Who Are You Really?

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Last week I linked to Chuck Wendig’s series of blog post on sexism and misogyny in The SFF and gamer community. It was hard hitting and an important wake up call to the writing community on what is appropriate behaviour in the 21^st century. (we can hope) The discussion is ongoing and Chuck turned his blog over to another Sci fi writer for her view on the topic. 

Writers are what they read became a theme and a separate blog post from Chuck. If your book shelves are full of dead white dudes...will your characters be authentic if they are different race, gender....

Another writer up against it this week has been Libba Bray. She has written a blog post that sears the soul on what it is like to have a novel not work...and how many different ways she has tried to make it work. Libba is a successful YA writer and this post is not for the writing faint of heart. It is gritty and realistic...I felt like reaching for the ‘juice box’ after reading it.

Another artist examining the soul this week was Amanda Palmer. On Twitter there’s a lot of comment from people who got ARC’s of Neil Gaimen’s latest book who think this book has shifted his writing into another gear. Amanda’s post on what it is like to see this creative process and the cost to your relationship gives you an appreciation of the joys and the pains of Art. Eyes wide open.

Beta readers are the subject of Porter Anderson’s Ether for Authors...kicking off with Hugh Howey suggesting that giving $10 each to five people to read your MS and tell you when they stopped and why this is better and cheaper than paying an editor first. Some interesting viewpoints in this one.

Writer Beware talks about shonky contracts being put out by a reputable publisher on an ebook romance imprint. The fine print is very fine... and dubious. Read and Be Aware!

Dean Wesley Smith has written a thought provoking blog post on writer self respect, contracts and genre publishing...publish... learn... publish... learn... and Trad will come calling.

Jami Gold looks at using Createspace as a learning experience.

Publisher's Weekly have a post on starting a new online journal for Librarians. With the success of Huff Post and other literary journals is the time right for an online Library Journal? 

In Craft,

Mary Kole urges you to pick the right time in writing dialogue...

Jordan McCollum spills the beans on Elisabeth Craig’s secrets to subplotting

Larry Brooks has a great post on story physics...Narrative Strategy.

Quick and Dirty Grammar...has the run down on comma errors...which one should you use?

Project Mayham has a great post on analysing the first 50 pages in midgrade.

What other writing can you do when you can’t write....nifty little post.

In Marketing,

Go straight to Indie Recon...their weeks focus on marketing blog posts are up.

The Book Designer has the run down on the copyright page.

Catherine Ryan Howard has the checklist for Self Publishing.

Indie Unlimited looks at getting the most out of Smashwords

Writer Unboxed has Do’s and Don’ts for Self Publishing.

The Creative Penn has a list of advice on why your books aren’t selling

To Finish,

If it all gets too much, change your name. The Passive Guy links to a site which explores pen names and why writers became someone else.

The weather is one of the wilder nights in the city known for wild weather... so I’m signing off before the power goes out. 

maureen

Standing to Talk

This week people in the publishing blogosphere have been taking a stand.

Ann Patchett took a stand in her opinion piece for the Bookseller.

Ann wanted authors to look after publishers and independent booksellers. ( she is one of those.) In her words... Authors have been protected for a long time, we are very well cared for, but we need to think about our other partners, from bookshops to publishing and self-publishing.”  Unfortunately her tone, in the words of one twitter commenter, was that of a favoured child who has no idea of the resentment felt by neglected siblings...

Futurebook writer Suw Charman-Anderson discussed where Ann went wrong and what she could have warned publishers about...it is all about communication... both ways.

Over in Amazon land the drums are beating. A new publishing venture Kindle Worlds was launched today. This new publishing imprint is specifically for...fan fiction. And yes fan ficcers you can make money off it.

As authors collective screens were wiped free of coffee and the screams of what the....faded into the distance this morning wise heads in the industry shouted hold up, this surely can’t be right and investigated.

John Scalzi (Pres SSFWA) gives his very considered opinion...BEWARE copyright terms are for the life of copyright...uh...that’s 70 years in US.

