Hot Button Writing

Just before I took a holiday from the Internet for Easter... the news came in that Amazon was acquiring Goodreads.

In the fast world of Publishing Now, you know the news is big when a week after the announcement the fur... feathers...hair...are still flying around the blogosphere.

Those that hate all things Amazon are cursing. Those that love all things Amazon are trying to be calm....

Hugh Howey jumped first with an interesting blog post, which canny Amazon immediately updated their press release to include. This is a good thing says Howey. He makes a compelling argument for the merger. (Buy Buttons on Goodreads)

 Others are not so sure. 

Amazon, with its review problems, (sock puppetry) became only a buy platform after readers found trustworthy reviews on Goodreads. So will Goodreads recommendations count for anything in the future?

Laura Hazard Owen of Paid Content put some compelling questions to Otis Chandler of Goodreads and Russ Grandinetti of Amazon. First Do No Harm....

If you look at the comments... people are still asking the questions...

Phil Jones from FutureBook wonders whether any of the big 6,5,4, will use Goodreads now?  (Like asking Random Penguin to promote Scholastic.)

AmazonGoodreads will be the hot topic for a while...

Last week I mentioned another hot button topic, which is still simmering away underneath the AmazonGoodreads marriage, Barnes and Noble dropping Simon and Schuster books. S&S weren’t going to pay the new fees B&N wanted from publishers to display their books in stores.

As more information filters out it is becoming clear that B&N changed their pricing to publishers to reflect the fact that they are being seen as a showroom.

Go to B&N. Look at the latest book by your favourite author. Jump onto wifi. Buy it, at a better price, from somewhere else.

This is the reality now...and how do bookstores compete with this?  And what happens to the author whose publisher won’t take part in the game? VQR has a great article on what S&S authors are doing and what authors and publishers should do when they find themselves in the same situation.

In New Zealand the Hot Button topic is who made it onto the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. Who didn’t and should have been. And do we really agree with the Judges comment that there are no feisty girl heroines?

 Neal Pollack was riding a one way trip to Stardom when he got derailed by Hollywood. He talks about reinventing himself using Kindle serials.

In Craft,

Writer Unboxed have posted their 90 writing tools in a single post.

Chuck Sambuchino has a post on 7 tips for adapting your novel into a screenplay.

KillZone 8 ways to edit suspense and pace into your MS. (craftbook in a single post)

In Marketing,

Lindsay Buroker has been a canny marketer in the past on Amazon and as the algorithms change she has changed her marketing plans...to what works now.

To finish,

Following on from the Random House eBook contract debacle of early March, Dean Wesley Smith wrote one of the most definitive posts on rights reversal clauses in publishing contracts that I have seen. This is a must read. The comments are a must read. This post is being shared all around the place.

Writing, Publishing Contracts, Bookstores, Reviews, Marketing, Awards. All Hot Button issues. Wear gloves. Read at your own risk.

maureen

pic from

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthieu-aubry/239197990/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Gatekeepers

Gatekeepers...the ones who you have to placate or bribe to get into the hallowed ground...They are tasked with only letting through the gates those that are worthy...

This week on the publishing blogosphere Rachelle Gardner has a post about gatekeeping on your mind. If you have discovered that as you increase screen time reading and interacting with social media there is a corresponding downward spiral in new and exciting ideas coming out of your brain you may be struggling with the same issue.

Chuck Wendig has decided to name February 6^th the anti pirate day and started the ball rolling with his thoughts about pirates; Why I hope you don’t pirate my book. Many authors joined him and posted  their open letters to book pirates.

Jody Hedlund has written about when your family doesn’t appreciate what you do and how hard it is to get them on board...they are gatekeepers of your writing time and energy, and what to do about it.

Electricliterature has an interesting post on those writers who have nipped round the back to the side door. Author Entrepreneur...The Hybrid Author. They have some very interesting stats on this new Hybrid model.

