About the Author

Rachel Aydt

Rachel Aydt is a full-time writer, editor and researcher in New York City. She worked on the staff at American Heritage Magazine, YM, Cosmopolitan and CosmoGirl. Rachel has also contributed to Time International and Inked magazines. Since 2001, she has taught writing classes at the New School University.

Tweets, Blogs and Books: How Online Writers and Publishers Still Rely on Each Other for a Payday

In English Language, Resources by Rachel Aydt

Tweeters and bloggers are teaching publishers new tricks, and each continues to profit from collaboration with the other. By Rachel Aydt Blogger. Vlogger. Tweeter. Author. Journalist. These words aren’t synonymous, and yet they all have one thing in common: behind these terms are people who are jockeying in the media world for your attention. They could be selling something (whether …

Cool Idea: Five-year “Anniversary” of Memoir Prompts Book Party

In What's the Buzz by Rachel Aydt

By Rachel Aydt Last Friday night, at the Bowery Poetry Club in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the book GirlBomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir, by Janice Erlbaum, was being celebrated on its 5th Anniversary by roughly fifty people who appeared to have been deeply touched in different ways by the memoir. At its root, Girlbomb (published by Villard in 2006) is a story …

How Authors, Booksellers, Archivists Are Crowdsourcing Funding Online

In Digital by Rachel Aydt

• Websites like Kickstarter.com, Indiegogo.com, and Invested.in are helping artistic entrepreneurs raise money for new projects. • Here, we look at three book-related projects — a comic book, an online library, and a new bookstore — to see if they succeeded in getting the money they needed. By Rachel Aydt Kickstarter: “A New Way to Fund & Follow Creativity”, which was …

Graphic, Novel: Cuba: My Revolution Brings the Harsh Reality of Castro’s Revolution to Comics

In Growth Markets by Rachel Aydt

•  Cuba by Inverna Lockpez and Dean Haspiel, offers a unique view of Castro’s Revolutionary-era Cuba from the point-of-view of one of its dissident artists. • Haspiel offers a visual interpretation of his interview with PP writer Rachel Aydt and discusses the challenges of interpreting with such a highly-charged and personal story. Interview by Rachel Aydt Some 20 years ago, Eisner …

So Many “Friends,” So Little Friendship: Authors Discuss Mingling Social Media, Self-Promotion and Real Life

In English Language by Rachel Aydt

• Today, authors are compelled to constantly self-promote, but the practice isn’t always pleasant or appropriate. • What happens when the intimacy of the typically quiet writer’s life, and the nature of real friendship, blends with the public persona of our professional selves online? By Rachel Aydt “My original goal with Facebook was to use it as a marketing tool,” …

Old World, High Style: A Visit to Paris’ Librairie Galignani, Est. 1801, Publishers Since 1520

In Growth Markets by Rachel Aydt

• Paris’ venerable Librairie Galignani lays claim to being the oldest English language bookstore on the European continent. • Despite its age — the store was founded in 1801, but the publishers of the same name date back to 1520 — it has weathered the years well and continues be an important part of Paris’ vibrant literary community. By Rachel Aydt …

Dropping by the Almost Corner Bookshop in Rome’s Trastevere

In Global Trade Talk by Rachel Aydt

By Rachel Aydt New York writer Rachel Aydt is traveling through Europe this summer, and has been filing occasional posts on her bookish adventures. Today, she visits an English-language bookshop in Rome. We headed to Rome for a few days after spending two days with my mom and stepdad, who’d done an apartment swap in Anzio (despite its somber WWII …