Sharing Our Stories

  

In Publishing News this week,

 

It’s August so naturally our thoughts turn to Spring Bookfairs? Bologna Children’s Book Fair has just finished sweeping up from their last fair and already they starting to plan big things for their next one in 2026. Now they are moving into games... or more content. Publishing Perspectives reports on their new roadshow telling everyone all about it.

 

Periodically I post articles about moves towards sustainability in publishing. Usually, they take the form of publishers talking about how they are going to do it. Publishing Perspectives Arpita Das explores practical tips that the Indian Publishers are doing to be more sustainable.

 

Taking sustainability up a notch Publishers Weekly showcases Cardboard House, a bilingual press which publishes poetry in chap books and handmade book cover workshops. This is part of a grass roots mission to create spaces for language justice, and to reform, and reformulate audiences.

 

Publishers Weekly has a feel good story. Book stores specifically selling stories for the Black community in America have started a national association. They specifically want to use their association to promote literacy and amplify Black voices. 

 

Here in New Zealand our Storylines Author Tours need some love. About four times a year Storylines takes authors on the road to visit schools in rural areas or little towns around New Zealand. With funding drying up they are having a Boosted campaign for the month. They need $5000 dollars and they only have a month to get it. Go on and share the love. Help a kid meet an author.

 

Now that we are in August a few companies have changed names, or terms or disappeared. In audiobooks Findaway Voices is now Voices by INaudio. You can still use them to distribute audio everywhere. Spotify for Authors is now enabling direct uploads at their site using the INaudio site. As any musician will tell you, check the terms of service before leaping in to Spotify.

 

Oh, Nigerian Prince, I’ve missed you. Not. Writer Beware has a warning of a new scam using AI to craft the most compelling flattery of your book and offering to review it, market it etc and then comes the catch, their Nigerian assistant. Just after I wrote this paragraph, I checked my inbox… Oh look a flattery email about wanting to market my children’s books….

 

Have you checked out a picture book lately? An English professor decided to do a deep dive into the data around animal main characters. A few decades ago, this was a talking point in the children’s publishing community. Are all the animal main characters boys? Everyone resolved to do better. But did they? Professor Melanie Walsh writes in Publishers Weekly it depends on whether they are a cat or a dog or a frog or a hen.

 

Tammy Burke has an interesting article on outlining for discovery writers. If anybody has ever asked you if you are a plotter or a pantser as a writer and you’ve been stuck on the answer, this is the post for you. Tammy shows other ways to outline. You could be a writer who uses trail markers, breadcrumbs, emotional anchors, and other exciting ways to get that story out of your head.

 

Donald Mass has another great article on the craft of writing over on Writer Unboxed. Are you guilty of throwing everything into your opening paragraph? Maybe you are trying too hard. An opening should be an invitation. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Types of scene endings- K M Weiland- Bookmark

The power of paragraphing- Lori Freeland- Bookmark

Taming The Backstory Beast- P J Parrish

Amp up your story setting- Angela Ackerman

Fluff, Flab, and Fillers- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Pay attention to your bio picture- Rob Bignell

A ready to use bookclub kit- Ingram Spark- Bookmark

Updated Amazon Keyword rules- Kindlepreneur- Bookmark

Do Author Blurbs create sales?- Alessandra Torre- Bookmark

The publicity tip you should ignore- Sandra Beckwith

 

To Finish

It’s nice to find positive publishing stories to share in the weekly blog. Author, Jen Craven has the ultimate feel good marketing story. What do you do when you receive a bunch of badly printed books from your printer? Jen turned them into a town wide scavenger hunt that got big publicity. 

This is out of the box thinking and a fun thing to do when less than perfect books arrive on your doorstep. She writes about her most creative marketing campaign yet over on Jane Friedman’s blog.

 

Authors- thinking creatively since forever.

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Pic  Photo by Klara Kulikova on Unsplash

Brain Gymnastics...

This week the weather in New Zealand has been extreme. 

A polar blast hit the country bringing with it major dumps of snow to places that don’t see snow in fifty to one hundred years. At the same time it is the last planning week for Wellington Storylines. The 3 day weather chaos resulted in cancelled meetings due to extreme weather conditions and ongoing worry about how family members were going to make it home with cancelled trains and buses, disrupted school and power cuts. My week has been a busy, fractured, distracted, topsy turvey, COLD exercise in adaption to unforeseen circumstance.

So...This week’s blog post will be a short look at what caught my eye amongst all the drama of other events.

Jane Friedman talked with Amy Stolls on how book marketing had changed since 2005 when Amy brought out her first book and now. Amy has some interesting things to say on how her publisher guided her on marketing then and now. Now it is essential to generate word of mouth. Check out Amy’s journey and then compare it to what her publishers told her in 2005.

Justine Musk has written a marvellous blog post on compelling branding. In it she details what the author should be doing...It all boils down to your secret word...

Forbes explores who the world’s highest paid authors are and why and looks at the rise of ebook sales which have tipped the scales in this years income.

