Talking About The Revolution

This week has seen wide ranging discussions on where authors and publishing are positioning themselves.

Hugh Howey kicked it off with a piece in Salon where he said None of this is meant to say that everyone who self-publishes — even those who study the craft, take their work seriously, and produce a constant stream of material — will find material success. There is also luck involved and the fickle tastes of readers. But what is becoming more apparent with every passing day is that you have a better chance of paying a bill or two through self-publishing than you do through any other means of publication.

Chuck Wendig countered with a piece on his blog warning readers that only going down the self publishing route was courting disaster. I traditionally-publish. I do pretty well at that, too, I think, and actually over the last two years have well-eclipsed anything I made self-publishing. Just the same, I don’t think one is better than the other.

Both make important points which have been debated all over the blogosphere this week. Hugh agrees with Chuck...and compared with diatribes from last year on these different perspectives of Publishing Now, these guys are politeness personified (yes, I said that about Chuck...)

Susan Kaye Quin, an Indie midgrade writer, has also been engaging in this topical debate and she has some good points to make. She looks at both positions coming down firmly on the Indie side...as she would. Take the time to read the debate. Mostly everyone agrees Hybrid is the way to go if you can and different types of publishing for separate projects.

However what everyone is saying on both sides is that quality of content matters. You cannot knock off an ebook in a weekend and make thousands of dollars. This week I was invited to speak to a tertiary Creative Writing Programme. I was blunt because sugar coating reality helps no one. However one very important point I hoped they got was they are already on the right track, by being in a course that will teach them to write to their best ability. There after, it is as Chuck says,...’Art Harder’.

Jane Friedman in her new role as VQR guru brought together a high powered think tank to look at where digital is going in literary publishing. Get a big cup of coffee, the ideas fly thick and fast in the middle with multi media, freelancing and earning income. Porter Anderson, covering the HUGE Writers Digest conference last week, also looks at these ideas including the move of agents to become managers. This is an interesting idea and a way forward for agents.

Another big topic getting lots of talk time is Author’s Guild president Scott Turow’s opinion piece on Amazon buying Goodreads. Unfortunately Scott’s anti digital tirade did not go down well in the blogosphere. Dave Gaughren talks about what went wrong for Scott. He is mostly polite (not like other tirades.) In my humble opinion someone who slams Amazon as much as Scott shouldn’t have his books for sale on it.

Futurebook is asking Can Publishers Disintermediate Amazon...should publishers become retailers...so then....(Check out the article, discuss amongst yourselves.)

Elizabeth Spann Craig has a great blog and this week she is looking at making your comtent work harder for you...I know how she is feeling and have been doing my own investigations down this route...

Anne R Allen says there is a time and place to blog your book...Have you got the right time and place?

PaidContent has looked at Flipboard’s new moves and warns...publishers have not seen this coming and maybe they should be a little bit afraid....The video will knock your socks off (This is a must read!) Your own magazine in 30 seconds...

And to help you with graphics content, new kid on the block, Imgembed, which is revolutionising image capture for blogs, websites etc...no more dodgy steals...and it looks great from the photographers side too. That’s where the blog pic came from.

In Craft,

Stronger verbs and how to get them....

Jami Gold on Revising for Stronger Themes.

Creative writing Prompts: Digging Deep Into Character

When there is no time...How do you write on the GO

In Marketing,

Joanna Penn on Keywords Metadata and Discoverability and Paid Promotion - is it worth it?

Video Book Trailers...putting one together.

Book Signings that WOW (great ideas from Bookshelf Muse blog)

Author Platform - Are You Being Cautious or Lazy (Catherine Ryan Howard takes you to task.)

 To Finish,

In our biggest daily paper was a great article on a Pacific Writer, Lani Wendt-Young who looked at the gap in pacific islands fiction and started writing a Spec Fic series which has taken off among her target audience, Pacific Island youth and then into the wider world. It is a great project and shows what you can do when you stop talking and just write.

maureen

Feeling The Bat...

