The otherwise excellent local library has one significant design flaw, the work tables are on a balcony that overlooks a slate covered lobby. The effect is that of a sound studio filled with parents chatting up their kids. As a non-parent, I had forgotten how many phrases seem to be repeated by all parents since at least the time of my youth. Here are some of my favorites.

1.       “OK, what is it now?” (Using the exasperated parent voice.)

2.       “Now you know how it feels.” (This one was always a little troubling to me.)

3.       “Unh-uhn, come this way. Uhn-uhn, this way. Uhn-uhn, I SAID this way!” (Grunt-like sounds are a common form of parental communication.)

4.       “You are perfectly capable of –“(Enter an action here such as “carrying your own books.”)

5.       (Using that special parental rapid repetition technique) “Leave it, Leave it, leave it. I SAID LEAVE IT!” (Parents seem to think telling the kids that they actually said what they have just said multiple times is a successful strategy for bringing about the desired result.)

6.       “You have been VERY BAD today so –“(Insert the threat of not being allowed the usage of something the Kid wants usage usually involving “screens” or a subset thereof.)

7.       “Let’s go see if we can find your –“(Insert Daddy, Mommy, your brother, etc. It seems there is an unsettling tendency for parents to lose people.)

8.       “(Insert Kid’s name) apologize to (him/her)… tell (her/him) that you are sorry. (This is followed by a disgruntled apology that indicates the kid is anything but sorry.)
(NOTE: This constant avoidance of contractions often make Parents sound like they’re talking to non-English speaking foreigners.)

9.       5, 4, 3, 2, 1! (In a different age, this countdown would be followed by the snapping of a belt. Today a countdown just backs the parent into a corner. There is no climax that can match the threat that proceeded it. It’s kind of like a Stephen King novel.)

10.   And of course the biggie, “Don’t!” There are lots and lots of “Don’t”s.

Well, it must work. I could never raise kids. I would have to take constant naps. It amazes me how quickly they go from happy to screaming to crying. Rinse, spin, rewash. Kudos to all parents! 

In The Everything Store about Amazon it was mentioned mentioned that Jeff Bezos (or his assistants) would respond to complaints sent to his email, jeff@amazon.com, and sometimes act on them. So I decided I would send him a list. This is a very book reader/buyer. In some cases I may just be doing things wrong in other cases there may be technical reasons for the problems. What I am not including are the larger issues often brought up about Amazon’s business practices. Help me expand this list by adding your suggestions in the comments.

1. Book dates are listed as the shown edition’s publication date. I wish there was also an indication of the original publication date. Then make it possible to sort by the original publication date. This would really help when trying to read an author in order.

2. If a book is in a series then have a series list or at least put the number the book is in the series. Some authors are adding the number to the title but not most. I often have to go off site to Google the series order. (A series check list would actually be nice.)

3. In certain circumstances there is no easy way to turn off the one click option. I think this is the case with Kindle books. Please allow us to use the cart at all times.

4. Please add a way to sort user reviews that limits the selection to verified purchases.

5. Also add an option to see only the compiled star rating of verified purchases.

6. Please show all format show all format options on a books page in the app like you do on the web. I hate having to search to see what formats are available.

7. Always have page numbers for Kindle books even if you have to use the Apple method of creating them based on pages you see in the app. You could note when you are not using the (preferred) real page numbers. I absolutely hate the sections!

8. To get out of a definition book in the iPad app you have to touch below or above the box. The instinct is to touch to the side which doesn’t work. This is very odd.

9. X-ray is a good idea that still needs a lot of work. For instance, if I highlight a character name and you do not have the information from the publishers I will get a bizarrely inappropriate web sourced derivation of the name.  It looks sloppy.

10. With the recent update to the Kindle app you have added a box for x-ray that is oddly placed. Please fix.

11. Endnotes/footnotes on the Kindle app are a disaster.  On the rare occasions I can get the small footnote number to respond to touch (after accidentally highlighting the words next to it ten times), I often find I am sent to the wrong note. And the return link almost never sends me back to where I was reading. Currently, I have to bookmark my reading page before attempting to read a footnote.

12. I understand why you can’t have sales from the apps (the 30% cut demanded by Apple) but it would be nice.

13. While I can go to the web page on Amazon.com for managing Kindle books page on the, it will not let me remove books.  I am not sure why this is but as a book borrower this is a pain.

14. Speaking of book borrowing, the interface with Overdrive needs work. If I explore in Amazon after checking out a book I have to click back every step to return to Overdrive. A simple done button would be nice.

