————————
Chris Ruen is a New York Times published writer and author of the internationally published FREELOADING: How Our Insatiable Hunger for Free Content is Starving Creativity; a voice actor (SAG-AFTRA) and the narrator of over 200 audiobooks; and a digital consultant, specializing in data-based SEO and content strategy.
FREELOADING (2012) was published in seven territories. For the US release, Ruen read the book aloud in its entirety in a single day at WORD bookstore.
The artist David Byrne championed the book, inviting Ruen to join him as a co-headliner at the New York Public Library LIVE at NYPL series. The pair participated in further media appearances and activism.
Along with guitarist, author and activist Marc Ribot, Ruen organized and emcee’d the Artist Pay For Radio Play rally in NYC, which was covered by Billboard, The New York Times and Newsweek. Participants included David Byrne, Rosanne Cash, Jason Moran, John McCrea, Mike Mills, Tift Merritt, Ceramic Dog, Elysian Fields and others.
A critique of c. 2010 digital utopianism and exploration of the dangers of devaluing art and artists in the digital age, FREELOADING led to speaking engagements at TEDx and around the world.
>>>PURCHASE FREELOADING DIRECT FROM O/R BOOKS HERE
During his two decades in New York City, writing credits included Tiny Mix Tapes, New York Press, Slate, Australian Financial Review, The New Republic, The New Statesman and The New York Times, for which he investigated the Newtown Creek Nature Walk in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
As a student at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, he co-founded The Wake, an award-winning student magazine that is celebrating its 20th year in print.
Ruen is a member of SAG-AFTRA and a working voice actor/audiobook narrator in genres including sci-fi, nonfiction and romance.
He also runs his own boutique SEO agency, Ruen Digital, which specializes in helping clients rank higher in Google results to attract high quality traffic while executing common sense content strategies based upon solid data analysis.
After many years in NYC, he now lives with his family on the east coast…of Wisconsin, north of Milwaukee, and is currently at work on a novel, based within a major news network in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Visit the NOTEBOOK for news or happenings.
________________
Publishing Credits: The New York Times, Slate, Australian Financial Review, The New Republic, The New Statesman. Bookforum.com, Seattle Weekly, The New York Press and Stereogum.
Projects covered by: The New York Times, Newsweek, Australian Financial Review, El Mundo, CBC Q, Billboard, Salon, N+1, VICE, The Village Voice, and the Sydney Sunday Herald.
Freeloading: How Our Insatiable Appetite For Free Content Is Starving Creativity, was published in 2012 by OR Books (US/Canada) and later by Scribe Publications (Australia/New Zealand), Scribe UK (United Kingdom) and Ediciones Quinto 20 (Spain and Latin America).