After The Break

 My predictions for what the blogosphere would be talking about while I was taking a medical break were very nearly right. 

The Self vs Trad debate became an examination of the take home pay of the author. The Guardian got stuck in on Author Earnings... Even the NY Times weighed in on Author income. 

Bob told everyone to grow up, again. It is all about fairness.

The Amazon /Hachette argument is still going on with Hugh Howey commenting yesterday on various open letters circulating and whether we should be holding out for higher prices. 

But the big news that has everyone hopping around the publishing blogosphere is the launch of Kindle Unlimited. This is a subscription service launched by Amazon. Authors who have their books enrolled get a share of the monthly pot of gold set aside if their book is lent through the service and at least 10% of it is read. (just think about this level of attention to your personal reading habits that the mighty ZON knows about you from your Kindle.) Is it worthwhile to the author?

Dave Gaughran examines the fors and againsts… and Mark Coker thinks they could do better... Many authors agree that exclusivity can be a problem.

Outside of this...

Dean Wesley Smith has started a new series of thoughtful teaching posts for authors on thinking like publishers.

Kirkus has even elevated Indie publishing to legit with a great opinion piece on getting a publishing team together.

The big Thriller conference has happened and Joanna Penn had her mind blown... as it included a visit to the FBI who are anxious that writers get it right, the conference delivered on many levels. Great Post!

The Killzone guys are having fun with a co operative marketing venture if Thrillers are your reading drug of choice.

Publishers Weekly has been looking at the issue of piracy especially that of YA authors books.

In the Craft Section,

Making your hero complex

K M Weiland on Story Voice

The Blood Red Pencil has one on Narrative Voice

Blogging do’s and Don’ts from Anne R Allen

Porter Anderson on use of one star and five star reviews to boost or punish a writer.

Porter also has a thoughtful post on standing up writing desks and how they should be seriously considered by writers for their health. (this is something I have been interested in for a while...)

In the Marketing Section,

Everything you ever wanted to know about Twitter. I use Twitter for research and I learned some good tips from this post.

Branding tips for authors

Book cover clichés and why they help you sell more books.

How to grow your personal mailing list. (comprehensive post)

Lindsay Buroker - what I would do if I was starting today... (must read post)

Steve Scott has been looking at his author income in detail over the last year...as he tried various things. This is an interesting post with honest breakdowns...from a non fiction writer. (I wish I could find something similar for children’s writers)

To Finish,

Writer Unboxed has a letter to my aspiring writer self... which has struck a chord with writers who have added a few post scripts...

I’m on the slow recovery road...this means I get to read more. I have just devoured James Scott Bell’s latest craft book. Write Your Novel From The Middle...seriously good.

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.

Online Identity

The debate this week on the blogosphere is Author Websites.

They take too much time.

The authors should spend their time writing not on social media.

Most author websites are outdated...never updated and boring.

VS

Engaging websites connect readers with the author.

Connected readers are your marketing team.

In this modern age you need to be searchable as an author and have an online home.

So many opinions on this one...

Digital Book World was hosting a conference this week where this was discussed and the pro’s and con’s debated thick and fast... Here is their very detailed breakdown of the discussion.

Jane Friedman then picked up the baton and added her considerable intellectual weight to the discussion in her blog.

My two cents worth.... Time and again I have seen comments by editors and agents that if they really like the MS and they don’t know the author personally they google their name. This means that you should give them something to find...that you control. If it is your website...showcasing your style... Great.

Readers wanting to find out more about you and your books should be able to... and wouldn’t it be great if they could go on and buy your book! Check out Darcy Pattison’s article on the Codex survey about what readers want on an Author Website.

Joanna Penn source of amazing writing and marketing information for authors often interviews leaders in this field. Here she is, talking with Dan Blank on Combating Platform Fatigue...It is an hour long video blog so clear the decks for this one.

In Craft,

6 ways not to start your novel

Kidlit.com looks at building your book lexicon

Top 5 reasons to write New Adult

An easy technique to make your writing more immediate and effective

In Marketing,

PublishingGuru -  Twitter for authors

Training Authors – are you losing customers over this common problem

Your Writer Platform – defeat obscurity tips

Gordon Burdett on a handy tip for titles

Website to check out: The Insecure Writers Support Group.They have put together a great site chock full of info.