15. Make Amazon.com less junky!

Any avid reader of crime fiction realizes that we are in a golden age. The writing level is at an all-time high, there is a boom in foreign language translations, and the internet gives us access to more writers than ever before. But as genre books continue to fill my bookshelves and reading apps I am more acutely aware of the traits that so many of the heroes of these novels seem to have. So if you want to grow up to be a fictional crime detective (PIs and cops) I have put together a list of what’s in your future

(If you look down my Goodreads list (goodreads.com/vastine) you will note that I tend to read books with male protagonists written by novelists from the United States and Europe.  I’m not sure why this is but I am sure it means something terrible lurks deep in my soul. This list reflects my reading bias. That’s not to say I wouldn’t love to be Kinsey Milhone.)

1. You drink too much or you used to.

2. Your drinking will be the cause of at least one divorce and other failed relationships.

3. You are not a wine drinker.

4. You have a child from a broken relationship. This child will have deep-seeded issues with you.

5. At some point your child will be threatened or abducted by bad guys. Don’t worry; kids are always saved in the end.  Sadly, the child’s issues with you will grow worse.

6. At some point your ex will be threatened or abducted. Do worry; exes tend to die.  Sadly, this will send you into a spiral of guilt that brings you back to the bottle.

7. After quitting drinking for the last time you get involved with a reformed prostitute who is not ashamed of her past. This relationship will only last two books.

8. You sleep with partners, clients, suspects and former adversaries.

9. You suffer from insomnia.

10. You are tall.

11. If you are an American private detective you have an amoral friend whose wanton attitude towards violence allows for the mass killing of bad guys without you taking the blame.

12. You cross the legal line when killing bad guys.  Luckily, this always happens at the end of books so you don’t have to go to jail.

 13.  Some cop will ask you to you, “Why is it that whenever you show up that I know dead bodies will be involved?”

14. If you are a PI you are an ex-cop.

15. If you are a PI you have a contact at the police station that provides information for you while always saying, “This is the last time I help you. I could lose my job.”

16. The public always lies to you.

17. The public never respects you.

18. There is at least one cop who hates you.

19. You don’t believe in god (especially if you’re a European cop.)

20. At some point you face off with religious crazies so superficially fanatical that it would make Stephen King squirm.

21. If you are American, you will tangle with Southerners so stereotypically backwoods that it will make The Dukes of Hazard look like a Ted Talk.

22. Your supportive boss will retire to be replaced by one who hates you.

23. You don’t trust “suits.”

24. You are the rare liberal policeman.

25. You read books by well-known crime novelists that readers suspect are the writer’s friends.

26. You like jazz.

27. You never seem to need to go to the restroom even if you are tied up in a shed for a week.

28. If you have a parent alive, he or she has dementia.

29. You will live to see another day.

If you have any others please leave them in the comments.

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Over the last few weeks I have been spending a lot of my free time voicing over my old online comics and turning them into YouTube videos. Once done I post the links to my new masterpieces on all of my social network accounts. My initial uploads received many kind comments and “likes” from my friends and followers. Then I noticed something strange, each time I put on another video compilation I would get fewer and fewer views.  My most recent five minute video had less than ten. So I decided to dig beyond the geo-location and reference source stats on the YouTube analytics to see if I could get insight on the waning interest.  I found a clever little tool where you can see when your viewers stopped watching a specific video. To my shock I found out that not a single person of the 180+ viewers had actually watched all of any of the videos. In fact, no one had watched more than one minute. Clearly the internet hated me. But I wouldn't have known it if I had relied solely on the comments that I had received.

Now don't feel sorry for me. There is a reason I quit acting years ago. I am terrible. I use my website site to experiment with different tools and to have fun.  The primary reason I did this project to play around with creating videos via PowerPoint instead of using the usual video creation tools. And yes, I had fun.  In fact, I laughed when I saw how poorly received the videos actually were. What really interested me was that these new analytic tools gave me a way to get beyond civility and really see what people thought. The stats don't lie.

I have spent most of my adult life working in the theatre director's chair.  Getting truthful feedback on a production is hard to do because people are just so damn nice. Trust me I lap up the false kindness.  But the truth of the matter is that to grow you need to know the negative as much as you need to know the positive.  Analytics gives us great insight into that dark side.

