Thursday, October 6, 2016

Self Examination


This week there have been some interesting posts by writers looking critically at their success or lack of it. A thread runs through all these articles of perseverance or maybe it’s  just mule like stupidity (paraphrasing Terry Gilliam here.)

Lisa Cohen has written an entertaining article on Writer Unboxed about the lessons learned over five years and six books. There are some great takeaways in here.

Taking the theme of challenging yourself... Paul Searles writes on the Save The Cat website about how he won the midnight challenge in screenwriting. The whole competition is about challenging yourself as a writer...

Fear of success is just as debilitating as fear of failure. Anne R Allen has written a blog post that is resonating across the publishing blogosphere. This is a follow on from articles I have highlighted in the last couple of weeks. An excellent read!

Roz Morris writes about moving from being a ghost writer to a writer with her own name on the cover of the book. Reviews hit harder... Accolades make you cry. This is a great article about the unexpected experiences of having your name on the book.

Joanna Penn has a great interview with David Wood on how to have bestselling series and running a small press. He publishes other Indie authors and has an interesting idea on the publishing future landscape.

Joanna Penn is coming to Auckland in February 2017. She is offering a one day seminar on self publishing. If you are dipping your toe in... or thinking about it, you probably need to go to this.

Publishing Perspectives has an interesting interview with Jason Cooper of Unbound, a crowd-funding publishing house. This model is becoming quite attractive to authors who have projects that are unusual. This comprehensive interviews talks about the crowd funding model and the future of this style of publishing.

In The Craft Section,



Roz Morris- How to write emotions and feelings- Bookmark


Kaizen Writing- Bookmark





In The Marketing Section,

Tips for making yourself more promotable- Writers in the Storm Bookmark

How to create a box set bundle- Joanna Penn- Bookmark


DIY Print On Demand- The Who Is Doing What List and How Much It Costs.

Publicity for authors- Joel Friedlander interviews Dana Kaye

A case study in covers- Interesting read!

In the Print It Out and Post It On A Wall Section,

April Brown and Becca Puglisi have compiled the most exhaustive checklist of actions for publishing a novel. I think everything is covered here! (Of course you have to write it first!)

To Finish,

What Kind Of A Writer Are You? Stephen Pressfield asks the question of himself but this self examination throws up some truths about your own motivations for writing. An excellent and thought provoking read.

Maureen
@craicer

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Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Going This Way or That Way


Daylight saving happened this week. We put the clocks forward by an hour. ‘So is this why your blog is early?’ I hear you ask.... I am traveling so you get an extra day to enjoy this roundup.

Bob Mayer was musing this week that publishing has become same old same old. This is an interesting blog post from Bob.  Indie publishing has seen a dip in sales. What can you do about it?

Bookworks has an interesting interview with a family that decided to publish books. Each member works on a different genre. So they set up a publishing company...

Writer Unboxed has a great post on knowing when to walk away from a publishing deal. This is always a hard decision.  Read the comments. It does open up the discussion.

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Toby Neal on keeping a series fresh and price points. This is well worth a read/listen!

Kristine Rusch has finished her excellent Deal Breakers Series and is taking some time to look around at the publishing business now. She talks about the positive changes from Draft 2 Digital and other distribution services.

Nate Hoffelder doesn’t think the UK Society of Authors is going far enough with their request for the UK to adopt an EU directive that would protect authors from a take-it-or- leave-it contract.  When you read the examples your heart does sink a little.

Publishing Perspectives has an interesting interview with Merilyn Simons former head of the Canadian Writers Union on the changing state of publishing in Canada. She looks into the future - to survive Traditional published and Indie published writers might have to merge.

As we move into October... which gets us closer to November... NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. October is traditionally NaNoPrepMo. Janice Hardy has a great post on 5 ways to make the most of October planning.


In The Craft Section,


First Drafts- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

Self editing tips- Joanna Penn

Scenes vs Chapters- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Thinking like a writer- Darcy Pattison

Keeping your readers hooked- Elizabeth Spann Craig


In The Marketing Section,


Preparing for a cover design meeting- Elisabeth Spann Craig- Bookmark




10 tips for book marketing- Bookmachine- Bookmark


To Finish,

Nothing beats a great podcast. You can listen while you do other things... Today while preparing dinner I was listening to the Author Biz podcast with guest Stephanie J Pajonas.
It was so interesting I was in danger of burning dinner. Stephanie talked about how she uses auto responder to engage with her email list. How she grows her email list and using Instafreebie.... It was a riveting show.

Maureen
@craicer

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