Taking Turns

It’s February already???

Where did the time go?

The kids went back to school this week. I tried to find all my writing projects. They are scattered around the house in folders of scribbled notes... because the kids kept taking my computer.

This week there was a semi quiet announcement, which was pounced on by industry commentators. Walmart announced a deal with Rakuten Kobo. Walmart is a very big chain of stores selling all kinds of products including grocery. Kobo started as a Canadian eBook distributor with its own hardware reader. They operate ebook stores all over the world but not in the US. This is going to make 2018 very interesting with increased competition for Amazon.

While Kobo have been making moves so has Apple. They have rebranded their ebook store. The Digital Reader has some ideas on what Apple can do next to really ramp up the competition in the ebook market place.

Next it was Google Play’s turn. They started to sell audiobooks this week. If you have been looking at the audio format and wondering whether to do a deal with Audible with a 7 year contract lock in.... Maybe it’s time to take a look at all the other players who have audio book storefronts.

Here in NZ we are lucky to get free ISBN’s for our work. It would be nice if we got free I.S.N.I. -International Standard Name Identifier. This means that the code attached to your name identifies you as the owner of a public work. If there are 500 Jane Smiths all saying they wrote a book... which one are you? YouTube has just become a registration agency for ISNI. What does it mean for creators? Publishing Perspectives takes a look

Kris Rusch has an interesting blog post on things that can be learned about the Indie Publishing business from the publishing train wrecks of 2017. A little bit of distance to think calmly is always a good thing.

Karen Meyers has an interesting opinion piece on the ALLi blog. Why do you need to learn to market? Her answer; Do you want to be in business? It all comes back to what you want from your writing career. A very interesting and thoughtful post.

Ann Kroeker has a solution to the ‘where to start’ problem of writing. Reverse engineer your editorial calendar. Start right from the end... publishing it. This post turns writing on its head... but it just might work.

Janet Reid answered a readers question about how hard it was to restart a writing career from an Agents perspective. It is not impossible but...

Jane Friedman has a guest post from Jennifer Probst on creating amazing secondary characters. I have been guilty of letting a secondary character have too much limelight. How can you manage these characters properly?

In The Craft Section,

7 steps to for plotting novel and personal goals- Martha Aalderson- Bookmark

How to use dictation for healthier writing- Passive Guy- Read the comments for great advice.

How Authors become better readers- K M Weiland

Script analysis – Coco  Scene break down- Go Into The Story- Bookmark

5 types of surprises- SeptemberFawkes- Bookmark

9 secrets to supercharge your fiction- Anne R Allen – Bookmark

Characterisation- Fear – Ruthanne Reid

In The Marketing Section,

What to put in your Author Newsletter- Glen Miller- Bookmark

Have you got a catalogue page- Darcy Pattison- Bookmark

Sales theory for authors and How to promote your book on the cheap- Book Marketing Tools

Why you need an author profile and where to put it- Erica Verrillo

Media friendly website content- Bookworks

18 Book Marketing predictions for 2018- Penny Sansevieri

How to Give Away an eBook from an author website-Digital Reader- Bookmark

To Finish,

It’s time for a bit of inspiration... Jerry Jenkins asked 41 Authors what they wished they knew when they were starting out...

For me... it’s amazing how much you can get done in sprint writing. AND get a computer the kids can’t borrow...

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. A coffee is always nice so if you want to shout me one, just hit the coffee button. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons / Elliott Brown - Merry Go Round at London Zoo

Navigating Writing in the Whirlwind

This week politics filled the news channels. Domestic and foreign policy was under the spotlight. Writers went around in circles trying to make sense of the narratives or gave up and wondered if we had crossed over into a parallel dystopian universe.

I have regularly struggled with the notion of where should I be marketing my books given that I am a children’s writer... Publishing Trends takes an in depth look at this problem that children’s writers face and has some solutions.

