Tag Archives: infographic

Packing light for a trip is easier said than done – here are a few good tips

2016-10-04

Packing the right gear for a beach vacation or for skiing weekend on the mountains is very easy. You know exactly how the weather and the environment will be. The only question really is how many party outfits you want to pack in your suitcase.

If you are planning a weekend in London or Prague in the winter or spring, you have to be prepared for any kind of weather. Even tougher packing choices has to be made if you are going to tour, say, France in the spring or Sweden in the autumn.

Fortunately, experienced travellers from Splendid Asia have collected a number of good tips for packing for any trip like a pro.

Packing clothes, electronics and other things for a week or two week vacation is one thing but packing for one or two year trip as a digital nomad is completely something else. Assuming a nomad is flying between places where he or she stays for a few months at a time, everything has to fit in to two or three suitcases. If anyone has tips for packing for a nomad life, we would love to hear them.

Infographic by Splendid Asia.

Writers tend to read a lot, but wealthy individuals may read even more

2016-08-12

When an aspiring writer asks for advice from a published author, the first tip usually is: read books. A lot of books. All kind of books. If a young entrepreneur gets an opportunity to ask for advice from wealthy individuals, like Warren Buffet or Mark Zuckerberg, the answer may be the same: read books.

Mark Cuban reads three hours a day, but Warren Buffet reads even more: 80% of his working hours is reading time.

When Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates was still the head of the corporation, he used to take a vacation in order to relax and read. Every year, people wanted to know what he would read during his vacation. Mr Gates told the media which titles had made it to his summer reading book stack. Naturally, these books used to climb high on top seller lists.

The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, promoted reading in 2015 when he announced that he would read two books every month. He told (on Facebook, of course) which books he was going to read in advance so that anyone who was interested could read the same books and discuss about them on social media.

Here is the infographic Reading habits that lead to success by Fresh Essays.

Via Ebookfriendly.

Accidental cultural conflicts are often excused for tourists, but in some countries, serious consequences await

2015-10-19

Experiencing and learning about foreign cultures is one of the best things when traveling overseas. The further away from home you travel, the more you should pay attention to getting familiar with cultural issues and local habits in the destination. Often, accidental poor behavior is forgiven to tourists because everyone understands that it is impossible for foreigners to know all local habits. There can be, however, serious consequences if you happen to break a local law that you would never believe is a crime.

Home exchange service Love Home Swap has created an infographic that explains a few good-to-know and especially, must-know cultural items from popular travel destinations across the world.

Thailand was mentioned in the infographic, but there are many more pieces of cultural knowledge travelers should be aware of. For instance, what is the real reason behind the famous Thai smile? It is not what many tourists think, because in Asia, it is quite common to hide embarrassment, lack of answers, or other feelings in smile.

A few countries that are not mentioned in the infographic at all are Finland and Mongolia. Stories about working and traveling in Mongolia give valuable insight on the culture of this exotic country. Two guidebooks: The Lighter Side of Finland and Analysis of the Finnish Tango explain the cool Nordic culture of Finland.

12 steps for writing a better book, article or blog post

2015-09-23

Everyone who has written more than a few articles or blog posts – not to mention writing a book – knows how hard work it can be. It is a lot of fun, it is very rewarding, but you have to be able concentrate for quite a long time in order to get anything sensible done before it can be published. A step-by-step guide can help writers to get started on their next project, and more importantly, stay focused on the job they have.

Ann Handley has written a book titled Everybody Writes – Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content. The steps for writing better blog posts, articles or books outlined in the book have been published as an infographic. You can find the whole detailed infographic below, just after the summary of the steps.

1. Determine your goal.
2. Reframe your goal with the reader in mind.
3. Make sure you have data to support your argument.
4. Think about the most suitable publishing platform.
5. Have a person in your mind who you are writing to.
6. Write the first draft, but remind yourself it is only a start.
7. Take a break from writing.
8. Rewrite (or edit).
9. Create a great title.
10. If you can find someone else to edit, do it. If you can’t, take a break and do something else, and then take a look at your text with fresh eyes.
11. Give it one more thorough read.
12. Publish.

