Thursday, February 19, 2015

It’s All Subjective



This week I have been mulling over the perfect conference program. This is highly subjective. Why do you go to conferences? Some people say networking. Some say up-skilling in your craft. Some say to learn new approaches to old ideas. That’s my ideal, learning. I’m not into great big crowded rooms where everybody is glad handing and I know no one. So planning the perfect writers conference for me has to have plenty of learning opportunities and meet and greet without being overpowering. We are in the middle of refining our program for Tinderbox2015 and I have a big problem. I want to go to everything!

As I look through this week’s links for you it is amazing how many of them link into something in our conference program.

Passive Guy has linked to two posts this week that have people talking. Do publishers really understand SEO (do you?) and Authorpreneurs. from The Economist which has weighed in saying what authors should be doing regarding their business which is finding influencers and publishers should be publishing celebrity authors to stay afloat. Reading the comments on both those articles is entertaining. And in breaking news Pharrell is writing a series of children’s books... about being HAPPY.

Porter Anderson takes a good long look at publishing terms everyone gets wrong and the implications for planning your writing business. Do you really get royalties if you self publish? And why you need to know the differences.

Publishing Perspectives has an interesting opinion piece about whether agents and publishers want authors that know about the publishing business. Do MFA programs want clued up authors?

Darcy Pattison talks about her last 18 months. This is chock full of information about the decision to Indie Publish and what she has learned. (this is a bookmark post!)

Today was a #MSWL day on Twitter. Agents and Editors write on Twitter what Manuscripts they wish would come across their desks. Type #MSWL in the search bar. If you do query an agent or editor from this, mention the tweet. Another cool search on Twitter is #tenqueries. Agents and Editors going through their slush pile will comment on ten queries live on Twitter and their immediate response. This is a great heads up about what grabs and what doesn’t.

In the Craft section,

Author Biz has a great interview with Editor Shawn Coyne who is working on a story grid book for editors. This is a bookmark post! (and a print out the Storygrid and stick it on your wall post.)

In the Marketing section,

Lindsay Buroker has been sourcing covers from fiverr for short stories - she explains how to do this.

7 must do tactics for promotional tweets. (please don’t spam... the 90/10 rule should apply- thats 90 pieces of interesting stuff for every 10 promotional tweets)

Website of the Week
Bibliocrunch is an interesting hangout. Not only do they host chats on Twitter but they have lots of resources for the Indie Authors.
Here are two of their recent articles- Using Skype to organize a virtual writing groups and

To Finish,
John Green is known for a lot of things that he does well. However today he found out something he doesn’t know well - The quotes from his books. This made for a great confessional post to his brother about how he always assumed that the quote memes were from his books...oops 

If you are interested in finding out more about Tinderbox 2015 - The National Children’s Writers and Illustrators Conference in Wellington, NZ, October 2-5th  send us an Email to 2015tinderbox AT gmail DOT com and we’ll put you on our dedicated mailing list for updates and news.

maureen

John Green's confession below.





Tweet from a conversation thread with J K Rowling.

2 comments:

TK Roxborogh said...

Okay, the next hour is pencilled in to go through the links. Just watched the JG clip. Very good too. Thanks, once again, Maureen, for the wonderful work you do for we writers and teachers and teachers of writing.

Maureen said...

You are welcome Tania,

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