Conference Challenges

Conferences have been in my mind lately, specifically Book Expo America (BEA) and Golden Yarns (GY) here in New Zealand. 

BEA brings people from all over the publishing spectrum together for a packed 3 day conference. This is where new research is shared, trends predicted and deals are made. It isn’t much about the writers of the content but more about how the content is managed, packaged, delivered and distributed to the global marketplace. 

Golden Yarns was the latest conference for the Children’s Literature community in New Zealand. This community has now had 3 stellar conferences two years apart. The Golden Yarns conference focussed on best practice writing and illustration workshops with keynotes being delivered by leaders in the NZ Children’s Literature field on their personal heroes. There were many opportunities for the group to share ideas, hash out issues and drink wine. (The wine bill paid for by a NZ Children’s Writing Icon...gob smacking and a lovely gesture as she wasn’t there to drink it.)

Two very different conferences in focus but both valuable to the writing and illustration practitioner.

Breaking down B.E.A.

Bob Mayer gives an entertaining overview of what was going down in old New York Town. His main concern the lack of digital focus by the organisers (who seemed to believe the talk from publishers that ebooks sales have plateaued....) A report to show this was released at BEA.

Sam Missingham examined that report on ebook sales facts and figures, and blew that idea out of the water. Sam $40% BEA 0

Publishing Perspectives took a punt at what they think will be future trends in publishing....hmmm more amalgamations?

Shelf Awareness took a look at a BEA first, Power Readers, who were invited to participate at BEA. Who are they and Why do they matter... they also checked out Neil Gaimen’s talk on why fiction is dangerous.

Inspiring and Challenging

Here in New Zealand everyone who attended GY is coming down off their high. Melinda Szymanik has written an overview of the first part of the weekend.

Over in the UK the Children’s Laureate, Julia Donaldson stepped down after her two year stint with a great broadside at the lack of reviews for children’s books. The wonderful Malorie Blackman takes over.... 

This sparked a debate in NZ within the KidLit community for our own Children’s Laureate...after all we have a Poet Laureate. If you would like to add your voice to this and are on Facebook, check out this page.

Chuck Wendig has written another 25 things post.... this time on YA Lit. Be entertained...BeWare...it’s Chuck.

Jane Friedman has another of her Best Business Advice List For Writers

In Craft,

Jami Gold on Can ThisStory Be Saved...how to figure out what’s wrong. and What Soap Opera’s CanTeach You...

Janice Hardy on Handling Scene Transitions with Multiple POVs

Chuck Wendig on Ten Stupid Writer Tricks That Might Actually Work (they do!)

Writer’s Digest- Stormwriting- What it is and How To Do It

In Marketing,

Ways for writers to use Pinterest

4 best strategies for savvy self publishers

7 tips for choosing your book cover

PR and Marketing for Self Publishing Do’s and Don’ts

The Book Designer has a great blog and his guest blogger Joan Stewart has a take note article on Business Opportunities That Even Savvy Writers Are Missing Out On.

 To Finish,

 A good conference should allow time to network with your peers, should inspire you, educate you and give you tools to move forward in the ever changing world of publishing.

Suw Charman Anderson has written a Forbes article on what she thinks needs to happen next. Why Publishers Should Invest In Authors Not In Books.... could this be the model for the future?

Below the animation announcing Malorie Blackmans appointment...and no that rap was not written for the announcement it’s been out for a few years now.

(Such street cred with her readers!)

 

maureen 

pic from Flickr/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncvophotos

Exploding Heads...

December is the craziest month of the year in New Zealand. 

It is the month when you juggle end of school year events at schools. Christmas celebrations with all the organisations you are involved with, as well as your children’s and your spouse’s. It is the start of the summer holidays. 

While you are rushing around trying to prepare for Christmas, you are also trying to juggle the holiday timetable, travel, destination etc etc.

Throw in a few unexpected events and life gets more than complicated. In December I find myself just concentrating on each day at a time because otherwise my head will explode.

This week around the publishing blogosphere there is a lot of head exploding about this article. Ebook readers to go the way of the dinosaurs. Of course writers publishing ebooks are worried...Do we need to be?