Large bookstore reveals the secret of bestseller

2015-07-30

Even if it is only a daydream, every author dreams of writing a bestseller. Audiences would actually listen to the author’s opinions, ask for advice and there would be requests to give speeches. Everyone knows that it is roughly one in a million chance to make it. Unless there was a formula for bestsellers. Large British bookstore chain Waterstones has analyzed 100 bestseller books in order to decipher what made them successes.

Altogether, Waterstones analyzed 100 fiction books. They picked 10 books from the last 10 years. Two genres dominated the lists:
1. 35% of bestsellers are thrillers.
2. 33% of bestsellers are contemporary fiction.

Despite the huge media attention young adult and erotica/romance books have raised during the last few years, they are far behind thrillers, crime and contemporary fiction in sales.

Waterstones discovered that an author must be patient (as everyone who has tried to publish her first book via a traditional publisher knows). We might even say that practice produces a bestseller. The sweet spot for authors to make it big seems to be their 13th book.

A surprising point in Waterstones’ analysis is that the bestseller title doesn’t include verb at all. Here is the bestseller formula infographic from Waterstones.

What about nonfiction books, what makes a nonfiction bestseller? That’s easy to answer: the book contains so valuable information that people are willing to pay for it.

The World’s Most Translated Books Are Classics, but Which Language Was the Original?

2015-05-18

What’s the world’s most translated book? Well, it has to be a classic so that the title has had time to find publishers in smaller and smaller language markets. If it is a classic, would it also mean that the original language of the book is one of the old global languages, such as French? Yes, that seems to be the case. French, Italian, Portuguese, Danish and Swedish titles along with English titles dominate the top ten chart of the most translated books.

1. The Little Prince, originally written in French.
2. Pinocchio, Italian.
3. Pilgrim’s Progress, English.
4. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, English.
5. Andersen’s Fairy Tales, Danish.
6. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas, French.
7. The Adventures of Asterix, French.
8. The Adventures of Tintin, French.
9. The Alchemist, Portuguese.
10. Pippi Longstocking, Swedish.

Translation agency 7Brands created the following infographic of the world’s most translated languages.

Via Ebookfriendly.

French book lovers are adopting ebooks

2015-04-05

France has a long and wifely appreciated literary tradition, but some observers have asked will it survive if the nation doesn’t adopt new technologies and business models. In fact, one of the pioneers of e-reading comes from France: Bookeen. The Paris-based company has manufactured popular Cybook ereaders for many years. Adoption of ebooks is actually pretty high in France as a recent infographics put together by Salon Du Livre shows.

Here are some highlights from the Salon du Livre infographic (Salon du Livre is a large book event in Paris that was held in 2015 at the end of March).
– 18% of French read ebooks.
– 90% of ebook readers use an ereader device, 71% a tablet, 45% a computer and 32% a smartphone.
– 80% of 15-24 year old French are readers.
– 70% of French read at least one a year.
– Those who read books, are active: they read 15 books per year on average
– 80 000 people are directly employed by book business (the population of France was 66 million in 2014)

If you are planning to visit France, download this guide to Southern France.

Authors Don’t Have to Sit down to Write Fabulously

2015-02-27

Sitting still at a keyboard and typing away for hours and hours a day is necessary from time to time, but if a writer works this way for long periods back ache, sore shoulders and stiff neck may become problems. This is exactly why some authors occasionally try and write standing up. I have tried it myself, and it is not as crazy as you might imagine.

Ernest Hemingway used to write standing up every now and then. He is not only writer who has discovered alternative ways to write – other than sitting down in a study at a keyboard. How about writing naked as J.D. Salinger did? Here is an infographic Unusual Work Habits of Great Writers by Ninja Essays.

Infographic from Ninja Essays.