Now that NaNoWriMo has concluded, you should continue writing every day. If you are really ambitious, one Reddit user created a spreadsheet to track your daily writing after NaNoWriMo. You can also follow Easily Mused’s example and keep a writing journal about your daily progress.

Check it out: “I’m just suggesting you use a writing journal (or even a section in your writer’s notebook or on your blog) to note your moods, give yourself pep talks, or blow off some steam.  You can use it to: Set goals, celebrate accomplishments, and write about your feelings. Make it a word, a sentence, or answer a question: How did it go today? Did you meet your goals or set any new ones? Kill anyone off in you WIP?”

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“Here I am, ready to dodge bullets from the folks in the comments section. Fire away,” he wrote in the essay. Rowan published Assassin of Secrets under the pen name Q.R. Markham, lifting passages from numerous spy novels into his well-reviewed novel. In the essay, the disgraced writer talked about his time in Alcoholics Anonymous and detailed the personal fallout from the scandal.

Check it out: “But in a very short period of time—we’re talking hours—the revelation of my crimes turned my life upside-down. I lost my job in the Brooklyn bookstore where I was a part owner, my beautiful girlfriend left me (and the apartment we were going to share), and my future in the only field I know anything about, books, came to ignominious end. Many of my friends and associates turned their backs on me right away. Others stepped forward to provide comfort and solace. Some felt like they had probably never truly known me and it made them uncomfortable.” (Via Sarah Weinman)

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Authors interested in building book apps for tablets and mobile devices can download the currently free Demibooks Composer tool in the Apple App Store, a DIY app that helps writers add “realistic physics, animation, sounds and visual effects” to their books.

We caught up with Demibooks founder Rafiq Ahmed to get DIY advice for children’s authors looking to create interactive children’s book apps. If you want to learn more, join us at the Publishing App Expo in December 7-8, where Ahmed will be part of our “App Building 101″ session. For writers on a budget, you can register for a one-day pass or a one-track pass to focus on the DIY part of the conference.

Below, we’ve collected three pieces of design advice from Ahmed–check out the Composer User Guide (PDF) for more information.

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According to The Hollywood Reporter, Oscar winner Tom Hanks and his producing partner Gary Goetzman may produce the project. Hanks could star in the movie as well.

Here’s more from the article: “The book tells the true tale of William Dodd, the United States’ reluctant and mild-mannered ambassador to Berlin in 1933, and his daughter Martha, a vivacious socialite who had romantic affairs with a Gestapo official and a Soviet spy.”

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Here’s more from The Gothamist: “[Each haiku expresses] a different safety message by focusing on one transportation mode. For example, our favorite one spreads this message: ‘Cyclist writes screenplay / Plot features bike lane drama / How pedestrian.’”

Follow this link to see all the locations where the signs can be found. Poet John Morse wrote the haikus, creating 12 different poems for the signs. The project was funded by Driving-While-Intoxicated (DWI) fines.

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Musician Harry Connick, Jr. has published a picture book inspired by his song, The Happy Elf.

In the video embedded above, the author performs the original song. Connick also talks about his thoughts behind the picture book project with illustrations by Dan Andreasen.

The Happy Elf song was originally released in Connick’s 2003 Christmas album, Harry for the Holidays. It has has also spawned a 3-D animated film (2005) and a musical stage production (2007). In the film, Connick served as the narrator, the composer and an executive producer. For the stage production, he created five additional songs.

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To celebrate the 176 birthday of Mark Twain, Google released a Google Doodle depicting a scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (embedded above).

The picture shows a a team of kids tricked into whitewashing a fence in the classic novel. Follow this link if you want to download a free copy of the novel.

Here’s more from eBookNewser: “Twain was born during the visit of Halley’s Comet, and he died shortly after the next visit 74 years later. He had many jobs during those years, including reporter, author, gold miner, lecturer, and malcontent.”

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In a blog post from earlier this week, the British science-fiction author argues that Amazon’s domination of the eBook market makes them ruthless when it comes to supplier discounts. He writes: “Amazon has ruthlessly used its near monopoly of online sales to exert monopsony buying pressure against suppliers, forcing the likes of Holtzbrinck or Penguin or Hachette to give them a deep discount on ebooks. In the past they have de-listed publishers’ paper editions during negotiations, chopping their sales off at the knees in an attempt to force them to grant favourable sales terms.”