John Scalzi (head of SFA) has a post detailing the sales numbers of his latest book... print, audio and epublishing and talks candidly about what is working for him. The fact that he is able to to talk numbers for his trad book is astounding...and The State Of a Genre Novel makes for interesting reading.

If you didn’t get a chance to look at Dean Wesley Smiths post on crunching numbers in a Hybrid world a few weeks ago (it was no 5 in his series) Read this post, No 4 and then No 5. In fact go read the whole series. If you wanted a no nonsense set of guidelines to follow this year to be a successful writer...it’s all in these posts.

Last year I gifted myself Steven Pressfields, War of Art and a nice gift it was too.

Editor Shawn Coyne has written a thought provoking post on Steven’s blog about where the midlist writer is now in the big six, five...world...Nowhere. Ouch what is a midlister to do...

Apple have decided to highlight self published books...This is an interesting article detailing the latest moves in the Gatekeepers of online publishing.

In craft,

K M Weiland on sure fire awesome setting creation and structuring scenes.

Victoria Strauss is guesting over at Children’s Publishing and she has a nice post on letting your characters into your head.

Plot Conflicts and Desires...or how to get the best out of your plot.

James Scott Bell on how to get emotional about your novel.

In Marketing,

Perfect press releases...

QR codes...which are apparently big in NZ...

Iain Broome has collected seven articles on Authors using Goodreads effectively.

Top Ten mistakes in self publishing.

5 Reasons to Set your novel in a famous place...

To finish,

How to deal with crushing feedback on your creative work...it may not be what you think it is...or you maybe in this situation.

maureen

pic from Flickr /counse

Catching Up

Jet lag...
Until you experience it you never can quite understand what it means. 
I now know what it means! 
Apparently flying from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere is worse. 
 I am just beginning to feel normal, four days after landing...and that is with pushing my body to get into the right time zone...drinking water and exercising etc etc. 
While I was away, mostly out of wifi reach, (using the travelsim on my phone was a nightmare.) stirring events were taking place in the world of publishing. 

So To Catch Up 

The news that Random House and Penguin were merging...took every one by surprise at the end of October. The implications of this are fairly staggering. THE BIG 6 and AMAZON are now down to the BIG 5 or is it 4? 

I caught up with current thinking about implications of this merger with The NY Times...who think they merged to fight Amazon on size (they increase market share to a quarter of all books sold.) 
The Guardian thought that this could signal the rise of the Indies and so all is not lost. 
These are two interesting articles and perspectives of what BIG 6 mergers mean to the industry...however as I was catching up with this news, yesterday rumours were beginning to surface of a merger between HarperCollins and Simon and Schuster. The WSJ has crunched the numbers on this one...so we may be seeing the cassandra prophecies of the NY Times come true. (eek) 

Mike Shatzkin all round publishing futurist and guru has commented on a few things he learned at a librarians conference and the implications thereof. The impact of apps on non fiction publishing and how Non Fiction writers had better have the App ready. 

Vertical Publishing has long been advocated by Mike and The Bookseller Blog written by the Chief Executive of Osprey Publishing takes a look at what they are doing to enhance their imprint impact. (For those of you who are interested, like me, in author collectives join the dots....) 

James Scott Bell relates his encounter with a reader in Starbucks...which highlights the real world effect of the above two links. (read read read) 

Anne R Allen puts writing into perspective when you feel you are running very fast just to stay in the same place. This blog post has resonated everywhere with writers. 

 Roz Morris has reposted her how to get a tax number from the IRS blog article updated... 

Writer Beware has a guest post on when to let a contract go...some very good advice here on how some contracts will harm you. 

Tim Ferris (the four hour guru) has had his Amazon published book banned by B and N stores. Porter Anderson takes a look at the implications of this...is it clever marketing...or does it herald a disturbing move by book stores against authors who are published by competitors...The usual chewy read from Porter.

In Marketing, 
Goodreads want to introduce a new section for authors called the premium author programme...check out what it means for you. 