In the last week Victoria Strauss from Writer Beware (an excellent site) has dealt with sock puppetry of a different kind...where a small publisher has had writers extolling their virtues...unfortunately the writers in question didn’t know they were. The twitter feed exploded when Chuck Wendig found his name had been used. Victoria does a great job bringing scams to writer's attention and her latest find is on International Scams...watch out if you are contracting for or to services overseas.

James Scott Bell has written a great post on 10 ways to sabotage your writing. Hopefully you are doing none of these...I could be guilty of letting the Zombies in...

Zoe Winters drops in from her Social Media Blackout to say what she has learned and achieved. Do you remember life before Social Media? How was your writing then? (a safe sane existence?)

While I was away from Social Media a few weeks ago on my travels, Kassia Krozser from Booksquare was interviewed by 40K Books. I have seen snippets of this great interview all over the place and the whole thing makes VERY INTERESTING reading. Kassia is in demand as a speaker at big publishing industry conferences where she regularly explodes heads with her presentations. In this interview she has the heads up for publishers and what they should be doing now and also for authors. Flexibility is the ultimate key!

Porter Anderson in his new Ether for Authors round up talks about the rise of publishing industry conferences targeting Authors...join the dots... Authors increasing interest in Indie publishing...ergo they need tools and skills... and as Porter says Krozser’s interview works as a useful position paper, and it’s the kind of thing I hope more authors are taking the time to read these days. Craft work is grand, but when it comes to understanding the business in which that craft must be published, authors can no longer “stick to the writing blogs.” Knowing what publishers face in today’s market is the only way for an author to find a place for him- or herself.

So with this clarion call ringing in your ears The Alliance of Independent Authors has a free online conference for ... Independent Authors.

Check out their speakers...many of whom have been featured in this blog over the years.

I note that the cost of a publishing industry conference is nearly $2000 NZ so maybe a 3 day holiday away around the 12-14^th February where you can drop in to this makes good economic sense.

The FutureBook Conference held last month in the UK goes under the microscope in Nick Harkaways blog. How broken is the old publishing system when the accountants are running the asylum... (cue zombie music)

Passive Guy highlights the wonderful Indie author Hugh Howey (author of mega selling Wool) and his new contract whith S&S which breaks new contract ground. I know this has been a hot topic here in NZ among authors so take a look at this. (Is this the contract of the future...please please please...) 

In Craft,

A nice round up for this week.

From J R R  Tolkein. 6  writing tips.

From K M Weiland. Structuring scenes and also Why stupid characters make stupid books (must read)

From Gina Conroy. Cutting fat from your WIP

From Elisabeth S Craig. Writing in small chunks of time

From Kissmetrics. What Tarentino can teach you about reader engagement.

From MythicScribes 9 Amazing Blogs for Writers...and yes there are familiar names here for you.

In Marketing,

7 Things I learned about marketing books

Wise Ink has 12 lessons they have learned coaching Indie Authors in 2012

To finish,

Scholastic Editors have forecast their top 10 trends for 2013 (remember people that it usually takes a year to publish a book...)

Hold Your Head NOW

maureen

P.S. As always I urge you to read the comments on the links I put up each week.

Conversations I highlighted in last weeks round up are still going so if something from last week caught your eye, check in again... there is still plenty to talk about.

Pic from Grmisiti who has a whole lot of scary pictures from the Zombie Walk in Sao Paulo. This is not the scariest!

Committed To Publishing

Last night as I was racing to a friends book launch I was thinking about the commitment my friend had made to following a dream and the hard work and sacrifices it entailed. 

My friend has been around the publishing industry in one way or another all her working life. She is married to a book designer. As a reviewer and writer she knows how hard it is to get a book in print and that is the easy job compared to getting marketing, reviews and ultimately sales for that book. 

Last night John McIntyre of The Children’s Bookshop correctly stated that all those present at the book launch must become the publicists for the wonderful book Johanna and Walter have created. The Fly Trap Snaps. (book one)

The book is beautifully produced as befits a couple of very hands on creative types and is very funny. It rockets along with the hero, Spencer Fogle, outwitting wrestlers and wrestling with genetically engineered carnivorous plants, feckless parents and a Mr Nice Guy former child star who is not very nice at all. The illustrations Sabrina Malcolm has provided sprinkled throughout the book add the finishing touch to a mystery thriller just right for confident readers 8 thru to 12.

