Put My Soul Through The Ink Essay Example

Put My Soul Through The Ink Essay Example Put My Soul Through The Ink Essay Put My Soul Through The Ink Essay The curve of a smooth hip is nicely positioned in forepart of me, a warm, bang-up discharge of populating canvas draped in a pristine white towel. Merely to my right, on a polished chromium steel steel counter, is an array of carefully arranged colourss in little transparent cups. Of the 10 million colourss the human oculus can observe, fewer than 15 hundred have names. Some of these colourss are assorted to air from the nameless part. A wet three-base hit bladed razor sits beside accompanied by a semitransparent hill of crude oil gelatin which besides waits nearby. My baseball mitts are robins-egg blue. Firmly embraced in my right manus is a exactly tuned, custom-made brass line drive tattoo machine with the kinetic potency of a hummingbird about to take flight, and it all starts to do sense. Every square inch of the walls is covered in a heavy public violence of bright, writhing images of diabolic devils and perseverant Koi fishes. Everything is bombinating, the ambiance charged to detonate, like a claymore mine packed with acorns of thaumaturgy. In forepart of me this beautiful canvas suspirations, bespeaking her willingness to continue. There is a smooth pregnant chad in the crestless wave of her hip. A lone lentigo drives on her side. These characteristics will be my tableau for the following few hours. I ve spent my life fixing for this minute. Slowly taking a deep breath I take my first shot. Liing in forepart of me now stood a massacred piece of beauty with a jaggy Indian black colored line which resembled failure and deficiency of focal point. What had I done? I thought to myself. Master Mike was speedy to reassure me that aˆÂ ¦ it s merely an orange ; loosen up bro you are merely an learner. Plus pattern makes perfect followed up by a little chortle which settled me down. He advised me that it s best to travel take a breathing place after your first experience tattooing so that I could roll up myself. In today s society a batch of people tend to misjudge the profession of tattooing, one individual being my male parent. Many people who see person with tattoos instantly generate negative positions about the person. Most that choose to look into the psychological science of those with tattoos seem to tie in them as felons and analyze them like they are common animate beings in the coop. For many people, like my male parent, tattoos are Markss of machismo a signifier of look for crewmans, mobsters, rockerss and inmates with small significance outside of those subcultures. With this being said, these same people feel that tattoo creative person merely utilize this profession as a flower stalk caprine animal to their deficiency of instruction and failures in life. My Dad would ever advert how tattoo creative persons do nt hold the capacity to better themselves and society and would normally name people like this, nothing because harmonizing to him they will neer amount to anything in life. To exceed it off people like Dad would ever presume that tattoo creative persons do nt hold the slightest hint of what true art is. Was there some truth to what Dad said? Great work forces of the past one time mentioned that the celestial spheres frequently rain down the richest gifts on human existences, of course, but sometimes with munificent copiousness bestow upon a individual single beauty, grace and ability, so that, whatever he does, every action is so godly that he distances all other work forces, and clearly expose how his mastermind is the gift of God and non an skill of human art. Work force saw this in Leonardo district attorney Vinci, but I besides view this in Master Mike. Though this gifted creative person is an ex-gang member his degree of instruction exceeds those of the mean individual and leaves a permanent feeling to those who cross his way. During a conversation at his tattoo store, Inkfiend Art, located in Alhambra, CA, a ill-mannered parent had the nervus to inquire him What s the intent of tattoos, they re hideous and useless? Master Mike s stalky organic structure stood confronting in the opposite way of the adult female. A diabolic horned devil which covered the dorsum of his caput normally through off anyone who was nearing him from the rear, accompanied by Kanji letters that resided on the lower left side of his cervix which read Just Breath . The lone thing that people said lessoned Mike s intimidating visual aspect is his Super Mario looking moustache that everyone seemed to believe resembled his good sense of wit. In a corporate mode He so responded by stating that Tattoos are a signifier of art that expresses the creativeness, and imaginativeness of the single head. They can besides be viewed as a signifier of a lasting journal where 1s monumental minutes in life are captured, embraced and remembered. Not merely is Mike good educated but this Blood borne Certified Pathogen Artist exemplifies the best of traditional Nipponese culture-careful, punctilious, gracious, and respectful. Any tegument that is touched by Mike will ensue in the most precise, clean and perfect tattoos. Master Mike s store is curiously located in between a monolithic European manner church and the famously known Anita s Nails A ; Salon. Inkfiend Art is covered by polished oak brown, and burgundy ruddy pigment. At the pes of the of the Zen Portal old-timer cedar entryway door is a gilded Foo Dogg statue, but some would happen this to be rather amusing because this foo Canis familiaris had its work cut out for him due to all the inmates and evil that was already indoors. Though Inkfiend Art is little, you could order that concern is ever at its highest potency through the crystal clear eight-by-twelve pes window. This allowed foreigners to see canvases in the devising, and the warm atmosphere and regard that everyone was given when come ining Mike s tattoo parlour. At Inkfiend Art it s their end to supply the highest quality tattooing, piercing, and organic structure alterations in a safe, clean, friendly environment. You can come to us foremost and acquire an amazing tattoo or you can come to us subsequently and we ll repair up your messed up tattoo. Tattoo creative person, Ken Kawagoye, at Inkfiend Art stated. The lone grounds Ken states this for the ground that he received a atrocious tattoo when he was younger. It was merely through this experience and difficult learned lesson that he found his manner into tattooing. While seeking for higher quality tattoos, Ken discovered Master Mike and greatly admired his work. From that point on, Ken decided to work aboard with Mike and now dedicates his life into tattooing aˆÂ ¦so that others can non merely have a brilliant tattoo but a fantastic experience. Mike s work has shown to talk for itself. This can besides be shown by the huge sums of awards that he has been awarded with by ruling the tattoo industry locally and internationally throughout his old ages in concern. Peoples who disparage Master Mike subsequently find themselves commending his breath taking plants of art when people divulge the prominence put away by him on their narrative behind the prowess of his work. Born in the Philippines and turn up in the olympian metropolis of Los Angeles, where endowment is illimitable and his astonishing work is held with high regard, Mike now says that he feels at place . His background in Nipponese and Chinese civilizations helps animate alone and originative designs to a list of patronage booked up to two old ages in progress. A pupil of karma, Mike believes what goes about, come around, and has dedicated his life to his art, the narratives of his clients, and making chef-doeuvres out of the two. Maestro Mike comes to you with a rich and a vivacious history within the tattoo universe. I live for this Mike mentioning to his passion for making art and shredding at all times. His thirst for the all right humanistic disciplines, Asiatic civilization and Art inspired his determination to get down tattooing right out of high school and has nt looked back since. He thrives on forcing his art both on canvas, tegument, and apparels. Always interested in the originative procedure, some of his earliest childhood remembrances include doodling different images of chilling devil faces and samurai warriors on any piece of paper he could happen. Although high school seemed like a large fuzz, I remember ever being enrolled in art categories and spent huge sum of hours pulling, making and chalk outing on any medium available ; including the walls of my sleeping room. Mike remarked. Funny plenty Mike had a framed portrayal of his female parent that he drew with crayons as a child, pined up against his wall of memories where clients are able to see his patterned advance as an creative person. Practice makes perfectaˆÂ ¦ Mike said as he showed me the mirroring image of his female parent, June, he had tattooed on his right forearm with cherry flowers environing her beauty. I followed him through the crowd of people which made the store appear like the Getty Museum, where one can seek to picture a narrative or an art ist train of thought by detecting a piece of art. Finally geting at his thrown, where all the cryings and calls of hurting happened, there awaited a immature adult female, by the name of Misty or aˆÂ ¦ first-timer as Mike mentioned, was traveling to acquire tattooed. Upon geting Master Mike grabbed his tattoo gun and gave it a kiss and whispered some speedy words to it, doing his client to hold a startling laugh. What clients that go to Inkfiend Art do nt cognize is that particular rites are performed throughout the store by the staff before tattooing. There is a ritual that you could catch the staff at Inkfiend Art making every forenoon at 6:30AM when the store is being opened. Before unlocking the entryway door Mike and staff each visible radiation incents and get down to run the lit object along the entryway of the store, from the Windowss to the Foo Dogg that lies at the pes of the store. Each individual in the emanation around the tattoo parlour so begins to intone a sup plication Safe and warm, free from injury, God give us your focal point, and your approvals here One might see this as foolish, unusual and a spot overstating. Other concealed rites are performed throughout the store when tattooing. Mike is such a really gracious and friendly cat that you ca nt assist but experience calmed by his demeanor, which can merely assist the nervous tattoo client to experience wholly at easiness. While Mike was chalk outing out the First-timer s desired piece you could get down to see it already coming to life. A beautiful Arabian bird with a aureate cervix and purple wings, danced while surrounded by fires. Finally, consumed by the fire and reduced to ashes, Master Mike is able to do a bend of events by enabling the olympian bird to lift from the ashes. Engulfed in fires and winging with great pride Misty now feels that aˆÂ ¦the kernel and overall construct of her narrative has been breathtakingly portrayed on her organic structure. I have gone through many battles in my life but I have been fortunate plenty to remain resolute when all around me seemed lost. Mike feels that one of the many pleasances that he has while making what he s passionate about is that he is able to uti lize tattooing as a manner to link with other people on a much higher and personal degree. With this being he is able to entwine the narrative behind his client s tattoo and his God given endowment to portray the kernel and sole of the tattooee and the tattoo creative person himself. Master Mike truly has elevated his degree of success through his uninterrupted attempt through countless back breaking hours taging him as one of the most gifted creative person alive in the tattoo industry today. To this twenty-four hours, I m on a regular basis astonished at his work moral principle and enthusiasm for every piece he does, and his endurance, I say with deficiency of any hyperbole, is extraordinary.