This week the erudite Kameron Hurley wrote a stunning piece on how many writers rely on cliché characters. She then blows accepted history apart when she talks about how women were warriors in different cultures right to this present day...and how they disappear in narrative to become victims...or passive tropes to move the story along. Chuck Wendig is so taken with her exhortation for writers to become better that he adds his own rant backing her up and urging writers to write for the underserved readers out there. Read both pieces. (usual warnings on Chucks writing apply...)

Susan Kaye Quin always an interesting commentator on things indie...has written a great article on TheAge Of The Empowered Writer...that’s now.

Jane Friedman has an infographic on whether you should self publish...

Passive Guy has discovered that Chic Lit is dead...but Farm Fic is the next biggest thing.

This week Huffington Post had a great article about Amanda Palmer appearing at The Grub St writer’s convention and giving one of the most talked about keynotes of a writing conference this year. They have a link to the video of it...and it is stunning! Take some time out to listen to this speech and reconnect with why you write.

Here in New Zealand we were treated to a rare interview with John Green...YA wunderkind and half of the Vlog brothers. Here is the link to the podcast if you missed it on Wednesday.

In Craft,

Bookshelfmuse on 7 Deadly Sins of Novel Writing

Jami Gold on The Thin Line Between Character Strengths and Flaws

3 Tips for Hooking Readers

K M Weiland On 5 Reasons You Should Stop Writing...(not what you think)

In Marketing,

Karen Woodward on How To Get Honest Book Reviews

Heidi Cohen On 25 Tactics to Promote Your Blog

6 Rules of Thumb Froman Editor On Submissions

A must read post from ChocolateandVodka about Front Matter and End Matter and what readers want...you will be surprised!

To Finish,

Have you ever wondered whether your book will last for the length of a long haul flight? Wonder no longer...Qantas has taken a stand on behalf of the neglected long haul passenger who has run out of reading material half way across the Pacific...

Qantas are publishing books specifically for those flights.

maureen

Pic from Flickr/abulic monkey 

Angst And The Writer

The publishing blogosphere has been angsting this week over the demise of the Tools Of Change Conference. In an unexpected move Tim O’Reilly decided that publishing knew all about digital and he had other things to do with O’Reilly Media. This came as a big shock to the community which didn’t agree with Tim’s viewpoint. Has publishing really embraced digital? What about the community aspect of TOC ? What replaces all those cutting edge conferences just before Bologna? Brian O’Leary looks at Tim’s decision and wonders if he just sold himself out.

Two of the hardest working people in community building for TOC are now out of a job. Joe Wikert wonders what he should do now, given what he knows.

Google are finally in court to answer the big question... where are those royalties from all those books that you digitised? The second attempt by the Writers Guild class action lawyers to finally get some answers may have worked.

Maureen Johnson took alook, this week, at gender bias in book covers. Did having a female or male name as the author on the cover change the way it was marketed regardless of the content? She asked her followers to flip the covers to reflect the opposite gender and opened a can of worms on twitter. Women authors seem to be getting a girly cover treatment on their book which doesn’t warrant it given the subject matter inside it...Great article...and check out the book covers that her followers came up with.

Rachelle Gardner had the comments flying with her blog post Will My Publisher Let Me Self- Publish too? Her post looking at what was in it for the Traditional Publisher struck a real chord among Hybrid authors and there were many arguments for and against her views and much anguish over non compete clauses in contracts. Take the time to read the comments. Self Publishing could be seen by your Trad publisher as competition...which means contract breaker....

Passive Guy takes Mike Shatzkin to task over the next Publishers Launch conference, Scale. Has Mike missed the boat completely with his focus on big publishing companies changing publishing in the future...in the tech world it’s the little guys who scale up successfully.

In Craft,

5 Common Problems InYour Young Adult Manuscript

5 Ways First Pages GoWrong

Why I Avoid Writing InThe First Person.

Be Your Own BookDoctor...Janice Hardy tells you what to look for.

In Marketing,

Who are you Online and is it different from who you are. An interesting article on the effects of marketing yourself from the Literary Journal VQR.

A list of children’swriters who blog...and how they approach their audience.

