This week Barnes and Noble announced that they were going to
mix it up in the bookselling trade by introducing four concept stores with
restaurants. So you can now go out to dinner at a bookshop. For some of us that
would be perfectly fine. I am reminded of a wonderful bookseller, in Wellington, who reminds us at every book launch that wine and books are a great mix but not
wine on books. Mike Shatzkin takes a look at this new idea and points out the flaws in their planning. As a publishing futurist he predicts some interesting
changes in the bookselling model.
Digital Book Worlds conference next year has morphed into a four track extravaganza. Each strand is being designed by a separate expert.
That’s four mini conferences in one. It looks like an interesting line up.
(Having programmed multi track conferences myself it looks like a lot of work!)
The NZSA has a writers forum weekend coming up. The programme highlights look very familiar. (Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.)
Staying with Digital Book World... They have an interesting
article on audiobooks. Authors can you afford to produce an audiobook? This
goes into the nuts and bolts. As always I recommend you read the comments
because then you get so much more information.
If you like filling your ears with interesting content then
check out the SPA Girls podcast. These romance writers host a 30 minute podcast
every week on Self Publishing. They recently attended NZRWA and talk about what
it was like learning from screenwriting guru Michael Hauge.
In the recent Edinburgh Book Festival there was anger at the
tone of a debate on YA Books with one author saying that 90% of YA is crap. The Guardian picked up on it and explored the arguments supporting and defendingYA.
Garry Rogers has an interesting blog for writers who want to
get their crime details right. He recently decided to ask his best selling
guests about the tipping point in their respective careers. This is a
fascinating series of mini interviews.
Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are about to celebrate
their first anniversary of One Stop For Writers. So of course they have some
interesting new features to come. They have just introduced scene mapping and world building tools.
In The Craft Section,
Creating memorable characters- Anne R Allen- Bookmark
Character detail – James Scott Bell - Bookmark
A lesson in dialogue- Jennie Nash on The Book Designer-Bookmark
Adding depth to the story- Kassandra Lamb
1 mistake that writers make – Stephen Pressfield
Do you share your WIP- Jami Gold- Bookmark
Writing in Busy Times- Elizabeth S Craig
On Editing- Great article from Writer Unboxed
Revising Query letters- Query Shark-Bookmark
Moving beyond hair colour – Jody Hedlund
20 ideas for inspiration – C S Lakin
In The Marketing Section,
Social media marketing does work- Roz Morris
Two interesting articles from Joanna Penn. Breakdown of BookSales- an up close look at her last year of sales and Two million books - an
interview with a best selling crime writer.
How to use ARC copies for promotion- Bookmark
ISBN’s everything you need to know – Bookwork – (NB if you
are in NZ you can get free ISBN’s
from National Library)
Using Pinterest for branding- Rachel Thompson-Bookmark
Pitching on Twitter- Bookmark
5 apps to boost Book Marketing- Frances Caballo-Bookmark
To Finish,
Jane Friedman has an interesting interview with Sage Cohen about
her new book Fierce On The Page. Sage has some great thoughts on giving
yourself permission to write and what a fierce writer really means.
It’s nearly time for sending out my next newsletter where I
share the best of my links from the last month and other interesting thoughts.
Why don’t you subscribe and catch up on some good reading.
Maureen Crisp
@craicer
