Changing The Game

So nothing much has happened in the writing blogosphere this week....

YEAH RIGHT.

New Zealand writers were gripped with Man Booker fever as they followed Twitter streams, news reports and rumours to find out if our own Eleanor Catton had won. At 11am Thursday morning, writers around NZ were cheering. This was a nice patch of bright news in an otherwise depressing publishing landscape here in NZ. (Not sure about Publishing Perspectives calling it a Kiwi Twin Peaks tho.)

Victoria University Press published her here...in conjunction with a larger press in the UK.

With the race to leave NZ by the bigger publishing firms, this does leave the field open to small nimble presses. They and NZ writers need to think global and Eleanor’s success may be the kick we all need. In other comments about the win here...NZ writers were saying to the NZ public - See we have great writers...why don’t you get behind us instead of thinking that all good writing comes from overseas. Cultural cringe is alive and well here.

Before the Man Booker award took over the blogosphere what was everyone talking about..?

Frankfurt. (Implications and analysis ongoing)

Bloomsbury and Author Solutions (scary but true)

Book Discovery problems (when a booksellers website goes down over erotica.)

Frankfurt threw up some interesting statistics. This years Book Fair saw the impact of Self Publishing, both to the sales part of the industry and the traditional model of publishing, cease to be the elephant in the room.   

Jane Friedman has fully examined these implications and they make interesting reading. Take some time to look at her series of reports.... it’s a weekend workshops worth of information.

Laura Hazard Owen also brings her considerable analysis skills to bear...as she looks at the eBook marketing battles from Frankfurt.

Porter Anderson’s Ether at Jane Friedman’s site and his Ether at Publishing Perspectives gives you more information if you want to pretend that you went to Frankfurt. Always a comprehensive overview.

David Gaughren, champion of the small guy (self published writer) and defender of the newbie writer, continues to rage about the insidious ways that big traditional publishers are trying to jump on the self publishing bandwagon by telling writers that they can publish with their special imprint if they pay all the costs (exorbitant.) The imprints are fronts of Author Solutions, which is being taken to court, over questionable dealings with writers...The latest reputable publisher to engage Author Solutions to run a self-publishing imprint for them is Bloomsbury. If you are not aware of this please read and share with other writers...Eyes Wide Open People!

Mike Shatzkin takes a look at book discovery in the new world, in light of Frankfurt and also comments on the unfortunate nature of a major bookseller coming afoul of a publishers drive to clean up all mention of erotica. The publisher using a filter pulled all mention of erotica and the Bookseller, who had linked all their eBooks into their website found the website disabled. A bit of a problem for the biggest Bookseller in the UK. * Update* Writer Beware takes a look at the impact of this on authors.

Joanna Penn is always good value and in this blog post she looks at her writing business two years on...what she has learned and where to next. Very good reading.

12 seriously screwball ideas that writers must lose to become a better writer.

Romance University (always a great go to site) interviews an ex Harlequin editor going freelance and what she found out about self publishing quality and no it’s the opposite of what you think...great read.

In Craft, (all must read posts)

Agent Rachel Gardner on cutting thousands of words and how to do it...easy.

Victoria Mixon on 5 things always overlooked by writers.

Jody Hedlund on how to know which scenes you need in the book.

James Scot Bell on Don’t kill your thrills!

Livewritethrive on Creative mind mapping for novelists.

Writer Unboxed on Using Save The Cat to find the story

In Marketing,

50 Book Marketing things for under $50

Novel Rocket on Studying the market! (agent rant that is a must read)

Susan Kaye Quinn on write what you want...(Great post)

Anne R Allen Social Media secrets for authors (Anne is a must read anytime)

KidLit.com Agents vs Editors and why they all have a different focus.

Website to check out,

The Bookshelf Muse team of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have changed their great website into an even spiffier one which celebrates what they do best... Writers Helping Writers. They have launched it this week with two more companion Writer Thesauri.... Positive and Negative Traits. If you have not had a chance to check out the phenomenally successful  Emotion Thesaurus For Writers...YOU MUST.