Spare a kind thought for Kat Rosenfield who wrote a Vulture article this week on The Toxic Drama of YA Twitter. Readers criticising a manuscript before it is even finished seems to be at the far end of acceptable behaviour. I’m not surprised that Y A authors might be playing it safe after reading this.

So if children’s writers have to play it safe what do they do on Social Media?

Anne R Allen has a great article on her blog on why blogging should be where an author is.

Agent Janet Reid talks about the contact page on your author website and how important it is. It’s not about whether you can be contacted. It’s the way you say it!

Jane Friedman has been hosting some great guest authors on her blog lately. Recently she has a case study by literary fiction author Nicole Dieker who self published her book. This is a fascinating ‘how to’ for a difficult niche.

Also in the case study file Jennie Nash has a terrific article on Why Writers Should Conduct A Performance Review. And you should download her review template. Call it professional development!

Startup Indie Author has gathered together a list of resources of great books, podcasts and articles on launching a new book. I can endorse this list because I have half the books and they are really good. (If you are looking for more information on this subscribe to my monthly newsletter and get my Book Marketing Summit notes for free.)

Kris Rusch has her final post on discoverability and it’s a must read. Kris looks at aggressive growth strategies – No it is not scary... it’s about timing.

Angela Ackerman’s post on authors working collaboratively is still making the rounds and getting comments. If you missed it from last week’s roundup- Check it out!

Tabitha Lord has an excellent article on Writers Digest about editorial calendars and how to use them to juggle the writing life.

In The Craft Section,

Two Bookmark posts from James Scott Bell

Story and Structure in love and  Let your characters breathe

Character motivation-hurting characters- Angela Ackerman

Writing all around your MS- Susan Dennard- Save the Cat-Bookmark

Character transformation in Guardians of The Galaxy- Bookmark

Write yourself into a corner- Janice Hardy – Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Unique swag ideas- Kate Tilton

10 twitter hashtags for writers- Bookmark

Increase book sales – Ryan Holiday

10 things your competition can teach you- Chris Syme

Effective lead magnets- Meera Kothand- Bookmark

Using Beta readers wisely- Shelley Hitz

Market to grow your platform- Matt Aird- Bookmark

To Finish,

Chuck Wendig is always a sure bet for making sense of the turmoil of writing. This week he looked at writing as an act of resource management. This is entertaining and relevant as we all try to find our way through the politics and back to the page.

Maureen

@craicer

My monthly newsletter will be going out this weekend. 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. I appreciate the virtual coffee love so a big THANKS to everyone who hit the coffee button this week.

Pic: Flickr/ Creative Commons - Jon Aslund

The Classic Blunder

It has been an historical week. There was the vote that caused political turmoil in Europe and then yesterday the tragedy in Turkey.

Along with record temperatures around the globe we are facing change of epic proportions.  Porter wrote an article for Publishing Perspectives on what Brexit might mean for publishing in the United Kingdom. Already people are seeing royalty rates drop.

Writer Beware has an update to a story about a publishing company in denial over the mind boggling law suits that are being brought against it. Reading through the list you get the impression they were taking a lot of lessons from Author Solutions.

Agent Janet Reid has written an interesting Blog post on Agents as Publishers. You should be very careful as these agents break the A.A.R. (Association of Author Representatives) rules. (If they ever belonged in the first place.)

Rachel Thompson has been working with authors for a while now and recently she sat down and figured out the secret to success. Authors already know it. But do they DO it?

A few months ago I linked to Agent Jonny Gellers Ted Talk on what makes a best seller. Jonny Geller has expanded his ideas in this article.(If you know the secret, please share.)

Ruth Harris has written a great article on First Chapter Blues. It is a must read. Just when you think of the old maxim of throw out your first chapter... Ruth comes along and offers some great advice.

The movie Me Before You generated lots of protests around the world about the portrayal of disabilities in books and films. I never commented because I feel there are far better writers living this reality that would say why they object far better than me. And so here is an excellent guest post from Steven Spohn on Chucks Blog. I do urge all writers to read it.