This morning an Artist friend posted that a UK choreographer had contacted her about  creating a dance piece based around a piece of art she had done a while ago. ‘I feel like a real artist,’ she said...and my reply ‘Can I slap you upside the head YOU ARE A REAL ARTIST!

There has been a lot of head slapping this week  in the blogosphere.

First up, Amazon is now posting Author’s ranking. 

Where are you in the list in your genre etc etc...Do you care? Are you obsessed?...

John Scalzi takes a hard look at what’s going on in Amazon land and slaps authors upside the head. Get over it. It’s marketing and here is what you do....Great article from John (and if you haven’t read his stuff, I recommend it!)

Jody Hedlund took a look at blogging authors... and promotes a voice of reason...this discussion is going all over the blogosphere and there are some very good comments in there.

Susan Kaye Quinn is all fired up about Denise Swanks business plan for writing...something that every writer should have.

Joanna Penn explains what she would do now if she was starting out (creating her mega impact on the publishing writing blogosphere) knowing what she knows. Great Advice! (must find the timer!)

Problogger has 8 non writing apps for writers....some good ones in here....

Larry Brooks sits down and shares what he has just learned in the last 6 months analysing 100 books for his new project. He calls it a bat upside the head....

Edittorrent looks at the five bad habits of good writers...(borrows Larry’s bat...)

Over in the craft section,

Bubblecow highlights 5 tips to make your cover look professional

Catherine Ryan Howard has 11 ingredients for a sizzling book description

Adventures in CYA publishing has 6 tests of solid story premises. (great post referencing Larry Brooks.)

or you can check out Snoopy’s rules for writing. Very nice!

LiveWriteThrive show how to make your plots bigger! (bat upside your characters head)

Elisabeth Spann Craig explains to a writer how you choose what to read in the genre you write...(some people need that bat....)

Mark Nicol of Daily Writing tips is on the warpath, with the bat, over the inability of people to use an apostrophe...in the write place!

and Catherine Ryan Howard tells you how to proof your Createspace paperback...without resorting to violence.

Ava Jae wants writers to explore different universes when they get stuck creatively in their work...(use the bat as a crutch)

To finish,

If you are looking to turn the writing world on its head...Follow the Will Smith model. Duolit, (great team) tells you how to do it.

Writeitsideways tells you how to make your own luck.

After all that bat swinging you may need some physical therapy for writers...

or a hospital bed!

maureen

pic fromhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/christinestephens/3845778137/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Scattered Thoughts...

Sometimes my mind scatters and I can’t concentrate on any one thing for long. 

Things around the house get started and not finished...my reading preferences skip straight to Sci Fi and I find it hard to sit down and work through something for longer than fifteen minutes before jumping up or changing position, sit to stand to pace to slump to edge of seat to...

I think my mind is jumping around trying to find a steady job with long term prospects...oooh shiny pretty... what’s over there or there or there...I’m looking for the idea that will capture me and make me tell the story.

With these thoughts in mind I trip into the blogosphere...and lo some great posts pop out.

How to audition your main characters...

5 reasons why your opening scene is like a blind date...

Do your characters fail enough and why they should...

These all reflect a percolation of ideas shooting round my brain... who are these characters.. will I like them or do I dislike them enough to have a really good story...

Sometimes Writers jump into something without taking time to research properly...

Writer Beware takes a look at authors who shoot the messenger without first understanding the message. This is a slow down and breathe and find out what it really means post over the Lendink debacle caused by authors.

Dean Wesley Smith talks about shooting yourself in the foot many times...and how you can avoid this if you are a writer...Take the time to find out what works people!

The self publishing team take a look at 5 Writer Scams...Lets be careful out there...

Sue Grafton made waves in the blogosphere with the statement that self publishers are too lazy to get a publishing deal. After the furore, she quickly apologised but it did generate some interesting and entertaining responses like this one from Megg at Author To Author (hehehe)

Jami Gold looks at the value publishers add to your project. This is a great little post where Jami reflects on keynote presentations at RWA and the strong messages said there.

