Virtual Visiting

This is a skinny post... because I’ve been dropping into WriteOnCon which finished this afternoon our time. This year WriteOnCon had live Twitter pitch events with agents and a very active forum for attendees with great discussions.

Some of the topics under discussion...that whole age range thing in Mid Grade and Young Adult... Where is the cut off?

Writing now... the perils of getting it right in the 21st Century... The agents were calling for more contemporary MG and YA.

The classic show don’t tell advice... actually you need some tell.

And agents pet hate... starting in the middle of the scene without giving us time to be emotionally invested. Nathan Bransford gives an example and asks how do you name your characters.

Voice... Voice... Voice... It makes your writing standout... and should be in your queries.

So what else has caught my eye this week.

A heartfelt plea for authors to stop dissing each other.

Turning your website into an online store

Joanna Penn’s interview with Bootstrapper guru Tucker on marketing books.

Jane Friedman has a great post on social media advice.

Janice Hardy has a timely diagnostic post on weak middles.

Moran Chaim wonders whether outlining is a good way to start.

Battling self doubt as a writer (the writer’s curse)

8 things to think about before you publish and

5 things you should not do.

To Finish.

What is the one thing your main character can’t live without? This is an interesting post which also resonates with writers. Social contact with people who understand your weird fascination with invented characters... even if it is only through the computer screen and you are visiting virtually... sometimes that is all you need to get your brain zinging. 

maureen

Spinning the Truth

What has been happening this week in the publishing blogosphere...

The open letter signed by over 900 American authors to Amazon about the ongoing dispute with Hachette has now got an international flavour with a German version springing up. Amazon is in dispute with German publishers about eBook prices... and over 1300 German language authors have signed an open letter. Porter Anderson takes a look at the two sides of this ongoing story. Which truth should we subscribe to?

Meanwhile... The Passive Guy is commenting on a Wall St Journal opinion piece about backing Amazon as they change the way publishing will be done...

Porter comments on a two-day workshop where publishing professionals gathered together to come up with a viable alternative to Amazon... interesting reading.

Mike Shatskin takes this further by looking specifically who could combine and give the Zon a fright.

Maggie Stiefvater delivered a keynote address at SCBWI that wowed people... She has published an excerpt... about writing being thievery... Excellent reading.

WriteOnCon is nearly set for takeoff... They have posted their list of agents dropping in. It promises to be a huge weekend. Take some time to check out what is on offer in this free online children’s writers’ conference.

In the Craft Section,

Organising your writing project using spreadsheets.

Using moral conflict to deepen your main character.

Can character arcs be subplots

Blurbs that bore and how to change them.

Titles and how to make them sing

Mining your dreams for story gold

Jody Hedlund on putting your best work out there.

Janice Hardy on myths about writing novelettes

Taking your character deeper with... anger

In the Marketing Section,

Joanna Penn continues to break new translation ground. She details how she has approached the German edition... and gets her translator to talk about the process. Fascinating reading.

Joel Friedlander has a guest post on planning your blog posts around your book.

Elisabeth S Craig has updated her database collection of editors, designers and illustrators for free lance projects.

Kris Rusch has added a new post to her discoverability series, which will shortly be turned into a book.

Author photos – what kind for what genre...

Self Publishing - three links

Shelli Johannes (YA writer) on things to think about before you jump in...

Jan Ruth (romance) on how to make the most of it.

Trevor Richardson on his journey which involved getting his rights back and starting a literary magazine.

To Finish,

The lovely Melinda Szymanik has packed a lot into her six month writing residency... if you can’t get away to another city maybe you could try organising a writing retreat when you can’t afford to go on one.  This could be handy if you want to combine it with the excellent WriteOnCon free children’s online writing conference... Or maybe you could dream about the most excellent writing studio... where you can contemplate writing your own truth.

maureen (late again…sorry. I am getting better….)

Pic from Flickr/Creative Commons/ RCabanilla

Looking Ahead

This week the winners of the LIANZA’S (Librarian and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) were announced at lovely event in Wellington. I spoke to one of the judges at the event and we talked about the depth of books on offer this year. The judge said that they could have picked another 5 in each category, so I raised the issue that maybe they need a long list. After all The ManBooker has one. One of the important things about a long list is it raises the profile of up and coming authors. This is really important in a small country with a shrinking publishing market. Sales into libraries and schools make all the difference in our small publishing world. A good long list can become a first port of call for school book buyers. (here’s hoping they take it on board!)