On Twitter today...The coolest writer in residence programme ever... Go enter!

To Finish,

Susan Kaye Quinn has been blogging her book over the last couple of months. It is a how to book on self publishing...I have been referencing Susan for a few years now and she is a great source of knowledge and inspiration. This chapter looks at Booksellers and Susan details her bookstoreof the future... If they were like this you wouldn’t get me out of them. (hmm it's difficult now....)

This is timely as Booksellers conferences are all over the place... everybody trying to find the solution to keep them going...which we all need when so far this week, in our small country, 3 independents have gone out of business.

If we end up only being able to sell online we will need our websites more than ever...

maureen

Pic from Flickr/Creative Commons/ SEOplanter 

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/

Chatting

Every Wednesday at 2pm (NZ time) I try to tune into the Twitterverse for a Twitterchat.

For those of you who have just been totally confused by that last sentence I will attempt to explain.

Twitter uses hashtags ( # ) to search and curate conversations.

For instance you can go to Twitter and enter in the search bar ‘#publishing’ and get all recent comments on publishing by people who added that ‘#publishing’ term to their tweet if they thought their comment might be relevant to the ongoing publishing conversation.

Twitter chats however are set at regular times and have their own hashtags for you to follow. 

My problem is that two really interesting chats are on at the same time, #indiechat and #kidlitchat. So I flit between them both trying to get the flavour of each and getting a few gems to mull about along the way.

One of the stellar people I have ‘met’ on these chats is Susan Kaye Quin who writes Y A. She recently posted a great article on her blog which crystallises for me the indie publishing journey. Indie publishing is not about one book...it is about your voice and whole writing career. Susan takes a look at the Scarcity vs Abundance model that Kathryn Rusch talks about and identifies the indie publishing journey as being one that draws on the Abundance style of publishing. The mindset is quite different from traditional publishing. Go and get your eyes opened.

In the last week a plaintive post by Agent Jonny Geller from Curtis Brown called The Agents Manifesto highlighted some uncomfortable truths in publishing about the disconnect of publishers to authors. This has been resonating through the writing blogosphere. Roz Morris picks up the cudgels on our behalf and speaks her mind,- Why authors get treated so badly. You will cheer!

For those people who have been nodding and punching the air with last couple of links...here are two more interesting perspectives to chat about with your friends.

Mike Shatzkin take a good hard look at bookstores...Yes we need them but how can we keep them viable.

Jane Friedman tackles the big question- If the book is dead why buy a zombie?

When your book needs to be chatted about in other languages, PaidContent takes a look at the next self publishing frontier - How to go about getting translations.

If you are looking at your bottom drawer and wondering what to do next. Gordon Burgett takes a look at turning idle copy into books, blog posts etc etc.

There’s a good post with 11 keys to self publishing success which should help you focus if you do have work ready for a new life.

Chatting about Craft

Check out these amazing posts. Is your idea novel worthy and how you can tell?

Why you should kill your darlings....practical advice from K M Weiland who shows you how to do it.

Innocent flower has an entertaining post on 6 things she wishes she had known about being a writer...first up the use of the delete key.

There is a beaut guest post from Susan Sipal on The Top Ten Tips I Learned About Writing from J K Rowling.

Over the next few weeks I am preparing resources to help me continue the chat about eBooks at a One Day ePublishing Event run by Kiwiwrite4kids in Auckland on the 28^th April. 

Those people who have met me... know I love to chat....

Come along!

maureen


P.S. If you are at all interested in the ramifications of Pottermore and the release yesterday of the DRM free Harry Potter books Check out what Mike Shatzkin has to say about the game changing spell J K Rowling has just put on the future of publishing industry.

Thoughts Over Coffee....

I’m back home. 

The holiday is over. 

The kids are still on holiday tho. This means that large cleaning projects get tackled piecemeal...because just as you think you have finished, you turn around to see the kids have been quietly trashing another part of the house. The lawn is overgrown, the indoor plants are dead and you promised that before the new bed gets delivered you will redecorate the room....um yeah...Its 30 hours since we came home...I need a holiday!

