Authors on the Pronoun distributor website were left
scrambling this week. A notice appeared on the Pronoun website saying Goodbye.
There was a flurry of comment around the publishing blogosphere. The sages were
out in force.
Macmillan’s eBook distribution model of gave a great deal to
authors but they were not making any money. If it looks too good to be true
it’s about to go belly up!
Meanwhile Draft2Digital (A rival distributor of eBooks) stepped into the breach announcing a deal with Amazon.
Sighs of relief all
round.
Did/Do you read pulp writers? They were the prolific writers
of the early part of the Twentieth Century. Zane Grey, Doc Savage, Leslie
Charteris, Louis L’Amour. They were machines for story and they were paid by
the word. James Scott Bell takes a look at what made the pulp writers so good.
Chris Syme has a great post on Anne R Allen’s blog TamingThe Social Media Beast. If you are looking at your social media engagement and
saying too hard... drop in and read
this excellent article. Don’t forget to read the comments too.
Last week I linked to a post from Maggie Stiefvater on how
book piracy was threatening her. This week The Guardian talked to some other authors about their experiences... sobering stuff.
Susan Spann has a post about bad contracts... as she is a
publishing lawyer as well as a published author she knows whereof she speaks,
Don’t be afraid to walk away from a publishing deal.
I came across this great post today on what you should do if you fail NaNoWriMo. It is one of those sensible posts that put things into
perspective and is a nice little island among the treacherous weeds of NaNo
uncertainty.
Backlinko has an amazingly in depth post on SEO. Now before
you immediately dismiss this article as being in the too hard basket... Take a
look. They explain how Google are using new search algorithms and what that
means for content... key words... Titles... etc etc.
LitHub talked to 150 writers and asked their advice. And
then they compiled that advice into one comprehensive article of 8 important pieces of author knowhow.
In The Craft Section,
Character turning points- Mary Kole- Bookmark
Hinting at emotional wounds- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark
What is a high concept- Danielle Burby
Movie Scene by Scene breakdown- Go In To The Story-
Scriptwriter Bookmark
The most important rule of backstory- Andrea Lungren-
Bookmark
Masterful Character description- CS Lakin- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
Facebook ads in 2018- CK Syme- Bookmark
Book marketing content ideas for November and Know your fans- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark
How to write a Query Letter- Reedsy- Bookmark
Using Twitter to grow your email list- Jesper Schmidt
To Finish,
The 7 greatest fears of Horror Writers explores not just
fears of Horror writers but the fears of all writers who have faced these
situations.
Are you guilty of writing purple prose? Is there a place for
purple prose in your writing? Do you need a purple prose self help group? K MWeiland has all the answers.
My monthly newsletter is due soon. *Hi new subscribers*
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. NaNo is killing me- not to mention my
presentation-If you want to feed my caffeine habit feel free to hit the coffee
tab. I’m living on fumes this month!
Maureen
@craicer
Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Newtown Grafitti- Purple prose
