Go Global - Resistance Is Futile

It’s March and that means the publishing industry wakes up and announces new things…

Streetlib the Italian based digital book provider has expanded again
and is now in every country in Africa and enabling authors to publish in their own languages.
They have also expanded down under, this month opening up in Samoa. (last month it was NZ and Fiji)
They are on a super roll to enable authors to publish globally in their own languages. This is a big thing
in terms of readers.
Did you know there are more people online in Nigeria than in the UK? Think of the new readers…

Bookbub decided that as Audio is the big thing they better get involved and so they have launched
a new service called Chirp with Findaway voices. Where they showcase featured audio… for very CHEEP.

Recently the Guardian wrote about the world of academic publishing. That is where the author
of the article has to pay a huge sum of money to the journal to publish their academic findings.
Then the journal goes on to charge huge sums to the university libraries for subscription fees
to read the article… after the university paid for the research in the first place.
Someone is making heaps of money.
However Cengage an academic subscription service for students have quietly been circumventing
huge textbook fees and have just enrolled their 1,000,000 subscriber.

StoryTel, an online everything entertainment subscription service, have also been expanding.
They have opened up in Poland and they write about how subscription to an all in one service works…
Instead of spreading your love between Netflix, Itunes, Amazon, Spotify…. Get it all in one handy package.
This is the future… and books, newspapers, journals, etc are write in amongst it...    

The world is available to you in 24 time zones… which is a good thing because it doesn’t matter where you are
in the world you can attend the London Book Fair Alliance of Independent Authors conference
which is 24 hours of amazing goodies for authors and all FREE.
Conference organiser Sacha Black was just interviewed on The Creative Penn on Villains and Heroes
and it is a craft must listen.

Meanwhile another week another predator… Mark Coker, CEO and founder of Smashwords, found it
an interesting experience when he was contacted out of the blue by a publishing company that wanted
to make him a household name…. Hmmm.

Last year I reported the author disquiet around the handling of Harper Lee’s estate.
Now there are problems with all the theatre productions of To Kill A Mockingbird.
How to kill a golden mockingbird….

Roz Morris has been writing her blog for ten years. That’s a lot of content. She reflects on how she got
started and what she has learned along the way.  Anne R Allen has a great post this week on
how to write web content. Something I struggle with…

In The Craft Section,

12 signs it’s time to say goodbye to your writing project- Meg Dowell

How to write humour- WritePractice-

Effortless writing- Copyblogger

Should you give non humans marginalized traits- Mythcreants- Bookmark

Unsnagging your plot- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

How to avoid repetitive sentences- Janice Hardy - Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

10 mistakes authors make in their online presence- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

Email newsletter examples- Hubspot- Bookmark

2019 Literary Calendar- Build Book Buzz- Bookmark

8 marketing tips- Writer Unboxed

5 reasons author tribes will make you a better writer- Dr J

To Finish,

Creative resistance is a thing. It is the nagging little voice that tells you all the words you’ve just written are awful
and you may as well give up. There are some great books out there to help.
The War of Art- Steven Pressfield is a great book or you can read Chuck Wendig’s latest blog on Self Rejection

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. If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee- hit the coffee button up top. Thanks.

Pic Flickr Creative Commons- Kevin Gill. What the world would look like if the polar ice sheets melted.

We all need a Scottish Granny

Around the publishing blogosphere this week...

In the U.S. getting an ISBN number means either accepting a free one from Amazon... where they are listed as the publisher on record or buying one from Bowker which costs a lot of money but at least you or your publishing company is the publisher on record. You need a separate  ISBN for every format of the book so this can really add up depending on how many formats you have. Bowker’s website was hacked this week and they almost shut down their whole operation....

(NB. Here in NZ we can get free ISBN’s by going to the National Library of New Zealand website.)

In a recent article on Publishers Weekly some literary agents listed their MS wish lists for Young Adult. Themes wanted are teens dealing with the real world. If you keep an eye on the publishing houses bottom line you soon learn that a year without a breakout YA bestseller really hits the revenue of the big publishing houses. Everybody is chasing the next big thing because the readership is almost 50% older than teens and in paperback and voracious. Ka- Ching!

The teen’s themselves find the whole genre problematical. In a recent post on her blog teen reader Vicky found many of her generation agreeing with her when she wrote about how YA isolates teens. 

Meanwhile Scholastic scored a hit when the viral video of a Scottish granny reading kiwi book Wonky Donkey started a craze. The scottish granny is on tour, reports Publishers Weekly, and is being seen as having a magic touch.... Some savvy marketing person saw an opportunity. 