Recently, I was promoting an art exhibit with a video of the work. I immediately noticed that while there were a few positive comments to video, there were fewer than normal.  After looking at the analytics I saw that not only were most people not clicking beyond the teaser, those that did were quitting the video after just a few slides. While the artist did some great work, all of the works were very similar and the viewer lost the wow factor very quickly.  I immediately dumped the video and replaced it with one great photo and… well it still wasn’t a success. But I was able to rethink my strategy because of the unstated negative response I was able to discover in the analytics.

There is a negative aspect to the cold way the internet tells us that it hates us, it takes away the luxury of self-deception.  We can give up too easily.  I am reading the great Robert Triver’s book “The Folly of Fools” where he argues that self-deception is evolutionally ingrained in us to make us succeed. Hang around a twenty-something for any length of time and you know how driven they can be by the belief that they know everything.  This drive, no matter how wrong headed it is, gets things done.  And eventually the talented ones stumble onto their potential. So I hope that as these tools dig deeper into the psyche of the audience they don’t destroy some young careers before they really begin.

But as a business use these amazing new products coldly. Dump and replace. The internet is no place for sentiment when you are trying to make a buck.

And as far as my crappy comic videos are concerned, I’m not stopping.  I make them for me and the few people who still lie to me.

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Earlier this fall, “The Lion King” was re-released in 3-D. Most of the commentary focused on its surprising box office success. Disney, seeing an opportunity, quickly announced several more 3D enhanced refurbishings. What shocked me was the silence. Sure, there were a few complaints about messing around with art but not many. Compare this to when Ted Turner took his catalog of black and white classic (and not so classic) films and began to colorize them. Led by the likes of Steven Spielberg, the howls were deafening. They succeeded. When was the last time you saw a colorized movie on television?

But film has been a highly commercial art since its birth. Whether they are creating high budget blockbusters or Kickstarter funded indie films, producers always dream of box office riches. To achieve these dreams moviemakers have been willing to show their art any place they can get an audience.  From iPhones to flat screen TVs to stadium seat theatres, today we see the same movie in many dramatically different settings. Is seeing Avatar on the back of a seat of a transpacific flight really seeing it? Is a censored version of The Mission in a Bolivian theatre really the same movie as the full version in an American theatre? 

There no longer is a uniform viewing experience.

So why is there a never ending vitriol for the dubbing of foreign movies? Just the other day I was reading the comments section for a French zombie movie on iTunes day and the movie was being voted down relentlessly because it was dubbed.  One commenter said that once he found out the iTunes version was dubbed he went out and bought the “original version that the artist intended you to see.”  Um, this is a zombie film people.  I rented it and the dubbing was fine. 

I used to be that way.  I could define for you the appropriate version of a film and the acceptable setting for viewing the film. Anything else and you were not a serious person.  

A changing point in my feelings about dubbing came when I saw a dubbed version of the French adaptation of Harlan Coben’s novel Tell No One. This excellently dubbed film was thrilling.  At first, I was thrown off by the dubbing but once my brain adjusted I soon forgot the movie was dubbed.  A year later I decided to watch the subtitled version on Netflix.  It was considerably less engaging.  Watching a thriller (or a zombie movie) where you spend the whole time reading the bottom quarter of the screen sucks the life out of the action.  I never could get into the flow of the film. It also was tiring. Neuroscience tells us that reading is a learned skill while listening is natural.

We have all seen comically bad film dubbings.  In fact, I recently quit watching an Italian zombie movie because it was so poorly dubbed.  I just want the choice.  Besides, it’s not always art sometimes it’s just a zombie flick.

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(Spoilers ahead.)

One of the clever aspects of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games is how the hero, Katniss Everdeen, is constantly manipulating the fictional audiences to increase her chance of victory. She models every smile, grimace, word and kiss for a watching world. Using this device through the first person narrative of Katniss serves several purposes including adding a strong satiric bite and increasing the tension about the nature of her relationship with Peeta Mellark.  But Collins isn’t only adept at manipulating the characters in the fictional world she is also an expert at manipulating her readers. It is this button pushing talent that has elevated this YA novel onto the tops of the bestseller lists.

Amazing advances in neuroscience over the last decade have made the brain a more and more predictable place. Collins has set up shop in the most mercurial place of all – the teenage brain.  Any parent can rattle off the stages of emotions that a kid goes through as they age and in a world where the cultural touchstones are becoming more universal it is becoming easier for writers to wrangle control over nature and nurture to create a uniform emotional experience.   From Christina Aguilera telling your daughter “you are beautiful no matter what they say” to Miley Cyrus is portraying the kid who is special but no one knows it to just about everything about High School Musical popular art producers today are selling a programmed emotional experience.