I take my hat off to The Hinterland Press Team, Johanna and Walter, for their courage and tenacity in following their dream to bring us a new midgrade hero...(heroes...Dion the talking Venus Fly Trap has my vote as well.) I wish them well and may they have many sales!

Roni Loren has written a great list of ten things she would do differently (and why) if she was starting out to build an author platform now.

Joel Friedlander has written an interesting post about authors getting into video blogging.  He has some compelling arguments about why we should and lays out step by step how to do it. It opens up a whole new world for the children’s writer....I was recently talking with a school librarian who told me that Book Trailers were one of the biggest selling points for a books popularity in her school library...just let your mind dwell on that for a moment and then go read what Joel has to say.

Jami Gold has written another thought provoking post on whether children’s books should have a rating system. I sit on the fence mostly on this one. However there are some books that eight year olds, no matter how advanced their reading is, should not be delving into because they lack the life experience to make sense of what they read....and usually they find this out pretty quickly. I wish parents would think about this before they encourage their very bright reader to tackle a young adult book because they can read it!

The Great Jane has another good post looking at ebooks. 5 things beginners need to know about epublishing. Jane has written a quick overview of terms and how to’s.

The SCBWI LA conference has wrapped up and again the conference bloggers did a marvelous job of blogging the whole conference. For a wonderful conference experience drop over to their conference blog go down to the bottom and work your way up. If you are an illustrator make sure you look at all the illustration links....there are some superb illo’s and interviews with the best in the business. If you are a writer, check out the in depth interviews.

A  key note speech I wish I had been there for was the great Bruce Colville...Check out this wonderful report where Bruce talks about the Ha Waah Yikes method of story crafting and what makes a good story.

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

Agents As Publishers- Mike Shatzkin has taken a close look at this issue....he says they have no choice....

5 Simple Steps To Create An Audio Book...this is a great resource.

Building Conflict One Cruelty at A Time- Chuck Wendig....this is a great list of how to’s (Warning...Content but you knew that when I said Chuck...) 

4 Steps To Unlocking Your Creativity...Step one unplug yourself....

In the Craft Corner,

Bob Mayer asks the question, I will do whatever it takes to be a writer, except don’t ask me to do...?

Time to examine your fears people....

To Finish,

Helen Lowe is having a Thornspell contest on her website. You get to suggest one of her characters and why they should have a stand alone story written about them...three judges get to pick the best one...and she has to write it. Winners get a copy of Thornspell...It’s a great book too...think sleeping beauty then tell it from the princes point of view but add some twists!

Helen is living through the constant earthquakes in Christchurch and although times are tough down there she is hanging in there writing and publishing from the very shaky city....That’s commitment!

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....

Sticking Your Neck Out....

It has been a clear-the-decks week. 

Empty out a room. Paint it. Put it back together. Chuck out what you don’t want. Find stuff chucked out and rescue it. Justify why you saved the chucked out item.

Writers are hoarders. Teachers are hoarders. I am doubly dammed or blessed whichever way you look at it.

While I have been painting and contemplating treasure or trash... Bob Mayer has been taking a hard look at the Digital Book World conference and weighing up the worth of their speakers and the comments on twitter about where digital publishing is going...self publishing... and being your own publisher/bookstore owner.... This is a must read. Bob walks the talk. He pulls no punches.

Another person weighing up epublishing and her experiment with it is Zoe Winters. 

Zoe has released a couple of ebooks and designed and executed an amazing campaign around getting her name out there. This name is a pseudonym and in this critique of her year, social marketing her ebooks she compares it with her other ‘real life’ writer persona. Zoe shot to fame on the writer’s blogosphere with her video series Who is Zoe Winters...clever marketing. This article is also a must read for people contemplating ebooks.

I post these articles because the face of publishing is changing rapidly and writers should be aware of what is happening in the industry and what other writers are experiencing.

This week Publishing Perspectives posted an article entitled Half of US Publishers Believe ebooks Will Be Dominant By 2014 and Mike Shatz of Nokia wrote a guest article on Moconews On Why Online Retailers will Squeeze out Publishers In the Book Business.(as always I recommend you read the comments that these articles generate.)

Know what you want to do and go in with eyes wide open.

So after that dose of reality...back to Fiction

Callihoo has posted George Polti’s 36 dramatic plots...a good reference tool and Publetariat has answered the question How Do You Keep Your Plot from Feeling Contrived..if you are stuck for ideas. 