Matt Richtel has a wonderful guest post on The Kill Zone looking at what killed the thriller writer...your attention span...He makes some great remarks about the use of short fiction to enthuse you again and bridge the gap between books...

Susan Kaye Quinn has a stellar post on creating your five year writing plan. This is a must read post.

Author platforms are still a big talking point on the blogosphere...so this is a timely post from NYT author Rebecca Skloot on lessons learned.

Kristen Lamb look at what writers can learn from Star Trek...

Every now and then I come across a blog post that encapsulates the publishing industy and the authors place in it perfectly. It makes sense of the swirl that is publishing now. Hugh Howey, author of indie smash hit, WOOL (optioned by major film company this month after a straight up the charts launch) looks at publishing from an author perspective now. He has had every kind of author deal and he knows....Learn from the master, people!

And with that I will leave you to go and finish off some half  finished projects.

maureen

photo Flicker

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melindasutton/6210437093/

Chatting

Every Wednesday at 2pm (NZ time) I try to tune into the Twitterverse for a Twitterchat.

For those of you who have just been totally confused by that last sentence I will attempt to explain.

Twitter uses hashtags ( # ) to search and curate conversations.

For instance you can go to Twitter and enter in the search bar ‘#publishing’ and get all recent comments on publishing by people who added that ‘#publishing’ term to their tweet if they thought their comment might be relevant to the ongoing publishing conversation.

Twitter chats however are set at regular times and have their own hashtags for you to follow. 

My problem is that two really interesting chats are on at the same time, #indiechat and #kidlitchat. So I flit between them both trying to get the flavour of each and getting a few gems to mull about along the way.

One of the stellar people I have ‘met’ on these chats is Susan Kaye Quin who writes Y A. She recently posted a great article on her blog which crystallises for me the indie publishing journey. Indie publishing is not about one book...it is about your voice and whole writing career. Susan takes a look at the Scarcity vs Abundance model that Kathryn Rusch talks about and identifies the indie publishing journey as being one that draws on the Abundance style of publishing. The mindset is quite different from traditional publishing. Go and get your eyes opened.

In the last week a plaintive post by Agent Jonny Geller from Curtis Brown called The Agents Manifesto highlighted some uncomfortable truths in publishing about the disconnect of publishers to authors. This has been resonating through the writing blogosphere. Roz Morris picks up the cudgels on our behalf and speaks her mind,- Why authors get treated so badly. You will cheer!

For those people who have been nodding and punching the air with last couple of links...here are two more interesting perspectives to chat about with your friends.

Mike Shatzkin take a good hard look at bookstores...Yes we need them but how can we keep them viable.

Jane Friedman tackles the big question- If the book is dead why buy a zombie?

When your book needs to be chatted about in other languages, PaidContent takes a look at the next self publishing frontier - How to go about getting translations.

If you are looking at your bottom drawer and wondering what to do next. Gordon Burgett takes a look at turning idle copy into books, blog posts etc etc.

There’s a good post with 11 keys to self publishing success which should help you focus if you do have work ready for a new life.

Chatting about Craft

Check out these amazing posts. Is your idea novel worthy and how you can tell?

Why you should kill your darlings....practical advice from K M Weiland who shows you how to do it.

Innocent flower has an entertaining post on 6 things she wishes she had known about being a writer...first up the use of the delete key.

There is a beaut guest post from Susan Sipal on The Top Ten Tips I Learned About Writing from J K Rowling.

Over the next few weeks I am preparing resources to help me continue the chat about eBooks at a One Day ePublishing Event run by Kiwiwrite4kids in Auckland on the 28^th April. 

Those people who have met me... know I love to chat....

Come along!

maureen


P.S. If you are at all interested in the ramifications of Pottermore and the release yesterday of the DRM free Harry Potter books Check out what Mike Shatzkin has to say about the game changing spell J K Rowling has just put on the future of publishing industry.