Learn More About the Science of Geology

Learn More About the Science of Geology What is geology? It is the study of the Earth, its substances, shapes, processes, and history. There are several different components that geologists study with regard to this fascinating field. Minerals Minerals are natural, inorganic solids with a consistent composition. Each mineral also has a unique arrangement of atoms, expressed in its crystal form (or habit) and its hardness, fracture, color, and other properties. Organic natural substances, like petroleum or amber, are not called minerals. Minerals of exceptional beauty and durability are called gemstones (as are a few rocks). Other minerals are sources of metals,  chemicals  and fertilizers. Petroleum is a source of energy and chemical feedstocks. All of these are described as mineral resources. Rocks Rocks are solid mixtures of at least one mineral. While minerals have crystals and chemical formulas, rocks instead have textures and mineral compositions. On that basis, rocks are divided into three classes reflecting three environments: igneous rocks come from a hot melt, sedimentary rocks from accumulation and burial of sediment, metamorphic rocks from altering other rocks by heat and pressure. This classification points to an active Earth that circulates matter through the three rock classes, on the surface and underground, in what is called the rock cycle. Rocks are important as ores- economic sources of useful minerals. Coal is a rock that is a source of energy. Other rock types are useful as building stone, crushed stone and raw material for concrete. Still others serve for toolmaking, from the stone knives of our prehuman ancestors to the chalk used by artists today. All of these, too, are considered mineral resources. Fossils Fossils are signs of living things that are found in many sedimentary rocks. They may be impressions of an organism, casts in which minerals have replaced its body parts, or even remnants of its actual substance Fossils also include tracks, burrows, nests, and other indirect signs. Fossils and their sedimentary environments are vivid clues about the former Earth and what living there was like. Geologists have compiled a fossil record of ancient life stretching hundreds of millions of years into the past. Fossils have practical value because they change throughout the rock column. The exact mix of fossils serves to identify and correlate rock units in widely separated places, even in the grit pumped up from  drill holes. The geologic time scale is based almost entirely on fossils supplemented with other dating methods. With  it,  we can confidently compare sedimentary rocks from everywhere in the world. Fossils are also resources, valuable as museum attractions and as collectibles, and their commerce is increasingly regulated. Landforms, Structures and Maps Landforms in all their variety are products of the rock cycle, built of rocks and sediment. They were shaped by erosion and other processes. Landforms give testimony of the environments that built and altered them in the geologic past, such as ice ages. From mountains and water bodies to caves to the sculpted features of the beach and seafloor, landforms are clues into the Earth beneath them. Structure is an important part of studying rock outcrops. Most parts of the Earths crust are warped, bent and buckled to some extent. The geologic signs of this jointing, folding, faulting, rock textures, and unconformities help in assessing structure, as do measurements of the slopes and orientation of rock beds. Structure in the subsurface is important for water supply. Geologic maps are an efficient database of geologic information on rocks, landforms and structure.   Geologic Processes and Hazards Geologic processes drive the rock cycle to create landforms, structures and fossils. They include erosion, deposition, fossilization, faulting, uplift, metamorphism, and volcanism. Geologic hazards are powerful expressions of geologic processes. Landslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, climate change, flooding and cosmic impacts are extreme examples of ordinary things. Understanding the underlying geologic processes is a key part of mitigating geologic hazards.   Tectonics and Earth History Tectonics is geologic activity on the largest scale. As geologists mapped the worlds rocks, untangled the fossil record and studied geologic features and processes, they began to raise and answer questions about tectonics the life cycle of mountain ranges and volcanic chains, motions of continents, the rise and fall of the ocean, and how the mantle and core operate. Plate-tectonic theory, which explains tectonics as the motions in Earths outer broken skin, has revolutionized geology, enabling us to study everything on Earth in a unified framework. Earth history is the story that minerals, rocks, fossils, landforms, and tectonics tell. Fossil studies, in combination with gene-based techniques, yield a consistent evolutionary history of life on Earth. The Phanerozoic Eon (age of fossils) of the last 550 million years is well mapped as a time of expanding life punctuated by mass extinctions. The previous four billion years, the Precambrian time, is being revealed as an age of enormous changes in the atmosphere, oceans and continents. Geology Is Civilization Geology is interesting as a pure science, but Professor Jim Hawkins at Scripps Institution of Oceanography tells his classes something even better: Rocks are money! What he means is that civilization rests on rocks: Society relies on a good supply of Earth products.For every structure we build, we need to know about the ground it sits on.Our food and fiber come from soil, a thin biogeochemical layer of incredible complexity.Protection against geologic hazards depends on our understanding of them.

Symbolic interactionism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Symbolic interactionism - Essay Example Based on the relationship between the individual and the society, symbolic interactionism brings the issue of coordinated management of meaning. Individuals in a communication process tend to construct social realities of the world they create to shape them. The definition and management of meaning to reflect reality is a two-way process that is enhanced by effective communication. The things that individuals say matter because they are a reflection of their thoughts and implications of reality. Symbolic interactionism succeeds in the social perspective when people cease to violate the interpersonal expectations of other people and work towards conformity. Even when the definition of social interactionism was being made, the modern ways and theories of communication were still in place. Only those philosophers had not identified them, or none had talked about them openly. For instance, the theory of social penetration applies all the time in the communication process, whether or not the communicators are aware of the existence of the theory. At the same time, in order to socialize and interact in a healthy manner, symbolic interactionism only reflects the reality it claims to symbolize when there is a reduction of uncertainty in the socialization process and pathway. It is through the reduction of uncertainty that people can socialize and share experiences that are foundations for the formation of friendship. In any social perspective, there must be contradictions and understandings between people based on their symbolic understanding of reality, as coined by the philosopher and his students. Although people believe that they have the right to control and make their information confidential, social interactions require sharing of information and ideas as one of the primary ways of the development of friendship. The continuous aspect of communication and

Economic of a Security System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Economic of a Security System - Essay Example airline and airport security. It provides trained federal employees for passenger and baggage screening and it supplies sky marshals (air marshals) for unnamed commercial flights (Salant, 2002). With all the increased taxes because of additional airport security undertaken by our government, is it still viable for airports to further add their own measures in security Will these measures not affect passenger's willingness to travel by air, given an additional $ 5 to their tickets and more minutes waiting in line The federalization of commercial aviation resulted in the removal of contract private security personnel from passenger- and baggage-screening points. They were replaced with twice as many federal TSA employees, who earn almost two times the salary of their private-sector counterparts. The impact of this transition has yet to be measured. Some have argued that federalized passenger screening has not delivered a noticeable improvement in air passenger safety (Dalton, 2003). Also, wages of airport security personnel have been increased and are now comparable to police and fire protection jobs. Entry-level pay starts at around $20 an hour plus U.S. federal employee benefits (GAO, 13 June 2003). As airline security is now a national concern, it is the standard operating procedu

Supporting Notes Essay Example for Free

Supporting Notes Essay The practitioner we were most inspired by was Katie Mitchell. The crucial idea behind Katie Mitchell is that of Stanislavsky, naturalistic but with a contemporary twist. We chose to explore an extract from Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. Being, a naturalistic play, we thought that by using Katie Mitchell as our practitioner, we would be able to put a slight twist onto the dated play, and gain more knowledge of the characters. This involved us researching the era of the play, the characters with depth, and the specific extract we were choosing to do. Katie Mitchell focused on exploring the characters with much depth, and allowing a real portrayal to be shown to the audience, in order for them to relate to. After researching into the background of Katie Mitchell, we found that she directed Ghost, another Ibsen play, which encouraged us to explore other Ibsen plays. This led us to Hedda Gabler, a naturalistic play in which we believed we could adapt and direct to suit Katie Mitchell’s style of play. By following the book ‘The Director’s Craft’, we could gain an insight into her ways of directing and how she believes you should work in order to achieve a certain style of play. The exploration of the characters within the play, allowed us to record a backlist of what we believe may have happened, allowing a bigger picture to form in which we could establish what we thought the play was trying to achieve. This allowed us to create more believable characters and discuss what we believe to of happened between the time gaps between the scenes. Katie Mitchell’s idea of performing a play is that to completely immerse yourself within a character, and imagine you are them from all angles, this allows us to understand emotions and feelings behind the character. We chose an extract mainly reliant upon having two female speaking parts, however, allowed a good scope to improve and explore acting styles to suit this extract. Although the play didn’t advise much movement for this extract, we believe there is much that can be done in order to increase the tension and difficultness between both the characters within this scene.

