable CAPTCHA in your comments if you use it (via One Cool Site). Julie Hedlund at Write Up My Life has posted an open plea to bloggers to stop using word verification. And Audrey @ Holes in My Brain even has a petition going against the use of CAPTCHA. On a more humorous note, someone at Imgur has turned the utterly random words generated by CAPTCHA into a fantasy comic:
Question: What do YOU think of word verification in comments? Do you use it? Do you think it makes it harder for readers to connect with you? Have you ever been put off leaving a comment because of CAPTCHA?
Butt-kicking bookworm. Displaced Malaysian. Writes crime & thrillers. Debut novel ORACLE will be released by J. Taylor Publishing on 30th July 2012.
I cannot stand the word verification. It is driving me insane. No, it is not just you; the words are getting increasingly more difficult. At first I thought my eyesight was going. I am to the point now where I don’t leave a comment if I cannot decipher the closely guarded secret code on my first try (which is rare). I used to give it at least two tries, but it is frustrating me too much.
Thanks for the awesome weekly roundup. I love these. Of course, I always find interesting and informative articles to read and more ways to distract myself from actually writing, lol.
I stopped by from the Platform Writers Campaign to tell you that you have been tagged. http://fictiontoolbox.blogspot.com/2012/02/ive-been-tagged.html
I find WordPress’s spam filtering function and Akismet does a good enough job of keeping spam out, so there really is no need for CAPTCHA. I know there is a simpler alternative, where commenters have to click a box to confirm they are not a bot. Much quicker and easier than word verification. I tried it on my site for a few weeks but have done away with that as well. It, too, can get annoying should readers forget to tick the box. It’s another unnecessary click that could put commenters off.
I recently turned off my word verification. I didn’t even know it was on because Blogger sets it up so I would never see it! Sneaky Blogger!
And I’m SO excited about JK Rowling’s new book! Whatever the genre, I’ll be buying it at midnight!
Yes, I’m intrigued as to what genre JK Rowling’s new book will be in!
Good selection of links. The pictures are amusing.
I dislike the word verification thing. I swear that sometimes I write what it says and it still hates me.
If I was borderline between deciding to leave a comment or not and the word verification came up and messed me around I’d probably give up.
Same here. Or, if I have to visit lots of blogs, like during the A to Z challenge, I probably would skip commenting on blogs that require word verification.
Those are hilarious!
I’m really hoping more people dump the word verification though.
Yes, I love that comic.
But I agree that they’re more trouble than they’re worth. Think about this: the biggest, most popular blogs, which you’d figure will get the most spam comments, do not have word verification. There must be a reason why.
I know most Blogger blogs don’t accept my comments, Catchpa or no Catchpa. I hate it. And Blogger hates me. Sigh.
Blogger’s not very WordPress-user-friendly. Whichi is why I have a Blogger account specifically for commenting on Blogger blogs.
Captcha seems to have very recently improved a lot. I think they were trying to combine an inkblot test with an eye test, and it had nothing to do with whether we are spambots or not.
Improved? I thought it’s gotten worse, with longer and more random words, and harder to read! Perhaps my eyesight’s going? :S
That was funny – the JK thing – I did my presentation this afternoon on J.K. Rowling but found out only this morning about the new book. I wonder how well written it will be? The potter books have been compared to Dickens….Or will people buy it no matter what. It should be interesting.
She started Harry on a train – but couldn’t write anything til home that night because she didn’t have a pen……..That says something about her, not sure what.
Not sure if this is true, but I also heard JK did a lot of her writing in the coffee house inside a bookstore in London because she couldn’t afford heating bills at home and it was cheaper and warmer for her to buy a coffee and sit and work there all day?
That is the myth. She preferred working in cafes as many writers do. He flat was heated. The group said my presentation was very informative.
Definitely, down with captcha! It’s gotten SO hard to read recently. Drives me nuts. Excellent article on the pancake rule for first novels!!
Hehe, just like the first three pancakes I make tend to be messy failures, the first THREE novels I wrote aren’t commercially viable!
Haha. Three? I think I have more messy pancakes than you!
I consider my first TEN practice. LOL
I wasn’t a fan BEFORE they went all psycho with the dual words, and I really hate it now. It’s getting to the point that I may have to stop visiting blogs that use them. I turned off that security almost a year ago and I haven’t had a single issue.
So far, all the bloggers I’ve spoken to who turned word verification have not reported any problems. CAPTCHA is pretty obsolete in my view.
Love this round-up. I am so interested to see what J.K. comes up with in her novel!
I wonder if it’s going to be adult fantasy, or a completely different genre?
I’m sure I’m not the only one lacking an opinion regarding Rowling deciding to write a book for the adult market. And I’m sure I’m not the only one in utter respect of her but, at the same time, lacking in why there’s such buzz about it. She’s going to write a book. So are a lot of people. *shrugs*
As for word verification, a blogger bud of mine, Sophia Chang, asked why I still had it. This was just before the big debate started travelling all over the place. I really didn’t have an answer so I took it off, once I figured out how to do it. Been quite fine with not having it. Because the word verification is now too words, it makes things a little difficult, but I won’t let it stop me from leaving a comment. I can understand why the blogger still has it.
I take it you’re not a Pottermania fan then, Angela?
It amazes me how many Blogger users are not even aware they have word verification turned on. Annoying that it’s on by default and you have to figure out how to disable it.
That comic is hilarious! Thanks for sharing. And I personally cannot stand those captcha word verifications. They are so hard to make out sometimes!
Yes, they can be pretty pesky!
Some wonderful links here. I love the comic, finally captcha is being used for good and not evil!
Mary mentioned above that it seems to have got easier. I think I know what she means. We went from one word to two, and one was covered with that ink-splodge thing. They seem to have removed the splodge now – making it slightly easier – and yet still we end up with two words. I guess the plan was to make it ridiculously hard, then remove one of the obstacles so we wouldn’t complain about the extra word!