catbird communications

Just built a WordPress blog/site for local sawyer Scott Hannan. He’s recently launched his own timber salvage business and I offered to put something together that he can ultimately produce content for and manage on his own. Scott can hardly wait to fire up the new WordPress iPhone app!

First things first, though. We’re live, and haven’t publicized yet, so you may notice a few bracketed notes and incomplete bullet points. We’ll be posting photos and tightening things up in the next day or two. Great guy, great business, check out Ithaca Urban Timber Salvage.

Began work in June with the marketing and customer relations team over at BonaDent, one of the nation’s leading Dental Laboratories. Was initially charged with developing fresh content for their “News” section, creating and developing Facebook and Twitter company accounts, researching solutions for interactive webinar capability for continuing education projects, and developing an e-mail/social networking marketing initiative.

These are four elements in a broader effort to develop community among the greater dental community, but most importantly to enhance relationships with current doctors and practices–and to foster new dental client relationships.

Several new directions are being taken, including a minor website overhaul, creating new web features and elements and pushing for further integration of disparate web presences. More on future BonaDent projects to come in the near future.

I was hired as lead writer by the director of the Master of Engineering (MEng) program at Cornell to produce original, fresh copy for a new College of Engineering ‘microsite’. There was a real need to develop a new MEng site; the old site was clunky, confusing, unsightly, and there were too many redundancies for it to be effective — let alone readable — as a recruitment tool. It not only needed a rewrite, it needed a sharp, easy, navigable design; so MEng contracted Albany’s Media Logic to map, design and create the MEng site. I wrote the copy.

A big part of the project consisted of developing ‘field narratives’, 150–200 word summaries describing and, most importantly, selling the individual fields of study to prospective students. This involved a good deal of research into each of these individual colleges within the greater College of Engineering, drawing out highlights, and developing narratives for each of the fifteen fields and colleges.

Have a look.

I work as a freelance writer/editor/proofer for Education Dynamics. I’ve been working with the company for two and a half years, and it’s been instrumental in my editorial development.

Recruitment and retention are of two of the most important concerns for any college and university. The editorial work I do at EducationDynamics is geared toward strengthening and better positioning a school to increase its recruitment and retention rates among prospective and current students.

EducationDynamics provides marketing, admissions, student services, and student life professionals in higher ed with the best online content resources and proprietary technology applications to help them reach recruitment and retention goals. These resources and applications include enrollment services programs, interactive online programs, engagement modules, e-community services, social networking sites, videos and interactives, providing the use of prospecting services and websites, and much more.

I develop content and edit, write, and proof copy for this wide variety of applications and services. The best part is that results are measurable; have a look at a few of these case studies.

I wrote these articles for gradschools.com, an online resource for graduate education. These articles are designed to inform prospective graduate students who are interested in pursuing graduate degrees. Not much post-editing done by gradschools, which was nice. Enjoy!

The Rise of New Media Technologies in Education

Alternative Career Paths for Professional Educators

Marketing Subject Concentrations

I spent much of summer ‘08 editing encyclopedia (pl.). For The Encyclopedia of Punk, I worked with Chris Barsanti over at Barnes and Noble Publishing. While I was hired to edit copy for individual entries, it turned out to also involve heavy research, such as locating reliable discographies, band rosters, concert dates. And of course there was no encyclopedia of punk rock to refer to, so it involved a good deal of resourcefulness and dogged research into hard-to-find, primary source material. Ever wonder who produced the first Crass 7″, “Reality Asylum / Shaved Women”? Good luck finding a source with any reliability, but that’s the kind of obscure fact-checking the job called for. This was a rewarding project because I was able to revisit some of the great music I grew up with. This really is a beautiful layout, too. Thanks to Alison and my friend/cohort Andrea Rotondo for the help on these B&N projects.

Publisher’s Synopsis

When people think of punk they often think of outrageous fashion and iconic bands like The Ramones and the Sex Pistols. But the reality of punk stretches over three decades and numerous countries, with a history as rich and varied as it is shocking and daring. With this lavishly illustrated and authoritative A-Z guide, Brian Cogan leads readers through the fiery history of a furious, rebellious, contradictory, and boundary-redefining musical genre and cultural movement that remains as massively influential as it is wildly misunderstood. As The Encyclopedia of Punk clearly proves, punk music and culture has produced a rich trove of material, above and beyond the hundreds of bands, from books and films to incendiary political movements.

A Review from Publishers Weekly

While a “punk encyclopedia” seems like an oxymoron, music writer and musician Cogan nicely succeeds in producing a “useful resource” illustrating “the urgency and importance of punk rock” from its mid-1970s start to “the movement’s vitality in the present day.” A plethora of great photos-from the Clash and the Sex Pistols to newcomers Groucho Marxists and the Shemps-accompany knowledgeable, fascinating and fast-paced entries that illuminate punk bands’ struggle to survive (the Ramones were paid only $5,000 for their starring role in Rock ‘n’ Roll High School in 1979) while avoiding being co-opted by the mainstream music biz. (Nov.)

Chris Moriarty is the 2007 Philip K. Dick award-winning author of Spin State (Bantam Spectra, 2003) and Spin Control (Bantam Spectra 2006). Chris hired me to run an editorial pass on the first book (of three) in a new young reader sci-fi series. This first installment is entitled The Inquisitor’s Apprentice. This project was essentially a copy edit, a first proof, and a thorough “tightening up”, making plot-level recommendations, etc. I took the heavily marked-up first draft, made changes to the electronic file, created chapter breaks and prepared a clean master document for submission to the editors over at Henry Holt, the publisher. As the pub date nears and more comes out about the book, I’ll post new info. A brief synopsis:

The Inquistor’s Apprentice is a young adult fantasy starring Sacha Kessler, a young Jewish kid from the Lower East Side. Set in Manhattan in 1905, the plot revolves around immigrant communities with their own ethnic veins of witchcraft and the city government that is intent on stamping out all “Un-American” magic.

Last summer I worked on an extensive encyclopedia book project for In Country: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War. It was released in October by Barnes and Noble Publishing. I ran some layout edits and a fact-checking pass — lots of military terminology, weapon types, fighter jet models, military units, tricky geography. I certainly learned a lot about the Vietnam War, and was moved by the experience, especially by the hundreds of gripping photos.

from the publisher:

The Vietnam War was a watershed event that forever changed the American social and political landscape. Covering the thirty years between 1945 and 1975, In Country: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War is a balanced, comprehensive “A to Z” encyclopedia on the conflict that includes definitive coverage of all aspects of the war–both on the home front and “in country.” Illustrated throughout with detailed maps and more than 800 color and black-and-white photographs with extensive captions, this handsome volume presents a fascinating, informative, and richly nuanced picture of this tumultuous and controversial era.