"I was brave in my writing, in a way I wasn't in my life." -Judy Blume #LA14SCBWI pic.twitter.com/UgfCHFKyEt
— Samantha Berger (@BergerBooks) August 3, 2014

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators 2014 annual conference wound up in LA this week. Over 1300 kids lit people in one space...WOW. This conference is usually a sellout every year. Some great keynotes and panels were on offer. Fix your self a long drink and scroll down the conference blog where they had notes on all the events.

If you are feeling in need of a conference the ever popular WriteOnCon is back in a couple of weeks. This is a free online conference over two days for Kids Lit writers. It is worth dropping into... getting up early and attending.

This week the stoush between Hachette and Amazon hits the 4^th month and the online letter to Amazon from concerned writers hit 900 signatories.

Also in the news is the opening up of the Authors Guild (finally) to Indie writers. This has been loudly applauded... and the appointment of best selling Indie C J Lyon’s to the board has the blogosphere jumping with excitement. First up she called for ways to make the guild better. Joe Konrath produced a 12 point plan that was a masterpiece. Every writers organization should be taking a look at it. The discussion has been wide ranging and is still on going.

The LA Times has been talking ebook numbers...and the sometimes skewed reporting around them.

The Huffington Post has an article on how Barbara Freethy became a best seller...(Interesting post)

Eileen Goudge is a traditional best seller and she is looking at her first foray into self publishing because her publisher no longer felt she was a hot property... after 13 NYT best sellers...

In the Craft Section,

Should you hire an editor before querying

Editing – top ten tips

Crafting stronger characters

Boring opening lines and what to do about them

Why you should ignore most of the advice from your critiquegroup. (great post)

The keys to a great opening scene

Smooth transitions to keep your story moving.

In the Marketing Section,

Lessons from 2014 RWA –tips for marketing success – Jami Gold

Author digital marketing tools

Social Media Platform infographic (this is a printout post!)

Joanna Penn on using Wattpad

How to do Box Sets at Smashwords

6 tips to champion your story

To Finish,

Jane Friedman has an interesting guest post about an Appcalled Episode. It allows writers to post up chapters with animation or comic book styles and have reader interaction. Perfect place to play with characters etc and the whole thing is specifically designed for mobile reading... A sign post for the future.

maureen

A Two Day Package Of Awesome

Around the blogosphere this week...WriteOnCon.

 The seriously brilliant initiative of some savvy KidLit authors is in its 4^th year of awesomeness. A free online conference for Kid Lit authors who can’t get to a conference...and believe me when you are on the other side of the world, in a small country, you salivate at the conference schedules. WriteOnCon has just wrapped up and you can go onto the site and see some of the keynotes and videos. I got lost today in watching the live pitch hangout, which wasn’t live for me but had heaps of information in it. I will be dipping into all the archived sessions for the next few weeks and I confidently predict that the keynotes will continue to be blogged about all year, like last years WriteOnCon.

While I was otherwise focused...Mike Shatzkin was pointing out Losing Bookstores is a Big Problem for Publishers. Now you might be thinking, duh heard it all before, but Mike highlights some important points for publishers of children’s books and books that are outside the straight fiction narrative.

Porter Anderson covers the other top watercooler topic...The Bowker Annual Report just out and if you want the complete report which many publishers subscribe to, hand over $799 or take a look at the articles Porter highlights, where they break down and explain the significance of the figures.  In-store awareness is slowly giving way to increased importance of author Web sites, product placement on a e-reader or tablet app and review and recommendations.

Who is buying what, and this may surprise you, men bought more hardback format last year. Porter gives a comprehensive run down on all the discussions happening as a result of the report.

Kristine Rusch, as usual, delivers a comprehensive article on the publishing industry now. This week she looks at markers of success for writers. Kris has a wealth of experience and lays it out for writers...and then she talks about Indie publishing and how success markers here may be quite different.

Passive Guy has a great article on protecting your film rights and Victoria Mixon on 21 things writers know that non writers don’t.

Elisabeth S Craig has been writing about her journey to hybrid author and she shares some home truths about juggling the two strands ofher career.

In Craft,

The 35 questions Proust asked his characters.

Killzone on how to write a novel readers won’t put down.

Jody Hedlund on when to show character emotions.

The Bookshelf Muse on writing an authentic fight scene. (My Dad commented a couple of days ago to me about a fight scene written by a women that was really bad. ‘Men don’t stop and analyse what the next punch will be...’)