Over the years I have shared some amazing articles on the craft of writing. Today I read an article on rejections that turned everything upside down in my head. Just WOW.  Take some time to read this from LitHub.

In The Craft Section,

Writing Action Scenes- K M Weiland

Dialogue- getting rid of adverbs- Bookmark

Tips for self editing- Bloodredpencil- Bookmark

What makes a great blurb-

How soon do we show genre in writing- Janice Hardy

The trope police- Agent Sarah La Polla on what she often see’s

The 5 must read craft books of 2016 – Kayla Dean

In The Marketing Section,

Boosting Sales

Book marketing tips from industry experts- Frances Caballo-Bookmark

Checklist for cover redesigns- Roz Morris

Marketing to influencers- The Bookseller-Bookmark

4 easy things to do if you don’t want to market your book.- Penny Sansevieri

Email Newsletter content- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

To Finish

There are classic tropes and classic lines and classic blunders. Every writer hopes that they can come up with a classic line rather than a classic blunder.  If you love the classic movie The Princess Bride here are 15 quotes that explain the writers life.

If you haven’t seen the movie.... That is a classic blunder... like starting a land war in Asia.

Maureen

@craicer

Author Education

It seems that every month we are mourning a creative genius who made an impact across the world. This week the creative dynamo Prince unexpectedly died at age 57. But the big tragedy as Kristine Rusch writes today in her Business Musings post was that he had no will. 

Kris started her Contract Deal Breakers series with a post on understanding what rights are last week and I had planned to link to that excellent post first when her latest post just slipped into my inbox. Both of these posts are must reads for authors as they highlight the very specific problems that authors face as their estates live long after the author is dead and what to do about it.

In another interesting pairing of posts, Wendy Sparrow writes about how writing romance is seen as easy to do when it is anything but... and Harlequin announced that they are dropping one of their most popular lines. Their letter announcing this is a wonderful example of corporate speak.

Janet Reid this week was asked about Agent contacts and what should be in them. She writes a fairly detailed letter outlining the sorts of things that you should see in a contact. If it says anything else be very careful.

This week Ruth Harris wrote about how to protect yourself from the University of Hard Knocks- or how to protect yourself from the scammers out there. She lists a comprehensive go to list for checking out offers you think might be your pot of gold... or your crock of s....

Publishing Perspectives talked to two pundits at the London Book Fair on publishing trends on both sides of the Atlantic. This is an interesting read. What sells in New York is not what London might pick.

Jane Friedman has a great guest post on her website on ways to generate Online Book Publicity. 

If you are dipping your toe into podcasts there are a few to choose from with book or publishing themes. The Bookseller has a collection of ten different podcasts that you might like to browse. I often link to the Creative Penn podcasts but I have dropped into a few others on this list and they are all good.

(I contribute to a monthly podcast at Writers Island. In the latest episode is a feature on NZ On Air and how writers might be able to access this funding.)

In the Craft Section,

Martha Alderson on using a plot planner-Bookmark

Joanna Penn on writing across genres-  Bookmark

Two great posts from Angela Ackerman on Character failures create a recipe for character growth and Sharing protagonists deep feelings makes for reader engagement.

Marcy Kennedy on ways to evoke emotion. Bookmark

Two great posts from K M Weiland on Choosing the protagonist and How to write strong characters.

E J Wenstrom on How to tap into the writing mode anywhere

Ann Kroeker on ways to manage your energy.

Ash Krafton on Engineering your series.

In the Marketing Section,

How to price your self published book

Five comparisons NOT to make for your book in a query.

Rachel Thompson on branding 101 for authors- Bookmark

Molly Greene on the new way to go free on Amazon (This is a 
How To on the new Amazon rules) Bookmark!

7 must have features on Author websites

Ten author websites examined.

To Finish,

If you want to get inspired or educated just check into a TEDx talk. This week The UK’s top agent Jonny Geller gave a talk on What makes a bestseller. Food for thought...