So what is hot and happening in the blogosphere.

Yesterday I managed to catch a little bit of Kidlitchat on Twitter. This real time twitter chat session happens every Wednesday at 3pm for me which is a rotten time as I’m usually on the school run and I only catch the last five minutes of it...But there was, as usual, some meaty thoughts.

The teachers on the chat session were commenting that they show their kids Book Trailers...post them on class websites etc etc . There was some talk about the trailers inspiring kids to read the book. This was welcome news to the writers on the chat as there was a lot of discussion on whether it was worth it to produce a book trailer. 

Greg Pincus who organises KidLit Chat had asked this question in his blog post a couple of weeks ago. Writers are still thinking this is in the too hard basket...but those that are getting into it think it’s a great idea. If you are thinking along these lines...check out the post and read the comments.

In the chat session, I asked the question would you have a book trailer for an ebook? This was seen as a good idea by some and others had never connected the two before...time will tell whether we see book trailers for ebooks. I remember thinking how weird when I saw the back of a bus advertising a book...and now this kind of advertising is everywhere. There is no hard and fast rule on marketing your book only in book stores.

Michael Hyatt CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers has written about what he sees happening in ebooks this year in his six trends article. This article is being heavily commented upon and there are lots of conversations happening around it. As one commenter writes If Starbucks can sell music CDs can McDonalds sell downloadable ebooks as part of their advertising?(An enhanced happy meal experience anyone?)

There has been some discussion about where the new gate keepers for ebooks will come from? Who will become the ebook reviewers? The filters of what is a good or worthwhile ebook to read, will it be print reviewers? Or will some 'body' jump into the void and become the guru ebook reviewer? These and other interesting questions have been percolating in my holiday mind...I will be interested in who picks up the baton.

Outside of ebooks...

Joanna Paterson has written a good list of steps to get into a good writing practice head space. The key word is practice.

The awesome Victoria Mixon has written a guest blog on Write to Done about the seven secrets of being an independent editor. This is a great post to read before you get hung up on how bad your writing is....

Janet Reid is preparing to go to the huge Writers Digest conference and she gives a great run down on the difference between queries and pitches...so if you always wanted to know go on over and take a look.

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on

Making Books Do Things Ebooks Cant and Vice Versa. (this is an amazing article on hand made artefact 

books and enhanced books and ebooks...and the blurring of the lines between them...something for everyone here) Go here for the latest comment on authors enhanced content and contracts....)

How Authors Move Their Own Merchandise...(get some innovative ideas...)

I leave you with an inspiring story of an author blogger who started like we all did not really sure of what she should be doing and ended up with an agent and a book deal because of it...

There is hope for us all.

enjoy,

maureen

Check out this GREAT page of mugs for authors. I want them all! (the pic is one of the mugs featured. Yay Elspeth Antonelli !)

The 12 Links of Christmas...

School is out today and I’m eating juicy summer strawberries trying not to look at my very very long 'To Do' list that has to be done before we head away for the Christmas holidays on Sunday. 

No rest for the wicked...so they say...I think ‘they’ have got it wrong coz I’ve been good all year...honestly!

Looking back over the year online...I expanded my online presence....

I joined Facebook on a Tuesday and two days later got swept up into the amazing  FaBo Story Project. I had a blast with my fellow writers as we developed a children’s online story. I was in awe of the kids who chose to get involved and am looking forward to FaBo 2...which has started, and will ramp up into another way out story next year. The first chapter being written by our winning child author. (Can’t really call him a child author he writes absolutely wonderfully-check out the final winning chapter.)

Twitter has taken over as my first Go To Research Tool. I am constantly amazed at how much people use twitter in real time emergency situations. I was following some of the up to the minute requests on twitter from the rescuers at the Pike River Mine. I knew that it was a powerful resource when my husband came back from the office saying that one of his colleagues had started a twitter English Spanish translation service for the worldwide aid community to deal with the huge aid requests coming out of Haiti last year. It would be interesting to know how quickly Kiwis have taken up tweeting.

On my blog, the search box has got a work out and Craicerplus (my Amplify page) has got its own followers. 