On Craicerplus (my Amplify page) I have links to articles on

Hunger Games- Why Kids Love Disaster Distress and Dystopia...(not only kids...this is a great article by a psychologist.)

10 Steps for Working Past The ‘This Stinks’ Blues.

How To Organise Your Assignments, Research, Interviews and All The Rest

How To Write Your First Novel In Under Four Weeks.

A Handy Beginners Guide To ebook Formats Apps And Devices.

Conference season is upon us and WriteOnCon kicked off with an Agent’s Panel which is covered on Heather McCorkles Blog.

And the Big One SCBWI NEW YORK...kicks off tomorrow....However you can hole up in your office and follow it all as it happens by going to the live blog site...I did that for LA...great little insights and it didn’t cost me the ticket...(but oh how I wished I was there.)

If you are interested in a conference closer to home Spinning Tales in Auckland is still open for registrations for another month.

Anita Laydon Millar advises that you must stick your neck out because you never know where it might lead you...(all from a reader of her blog...)

Here is episode 2 of Zoe’s Self Publishing Video Series...have a laugh.

enjoy,

maureen

P on the Brain...Promotion, Platforms, Pitching, Publishing and Phew...

This week has been ‘my can’t quite settle to anything’ week. 

It is probably due to changes in the family routine...Theoretically I should have more time...I wonder where it goes. 

I need to wrestle my house into submission and also my brain, which has been jumping around all over the place. I have a new story idea that I have been doing a little bit of research on, and thinking about on how to tackle the story...You know me, sucker for anything that needs research, also I don’t know why but I have to challenge myself in structure and style as well... Why can’t I just write a simple story? As my good Fabo Friend commented on Facebook recently  ‘Just write Maureen write!!!’

So in this week’s blog there is a mix of different ideas that caught my eye.

If you read last weeks post and went aaaarhgh. Social Media and Promotion and...It’s all doing my head in... then have a look at this guest post on Sia McKye’s blog. Janice Hardy takes a look at using your time wisely on promotion.

If you looked at last weeks post and thought Twitter aaaargh. Nicola Morgan has a good series of posts on using hashtags for searching within twitter. (good for research)

If you thought 'I can’t do facebook...'Take a look at this article on Fan Pages from Publetariat.

Nathan Bransford has a post looking at platform...which I have touched on before...If you wanted to know what an authors platform is, in terms of agents and publishers, read Nathans post.

This morning I had the good fortune to be able to chew the fat with some writer buddies (Hi Melinda) and we discussed last years conference. It has been a year since Spinning Gold...(I can’t quite believe it myself.) We discussed the success stories and the challenges of putting on the conference. The next conference, Spinning Tales, will be in Auckland at the beginning of April. Planning is underway with the Auckland team.

One of the topics in our wide ranging discussion was the changing face of publishing and also the speed of change. Jason Pinter looks at this in his Huffington Post article The 12 Game Changers In Publishing (and he doesn’t mention the tech companies....)

There will be pitching at Spinning Tales...so it could be timely to have a look at what happens to your manuscript when it gets requested. An agent tells....

Ingrid Sundberg has a good post on her blog recapping the agents panel at SCBWI LA last month. Great information about what some American agents want.....

Darcy Pattison has guest blogged about book trailers on The Creative Penn. If you have been thinking about book trailers and wondering if it is for you, have a look at what Darcy has to say.

Over on Craicerplus  (My Amplify page) There are articles on

Reinventing Book Marketing.

What Do The Most Highly Paid Authors Have In Common.

New Print Books Jump Off The Page With Digital Enhancements.

Speaking Loudly...(how Social Media got the word out for Laurie Halse Anderson when her book was banned in schools....)

5 Ways To Make Your Novel Unforgettable...(for those of us stuck in mid novel blues...)

MG vs YA...(brilliant post and nailed for me why I love writing MG)

I want to leave you with a great video that Rachelle Gardner posted on her blog.

The The Impotance of Proofreading.

And if you know a teacher... send them this....Absolutely Brilliant!


enjoy,
maureen

and the pic is not my kitchen sink.

Studying To Suceed

On Monday I had the good fortune to attend the LIANZA awards. 

New Zealand librarians chose the best books published for children in the past year. 