10 tips from Billy Wilder on how to write a good screenplay...useful for novels.

Why every writer needs to hire an editor.

In Marketing,

Joel Friedlander on book layouts and page margins.

What literary agents want to see when they Google your name and they do Google it.

Passive Guy links to 5 successful marketing strategies.

To Finish,

Chuck has a guest post on his blog. 25 steps to being a traditionally published author –lazy bastard edition. You will laugh... you will wince... Yes, other people write in Chucks style...be warned and entertained.

I'm off to drop back into WriteOnCon...

maureen

. 

Bookmark It

This last week I’ve been meeting up with writers in various venues discussing writery things.... Sometimes it was what we thought the librarians would pick as their top books for 2012 in the Librarian and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa or the LIANZA’s as they are most commonly referred to. The awards are out...and I have great pleasure in saying to various writers.... including award winners...I told you so!

In other publishing blogosphere news... LA SCBWI conference wrapped up this week. This conference is the one everyone in children’s writing wants to go to, (or the NY Winter conference.) A few years ago they got a team of writer bloggers together who blog the conference for all of us who live around the world and can’t get to LA. Go to the blog and scroll down on the right for all the topics covered... Take your time and dip into the conference panels, keynotes, interviews....aaaaah. There is even a sampling of fabulous tweets from #LA13SCBWI throughout the four days.

When you finish that...breathe deeply. Squash down that green imp of jealousy and register for WriteOnCon...a free two day online conference for children’s writers, now in its fourth year, happening next week. With another brilliant line up of speakers again. WriteOnCon 2012 is still being referenced around the blogosphere now. IT WAS THAT GOOD.

When you have done that...

Make the time to watch this fabulous video where Joanna Penn interviews James Scott Bell on writing, self publishing and the business of being a prowriter. It is top notch brilliant. I have two of James Scott Bell’s books and they are amazing!

And after that...

You must read this blog post.

Susan Kaye Quinn on writing the five year plan and the fiveyear creative plan...So much writer awesomeness in one package.

If you are interested in gatekeepers...(you want more of them) copyright protections...(you want less of it) then you need to take a look at Porter’s Ether for the week and that will bring you up to speed on what has been talked about this week around the water coolers in New York.

If you want to get right to the craft bit.

Developing a strong third person voice...from Killzone.

Carol Riggs on knowing when your MS is ready to be sent out.

K M Weiland on making your book live up to its potential.

Ginger Clark...(Uber Kid’s Lit Agent) answers questions from writers...great round up including is there an optimum time to send that query?

In Marketing

Bookbaby has free book launch strategies.

So there you have it every one a bookmark post!

To Finish,

I have been following the misogynist pull up in Sci Fi for the last month. It is Con season in the states...and the trolls are out in force. Sci Fi writers are often at Con’s as part of their publishing contracts and it has been sad to see them having to defend their right to be there if they are women. However there are quite a few male Sci Fi writers pushing the misogynists right back, as John Scalzi beautifully says in ‘A Creator’s Note To Gatekeepers’ it’s an economic argument. Women read and play these cool games too.

So around the blogosphere there has been general high fives when one writer called the police over the 50 rape and murder threats she received in two hours...ongoing. And there was an arrest. When a writer commented on this in her BBC radio programme she was inundated with the same kind of troll calls. So she asked to talk to a couple of trolls. It was enlightening for everybody!

Along with this was Cassandra Clare’s experience as a YA novelist at Comic Con this week with the City Of Bones movie set to come out very soon. Interviewers questions were inane because they saw the movie as being for teenage girls and they weren’t worth wasting time on.

Anyone seeing red yet?

Read the great slap back which is being tweeted around the blogosphere today.

"We write by the light of every book we've ever read." Richard Peck

maureen

pic from Flickr/creative commons- The Laird of Oldham The flag of Greater Manchester City.

Write On Writers

This week has been a busy one. 

Two writing deadlines and in the middle of that WRITEONCON.

This year WriteOnCon was in the middle of the week...as it is based in the Northern Hemisphere our time zones don’t quite match up...but WriteOnCon is online so even if you don’t get to all the live forum events you can still follow along as everything stays online.

There is a HUGE amount of information. To give you an idea...there were more than 30 kidslit agents and editors. They hosted panels and keynotes from YA to PB where they decontructed pitches and queries that were randomly selected from the many many submitted. This was great learning. It was always exciting when one of them in the forum said I’ll message you privately for a full request. 

