Today the Twitter feed
is full of what people are talking about at Storyworld, the big conference in
Hollywood (happening as I write this) which is a mix of writers, gamers and
publishers...directly taking aim at the transmedia market. If you want to
follow the conversation...everything from Disney’s new grant program for storytellers to whether transmedia is a Noun or a Verb...(It’s a verb!) Follow
along using #SWC12 in the Twitter search box.
Also just appearing in
blogs is the roundup of Frankfurt Book Fair and what came out of it. Laura
Hazard Owen of Paid Content rolls over the new startups that got the buzz as well as the HUGE market in books on mobile phones...and the publishers cashing
in on self pubbed authors.
Mike Shatzkin
commented that Frankfurt opened his eyes...to the use of ‘Platform’ in children’s publishing by Gatekeepers and the immense power this has for sales
and the future in publishing. There is so much to ponder in this post... take some
time to absorb it.
New Zealand was guest
of Honour at Frankfurt this year and our contribution was to send NZ’s *literary* platform of Chefs, Winemakers, Film Producers along with Poets and some great
Kiwi authors. The Fair Special Focus of Children and Young Adult literature
featured a *small* stellar group of NZ Children’s Authors. Authors had to compete
on the other side of a curtain with the multimedia experience in the guest
pavilion hall, where the unwary could fall into the pools of water while
staring at the reflected stars. We have great writers here...wish they all could have been there....
Coming up in the next
few weeks... Halloween and NaNoWriMo....
Last year there was
discussion among YA authors about handing out scary books to kids who come
trick or treating...and a lot of authors went to the second hand bookshops and
stocked up on Goosebumps. This year the campaign is more organised and Neil
Gaiman is fronting it. Check out this great video on the All Hallows Read website. (Neil Gaiman thinks the fact that I sing in graveyards is pretty
cool...however no one is getting murdered while I do it...not like this
video...heheheh)
Scrivener is coming to
the halloween party in time for NaNoWriMo with a free trial of their writing software. There are authors who swear by this programme so if you are
interested or gearing up for NaNoWriMo this year check it out.
The Amazing team
behind Emotional Thesaurus have written a breakdown of how they took a blog idea into a non fiction book for writers and then out to the world to sell over 10,000 copies in few short months. This is a great meaty read with what they
learned this year. Angela and Becky have always impressed me (they live in two
different countries) and after reading this breakdown...they are now up there
with GODDESSES!
Copyblogger has a great post on negotiations and how to do them for freelance writers...this is
one of those print it out and stick it on the wall by the telephone posts.
Joanna Penn, in
London, offers the definitive breakdown to why your books aren’t selling and what to do about it. This is great information...and a handy checklist.
Jane Friedman (now in
Virginia) has been busy this week with two great posts on Author website checklists and a very detailed Q and A with a copyright attorney...do you need
to register your MS in the US if you live outside it?
VQR has a thought provoking post on Small Press and Self Publishers...are they enemies or half
siblings...among the ideas in here is whether it is legit for small presses to
ask authors for money to publish...Sean says yes.
In the craft list of
great links...
Dialogue spacing and
why you need to pay attention to it! (Agent Mary Kole hot on the warpath)
Kristen Lamb on
getting primal with structure, part of her new writing series.
Writing to music? thewritepractice says you should and why...(nifty article to have your
characters singing into the hairbrush...)
In the interesting
tech ideas...
Inkygirl has been
trying out a $4.99 App for the iPad that makes animated book trailers...easily.
Joel Friedman (The
Book Designer) has 3 ways to use google search more effectively...you will
never look at the search box the same way...brilliant.
If you love to get
into typefaces...Joel also has a look at a new typeface for dyslexics.
To Finish,
Derek Haines has
published a blog post on why he is going back to Smashwords from being a KDP
Select programme for the last year. He weighs up the benefits and the costs of
both distributors. This is a good snapshot of the indie industry today.
In Breaking News the latest stats on publishing first half of 2012...Children's pub stats up 41%...and it's
digital...
I’ll be out and about
over the next few weeks in a different hemisphere so I’m cooking up some
special focus posts for you...they will be chock full of links as per usual...
maureen....off to pack bags...
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