To Finish,

Hugh Howey seems to be the flavour of the month for journalists trying to understand what’s happening in publishing. As he wanders Down Under (NZ and Aussie) he is being hounded for press interviews by the folks back home.

His replies add to their angst.

An Unexpected Journey...

At the beginning of the year no one was thinking about the merger of any of the big six...

or the move by any more of the big 5 to acquire ‘boutique author publishing services’ after the debacle that was Harlequins acquiring of a ‘boutique author publishing service’ where they thoughtfully (after their authors screamed at them) changed the name and the aims of the service...imprint...press...tho they carefully kept the fees to publish with them.

So why, after seeing the map of the last few years, is Simon and Schuster partnering with Author Solutions to have an ‘imprint,’ Archway, where you can access their services at truly eyewatering prices to publish your book? (Children’s writers you will be slightly better off... only up to $8K.)

Victoria Strauss from Writer Beware...lays out the numbers and asks WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS??? (Share this around people and let newbies know...)

Victoria also highlights a disturbing little sentence found in Publishers Weekly coverage of the launch of Archway.

"S&S will refer authors who submit unsolicited manuscripts to the Archway program."

Laura Hazard Owen of PaidContent also takes a magnifying glass to this latest move. As authors and commentators scratch their heads over this latest move by a big 5-er (or soon to be 4)... think about this little side journey...Penguin own Author Solutions...

Mike Shatzkin makes some compelling arguments for the benefits of merging Random Penguin style...think 50% of the bestsellers out there...now think of your local big box store...now put the two together...

The great blogger Passive Guy has taken a look at new moves in the journey to get their case heard by Harlequin authors bringing a class action against the publisher. He outlines the stops on the way and how the destination will change the landscape for all authors out there.

While Amazon (behemoth and outside the big 6,5,4...) has been squabbling about paying tax in Europe...coz their office is in tax haven Luxembourg, they have also been expanding their publishing company. They are moving into Europe and will be expanding publishing operations in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK... however their head office will be in...(go on, pick the country.) PaidContent has the low down on what it all means.

Rachelle Gardner asks if you have imposter syndrome...and I must say I often do...I’m also guilty of going back to the beginning syndrome in my writing journey.

Krissy looks at traits of highly sucessful writers...they could have a map!

Tali Rowland looks at ways to break through and write when you really don’t want to....

L M Preston has the must read unique paths to publication plan of attack.

If you hate writing a character what do you do... Roz Morris gives advice

Writer Unboxed has an interview with two new children’s lit agents.

Long time readers of this blog will know I am interested in the power of author collectives as a force for good...and so it was with great interest that I read, While Publishers Play Safe Authors Create The Brands Of The Future from Roz Morris. Go on, shout Hurrah!

Imagine going on a road trip with your best buddies...this is what an author collective could be.

In the craft section, this week plenty to interest you...

Skill lists for character motivation

6 types of courageous characters

When Muse and Plan collaborate. This is a great post from a guest on Larry Brooks Storyfix website.

Adapting story structure for any project...this looks at using Save The Cat in all sorts of ways.

Writing Tense Action Scenes...from a Thriller Editor.

Ava Jae on writing REAL characters

6 non writing things that may improve your writing.

In the marketing section,

13 ways to find new readers for your books

Genre Zines

Improving international ebook sales.

To finish,

Today Publishing Perspectives and Scholastic joined together to have a one day conference looking at YA. Check out #PPteen on Twitter to get comments from the YA Lit community on New Adult lit..sales...and quotes that should be on tee shirts!

maureen

pic from yesterday’s little event, down the road from me.

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/

There Be Ice Bergs Ahead....

Today I had an email interview with a reporter on the subject of FaBo Story. One of the questions asked was how did Fabostory get started. This got me thinking about the power of Facebook for writers. Facebook can be a timesuck, a waste of time, a time waster, and sometimes it can be a catalyst for a really cool project.

On my second day on Facebook, Kyle Mewburn (cool Kiwi kids writer) said ‘Wouldn’t it be neat to have an online kids story which lots of writers can contribute to.’ A bunch of us started talking about how it could be done and before long it had morphed into an online writing challenge involving children’s writers, illustrators and kiwi kids all writing against each other in an hilarious mad story, which lasted for 18weeks! 