Canadian Birds :: essays papers

Canadian Birds The Branta Canadensis, better known as the Canada Goose is a magnificent bird which can be found all over North America. People from all over North America look towards the sky when the Canada Geese go honking overhead in their trademark "V" formation, and because they nest all over Canada and some of the United States many people have a chance to witness the birds migration to the nesting grounds and back to the wintering grounds. The Canada Goose is respected by so many of us because of it's dignity and courage and refusal to give up. Over the years the Canada Goose has picked up many slang names, some of these are: Canadian Goose, Canadian Honker, Honker, Honker Goose, Big Honker, Old Honker, Boy Goose, Bernache (French for Barnacle Goose), Big Mexican Goose, Blackee, Blacknecked Goose, Brant, French Goose, Northern Goose, Reef Goose, Ringneck, Wavy, and White-cheeked Goose (Wormer). The Canada Goose has excellent eyesight which makes it difficult to hunt because the Goose can see the hunter well before the hunter ever sees the goose (Wormer). This eyesight is essential for flying though, a Canada Goose can see three quarters of a sphere without moving its head (Wormer). The Canada Goose also has an acute sense of hearing, it's ears are positioned on the side of it's head (Wormer). They have either no sense of smell or a very poor one, but this does not impede the goose in any way (Wormer). Although there is a large variation in size all subspecies of Canada Geese look the same physically (Wormer) The male and female Canada Goose look almost exactly the same except the female can usually be recognized because it is smaller and less aggressive (Wormer). Colors also vary but, the color pattern is generally the same for all the subspecies (Godfrey). The head and neck are dark black with a large white patch on each cheek which meet under the chin, this is the Canada Goose's most easily recognized characteristic because it is unique to the Canada Goose (Wormer). The upper parts of the body as well as the wings are greyish brown, the feathers tipped with brownish white (Godfrey). The tail is black with the upper tail coverts white and the under tail coverts are white also (Godfrey). The under body is brownish grey with paler feather tips, the sides being the darkest and the lower belly is white (Godfrey).

An Unfortunate Influence and Its Tragic Outcome Essay

In every person’s life there are many factors that occur throughout, both negative and positive influences that alter the path one chooses. In the world renowned play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the tragic outcome is brought about by the lovers’ trusted friend, Friar Lawrence. To begin with, Friar Lawrence is to blame for setting the events into motion by marrying Romeo and Juliet. Then, Friar Lawrence is responsible for Juliet receiving the potion that causes everyone to believe that she is truly dead. Finally, Friar Lawrence could have prevented the two deaths by simply making sure that Romeo gets the message as he assured Juliet he would. So ultimately, Friar Lawrence is responsible for the star crossed lovers’ demise, because they wrongly trust the Friar and his influence causes Romeo and Juliet to make all the wrong decisions thus bringing about their downfall. Before any tragic incidents actually occur in the play, Friar Lawrence sets the entire series of unfortunate events into motion by secretly marrying Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo first arrives at the Friar’s cell to declare the love he now feels for Juliet, Friar Lawrence immediately notes how foolish Romeo is being, for just the day before he had been so in love with Rosaline and devastated that she did not return that love. Friar Lawrence says, â€Å"Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, / So soon forsaken? †¦ And art thou chang’d? Pronounce this sentence then: / Women may fall, when there’s no strength in men† (2.3.66-80). Friar Lawrence right away states that it is ridiculous that Rosaline, with whom Romeo was borderline obsessed, has already been replaced with a girl in a matter of days. However, Friar Lawrence then blatantly turns around and contradicts what he says about Romeo behaving foolishly, by agreeing to marry Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence agrees saying, â€Å"In one respect I’ll thy assistant be. / For this alliance may so happy prove, / To turn your households’ rancour to pure love† (2.3.90-92). Friar Lawrence agrees to secretly wed Romeo and Juliet despite what he says earlier about the proposal. Friar Lawrence could have easily prevented the tragedy if he had just gone with his first instincts. However, he sees the opportunity to stop the feuding between the Capulets and Montagues and jumps at it to become the big hero, therefore making him selfish and irresponsible as well as a bad influence. Friar Lawrence sets Romeo and Juliet’s deaths into motion the second he agrees to Romeo’s plan, and in doing so Friar Lawrence is to blame for the untimely deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Not only does Friar Lawrence trigger Romeo and Juliet’s demise, he also continues the chain of tragic decisions by giving Juliet the sleeping potion that leads Romeo to kill himself. When Juliet runs to Friar Lawrence’s cell in utter desperation, he should have taken the time to advise her against such drastic measures and help her make the responsible choice where Romeo is concerned. Instead, Friar Lawrence hands her a sleeping potion that will create the illusion of death for the drinker: Take thou this vial, being then in bed, And this distilling liquor drink thou off,†¦ Now when the bridegroom in the morning comes To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead (4.1.93-108). Friar Lawrence assures Juliet that everything will be okay and the potion will work in tricking her parents and Paris into believing she is truly dead. He places the vial in her hand and does not do anything to prevent Juliet from making this fatal decision. Friar Lawrence just continues to reassure Juliet by saying, â€Å"And hither shall he come, and he and I /Will watch thy waking, and that very night / Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua† (4.1.115-117). Friar Lawrence promises Juliet that word of their plans will reach Romeo and when she wakes from her sleep-like trance, Romeo will be there to run away with her to Mantua. Friar Lawrence just keeps on telling Juliet that it will all work out fine, without pausing to think about all the possible dangers and side effects that may come from drinking the vial. Again, Friar Lawrence is being irresponsible and rash, holding two teen’s lives in his hands. Friar Lawrence gets carried away and swept up in Romeo and Julietâ €™s twisted fantasy and helps Juliet make a foolish decision that helps bring about the lover’s demise. Therefore, Friar Lawrence is to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Even after all the irresponsible choices Friar Lawrence makes throughout the play, he still could prevent the tragic outcome by simply making sure that Romeo receives news of the Friar’s and Juliet’s plan. But alas, Friar Lawrence does not follow through and assure that the messenger arrives soundly in Mantua. One of the main reasons Juliet is able to take the potion without many concerns or worries is because she thinks that when she wakes in the monument, Romeo will be there to whisk her away with him. When Juliet is confused and in a highly vulnerable state, Friar Lawrence hands her the vial saying, â€Å"In the mean time, against thou shalt awake, / Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift† (4.1.113-114). Friar Lawrence tells Juliet that while they wait for her to awake, Romeo will receive a letter informing him of their plans. However, the messenger Friar Lawrence sends, Friar John, never makes it to Romeo and by the time Friar Lawrence actually finds out, h e knows that a great mistake has taken place and danger is going to ensue: Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood, The letter was not nice but full of charge, Of dear import, and the neglecting it May do much danger (5.3.17-20). Friar Lawrence finally realizes the danger that Romeo and Juliet face. He understands that something terrible may happen because the information never reaches Romeo. However, it is too late by the time he arrives at the monument and Romeo, who received false information from Balthasar, is already lying dead beside his stirring wife. When Juliet does officially wake, she is devastated to see her loving Romeo dead, and desperate to be with him again. Instead of calming Juliet down and bringing her to safety, Friar Lawrence selfishly runs away when he hears the Watch coming. He leaves a desperate teenage girl there to stab herself and be with her Romeo for eternity. The incident with the letter leads Romeo to commit suicide and subsequently have Juliet kill herself to be with Romeo. The Friar does not make sure that the letter reaches Romeo and two premature deaths occur instead, conclusively leaving Friar Lawrence to blame. Friar Lawrence is a trusted friend and confident of Romeo and Juliet, yet he negatively influences the two lovers and guides them down a wrong path ending with a double suicide. Friar Lawrence triggers the start of the downfall by irrationally agreeing to wed Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence then gives Juliet bad counsel and advises her to make a catastrophic decision the second he places the vial of sleeping potion into her palm. Friar Lawrence still could evade the entire tragedy, but inadvertently breaks his promise to Juliet and never assures that the letter makes it to Romeo in Mantua. The star crossed lovers’ downfall is caused by the irresponsible and selfish Friar Lawrence because if Romeo and Juliet had not gone to Friar Lawrence for counsel and advice, they would not have been encouraged to follow through with their foolish fantasy and lived. The love between Romeo and Juliet was genuine, and the pain they felt when they heard of the other’s death was real. Kn owing that one person, especially someone as close to them as Friar Lawrence, is to blame for the tragic ending is horrible and tragic in itself, because if Friar Lawrence had just thought through his actions Romeo and Juliet might have lived a long and happy life together.

Types of Industrial Conflicts

Types of Industrial Conflict Industrial conflict occurs when employees express their dissatisfaction with management over the current state of the management-employee relationship. The causes of such dissatisfaction are typically matters related to regular wage payment, wage increase or remunerations according to terms of the employment contract. Employees can express such dissatisfaction in formal or informal ways.Formal methods are organized and are planned in advance, while informal ones are spontaneous and unorganized, usually taking management by surprise. There are different types of formal and informal industrial conflicts. 1. Strike oA strike is the employees' temporary withdrawal of services, contrary to an employment contract. It is a formal form of industrial conflict that is usually organized by a trade union. (Trade unions are representatives of employment that ensure that employee working conditions and earnings are managed according to rule. During typical strikes, tra de unions ensure that there are no alternative means of getting the services that employees have refused to provide. A strikes usually continues until management addresses the matter of dissatisfaction that caused it. Work-to-rule oWork-to-rule, another form of formal industrial action, occurs when workers work strictly according to the legal terms of their contract. They deliberately refuse to make use of their initiative and act rigidly, like pre-programmed machines.For instance, a nurse may deliberately refuse to answer phone calls that are meant for doctors (since her terms of contract do not include phone-answering). A stenographer may ignore glaring grammatical errors in what her boss dictates to her (since, strictly speaking, her responsibility is merely to transcribe whatever her boss dictates to her). Since work-to-rule does not go against any formal terms of contract, it rarely brings punishment. However, it naturally slows down work progress. o Absenteeism Absenteeism, an informal form of industrial conflict, occurs when employees deliberately refuse to report to their workplace. Absenteeism is not always a sign of industrial conflict, since employees can fail to report to work due to injury or illness, for instance. Thus industrial-conflict absenteeism merely increases the loss of productivity and revenue that an organization suffers due to failure of workers to report for duty due to reasons of personal incapacity that they cannot help, such as illness.Sabotage oSabotage, another form of informal industrial conflict, occurs when employees deliberately damage their organization's production or reputation. This could take the form of slowing down production, temporarily disabling machinery, direct destruction of organization's property or slandering the organization. Employers who engage in sabotage (saboteurs) usually hide their individual identities, but do not shy away from identifying themselves as a pressure group

