Finding Your Tribe

This week the publishing world paid tribute to one of the outstanding writers of the last century, Toni Morrison. Toni’s work inspired many writers and readers. Her spirit lives on in her words and the way she became a touchstone inspiring a new generation of writers to tell their stories. R.I.P. TONI MORRISON. 

The Jabberwork, Sarah McIntyre, is often asked by aspiring illustrators about how to find a style and how to begin to be an illustrator. This week she decided to write a full blog post answering these questions. If you know an aspiring illustrator pass this very good instructional post along.

This week Passive Guy (who is a lawyer and a writer) took a look at morality clauses. 
Morality clauses never used to be in contracts. Recently writers have been caught out with publishers enforcing morality clauses and killing careers. Passive Guy notes that wording is very loose… even if there is no evidence but hearsay it can be enough to kill your contract.

This week Anne R Allen wrote a much-shared and talked about post on the decline of mainstream fiction. Since the 1980s mainstream fiction has started to disappear. Where has it gone? Into genres. Book Club Fiction anyone?

Kris Rusch continues her deep dive into all things licensing this week. This is a fascinating series of posts. This week Kris talks about Taylor Swifts licensing woes and what she may or may not be able to do about them.

Joanna Penn has been on a journey exploring content marketing. If you know Joanna’s site all the work she does is content marketing. She has a fascinating interview on content marketing with Pamela Wilson. Joanna is exploring content marketing for fiction… a whole ‘nother ball game.
One of the other strings to Joanna’s content marketing bow is audiobook narration. Joanna has a great article on making an audio booth at home. 

This week Elizabeth Spann Craig wrote an interesting post on the practice of writing. How often do you practice writing? Do you find it hard to get back in the groove after a break? Elizabeth talks about ways to manage your practice. 

In The Craft Section,
Depicting characters held back by fear- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

4 ways to write gripping internal narrative- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Can common writing advice be wrong- Jami Gold Bookmark

Improve your writing with plot threads -Bookmark

7 rules for picking character names- Elizabeth Sims

In The Marketing Section,
Before you market, set objectives- Boni Wagner-Stafford- Bookmark

Seven mistakes to avoid when recording audiobooks- Alli Blog

Navigating book promo with effective strategies and

125 Book promo ideas- Penny Sansevieri- BOOKMARK!!

Top book advertising tips from RWA2019- Bookbub - Bookmark

To Finish,
Last night I attended the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. It was a fabulous night. I got to catch up with lots of writer friends and have interesting discussions with publishing industry people as well as celebrate the fabulous books. On my way home, late, I was reflecting on the children’s book community and how supportive they are to each other. Many times the winners of the awards said how much they had enjoyed their fellow finalist's books and couldn’t believe their book had been picked over others. It is a great thing when you find your tribe and feel that you truly belong.

Maureen
@craicer

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter?
When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 
If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

Pic: Toni Morrison - Getty Images BBC Obituary

Book Battles

In publishing news this week …
Oh, the excitement… Dean Koontz has taken a deal with Amazon Publishing. Industry pundits are interested in Mr Koontz comments about the new and exciting times ahead for him. They are also interested to see whether the bookseller chains who would not stock any books from Amazon are now going to change their tune.

Also in bookseller news is the Green Manifesto created by the UK Booksellers Association which seems to be getting traction in other countries. The booksellers are to commit to recycled paper and less wasteful packaging and returns. The big word in that sentence is RETURNS. Booksellers have always sent back stock to the publishers. Is this the end of the Return system?

While Booksellers are wrestling with these questions, Macmillan has fired a shot at libraries with a change in their ebook lending terms. They join other big publishers who are upping the ebook price, delaying the availability and limiting how many borrows before the library has to buy another copy. I can’t help thinking that we are supposed to nurture our readers in this multimedia entertainment marketplace. I‘m not sure if the publishers have thought this through.

Kris Rusch continues her look into licensing options for authors. This week she realises that art that is commissioned for books can also be licensed. This opens up another potential marketing stream. Interior art branded products… cover pictures… posters.

Ruth Harris has a great blog post on the art and craft of the elevator pitch. That moment when you have to say what your book is about. Give them the old razzle-dazzle… Ruth points out how to construct a good pitch. This is a must-read.

How is your self-care as a writer? Could it be better? Are you looking after yourself? Elizabeth Spann Craig has a good post on keeping on top of your writer health.

