Jessica M.H. Smith

I'm a copywriting comedian. I live to make people laugh, and I make a living selling things with the right words.

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via Pinterest. New Yorker Cartoon by Emily Flake.

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A list of every guest star in Portlandia Season 7.

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Precious Moments Releases Limited-Edition Figurines Depicting Violent Conquest Of Canaan - via the Babylon Bee 

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Journalists, does that about sum it up? via sewmanycomments

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Scenius

“Scenius” is a term coined by musician and producer Brian Eno to counter “The Lone Genius Myth,” or the idea that innovation in art and culture comes from Great Men working in solitude. Here’s what I wrote about it in my book, Show Your Work!:

There’s a healthier way of thinking about creativity that the musician Brian Eno refers to as “scenius.” Under this model, great ideas are often birthed by a group of creative individuals—artists, curators, thinkers, theorists, and other tastemakers—who make up an “ecology of talent.” If you look back closely at history, many of the people who we think of as lone geniuses were actually part of “a whole scene of people who were supporting each other, looking at each other’s work, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas.” Scenius doesn’t take away from the achievements of those great individuals: it just acknowledges that good work isn’t created in a vacuum, and that creativity is always, in some sense, a collaboration, the result of a mind connected to other minds. What I love about the idea of scenius is that it makes room in the story of creativity for the rest of us: the people who don’t consider ourselves geniuses. Being a valuable part of a scenius is not necessarily about how smart or talented you are, but about what you have to contribute—the ideas you share, the quality of the connections you make, and the conversations you start. If we forget about genius and think more about how we can nurture and contribute to a scenius, we can adjust our own expectations and the expectations of the worlds we want to accept us. We can stop asking what others can do for us, and start asking what we can do for others.

The rest of the book is basically about how you can operate best within a scenius. Read more here.

[liana]

Your NPR Name

Eric and I recently discovered a shared fascination with the slew of impossibly named NPR hosts we listen to every day: Renee Montagne, Steve Inskeep, Corey Flintoff, Korva Coleman, Kai Ryssdal, Dina Temple-Raston.

In fact, we’ve often wondered what it would be like to be one of them. A Nina Totenberg or a Renita Jablonski. A David Kestenbaum or a Lakshmi Singh. Even (on our most ambitious days) a Cherry Glaser or a Sylvia Poggioli.

So finally, after years of Fresh Air sign-off ambitions, we came up with a system for creating our own NPR Names. Here’s how it works: You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Then you add on the smallest foreign town you’ve ever visited.

So I’m Liarna Kassel. And Eric is Jeric Bath. I even have a new nickname for my little brother in Dylsan Rosarita.

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Found via this NPR Monkey See blog post via this Atlantic article (and subsequent NPR Story).

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😄What's making me happy this week | There are so many crappy and critical things happening (especially this week), so taking my cue from @npr Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast segment "What's making us happy this week." 

[copywritingcomedian]

Why outdoor advertising doesn’t work (and how you can make it work for you). | I hate those "advertising works" billboards. Outdoor advertising doesn't work, at least like that. Read about why that is, & what makes a good outdoor advertising campaign/ billboard.

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#MondayMotivation

[carsonmcnamara]

Still not over Peggy rolling into McCann like a champ

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Peggy rolling into McCann like a boss. | I❤️ this illustration.

[chroniclebooks]

So, You Want to Work in Publishing: Advice from a Chronicle Books Editor

By Ariel Richardson

When I graduated from college, I knew I wanted to work in children’s literature but I had no idea how to go about doing so. What does this thing called editing actually involve? How does one get started in the industry? Where should I look for job postings? Feeling pretty lost, I spent every spare moment over the course of several months researching the answers to those questions.

Since I love chatting with people just getting started in the industry, but don’t always have the time to do so in my day-to-day, I wanted to share some resources I find valuable—and resources I regularly pass along in informational interviews.

This is a competitive industry; landing your first internship or your first job can be tough! I’m hoping these tips will help you out on your path.

What kinds of jobs?

There are SO many cool jobs within publishing. Here are just a few of the many departments: Editorial, Managing Editorial, Design, Production, Digital, Marketing, Publicity, Subrights, Sales, Web/IT, Contracts, Finance, and Operations. Do you love international travel? Perhaps Subrights is the right fit for you. Do you lust after foil covers and painted edges in the book store? Perhaps Production is where you’re meant to be.

Although this post is about working at a publishing company, I want to point out that there are so many other jobs within the book pipeline that may also be of interest: artist (writer/illustrator), agent, reviewer, blogger, bookseller/book buyer, librarian, reading specialist/teacher, and professor. Publishing wouldn’t exist without these smart and passionate partners.

Education

So often I’m asked whether you need a publishing or copyediting certificate or a masters degree to get a job in publishing. Definitely not! Publishing is a mentorship industry—the only place you can really learn the job is on the job.

But extra credentials can help your resume stand out from the pack by showing your commitment and knowledge; the other perk is that your time in a relevant educational program can be incredible for networking! When you graduate, you may suddenly have friends at major publishing houses, and when you need help, they’re only a phone call away. Only pursue if you’re interested, but if you are, you have a wide variety of options to choose from.

You can consider a publishing course—usually a time commitment of one to several months—like the publishing courses at Columbia, Denver, and NYU. You could consider a copyediting certificate (usually made up of several courses, often offered online) from places like Editcetera or UC Berkeley Extension. And finally, you could consider an advanced degree, like a masters in publishing at NYU or Emerson, or a Children’s Literature masters at Simmons College, and many more.

Read the rest of the post here!

[chroniclebooks]

Getting a lot of questions that this post can answer, so reblogging. Yay books!

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🍋 August 20 is World Lemonade Day. What else is going on? Check out my Content Marketing Ideas for August (via GIPHY)

[teamcoco]

WATCH: The Origin Of Aubrey Plaza’s Awkwardness

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Hilarious anecdote. Her hair and clothes on point, too.

[writerspanel]

It’s the Conan writers on today’s podcast!

Head writer Matt O'Brien, Mike Sweeney, Todd Levin, Jose Arroyo, Dan Cronin, Andres DuBouchet, Jessie Gaskell, Levi MacDougall, and Leah Krinsky.

Recorded April 14, 2016 at the Nerdist Theater at Meltdown Comics.

itunes // not itunes

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This gorilla things gonna make us go bananas. Via MamaKnowsHoneyChild

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Lol QR codes

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Dearly Beloved. Special love to Prince’s friends and family, and shout out to Maya Rudolph, who has a Prince cover band.