To Finish,

Indie Reader has looked at the growth of Self Publishing and has refined it down to five books and their impact on the publishingworld...see if the book that you immediately thought of is in the list...you may be very surprised. Every one on the list has been a game changer much like the predictions from Frankfurt...London and maybe the Man Booker on New Zealand Publishing.

maureen

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons/ Robscomputer 

Not A Bear Market

This week the news in the publishing blogosphere is... FRANKFURT.

This German Book Fair is amongst the biggest in the world and it was a big deal when New Zealand went as Guest Of Honour last year. This is where foreign rights deals are made so it is big business and fueling this big business is ebooks.

Every year the continuing growth of self publishing gets talked about at the big book fairs...which are required attendance for agents and publishers. This year, in a Frankfurt debut, CONTEC an industry forum to specifically discuss Digital Publishing was launched and started making waves. The news right off the bat... 60% of Self Published authors would not take a Trad deal if it was offered to them. Publishing professionals were asked how this would impact the industry...

Jane Friedman takes a close look at all that was said and unsaid on this panel that has everyone talking.

In an off the wall moment a respected agent demanded that all publishers pull their books from Amazon...annoying Penguin Random House in the process. The Passive Guy looks at the fall out.

Discussions about Author Collectives are everywhere I look as more writers find this is a model that makes sense to help them cope with the fast changing world of Publishing Now. From small press collectives to nationwide collectives for small countries... Catherine Stine looks at starting an Indie Collective.

The wonderful Anne R Allen has a brilliant blog and this week she lays out the rules of the Amazon Jungle...This is all about the changing nature of reviewing...a must read.

In the Craft Section,

Online tools to boost your creativity

How to nail NaNoWriMo

Editing long sentences

Paying attention to the characters life journey with Kristen Lamb

Janice Hardy doing a diagnostic on opening sentences with back story.

In Marketing,

Formatting tips.

Jane’s Friedman’s best business advice wrap up

Book Trailers...Do’s and Don’ts

The Jungle Red Writers collective look at what makes them stop reading.

Ebooks - Think Globally... another must read.

Writers and Artists interview with Karen Inglis a children’sbook author self publishing with POD illustrated books...

Website to check out,

K M Weiland has a new website and it is beautiful...check it out and her latest post on when characters lack solid story goals.

To Finish,

Over the last few years there have been rumblings of discontent in the text book world. First from the students...the high prices...then from the professors who have to pay for their work to be published in journals...as the text book publishers have a cash cow... but check out this latest from Harvard Business School....and read the comments!

Enough to make me reach for a ....

Maureen

* High Five to anyone who gets the reference in the title...

pic from Flickr /Creative Commons/Tim Pearce

Spring into Marketing

Ahhh Spring!

The moment when the sun breaks through the clouds and warms your back and then disappears behind rain clouds for another three weeks.

The optimistic scheduling of road works which rely on good weather...reality huge mud holes that last for two weeks causing a hazard before it is dry enough to resume work...

The gentle spring winds...gale force with a wind chill factor of 5.

Spring has great P R.

In the blogosphere there is a marketing focus this week as Amazon Kindle Serials get discussed by authors...is it worth it? Passive Guy takes a look and then the commenter’s weigh in.

Jane Friedman takes Stephen Kings popular rules on writing and changes them to marketing.

Jody Hedlund asks when should a writer stop promoting their book.

In the big picture look at the publishing world, Idealog previews what are going to be the hot topics at Frankfurt Publishers Launch conference. Among the innovators speaking will be Charlie Redmayne of Pottermore...They are keen to help any other world building author do a Pottermore....

J S McDougal is looking at publishers, their fear of piracy and DRM and how it is all tied up with disruptive technologies and the release of bright shiny hardware...MP3 and the iPod, eBook and the kindle...

Joanna Penn is using her Kindle to edit her book for print...a whole nother way to use this tech...Different formats highlight different line edits to be made...just when you thought it was all over after you published...

How much do you know about Foreign Rights? A foreign Rights agent talks about exactly what she does. It will open your eyes!

Writers Digest has 5 ways writers can get the most out of Goodreads ...one of them is to read...

Alexis Grant has a helpful post on how to master Twitter...be a power user....some interesting tips in there.

There is a collection of great craft links.

Kristen Lamb on exploring writing about a character’s inner and outer demons using Black Swan as the example.

