Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

DIY what? MIY who?

Companies and organizations have been reputed for casually throwing around these acronyms like snowballs in winter, never knowing exactly for what DIY or MIY actually stand.

So let’s set the record straight now, get to the bottom of these terms and detail some Internet corners where the DIY and MIY are legitimately supported as well as encouraged.

DEFINING TERMS:

DIY (or “Do-it-yourself”): A term coined from the ‘50s that commonly refers to the process of making or building something for oneself without the aid of paid professions. The goal of DIY pursuits is as much about making a useful product as it is about self-empowerment.

MIY (or “Make-it-yourself”): Like DIY, MIY endeavors are primarily about creating a good that is functional and decorative, with a personal touch. MIY is a relatively recent term, focusing on crafting, clothing and household projects. The goal of most MIY pursuits is to encourage individuality in products and life, instead of cookie-cutter corporate standards.

Zine: Short for magazine, zines are smaller magazine that are usually hand written (or typed) as well as hand bound. Circulation is generally lower for zines, and distribution occurs either through distros or alternative publishing companies like Microcosm Publishing whose primary goal is to encourage self-empowerment and creativity.

Graphic Novel: A type of comic book that usually contains a higher page count, higher-quality illustrations and a more in depth storyline. Graphic novels are typically perfect bound and geared toward a more mature audience.

Craft: Either a skill (as in crafting a short story or repairing a car) or a term used to describe the decorative arts (as in Arts and Crafts). Some common handmade crafts associate with the DIY/MIY mentality include: pottery, ceramics, metal work, weaving, knitting, sewing, jewelry making, wood working, glass blowing.

DIY subculture: A group within the majority that feels a distinct lack of satisfaction and aesthetic in the industrial process of making goods for distribution. This subculture is often associated with music, revolution and activism.

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COMMON CONFUSIONS:

To DIY, To Sleep Perchance to Dream

One common confusion about the term DIY is the extent of yourself in the projects. Obviously, calling a plumber to fix a sink you never installed is not DIY. While knitting your own scarf with your own pattern is a great example of the DIY work ethic.  

But what about the middle? What about companies like Wordclay who are using a publishing wizard to design books as well as professionals to bind, print and sell books?

It’s a good question, one with a good answer, too. 

Short of buying your own printing software and press, self-publishing companies like Lulu.com, CreateSpace, or even BookSurge, are about as DIY as publishing can get. Wordclay, especially, since we not only provide free publishing, but we’ve woven in links to other writing and DIY communities throughout our Web site. We also offer contests like our current Short Story Contests, which are easy and free to enter. And if you ever visit our site, you’ll see the wealth of information on genres, marketing, promotion, whatever you can image.

It’s true – we publish your book; we moved your manuscript into a publishable format and print copies as they’re ordered via our Bookstore as well as other major retailers. But remember, DIY is doing. You wrote your book after all; you sweated over words and sentences for hours at a time; and with our publishing wizard, you’re the one selecting your cover design, your interior layout, your prices and royalty rate, not Wordclay. You had a vision for a book, and you’ve carried it through to the very end. If that’s not DIY, I don’t know what is.

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To MIY or Not to MIY – That’s the Question

Another common concerns people have about the DIY methodology is essentially its core mission, namely whether he or she has the spare time and resources to make something by themselves. 

While hobbies and creating little knick knacks is all well and good, what about a garden or a pair of pants? Personally, I wouldn’t know where to begin if I was supposed to make my own jeans. I would write “buy denim” on my to-do list and then shrug, clueless. Really, do I even want to make my own pants?

What are professionals paid for anyway, if not to make pants and design books? Besides, hardly an individual exists that is truly self-sufficient, making and doing everything themselves. There might be one or two in the states, but you probably haven’t heard of him because, well, he doesn’t need anyone or want anything. 

But wait – let’s take a step back here. Who said you had to DIY/MIY everything? No one does. People barter with money and services all the time. People call plumbers and get the satellite installed. I can buy pants after all.

You don’t have to DIY everything, but some find a great joy in making their own garden or pants from scratch. Perhaps we don’t make our own garden fences from trees we cut from our backyard, and maybe we don’t weave and dye our own denim, but the DIY and MIY mentality isn’t about being completely independent. Rather it’s about using the resources available to you and taking responsibility for a product you would enjoy making. After all, as the saying goes, only God can make a tree. 

With Wordclay, we give you the options to do as much or as little as you want. Want to design your cover? Then use the publishing wizard to piece together a cover you’re proud to call your own. Want a professional to design your cover? Then pick up a custom cover design package and don’t sweat it. You can be as DIY as you’d like using Wordclay.

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Practice Makes Perfect: Must-See DIY and MIY Organizations Online

About AuthorTree: AuthorTree exists to empower today’s author by providing intuitive, cost-effective promotional Web sites to advance their career goals. Online marketing has become a necessary facet of any book’s promotional campaign. AuthorTree wants to help authors harness the power of the internet to reach their audiences and make them grow.

We realize that it can be difficult to keep up with the rapid pace at which the internet evolves, and we all have different comfort levels with technology. It is part of our mission to maintain a comprehensive resource library so our authors can educate themselves about the technology we use.

Located at the Author Solutions headquarters in Bloomington, Indiana, AuthorTree’s dedicated staff has years of experience helping authors reach their self-publishing goals. We’re dedicated to bringing that experience to bear in helping our authors cultivate thriving careers. 