Maureen

@craicer

Pic from Flickr/ Creative Commons/ Shimer College

Raise A Glass To

This is my last blog post of the year and it’s already a day late. I have lots to share with you so grab a Christmas beverage and we’ll start.

This could be the drown your sorrows part of the blog...

Writer Beware has a look at some insidious new clauses making their way into publishing contracts under the guise of being nice.

Anne R Allen’s post on 5 scams targeting writers is being shared all over the web. Read and Beware.

Heather Alexander writes about the frustration of friends referring friends to you because they have book ideas. (We have all experienced this!!)

Adam Dreece talks about his first lesson as a full time writer- Burnout.

Melinda Szymanik has an excellent post on Writers Block - and The Write Life has a way you can beat it.

This is the Raise your Glass - Cheers part of the blog!

Kristen Lamb has 7 ways to get the true grit you need as an author- Great Post!

Joanna Penn has an excellent post on Productivity For Authors. If you are looking for other productivity tips check out these productivity hacks.

China wants to see more English language children’s books. – That’s the takeaway from the  Global Kids Connect conference held this week in New York.

Digital Book World has an excellent post on Amazon and ways that Publishers can use some Amazon tactics.

This is the fill-‘er-up-what-will-they-think-of-next, toast to innovation part of the blog...

Check out the story of this App, where a traditional publisher is harnessing indie authors to deliver novels in serial form, weekly... (you may need another drink to get your head around it.)

The writer and the market should be friends - James Scott Bell

Self Publishing and Indie Author Imprints- This is a must read post if you are an indie author.

Refill Your Glass!

In the Craft Section,

11 top articles on Writing Characters- Bookmark! Some of these I’ve linked to before but this is a craft books worth of great writing.

Janice Hardy has 2 excellent posts – Bookmark!  Why we should do bad things to our Character and What you really want to know about self publishing.

Tips for writing acknowledgements by Julie Musil Bookmark!

Paul Short Has 6 writing tips from bestselling authors.

Agent Janet Reid – Don’t write your query like your dust jacket.

Reedsy has an excellent post (and infographic) on Editing (which is what NaNo people should be doing in December.) Bookmark it!

Men with Pens has a great post on how to recognise Passive Voice and get rid of it.

In the Marketing Section,

Jane Friedman on managing Twitter- Excellent post!

Sue Coletta – Pinterest for authors- This is an amazing post! I never thought of this way for authors to use Pinterest.  Bookmark!

23 Pinterest tips for authors. (makes more sense after the above post.)

How to protect your website from Hackers

In a Toast to Christmas...

I recently recorded my second podcast with Writers Island where I talked about great gifts for writers. (see sidebar) As Christmas is nearly upon us you might like to check out these amazing gift lists.

Jami Golds Ultimate Gift list for writers.

Gifts that matter for writers

Literary action hero dolls

22 gifts for writers

Imogen Wilson’s Ex Libris jewelry for writers

The Literary Gift Company 

To Finish,

Raise a toast to Kristine Rusch ...

In November Kris was on fire with her great business for writers blog posts which I linked to in several blog posts. She has been receiving some push back for her comments about writing what YOU want to write as the key to your career.  This week she replies to the criticism and explores the nature of writer as artist. I think this is an amazing post and one for authors to reflect on as they take their post prandial beverage and contemplate the coming year.

My gift to you – the 12 cocktails of Christmas and the annual Christmas video!

See you in January!

Maureen
@craicer

Pic from Flickr Creative Commons/John Morgan

Business Choices

It is cold and wet. June blasts from Antarctica have ensured that we know Winter has arrived. I spent a hopeful five minutes today looking at this publishing mini conference on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. It is in the northern hemisphere winter... and as I turn up the heating and work on the Tinderbox conference I’m wishing I could just transfer the whole thing onto a cruise ship.