The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process

The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process What if you could help your marketing team do more  in less time? Its a simple question that leaves  a lot to dream about: Youd be  awesome. Like riding a unicorn over a rainbow kind of awesome. Your team  and company would love you because youd finally get everyone organized, on the same page, and focused on super meaningful work. Youd lead a  happier, more fulfilled  career  while nailing every deadline and exceeding every goal. Ah, the good life. But, there are some challenges to overcome first. For starters, project management can feel overwhelming. There are a lot of moving parts that need to be accounted for, especially when managing multiple projects and team members. Fortunately, youre about to learn the secrets behind strategic marketing project management that will help you: Work even faster and collaborate better than ever  by managing your projects with an efficient process  from the get-go. Focus 100% of your resources  on the  right projects instead of weve always done it that way tasks that dont add measurable growth to your bottom line. Boost your productivity  while getting organized and taking control of your entire process. You can be a successful marketing project manager. The Complete 16-Step #Marketing Project Management Process That Will Get You Organizedbut first: Start Managing Marketing Projects With These Free Word And Excel Templates When you read this post, youll discover a need for project documentation. Download this free kit to grab your: Marketing project management template Word document to help you implement every step of this post for a real project youre working through. Sprint backlog Excel spreadsheet to manage the entire scope and timeline of your project. Go ahead and fill out these documents as you  read through this post to make the most efficient use of your valuable time! ... Then Upgrade to the Kanban Project Dashboard in Managing marketing teams is a multi-faceted. There are so many moving parts and dozens of tasks for each project and campaign. So... keeping everyone and everything on track and hitting all your deadlines can be, well, tough. That's why I'm inviting you to check out the Kanban Project Dashboard available in your favorite marketing project management platform. When you manage your  marketing team with , you'll: Get a pulse on every project. Using the kanban-style view, you can quickly see the status of every project your team is working on. Pinpoint bottlenecks in your workflow. Are team members getting stuck in particular areas on projects? Identify roadblocks quickly and keep tasks on track. Holistically manage projects from start to finish. Give your entire team full visibility across every project and manage everything in one place. Get and get organized! Schedule a demo today. What Is Marketing Project Management (For The Sake Of This Post)? The traditional project management method is split into phases: Initiate:  What is the scope of what you'll create? Plan:  How will you create your content  and with what resources? Execute:  Create your content. Monitor and control:  Identify and remove any  roadblocks that are preventing you from executing. Close:  Get approval, publish, and review. That is the approach  traditional project managers learn about as they get started. However, there's a way to layer in another proven project management method to help you move through the phases  even faster.  It's called agile product  management. Ever wonder what agile marketing was? Now I know.This process is how developers typically approach creating software (like your beloved  project management platform). Agile product  management helps developers complete lots of work in  short bursts  of time by providing intense focus and removing obstacles that might  cause them to miss deadlines. So, for the sake of this post, you're going to combine traditional project management and agile product  management together to create marketing projects more efficiently than ever before. Here's your definition: Marketing project management is the efficient process that helps you organize, create, and publish your content as fast as possible. The beautiful thing is that you can use this process for planning any type of content- and you should. Let's get into the details: Initiate Your Marketing Project By Defining  The Purpose Step 1: Choose The Highest Priority Project From  Your  Marketing Project Backlog Part of the agile project management process involves creating and maintaining a product backlog. For your  purposes, that's a fancy definition for a prioritized list of marketing projects. Project management starts by strategically choosing  to complete the highest priority project on your list. Since that's the case, we wrote an entire post to help you create your own marketing project backlog: Recommended Reading: The 1-Day Marketing Planning Process To Organize Your Next 6 Months What you're reading right now assumes that you've chosen one project  and that it's your highest priority for 10x growth. Step 2: Explain  The Project Background With A Creative Brief You may  already have detailed notes  from your marketing project backlog to help you implement your biggest priority project. If not, there are a handful of things to get straight before you get too much deeper: Who will this project benefit the most? Pinpoint  a subset within your audience. What do you need to create?  Define the end deliverable. Why will this project  benefit the audience you've specified? Write your value proposition  that answers your audience's  question, "What's in it for me?" What kind of resources might you need to  complete the project? Estimate the time and tools involved. What does done look like? Help your team know  what you'll accept as a successful final product. The background will serve as the foundation for all of the remaining steps in your project management process. As you write your creative brief  to answer these questions, you'll immediately be able to spot areas of potential challenges that you can work to resolve now- before your team starts executing the project. For example, if you need a developer's help to create a landing page or don't have a budget to complete the work, now is the time  to solve the roadblock before slowing up your entire team as they take on the project. Recommended Reading: How to Build a Concise Creative Brief Step 3: Define Your Project's Requirements To Fulfill The Business' Needs Requirements are the standards your content needs to meet before you publish. Every marketing project may  need different requirements, yet some examples to help you brainstorm your project's requirements should include: Automation: Is this a way to automate  a part of this project to prevent manual work during execution or afterward? Anything to cut out  unnecessary, tedious manual work a robot could do will immediately boost your productivity. Elimination: Can this project eliminate something else you're doing as a new and improved replacement? Removing work from your future to-do list will help you find time to execute  even more projects from your backlog a whole lot faster. Maintenance: How can you make this project as successful as possible now with the least amount of daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance? Think 10x  growth now that continues to provide long-term results without having to touch it. All of those may sound similar. But let that advice soak in a bit more as you look at your project idea and break down what you want it to do to benefit your team and business. If you can create requirements based on those three fundamentals, you will save you and your team time during and after  project execution. And when you don't have time to spare, that matters a lot. When you don't have time to spare, solid #ProjectManagement matters a lot.Another way to look at this  is by defining a set of  requirements your content must meet before you publish. For example, we've analyzed data to help us define standards of performance for our content. These standards literally help us predict how successful the content we execute will be based on four requirements: Topic: Is the topic similar to your other top-performing content? Is  the angle something your audience deeply cares about? Keyword:  Does the  main keyword have high search volume and low competition? Is there an opportunity to include latent semantic indexing to  help even more of your audience naturally find this content through search engines? Research: How can you  include deep research in this content to publish something the internet has never seen before? How can you  use research to factually back up your claims? Comprehensiveness: How can you tell  the most complete story on your topic on the internet? You could  apply this standard of performance to your project, or you may find your most successful content has different traits that make it awesome. The point is to really  define what the project will look like before you start working. In project management terminology,  a set of requirements is called a specification. So, if you follow this  guide, you will have two specifications (time-saving specification and content specification) with multiple requirements under each. If you think of more requirements, you can plan even more specifications for your projects. These two specifications are just a  minimum viable starting point to produce successful content. Define your content's standard of performance and demand it during execution.Step 4: Write  Your Stories To Focus  The Project On An Audience-Valued  Outcome Stories are how you'll  put yourself into your audience's shoes  to focus on how the project will benefit their lives instead of just creating a deliverable. Unlike traditional story-telling, these stories help define requirements of satisfaction. It's like asking yourself, "How will my audience benefit from this project?" Here's the template of how to think about stories: As an {audience type}, I want to {do something} so that {I get this value}. For example, let's say the  project you want to take on is a new e-book about content strategy that you'll publish on the Amazon store to reach a new audience. One story for your project may look like this: As a marketer, I want to learn how to  implement a better content strategy so that I can get more organized. One project  will likely have multiple stories to help you and your team understand your audience's needs. To continue the e-book example, a second story could help you write a specific chapter in the book: As a marketer, I want to learn which types of content our team should create so that we can maximize lead generation from every campaign. Since the e-book project example also requires  you and your team to create additional content, you could also use stories to define your audience's needs for a deliverable  like the  landing page where you'll promote the e-book: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. Later, when you plan, you'll break down the stories into manageable tasks you can assign to individuals on your team. Plan The Details Of Your Projects As Sprints Step 5: Break Your Stories Into  Manageable Tasks Your Marketing Team Members  Will Execute Stories are something a team  works on together, while  you assign tasks to your team members. Tasks are important because they break down a large project- which may seem difficult to even know where to start- into manageable pieces. And tasks help you divvy up the work among your team to use your resources as efficiently as possible. Let's look at an  example story again for your e-book landing page: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. To  build  a landing page that fulfills this story, you'll simply list the tasks  you need to complete in chronological order: Research landing page designs that convert. Write the landing page outline based on the  research. Write the text. Design  the wireframe. Design the landing page. Develop the landing page. Review the landing page. Publish the landing page. Promote the landing page. You get the idea- the point is to break down a story into the step-by-step process you need to complete to check this story off your sprint backlog. Smaller tasks make it easier to estimate how much time it will take to complete the story (and subsequently, the project as a whole). Step 6: Thrash Your Project Into An MVP (Minimal Viable Project) It's time to take a critical look into your stories. You want to find  where you might have frivolous uses of resources that could be used better for creating  a minimum viable project rather than an extremely polished deliverable. The real question here is this: What  stories or tasks could you cut to create a great project with the least amount of effort? You probably want your project to be the most perfect thing  in your niche, so this question might seem counterintuitive at first. However, the idea behind a minimum viable project  is to eliminate risk by helping you: Create and publish quickly Measure your success Learn to improve You can steal the idea of an MVP by cutting excess stories and tasks that  don't negatively impact your specifications.  