Jami Gold has the quintessential master publishing plan. This was published on Janice Hardy’s blog two years ago and is still relevant so take a look.
While you are thinking about master publishing plans take a look at this excellent post on the Alli blog on Book Metadata. All the things you should know about your book. Grab this useful template to help you understand it. Great Resource!

David Gaughran has a great post on understanding how to craft a Bookbub ad. David has written a book on the subject but here he shares some great tips. (His book is great too.)

In The Craft Section,

Story Tropes- make them resonate – Jami Gold- Bookmark

So-called screenwriting rules – Scott Myers – Bookmark

7 tips to write funnier fiction- The Creative Penn blog

Writing captivating characters- Shaunta Grimes- Bookmark

Three lesser-known archetypes- Angela Ackerman

In The Marketing Section,

How authors use Instagram- Bookbub- Bookmark

Convert readers to subscribers- Bookworks- Bookmark

Book launch- party if you want to- 

3 ways to use language to sell more books-Rob Eagar- Bookmark

How to reach influencers- Jane Friedman

To Finish,

The Guardian books page recently had an article on the top ten fictional libraries… and I was shocked that Unseen University library did not make the list. Hmmm. The librarian must be jumping up and down with rage. The omission is as bad as calling him a monkey. Check out which libraries did make the list…

If you want to travel the literary tube in London check out this version of the famous London Underground Map

And finally, feast your eyes on the top 5000 bestselling book covers…. You can filter the search by genre, gender, mood…. Go down that rabbit hole… into L space.

Maureen
@craicer

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter?When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

Pic: Ook by Paul Kidby – Discworld Librarian.

Champions

April arrives and now suddenly we are heading into the last week of the month. The Easter break seemed so much longer when I was a kid… 

In the publishing blogosphere… Nora Roberts has filed legal proceedings against the person responsible for #CopyPasteCris. For those of you who missed this earlier in the year. As of the filing, more than 40 authors had over 100 sections of books lifted and pasted into someone else’s novels. The person responsible is claiming that the ghostwriters she hired did this, but it is looking pretty murky. Nora is going into bat for the authors that haven’t got the money to do it themselves. (sainthood beckons)
There is a small light on the horizon for those authors who can prove that their work was ripped off. Amazon has a claim form… where you can get all the royalties that were paid to the scammer. 

Joanna Penn has a great interview with a TV and Film producer on how to get your work in front of production companies. If you think you have a story that would translate well check out this interview.

Publishers Weekly have reported a second month of dismal sales in bookstores. Everybody is still chasing the next big thing… on the up are Young Adult titles.

Anne R Allen has a great post on using Social Media effectively and thereby avoid the cesspool. This is timely as April has been a shocking month for all things horrible on social media. 

Kris Rusch has been hunkering down and dealing with her critical voice. She has worked out how to use this persistent nay-sayer in her life. Give it a job. This is a great post!

Katie Weiland always has great posts on her blog about scene or structure (Her Marvel series ones are epic.) She put together a great structure blog post which has a way to calculate how long your book is going to be. Smart cookie, Nadine Avola, has worked up a brilliant template for this post, just plug in the numbers.

Jami Gold has a great post on revising verses completely rewriting your manuscript. At what point do you throw the whole draft in the bin and start again. I have writer friends who have trashed whole novels. Is there another way?

In The Craft Section,

What can you do when you don’t have time to write?

More than a happy ending- Jami Gold- Bookmark

How to write a perfect scene- Bang2write- bookmark

2 great posts from Scot Myers- Character driven storytelling and Story Types-Bookmark

Working with a large cast of characters- September Fawkes

Master list of copy editing skills- Jami Gold

In The Marketing Section,

5 tips to spice up your Amazon author profile- Joanna Penn

Marketing tips for debut authors- Bookbub

Seasonal book marketing- Debbie Young - Alli Blog

6 gadgets to take to your next book fair- Janice Hardy -Bookmark

Newsletters for the reluctant author- Elizabeth Craig

5 tips for making videos- Bookmark

Series pages- IndiesUnlimited- Bookmark

To Finish,

Every now and then you read a feel-good story that just combines everything the world needs in a cute package. Sick of your job... Love books... want to make a difference in kids lives... I give you the amazing traveling bookshop.