We did it again last year trying out one off stories, in different genre’s on another planet. 

This year there is a huge sporting event happening...What could go wrong at the Titanic games?....well we are about to  find out! FaBostory3 launches next week!

Around the blogosphere there has been lots of talk about the excellent piece on creative writing courses by Kristine Rusch. I posted it up on Facebook where it got picked up and discussed by tutors in creative writing around the country. Judging from the huge pile of comments it has struck a real chord in the online community. I know some of the sentiments struck home personally. At a writers lunch I attended last week, there was first hand description from a writer who was a student on a masters course in creative writing. The description of how a University Tutor (and name writer) conducted this course was hair raising!  Read the Kris Rusch's article and all the comments...It is worth the $5000 the poor writer, at lunch last week, paid.

Ploughshares Literary Magazine has published a piece on Plagiarism as Pedagogy from a creative writing tutor...who confessed they taught a student to plagiarise unintentionally and then thought about it and gave them an A. Their arguments make for interesting reading and so do the comments!

 They say a week is long in politics...at the moment it is the same in publishing. David Gaughran turns the spotlight on Authors Guild...who seem to have completely lost the plot in their recent diatribes against Amazon. He questions whether they are really serving their members well when they direct them to go to Publish America (a vanity publishing firm with eye watering tactics and prices, read Writer Beware.)

This morning I turned on my computer to see the news that Penguin have bought Author Solutions, a sister ship to Publish America operating on the same lines. And the comments are flying on Twitter! Will they do a Harlequin and offer rejected authors a  ‘but if you pay us $000’s we will publish your manuscript in our ‘boutique’ self publishing operation...’solution. This will be a big story to watch! (And watch out for the ice berg underneath,Writer Beware comments.)

Another blog to get a lot of comment was Porter Anderson asking whether publishers are doing any R&D? The comments about how self publishers are doing R&D are very enlightening...(marketing 301)

The Atlantic Monthly has an opinion piece on why the new books coming out are all looking the same. Does it have anything to do with e readers? Check out this crop of covers.

The Stats are out....and are getting commented on all over the place (yesterday in my car the local rock station DJ commented on them!) Ebooks are now 31% of the total publishing market and have doubled in sales to $2 Billion. Children and Young Adult books are the fastest growing category.

Joel (the Book Designer) has gathered up a collection on resources for you on the best book fonts to use that will warm all designers hearts.

Bestseller Labs has a fabulous interview with Lorna Suzuki about being a bestselling indie author and how she did it. Reading about Lorna is an inspiration in itself never mind that she writes as well!

In the craft section,

Jami Gold talks subtext using the recent spiderman movie. (brilliant as always)

K M Weiland tells you why your hero needs a yappy sidekick. (brilliant as always.) 

K M Weiland is so brilliant that others have taken her words and examples and made them into beautiful notes cards to print out and post on your wall.  Check out this set on story structure.

In the marketing section,

Kevin Franco lets slip some more details over his Enthrill system...ebook cards in retail stores...some great innovations happening here.

Bookbuzzr reminds you that marketing should be creative fun...

Bookbaby shows you how to market your book on a budget of...not much.

It’s conference season in North America.

Bob Mayer and Jen Talty reports on Thrillerfest and the new moves ahead there.

Both of these reports are interesting for new tech but also new ways of looking at the industry.

Harry Potter For Writers, which is a great site for writing craft have checked out the fan writing convention. Yup a writers conference for fan fiction!

To finish,

I have been chatting to long time industry participants about Agent Rachelle Gardner's blog on why contracts are taking longer to negotiate. Contract language is changing and there are many hidden icebergs being slipped in that writers should be wary of. Passive Guy is always a good resource so I have linked to an article he wrote a few months ago to alert you to the tip of what is a very scary iceberg, especially if you negotiate your own contracts. (As always I urge you to read the comments so you can get a fuller picture.)

NZ Authors and Illustrators take note...perpetuity rights, rights reversion, length of copywrite, ebook publication, it is all being tweaked and not for the creators benefit. 