This will save your team valuable time during execution while helping you complete your project faster. Remove excess work from your to-do list before you start your projects.Step 7: Estimate The Level Of Effort For Every Story It's one thing to give your team  a deadline to complete a project and another to know that the deadline is realistically achievable. By understanding how much time each task takes to complete (and subsequently rolling that estimation into the story), you'll be able to further understand what stories or tasks you'd like to cut from your project to complete it quicker while also being able to set practical due dates. To do this, you need to know two things first: Who will be accountable for completing each task. These are the team members who'll work together to complete the stories. The level of effort for each task. In other words, how much time will it take the person  you'll assign the task to complete it? For each task,  write down who on your team you think is best suited to complete it the fastest. Then visit with each team member  to ask how much time they'd estimate for every one of  their tasks. Step 8: Plan The Scope Of Your Project As A Sprint Backlog Scope helps you define how much work you'll complete in a certain amount of time. It's the big picture of the project. Your marketing project may  have many specifications and stories, so you may need to break the scope  into phases, which agile marketers call  sprints.  Sprints often occur in two-week bursts in which you prioritize a specific number of stories to be completed. Since you estimated the level of effort for each story- and understand how much time each individual needs to contribute- you can realistically plan your sprints and subsequently know your deadline when the project  will be 100% complete. A great way to  show your entire project scope  to your team is with a project schedule- aka sprint backlog. Step 9: Demand  That You Ship On Time You know that your project will fulfill the specifications and stories.  You also know your deadline is realistically achievable. So make sure you publish on time by preventing project thrashing- otherwise known as scope creep and last-minute changes- before you begin executing. Seth Godin has the best advice I've ever seen on this topic. Read  Linch Pin  to get the full scoop- and  for your marketing project management, start here: Set the date when you'll publish. This is when  you'll launch your project no matter what. Involve others in your initiation and planning process and write everyone's ideas down. This is important for your big wigs because, as Seth says, "This is their big chance." Show what you plan to do.  Give them the opportunity to thrash your plan before you start executing. Changes now are alright, but once your team starts executing, this  thrashing  will dramatically impact your deadline. Give them  an opportunity for one final review. Seth says, "Make sure everyone understands that this is the very last chance they have to make the project better." Revise the project blueprint into a final, comprehensive outline. Show your plan to the  big wigs and ask, "If I deliver what you approved, on budget and on time, will you ship it?" Only start executing once you get your yes. No maybes. Then deliver what you promised, thrash-free. This  simple process should prevent scope creep, last-minute modifications, and other nitpicking  with small details because you've nailed the big picture. Execute Your  Marketing Project With A Clear Content Creation Process Step 10: Assign Tasks For Your Upcoming Sprint To Your Team It's finally time for your team to start creating content for your project! You just need to assign them the tasks to complete. The best way to begin is by choosing a marketing project management tool that will help you: Manage your entire team  and easily assign them their specific tasks to complete. Assign specific deadlines for tasks to be completed on specific calendar dates. Automatically notify your team  that  you've assigned them a task to complete. Automatically remind your team as a due date for a task approaches. If you're planning a recurring project- like blog posts or social media campaigns- it's also helpful  to find a tool that helps you create your ideal workflow and save it to reuse on similar projects. Well, it just so happens that is a  marketing project management tool designed to help you collaborate with all of those things. ;) Agile product managers refer to this kind of functionality as a task board. Whether you use to  efficiently manage your process or not,  you're looking for a system to help you: See  which tasks are completed, which should be  in progress, and which are coming up. Understand which tasks are overdue that may cause you to miss your deadlines. Step 11: Communicate With A Tool That Keeps Collaboration In One Place While emails serve nicely as notifications and reminders to help your team get into the system where you manage your projects, they're not so great for managing project communication. That's where it's nice to manage your team communication around the project in the collaboration tool where you manage everything else. There are a few qualifications to make this work for your project: Avoid email to manage your project communication. Email forwards and strings  can miss some replies to sender only, which can cause team members to miss critical information on your projects. Agree as a team  to communicate consistently with the same tools for your specific purpose. This will help you maintain  one version of the truth for all project communication to help the team collaborate more efficiently. Keep your comments, notes, and progress reports in  the same tool where you manage your task board or workflow. This is especially important if you manage multiple projects at once. You can rock that advice with  nearly any  project management tool, but there's one designed to help marketers like you manage their projects better.  It's *ah hem* . Monitor And Control Your Project To Meet Your Deadlines Monitoring and controlling happens at the same time as your team executes the project. Step 12: Hold Daily Scrum Meetings To  Monitor Your Progress Scrum is a daily meeting everyone working in a current sprint attends. These informal touch points are most effective with small teams who are collaborating on completing a story together. You'll lead the touch point  with a simple itinerary with everyone sharing: What they did yesterday to make progress on your sprint. What they're going to do today for your sprint. Any roadblocks that may prevent them from executing. This helps your team stay accountable while giving them the chance to ask for help as needed. As the project manager, it's your job to proactively prevent those roadblocks from happening if you can. Otherwise, it's now your job to react and  remove the obstacles from your team's ability to execute. At each daily scrum, end the touch point by asking, "Who has roadblocks that are already or might prevent you  from executing?" Sometimes, this is when someone will speak up, even after they've already shared their progress reports. Step 13: Manage Your Burn Chart To Estimate How Much Work Is Left In Your Project Your project burn chart is a  graph that  compares your completed work to how many sprints are remaining in the project's scope. Another way to visualize  this is to analyze your percentage of tasks completed. Your marketing calendar shows a handy percentage completion rate for your project: This practice- combined with reviewing which tasks should have been completed in the past but have not been checked off your task board- will help you  keep team members accountable for completing their work and will keep your project on tack to hit your deadline. Agile product management processes often suggest that you  spell out  the definition of done for your project to help the entire team understand when the project is complete. The percentage completion rate is an excellent way to explain this to your team: A  story  is done when you  complete 100% of your tasks. A sprint is done when  you complete 100% of the tasks for the stories that make up the sprint. And a project is done when you complete 100% of the tasks for all of the stories within the sprints that make up the project. Step 14: Fail Fast To  Get Back On Track ASAP Even the best project managers hit snags that  take their team's focus away from the tasks and stories that will fulfill their project's specifications. Those are moments when you, as a project manager, need to step in immediately to get your project back on track. You can do that by identifying whom on your team  needs a guiding hand, and  asking them four simple questions: What happened? Why did this happen? How can we make sure this doesn't happen again? How can we get this project back on track? These questions help your team member identify the issue and the method to solve the problem now and in the future.  You just helped them self-correct! Step 15: Host Sprint Reviews To Celebrate Your Accomplishments Toward Project  Close-Out While you took Seth Godin's advice on getting approval to ship your project on time no matter what, your stakeholders probably want to see the progress you're making as the project continues. That's  exactly what sprint reviews are for. Schedule a half hour touch point at the end of every sprint to review  the stories  you've completed. Gather feedback from those who need to know what's going on. Just remember that you're employing Eric Ries' theory on the minimum viable project. That means you should document what your big wigs are saying, but that will not impact your upcoming sprints  or modify your deadlines because they've already signed off for approval. Later, you can plan the notes you take in this meeting as a post-project sprint to button up the outstanding items after you publish if necessary. However, these modifications aren't in scope for your project now, so you should not change your direction. Make this review fun for everyone- it's a celebration of accumulated hard work with 100% of your tasks done for an entire sprint! Close Your Marketing Project And Move On To The Next Step 16: Host A Retro To Learn From Your Success Your project is done when 100% of the tasks within the  stories that make up your sprints are complete.  