Staying with the children’s book theme... Augmented Reality has become a talking point. What more can you do with it and is it really reading? Check out the new iterations of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter.

Chris Syme has an interesting guest post on Joanna Penn’s blog about crisis management for authors. What do you do when your reviews go missing or you get pirated or doxxed. First, don’t panic. Read this excellent post.

Quartz has a fascinating article on the rise of the new Sci Fi genre’s. Over the last year I have seen more references to Utopia fiction and Solar Punk but missed the defined niche of Cli Fi. What determines a new niche/genre? And is Cli Fi really contemporary thriller or non fiction depending on where you live in the world right now?

Character names are always challenging. I don’t feel the story is started unless I have the right character name. Once I have the name I often have the voice sorted in my head. Reedsy has a nifty character naming generator for those moments when you are stumped for a character name.

In The Craft Section,

Character arcs- Reedsy- Bookmark

Plucking heart strings with word choice- Vivian Kirkfield- Bookmark

Will readers find your protagonist worthy- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

The value quotient of your core story-Writer Unboxed- Bookmark

How to write a fight scene- Standout Books

Why you need real facts in your fiction – WriteOnCon

6 questions to help Non Fiction writers find their niche- Erica Meltzer- Bookmark

Resources for NaNoWriMo

How to improve writng productivity

Five Steps to Improved Process

5 Surefire ways to win NaNoWriMo

30 tips for conquering the 30 day writing challenge

Don’t forget The Storybundle of craft books curated by Kevin Anderson and available all month.

In The Marketing Section,

Learn How to market your books-Sacha Black

How to tap into street teams and micro influencers-Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Taking care of business for writers- Writer Unboxed- Bookmark

3 keys to blogging sucess- Joel Friedlander

How to get the reviews you want ethically- EC Murray- Bookmark

To Finish

Spare a thought for the poor writer that must write a promo blurb for another writer. Sometimes it can be very hard to find something positive to say. Tara Sparling helps authors to break down a series of honest blurbs so that you can mine the promo gold in the paragraph. Warning do not have a beverage to hand as you will choke... with laughter.

If you are a Scottish Granny then I have some great books you might like to read….

Maureen

@craicer

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter where 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. If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee hit the Kofi button up top. 

Pic Flickr Creative Commons- Bryan Ledgard

It’s All About The Author Business

London Book Fair is on.

Along with all the usual Fair news there was one item which was making waves. Publica announced that they had published the first blockchain author. I spoke about the future of publishing in an event at the end of last year, where I mentioned that blockchain publishing was on its way. The future is now.

Around the time of the London Book Fair the Alliance of Independent Authors has a free online conference. This year the schedule is packed full of goodies. If you want to partake you need to sign up so you can get the webinars. It is free and you shouldn’t miss it.

 Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Wattpad is eying up the Southeast Asian market for... film, television print and digital content. They already have a toe in the water, it looks like they are going to dive in. This could be very interesting for all the Young Adult authors. Check out what else they have in store...

Amazon is not coping with scammers very well. The Digital Reader reports that they have asked a court to confirm an arbitration... which doesn’t even go after the big guys. Meanwhile they are pulling Cassandra Clares brand new book series because they thought she would never self publish... this has caused another Amazon storm this week.

Kobo, that upstart Canadian rival to Amazon’s digital distribution model has published an interesting interview with one of the big stars in the Indie Author world, Marie Force.  How did she create her empire and what tips does she have...

Joel Friedlander has written an informative article on print distribution and discounting and all the ways you can do it. This is a good starting point if you want understand what it entails.

Anne R Allen has a fabulous article on ten tips for protecting your creative writing self as you go about the business of publishing. This is a must read!

Sacha Black has written the best article on Series bibles and keeping track of characters timelines etc for the Writers Helping Writers website. If you are neck deep in series writing this is a must read!

In The Craft Section,

10 ways to show character emotion- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

How to write a Book Proposal for a non fiction book- Writelife

Story Structure- the whole enchilada- Larry Brooks- BOOKMARK

Delaying submission to an Agent- Why you should- Mary Kole - Bookmark

Dragon Dictation for authors- Nick Stephenson- Bookmark

A story idea every day for April- Go Into The Story- Bookmark

10 typesetting rules for Indie Authors- Michelle DeFillipo- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Query letter strategies that don’t work- Writers Digest

Email marketing mastery- Derek Murphy- Bookmark

Promo sites- Nicolas Serik-BOOKMARK

How to create pre launch buzz- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

The dollars and sense of audiobooks- what authors need to know- Deborah Jacobs

How and Why to clean up your email subscriber list- Emily Wenstrom - Bookmark

To Finish,

Joanna Penn interviewed Jane Friedman about her new book, The Business of Being A Writer. This is the latest book on understanding author business. Jane, coming from an academic background, has written this as an academic textbook aimed at the MFA students who discover that writing that bestselling book didn’t make them rich. Check out the interview- two great gurus in one place!