Stross, who is published by Ace Books, a Penguin imprint, thinks that to survive, the Big Six should publish DRM-free eBooks. He writes: “As ebook sales mushroom, the Big Six’s insistence on DRM has proven to be a hideous mistake. Rather than reducing piracy[*], it has locked customers in Amazon’s walled garden, which in turn increases Amazon’s leverage over publishers.” (Via Boingboing).

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When Charles Schultz‘s classic comic strip Peanuts was adapted into A Charlie Brown Christmas back in 1965, a legend was made. Digital publishing company Loud Crow Interactive is trying to do a 21st century update with an app version of the cartoon.

The app is a digitized storybook based on the cartoon. It is laid out like a storybook with a narration track that highlights the words as they are read. The story is narrated by Peter Robbins, the voice of the original Charlie Brown. The pages include animated features like dancing kids and snow falling.

eBookNewser has more: “There are also interactive elements such as a play-along piano. Readers can play along on Schroeder’s piano while learning how to read tablature by following notes that are highlighted on a black-and white piano keyboard. The above video shows how it works.”

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Here’s more about the event: “Mark Twain famously prepared the manuscript for Life on the Mississippi with his new Remington typewriter, and today we recognize that typewriting changed the material culture (and the economy) of authorship. But when did literary writers begin using word processors? Who were the early adopters? How did the technology change their relation to their craft? Was the computer just a better typewriter, or was it something more?”

Check it out on Friday, December 16th at 12 p.m. at the NYPL’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Kirschenbaum is an English professor at the University of Maryland and associate director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. In an upcoming book, he will  book delve into the history of writers and word processors.

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To get the editing started, you should join a novel swap. On the NaNoWriMo forums, writers around the world will swap novels for critiques, fresh ideas and support.

Here’s more: “Think of this forum like a dating site for novels and readers. You’ve got a novel and you want some feedback, so this is the place to put up a personal ad to find someone who’d like give it a test drive. You may also want to read some other novels and give feedback. There is no obligation to share your novel if you’re just here giving feedback. Please limit your posting of your work to 5 pages or 1,500 words, whichever is less.”

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This week, Random House is looking for a senior editor, while HarperCollins is on the hunt for a rights coordinator. Tor Books is seeking a marketing manager, and Skyhorse Publishing is in need of a new associate publicist to join its team. Get the details on these gigs and more, and find additional just-posted publishing openings on mediabistro.com.

• Senior Editor Random House (New York, NY)
• Rights Coordinator HarperCollins (New York, NY)
• Marketing Manager Tor Books (New York, NY)
• Associate Publicist Skyhorse Publishing (New York, NY)
• Marketing/Sales Coordinator World Scientific Publishing Co (Hackensack, NJ)

For more job listings, go to the Mediabistro job board, and to post a job, visit our employer page. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.

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According to an email from the company’s founder Irene Watson yesterday, Amazon has banned reviews from 15 sites. Watson explained in the email: “At first it seems it was just review sites like us but then it flowed over to removing reviews from individual reviews unrelated to any site or blog. There is no consistency except a stock email that says ‘you violated the guidelines’ but the specific violation is never disclosed by Amazon.com.”

Unlike a traditional media review, Reader Views, gets paid for some of its reviews through selling publicity services to authors. Their website explains: “We give free reviews but due to the overwhelming amount of submissions and high costs of processing we are limiting the number of free reviews we will give each week. There is no guarantee your book will be reviewed because the reviewers choose what books they want to read. For a guaranteed review we suggest one of our budget friendly Publicity Packages.” continued…

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Last August, Godin made a surprise announcement: “I’ve decided not to publish any more books in the traditional way.” He then launched the Domino Project through Amazon, publishing 12 books. The list included Do the Work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way by  Steven Pressfield. General Electric sponsored a free download of that “sponsored book.”

Godin explained why he is stopping in a blog post: “By most of the measures I set out at the beginning, the project has been a success. So why stop? Mostly because it was a project, not a lifelong commitment to being a publisher of books. Projects are fun to start, but part of the deal is that they don’t last forever. The goal was to explore what could be done in a fast-changing environment.” (Via Publishers Lunch)

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eBookNewser has more: “Simon & Schuster’s Jonathan Karp [called it]  ‘a rare and wonderful opportunity to continue our relationship with this beloved and canonical author and to bring his works to new a generation of readers and in new formats.’”

This comes as a surprise, since the 91-year old author has dismissed eBooks and eReaders in the past. The Associated Press explained: “Bradbury himself has been an emphatic defender of traditional paper texts, saying that e-books ‘smell like burned fuel’ and calling the Internet nothing but ‘a big distraction.’”

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