Against the crowd

Last weekend I travelled up to Auckland to take part in a workshop on eBooks.

My bit was to tell attendees what I discovered when I decided to make Craic an eBook.

In a nutshell - Know what you are getting into, (Publishing- Dean Wesley Smith has a great post on that.) 

Remember that you want to do the best work that you can, so pay attention to detail...because you are going to be putting your name on this product and you don’t want your name to stand for a crappy reading experience.

The workshop was a great success. The organisers made sure there was information available for everyone at all stages of the e publishing spectrum. I’m sure by the end of the day attendee’s were wishing that they had brought spare heads to help them process what was coming at them.

You may need to grab your spare head for help with understanding this week’s dramatic change in the world of epublishing. Microsoft are partnering with Barnes and Noble. 

Barnes and Noble are a book store chain with their own ereader, Nook, who are in competition with Amazon. Microsoft is...well who hasn’t heard of Microsoft?

What does it mean for us... Digital Book World were the first out of the box with their predictions followed by CNET with a tech overview.

While we are on the subject of ereaders, epublishing and the rise of the independent writer... Passive Guy takes issues with some of Mike Shatzkin’s comments on how no big writers have gone indie yet and why. This is a good read, giving you an overview on the current issues facing writers as they weigh up options. Especially interesting are the comments from some big authors....

 One of the biggest challenges in the decision to go Independent...is how to be noticed by your readers. Marketing is so important and so hard to do, if you are an introverted writer sitting in a closet somewhere. So here are a few links that may help you to open the closet door.

11 Keys to self publishing success.

5 simple ways to spend less time marketing and sell more books.

John Kremer has a handy post on turning the whole marketing thing around...and just write for your fans and Tamara Webber has a good post about finding out that your fan’s aren’t necessarily who you think they are....

Mid Grade writer Shelli Johannes has taken a hard look at what worked and what didn’t in her Indie experiment...The numbers are interesting and so is what not to do....

Amazon has announced their next big move in their publishing portfolio...kids stuff....especially kids series on screen...Check out what they are looking for.

While you are contemplating screen moves, Joel Friedlander has listed ten handy Apps for the writer that turn your iPhone into a writing tool!

For those writers who love a challenge... Storyaday is the thing to do for May.

To finish

Those that have been following me for a while know that I am interested in author collectives and how they support each other and market their work.

Check out this delicious idea...love it!  (Hey FaBo Team are you watching?)

Rain... Rain...(sing it with me...)

Yes, I am a day late. Summer holidays arrive and we begin the traveling around New Zealand catching up with family. Inevitably the traveling has happened on Blog day Thursday. I didn’t plan it. I know that I can write my blog in advance and post it when I want but I don’t. This is partly because I enjoy researching and I want to bring the latest comments and opinion to you and partly because I get lazy and then suddenly remember I should be putting the list together and so I had better research and so on.

Yesterday we started back down the country in search of reliable internet with no lightening strikes...and no rain. I can count on the fingers of one hand the rain free days I have had since we came north to the sub tropics for Summer. The whole country is wondering whether that week of fine weather in November was Summer only we didn’t realize it at the time.

Around the blogosphere Writers and Readers are looking at the impact of the Amazon behemoth as it becomes by default a big publisher and trying to set New Years Resolutions for themselves to support Independent Bookstores and small publishers. What to do when you want to buy that eBook... isn’t Amazon or B &N the only game in town? Well no ! Check out this article on the rise of eBooks being sold in Indie bookstores from Salon.

Chuck Wendig has a provocative post (aren’t they all...) urging self published writers to lift their game so it benefits readers and offering some points on how they might do this. (Warning it’s Chuck!)

 Writer Beware has a warning post about a book marketing company working under a variety of names to rip off writers.... Marketing is the hard part of publishing and writers and small publishers are getting burnt by some of these tactics.

Jane Friedman has an interesting blog post in answer to a question on eBook rights for out of print books. This had me thinking about some of our wonderful New Zealand children’s writers with a long publishing history here staring at the end of their career because of the publishing industry contraction.  Great books go out of print here quite quickly because the print runs are so small. If the writers own their eBook rights they may have a wonderful second chance. It is worth checking out!

