Go Out And Conquer

This week I went into the radio studio to record my monthly podcast slot and felt depressed. The topic was writer incomes. The latest stats were out and NZ writers weren’t earning very much at all. As we were talking about the report we both were realising that we knew authors who didn’t fit the criteria and so weren’t surveyed. Then I came across a mention of the report on Passive Voice and the comments were enlightening. So all I can say in this brave new publishing world is Do Whatever Works For You and Good Luck.

Kris Rusch has got a great blog post on Taking Control back to the writer. This is important if you want to plan your career and take advantage of opportunities.

March is London Book Fair and the Indie Author Fringe which was a 24 hour blast of great content for authors. If you didn’t get a chance to watch in real time you can always go and access their great sessions from their website. I binge watch and scribble notes constantly. It’s like a private conference just for you.

Publishers Weekly reported on the London Book Fair describing it as a Keep Calm and Carry On affair. PW also asked agents heading to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, which is traditionally two weeks after LBF, what they would be looking for. Mid Grade is still the holy grail and everybody wants to find the next breakout hit crossover teen....etc etc.

Meanwhile The Guardian wrote about the dubious rise in celebrity authors writing books for children because its sooo easy. (Bring me a barf bucket-stat! -is how all children’s book authors feel.) Are publishers losing out big time on these deals?

Derek Murphy of Creative Indie has set up a website where you are encouraged to do writer sprints with your friends. It is set up in 15 minute increments and you can win free stuff. Derek is hoping to write 5000 words an hour.

Kiwi Katherine Hayton writes about giving InstaFreebie a trial. She added thousands to her email list and got hundreds of preorders.

Ali Luke talks about writers having multiple streams of income and the rise of novellas. Rachel Thompson talks about Branding for Authors. All of these articles explain why and how you should be working with your author business.

Joanna Penn interviewed Mark Dawson about using Amazon ads. This podcast is packed full of great information and is a must listen. If you don’t have the time to listen, read the transcript.

If you are looking for story ideas Now Novel have got a great list of 15 easy ways to generate story ideas.

In The Craft Section,

15 tools for writers- R L Stedman- Bookmark

What should an author blog about- Anne R Allen – Bookmark

How to know your writing is improving- Peter Rey

6 bad habits you can write without- C S Lakin

4 ways not to F up your tenses- Sacha Black

3 craft elements –Elizabeth Craig- Bookmark

5 world building mistakes enthusiasts make- Mythcreants- Bookmark

How to write a sequel- K M Weiland - Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

How to publish an ebook- Jane Friedman

3 email marketing rules

Emotional triggers to hook subscribers

Sell more books with new cover design-Joanna Penn

How to get going with email marketing

Listing your books with Google Play- Elizabeth Craig – Bookmark

Managing Social Media Followers- C K Syme- Bookmark

Back Matter in your book- Bookmark

To Finish,

Tara Sparling has a great recipe for making the modern bestseller. This is a fun read that will lift your spirits. Then you can read Chuck’s latest post on being a professional writer.

Go out and Conquer.

Maureen

@craicer

Every month I round up the best of my bookmarked links and put them together with some other goodies which you get if you subscribe to my monthly newsletter.
Shout out to the lovely people who bought me a coffee this week. It is much appreciated!

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons/ Moyan Brenn

The Scattered Writer Brain

Last week I linked to a couple of posts on the first day of the Digital Book World Conference. This week Porter Anderson covers Day Two and Jane Friedman shares her takeaways from the whole conference - 4 lessons in publishing. This post has been passed around Social Media quite a few times and is a must read.

Selina Kitt shines a light on scammers on Amazon. This is a sobering read and goes to the heart of the Kindle Unlimited subscription service. It is also a lesson in eBook formatting. Even when you are doing it right for the reader, you may be doing it wrong.

Jessica West takes a look at the grey area of paying for reviews. No you shouldn’t pay for a review but there are technical services that take a fee and their reviewers are legit. Using one of these services can make you a best seller.

If you’re a children’s author you always have an eye on Bologna. Publishers Weekly interviewed seven agents about what’s hot and what they are looking for at Bologna.

Roz Morris always has something interesting to say. This week she looks at ways to blog about your book without blogging your book. This is always a tricky topic for authors... how do you entice readers to check out your work without giving it all away.

