Food for Thought

Sorry for the delay in posting this week. However there are some chewy big ideas for you to chow down on.

(The Main Menu)

The phenomenal success of the movie The Fault In Our Stars (adapted from #1 bestselling Y A novel) in its opening weekend seems to have spurred the critics to write new opinion pieces about Young Adult literature and the poor sad fools who read it and write it. The Slate article caused much rolling of eyes within the children’s writing community and a very funny rebuttal from YA author Kathleen Hale.

While this was being shared around...the notion that ‘worthy’ YA was written by men also got an airing and a well articulated smackdown. Read the articles (P.S.A. make sure you aren’t drinking in front of the keyboard.)

Three YA writers talk about how demeaning it is to have your book consistently compared to Twilight because A) They are female. B) They write YA and C) They write for girls.

Why don’t the Male writers get the abuse and the comparisons...Good points backed up with facts.

Publishers Weekly has a great article on How Reality Became The Hot New Thing In YA...and I may just have to check out Scotts latest book judging by the last comment in this article.

The Amazon/ Hachette discussion goes on and on. Is Amazon really the devil? A measured (lets look at this problem) opinion piece also from Publishers Weekly.

Jane Friedman has been looking at the future of magazines... Do they have a print future? What was the last magazine you bought and why? I confess that all the articles I’m interested in I read online. So Jane may have some very good advice for magazine publishers.

Every writer wants to get a contract...but recently one writer got a contract that had her lawyer gasping in disbelief. Please Read This! (sadly I have heard of this before...)

While on that subject Agent Kristin Nelson is also cautioning about contracts... with anyone!

Agent Janet Reid answers some very interesting questions from a reader on whether you need an 

agent...and No you don’t... Great advice tho.

Agents are always interesting to follow on Twitter. Every now and again Agents do a #tenqueries which is where they write a twitter comment for the next 10 Manuscripts they pick up out of the slush pile. These can be very insightful for what not to do. Just put #tenqueries in the search box.  Also check out Agent advice on The Worst Ways To Begin Your Novel.

Passive Guy looks at Amazon and PayPal buy buttons and the changes happening in payments, which outfit is best for you.

How the Indie Authors fared at BEA last week…A good overview of the impact and importance of Indie Authors at the biggest trade book fair.

(Choice of Desserts)

In the Craft Section,

5 reasons my cat should be the writer instead- Victoria Mixon.

How to use Word Document maps to navigate through your MS.

Writing bittersweet endings.

The importance of good sidekicks.

Stop worrying about plot originality.

3 cautions for adding research.

Writers Doubt- Advice from Seth Godin.

In the Marketing Section,

Do Authors need two Facebook pages.

A Book Crowd Funding Platform that pays readers and writers.

How to upload and sell books on Google Play.

10 Book Marketing mistakes.

If you are terrified of Book Marketing...

One page business plans. And Do you really need one – Joel Friedlander

Why is my book not selling.

The Bruno Mars guide to getting raving fans for your book.

Joanna Penn on Translation and Self publishing in Germany. Very comprehensive How To post. Also If you missed her amazing post on knowing your rights....here it is again!

5 mistakes you will make on your way to publishing success- excellent article!

(After Dinner Mint)

To Finish,

One Non Fiction writer had an idea that wouldn’t fit into the conventional publishing box. They carefully researched what they could do...with such a specialised book and then hit on an interesting idea...serialise it and aim it at different communities. This is a fascinating journey of a publishing success story.

maureen

Pic from Flickr/ Creative Commons/ Stephen Oung.

What You Should Be Doing

Bologna trends: people want middle grade. They want funny middle grade. MIDDLE GRADE IS BACK. #bbf14
— Ginger Clark (@Ginger_Clark) March 24, 2014

This week in the publishing blogosphere the news has been about what everyone should be doing...

because the publishing world has shifted again,

because the next big thing is right around the corner,

because the Bologna Book Fair is on,

because the world has changed.

In my Twitter feed this morning was an announcement that Diesel e-books was shutting down after 10 years of indie publishing however new startups are happening all the time and another to hit the starting blocks tomorrow is this new subscription model.

While this is happening Digital Book World is talking up that Apple is now the second largest book store...what does that mean in reality?