The passive voice guy has an interesting post on publishers and book distributors and why they are rearranging the deck chairs.... The comments give great insight into current practice and pitfalls of eBook distribution.

Commenting is the name of the game, at the moment, with a new challenge up. Challenge yourself to leave five comments a day. Greg Pincus has the low down on how and why you should do this.

Over in the craft section,

Anne R Allen has a great post on hooks, loglines and pitches. Loglines are becoming more popular so get thee over there and learn to craft them properly.

Janice Hardy has a great blog where she puts the spotlight on submitted writing and shows how to fix it up. Today she looks at multiple first person main characters...(something I am writing which is probably why it is taking so long... all that head hopping...on Mars.)

To finish,

If you were wondering how the children’s publishing world was holding up, the 100 best sellers of 2011 has been announced Children’s books make up a quarter.

The Dynamic Duo of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake have been celebrated...as stamps! Check out the new issue from the Royal Mail.

Getting this blog in ahead of the rain...


maureen

Taking A Bite of 2012

I’m here in the winterless North of New Zealand wondering where the sun went.

This is supposed to be the middle of summer... but no we have rain, rain and more rain. Today the sun taunted us and came out...We soaked it up wearing bathing suits and light clothing...and then went back to sweatshirts and raincoats. Nothing else to do but stay inside and eat...

Over on the blogosphere the rumours are flying... Apple may be about to launch a publishing company...in competition with another company starting with A. Check out the gossip on Passive Guy about how things could impact for the author.

Also on the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them front’ check out this link about indie bookstore becoming publishers...if you know a bookstore owner tell them to check it out, it might tickle their tastebuds.

There is a new blog on the block that is making a stir. Passive income author aka Skellie examines what works about author and eBook marketing and is writing some great posts to help others. Check out these two - The uncommon truth about marketing and 5 tactics to get more eBook sales per reader.

Jody Hedlund takes a thoughtful look at what skills she thinks writers will need in 2012.

Yesterday, because I was on holiday, I was able to join in the weekly kidlit twitter chat. The topic was predictions for 2012 for kidlit writers. One of the most discussed predictions was an increase in book trailers for mid grade. I am interested in this as I have a mid grade book coming soon and I have created a book trailer for it. Some good ideas were tossed around in the chat. You can go

to Kidlitchat host Greg Pincus’s blog to check out the transcript...it might not be up just yet but it will be soon in the meantime check out the other topics Kidlitchat has chewed over in 2011.

Chewing over meaty topics is what Mike Shatzkin and Jane Friedman do best.

This week Mike has taken a hard look at children’s publishers and what 2012 may hold for them. He particularly examines Picture Book publishers as they are the only ones doing well in print. He asks the hard question, Can digital really deliver an immersive reading experience?

Jane Friedman responds to a readers question this week - How do you know if your agent is any good? Jane lists questions to ask the agent and advice to follow. Do they stack up?

In the craft section,

The brilliant Adventures in Children’s Publishing blog have posted a ‘print out and stick on the wall’ checklist of 40 questions to ask your manuscript.

Over at wordservewatercooler they have a post looking at the emotional development of your characters. You can’t afford to ignore their emotional growth....

New challenges get underway this week around the writing blogosphere.

You might like to get involved in Row80 (a Round Of Words in 80 days) the wonderful Jenny Hansen is sponsoring this first quarter.

If you are picture book inclined there is a 12x12 in 2012 running over at Julie Hedlunds blog...Tara Lazar kicks it off looking at PB endings.

Today I was asked if I thought small far flung communities of writers could get together and promote their work through eBooks and a website. I most emphatically said YES.  Groups of writers are doing it all over the place from Killzone to Readergirlz. What better way for an isolated group of writers to get readers and support by joining together with a common goal.

 Go on... Take A Bite!

maureen

Major inspiration video follows....  

http://www.youtube.com/v/-GCm-u_vlaQ&hl=en&fs=1&autoplay=1