Collins has created characters and situations that almost always go for predictable emotional responses.  Even the internal struggles Katniss battles is done in a way to emotionally engage the reader to levels of fear, frustration and joy as she increasingly understands herself. I first realized how potently Collins’ was playing with my emotions when I had teared up for the third time in what I had derisively considered a YA novel.

The character set-up is perfect for playing on the insecurities and dreams of a young reader. Katniss is a unappreciated talent who has to struggle against the seemingly uncaring world.  While not a genius in the classroom she is ever so clever in ways that are hard for the outside world to see.  She has a crusty cover that obscures the swan within.  When she is eventually thrown into a monstrous situation she unexpectedly triumphs as the world celebrates.  And most importantly, she is glorified in the end. I just described about every kid’s fantasy. 

It would seem that the kids must kill kids set-up would force the hero into situations where she would lose the sympathy of the readers. But Collins protects her protagonist from her murderous actions by justifying them to the reader. Not only is Katniss not responsible for the situation she is in (unless you blame her for heroically taking her young sister’s place) when she eventually must kill the kills are oh so acceptable. She kills in an act of self-defense, as retribution for the death of a beloved character and finally in mercy.  And when her ally/love interest Peeta kills it is an accident. The reader can safely snuggle into the fantasy without any pesky doubts about moral ambiguity.

Of course, anyone who has been around teens for say five minutes knows that hormones are working their magic.  In The Hunger Games, Katniss has not one but two suitors that are honorable and attractive.  She also discovers that while she thought she was unnoticed by the other boys at home they had been secretly longing for her. This is teen heaven.

While the full arc of the story is predictable, the individual moments are clever and often surprising. This is a smart choice. Studies in music show that much of what we like is based in the anticipation of the next note. Despite the efforts of critics everywhere the popularity of sentimentality has proven resilient. We like the predictable.

But all of this only scratches the surface of how Collins uses the expected emotional response of her readers to drive her story.  The examples I use often appear in YA books. But Collins seemingly has audience reaction in mind in every sentence she writes.  While I love emotionally muddled messes in my arts, not everything has to be The Sopranos or The Tropic of Cancer.  There are many times that I am in the mood to be manipulated me but you better do it well.  And that Collins does. 

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After spending the last five days making various PowerPoint presentations, I started thinking about how much I loathe watching them.

I recently worked with someone whose position required them to speak publicly on a daily basis. Unfortunately, at best he had modest speaking talents. He must have sensed these inadequacies because on every occasion, from the mundane to the solemn, out popped a PowerPoint.  They were awful.  With ham-handed (and often inappropriate) attempts at humor and voluminous use of outlines his presentations became the dread of the office.

Not everyone can be a great public speaker and a little flair via the PowerPoint can help get the point across but I have found that most presentations do more harm than help.

So here are a few of my thoughts on what to do and not to do in PowerPoint presentations.

1. Don’t just present an outline! The brain handles time perception in strange ways.  Once it knows the exact structure of events it locks on this and begins to anticipate the sequence.  The brain loses focus on what is being said and turns to what is left to be said. Boredom takes over.  Who hasn’t thought, “There are 18 points on his slide and he has only done two. Will this ever end?”

2. Do show material that augments (but doesn’t just repeat) the information in the speech.  Use a photo or a chart to expound on what you are saying.  But ONLY have the slide on the screen while you are directly addressing it. Also, if you are using unfamiliar terms or names you can strengthen memory by presenting it visually as well as orally. But again, take the slide down quickly. You want people focusing on you not a screen.

3. Be wary of animations and other gimmicks. Don’t those little tricks in PowerPoint seem so amazing while you are creating a presentation? But compared to what we see on a daily basis on websites and television they are embarrassingly hokey. PowerPoint has long since stopped being cutting edge technology. Keep it simple. 

4. Don’t get caught in the trap of using PowerPoint to completely educate your audience.  If it is important for the viewers to walk away with a lot of information from the presentation then create support material.  But if you provide the material in a handout, try distributing it after the speech.

5. Avoid the funny. You aren’t as funny as you think you are. If you have to tell jokes please keep them off of the screen.

6. OK, I am repeating myself but I think it is that important. To keep the PowerPoint from dragging your presentation down make sure to remove a screen the second you have finished discussing it. Don’t be afraid of the blank screen! When it’s blank the audience turns their full attention to you.

7. Finally, if PowerPoint is not needed, DON’T USE IT!

These are just a few of my thoughts on using PowerPoint more effectively.  What are your thoughts? 