This week Book Expo America (BEA) has been on. Online discussions have been on the business of publishing and reaction to Scalzi's $3.4m publishing deal. There are a whole lot of green eyed authors out there who have let their vitriol get away on them. Then there are the calm reasoned authors who talk about the business and what Scalzi’s deal might mean to authors going forward. Kris Rusch has an excellent analysis and I urge you to read the comments for the great discussion on contracts. Then there is John Scalzi himself who lays out what the deal means to him for the next decade.  This is a very generous set of posts for an author to do. Read and Learn and raise a glass to him. By the way he is a fantastic author!

The Nielson figures came out this week on e-book sales last year and Futurebook has a handy analytical break down of the figures. Overall the sales were down 6% but as Nielson was doing a five year comparison, in 2010 the number of e-books sold were 68 million and last year it was 240 million, I don’t think anyone is too worried. Among lots of interesting data was this nugget, juvenile fiction is on the rise.

Publishing Perspectives reported on BEA and the global rise of... adult colouring books. Invest now in Faber Castell.  Porter Anderson reported on the digital conference held at BEA. With the huge amount of books now we need curators more than ever... and that is where the reader has to step up. Interesting article.

Jane Friedman is one of the Go To people for a perspective on the publishing industry and here in her latest interview I think she nails how the publishing industry is now and where it might be going in the future. This is a bookmark post.

In the Craft Section,

Attention Grabbing Story Structure

Inside an edit on Non Fiction

Putting your best work out there- Jody Hedlund

5 big tips to write well

10 steps to editing with focus- (Bookmark)

How to write a brief synopsis- Janet Reid- (Bookmark)

Character portraits

How to organise your writing life, tracking characters- Julia Kelly (Bookmark)

In the Marketing Section,

5 lessons learned between books 5and 6 - Molly Greene

A quick lesson on creating imprints- Joel Friedlander (Bookmark)

How to get books top rated at Amazon

Formatting to print from MS Word – Jami Gold (Bookmark)

How to repurpose your blog posts -Nina Amir

5 top apps for writers – Wendy Jones

To Finish,

Who can resist an Infographic? Here is a great one looking at the publishing process. Two years to a print book.

Choices abound in publishing 2015 but you can’t get away from this pithy piece of advice.

Writing is an Art and Publishing is a Business – Chuck Wendig

Maureen

@craicer

Pic: Flickr/Creative Commons/ Mauro Parra - Miranda

Gazing into 2015

The sun has been beating down and we have been traveling through the North Island on our annual family pilgrimage. I tried hard not to think of all the projects I wanted to start/complete this year (they are all from last years Annus Interrumpi.) My family thought I was taking a complete wellness break... I was sleeping ... honestly! So now I’m back with first post of the year.

As 2015 rolls in... writers take stock of where they are and where they want to be next year and what the publishing world is going to throw at them. Everyone who has spent any time in this business knows that change is constant!

Over the last five years I have read Bob Mayer’s New Year predictions and he usually is on the money. So here is his take for 2015.

Mark Coker of Smashwords is taking a similar line and getting quoted all over the place in the last week.

With book publishing stats for last year being digested and comments about the drop in e-book sales from publishers... does this spell the beginning of the end of the e-book phenomenon. NO. Killzone notes the sky is not falling and Hugh Howey is busy gazing into the sky of 2015.

Chuck Wendig takes his usual hilarious (profane) ramble on 2015 writing resolutions and what he would like to see happening in publishing in 2015. Chuck cautions everyone about subscription models like Kindle Unlimited. It might be good for the reader...but.

This week Oyster enrolled the Macmillan group into their model, which means they have a significant number of the top ten publishers. Subscription wars may be about to start.

The Digital Book World conference is happening as I write. (#DBW15) They kicked off the conference looking at Children’s Publishing. Jane Friedman has links to all the slide presentations and a nifty infographic about the demands on children’s reading time. Porter Anderson looks at Children’s Publishing figures... 25% of all print publishing and the growing take up of e- books in this sector. Where to next?