The UK Society of Authors is ramping up their Creator Campaign for Fair Contracts. Many international author societies are supporting this too. When you look at the writing festivals that aren’t paying their writers and add that to the unfair contracts it can get pretty depressing out there.

Jami Gold has a timely post this week on when you just have to admit you are not a super publishing hero. Sometimes you just can’t do it all. It is an excellent article. Jami asks pointed questions to help you identify if you are falling into this common writing trap.

Ben Zackheim gathered together his list of great podcasts. I have listened to about half of these teams and I must take some time to listen to a few more. Sometimes just listening to authors chew the fat about writing is enough to make you feel energised to get back into your writing.

Booklife pulled together some great people to talk about book reviews and discoverability. This is a must read.

In the Craft Section,

Getting inspired to write- James Scott Bell

The copyedit from Heck- Kristine Rusch – Must Read!

How to write a fantastic author newsletter

How to weave story elements and avoid info dumps- Jami Gold-Bookmark

Mastering Outer motivation- Bookmark

What to do when readers are skipping crucial parts of the story –Bookmark

Seven keys to unforgettable characters- Bob Mayer- Bookmark

Short Story Secrets-Anne R Allen

In the Marketing Section,

11 reasons why authors need Social Media-  Frances Caballo and The Book Designer - Bookmark!

Are audiobooks in your future?- Molly Greene

Should an author have their own podcast

Free tools that can help build buzz for your book

How a Fiction Anthology is made – Jane Friedman

Follow these steps for marketing your first book.

Connecting with readers- Elizabeth Spann Craig -Bookmark

Website of the Week

If you’ve got that book finished and you're thinking 'now the hard part begins,' you are right. However there are a few voices out there in the Blogosphere that can point you in the right direction -marketing wise. Penny Sansevieri has been a marketing Go To site for authors for a few years now. Here are just three posts that caught my eye this week. 50 ways to promote your book- Part One and Two and 5 minute marketing.

To Finish,

I came across this interesting article today on Creativity. What are five areas you would like to grow and develop in your writing? Take Five Fat Files... is a way of refining your goals and making them more achievable.

maureen

@craicer

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons /Kenny Louie

Deja Vu.

This morning the word went out HarperCollins is the next big publisher to fight with Amazon. 

So will 2015 have the flavour of 2014 with the virtual book lockouts, impassioned pleas for support and authors being left the worse for wear in the battle of the publishing behemoths? One of the sobering takeouts for anyone watching is that it is not the publishers bank accounts that get hammered. It is the authors and their careers. For authors to have a book not visible online hurts sales... which means their next book becomes a harder sell, (despite what the publisher might say to the contrary.) This hurts their future earnings/career.

In the children’s publishing world Bologna is the rally cry. The biggest children’s book rights fair in the world and the news is all gelato and where the agents missing bathrooms are on Twitter.  Despite Bathroomgate, everyone is upbeat. The world wants middle grade. Yay. Even middle grade space! I have a drawer full of manuscripts...

Another class action suit has been registered against Author Solutions, which is OWNED by Penguin Random House. And still there is a deafening silence by publishing journalists to expose this company. Could it be that every big publisher has their fingers in this pie...

For the last three years I have been noticing the claim that Book Apps are just around the corner... not the next corner, the one after that. Here it gets stated again in several places this week. (Must be the Bologna effect.) If only we had partnerships... author/ illustrator/ app designer. Maybe the time has come.

The time has come to move on for self publishers says Porter Anderson. In his usual thought provoking way Porter looks at all the arguments around self publishing and how the mindset holds back the author. 

Inspirational as ever, Hugh Howey also checks in with his take on being a SP chump.  

Elizabeth Spann Craig finds out her traditionally published series is at an end. When you know it is time to move on... whole new publishing life coming right up. Take some time to read the comments on these articles. There is lots of extra insight into how these decisions get made.

A couple of years ago... I talked in my blog about an interesting marketing concept; Downloadable e-books on those plastic gift cards as a point of sale display, just right for the impulse purchase at the bookstore counter.  There were several companies looking into producing nifty stands of these for publishers. Another company has joined in making this a marketing reality but with short run cards that will appeal to authors.  