Passive Guy shares a rant that got everyone talking this week about what Penguin Random (or Random Penguin) isn’t doing and what they should be...Read the comments they are all entertaining.

Mike Shatzkin followed this up with his very pointed summary of what the Big Publishers should be doing and aren’t (this could be helpful with your own promotion...once you get over the comment of don’t read the book to find the metadata tags...)

This must read post from Elisabeth Spann Craig looks at her experiments with hybrid publishing and the very real questions she has about continuing down that road. Elisabeth has been blogging about her journey over the last year and it is a very honest look at the realities of publishing now for a writer with a traditional back list.

That happy block quote at the top came from Agent Ginger Clark who hit the Bologna ground running, her appointment book already full before she got there.

Publishers Weekly gives the low down on what are the biggest sellers... requests...talk ups at the Worlds largest Children’s Book Fair.

Book Fairs are tricky beasts for authors... It is all about deals...principally foreign rights and authors don’t usually negotiate these...here is where Agents earn their money. However if you were thinking about translating...Susan Kaye Quinn has just done it in an interesting Indie move and she has a great post about how she did it.

Jody Hedlund looks at the value of agents and the difficulties of hunting for a new one.

Because the world is changing and writers have to hang in there,

Bob Mayer has an article on the true grit you need to be a writer and K M Weiland has one on the five motivations of the writer.

Chuck has a rant on his answers to common writing questions... (pro writers will laugh)- usual warnings apply.

Meg Rosoff also has a heartfelt post on what keeps you from writing, which can also fuel you... (especially good post for those of you who juggle many things before writing.)

The wonderful Catherine Ryan Howard has a rant about contact details on writer’s websites...coz she just may have a deal for you and how can she get hold of you...(this reminds me to check my writing email inbox.) and Fastcompany shares the best PR advice, which writers should think about.

In the Craft section, you should be doing...

Y A High Fantasy – How to do it (only if it’s your thing) and How to create names for it.

Road trips – How to take readers on one and How to write active settings (great post!)

Author Voice – How you can find it and How you can use it to keep your readers up all night

Writing fast – How you can do it faster and The tools you need to help you get there. (great post on Scrivener)

Writing Short Stories to help you learn stuff.

In the Marketing Section, You should be....

Building a personal network

Making strong covers

Not making these 10 mistakes

Following these 6 steps to be successful

Keeping your marketing lean and focused

Learning from the worlds best marketers...(great post!)

To Finish,

In the end all the writer has is their own creativity and a willingness to get out there and just create, so here is the 18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently because that’s what writers do.

Data Differences

This week, around the blogosphere, the comments were on the awesomeness of IndieReCon and the news that Amazon has dropped the royalty payments for ACX, their audio publishing arm. 

ACX is not available to writers outside the US but it is helpful to keep an eye on these developments with one of the biggest publishers. 
Chuck has a few pithy comments to say on the general argggh coming from authors around ACX. (Wise up people.)

 One of the great things about Online Conferences is that information stays online so you can refer to it...or in the case of writers in another hemisphere, get to it at a time that suits you. IndieReCon stuff is still available. I dropped back in to read Angela Ackerman’s post on collaboration that was really informative. Of course I then scrolled down... So much good stuff in there. Take some time to delve into the chats and posts. 

Joe Konrath has been a vocal member of the writing community for a long time. He recently took issue with comments from literary agent David Gernert. He raises some good points about gate keepers...the changing nature of the agent and who they are working for and contracts… 

If you are interested in contracts check out this post – Don’t Get Screwed- Contract Provisions Every Creative Should Know. 

Porter Anderson gave Hugh Howey the floor (his space in Writer Unboxed) to answer a comment from a reader about what Hugh considers the ideal print publishing deal he would go with. It is very interesting as Hugh describes the deal he has with Random House UK over the US part of the operation...and why he went with UK... (he tangata, he tangata, he tangata! people, people, people!) 

Hugh also has his 3rd report up... a look at Barnes and Nobel, a bricks and mortar chain bookstore and a snapshot of sales...surprise surprise or perhaps not as the figures are still hitting the same marks. 

Data and the need for it, exercises the Harvard Book Review this week. This is a call out to the publishers to maybe start providing some. 