Mike Shatzkin has written two very compelling posts this week. The first looks at the irony of being a publisher today. He explores the agency pricing model and examines the implications of Apples move into publishing and how it will impact on the big 6 publishers and Amazon the 7th and biggest player.

The second post this week from Mike is the analysis of Tim Ferriss and his Hardcover deal with Amazon which was announced yesterday. The game changes...along with Amazon giving a seven figure advance to Tim for a non fiction book. Mike has done the math and Tim Ferriss stands to make 105% royalties....This has serious implications for the rest of the publishing industry...Can they compete?

Writeoncon 2011 has been sucking my eyes these last two days (when it has been freezing.) This is a free online writing conference for children’s writers. It is global... it is brilliant... and there are many great things to take away. If you are registered you can take part in the live chat events with agents editors etc. Or you can lurk and suck up heaps of knowledge. Sometimes the time difference works for us...and sometimes not...but as the transcripts from all sessions stay up in the forums set aside some uninterrupted time and be prepared to stretch your brain to take in all the learning you will be doing.

To finish,

A nice roundup of the ten commandments for the happy writer....and a plug for a huge event that a dedicated team of Children’s Literature enthusiasts have spent months preparing.

Storylines National Festival kicks off this Sunday in Wellington at the Town Hall. This is a free family event celebrating literacy with some of New Zealand’s finest writers and illustrators. There will be live performances of loved books, crafts to make, talks by celebrated authors, book demonstrations (we have chefs and gardeners getting hands on...) and how to draw comics with some of NZ’s finest graphic novelists. It’s a mad crazy day and we love it.

Every year the festival seems touch more places in New Zealand so check out the website to see where your nearest full day event is happening. Chris Morphew, of Zac Power and Phoenix Files fame, is our international guest and he will be speaking at an evening event on Tuesday in Wellington. All details on the Storylines website.

See you there.  

 maureen

Standouts for me are....

Ok late again... but honestly.....you can chant this now...I’ve been busy!

Storylines, conference, storylines, conference, conference .....etc... only three weeks to go.

Storylines is over for another year. (Onwards to the next big event I wonder what that is....?)

We had nearly 3000 people through the doors last Sunday. (...we still haven’t cracked it....still trying tho)

There were lots of great moments. Standouts for me...Mrs Wishywashy (aka Martin)

Children, yet again, going nuts over Hairy Maclary and also The Wot Wots who made their debut at a Storylines event. The Wot Wots were Richard Taylor and Martin Baynton... The creators dressed in WotWot costumes and holding animatronic puppets.

Richard Taylor, is such a nice guy, genuinely interested in what children wanted to know...he brought along a couple himself....You wouldn’t see a five time Oscar winner in Hollywood packing his own gear in and out and blowing up balloons for a display, huh! Martin Baynton was Mr Enthusiastic. Such a great pair.

They brought along a bigger than life size model of Jane from Jane and the Dragon...Martins book which WETA have done such a superb job of animating. There were some great moments in their sessions too like Richard saying that the state of animation is moving so fast that they haven’t got the time to train people up so they are pinching them from the Wot Wot team. Children’s Television being the best training ground for animators.

The Illustrators were their usual super cool selves. I finally got a dream wish come true. Frazer Williamson was doing little sketches daubing them with Gouache watercolour and giving them away. We are now the proud owners of a Surfing Penguin on a Fish...framed the next day. But a knockout was witnessing Frazer being given a drawing from a young fan, in appreciation. Such moments, priceless!

Now onto another topic.

Shelli Johannes has a cool blog called Market My Words.

She is a mg/ya author who, like me, is interested in marketing ideas for authors. Shelli interviewed Molly O’Neill of Katherine Tegen books an imprint of HarperCollins about author web presence and best marketing ideas. The interview is a great read with some good advice from Molly. Below is just one of the pieces of advice that Molly shares.

Go to Shellis blog to read the whole article....I recommend it.

I’ve got a handful of additional advice, mostly gleaned from talks I used give about marketing:

• Take the time before each book is published to sit down and make a marketing plan for yourself, separate from anything your publisher may be doing. Think about your limits and be realistic. It’s great to come up with wildly creative ideas, but sometimes carefully thought out simpler ideas can accomplish far more. Set goals for yourself, and make sure they are goals that you can accomplish, not something that you have little control over (like winning an award). Set specific goals, and give yourself benchmarks to measure if you’re meeting them. For example, don’t just have goal of “make brochures.” Make it be “make brochures and distribute at least 50 to local area teachers.” Instead of just “set up local book signings,” which may or may not be successful, add to it, set up book signings and attend 4 other events at your local bookstore, so you can see what works—and doesn’t work—for other authors, and so you become a familiar face. And make sure on every marketing plan, there are a couple things that are new—maybe even things that seem a little scary...whether that means cold-calling schools to offer school visits, or trying blogging, or speaking in public….Growth in your approach is important, and trying new things can open up possibilities you never even considered.

maureen

pic is Richard Taylor as a wotwot and Jane (storylines wellington 2009)