About Lifehacker: Welcome to Lifehacker, an award-winning, daily blog that features tips, shortcuts, and downloads that help you get things done smarter and more efficiently. Lifehacker launched in January 2005, and now ranks as one of the top-linked blogs on the internet according to Technorati. In 2006 Wired Magazine named Lifehacker Best Blog in their annual Rave Awards ceremony. Lifehacker’s also been mentioned in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Oprah Magazine and PC Magazine as well as other mainstream press outlets.

In addition to publishing over 20 tips per day, the Lifehacker editorial team develops an exclusive line of productivity software applications called Lifehacker Code, which we invite you to download and try out for free. In late 2006, Wiley and Sons published our first book, Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day, authored by Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor. The second edition of the book, Upgrade Your Life, is due out in March 2008.

About DIYSEARCH: To put it simply, diysearch was created out of frustration in 1996 by David Palmer. Back in those days there wasn’t anything like this, and the major search engines just didn’t spider these little out on the fringe sites. Yes, google has done a pretty damn good job with their pagerank system in making it much much easier to find just about any site, the problem is still the glut of results returned in a typical google search. diysearch is much more focused. That is key. focus. If you’re interested enough, Palmer has written up an abridged history of the site.

About DoItYourself.com: DoItYourself.com is the leading independent home improvement and home repair website. It has been repeatedly honored among the Best on the Web, and was named “One of the Top 50 Sites in the World” by Time Magazine. In addition to its extraordinarily broad list of topics, it operates the most active home improvement forums on the Internet, enabling consumers to get personalized advice from professionals in over 100 subjects. 

About DIY Convention: The DIY Convention: Do It Yourself in Film, Music & Books teaches filmmakers, musicians, authors and entrepreneurs how to create, promote, protect and distribute independent film, music and books.

The DIY Convention and its related events are produced by JM Northern Media LLC, an independent media company based in Los Angeles.

JM Northern Media has several divisions. They include:

LIVE EVENTS: Besides the DIY Convention, we produce the DIY Music Festival, DIY Film Festival and the DIY Book Festival, each honoring top independent works from their respective art; and the monthly Club DIY series spotlighting works from the festivals and featuring an entertainment industry panel discussion.

NEWS: We produce the DIYReporter.com, a daily news, feature and review subscription site; and OFFtheCHARTS.com, an in-depth analysis of breaking news from the world of entertainment.

BOOKS: OTC Press is the publisher of Off The Charts: Ruthless Days and Reckless Nights Inside The Music Industry and Beyond The Charts: MP3 and the Digital Music Revolution.

About Craftster: Craftster.org was started in August 2003 as a repository for hip, off-beat, crafty diy (do it yourself) projects.

People who have crafty urges, but who are not excited by cross stitched bunnies and crocheted toilet paper cozies, can show off their current craft projects, ask advice on future projects and get inspiration for new endeavors.
Whenever possible, members are encouraged to post pictures of the steps involved in making a project as well as the final results.

Craftster.org attempts to be carefully organized to allow members to easily find the projects they are looking for.

Special emphasis is placed on projects that involve recycling, reusing and repurposing existing objects. The thinking is that whenever an object can be reused rather than buried in a landfill, it’s a worthy venture - not to mention an interesting challenge!

About miy Creations: miy “Make-it-yourself” is Your @ HOME and GARDEN DECOR NETWORK; with hundreds of home decor craft projects, inspirations, ideas and images…all to inspire your creative soul to make, create and decorate your home all year round.

About make it you: The Revolution is about making the world a more creative place! If you choose to accept, your mission is to execute individuality and passion in every creative project you tackle. Your unit will consist of you, your friends and a complete arsenal of artistic sewing tools. Recruit friends along the way. Avoid capture by unlikely foes of idleness, frustration & procrastination at all cost. In case of capture, contact home base and start from the beginning. Do not accept defeat. To find your target visit a Studio MIY shop near you. Upon your arrival, be prepared for guerilla sewing, high-contact quilting and reconstructive crafting. Good luck!

About Make-Stuff: For crafters, hobbyists, entrepreneurs and PEOPLE WHO JUST LIKE TO MAKE STUFF! When your friends say, “You know you can buy one of those…” do you say, “Yeah, so?” If you love to make things, if you constantly have a project going in a back room, or cluttering up a kitchen counter, if you start making Christmas presents in June and you watch all those do-it-yourself shows on TV, come on in! We’ve got all kinds of recipes, formulas, craft projects and ideas that you can make yourself.

About Scrapbooker Online: Scrapbooker Online’s primary focus is to provide a community for scrapbook artists and enthusiast to come together and share their scrapbooking ideas. Please take the time to register with our site and join our community. Registration is free and easy. Once registered you will be able to submit your favorite web links, join discussions, and even submit articles and ideas which we may decide to publish.

All “About Us” sections were lifted directly from the corresponding Web sites.

There you have it, DIYers. Whether your crafting, scrapbooking, building your own Web site, gardening, sewing, whatever your MIY heart desires, you should be able to find an outlet in one of the listed communities.

If you have another DIY community, tip or magazine that you’d like to share, please, by all means, share away. Wordclay, bringing DIYers together since 2007.

This is Justin Dimos, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.