Elisabeth S Craig explains how she gets a free promotion of her books without having to sign up to the KDP programme. A cunning plan!  

In the last gasp up to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, Amazon have introduced Amazon Pages where you get a customised storefront just for you on the Amazon site...hmmm think about the implications on your business of that! 

 In the Craft Section, 
The fine art of Story Resonance. This is a great article on adding depth to your story. 

Seven reasons agents stop reading your first chapter. This article tells what happened when an actress started reading out random first chapters to a panel of agents...interesting!!! 

To finish,
Tools of Change from the O’Reilly group and Publishers Weekly have posted their Author Revolution Manifesto. Take a look, do you agree....would you sign up to the revolution? 

 It is Thanksgiving day and Jill Monroe has posted her sweet potatoe casserole recipe on line to acclaim...Kiwi’s would you be able to do this to a Kumara?

maureen

pic is the interior of our local city airport. The city is hosting the world premier of a certain movie in 6 days time. Richard Taylor and his team had just finished putting this up when we arrived to fly out.

Flagging The Craft

When I sat down to review the list of links I have made for your perusal this week I found that there is a strong craft element showing through. This is probably unconscious on my part as I have been back in the Martian landscape trying to move my characters from their unintentional holiday spot.... 

I own some great craft books on writing and I find myself obsessively reading them when I need to tackle my manuscript...this flows into my internet reading. Hence the collection of good links for you along with my usual foray into current trending topics, springing up from BEA and enlightened or thought provoking comments from writers in the trenches.

In the New Zealand blogosphere this week the comment has been all about The Frankfurt Book Fair. With New Zealand being a Guest of Honour and Children’s Literature being the focus genre, Kidlit writers here had high hopes. Unfortunately our government saw a Book Trade Fair as a place to promote New Zealand tourism...food and wine and forgot about waving the flag for the BOOK aspect. We waited with bated breath to see who was on the list and now the kidlit community feels badly let down. They are worthy people but there aren’t many writers in the total group of 160 going. Melinda sums up what we are all feeling...and talking about.

Mike Shatzkin, publishing futurist, rounds up what he learned at Book Expo America this year and as usual it makes interesting reading. He flags MetaData Mess, Digital Rights Databases and the slow down of ebooks as the main concerns going forward. Picture Books will stay printed...but what about enhanced books?

The Gurdian highlights some research showing that enhanced ebooks actually harm children’s reading ability.

For those of us who dream about going to BEA... Publishers Launch has made available 5 keynote slideshow presentations...however they stress if you have limited time check out the presentation by Bowker on Global Sales...of course to us in the Southern Hemisphere we are firmly fixed on global but it does highlight what formats are doing well in what countries.

Goodreads has published an interesting article where they flagged what makes a book take off. There are some interesting comparisons and author agility is a must.

Joel has a nifty article about what should be in a book design contract.

Writer Unboxed has a guest blog from the writer of Scrivener for Dummies. If you haven’t checked out Scrivener...read this post...Many writers say they will never go back to word processing software again. Scrivener is especially targeted at writers.

Kristine Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith are great at putting the finger on the pulse of changing attitudes in publishing and these posts are no exception.

Dean talks about just realising that books he was paid for but were never published can have a whole new life...

Kristine has been looking at the whole Indie vs Trad publishing debate and she has an interesting article on the long tail of each of these ways to publish...add to this 77 thoughtful comments. You need to take some time out to digest this great article and ongoing conversation.

This great article on how to do an author interview can be flipped on its head for authors...and if you add in this Fabulous post from the Midgrade writers site The Mixed Up Files Of... on tips to help create a memorable author visit to schools then you are on to some marketing gold.

In the craft section,

From The YAMuses...how to push through the soggy middle of your MS

From Kidlit.com... guiding the readers emotions, you are the puppet master.

From the incomparable Larry Brooks...when you get told that your structure is off and what does that mean...just brilliant.

From K M Weiland, 25 ways to blow your book.