Maureen
@craicer

My monthly newsletter, where I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links is due soon. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. I appreciate virtual coffee love so if you like the blog hit the coffee button up top. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Gandhi- Matt Brown

Are you writing every day?

This week around the publishing blogosphere... 

If you have a Kindle ebook you might have noticed that books are disappearing all over the Amazon ebook store. Nate Hoffelder investigated and found there is a bug loose... 

Meanwhile Mark at The New Publishing Standard (TNPS) has a post about the Amazon’s stock market hit and why we should take notice.

This week some important imprints were dropped or consolidated. For writers this means fewer outlets picking up novels. For the big publishers... are they saving money? 

Mike Shatzkin takes a look at how and why the big publishers are consolidating imprints. 

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s blog for years... He is the master of the short post with the big nugget inside. In this post he talks about the value of daily blogging...- Just think daily writing and there you have a new way of getting your thoughts out there.

Techcrunch has an interesting article on text serials. A writing team has a dark fantasy text serial going through Snapchat. Storytelling is compulsive and comes in all sorts of containers... echos of last NaNoWriMo where I ended up writing a big speech 

It is NaNoWriMo... (National Novel Writing Month.)

All over the world writers are gathering supplies and hunkering down to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Of course there are the rebels out there who commit to writing 50,000 words but spread over different projects or the writers who focus on writing a 500 word picture book a day... because they are...(fill in the appropriate adjective/noun combo.)

Here are a few great links for anyone for needs some NANO inspiration.

Perfectionism and procrastination- Lisa Poisso

How to write a book in 30 days- Now Novel

Faster progress on writing projects – Ali Luke

Two great tools for NaNoWriMo- Angela Ackerman

If you want to treat yourself to some great writing craft books head on over to the Storybundle – NANO page. Every year Kevin Anderson curates some GREAT books and you can get them all very cheaply! (Every year I can’t resist buying them...)

Joanna Penn has a great post from Zara Altair on the three stages of editing.  This is a comprehensive look at what each stage is and how to approach it. A must read and bookmark for November- NaNoEdMo.

In The Craft Section,

Two great posts from K M Weiland-How to turn an idea into a story and

Writing a righteous character- Bookmark Both

What type of secret does your character keep-Writers in the storm

Do you start with protagonist first or situation?- Janice Hardy

When you need to do radical revision- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

3 ways to create a stellar antagonist villain- Screencraft- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

How to target and engage your reader- Bookworks

3 more things to do on Goodreads- Elizabeth S Craig -Bookmark

How to upload and Sell books on KDP- The full rundown from Fitsmallbusiness- Bookmark

Two Bookmark worthy posts from the Bookbub Blog- Biggest bookbub ad mistakes and 50 inspirational marketing tips.

To Finish,

I was noodling around the internet looking at pre made covers for inspiration- Yes there are writers out there who stockpile covers for books they want to write. I’m have all my sci fi series covers ready... but I’m still writing the books. (That was last years NANO project -then I ended up writing a big speech. LOL)  This week I came across this great pre made bookcover site... One of the great features is that you can play around with titles and placement instantly and see what it looks like before you buy... and the covers aren’t expensive at all. Lots of happy playing when I should be writing. 

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee hit the Kofi button up top. Thanks.

Pic Flickr Creative Commons- sure2talk- Quill

Cracking Nuts...

In publishing news or rumours this week... Barnes and Noble might have a possible sale. The potential buyer has raised some eyebrows tho.

Last week I linked to Publish Drive's article on Asian markets and how we should keep an eye on them. This week Penguin Random announced that they were opening a branch in South East Asia. Watch the new Asian scramble for voices and deals begin...

While Penguin Random are setting up shop... with deep pockets, Publishing Perspectives had an opinion piece from a new publisher about how not to start a publishing company. This is a timely read if you are thinking about doing the same.

Fearless champion of the Indie and scourge of scammers David Gaughran has a post this week warning of new ploys from the scammers who were thrown out of KU. This is a must read if you are advertising or selling on Amazon. 

Anne R Allen also has a warning post on how to distinguish the good guys from the bad in publishing. The game is always the same... fleece the vulnerable... the ploys are always changing. Read it and share with others.

Aeon has a long form essay on Translators. Are they the servant of the text or are they originators? This is interesting as AI is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Do we want a straight translation or do we want a sense of the original lyrical expression?

Jane Friedman links to two great essay on avoiding exoticism when you write immigrant characters. There is much food for thought in this post. The quote from Rudine Sims Bishop certainly brought me up short. “When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part.”