There were keynotes and workshops on all sorts of topics from more than 30 experienced writers, illustrators and editors. Attendees were encouraged to register their pitch, 1st 250 words, first five pages and their query. A team of Ninja Agents would troll the lists over the two days looking for projects that interested them...No one knew who they were, they had code names...but everyone soon knew when they were ‘in the house.’

This year there were 15000 attendees from around the world  and more than 2 million hits on the web site in two days.

Check out the feast of links and set aside some time with a huge cup of coffee. You will not regret it....Then make plans to attend next year!!

WriteOnCon is the brain child of seven writers who got together in 2010 to offer an on line conference for people who couldn’t get to one. A fabulous idea which struck online gold straight away...Many kudos and writer prayers to this stellar bunch of writers!

Because WriteOnCon was the bulk of my online  trawling this week I have a short (but good) list of links for you to check out.

For those of you looking at self publishing these two links have been getting lots of rave comments this week.

Joel The Book Designer, On why a book looks self published and what to do about it.

Roz Morris looks at Createspace and Lightning Source...which one is better for POD books.

Agent Rachelle Gardner looks at ways to promote your books.

Joanna Penn interviews  Lisa Cron about using brain science to hook readers. This is an interesting article on why we like genre...it’s all biological!

One of the talking points in the blogoshere this week was the Forbes article looking at Publishing entitled Publishing is broken we’re drowning in indie books and it’s a good thing!  Some very interesting comments about gate keepers and what happens next in the industry.

FaBostory is ramping up...we have some keen young writers out there. It’s quite tricky knowing that they are soo good(when you are trying to write your own chapter!) Pop into the website and read some very good young writers!

Socially Speaking....

Around the country Children’s Writers and Illustrators are getting together to celebrate Margaret Mahy’s life by going to their local library and reading Margaret Mahy stories at 11am on the 11th of August.

This is happening at public libraries up and down the land and overseas....If you want to find out more check out this great website especially put together for the event.

This whole event has snowballed from comments, made on social media among a bunch of children's writers, to become a National Event, getting press coverage around the country, in under 10 days.

In the blogosphere this week a lot of comment was devoted to Ewan Morrison’s piece in the Guardian about the (non) value of Social Media for authors.

Morrison often stirs the pot of controversy just before a speaking engagement and he is in fine form...however he took some flak for his blanket statements and figure analysis of the 80/20 rule of social media.

(You know it’s important if Shatzkin comments.)

Part of Morrison’s piece was to focus on Joanna Penn, who this week made a stir with her blog post on why she, a successful self published author, has just signed with an agent. It is all about putting the right team together. It is a good read and very timely as agents are re-examing their role in the changing marketplace...along with legacy publishers who seem to be chasing after the indie authors. 

SelfPublishingAdvice has a timely post on how Indie authors can work with traditional publishers.

Books and Such Literary agents have an interesting blog this week on Why Agents Blog.

Staying on the Social Networking topic, Writers Funzone looks at adding value in your social networking....and no, its not the 80/20 rule.

Publishers Weekly looked at the supposed Long Tail of publishing and wondered where it was...Their commenters put them straight! (you wonder if some publishing execs have been buried in sand for the last three years...)

It is conference season....and last weekend was the SCBWI summer conference.

I try to drop in, during the conference, to their live blog and get a feel for what people are talking about, hot trends, changes in the industry, things that will filter down here.

The running conference blog is a wonderful idea for those of us who can’t make the Los Angeles Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference...(tho over 1300 people did.)

Drop into the blog and scroll down the links to keynotes, panels etc. There is heaps of information just a click away.

However if you do feel like a conference experience...Check out WRITEONCON.

This is a free online children’s writers and illustrators conference which is getting bigger by the year. There are over 4000 members. I ‘attended’ last year...squashing in some online panels during the afternoon (NZ time). The big bonus tho for attendees is that everything is recorded online so those of us living in different time zones or having to work can drop in anytime and get up to date or post questions before panels and it is FREE. If you want to register go to forums. (if you registered at a previous writeoncon just log in) WRITEONCON goes live for forum and agent questions on Monday and conference live 14^th and 15^th August.

Dee, from I Write For Apples, has ten tips that will make WRITEONCON sooo much better for you.

In the Craft section,

The fabulous K M Weiland strikes again with her great common mistakes series This week Tension....

Joanna Penn has a great post on How To Create An Audio Book and why you should consider it.