Congratulations to the winners! Among the established high profile awards given were new awards in sub categories for books published in Te Reo Maori. As more people are becoming literate in the Maori Language there is a need for books to become more sophisticated. A lot of what has been published in Maori are children’s readers and non fiction. This is now beginning to change as children fluent in te reo age. I was happy to see that a novel based around science fiction including elements of myths and world building was the inaugural winner in the young adult section of the Te Reo awards. When you can have this kind of sophisticated plot, playing with futurist ideas, you know that the Maori language is alive and flourishing.  

Dinner out after with some of the brightest talents in Children’s Writing and Illustration in this country was the icing on the cake...and the jump start to my night....(Thanks for the help and the laughter, Children’s Writers and Illustrators are the best!)

WriteOnCon  has finished and the children’s literature world is digesting the insights gained.  So if you have been studying hard after reading the SCBWI blog (which I urged you to do two weeks ago...) here is this weeks study homework.

Adventures in Publishing have gathered together a conference round up for each day of the WriteOnCon

Day One and Day Two and Day Three and boy there is some great information tucked away in here.

Miriam Forster has put the two videos by Shelli Johannes-Wells on author branding from the conference on her website so hop on over and have a look.

If you want more information on author branding, The Book Designer has a comprehensive article on the subject. Everything you wanted to know...don’t forget that author branding equals business branding.

The Great Jane has interviewed Johanna Harness about the twitter phenomenon that is the #amwriting group. This is an interesting project by an unpublished writer using social media to get known. With over 2000 people participating in the project and an Amazon store and CafePress merchandise site you have to ask yourself  is this the way of the future? (If you have a book coming out with a great theme check out your contract...if it doesn't specifically say anything about merch maybe you need to look into it...a range of interesting quotes from the books and the book cover could make a nice tee shirt (thinking a certain Shakespear sequel here))

It is an interesting interview. Being interviewed on the No Rules blog jumped her stats over 1000%

Dean Wesley Smith has written an interesting overview of what he thinks is happening in publishing. He equates publishers as huge ships that take a long time to change course. The winners are the small press and indie publishers. They can move faster and ride the wave better. Authors who have a long backlist can profit also from the e-publishing phenomenon.

On Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) There are links to articles on

Swords Dominate 2009 Fantasy Cover Art...

The Ultimate Checklist Before Submitting Your Novel.(this is brilliant!)

How To Ensure 75% of Agents Will Request Your Material.(required reading)

Dean Wesley Smith- Killing The Sacred Cows of Publishing...thought provoking article by Dean with an Agent Responding...

10 Things To Do To Become A Better Writer In 10 Days

Self Publishing? A look At Lightening Source.

Finally

In the News -UK Penguin are opening their inboxes for a limited time to unsolicited manuscript submissions...very brave of them...

And

Nathan Bransford asks the question -If You Were King or Queen Of The Publishing Industry What Would Be Your First Order of Business?

Some very funny responses...give everyone donuts...yep after my day today....

Enjoy...off to find a donut

maureen

Image is from the very funny website Better Book Titles- The Titles They Should Have Used.

Yes - It is For Frankenstein!

(check out the rest!)

Conference Connections....

It is conference season for Children’s Writers and Illustrators. 

WriteOnCon starts next week. It’s Free and Online and close to 500 people have signed up for it. (Click on forums to sign up.)

SCBWI LA Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators  L A summer conference has just finished and they had a record breaking crowd of over 1100 attendees this year.

Alice Pope and her team blogged their way through it again this year. You need a team to blog a conference of this magnitude. Last year was the first time that they did it and it was a stupendous undertaking. This year they surpassed themselves. For us who can only dream about one day making it over there to just experience it, or in our case having to put on our own conference so we could get the opportunity to learn, upskill, and network  in our craft, the SCBWI Team Blog is the way to go.

Just a warning there is so much information about what’s new, what editors are looking for, trends, multimedia, master class information, tips, learning,....Set aside time to really study what has been posted. And it is a lot! I clicked older posts 8 times before I got to the start of the four day conference. Along the way the information coming at me was incredible.

If you are in this business you would be a fool not to check out the blog.   

Michelle from The Y A Highway blog posted her impressions as an attendee and soundbites  of what she took away from the conference. It is a great little roundup of highpoints.