Forbes takes a look at Brands... and finds out some very interesting information. Would you rather be a Grisham or a Jack Reacher. Which earns you more? 

In the Craft Section 
Jami Gold has an excellent post on How To Be A Good Editor. 

6 Ways To Survive Rewrite Hell. 

The Write Practice- How To Finish Projects 

Create Inspirational Workspaces 

Jody Hedlund on Developing Characters 

In the Marketing Section 
A big article on Discoverability and Marketing- they are essentially the same thing. 

Tim Ferris On How to make a viral book trailer 

10 Book Marketing Mistakes Self Publishers Make 

Website of the Week: K M Weiland. 
I know I reference her a lot but have you actually trawled around her website... check out this post. How Not To Be A Writer -15 Signs You Are Doing It Wrong 

To Finish, 
Neil Gaiman has a different take on piracy.... data food for thought…

maureen

Pic from Flickr/Creative Commons/Mezdeathhead
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mezdeathhead

In The CON Zone.

I’m just popping up from the world of virtual conferences to write this blog post.

Conferences have been the main topic of the week for me. It started earlier in the week when I had a book association meeting and on the agenda (officially) was conference 2015. Yes I know that is next year...yes I know that it is probably last third of next year... Yes I know that is 18 months away. But when we planned the last National Conference of Children’s Writer’s and Illustrators we started 18 months out. You have to if you want a good Keynote speaker... and other great faculty presenters. You have to if you want a good venue... You also have to find out from your potential attendee’s what they want to learn about. **

Twitter was full of NY2014 SCBWI chat about how awesome it is and was. The great thing about the NY and LA Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is the live blogging that goes on at these events (great for us writers on the other side of the world.) So instead of feeling envious of Kyle (pres of NZSA) getting to go (his choice, he paid for it, he deserved it) you can live vicariously and go visit the blog and scroll down on the right, dropping into those presentations that interest you. (Alternatively you can buy Kyle a couple of beers and pick his brains next time you see him.)

IndieReCon is happening now. 3 days of awesome virtual conference which is free. There are quite a few kids writers on the faculty of this conference which is Genre Writing orientated and very practical for writers looking into Indie publishing. There is lots of info on marketing, book production, agents etc. I started, yesterday, listening to a webinar on Fear and Writing with the Awesome Susan Kaye Quinn. I had already bookmarked her Marketing Indie Mid Grade books post to share here...(Read It!)

In the story that doesn’t die...more commentary on the Author Earnings site and the talking/hand wringing that is going on.

Brian O’Leary on The Empire Strikes Back – if Trad publishers would get past the handwringing and realize the game has irrevocably changed and what they can do about it.

Eoin Purcell on understanding the technology shift where writers have moved quicker than publishers.

Passive Guy (who is also presenting at Indie ReCon) on Mark Coker’s, guest column in Publishers Weekly (subscribers only) this week, reaction to the Author Earnings reports...yes I know that was long winded... (badly worded, it’s late..) just read the link...Passive Guy quotes extensively from the article.

In the Website of the Week

I want to highlight two.

Writer Unboxed is a website that has a large list of contributors. It is like a classy magazine with long form essays exploring some aspect of writing or publishing. The contributors are publishing and writing veterans. Jane Friedman contributed a long form essay from her new magazine Scratch on serial or episodic writing which is fast becoming a reader favourite. This is an examination of what it is and how to do it and who is doing it and why.

Today was #MSWL day on Twitter. Manuscript Wish List. If you type #MSWL into the search bar all the tweets from editors and agents come up of what they want to see. If you have a story that fits that criteria...when you query, following their individual website guidelines, you must put #MSWL in the query. It makes for interesting reading.

In the Craft section,

What is magic realism?

Jody Hedlund on writing scenes- a quick 5 point checklist.

Jami Gold on How to skip the boring parts

Screenwriting – the 3 act structure and how to break it.

Susan Kaye Quinn on tools for helping you write faster.

Larry Brooks on The Bermuda Triangle of Storytelling (Bookmark this!)

In the Marketing section

Bibliocrunch has a list of book sites that do bookpromotion.

Check out IndieReCon....