In the Craft Section, (all of these are bookmark worthy)

7 habits of highly successful writers

6 monstrous ways to turn a so so story into a great one

Your books inciting incident may not be what you think it is

4 tricks to give your hero an upgrade

7 rules of picking character names

7 qualities of high concept stories

How to trademark your writing style.

In the Marketing Section, (Every one of these a book mark post)

Sam Messingham has the article on using Twitter effectively.

Marketing 101- Creating a strategy –Jami Gold

Things all author websites need to have.

Crowdfunded publishing- Jane Friedman

Author and book marketing starts with you –Joel Friedlander

Website of the Week

Not really a website more like a phenomenon!

The Creative Penn or Joanna Penn has made such an impact on sharing her journey in real time as she negotiates new publishing landscapes that it is hard to imagine the blogosphere without her. Her website is packed full of information. She has a popular podcast and her books are best sellers.

Bibliocrunch caught up with her to ask the five important questions  about her publishing journey. And if you check out her latest podcast interview she is talking with an audio marketing expert. It is, as usual, packed full of information and as Joanna acknowledges this is a must for writers to look at with so many car makers enabling in-car podcast radio as their latest feature. 

Bet you didn’t see that coming.

To Finish,

Getting books in libraries is a big thing for Authors. It means visibility, more people reading your work and sales down the track. Now authors are being encouraged to make their Indie e-books available to libraries. Check out the nifty infographic.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic from Flickr Creative Commons/ Robert Couse Baker

Surfing The Future

Everybody in publishing wants to get a handle on where the future is in publishing. 

The big changes... the new trends... the ‘Will I have a book deal / career... next year kind of questions. Analysis of what’s being discussed in the halls of the book fairs dominates Twitter along with the kitten pictures. Indie....Trad... digital...print... book sales...up graphs... down graphs, everybody is trying to grab a stake to hold onto as the floodwaters of change pull them in over their heads.

The London Book Fair is on. #LBF14 If you want to dive into the maelstrom and surf the comment wave.

Among the talking points so far...BookTubers…their presence and prominence in book discoverability. A force to be reckoned with.

Random Penguin and the new Goodreads style community My indie bookshop (still in BETA testing but getting hyped at LBF)  Readers rank their ‘best of’ book lists which have a buy button to their favourite Indie bookshop. Readers earn money as an affiliate...Independent bookshops earn money...win/win.

Porter does a round up of Day One at LBF14

Discoverability is on every publishers mind. (Reminder: If you Indie publish –you are a publisher.) How do you break through the crowded marketplace?

Is Kindle Countdown the new free?  

Why customer reviews are so necessary to discoverability.

Is Hybrid just a phase for authors and will we ever go back to the good/bad old days (like last year.) and yet more comment on Elisabeth S Craig’s amazing post which I highlighted a couple of weeks ago.

Kris Rusch finishes her series on discoverability with a flourish.

Roz Morris reflects on what she is telling people now about publishing at LBF. Learn the business regardless of what side of the road you go down. Get better informed about all the little facets of publishing a book.

Bologna Children’s Book Fair is still being talked about.

What’s on the want list at Bologna

Bologna and the shift towards Digital.

Wipeout

Two authors have given up publishing over the constant trolling and stalking happening to them on review sites... this is a cautionary tale to all authors.

Bestselling author Shannon Hale pleas to be left alone to write books. Constant demands for engagement from fans are causing huge stress. This is the other side of success.

In the Craft Section,

How to deal with the Dreaded Sagging Middle

How to complete every writing project that you start... (rewire your brain- great post!)

The Character Pyramid

The skill list- ReWriting

6 places to find novel ideas

Great descriptions in SF (great post)

The Periodic table of Storytelling.

What to look for in a critique partner.

In the Marketing Section

Free apps for book trailers

5 author website mistakes and

11 must haves for Author Websites

The periodic table of content marketing

Distribution options for indie authors

8 business publishing necessities that every author needs

Killing the myth that self publishing is easy –Dean Wesley Smith.