A couple or three  sites caught my eye this week to share with you before I got snowed by the conference blog.

The Book Doctor has an article up on organising your days on a weekly basis. It is timely as life gets pretty busy around here and fitting in time to write and not feel guilty is very tricky. So check out the advice from The Book Doctor Team.

Pimp My Novel has reposted an article from last year about 12 easy steps to help market your new novel. This is a good wake up call from the sales director of a publishing firm. Especially lead in times...websites etc...and Book Trailers.

As an aside Christopher Cheng from Australia/New Zealand SCBWI got an award In L A last week for most helpful  Regional Advisor and he did a session on creating book trailers...yes the authors HAVE TO DO IT and his session showed how you could do it in 30 minutes. You have to read SCBWI TEAM BLOG!

Alan Rinzler has a great article on Niche Marketing your book.

As I have said in earlier posts, the futurists are predicting that publishers will only survive if they become more niche so it is useful for authors to look at this form of marketing as well. This week I have been delving into marketing books again and the new buzz word coming out is fusion marketing. Teaming up with other industries and marketing together.

Alan looks at some of these ideas and shows examples of book campaigns that are doing this.

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page)

What Writers Wish They Had Known Before Pitching

7 Things I’ve Learned So Far (a satire...very funny but thought provoking too)

Open Sky Website lets Authors Sell Directly To Consumers  (On Fusion Marketing )

Writing Vs Storytelling (Nathan Bransford writes a brilliant article on looking closely at why we love or don’t 

love best sellers and what we can learn from them)

How A Sticky Note Can Change Your Life

Some Tips For Writing A Series.

And in other news

The FABO Story project is off with a hiss and a roar and we are getting some great stories from the kids. Go and check out Chapter Two and the winning kids chapter two version. Kids can join in at any time as a new chapter is posted each week. New Zealand Illustrators have joined in with a team of their own getting together to illustrate each chapter for us...

If you are dreaming of book trailers....and going global....check out how you can run a TV Ad in the States  for very little money. Is this where FABO will end up?...heheheheh If you read the SCBWI TEAM BLOG you will find out that it’s not  such a silly idea....

enjoy, 

maureen

pic is from Christopher Cheng...his view of the 1100 attendees at SCBWI LA.

Busy....Busy...

After the excitement of Monday Night, I have spent the week immersed in tracking registrations answering queries and emails and responding to begging emails.

Right at the beginning of this Conference Ride, a year ago last month, we thought ‘ok let’s aim for 80 people.’ That’s a reasonable number, (double the previous conference 16 years ago.) It is affordable at the venue. The next biggest venue would double our costs....(Would anyone in NZ pay $700 to go to the same conference given the current economic climate...)

When we began to realise the public interest in what we were doing we started to let everyone know that interest was high. The speed of the take up surprised us and baffled some who thought Oh I’ll register tomorrow or next week. So now we have a waiting list...growing by the hour....

I did take a little break on Wednesday night to update our WCBA blog about the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. Fifi was texting them through from the award ceremony so I had to post them. Go Here if you want to read what I wrote.

Hats off and a wave to Melinda, fellow blogger, who won The Children’s Choice Award with The Were-Nana.

It has been a busy week...but I took another break this morning to catch up on blog reading.
So here are some little gems for you to take you into the weekend....

Every now and again I hop onto The Buried Editor site and have a look at what Madeline is talking about. Recently she posted the handout of the workshop she took at a regional conference in Texas. Madeline took a session looking at Online Marketing. It is very informative and covers a lot of ground. So go take a look.

The team at Writers Digest have put together a conference in New York that touches on some of the themes at our own conference. So worldwide, everyone seems to be asking the same questions. There is a great line up of speakers and sessions...

The great Jane has posted a MUST READ article on Five Ways Writers and Book Publishers Need To Embrace Change NOW.
Jane is an amazing resource in what’s coming and trends in the publishing world in America. Keep an eye on her....

When you take these 5 things together, I think authors will partner with publishers who offer a community of other like-minded authors (networking/growth potential), who offer diverse opportunities and methods of support, across all types of media, and who share the same values.

So it's been a busy week...

Maybe this weekend I'll get my tax done, paint that wall, write something on Mars....

Maureen

pic says it all really

3 big ideas with links to even more big ideas...

My inner geek rejoices.