Alan Rinzler explaining what it means when an editor or agents says it lacks emotional glue...and how to fix it.

Ava Jae on how to use brainstorming effectively when it is time to edit...(yes you did read that right.)

L B Gale has another interesting post up on what Romance Writers can teach Sci Fi Writers....actually what Romance Writers can teach anybody really.

Carol Riggs talks about feedback feeding into your story....a great guest blog on Janice Hardy’s brilliant writer’s craft blog.

The seven rules of picking character names...and I thought it was open baby name book, close eyes, stab with pin....

To finish, 

Alan Rinzlers post on Book Marketing with 3 experts has been getting another airing around the blogosphere this week. I blogged it in April but check it out again as we are on a marketing focus today.

Terry Pratchett has a new book coming out and it is a Young Adult book...Here is Sir Terry attempting to market it.... ( you will smile...)

maureen

pic from

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rumpleteaser/127509131/

Publishing In The Now...

The dramatic rescue today, while the world watched, of the Chilean Miners from their underground prison had all the elements of great story telling. 

First the spine chilling event itself, How can they survive? Four months underground, limited food, psychological pressures and the decision not to tell them how long it would take.... The race to innovate new technology and drill down...The emotional and financial toll on the families. Breakthrough, two months earlier than predicted. Extraction. A new birth....

So how long before the book comes out I wonder? I noticed this week that the book on the Christchurch Earthquake has arrived in shops...that’s just under six weeks. Ah, the speed of publishing, either its a speeding train or a camel train.

This week The New York Times trumpeted that the day of the picture book was over. Parents weren’t buying them and children were encouraged to 'read up'. All over the blogosphere articles were posted refuting this and the sentiments expressed in the article from one misguided blogging book mother that she was forcing her 6 year old boy to ‘read up.’

In my experience (professional teacher, expert in reading,) children, especially boys, go backwards and forwards with their reading strategies and confidence until they are about eleven years old. Picture books can be very challenging reads...I’m thinking some of Graeme Base’s work aimed at twelve year olds...Forcing children to ‘read up’ defeats the purpose of encouraging reading. All you are doing is confirming for the child that reading is hard, a chore, and not worth their while....

Writing the books can be hard, a chore, and is debatable whether it is worth your while...but also like reading, writing can be a joy, a challenge and extremely rewarding.

Michael Hyatt reminds us all of this in an article on his blog about great writing being its own marketing.

Mike Shatzkin looks at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which has just wrapped up, and what we can learn from it...the world is getting smaller and what has happened in the US publishing industry is going to hit the rest of the world, very soon, harder and faster.

Liz Bury of Publishing Perspectives has an article on the Frankfurt Book Fair which looks at publishers use of ebook rights and what it may mean for world wide rights...tricky little lines in your contract that give the writer a bigger slice of the pie if they are sold in different groups.(Commonwealth rights separate from North American rights etc.)

Also looking at contracts is Jeannie Franz Ransom who has an interesting tale to tell about negotiating contracts.

L J Sellers has posted on the Blood Red Pencil blog, a publishers evaluation check list for Manuscript Readers. This is very informative and a handy little guide to look at before you send your master piece off anywhere.

Victoria Mixon has posted some humdinger articles this week...I could have linked to three but then I thought...just send you all to her site...grab a coffee first because I guarantee you won’t want to leave for a while.

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

5 Articles You Should Have Read Over The Summer (or our winter...but you can read them now as a quick 

‘publishing in the now’ 101 course.)

10 Essentials For The Inspired Writers Life. (No surprises I agree with number 1 completely.)

The Infamous New York Times Article

A Screenshot of the Planning Sheet of a Harry Potter Book. This is really good and a good way of visually plotting all the story arcs...

6 Things You Lose When Writing A Novel...very funny piece from the great Tahereh

Salman Rushdie Has Written A Kids Book...( we could all be legit writers now...)

How To Create A Futuristic World...( now I know why I’m doing so much research....)

And if you have got to the bottom and thought 'hey there isn’t any marketing link...' Never fear, Bookbuzzr has a comprehensive list of ten things to think about when you are using the internet to market your book.

enjoy,

maureen

pic...once upon a time this was very now.