Ship it now! There's just one thing left to do... and that's to learn how to improve your  marketing project management process before you initiate your next project. Traditional project management often calls for a post implementation review. It's a meeting where you invite your team to ask them three simple questions: What went well? What went wrong? What could we improve for the next project? Agile product management follows a similar approach, calling their post-project touch point a retrospective. The goal is the same- - but the questions you ask in the meeting vary slightly: What should we start doing? What should we stop doing? What should we continue doing? Combine those two sets of questions together for a 30-minute meeting, and you'll leave with dozens of lessons learned that will help you improve your marketing project management process next time. How Do You Manage Your Marketing Projects? Whether you use as robust of a marketing project management process as this or not, I know you've found at least a few helpful takeaways from this post. If you're ready to manage the execution and monitoring phases better than ever, try ! It's your marketing project management software designed to  get you organized. The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process What if you could help your marketing team do more  in less time? Its a simple question that leaves  a lot to dream about: Youd be  awesome. Like riding a unicorn over a rainbow kind of awesome. Your team  and company would love you because youd finally get everyone organized, on the same page, and focused on super meaningful work. Youd lead a  happier, more fulfilled  career  while nailing every deadline and exceeding every goal. Ah, the good life. But, there are some challenges to overcome first. For starters, project management can feel overwhelming. There are a lot of moving parts that need to be accounted for, especially when managing multiple projects and team members. Fortunately, youre about to learn the secrets behind strategic marketing project management that will help you: Work even faster and collaborate better than ever  by managing your projects with an efficient process  from the get-go. Focus 100% of your resources  on the  right projects instead of weve always done it that way tasks that dont add measurable growth to your bottom line. Boost your productivity  while getting organized and taking control of your entire process. You can be a successful marketing project manager. The Complete 16-Step #Marketing Project Management Process That Will Get You Organizedbut first: Start Managing Marketing Projects With These Free Word And Excel Templates When you read this post, youll discover a need for project documentation. Download this free kit to grab your: Marketing project management template Word document to help you implement every step of this post for a real project youre working through. Sprint backlog Excel spreadsheet to manage the entire scope and timeline of your project. Go ahead and fill out these documents as you  read through this post to make the most efficient use of your valuable time! ... Then Upgrade to the Kanban Project Dashboard in Managing marketing teams is a multi-faceted. There are so many moving parts and dozens of tasks for each project and campaign. So... keeping everyone and everything on track and hitting all your deadlines can be, well, tough. That's why I'm inviting you to check out the Kanban Project Dashboard available in your favorite marketing project management platform. When you manage your  marketing team with , you'll: Get a pulse on every project. Using the kanban-style view, you can quickly see the status of every project your team is working on. Pinpoint bottlenecks in your workflow. Are team members getting stuck in particular areas on projects? Identify roadblocks quickly and keep tasks on track. Holistically manage projects from start to finish. Give your entire team full visibility across every project and manage everything in one place. Get and get organized! Schedule a demo today. What Is Marketing Project Management (For The Sake Of This Post)? The traditional project management method is split into phases: Initiate:  What is the scope of what you'll create? Plan:  How will you create your content  and with what resources? Execute:  Create your content. Monitor and control:  Identify and remove any  roadblocks that are preventing you from executing. Close:  Get approval, publish, and review. That is the approach  traditional project managers learn about as they get started. However, there's a way to layer in another proven project management method to help you move through the phases  even faster.  It's called agile product  management. Ever wonder what agile marketing was? Now I know.This process is how developers typically approach creating software (like your beloved  project management platform). Agile product  management helps developers complete lots of work in  short bursts  of time by providing intense focus and removing obstacles that might  cause them to miss deadlines. So, for the sake of this post, you're going to combine traditional project management and agile product  management together to create marketing projects more efficiently than ever before. Here's your definition: Marketing project management is the efficient process that helps you organize, create, and publish your content as fast as possible. The beautiful thing is that you can use this process for planning any type of content- and you should. Let's get into the details: Initiate Your Marketing Project By Defining  The Purpose Step 1: Choose The Highest Priority Project From  Your  Marketing Project Backlog Part of the agile project management process involves creating and maintaining a product backlog. For your  purposes, that's a fancy definition for a prioritized list of marketing projects. Project management starts by strategically choosing  to complete the highest priority project on your list. Since that's the case, we wrote an entire post to help you create your own marketing project backlog: Recommended Reading: The 1-Day Marketing Planning Process To Organize Your Next 6 Months What you're reading right now assumes that you've chosen one project  and that it's your highest priority for 10x growth. Step 2: Explain  The Project Background With A Creative Brief You may  already have detailed notes  from your marketing project backlog to help you implement your biggest priority project. If not, there are a handful of things to get straight before you get too much deeper: Who will this project benefit the most? Pinpoint  a subset within your audience. What do you need to create?  Define the end deliverable. Why will this project  benefit the audience you've specified? Write your value proposition  that answers your audience's  question, "What's in it for me?" What kind of resources might you need to  complete the project? Estimate the time and tools involved. What does done look like? Help your team know  what you'll accept as a successful final product. The background will serve as the foundation for all of the remaining steps in your project management process. As you write your creative brief  to answer these questions, you'll immediately be able to spot areas of potential challenges that you can work to resolve now- before your team starts executing the project. For example, if you need a developer's help to create a landing page or don't have a budget to complete the work, now is the time  to solve the roadblock before slowing up your entire team as they take on the project. Recommended Reading: How to Build a Concise Creative Brief Step 3: Define Your Project's Requirements To Fulfill The Business' Needs Requirements are the standards your content needs to meet before you publish. Every marketing project may  need different requirements, yet some examples to help you brainstorm your project's requirements should include: Automation: Is this a way to automate  a part of this project to prevent manual work during execution or afterward? Anything to cut out  unnecessary, tedious manual work a robot could do will immediately boost your productivity. Elimination: Can this project eliminate something else you're doing as a new and improved replacement? Removing work from your future to-do list will help you find time to execute  even more projects from your backlog a whole lot faster. Maintenance: How can you make this project as successful as possible now with the least amount of daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance? Think 10x  growth now that continues to provide long-term results without having to touch it. All of those may sound similar. But let that advice soak in a bit more as you look at your project idea and break down what you want it to do to benefit your team and business. If you can create requirements based on those three fundamentals, you will save you and your team time during and after  project execution. And when you don't have time to spare, that matters a lot. When you don't have time to spare, solid #ProjectManagement matters a lot.Another way to look at this  is by defining a set of  requirements your content must meet before you publish. For example, we've analyzed data to help us define standards of performance for our content. These standards literally help us predict how successful the content we execute will be based on four requirements: Topic: Is the topic similar to your other top-performing content? Is  the angle something your audience deeply cares about? Keyword:  Does the  main keyword have high search volume and low competition? Is there an opportunity to include latent semantic indexing to  help even more of your audience naturally find this content through search engines? Research: How can you  include deep research in this content to publish something the internet has never seen before? How can you  use research to factually back up your claims? Comprehensiveness: How can you tell  the most complete story on your topic on the internet? You could  apply this standard of performance to your project, or you may find your most successful content has different traits that make it awesome. The point is to really  define what the project will look like before you start working. In project management terminology,  a set of requirements is called a specification. So, if you follow this  guide, you will have two specifications (time-saving specification and content specification) with multiple requirements under each. If you think of more requirements, you can plan even more specifications for your projects. These two specifications are just a  minimum viable starting point to produce successful content. Define your content's standard of performance and demand it during execution.Step 4: Write  Your Stories To Focus  The Project On An Audience-Valued  Outcome Stories are how you'll  put yourself into your audience's shoes  to focus on how the project will benefit their lives instead of just creating a deliverable. Unlike traditional story-telling, these stories help define requirements of satisfaction. It's like asking yourself, "How will my audience benefit from this project?" Here's the template of how to think about stories: As an {audience type}, I want to {do something} so that {I get this value}. For example, let's say the  project you want to take on is a new e-book about content strategy that you'll publish on the Amazon store to reach a new audience. One story for your project may look like this: As a marketer, I want to learn how to  implement a better content strategy so that I can get more organized. One project  will likely have multiple stories to help you and your team understand your audience's needs. To continue the e-book example, a second story could help you write a specific chapter in the book: As a marketer, I want to learn which types of content our team should create so that we can maximize lead generation from every campaign. Since the e-book project example also requires  you and your team to create additional content, you could also use stories to define your audience's needs for a deliverable  like the  landing page where you'll promote the e-book: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. Later, when you plan, you'll break down the stories into manageable tasks you can assign to individuals on your team. Plan The Details Of Your Projects As Sprints Step 5: Break Your Stories Into  Manageable Tasks Your Marketing Team Members  Will Execute Stories are something a team  works on together, while  you assign tasks to your team members. Tasks are important because they break down a large project- which may seem difficult to even know where to start- into manageable pieces. And tasks help you divvy up the work among your team to use your resources as efficiently as possible. Let's look at an  example story again for your e-book landing page: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. To  build  a landing page that fulfills this story, you'll simply list the tasks  you need to complete in chronological order: Research landing page designs that convert. Write the landing page outline based on the  research. Write the text. Design  the wireframe. Design the landing page. Develop the landing page. Review the landing page. Publish the landing page. Promote the landing page. You get the idea- the point is to break down a story into the step-by-step process you need to complete to check this story off your sprint backlog. Smaller tasks make it easier to estimate how much time it will take to complete the story (and subsequently, the project as a whole). Step 6: Thrash Your Project Into An MVP (Minimal Viable Project) It's time to take a critical look into your stories. You want to find  where you might have frivolous uses of resources that could be used better for creating  a minimum viable project rather than an extremely polished deliverable. The real question here is this: What  stories or tasks could you cut to create a great project with the least amount of effort? You probably want your project to be the most perfect thing  in your niche, so this question might seem counterintuitive at first. However, the idea behind a minimum viable project  is to eliminate risk by helping you: Create and publish quickly Measure your success Learn to improve You can steal the idea of an MVP by cutting excess stories and tasks that  don't negatively impact your specifications.  