 As a children’s writer and teacher this is engraved on my bones... I wonder sometimes how some adult writers get away with casual stereotyping in characters. 

In The Craft Section,

The brilliance of backstory slip ins- Margie Lawson -Bookmark

Common writing errors- Bookbub

The benefits of fan fiction- Writer Unboxed

Story Twist and Shout -  Janice Hardy - Bookmark

5 must use tips on writing powerful thrillers- Writers on the move

Making your book memorable- Elizabeth S Craig- Bookmark

What to do when you write yourself into a corner- September Fawkes

In The Marketing Section,

The anatomy of a book cover – Writers Digest- Bookmark

DIY guide to turn your book into an audiobook

Get noticed - submit to newsletters- Janice Hardy

5 simple ways to crush your networking on Goodreads- Penny Sansevieri

20 podcasts for Authors- Diana Urban - Bookmark

A really good book with an ill advised cover.- Publishers Weekly (FYI- what would you do?)

Why your best marketer is you- Alli blog – Bookmark

To Finish,

It is World Mental Health day as I write this. Two great posts caught my eye this week. Kris Rusch on When to stop writing and Chuck Wendig on When writers block is actually depression. This is a very real problem among the writing community. It is alright to take breaks from writing. Both Kris and Chuck have really good advice for anyone who has writers block.

Maureen

@craicer

 In my monthly newsletter, coming soon, I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. The kofi button is up top if you want to say thanks for the blog. I appreciate the virtual coffee love!

Pic: John Jones - Power Steel 

Are you ready to leave a legacy?

How important is your copyright to you? Is it more important to your heirs? 

This week, Australian professor Rebecca Giblin wrote an interesting article on copyright. It needs to change. The accepted practice of rights reverting back 70 years after an author dies is outdated. Singer Bryan Adams testified to this last week in Canada. He wants a small but significant word change in contracts.

Kris Rusch talks Intellectual Property and the problems faced by heirs if there is no will. This is a timely reminder that we are all mortal and the creations we make have a life after we die. Are your heirs trained and ready?

Anne R Allen takes a look at publishing fiction sucessfully now. She has 9 great tips to follow. Every one of these tips is gold and comes from experience. 

Anne also links to The New Publishing Standard (1 year old this week and read in 180 countries,) which has a focus on the global publishing industry worth $143 billion of which the US market is only $29 billion. If you are managing your own author business you have to think global.

Chuck Wendig has an interesting idea about writing careers. They are basically weird RPG’s. Writers are always looking to level up and what about the monsters they battle on the way? 

Join Wattpad and you might just have the worlds biggest Literary Agent batting for you. Forbes highlights the power of Wattpad and its business model for writers. They are now brokering film and TV deals for their writers, cutting out agents.

Janice Hardy has a great post on character careers. The type of career your main character has directly informs the plot. She offers 5 things to think about when choosing fictional careers.

Have you ever read an historical novel and wondered if the author got something wildly wrong in the research? Accuracy vs Authenticity 5 tips for writing immersive historical fiction.

In The Craft Section,

Which rules and guidelines are just plain bad

12 common archetypes- Reedsy- Bookmark

How to describe settings- Bryn Donovan

Write more in 15 minutes- Elizabeth Spann Craig

Don’t over explain to readers- Zoe McCarthy

Writing a story better than its flaws- K M Weiland - Bookmark

Even villains need affection- Writescape- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Offline Marketing Strategies

Getting the most out of events- Damon Suade - Bookmark

Book Description Generator- Kindlepreneur= Bookmark

How early should you start marketing your book

4 ways to collect email leads from Facebook groups- Nate McCallister- Bookmark

3 steps for better book marketing ideas- Ingram Spark

7 presentation tips for speaking in an online world- Gigi Rosenberg- Bookmark

What does our branding promise readers- Jami Gold - Bookmark

To Finish,

Freewrite recently came up with their top 50 writing blogs. I endorse many on this list and some of the names will be very familiar to you. If you are looking for new blogs to follow take a look.

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. Thanks. I appreciate the virtual coffee love!

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Pia Waugh

Show Me The Money

Jane Friedman took a look at the Guardian Article on Author income last week and has written a thoughtful response to it. Are Author Income Surveys Misleading? This is a comprehensive look at data and reports... Have authors ever earned enough to live on from their books in the past...?