To Finish,

Among the many posts that caught my eye this week were these two.  The Importance of Community for Authors and

Seven Reasons to Join an Author Collective.  I have said all along I think that author collectives  are the future model which will work best for going forward into the future. The power of the group model can be a lifeboat in the rushing water of the publishing journey.

maureen

Pic is from Michael L. Baird, flickr.bairdphotos.com

Believe It

April rolled in and the weather is stunning! New Zealand’s capital city perched on steep hills overlooking an almost circular harbour gets a lot of wind. We are used to it. A force 5 gale to everyone else is a gentle zepher for us... except in Autumn. 

We have no wind. Everything is calm. The sky is that perfect autumn blue. The sea is sparkling. The temperatures are balmy...and no one believes us when we say this!

This week around the publishing blogosphere... It is the season of Book Fairs with many agents hopping from Bologna to London. Mary Hoffman writes what it was like to be a children’s author at Bologna. Interesting to get the UK authors perspective on this book fair. (After you stop feeling jealous.)

Porter Anderson looks at some of the issues likely to be talked about at The London Book Fair happening next week.  It’s all about the numbers...again. He also has an Ether column looking at whether publishers are ready to have important discussions on the future of the industry. Some believe they already are...

Charlotte Jones has a post on 7 things I heard at a book festival, which has some interesting takeouts for authors.

Mashable has a must read post on when your blog is hacked and what to do. Read. Believe. Do.

Writer Beware is the blog of Victoria Strauss and she does an excellent job of shining a spotlight on unsavory practices and scams. As I was reading this one I found myself questioning whether I had read it before...it was starting to sound so familiar. And that is the problem. It is now so common for this kind of scam to take everybody in. Writer starts a hot new publishing house, everything sound fine, then things get hard, everything falls apart, founder disappears...

An interesting article caught my eye this week. Why self publishing is so good for literary culture. I think there are a lot of good points in it but you may not believe me.

Chuck has a hard time believing a pirates explanation for why he has pirated Chucks work. Take some time out to read this as it shows two points of view of a very controversial situation in digital publishing. Do you believe it’s all about 1’s and 0’s?

In the Craft Section,

How to take all the fun out of writing and end up with something soulless and soul crushing

When it’s time to walk away from your writing.

Story Themes – What is your world view?

Getting Quiet and Letting Go of Expectations.

Weasel words you should always look out for.

What is Speculative Fiction?

What’s Love got to do with it (believe me, a brilliant article!)

In the Marketing Section,

Kris Rusch continues her remarkable series on Discoverability this week with two posts. Publicity Campaigns and Surprise.

Darcy Pattison continues her Build An Author Website from scratch series.

Digital Book World...has collected together a comprehensive list of resources for authors

Joanna Penn - On Building a literary community

Public speaking for Introverts

A Free Screenwriting App

To Finish,

To succeed you must set some writer goals or you can believe everything this writer advises you...(with tongue firmly in cheek.)

maureen

What You Should Be Doing

Bologna trends: people want middle grade. They want funny middle grade. MIDDLE GRADE IS BACK. #bbf14
— Ginger Clark (@Ginger_Clark) March 24, 2014

This week in the publishing blogosphere the news has been about what everyone should be doing...

because the publishing world has shifted again,

because the next big thing is right around the corner,

because the Bologna Book Fair is on,

because the world has changed.

In my Twitter feed this morning was an announcement that Diesel e-books was shutting down after 10 years of indie publishing however new startups are happening all the time and another to hit the starting blocks tomorrow is this new subscription model.

While this is happening Digital Book World is talking up that Apple is now the second largest book store...what does that mean in reality?

Passive Guy shares a rant that got everyone talking this week about what Penguin Random (or Random Penguin) isn’t doing and what they should be...Read the comments they are all entertaining.

Mike Shatzkin followed this up with his very pointed summary of what the Big Publishers should be doing and aren’t (this could be helpful with your own promotion...once you get over the comment of don’t read the book to find the metadata tags...)

This must read post from Elisabeth Spann Craig looks at her experiments with hybrid publishing and the very real questions she has about continuing down that road. Elisabeth has been blogging about her journey over the last year and it is a very honest look at the realities of publishing now for a writer with a traditional back list.

That happy block quote at the top came from Agent Ginger Clark who hit the Bologna ground running, her appointment book already full before she got there.

Publishers Weekly gives the low down on what are the biggest sellers... requests...talk ups at the Worlds largest Children’s Book Fair.