How to find weak verbs...just change your tense.

In the US, Print On Demand Book Espresso Machines seem to be taking off...Check out how authors are using this creatively and Joanna Penn has a list of 7 networking ideas for authors.

It is tax time here in NZ and I must really get down and carve out some time to get this in....

This TIMELY and INFORMATIVE Article from Nick Dawes deals with how you get one of those US tax numbers if you live outside the US but you publish on Amazon...BOOKMARK IT.

This week this post, responding to a letter about how downloading pirated music is ok, went viral...I flagged it on FB expecting to see comments and got zilch...maybe writers are too busy or have their head in the sand thinking that this attitude will never happen to books...As someone commented on the original article...it happens to all artists. I’d be interested in your thoughts... 

The Quest For Quality Content

There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about ‘indie’ publishing and how many wannabe authors have jumped on the bandwagon and are happily uploading eBooks by the score. The books are badly formatted with sloppy editing and containing spelling and grammar mistakes in the hundreds. 

This plethora of dross overwhelms the Reader, who is searching for a quality read. 

The Author who has worked hard on editing, formatting and laying out a quality read, is buried in the slush. 

What To Do....

The Reader starts to look for quality filters...word of mouth...book clubs and others to make navigating to the quality content easier.

The Author is stuck in the bind of having to market and promote like crazy, to get their name out there enough, so it stays in the readers consciousness long enough for the reader to click the buy button...while trying to write more quality content.

This month the Craic book project has stalled...due to unforseen family circumstances and so I have done no marketing on Craic. I have just checked the Google search on Craic and found some new bars have opened up in New Zealand with the name of my fictional rock band...hmm wonder where they got that name from.... 

What I should be doing...

How authors can effectively use Goodreads...and doing it.

Making sure I don’t commit any of the 7 worst mistakes of the indie author.

Checking out pet peeves of marketing and vowing to get better...

Have I mastered the secret handshake of successful digital publishing.

When I find time to write more quality content I should be looking carefully at my word choice...(warning this is a Chuck post...great... but his word images are not for the faint of heart.)

I should be reading quality craft books and practising finding my 'Aha' moment. (just bought two of James Scott Bells and am preparing to throw myself into the work as I have two manuscripts to rework, one to finish and one to start...I need more quality content to follow up Craic you see...)

In my quest for quality content to read and learn from I need to look at what others have done and how they have had the stars fall into line...

Grammar Girl springs to mind, along with this TED talk by Andrew Stanton on Storytelling. (the guy who wrote Toy Story and Finding Nemo...)

A couple of agents examine middle grade fiction and what they think authors need to be aware of.

Joel the book designer has a handy post on designing your book yourself... Lets not be sloppy out there!

The Horn Book (that august filter of quality work) has turned its sights on the picture book app and has a check list of what is a quality app and what is not!

I should be checking my author platform... finding where I should be, and BEING THERE.

Somehow I need to fit this in and stay sane enough to cope with the chaos of my home at the moment. So...if I am a little distracted beer/bear/bare/ with me and I will hopefully get it all together sometime soon when I find my Wonder Woman cape and magic bracelets.

By the way Craic is available on...

 Amazon

 Barns and Noble

 iTunes

 Kobo

and Smashwords for ePub

It is a quality read....hehehe.

maureen

get your wonder woman costume here

Talking Up The Book

This week I have been thinking about book publicity...not because I have a book coming out...although a few friends here have...(general jubilation) but because of the hype of Mockingjay on a lot of the blogs I read. 

The hype in the states is huge. Mockingjay is the third and final book in the Hunger Games trilogy....

The Hunger Games was a sleeper that woke up really quickly after it won critical acclaim. But it was already gathering a huge youth readership through word of mouth.  It is a cracking read...

A couple of days ago I was in a chain book store in the mall that likes to promote itself as the specialist book store and I witnessed two teens come up to the counter and ask for Mockingjay. The store manager was behind the counter and he didn’t know if they had the book or when they might be getting it...so he looked up on the computer and found that the arrival date was uncertain. 