This will save your team valuable time during execution while helping you complete your project faster. Remove excess work from your to-do list before you start your projects.Step 7: Estimate The Level Of Effort For Every Story It's one thing to give your team  a deadline to complete a project and another to know that the deadline is realistically achievable. By understanding how much time each task takes to complete (and subsequently rolling that estimation into the story), you'll be able to further understand what stories or tasks you'd like to cut from your project to complete it quicker while also being able to set practical due dates. To do this, you need to know two things first: Who will be accountable for completing each task. These are the team members who'll work together to complete the stories. The level of effort for each task. In other words, how much time will it take the person  you'll assign the task to complete it? For each task,  write down who on your team you think is best suited to complete it the fastest. Then visit with each team member  to ask how much time they'd estimate for every one of  their tasks. Step 8: Plan The Scope Of Your Project As A Sprint Backlog Scope helps you define how much work you'll complete in a certain amount of time. It's the big picture of the project. Your marketing project may  have many specifications and stories, so you may need to break the scope  into phases, which agile marketers call  sprints.  Sprints often occur in two-week bursts in which you prioritize a specific number of stories to be completed. Since you estimated the level of effort for each story- and understand how much time each individual needs to contribute- you can realistically plan your sprints and subsequently know your deadline when the project  will be 100% complete. A great way to  show your entire project scope  to your team is with a project schedule- aka sprint backlog. Step 9: Demand  That You Ship On Time You know that your project will fulfill the specifications and stories.  You also know your deadline is realistically achievable. So make sure you publish on time by preventing project thrashing- otherwise known as scope creep and last-minute changes- before you begin executing. Seth Godin has the best advice I've ever seen on this topic. Read  Linch Pin  to get the full scoop- and  for your marketing project management, start here: Set the date when you'll publish. This is when  you'll launch your project no matter what. Involve others in your initiation and planning process and write everyone's ideas down. This is important for your big wigs because, as Seth says, "This is their big chance." Show what you plan to do.  Give them the opportunity to thrash your plan before you start executing. Changes now are alright, but once your team starts executing, this  thrashing  will dramatically impact your deadline. Give them  an opportunity for one final review. Seth says, "Make sure everyone understands that this is the very last chance they have to make the project better." Revise the project blueprint into a final, comprehensive outline. Show your plan to the  big wigs and ask, "If I deliver what you approved, on budget and on time, will you ship it?" Only start executing once you get your yes. No maybes. Then deliver what you promised, thrash-free. This  simple process should prevent scope creep, last-minute modifications, and other nitpicking  with small details because you've nailed the big picture. Execute Your  Marketing Project With A Clear Content Creation Process Step 10: Assign Tasks For Your Upcoming Sprint To Your Team It's finally time for your team to start creating content for your project! You just need to assign them the tasks to complete. The best way to begin is by choosing a marketing project management tool that will help you: Manage your entire team  and easily assign them their specific tasks to complete. Assign specific deadlines for tasks to be completed on specific calendar dates. Automatically notify your team  that  you've assigned them a task to complete. Automatically remind your team as a due date for a task approaches. If you're planning a recurring project- like blog posts or social media campaigns- it's also helpful  to find a tool that helps you create your ideal workflow and save it to reuse on similar projects. Well, it just so happens that is a  marketing project management tool designed to help you collaborate with all of those things. ;) Agile product managers refer to this kind of functionality as a task board. Whether you use to  efficiently manage your process or not,  you're looking for a system to help you: See  which tasks are completed, which should be  in progress, and which are coming up. Understand which tasks are overdue that may cause you to miss your deadlines. Step 11: Communicate With A Tool That Keeps Collaboration In One Place While emails serve nicely as notifications and reminders to help your team get into the system where you manage your projects, they're not so great for managing project communication. That's where it's nice to manage your team communication around the project in the collaboration tool where you manage everything else. There are a few qualifications to make this work for your project: Avoid email to manage your project communication. Email forwards and strings  can miss some replies to sender only, which can cause team members to miss critical information on your projects. Agree as a team  to communicate consistently with the same tools for your specific purpose. This will help you maintain  one version of the truth for all project communication to help the team collaborate more efficiently. Keep your comments, notes, and progress reports in  the same tool where you manage your task board or workflow. This is especially important if you manage multiple projects at once. You can rock that advice with  nearly any  project management tool, but there's one designed to help marketers like you manage their projects better.  It's *ah hem* . Monitor And Control Your Project To Meet Your Deadlines Monitoring and controlling happens at the same time as your team executes the project. Step 12: Hold Daily Scrum Meetings To  Monitor Your Progress Scrum is a daily meeting everyone working in a current sprint attends. These informal touch points are most effective with small teams who are collaborating on completing a story together. You'll lead the touch point  with a simple itinerary with everyone sharing: What they did yesterday to make progress on your sprint. What they're going to do today for your sprint. Any roadblocks that may prevent them from executing. This helps your team stay accountable while giving them the chance to ask for help as needed. As the project manager, it's your job to proactively prevent those roadblocks from happening if you can. Otherwise, it's now your job to react and  remove the obstacles from your team's ability to execute. At each daily scrum, end the touch point by asking, "Who has roadblocks that are already or might prevent you  from executing?" Sometimes, this is when someone will speak up, even after they've already shared their progress reports. Step 13: Manage Your Burn Chart To Estimate How Much Work Is Left In Your Project Your project burn chart is a  graph that  compares your completed work to how many sprints are remaining in the project's scope. Another way to visualize  this is to analyze your percentage of tasks completed. Your marketing calendar shows a handy percentage completion rate for your project: This practice- combined with reviewing which tasks should have been completed in the past but have not been checked off your task board- will help you  keep team members accountable for completing their work and will keep your project on tack to hit your deadline. Agile product management processes often suggest that you  spell out  the definition of done for your project to help the entire team understand when the project is complete. The percentage completion rate is an excellent way to explain this to your team: A  story  is done when you  complete 100% of your tasks. A sprint is done when  you complete 100% of the tasks for the stories that make up the sprint. And a project is done when you complete 100% of the tasks for all of the stories within the sprints that make up the project. Step 14: Fail Fast To  Get Back On Track ASAP Even the best project managers hit snags that  take their team's focus away from the tasks and stories that will fulfill their project's specifications. Those are moments when you, as a project manager, need to step in immediately to get your project back on track. You can do that by identifying whom on your team  needs a guiding hand, and  asking them four simple questions: What happened? Why did this happen? How can we make sure this doesn't happen again? How can we get this project back on track? These questions help your team member identify the issue and the method to solve the problem now and in the future.  You just helped them self-correct! Step 15: Host Sprint Reviews To Celebrate Your Accomplishments Toward Project  Close-Out While you took Seth Godin's advice on getting approval to ship your project on time no matter what, your stakeholders probably want to see the progress you're making as the project continues. That's  exactly what sprint reviews are for. Schedule a half hour touch point at the end of every sprint to review  the stories  you've completed. Gather feedback from those who need to know what's going on. Just remember that you're employing Eric Ries' theory on the minimum viable project. That means you should document what your big wigs are saying, but that will not impact your upcoming sprints  or modify your deadlines because they've already signed off for approval. Later, you can plan the notes you take in this meeting as a post-project sprint to button up the outstanding items after you publish if necessary. However, these modifications aren't in scope for your project now, so you should not change your direction. Make this review fun for everyone- it's a celebration of accumulated hard work with 100% of your tasks done for an entire sprint! Close Your Marketing Project And Move On To The Next Step 16: Host A Retro To Learn From Your Success Your project is done when 100% of the tasks within the  stories that make up your sprints are complete.  Ship it now! There's just one thing left to do... and that's to learn how to improve your  marketing project management process before you initiate your next project. Traditional project management often calls for a post implementation review. It's a meeting where you invite your team to ask them three simple questions: What went well? What went wrong? What could we improve for the next project? Agile product management follows a similar approach, calling their post-project touch point a retrospective. The goal is the same- - but the questions you ask in the meeting vary slightly: What should we start doing? What should we stop doing? What should we continue doing? Combine those two sets of questions together for a 30-minute meeting, and you'll leave with dozens of lessons learned that will help you improve your marketing project management process next time. How Do You Manage Your Marketing Projects? Whether you use as robust of a marketing project management process as this or not, I know you've found at least a few helpful takeaways from this post. If you're ready to manage the execution and monitoring phases better than ever, try ! It's your marketing project management software designed to  get you organized.