Chuck Sambuchino has made public his Pitch Sheet Template...fill this in and you have your pitch sorted.

20 tips for writing strong heroines

Jodie Renner is guest posting on Elisabeth Spann Craig’s popular blog looking at how to name characters...and where to find their names....

Passive Guy takes a good look at which Creative Commons License is best.

Two links I just had to include for you... (the everything you want to know group of links.)

Mashables collection of digital tools to create ebooks

Inspired to Writes 25 helpful websites for writers

I am a fan of author collectives and their power to do good out there in the marketing world. Joanna Penn has a post on the 7 Benefits Of An Author Collective and how one such collective works specifically.  If you don’t know much about them, Read It... it will open your eyes!

I’m off to practice my Margaret Mahy story and work out which WRITEONCON sessions I can make...after all the power of Social Media to connect with others is what it is all about.

maureen

pic from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Stuart Miles

Spring Cleaning

Spring is in the air...and that usually heralds change. You eye up the overflowing study area and vow to get better organised. (Your family snigger coz they’ve heard it all before.)

While you are contemplating your overflowing desk you may take time to contemplate the publishing industry. It too has been struggling with change. The printed word is rapidly changing into the e-inked word.
Curiosity Quill interviewed Jane Friedman about what she predicts will happen to publishing in the next few years and how authors can keep up.

 Joe Konrath takes issue with Ewen Morrison’s article in The Guardian- Are Books Dead and Can Authors Survive. Joe picks apart the article and points out where Ewen got it wrong. (so far 120 comments on this...)

If you pick up your manuscript and a cloud of dust rises into the air you might need to revisit your characters and do a little housekeeping...or a lot.

Jenny Hansen has a terrific list of tips about fighting dirty and ramping up the conflict tension in your story. 

Julie Musil has ten things you shouldn’t do when you build your characters... 

Both of these posts remind you that the story is key...and a strong story is what Editors want to read. A quick revision of WriteOnCon quotes reinforce this...but you can always get inspiration to keep going from revisiting the website and reading the sessions you missed.

Ruth Harris reminds you that all reading is research and offers some very good advice in how to pull gems out of the trashy magazines you just picked up. Don’t feel guilty...it’s research! (there’s an app for that.) 

Underneath the stacked books and laundry, next to the mouldy coffee cup, you unearth that really great story...the one that has been nicely rejected a few times and sigh. What would it take to just get it out there into the world?

Author Culture peeks into the world of Book Cover Design in an excellent interview with a top book cover designer. Lots of tips here...and some very useful ideas for branding.

The bookdesigner has a link to five nifty fonts that you can use for your Ebook cover and they are FREE. 

Roz Morris has done the hard work for you and step by step outlines how to deal with the American IRS when you are an author living in another country who wants to epublish on an American site. Bookmark this! It will save you months! 

Anne Allen has a great post on the death of the Book Tour and why we shouldn’t feel too sad about it... The desk has disappeared....the dust has taken over...you think seriously about giving up and reclaiming the space for a home gym....

Teresa M Owen has a handy list about why you shouldn’t become a writer to make you feel better. 

This week NZ National Radio interviewed a New Zealand company that has made a splash with their new product, Booktrack, Soundtracks for Books. James Frey is already making use of the technology with the The Power Of Six (his follow up to I Am Number 4.) Take a look at the videos and think about where we go from here....
 



enjoy,
maureen

pic from meeja darling....a wickedly funny journo blog

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

Dirty Words - Challenge and Change

There are lots of interesting things to talk about this week. As I am looking at the list in front of me the common theme seems to be Change.

Change can be a scary word, a dirty word, a depressing word. It can also be an energising word.

Change can challenge you to overcome an obstacle. Change can see you treading a path you never thought you would take.

If you are a regular reader...(waves to the followers) you will  see that I often take a look at what commentators are saying about the publishing industry. After all we are all struggling for the prize of publication whether it’s our first or our 50th book, nothing these days is guaranteed. It is wise to keep one eye on what the industry is facing so we can change our focus if we need to.

This week Seth Godin posted a link to a talk he gave to the American Independent Publishers Association. It is a worthwhile listen. There are some interesting ideas in the talk to think about for writers as well as publishers. Seth’s main message is cultivating your tribe and standing for an idea. He sees publisher survival as only happening when you harness the long tail and the niche in a specific area. Mike Shatzkin, as I have previously referred to, also believes this. Seth in his talk compares the recording industry changes and what might happen if the publishing industry gets it right. It is a longish talk so clear the decks and grab a coffee to get the full benefit.