Book Fairs are tricky beasts for authors... It is all about deals...principally foreign rights and authors don’t usually negotiate these...here is where Agents earn their money. However if you were thinking about translating...Susan Kaye Quinn has just done it in an interesting Indie move and she has a great post about how she did it.

Jody Hedlund looks at the value of agents and the difficulties of hunting for a new one.

Because the world is changing and writers have to hang in there,

Bob Mayer has an article on the true grit you need to be a writer and K M Weiland has one on the five motivations of the writer.

Chuck has a rant on his answers to common writing questions... (pro writers will laugh)- usual warnings apply.

Meg Rosoff also has a heartfelt post on what keeps you from writing, which can also fuel you... (especially good post for those of you who juggle many things before writing.)

The wonderful Catherine Ryan Howard has a rant about contact details on writer’s websites...coz she just may have a deal for you and how can she get hold of you...(this reminds me to check my writing email inbox.) and Fastcompany shares the best PR advice, which writers should think about.

In the Craft section, you should be doing...

Y A High Fantasy – How to do it (only if it’s your thing) and How to create names for it.

Road trips – How to take readers on one and How to write active settings (great post!)

Author Voice – How you can find it and How you can use it to keep your readers up all night

Writing fast – How you can do it faster and The tools you need to help you get there. (great post on Scrivener)

Writing Short Stories to help you learn stuff.

In the Marketing Section, You should be....

Building a personal network

Making strong covers

Not making these 10 mistakes

Following these 6 steps to be successful

Keeping your marketing lean and focused

Learning from the worlds best marketers...(great post!)

To Finish,

In the end all the writer has is their own creativity and a willingness to get out there and just create, so here is the 18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently because that’s what writers do.

Bologna Bologna Bologna

Say Bologna to anyone interested in children’s writing and the response back is a dreamy far away look that goes with the heart felt phrase “wouldn’t it be heaven to be there.”

I was seriously jealous reading my twitter stream this week as agents were heading to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and talking all about it.

New Zealand has always been known as a country that ‘punches above its weight’ in the global political scene.  We were in on forming the League of Nations and the UN and for any Americans that believe Argo is fact...um actually NZ was hiding Americans but we don’t talk about it....

Yesterday at Bologna to celebrate 50 years of the fair...everyone voted on the Best Children’s Publisher In The World by region. Six regions. Six winners. Our little Gecko Press from Wellington won their region. To stand acknowledged by your peers at the biggest children’s book fair in the world as one of the best publishers in the world...after only eight years of existence...is mind boggling. 

Congratulations Julia Marshall! Well Deserved!

So what else is happening at Bologna?

This year in the Tools of Change conference, that starts the day before the fair at Bologna, Bowker had an extraordinary presentation. Porter Anderson discusses the data from the slideshow which Bowker have made available and it does turn perceptions about children’s publishing upside down... for instance the biggest buyers of YA are...adults for themselves! If you are involved in children’s publishing take some time to go through the slides...food for thought all over them.

Joe Wikert, also at Bologna, is looking at the rise of children’s e-publishing. He profiles the winners in the interactive e-book awards. There is a video that is a must watch so that you can see why these books won! Great to see Michael Morpurgo’s book in there...and what a fascinating non fiction winner that is!

Outside of Bologna....

Barnes and Noble pull of Simon and Schuster books over their refusal to pay the new prices to have their books displayed is the hot topic of the week. Guess who are the people hurt in this one....

Novel Rocket is getting the comments after posting an article saying you should only write in one genre...

Courtney Milan looks at the New US Supreme Court ruling about First Sale Rights and the death of geographic rights...and checks out what it will mean for fiction writers...This is for all those writers who have ever wondered why their book is priced differently in different countries and whether they can order cheap copies from one country and onsell them...

Selling POD into bookstores...This is an interesting guest post on Catherine Ryan Howard’s blog.

Project Middle Grade did a survey about what kids actually looked at when sizing up a new book...Writers...You may have to change your focus!

What are Asians really interested in reading? Topical with everyone wondering how to get into the Asian market.

Diymfa on online writing communities...where do you get your support?

The Telegraph has published 30 things writers should know...a guest article from Matt Haig.

In Craft,

Book Editing: Top Ten Tips

Writing Fantasy Settings

The funniest query to an agent...tip don’t do any of these.