Writer Beware takes a close look at Publishing contracts- Are you sabotaging yourself?

Are we all over crowdfunding publishing or is there a better way… Futurebook chat roundup makes interesting reading.

If you need a lie down after all those resolutions Writer Unboxed has a post on Tolerating Uncertainty.

In the Craft Section,

5 ways to reveal backstory

Working with multiple POV’s and timelines- Janice Hardy

6 ways to make characters stand out- Jody Hedlund

Painting characters into corners

Writing poverty in YA

When the narrator knows as much as God

Most common writing mistakes- K M Weiland

The Smelling Post- or writing about this sense...

Graphic post on whether your main character can survivemultiple assailants (definitely for thriller writers!)

Bob Mayer’s video on conflict lock

Hooks, Lines and Stinkers

In the Marketing Section

3 simple ebook marketing tips.

Understanding Search Engine Optimization-  (SEO)

27 royalty free stock image sites

Planning marketing with a content calendar

Finding the right critique partners

Website of the Week

Agent Janet Reid has a great site where she answers authors questions about agents... here she looks at what happens when an agent quits the business but still wants to rep you.

To Finish,

If you have teenagers in the house... chances are you have heard a lot of Taylor Swift. Have you ever noticed how her songs are plots of YA novels....

Maureen

Pic from Flickr/Creative Commons Su Bo An

Thoughtful Words

A comic for anyone who thinks writing picture books is easy: pic.twitter.com/3pnl4EqsSo
— Debbie Ridpath Ohi (@inkyelbows) November 17, 2014

This week in publishing Twitter went wild over the Amazon/ Hachette settlement. The New Yorker gave it thumbs up for getting back to the new normal. 

Hugh Howey warned that things won’t change so fast... because of publishers shipping delays to Amazon warehouses. At least they have settled before the Christmas buying rush.

Mike Shatzkin had a few words to say about the behemoth that is Randy Penguin and what he thinks they should do... run their ownsubscription model. Hmmm they already publish half the books in the world... maybe they just need their own bookstores. Either way when it is their turn to negotiate with Amazon it will be watched with interest.

Authors have been asking for years why can’t publishers bundle print and eBooks together

Publishing Perspectives reports on a pre Christmas trial of bundling by HarperCollins in Australia. So if you are lucky enough to live in Australia.... I wonder if it extends to NZ as well?

Porter Anderson took a look at the journey to nearly superstardom by traditionally published author Emily St John Mandel. (Who missed out on the NB Award announced as I write this.) Emily did her own marketing being published by small presses until her 4^th (breakout) novel and then the story changed when a big publisher put marketing muscle in. If you read that report I featured last month on blockbusters vs award winners you will see some familiar themes.

Janet Reid has a tell all post about what you should do whenyou get an agent...

The cartoon up top is from the wonderful Inky Elbows AKA Debbie Ridpath Ohi

I know people who would love that as framed merch!!!

In the Craft Section,

Planning your setting

The art of making your characters frustrated

The stages of revision.

Tips on what to focus on when you are revising

Janice Hardy tells you what to do when you have to kill a major part of your novel.

Becca Puglisi has an excerpt from the new Talents and Skills thesaurus... Strategic Thinking. This is a great writer resource.

In the Marketing Section,

BookBaby has ideas for Author Merchandise

The Book Designer has a guest post on using video effectively

Sterling and Stone (better known as Sean, Johnny and Dave) have a guest post on getting 50 reviews a month

Joanna Penn talks about public speaking for introverted authors.

When you feel invisible in the marketplace

To Finish,

K M Weiland, author of some very good craft novels has responded to requests to produce a workbook for her excellent Structuring Your Novel book.

This is a great book on structure so her workbook will be the bee’s knees if you are looking for Christmas presents for yourself...  

The National Book Awards in the US were announced overnight and everyone is talking about Ursula Le Guin’s speech. It is not long but it is as masterful and inspiring as she is herself.

maureen