David Gaughran has written a great article on granular targeting of advertising for authors. He pulls out some of the gems from his recent book Strangers to Superfans. If you are trying to make sense of your ideal reader... it is a must read.

Are you responsible for your own decisions? If you write a book everybody loves, can you say I write a damn fine story? Kris Rusch has a great post on why writers find it so hard to own up that they made great decisions...

Australian Dixie Carlton has written a case study on how the changes in the publishing industry over the last decade have affected her business. This is an interesting reflection on how much has changed in a short time.

Elizabeth Spann Craig has a great article on how to use Goodreads giveaway's and widgets effectively on your website. Goodreads have recently changed their Giveaway rules and now it costs... but it can still be effective.

If you are a picture book writer... or know one... point them in the direction of this one day conference just for them. It’s online... so you can attend from anywhere.

In The Craft Section,

How we can use beat sheets with short stories- Jami Gold- Bookmark

5 key areas to polish before submitting a manuscript- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Three act structure- Reedsy

Story idea development

2 simple hacks to help write a synopsis- Anne R Allen-Bookmark

Formatting a book for large print- Excellent resource- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Taking control of your metadata- Joel Friedlander- Bookmark

Ebook formatting using MS Word- Molly Greene- Bookmark

Sell your books with collaborative marketing- Alli- Bookmark... Must Read!

How to publish a box set of eBooks- Alli blog

Universal Book Links – Draft2Digital... Very useful

4 ways to craft a better book cover- K J Waters

To Finish,

Rejection. All writers deal with it. If you are smarting under the rejection sting... Read Nathaniel Tower’s plea to publishers about why different types of rejection drive author's nuts.

If it all gets too much... change your name. Have fun with this pen name generator.

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter, coming soon, I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- tax credits

Writing Under The Spotlight

The UK Society of Authors have been asking questions, pointed questions, about where the profits are going in the big publishing houses and why the royalty rate is so low. Porter examines the arguments and chats to those in the middle about what they can do about it.

I have been thinking about serialised novels lately. Dickens made a killing with them and they have gained popularity amongst time poor people. The serial podcast along with the episodic audio book are transforming people’s commutes. The Guardian opinion piece looks at the rise and rise of this form of writing.

Jane Friedman is publishing a new book On The Business of Being A Writer. She gathered some writers together and sent them to the Association of Writers and Writing programmes – the biggest literary conference of the year. They reported back on a variety of interesting keynotes on tips and advice for the writing business.

The Alliance of Independent Authors have been shining a spotlight on various members and this week it was Elizabeth S Craig’s turn. I often refer to her great blog. If you have ever wondered who she is and why she is so successful check out this interview.

Successful publishing depends on writing the best book you can and getting the word out about it. Digital Pub has 7 strategies and 94 tools that writers can use to get the word out and Michelle from Random Writing Rants has the ten key ingredients for writing an effective blurb. These are both BOOKMARK posts.

Debbie Ridpath Ohi is a great illustrator. She is also a stellar human being who creates and shares many resources with the writing and illustrating community. She has been working on PB templates which are available Free from her website.

Do you consciously write to a reading level? Randy Ingermanson (the Snowflake Guy) recently blogged about the ideal reading level of novels. Did you know that bestsellers are written with a 10 year olds reading level? Randy shares other interesting facts about novel readability.

What actually matters to your reading audience? Are you missing the point completely when you write those indulgent scenes? Cathy Yardly of Writer Unboxed examines what are the most important things that readers look for in a novel.

In The Craft Section,

3 tips to hook your readers emotions- Writer Unboxed

Developing characters fatal flaw

Foreshadowing sentence examples- Now Novel – Bookmark

How to tell if your writing is good

How to create characters worth reading- Jami Gold - Bookmark

Garlic breath for writers AKA bad first pages- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

5 website mistakes- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

15 reasons your book is not selling- The Book Designer

Free tools that build Book Buzz- Bookbub- Bookmark

What to put in your author newsletter

How to create a Facebook group

How to create pre launch buzz- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

To Finish,

How do you know what kind of writer you are? Gretchen Rubin developed a test that divided people into four tendencies. Upholders, Questioners, Obligers and Rebels. Where your greatest tendency is, there you will find your biggest challenge as a writer.