In Marketing,

Social Media and 23 ways to promote your blog.

Indie friendly Book Reviewers...an exhaustive list...(must keep)

To Finish,

Dean Wesley Smith’s article on sales from his Think Like A Publisher series is getting a workout on Twitter. If you haven’t read it check it out...coz from little things grow Bologna opportunities....

Happy Easter!

maureen

pic: The Magnificent Julia Marshall of Gecko Press at Bologna.

The Children's Publishing Business...

It has been a big week in Children’s Publishing! 

First up Tools of Change Bologna followed by the Bologna  Children's Book Fair and then Spinning Tales....

Where, oh where, to begin.

I’ll go backwards.

Spinning Tales brought together over 115 Children’s writers and Illustrators from around the country to Auckland for the second National Conference of New Zealand Children’s Writers and Illustrators. This was a great learning and networking time for all of us. 

If you didn’t make it to the conference you must try to make the next one in two years time. The opportunity to spend time with others in the field is invaluable.  Learning from the speakers and the chance to talk with publishers is also worth gold. Each speaker was carefully selected to add value for the conference attender and any opportunities where you can sit down and pitch an idea to a publisher...is an amazing plus.

The FaBo Team met for the first time. This was an historic occasion. We have been working together for a year on our online story and we finally met the whole team...except for Brian but we’ll forgive him being in Australia. Plans were made for FaBo 2. New members... new challenges...new secrets to keep.

My personal take aways...The literary feast...and the art work it inspired. Gosh we have talented Illustrators who can draw and incorporate food in their drawing in new and innovative ways, not to mention the wonderfully entertaining stand up writers.

Kate de Goldi’s well deserved standing ovation! What a marvellous speech she gave as she received the Margaret Mahy Medal. Margaret was the first on her feet. The HUGE NEWS that New Zealand will be hosting the IBBY Congress in 2016.

The wonderful, amazing, Katerina Mataira who challenged us all with her statement at the Kaumatua Panel. ‘I am nearly 80....I am publishing ebooks and selling my work online and on websites...If you have a niche, forget Traditional Publishers and do it yourself!’

And that is what Tools Of Change, Bologna was about. 

How can we continue to tell stories in today’s world? Read this excellent post by Bridget Strevans, an Illustrator, who attended TOC. It is an overview, a challenge and a guide to helping us navigate our way through the changes in publishing.

Bookman Beattie linked to the Bookseller overview of the Bologna Children's Book Fair. It is a must read as it quickly encapsulates the state of Publishing Worldwide right now. Vampires are sucked dry, Dystopian is still in and heading towards us...Time Travel is about to be HOT.

If you want to spend a little more time on getting a sense of Bologna, Nosy Crow has two excellent posts on Tools Of Change and the Book Fair. Well worth a read!

In the tips and tricks basket this week,

Mediabistro has linked to a great page on understanding Story Arc by Kurt Vonnegut. Kurt used these grids in his lectures to explain how a story should grab you emotionally.

The great Larry Brooks of Storyfix has a wonderful post on story architecture. How and when you should build in those plot points.

Anne R Allen has a thoughtful piece on 3 things you must know if you are contemplating the Indie way.

The superb Bob Mayer takes a look at the keynote presentations about publishing that he makes at conferences  and  throws out most of the content in favour of what he knows now, what he is guessing and what he doesn’t know.

Following on from my post a couple of weeks ago, Alan Rinzler has a great column on Forbes.com  of advice for Amanda Hocking from authors and agents.

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on

Making Money On Author Websites

Pitch Week with MG/YA Agent

Words Of Wisdom From Famous Authors

In the news this week is the speculation about the price of the eBook rights for Harry Potter. This is being negotiated  at the moment and reminds me of comments made by the publishers at Spinning Tales about eBook rights being non negotiable or deal breakers here in NZ. 
The margins are so slim here at the bottom of the world that eBook rights and world rights are the only way they can make money and if they don’t get both they may as well pass the project.... This is a good reminder to Writers and Illustrators...They are in a business and they need to know all the ramifications of the contract.

Enjoy,

maureen

The pic is the golden moments of going to a Kid's Lit conference... Every encounter is gold....

The following video is 60 seconds of Bologna....