Thursday, October 29, 2015

Subscribing To NaNoWriMo



This week Amazon review policies and translations are still topics of interest at the publishing water cooler AKA Twitter.

Selfpublishing Review has written a blog post about the new Amazon review policy detailing what you can and can’t do. A must read!

Roz Morris always has interesting posts and this week she adds her thoughts to the Translation discussion. It is always good to check out the comment stream where the discussion continues.

Porter Anderson has been looking at the Society of Authors call for fairer contracts. The Society is the UK authors collective. The Society is joining with The American Authors Guild and momentum is growing to change publishing contracts. Take the time to read this.

Subscription services may be making a come back if the latest Disney deal is anything to go by.

Sean Platt and Johnny B Truant have a popular writing blog but they are branching out into subscription too. They have been working on an App called Story Shop. They have a Kickstarter for it. Check out what they are offering, The App almost writes the stories for you!

This week a spotlight was put on organisations behaving badly.
Wil Wheton called out Huffington Post for not paying authors and then went on to expand that call to other creatives who should be paid for their work. Exposure doesn’t pay the mortgage you know.

Agent Natalie Lakosil helped by Jen Laughran shone a light on agents. Yes, agents have other jobs, they are just as poorly paid as writers... but be wary of Schmagents!

It’s the last week of October and writers around the world are holding their heads and thinking why did I say I would do NaNoWriMo.
Chuck Wendig asks the same question and adds his own particular spin to why you should/shouldn’t do it. (Usual Chuck warnings!)

Anne R Allen has a great post from Ruth Harris on the joy of writing and how to keep it going during NaNoWriMo. Ruth shares inspirational words from other authors about how to keep the momentum going.

Here is an interesting post on when to design your bookcover... If you said before you write the book... you would be right.

In the Craft Section,
Help for Pantsers and Plotters- Stephen Pressfield

Janice Hardy has two great posts, How to tighten the MS and How to polish the MS



Jane Friedman talks to Larry Brooks about compelling concepts Bookmark!

Critique Circle has 3 essential tips for NaNoWriMo


In the Marketing Section,

Molly Greene has the website essentials
Penny Sansevieri has the essential book selling how to


Novel pitching with Chuck Sambuchino



To Finish,
The people behind the Stop Procrastinating App have put together a tell all infographic on NaNoWriMo... How to survive it... How to achieve it... How to do it.

For all those attempting NaNoWriMo... Good luck

Maureen
@craicer

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Thoughts in Translation


This week Amazon announced they were cracking down on fake reviewers. GULP went all the authors. Authors always think the worst. So what does it mean? Passive Guy takes a look at why Amazon has tweaked the review system. It’s all about trust.

The Frankfurt Book Fair has been happening and suddenly everyone is talking about translations. Germany just happens to be a huge market for translations. The Bookseller talks about the move to global authorship.

Amazon is in the translation business (of course) and Publishing Perspectives this week talked about the huge injection of cash into Amazon Crossing and sounded a note of caution to the translators who make it all happen.

Joanne Harris delivered a speech this week at the Manchester Literary Festival which is getting shared all around the internet. Why do people expect authors to work for free? Do readers ever ask what does the author wants from them? This is a fabulous read!

Jami Gold asks authors - What is your long term plan? This is one of those posts that have you thinking for a long time after you read it. Every author should read this.

This author life has its ups and downs, Lance Rubin wrote a great post on blocking out the noise and just creating.

Sometimes you come across a piece of writing that turns you on your ear and that you just have to share with someone. That happened to me this week when I heard a podcast interview with Paul Bishop on Authorbiz. I listened to it in the car and then couldn’t wait to share the ideas with my writing partner. Just WOW.

In the Craft Section,
Now Novel has two great articles- What is good writing and Guide to Writing a Romance novel

The secret power of Voice – James Scott Bell

Tips for Queriers- query, synopsis, first page

Brainstorming the hero – Angela Ackerman

Letting go of the practice novel- Writer Unboxed- Bookmark!

Turning a unique phrase - Joanna Penn

In the Marketing Section,

5 basic elements of an Author website – The Book Designer - Bookmark

Website of the Week.
Larry Brooks has an excellent website full to bursting with great content on writing. Here are just two recent stand out posts. The unspoken pinch point – climax and How to plan your novel in 6 weeks. Both are bookmark posts!

To Finish,
Infographics... Translating lots of information into handy charts.
And now you know everything.

 Maureen
@craicer


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