To Finish,

The Daily Dot has an article looking at the restarting of an authors career in Kindle Worlds...The Kindle Fan Fiction site...ho hum you might think until you find out that the author is L J Smith who was the original writer of Vampire Diaries who found her rights to her own work cut out from under her when she was fired from the TV show of her own creation...

**If you have any ideas for topics to learn about or conference wants... either comment here, on Facebook, or through email. We are preparing a short survey which is coming soon.

To finally finish....Hank Green, Brother of John (half of the Vlog brothers) posted a great Video today on books...its a rant really but entertaining...as only the vlog brothers can be...

maureen

Heading To Mt Doom.

We have women's bookstores, children's bookshops, new age emporia ... would a shop dedicated to New Zealand books fly, d'you think?
— Jolisa Gracewood (@nzdodo) September 13, 2013

Last week I started to write my blog post but ended up writing a 2 page letter of complaint to the government MP’s who decided that closing down Learning Media was a good thing.

From a teaching point of view my first Go To Resource was the School Journal Index book, 5 years of Journals indexed by subject and age level and theme.  With four levels of journal coming out three to four times a year, there was a lot of fiction, non fiction, plays, poems and craft activities to form the core resource component in literacy, science and numeracy  programmes.

Learning Media, who produced these resources, are a dedicated bunch with a commitment to high production standards... because they know that their work is what New Zealand children learn to read on. They used to work inside the Education Ministry producing not only free core resources in English but also in Maori and Pacific Island languages. The Ready to Read series was one of the first graded reading series for teaching reading in the world with stories by Margaret Mahy, Joy Cowley and Dorothy Butler among the first to be published.

My school was part of a group of schools that regularly hosted overseas teachers to show them best teaching practice because New Zealand consistently placed in the top tier of OECD literacy achievement. Every teacher who came through my class looked at the quality of the School Journal and sighed with envy. ‘How can we get something like this?’ was the most common refrain. From a writing point of view I, like so many New Zealand children's writers and illustrators, got my start in the School Journal. They happily provided feedback so you became a much stronger writer. Now New Zealand's common refrain is 'How can our government wreck something like this?'

New Zealand’s current publishing landscape has made international news...and not in a good way although NZ’s children’s books seem to be holding up. Because of our small size (4 ½ million) the publishing struggles going on overseas are played out here in a much more dramatic fashion. Porter Anderson covers the recent collection of articles about The Death Of Publishing In New Zealand in Publishing Perspectives along with news that The MAN BOOKER Prize will be open to all English language novels from next year...not just the ones published in the UK. This change is not being celebrated by everyone....

We Kiwi’s have an interest in the MAN BOOKER as we have a young writer in the shortlist for the prize...proving that even tho we don’t have a publishing industry we do have great writers.

So what is a kiwi writer to do when faced with the one way journey to Mt Doom.

Self publishing or working with small Indie publishers seem the only way to go... many commentators are saying that thinking outside New Zealand is the only way to survive. But do we then write generic Northern Hemisphere stories or do we really celebrate New Zealand cultural style and promote our stories (choice eh!) unashamedly? It means a cultural shift because Kiwi writers are like Kiwi birds... happy to be running around in secret, in the dark...we’re not flashy!

So if you are thinking Self Publishing... Publishers Weekly is now behind you...

Passive Guy talks about the rise and rise of audio books and Publishing Perspectives warns about 10 counter intuitive tips that Self Publishers try.

The incomparable Joel Friedlander has added some more templates to his Book Design template collection...and they are all children’s!

In the Craft Section,

10 simple rules for good writing.

Formatting Manuscripts Indie Style

Jody Hedlund with another brilliant post on getting to know your characters and plot.

K M Weiland on most common mistakes.

Chuck Wendig on 25 steps to edit the unmerciful suck from your stories. (usual Chuck warnings apply)

5 rookie mistakes negotiating a contract

In the Marketing Section,

10 things I’ve learned crowdfunding writers try.

Setting the right price for your book.

Susan Kaye Quinn on Book Discovery in the Digital Age

Publishing Crawl on Researching Literary Agents

Jody Hedlund on strategic ways to give away books

Writer Unboxed on the Query Detox

Joel Friedlander has a guest post from Anne Hill on How toSell Books from your Website.

