Co-published with the North Shoreian Magazine, February 2010.

By Judah Mahay

The popular craze of technology these days has driven forward a demand for products never dreamed of a couple of years ago. With the advent of the iPhone and its newly birthed competitors, namely Android based phones, artists have been blessed with an array of previously unimaginable tools. This article will begin the series “Best iPhone Apps for Artists” exploring this topic. Furthermore, “The Writer’s Spotlight” will focus on the iPhone apps for masters fiction. Writers have seen applications dedicated to them pop into existence on what seems like a daily basis. Let’s take a look at what is available at the moment.

Story Tracker | Submission Tracking Tool

I always like to start with my favorites. The submission process can be overwhelming, especially if you are dealing with simultaneous submissions and sending out multiple stories at the same time. You’re asking yourself if you should contact a magazine, but can’t remember when you sent the story. You finally get a story published and have to make phone calls to the other markets, but can’t find the piece of paper you wrote the list of magazines on. This nifty application helps you deal with just that and it does an excellent job at it. The tool lets you input stories and markets, at which point it lets you link them up with probable response dates. Beyond the basics it allows for a depth of information for each market and it tracks statistics such as work published, rejected, earnings, trunked stories, and more. A great tool and well worth the $9.99. Frankly, I would buy it even if it cost $20.

Price: $9.99 Read more…

The Life of the Intern

Co-Published: BeYourArt.com and The North Shoreian Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 8, Practicalities of the Surviving Artist, The Harvest Issue. Article written by Don Rebar.

Intern.  The word alone strikes fear into the hearts of many—from the most seasoned professional to the hungry high school student wishing to gain experience.  Nightmarish legends of supervisors that transform budding young professionals into ditch diggers, or of slacker interns whose apathy will be the downfall of society are commonplace.  No matter how many of these horror stories are tall tales in actuality, the basic principle behind them remains: at the end of the internship, one party’s experience with the other was poor.  Sometimes, no matter how hard the intern works or how generous the supervisor is, this outcome is inevitable.  Even in these cases, there are a few fundamental rules to help maximize a marginalized experience. Read more…

The hard part is knowing how to ask the right questions in order to get the right answers.

By Charles H. Bush

They say “write about what you know.” Unfortunately, if you’re like me and don’t know much, you have to find a way know what you need to know. The method I use is “research.”

For years, before advent of the internet, I found research to be a daunting task, certainly not for the homebound or for the lazy like me. But now most needed research is rather easy. The hard part is knowing how to ask the right questions in order to get the right answers. I’ll give you several case studies a bit later to demonstrate what I do. There are several tools I now use to do my research, so I’ll just jump right in. Read more…

"Thankfully the Internet has made it easier than ever to bring attention to your art form, if you know how to use it to your advantage."

Co-Published: BeYourArt.com and The North Shoreian Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 7, Practicalities of the Surviving Artist, September 2009. Article written by Christine Stoddard.

The “starving artist” cliché exists for a reason: no matter what kind of artist you are—actor, writer, painter, singer, photographer, dancer, etc.—earning a living is a struggle. Regardless of your talent and experience, which school you attended, or where you took an apprenticeship or internship, you will have to market yourself in order to sell your art. In fact, self-promotion is perhaps the most important way to turn your artistic passion into a full-fledged career. Thankfully the Internet has made it easier than ever to bring attention to your art form, if you know how to use it to your advantage. Read more…