Scientists have found another near earth like planet in Glisese 581. e to go with d that they discovered in 2007

That brings the total of exoplanets up to 347.

This is truly the decade of space exploration. I think the announcement of the discovery of this little planet(ok 1.9 times the size of Earth so not that little) this week is fitting as a testament to Stephen Hawking who is lying gravely ill in England. Stephen has often stated that the future of the human species lies in space.

Ta muchly to P J Hoover of The spectacle blog for alerting all her fellow geek kids writers out there.

Jumped onto Jane Friedman’s blog today. She is regularly posting the best twitter updates she see’s on her blog and today is no exception.

49 creative ways you can profit from content marketing by Sonia Simone

What a comprehensive list and the fun bit is that it that it can definitely apply to children’s bookshops (John.... Malcolm....go take a look) but also Authors and Illustrators could probably apply some of the ways directly to their own business. Actually if you know anyone operating a small business send them on over to take a look.

Twitter is good for something....Posting the title of your latest blog post...drives traffic to your website.

Penguin have just released some teachers notes to go with my book and I would like to thank the teacher who wrote them. They are very good and just what I would have done if I was still in the classroom, probably not in so much detail tho. After all this book would have been one reading group out of five and the reading ages in my middle school classrooms used to range from emergent to teen...but it’s a great resource to have.

On the conference front...(oh no I hear you sigh) things are continuing to come together slowly. However we have tied down a fantastic master class for Illustrators today...I would love to go on their mystery trip...I wonder if I can convince Fifi that I am really an up and coming Illustrator...

No probably not-she’s seen my stick figures.... (darn –that trip is soooo brilliant....sigh )

maureen

pic is an artists impression of Gliese 581 e

Numbers...Numbers...

It has been 370 days since I posted my first ever blog post. Just over a year.

Here’s a link back to the pathetic paragraph I wrote 51 posts ago. As I look back over the year there have been some highlights in the blogging life. The post where I learned to hyperlink....the post where I learned to post video...the marketing series which became my reason to blog in the first place... I really think that I need a reason to blog...my life isn’t interesting enough to just talk about it. I have discovered amazing blogs by other writers in NZ and overseas and I have made great friends around the world.

It was a year ago since that momentous committee meeting at Fleur Beale’s where I opened my mouth and said “well how hard can it be to organise a conference?”

It is 162 days until opening day of the conference Friday 18th September 2009.

The major news release has gone out to those on the mailing list with lots of information about what I have been doing with my life since September last year when we had the first formal meeting of the conference committee.

Between April and September we were asking for feedback about what people wanted at the conference. Together the programme team sifted through all the response emails and worked out the strands and how we could address them and then we started to look for speakers to fit the bill. Along the way there have been mini drama’s, wonderful luck, serendipitous happenings and we have felt all the highs and lows of putting together what we hope will be a must attend event of the Children’s lit year.

An over riding concern of mine was to keep the cost as low as I could because I wanted to be able to afford to attend my own conference. The pennies are very tightly watched in our household and with the recession biting just as we were firming up the monster programme, this became an imperative.

When I look at the full programme I feel very proud of what we have achieved.
For $300 conference delegates will get four superb speakers, a choice of four workshops out of eleven, four panel discussions and that’s not counting the other goodies that are under wraps....and they are good. Any one of the workshops on offer would cost at least half the fee to attend and some very much more.

Included in the fee is all the food from 2pm Friday until 5pm Sunday night.
Staying at the venue (the cheapest place around) includes breakfast as well. The view from Capital House is spectacular. You overlook the two harbours and out to sea. It’s blustery, bracing and beautiful.

I have been lamenting to friends the conference has taken over my life so I have no other topic of conversation but the journey so far has been interesting much like the journey through a year blogging.

162 days and counting.....

Maureen

The pic is the front door of Capital House. Opening for The Spinning Gold Conference Friday 18th September 2009
Below is some video....to show how far I've come from my first post. If you can’t see the video - go here to enjoy it.

Book by Book: the making of Monkey Man by Jarrett Krosoczka
Jarrett made this entertaining video with the help of some very very good writer/illustrators who all played themselves in it. It is long but very funny and just look at the credit list at the end. This was played at the winter SCBWI conference in New York February 2009.


BOOK BY BOOK: the making of a monkey man from Jarrett Krosoczka on Vimeo.