Website to Check Out,

Lydia Sharp has a timely blog post on Posture and tips forwriters from the Physio...(I’m sitting straighter already.)

To Finish,

This week I ventured into The Children’s Bookshop for one book (yeah right!) The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. If you haven’t come across John Green, take some time to look at this explanation of the John Green and Vlogbrothers phenomenon. I have been following John Green for a while...and admire what he is doing to connect into his tribe of Nerdfighters. And by the way the book is excellent!

maureen

A Two Day Package Of Awesome

Around the blogosphere this week...WriteOnCon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In Craft,

The 35 questions Proust asked his characters.

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

Jody Hedlund on when to show character emotions.

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

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

Why every writer needs to hire an editor.

In Marketing,

Joel Friedlander on book layouts and page margins.

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

Passive Guy links to 5 successful marketing strategies.

To Finish,

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

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

maureen

. 

Rabble Rousers

Last week I referred to the media frenzy surrounding Into The River, which won Senior Fiction and Book of The Year at the New Zealand Post Children (and Young Adults) Book Awards. The media frenzy revolved around concerned groups of people calling for the book to be banned and stripped of its award, because in their view there is explicit content in it not suitable for children. As I stated last week the book is for Young Adults and is aimed at 15+ and reporting knee-jerk reactionary comments from people who have not read the book is sloppy journalism.

The media has moved on to cover other things...however the vitriol surrounding this book has not. This last week many Children and Young Adult Authors have been concerned about the level of personal attacks being made on Ted and the Award sponsors, New Zealand Post, on social media sites. The authors who have stepped in to defend Ted have also become targets with hate filled comments being left on their own websites and on public social media platforms.

The hurt being done, by a small number of vitriolic people with a deeply conservative viewpoint to the New Zealand Children’s Literature community is very palpable. These libelous slurs live on in social media, forever searchable. 

There are many things wrong that we should be taking the time to debate like the high suicide rate amongst our young people, the high youth unemployment and teen pregnancy figures, the ease of access to harmful drug substitutes at our local corner stores. These are very real threats to our young people in New Zealand. Why is there such a negative focus on a book that may help teenagers understand these issues and find solutions safely? 

This is why the children’s writers have been defending this book. With bile all over the award sponsors social media sites, will the children’s literature community lose its pre-eminent awards because of the actions of a small group of uninformed people who have not read the book? 

I Hope Not.

Overseas the news that the judge found Apple guilty of collusion in price fixing is starting to make waves.

Earthshaking is how Mike Shatzkin describes the latest figures coming out from Hachette in the UK. More than 50% of all sales, print and digital are being made online. This article is a must read for authors on the future implications to the publishing industry. With B&N pulling out of Nook it seems that the publishing world that we are getting used to may be going south very rapidly.

And what will RandomPenguin do? It seems that killing the Literary genre advance may be their first act.

Last week Sci Fi author and out going president of SFFW, John Scalzi, posted his manifesto for attending Sci Fi Con’s (something often built into Sci Fi genre authors contracts.) He won’t be going to a Sci Fi Con(vention) unless they have a published anti-harassment policy. Over 1000 authors have signed his manifesto, however it has also raised questions about limiting income for authors. One author writes why she won’t be signing the manifesto...with John’s support.

Jane Friedman’s article on Optimizing Metadata and its importance in marketing is being widely shared around.

Media Bistro have an infographic detailing where books were most abandoned in the reading.

The Guardian has a great article where they asked the editors of the finalist children’s books in the Branford Boase Awards to write their top 5 tips to authors.

In Craft,

Two fabulous links from Janice Hardy, 10 Questions To AskWhen Choosing A Setting and You Need More Scoundrels In Your Life. (My epiphany - all my favourite reading heroes are Han Solo’s)

7 Things Dungeons and Dragons Taught Me About Storytelling.

How To Use Dialogue Correctly...with examples.

Jody Hedlund has a great article on The Most Important Edit You 
Can Give Your Book.

Elissa Field On Novel Revision Strategies.

In Marketing,

ISBN’s Do You Need them? (NB: NZ authors can get free ISBN’sfrom National Library of New Zealand.)

