This post started off as another cautionary note about considering the consequences of what you say in your blogs and on your site. It was based on the recent incident involving a model and a [formerly] anonymous blogger who created  Skanks in NYC on Blogspot.  The model launched a defamation  suit, and the courts ordered Google, which provides the Blogspot service,  to reveal the blogger’s identity.   But events moved so fast—the model dropped her original suit and the blogger may sue Google for revealing her identity—that the buzz around the incident has morphed in a number of directions, including: whether anonymous postings fall under the category of protected speech, when and if anonymous postings are acceptable, the general state of discourse on the Net, and related topics. 

You’ll find a good summation of the issues by Randy Cohen, who pens The New York Times Magazine column, “The Ethicist.”  Equally interesting are the comments to Cohen’s article—you’ll find some good points, pro and con, regarding Cohen’s ideas.  One comment in particular has implications for authors, as it concerns Internet libel and what to do about it if you’re on the receiving end. The commenter, Michael Roberts , a victim of Internet libel himself, turned his situation to an advantage by starting a service that helps other victims of Internet defamation. This is not an endorsement of Mr. Roberts’ company – I have no basis for making such a judgment, and there are competing firms  in the reputation management field. But you’ll find a lot of information on his site (Rexxfield.com) that may be helpful if you ever find yourself in the crosshairs of someone whose primary mission in life appears to be destroying your credibility.

Back to the model and the blogger, regardless of the outcome of the case, here are a few other takeaways:

1. As I’ve said before, err on the side of caution. If you’re not sure about something that you’re about to put in writing, stop.  If you can’t get a legal opinion, write something else.  Or recraft the post.  
2. Consider your primary job—writing books.  Unless your strategy is to attract a lawsuit for publicity purposes, your primary goal should be to STAY OUT OF COURT.  Even if you win, you’ll likely still lose in terms of time, cost, and disruption to your life. Going to court can be an enormous time suck and an emotional drain.  A Pyrrhic victory will not help you meet your next deadline.  Leverage the Net for the good things it can do for you;  shun anything online that creates heat, but little or no light.
3. Before you click “Accept” during the process of signing up for a Web-based service, read the terms of service, the privacy policy, and related documents. Yeah, it can be tough slogging through the legalese.  But you’ll learn what happens to your personal info if the law knocks on the provider’s door. (Even if you’re not worried about that possibility, you really ought to know the conditions under which your private information may be shared, what content is acceptable, and the disposition of your intellectual property while you’re using the service and after you terminate the service. The best surprise regarding these matters is. . .no surprise.)

As the case unfolds, there will no doubt be other takeaways.  In the meantime, court is in recess.

Being a Twitter user is a little bit like being a U.S. citizen. It’s a worthwhile and amazing privilege, but one that comes with responsibilities. In the case of tweeting, it means being truthful—or you may be in for a surprise.

Take the case of Amanda Bonnen, whose May 12 blog entry described her apartment as “moldy.” You can read about the case online at the The Huffington Post  but, in short, Bonnen’s landlord, Horizon Group Management LLC, found out about her tweet and initiated a lawsuit for $50,000 for defamation. It’s anyone’s guess how the case will turn out, but in any event, there’s a lesson we can learn from it: we’re all responsible for what we say via any social network, on our Web sites and blogs, on chat boards, or on any other online venues.

This isn’t to suggest that anyone should refrain from using social media for fear of getting sued. It’s simply to say that while the medium is new, the rules of the road remain unchanged. The same transgressions that get you sued in the real world can get you into trouble on the Web. According to the Media Law Resource Center, a nonprofit information clearinghouse in New York, judgments against bloggers have topped $16 million. Who knows the monetary value of the cases that have been settled out of court.

To minimize your own risk, there are several things you should do. First, get the facts. Start by taking a look at the the Citizen Media Law Project’s Legal Guide. It’s written in plain English and is easy to digest (the section Publishing Information That Harms Another’s Reputation is particularly useful).

Second, exercise common sense. If you’re about to write or say something that you can’t imagine seeing on the front page of a newspaper or hearing on the air, don’t post it, blog it, Tweet it, or podcast it!  Yes, the Net is quickly redefining all kinds of boundaries, but not as much as many people think. Decency, honesty, and integrity still prevail.

Finally, don’t assume that anything you post on a social networking site is a private communication. There aren’t any private communications on the Internet. Worse, the Net has a long institutional memory—what you post today can come back to haunt you many years in the future. (BTW, the Wayback Machine, a favorite tool of lawyers, has now archived more than 150 billion Web pages! Yours is probably among them.)  

The bottom line is this: Tweet well. Post and blog wisely. Podcast as though your reputation depended on it. Because it does.

“What makes for a good author Web site?” prospective clients often ask me. 

There are the obvious elements: A good author website should be like a grand hotel room. The location of every amenity and necessity should be obvious and easy to find. It should be engaging for book buyers and media friendly–a one-stop go-to spot that can give reporters and producers all the information they need. Elegant design and a little razzle dazzle never hurts either.

But what about the soul of a good author Web site? That’s what really differentiates sites once you get beyond the basics. And that’s a much more difficult quality to articulate.

For insight into the matter, I turned to a gym buddy of mine, Pharame, who’s known throughout the health club I frequent as an expert on the human soul. He’s also a testimony to the fortune of good genes and the wisdom of a good workout routine – at 64, he sports a body that most 24-year-olds would die for.

Since Pharame’s not a Web guy, I asked him a general question that I knew would be within his bailiwick: “Why are we here?”

He laughed, slapped me on the back in a friendly gesture that nonetheless knocked the wind out of me, then boomed, “Stevie! You are born naked and you die naked. In between, it’s YOUR story. So tell it WELL.”

No one ever nailed it better.

A good author Web site IS your story.

And telling it WELL is about using technology, words, and images to have a conversation with your site visitors. It’s about voice–talking “to,” rather than “at,” your audience, just as you would in a good radio interview. It’s about intimacy–revealing what motivates you and what makes you tick as a writer. It’s about credibility–conveying your authority while keeping your ego in check. And it’s about humility–respecting your viewers’ time and being grateful for the fact that there are hundreds of millions of Web sites they could be visiting, but they’ve chosen to point their browser to yours.

Pharame knows what he’s talking about: It’s YOUR story. Tell it well