I was slightly gobsmacked and being the interested (nosy)person that I am, I got into conversation with the manager. 

Did you know how huge the arrival of the third book is in the States? Oh really I didn’t think it was that huge.(Did this guy read any industry newsletters?) Well isn’t it interesting that you are getting teens coming in to ask about the book? Yes I’m only on the front desk for a few hours a day and I’ve had four requests from Teens about the book. (well duh isn’t this telling you something?) 

So I asked how many copies of the book they had ordered? Oh 10 do you think I should order more? Yes!  

Ok anytime you have TEENS coming in to talk/ask an adult behind a counter in a BOOKSHOP about a BOOK and you have seen no publicity about the book... wouldn’t it suggest that maybe there should be some investigation...

Basic store publicity (five minutes on the store printer) a sign in the shop window...'Order your copy of Mockingjay now! The cost of a teaspoon full of ink and five minutes could result in big book sales of hardcover books, not to mention street cred with teens... (On Twitter I note today the comments that bookstores have piles of Mockingjay taller than the sales assistants...)   

So how can we effectively market our books?

Bookbuzzr has an interview with Carolyn Howard Johnson about selling your book on Amazon and the best ways of how to do it.

Goodreads has a fascinating in depth article analysing their own statistics to see what media outlet is the best at selling books.

Joanna Penn has an interview with Paul Lonergan on 5 copywriting secrets to selling/publicising your book.

Maureen Crisp has got the kiwi perspective.

I asked long time Book Publicist Kathryn Carmody a few questions about how authors can plan their publicity and promote their forthcoming book. Kathryn very kindly answered the questions and added a few more to think about.

How far in advance should you plan Book Publicity?

Generally speaking, the earlier the better. It's August now and I'm talking with bi-monthly and glossy consumer magazines about November and December titles. The sales reps are selling November titles into bookstores this month too.

What is the most effective thing the Author can do to promote their book?

When you're being interviewed for a media story, remember to request that the book's title be mentioned. It's seems an obvious thing to do but you'd be amazed how often stories run without mentioning that there's a book at all.      

Are different types of publicity more effective than others in terms of book sales?

Because publicity works by referral from sources one trusts, community networks can be every bit as helpful as, for example, an interview with a top-rating radio host. The interview that is published or broadcast nationwide will help your book reach a wider audience faster but it's not unusual for a major interview to come about because a journalist saw a story in a newsletter and decided to follow up.

Timing is a part of the answer to this question too. Media coverage can be coordinated so it coincides with a book's actual availability: its in-store date.   

What publicity tools would be useful for an author to have on hand?          

The book’s media release; an eye-catching author photo (with photographer's credit) and the book's cover image, both as 300DPI JPGs, total file size not larger than 1MG; a corded phone to improve the sound quality of your radio interviews; a website with all the usual things but also a shopping facility that points to your local bookshop and a mailing list that fans can subscribe to, for advance notice of your next book.

Kathryn is a successful freelance publicist who is in demand because of her specialist skills. She is always willing to help and advise writers. She volunteers her time and skills frequently from Spinning Gold to Storylines...and is a valuable member of the (children’s) writing community here in Wellington. (Thanks Kathryn!)

Over on Craicerplus My Amplify page I have links to articles on

Eleven Beloved Children’s Books With Seriously Dubious Lessons

Seth Godin To No Longer Publish Books Traditionally

How to submit your book to Penguin without an Agent (this is a helpful article if you want to take advantage of Penguin UK opening their email to unsolicited submissions)

13 Writing Rules To Live By- (Tahereh is a genius so say I)

12 Deep Thoughts From Chip MacGregors Mail Box

Character Names To Avoid

I’ll leave you with the book trailer for Mockingjay....

enjoy

maureen

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (The Final book of the Hunger
Uploaded by expandedbooks. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.