Joanna Penn has a new marketing book out and she is doing excerpts of it as guest posts on different blogs...Check out Dave Gaughren’s blog for her take on Marketing Myths.

Goodreads shares a slideshow about Using Goodreads for publicity and marketing.

Nicola Morgan has started her own author shop. If you think about the ramifications of merchandising it seems a logical extension of the Author Brand. Check out what she has planned...

The Indelibles are also looking at Branding and Books and Such 

Lit Agency is looking at Author Blogging and whether it reflects your brand.

Cool Website link to visit.

AtlasObscura....click on Random Place and it will take you to a wonderful setting...where you can imagine writing a story...or just long for a lotto win so you can go there.

To Finish,

One of my wonderful author buddies found this great video comment by Young Adult author John Green when he found his debut book was being challenged as inappropriate for children...The reasons sound very similar to what is happening here in New Zealand and John’s answer to the critics is beautifully put.

FYI: NZ Children's Authors are sending letters of support to Ted and NZ Post.

maureen

pic from Flickr/JvL 

Knee Jerks

The New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards are usually news for a few hours in the morning after the award ceremony. The only people who seem to care are Booksellers, Librarians and the Kid Lit community here in NZ. Not So This Year.

This year the Public have been warned that the winner of Book Of The Year and Senior Fiction (that’s Young Adult) is a smutty book with naughty language and deviant drug behaviour not to mention (gasp) the sex.

The media frenzy over a bookseller refusing to stock it, a conservative political party denouncing it, and an editorial in a major Sunday paper declaring it a waste of space is really sad. In the quotes and comments that the journalists chose to focus on, it was clear that the people doing the loudest complaining hadn’t even read the book but picked up that it might be ‘questionable.’

As one children’s writer commented...’have they forgotten that the Children’s Book Awards cover Young Adult fiction and this book is aimed at 15+

Into The River, by Ted Dawe, is a hard hitting book. It is aimed unapologetically at the hardest to reach demographic in our society. It shines a spotlight on something the wider public would rather not acknowledge...the disenfranchisement of young Maori men. 

Bernard Beckett, The chief judge of these awards has finally been asked why it was chosen and he makes a clear case for the importance of this book.

Emma Neale one of the early editors also makes an impassioned plea for the book. They are two who have read it and thought about the issues and so they have some authority to judge. 

Reporting knee-jerk reactionary comments from people who have not read the book is sloppy journalism.

The rest of the Kid Lit community here can’t believe Ted’s luck. All this publicity means the book should be flying out book sellers doors. Add in that it was self published and the world definitely changed in New Zealand’s Publishing landscape last week.

Across the world the rumbling of disquiet over Barnes and Nobles decision to stop making the Nook e-reader had pundits scrambling to explain what it would mean.

Publerati came out to say this is what happened to the photographic industry...and offered advice to Barnes and Noble.

Digital Book World has taken the demise of the Nook and focused on where digital content may be heading...along the way they take a look at the children’s book industry.  

Futurebook looked at the rise and rise of Book Apps and mobile media and wondered why Apple was not connecting the dots on this in their digital publishingmarketplace. 

This all makes interesting reading about publishing futures when you add in Amazon’s latest news the patenting of e-book extras...or enhanced e-books.

In Craft,

Jody Hedlund looks at making swoon worthy heroes.

Writeitsideways has 6 ways to hook readers on the first line.

Shortstorywritinggroup has this week’s story writing exercises

Badlanguage looks at research tips

Chip McGregor checks out whether you should write a series

Are there rules to writing seat of the pants style.

In Marketing,

Joanna Penn has a new marketing book to check out

Kris Rusch talks about word of mouth and how to get it.

Roz Morris investigates changing Book Covers for results

Bestsellerlabs has a look at the marketing maze and how to navigate it.

To Finish,

John Scalzi has laid down the law on his future appearances at Sci Fi Cons. As he is a draw card and attendance at Cons is built into Sci Fi publishing contracts...this is putting a firm stake in the ground on the side of anti harassment of his female colleagues. Of course he is getting dissed for it.

The Bookselfmuse has a great guest post on weathering reviews and taking criticism, something that might come in handy if you’ve had a week like Ted’s.