The Independent Book Publishers Association has started a new podcast. They have got some great speakers and great plans for their podcast. Check out their first week’s playlist. Impressive!

Maureen

@craicer

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces in a monthly newsletter. (This weekend I promise!) When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes.
If you like the blog and want to fuel my coffee habit you can hit the coffee tab. Don’t forget to share the blog around your writing friends.
 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons / infous

Heroes and Villains

David Gaughran deserves a medal- or at least a big payday. 

David has been pointing out scammers and highlighting the rip off artists that prey on writers for years along with Writer Beware. Lately he has been trying to make Amazon aware of the click farm scammers on their websites. This is becoming a real problem. The click farm scammers take away money from the legit writers in page reads. They also skew your research. (I have been watching the children’s bestsellers... and shaking my head over number 1 and now I know why!)

Anne R Allen has an interesting post on the rise of publishing cults and cyber bullying among authors. I hear you all muttering, how could they, but when you read Anne’s article you realise how small actions turn into large hate fests targeting hapless authors. This is a must read and share.

Bad Reviews- Do you take them to heart? Tamar Sloan recently shared her psychologist knowledge on Writer Unboxed about why readers leave a bad review. It’s not about your book.

China has a new craze... reading. But not print books. Their online serial story platform numbers are heading into the stratosphere. This is a market to watch and if you can... get involved!

Jane Friedman recently interviewed two creators who have their stories on Tapas. This is a new kid on the block online reading experience that pays the creators. If you are a web comic creator or a writer check out the interview and have a poke around the website. It’s fascinating.

Jane also has an interesting article on whether authors should be using social media. Many authors struggle with the extroverted nature of social media. Jane offers some sound advice and lots of links for further learning.

Porter Anderson takes a look at the new white paper, The Business Of Books 2017, for Frankfurt Book Fair business members. Porter looks at three important points in the paper, competition, blockbusters and digital pricing. This is an interesting look at the global impact on publishing from a few brands and a heads up on what publishers will have to come to grips with going forward.

Bookbub recently polled 14 authors on how they use preorders and whether establishing a preorder was effective. Rachel Thompson has also been looking at preorder marketing and how you can create buzz around your book before it is even out.

Written Word Media has an interesting post on pricing. What is the optimum price for your book in a promotion? It depends on what you want to acheive....

Agent Jennifer Laughran has started a podcast. This will be of interest to children’s writers as she is a top agent in the field of children’s publishing. She talks to Laurel Snyder about imposter syndrome in her first episode.

In The Craft Section,

Seven ways to bring characters together- Mythcreants- Bookmark!

Myths on Villains and Mental Health- Sacha Black- Bookmark

Adding suspense – Roz Morris- Bookmark

Develop Character Voices- Don Fox- Bookmark

Three reasons you don’t need a character arc- Janice Hardy

5 things I learned from Story Expert John Yorke- Bang2write

John Grisham’s tips on how to write fiction

In The Marketing Section,

How to price match free on Amazon- Molly Greene – Bookmark

Bookfunnel bundles- Katherine Hayton- Bookmark

When reader targeting goes wrong – David Gaughran

10 things I did right in my debut- Litreactor

Tips for finding your audience on Goodreads- Carman Amato- Bookmark

Creating a Book Sell Sheet- K S Brooks- Bookmark

The marketing rule you can’t forget- Ryan Holiday – Bookmark

 9 ways to get the best out of your cover designer- Damonza and Joanna Penn- Bookmark

To Finish,

Do you remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? Every time you got to an exciting crossroads you had to make a choice. Now think about writing one. Got a headache yet?

Have a look at this hand drawn map from a CYOA book author. This is a fascinating insight

into intricate plotting.

Maureen

@craicer

My monthly newsletter has the best of my 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. Come and join our happy band! This blog survives on coffee so a big THANK YOU to everyone who hit the coffee button this week. I appreciate the virtual coffee love.
 

Pic: Guess who?