I have already heard back from two independent publishers whom I sent this link on to who were very interested in the ideas Seth is talking about.

Changing the way you think about publishing is another challenge. In this fast moving digital world everybody can be a publisher. I am a publisher of this blog. Publishing is not restricted to paper and ink. One writer who looked at publishing in a new way is Neil Ayres. He looked at the iphone decided he could publish his book on it and then set about creating an iphone  application that did just that. He became a publisher in new media....and the story he tells about how he did it is a worthwhile read. After all the biggest downloads for the ipad are children’s books. You don’t know where a new path might take you. Publishers weekly have an article on the Digital Revolution and Children’s Publishing.

Cory Doctorow has embraced the changes of the publishing industry and he is conducting an experiment which he writes about in a regular column in Publishers Weekly.

Cory is well known for giving his books away for free as podcasts. These books, when they get published in paper and ink, then go on to be best sellers. Cory is experimenting with producing his books in a variety of FREE formats and looking at how much he will earn from them. He started the experiment about 10 months ago.

I can see you shaking your head now...but guess what... he does earn money. In his latest column he talks about the experiment and how successful it has been so far.

Muriel Lede of Self Publishing Review has listed a comprehensive list of links to think about for your web presence. I think it is now an accepted fact that if you are an author pre published or published you should have a website. This week I talked to a good friend, who is multi published, about how easy it was to set up a website/blog.  It is getting even easier to establish an effective web presence as Muriel explains. My friend has admitted that fear of the unknown has held her back...I promised to hold her hand as she embraces the challenge of change.

Challenging yourself to change can be very empowering. Last year we put together an inspirational conference (Spinning Gold) for Children’s Writers and Illustrators with the goals of upskilling ourselves and our colleagues. We have watched with interest, in the 10 months since then, the new authors who were picked up from the conference and the new websites appearing from established writers and illustrators who learned about the change in the publishing industry at the conference. We knew from the outset that committing to attending a conference was a huge ask in our low paid industry.

This is true wherever in the world you are. 

A few weeks ago I sent you to look at a video about an online conference just for Children’s writers. The conference WriteOnCon is open for registrations and boy has it taken off with registrations from around the world. A look at the presenters (agents, editors, writers) will show you that this is a top quality opportunity. AND IT IS FREE!  Jane Friedman has recently posted an article on why it is essential  that writers attend  conferences.  If you have the opportunity, attend WriteOn Con.  As it is online, in the evening for us, take it!

The Enchanted Inkpot, a group of Mid Grade and Y A fantasy Children’s writers, have an interesting post that has generated lots of comment. The Y A  Section of the bookstore is geared towards girls. Where are the Y A books for boys?

Do we need to change our focus so that we capture boy readers, after all they are demographic  everybody is worried about.....are publishers disenfranchising these readers by their choice of covers? Lots of ideas and opinions in the comments thread.

Over the last few years on this blog, I have explored the nature of groups like The Enchanted Inkpot as a marketing tool for the writers involved. As far as I can see there are only benefits from this type of group effort. I am having a direct experience of this as part of the FABO story project.

Nine New Zealand Children’s Writers have come together to write a group Junior Fiction novel. We are challenging ourselves to be creative as we each take a chapter, following no written plot and letting our imagination run amok. But we are also asking New Zealand Children to write their own chapter in response to ours. Each week a new chapter is being posted on to the FaBo Story website. All the writers are energised by this project. The ideas, the jokes and collective imaginings of the team inspire us and spur us on. The project launched yesterday and already we have had interested schools contacting us to take part. This of course energises and challenges us even more.

As we were putting the idea together, I was interviewed by blogger Alison Stevens about Creativity. Alison posted that interview yesterday in honour of the launch of the Fabo story project. (so it has international interest...)

Over on Craicerplus (my amplify page) There are links to articles

Author Michael Morpurgo Welcomes Book Technology

6 Personality Types who Will Succeed  As Writers

How To Protect Your Intellectual Property On Line

On Christian Fantasy- More Than Tolkein And Lewis

Pitching –What They Want To Hear

I leave you with a challenge- Who do you write like? Go to the website and paste in some text.

I write my blog posts like Cory Doctorow....my own writing like Stephanie Meyer...at least she is a good storyteller- if she wasn’t, would a love triangle involving a wet heroine, a vampire and a werewolf ever have taken off? 

enjoy.

maureen