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I recently began dabbling in comics.  Not reading them, but actually creating them.  One of the beauties of the internet is that everyone can attempt, on some rudimentary level, to create art in forms previously barred by high entry in skill or cost.  But today you can create movies, produce music, record radio shows and publish books for basically free and with limited technical ability.  Trust me, I have done them all to even levels of success.  That's ok because we live in the age of the amateur.  I have gotten my Charles Schultz on and have become a comic artist (well let’s say more writer.)

I specifically use Bitstrips.com which has a bright palatte that reminds me of the Sunday morning comics that I splayed across the den of in my youth.  Bitstrips originally made a splash at the 2008 SXSW just two days after going alpha.  With shop set up in Toronto, this little company soon became a minor sensation.  In the past three years, a slew of copycat sites have expanded the options for comic making exponentially (for an article on other options read https://goo.gl/FauH).  I chose this site because, well, I had heard of it first.  But I am happy I chose it. It’s flexible, fun, and socially savvy in a meaningful way.  So many web sites add a social component because they think they should.  In this case, making friends allows you to get viewers, to trade graphics and to learn new tricks.  This last point is important because their help function is woefully limited.

(A great example of sharing on the site is tyreesa.  Above is one of the many wonderful
dresses that she offers to “Friends” to use in their strips.)

The site is free.  In fact the only way I could spend money there is if I wanted my avatar on a shirt.  Bitstrips, like some other sites, has a premium area that focuses on programs with schools.  Currently they are embracing the cause of the moment with a dedicated section for anti-bullying efforts.  Because so many students use the school section a lot of the free area members are very young.  But with some dedicated searching you can find a good group of very talented adult writers as well. 

(Far funnier than anything you will find in the Sunday paper is the work of Ralph LeBeau.)

As a writer I get great enjoyment from exploring unique comic art forms.  Comedy demands different approaches for different disciplines.  I remember a public reading of a dark play I wrote about Alabama politics which was filled with evil and vindictive characters.  I thought I had written an exposé but the audience saw it as a farce.  The group dynamics of a closely seated audience in live theatre elevates the absurd from tragedy to comedy.  Film, television and literature all have unique comic forms. 

So wordy development should be saved for the novel, elaborate visual gags should be saved for film, and TV is home of the three laughs per page.  So what have I learned about comedy in the strip form?  For comics, strong reactions, distinct contrasts and a clearly defined beginning, middle and end are the rule.  Now Garry Trudeau in Doonesbury proved that you don’t always have to follow these rules but he still usually ended with a joke.  Like Berke Breathed in Bloom County and Garry Larson in Farside I soon discovered that comic strips are a great place for ironic humor. 

(One of my strips.)

Check it out it and maybe you can do better than me!  (Friend me at VastineS.)

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(With today's release of the Kindle Fire I thought I would write about my evolving attitude towards e-books.)

I was one of those guys.  You know the people who said they would never, ever, ever read with a Kindle.  It goes something like this, “I love the feel of a book in my hand, I can’t imagine reading without that experience.  Plus I love  being surrounded by books that I have read.  Frankly I am offended even by the concept of the Kindle.” etc., etc.  I was that person.  Then I won an iPad in a contest at the Emmet O’Neal Library in Mountain Brook Alabama and things changed.

It was one of those nights. I couldn’t find any books at home that fit the mood I was in.  Usually I would make a mad late night dash to the local B&N but I had moved.  At 10:00 PM, the best I could do were romance novels at the check-out line at the Pig.  But romance novels are not my thing.  So reluctantly I searched through Amazon and found a light, good, going-to-bed book.  While the experience didn’t just blow me away the first time I used it, it didn’t lose me either.  I finished that book, then another and then another.  Soon I discovered my reading habits had changed to reading three kindle books for every one paper book.

So what did I like about it?  First, there was the ability to instantly satisfy a craving.  Second, the backlit screen meant I didn’t have to twist into a pretzel to grab the limited tendrils emitted by my bedside lamp to see the page.  Third, no do I dash to the dictionary or scramble for a pen to highlight bits of wisdom.  Finally, falling asleep reading doesn’t mean spending 15 minutes reading through the book trying to find my place the next day.

But aside from the device (or the app in my case) I also like what it does for writers.  You can now be a publisher, printer and marketer of your own book for free.  The gate that was manned by publishing houses in New York is now manned by your own ambition.  If your book only sells ten copies to your cousins it still gives you the chance to share your writing.  Isn’t that why people write in the first place?