The world lost a towering figure today. Stephen Hawking opened up new ways of seeing the cosmos and the future of technology and space. He defied the odds and a crippling disease and showed that nothing should get in the way of ideas. His mind and sense of humour were sharp right up to the last day. This quote was on the front of Cambridge’s Daily Paper. ‘ However difficult life may seem there is always something you can do and succeed at. Where there’s life, there’s hope.’ 

Stephen Hawking 1942-2018 RIP

Maureen

@craicer

My monthly newsletter is coming soon. I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you enjoy this blog share it to your writing friends or you can shout me a coffee by hitting the coffee button up top. Thanks

pic

http://cheezburger.com/9138272768/rip-stephen-hawking

November Madness

Hello November,

It’s NaNoWriMo! The twitter feed fills up with great posts on craft and motivation and freaked out writers. This year, I told myself, will be the year I finally manage to complete the challenge. Day One – Tick, Day Two- gulp. My husband thinks I’m crazy because I’ve got to write a 40 minute presentation for an award ceremony at the end of the month.* I thought about using NaNo for the presentation but writing non fiction is HARD! So I’m cracking into Book 3 of my Space series... yeah.... um...

Elizabeth Spann Craig has a great post on being a NaNoWriMo Rebel. This is when you use the tools and do some other writing... (hmmm maybe I can add up all the words I write each day....)

Now Novel has an excellent breakdown on planning your NaNo project. It’s so good it should be put away to use for every book project.

This week Stealing From The Author was the topic of the week. Maggie Stiefvater wrote a candid look at how piracy has affected her booksales and the implications for the writer. This is a must read so you can use the arguments to educate young people who don’t see anything wrong with book piracy.

Passive Guy, who is a lawyer in his day job, wrote about a young Internet entrepreneur’s reaction when a photographer sued him forcopyright breach. If it’s on the Internet it must be free to use....

(shakes head sadly...)

Kris Rusch has detailed some very shady dealings practiced by TV and film companies when negotiating rights to film your work. This was eye opening to me. If you hope to be in the position to sell these rights for your own work you MUST read this. (Stops to think grand thoughts about NaNoWriMo project.)

This week I got an email from a content provider. This isn’t unusual, most weeks I get these fishing emails that tell me they read something on my blog... and they want to guest post. I usually delete them... because they haven’t read my blog but this one was different. First they said they had come across an article I had linked to...(ho hum I thought) but then they went on to say it had given them the idea to do a new and expanded version. I took a look and WOW. This is a comprehensive collection of tools to write, research, automate, produce... anything creative!

Publishing perspectives has an interview with Maks Giordano who was speaking at the Frankfurt Book fair on hyperinnovation. He talks about the changes that publishing companies will have to make in the very near future... that agile indie publishers are already doing.

Jane Friedman has an interview with Jay Swanson, a writer that has been V-logging his daily life. He uses this as his promotion for his books. It is an interesting marketing idea. (If you think my life is awesome then check out my books...) He also uses Patreon. If you live in exotic locales this could be an interesting marketing tactic for you...

Ruth Harris has a great post on using authentic historical detail to enrich your writing. She details some of the things you should be adding into your writing... this can apply to all genres. A must read!

In The Craft Section,

4 ways to launch a scene- Jordan Rosenfeld- Bookmark

Villainous struggles-writing villains- Y A topia

Mastering deep POV.- Writer Unboxed Bookmark

Character Archetypes- Now Novel – Bookmark

NaNoWriMo success- Chuck Wendig (usual warnings) – Must Read- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Are you a social media cynic? and Sell more books with less marketing- Frances Caballo

How professional cover design boosts sales- Ricardo Fayet

Checklist on book listing- Nate Hoffelder- Bookmark

Advice on query letters- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

Promo sites- Nicolas Erik- Bookmark

How to get book reviews- Joel Friedlander- Bookmark

To Finish,

WriteOnCon is having a kickstarter. This is a virtual online writing conference for Children’s and YA writers. They have some amazing perks up for grabs... Take a scroll down the list. WriteOnCon is next year and costs $5. (not a typo... ) If you want to treat yourself for achieving the first day of NaNoWriMo...

* I was humbled/gobsmacked to receive the Betty Gilderdale Award announced this week. (Am still in a state of shock...)

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you want to feed my caffeine habit feel free to hit the coffee tab. I’ll need it this month!

Pic: Flickr  CreativeCommons – J E Theriot- Who remembers this happening in typing class?