Talking Writing, Music and Editing with Tom Flood

Talking Writing, Music and Editing with Tom Flood Talking Writing, Music and Editing with Tom Flood Tom Flood helped us refine Reedsy from our earliest days. Now we want to share his amazing story. From songwriting to novels and finally manuscript editing, Tom has honed his knowledge of the writing craft over the years, and contributes today to our (aspirationally) literary blog.In one of our most in-depth interviews so far, what started as a conversation about Tom’s agency Flood Manuscripts moved on to cover his work as an editor, a writer, and an independent musician.Tom analyses the oft-invoked parallel between book and music publishing and what the future holds for both these industries. He also shares his own experience as a writer - he made this great observation about identifying oneself as a writer:â€Å"When people ask, ‘What do you do?’ and I answer, ‘Writer, editor, musician,’ the next question is invariably ‘Oh, what do you play?’ Writing is both less and more mysterious. Nearly everyone writes, so it engenders the second q uestion ‘What do you write?’ way less often. The more revealing ‘How do you write like that?’ comes rarely. People think skill in musicianship comes with practice and dexterity, but skill in creative writing? Like art, they believe it’s a gift. The reality is they’re the same.†His tripartite career gives Tom a unique lens through which to see what’s happening right now in the new world of publishing. His advice to writers is both practical / motivating - persevere, keep going - and informed by years of experience editing self-published authors.Hi Tom, you have an impressive portfolio and experience in writing, editing and proofreading. Which one came first in your career? In other words, what made you become an editor?Thanks, Ricardo. I came to editing via writing. I have always been a songwriter but in the 80s, buoyed by a boom of new Australian fiction engendered by the infrastructure built by the short-lived, ground-breaking Le ft government of the 70s, I began to try my pen at short stories, got one published in a short-lived journal, and finding that slow going, switched to the big picture of the novel. The success of that move (three national awards) led to connections in the world of publishing and I began occasional award judging, assessment through our major residential writers’ centre, and some editing for publishers throughout the 90s, also being commissioned to write a theatre piece and a feature film. That all petered out as I moved back towards music performance and had a stab at academia.In 2003, with a string of part-time jobs, and looking to find new income streams, I began working through the net for a few large assessment/appraisal services in other states, a relatively new industry, reading and advising across a wide range of prose writing. A year later my artist partner suggested I start my own to fund living through a PhD, and a writing client created the first Flood Manuscripts w ebsite. Within a year it was full-time assessment and clients began to ask if I would mentor them, act as agent, ghostwriter and all manner of services I had no intention of taking up. Dumping the doctorate to ride the growing self-pub wave with Flood Manuscripts, the next step was mentoring, structural editing and copy editing, and finally proofreading, as Aussie writers began to become impatient with the trade publishers and adept at dealing with the digital, their needs evolving. I keep the service personal, despite many suggestions to expand into an agency, because I like to be at the coalface.You have also both won and been a judge to major writing awards in Australia, how did that start, and what do these awards represent for you as an author? (Is that just a nice acknowledgement of your craft or something you’re genuinely proud of?)Awards! Without them Flood Manuscripts wouldn’t exist. Despite both parents writing pretty successfully (my mother, Dorothy Hewett, was a well-known poet and playwright), neither had published with a mainstream press. I made my name in fiction by winning our premier manuscript award, the prize including publication by Allen Unwin, and that novel then took out more awards, including our oldest and best known fiction prize, the Miles Franklin Award. Everything else I have been lucky enough to be involved with has stemmed from those awards. Flood Manuscripts’ clients have since taken out even more awards, mostly international, and yes, I’m very proud to be a small part of that.We are in London, and most of our audience is in the US. But you live in Australia, so can you tell us how the publishing landscape looks like over there? How â€Å"big† are ebooks and self-publishing?I think we’re trailing a decade behind USA in some aspects, particularly genre, as we are a small market and still retain a certain English literariness in our publishing landscape, largely fed by our tertiary educat ion system. That said, we were and still are ahead in acceptance of manuscript assessment /appraisal as an essential part of that landscape. Once convinced, Australians do have a fast technology take-up and self-pub is really developing into a snowball.Has the â€Å"digital revolution† truly changed your career, or do you feel you continue working with authors more or less like you did before?Flood Manuscripts is a child of the digital ‘revolution’. 98% of my work is sourced, contracted, paid and completed via the net. That has grown from about 70% over a decade. I’m receiving around one paper manuscript a year. I prefer to read and edit digitally for work, although I still like to read paper for pleasure. I like the ancient craft of bookbinding. It will be a shame if we lose that art form to the economics of the trade.Songwriting, though, has not changed for me. The pen is still mighty, the pencil mightier, and scraps of waste paper litter the study on ev ery surface. With the novel, I began handwriting it in ‘85, moved to a borrowed typewriter, then a borrowed word processor, and finally finished the last drafts on a redundant computer with bootlegged software (WordStar) from my partner’s work place. I was over 30, on the dole, and on the rebound from an art pop band in Sydney. I don’t think I actually got on the net until 2003.This is a traditional question in our interviews: does working directly with an author (indie or hybrid) make it easier or harder for you? Does the absence of a traditional publishing structure change the way you communicate with the author?Except in the early days before Flood Manuscripts, I’ve almost always worked directly with authors. I don’t court the trade publishers because there are so few here and they don’t outsource much anyway. How it continues to change is in the speed, volume and creativity of new digital ventures and what they offer to litworkers. As an assessor, keeping up with even a small part of that change is a challenge.You are also a musician, singer and songwriter in the acoustic trio Blues Angels. The music industry and the publishing one are often compared, many people proclaiming that what happened in music will happen to books. What’s your opinion on that?Conventional wisdom has had the popular music evolution in four phases: 1) sign with a big label; 2) music publishers make big money from big musicians and use some of those profits to develop new talent; 3) big musicians realise they’re leaving money on the table and set up their own labels (self-publishing), resulting in music publishers dwindling and new musicians having no corporate sponsorship; 4) digi-platforms like iTunes do the same as Amazon/KDP/Kindle and new musicians go direct to consumers (less 30%), but there is new pressure to discount or give away material for free; and we can now add phase 5) big musicians realise how much money they are leaving on the distributors’ table and abandon digital platforms (Taylor Swift/Spotify, Radiohead /iTunes). New musicians have no sponsor, make no money from Spotify and can’t sell on iTunes without a massive marketing spend.The book trade significantly differs to music in that it doesn’t have a regular large performance aspect, although writers are often performers at festivals, schools, readings, etc., and libraries aren’t really a power in the same way in the music trade, although ideas like Self-E and the digital library may significantly endanger lending rights payments in the pursuit of ‘going viral’. It’s not a matter of ‘will happen’; it already has, at least to level 4. Writing, like music, has gone digital and that digital product is being given away in the millions to create traction towards a fame of sorts and is being streamed, not quite like Spotify et al, through Kindle Owners Lending Library, but podcasting and YouTube are pushing text more into performance re audiobooks, book trailers, and even as the music industry has been digitally driven back towards the single as its principal product, so Kindle Shorts, blogging, social media publishing and other developments continue to drive fiction back towards the heyday of shorter forms. Will this be a boon to poetry? It should be, but I haven’t seen a Shorts- or YouTube-based boom in verse, though it’s early days yet. I do see bundling going on in either form by both indies and trade, both live and product-based, and I expect we’ll see even more specific-subject social media appearing, like mootis, a Twitter for legals, and new models for crowdfunding, like Patreon.This is the big picture, but as with BluesAngels, who don’t operate in the world of popular music, we do our gigs and small festivals, make our recordings and sell our music at those live gigs, then rinse and repeat. Sure, we’ve put it up digit ally on iTunes and Spotify, but we don’t expect to compete with the pop forms; we don’t have that kind of money. So far we’ve made eight cents from streaming. Indie authors can and do still exist at this same level. I have a long term client with Flood Manuscripts who self-pubbed a hardback verse novel, offset printed, and took it on the road to sell – door to door! He’s sold 15,000 over a number of years, making him a best seller in Australian poetry, and funded an audio CD, but he doesn’t register on Bookscan, nor have the poetry awards or Amazon ever heard of him.A hard question now: do you prefer being an author, and editor or a musician? Where do you feel you have more creative freedom?The last one was hard. Creative freedom might just be a curse to some. Many artists prefer a given structure within which to work, although I’m not one of them. Some like to push the boundaries of form, others to innovate within those boundaries, a nd others prefer to capitalise on proven market structures. Creative freedom is not a term I think about or relate to, perhaps because I have it? Perhaps not: like writers’ block, I don’t think you can pin down what it is. As to author, editor, musician, all three can be personally satisfying.Some say that certain media are better than others to express a particular message. Do you think music allows you to express some things that you cannot in writing, and vice-versa?As an aural form based on sound, not words, and not limited by language, only taste, music is probably capable of appealing more indefinably to the emotions, but I’m a songster, so for me it’s a vehicle to carry fewer words more urgently to the audience, kinda like poetry, but it can and does operate differently. Unlike writing, there are also visible tools, and people do appreciate visible, live craft. When people ask, ‘What do you do?’ and I answer, ‘Writer, editor, mus ician,’ the next question is invariably ‘Oh, what do you play?’ Writing is both less and more mysterious. Nearly everyone writes, so it engenders the second question ‘What do you write?’ way less often. The more revealing ‘How do you write like that?’ comes rarely. People think skill in musicianship comes with practice and dexterity, but skill in creative writing? Like art, they believe it’s a gift. The reality is they’re the same.Finally, if you had one word of advice for authors (mainstream, indie, hybrid) in 2015, what would it be?I’m a novelist! Even tweets give us more than one word, but when it comes to publishing, I shuffle between ‘Persevere’ and ‘Quit’, but ‘Time Management’ may be two words worth contemplating. Things are both worse and better for authors than at any time in the history of printing, but the history of authors is millennia older. What we’re seein g today is the very rapid furthering of the democratisation of publishing. Making money is a relatively new notion in that history. What is an author? A writer: or a writer who is published? With the rise of self-pub, ‘is published’ is changing to ‘has published’, from passive to active, but an author is simply an originator. So my advice to authors, as always, is mundane; if you enjoy writing, keep learning by reading and doing, and you will be constantly challenged to go further. It is principally a vocation. If you want to become a publisher, you’re back to square one – an ingà ©nue - set out to learn your new set of jobs thoroughly, and keep learning and doing.Thanks a lot for your time, Tom, and for sharing these fantastic insights with us.Thanks, Ricardo, for this opportunity, and thanks to the Reedsy crew for authoring this quality new service.Follow Flood Manuscripts and Reedsy on Facebook!What do you think about Tom’s story? A re we right in drawing parallels between the book and music industries? What fundamental differences do you see, and what’s the future going to look like? Leave us your thoughts, along with any question for Tom, in the comments below.