There are things I don’t like about the e-reading experience.  I miss seeing the book on my bedside table.  And all regular readers know the visceral joys of the actual book.  I miss visiting my favorite place in the world every time I need a book, the bookstore.  (But I don't miss their prices.)  Heavy readers don’t just like reading books, they like having read them.  You want to see a representation of your accomplishment. I have a whole ritual of finding the perfect place for my newly completed book then admiring it on a bookshelf.  As much as I enjoy Goodreads (feel free to friend me) seeing your read list is not the same.

I can’t imagine ever completely giving up hard-backed books.  If they ever stop printing them I will rummage through garage sales and hole-in-the-wall used book stores just to keep me sane.  But if you are a  “I never will buy an e-book reader” person I bet that you would be surprised to find that reading an e-book is not the horror that you suspected.  The fact that my 75-year-old tech adverse, bookophile, mother is happily reading one upstairs right now shows anyone can change. 

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One of the most important tools for building your page’s followers is lists.  Lists are powerful tools for focusing follower selection.  The best way to get new followers when you start a build is to follow others. 

Here are a few suggestions for using lists:

1. Create lists for the people who won’t follow you back.  If you want to read the tweets of someone who will never follow you back put them in a list. You call list someone without following them. You can always read the most recent deep thoughts of Justin Bieber on your list's timeline.  Plus you can make your list private so that the haters won’t know you are crushing on the Bieb. If you have to follow him just so that Justin knows that you are out there then open a personal account. then manage your different accounts in one place on HootSuite or TweetDeck. 

2. Build your own lists of people in specific fields or locations.  I pretty much always follow someone who has included me on a list.  Also, the subject matters of your lists indicate your interests to visitors.  I use my twitter lists as my morning newspaper. 

3. Ask to be on a list.  There are so many reasons to want to be added to other people's lists.  Some people now only read tweets via their lists because their timelines are so bloated.  Even more people are using lists as a primary tool in finding new accounts to follow.  These changes in habits of Twitter users have not gone unnoticed.  I receive messages from time to time that go something like this – “I love your marketing list.  We also are in the field and would like to be included.”  I am always flattered.  After a quick check of their tweet history I usually add them.  But make sure when you make a request it isn’t automated.  

4. Use a list building site like Formulists.  There are many ways you can use these services but I stick to two.  With Formulists you can create a list filtered by subject/location, follower/follow ratio and last tweet date. This list is automatically added to your page and updated every two days.  I find this automated list especially helpful with pesky location based builds.  Also, an automated "recently-unfollowed-me" list will be a revelation to many.  You may think that your organic build is slow and steady but this list will show you how quickly people unfollow when not reciprocated.  I promise you will start following back more aggressively. It also gives you a quick way to dump those who dumped you.

5. Mine the lists you are on.  The explosion in list use has really happened over the last six months.  All of my pages have had an exponential growth in places listed in just the last few months.  While many of these lists are unfocused and automated, some are gold mines.  Say I have a business with a local store front and an online store, I will soon find I am listed both in location lists (Things to do in Birmingham) and interest lists (Art Lovers).  This is a quick way to find people to follow who are in the fields that you want to focus on.  I mine a full list I like then I follow it.  Since the lists I have followed are marked I know which ones I have already mined.  I still go back to the best lists regularly to see what new names they have added (which are always at the top.)   

6.  Search lists of other focused pages.  Don’t just search your competitors' pages for who follows them, check out who they have listed and who has listed them.  If a list seems to have all of your competitors but not you, try to get on the list.

7. Be sure to clean out new follows in Tweepi (or the like.) If I don't vet each potential follow when mining a list I always seem to have just added a bunch of people who are either inactive or who just don't follow back.  So it's time to flush. You can speed the process up by going to a site like Tweepi and use the "flush the unfollowers" tool.  I usually do sweeps sorted by follower/following ratio and last tweet date.  At the end of the day I want to be followed back and I want active tweeters. I usually cut off accounts with no tweets in the last month or with a ratio above 200%.  Note that your most recent additions are always at the beginning of the list in Tweepi and you can lock non-followers that you want to retain.

Lists are only part of a good build strategy. But it is a growing part. While lists can help you quickly build a focused following you still miss many important potential followers.  Selective twitterers and those that read but don’t tweet are often outside the list world.  Always remember that a fast build is not always the best build. 

I would love any other ideas you may have on using lists.  This blog’s twitter page is VastineS.

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