I was surprised and touched to find so many of you take the time to read my weekly blog post when I discovered that I was closing in on my 2000th reader this year. That is quite staggering when you think about it....Thank you everyone!  And a big THANK YOU to all those who took the time to comment on the blog or started Facebook discussions about what interested you.

So onwards to this weeks interesting links.

Seth Godin is about to turn publishing on its head, again, with the launch of The Domino Project. As one of the biggest influencers on the web, where Seth goes today, will be the norm by this time next year....

Scholastic issued their top ten trends in Children’s writing this year and many commentators are lining their own lists up and comparing them. Things we know...paranormal is still huge...things we should be aware of, Humour is coming back....was it ever away???

Larry Brooks (yes he is that Larry Brooks) has a great post on his Storyfix website. 8 moments you absolutely need to deliver to your readers and 1 that you should hope for.

Joanna Penn has reposted her article on 22 websites every author must use.

Justine Musk has a great article on the secret ingredient to a strong author platform.

For all the small business owners who read the blog...(writers, that’s you too) Marketing Experiments Blog has a great article on Facebook marketing...when you read it, substitute the word facebook for website and the same things apply. Great Advice!

If you are looking for a great Christmas present, Don Miller has listed the 7 best books to read, to make you a better writer. I have read (or own) most of the list. I would add two more... Story by Robert McKee and How To Tell A Story, by Gary Provost and Peter Rubie.

The amazing Kidlit.com has a great post for all the author/illustrators out there...How agents rep author/illustrators.

Over on Craicerplus ( my Amplify page.) I have links to articles on

Get Your Opinions Off My Stuff -Why Not All Critique Is Equal...(excellent rant!)

The Worst Mistake A Writer Can Make....(good advice)

Facebook Tips For Writers...(read with pinch of salt)

10 Tasty iPad Apps For Writers

6 Questions NOT to Ask A Writer

The Pie In The Face Writing Method.

And now we come to the link presents...

The Twelve Days Of Christmas For Writers and Famous Inboxes. (my geek self loved Captain Kirks inbox but Elizabeth Bennets is the best!!)

and the Christmas video...

enjoy,
maureen

P.S. I will be back in the New Year...You can catch up with me on facebook and twitter and Craicerplus....as I will drop in from time to time with interesting links.
pic is Pukeko In A Ponga Tree by Kingi Ihaka. Illustrated by the great Dick Frizzell

Who are you?

This week I have been thinking about the author presence and the fundamental who-ness of public and private life.

Who are you,

on facebook?

on twitter?

on your blog?

on your website?

in the bookstore?

in person?

to your fans?

Are any of these seperate whos, the same person? Are you such a split personality that you need therapy?

I have been talking with friends about the public private life of the author...much like teachers...when their students discover them in the supermarket. (OMG Miss Crisp eats the same apples I do...or she’s seen me being whiney, now I know she will hate me...)

Since I started blogging on author marketing and other musings...learning in public about this tricky promotional world... I have seen the internet face of people change, about as fast as some publishing houses....From a few years ago when people put their whole lives out there, to now, where suddenly the public private balance is swinging more to private. (it’s about time.)

If you want to live your life in public, fine, but remember the people who live with you might not want to have public lives.

I admire the third child of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne who refused to have any part of the publicity show that her mother cooked up to revive Ozzys career. (What? You didn’t know there was a third child?) That is a brave stand to take and I hope that aspiring authors are keeping an eye on their families reaction to publicity. Is it fair to the kids or is it emotional exploitation that will come back to haunt you....

People occasionally ask my advice on website content...the first thing I tell them is to decide who YOU want to be in public. This colours everything you do online. Because once you click that post button it is out there for the world to see...and even if you remove it later... it will remain search viable in archived threads. Ouch.

For myself I try to keep my family hidden from view (mostly because I can’t remember their names and it’s embarrassing to say thingumie in public) and myself too. (coz I hate pictures of me)

I am on twitter purely to keep up with blog posts...twitter is great for this. I use a feed that posts my blog titles to my twitter followers and receive tweets of blogs that I follow. I also use Alltop which creates a virtual magazine of up to the minute content drawn only from blogs and websites that interest me...astronomy, space tech, gadget tech, children’s publishing, marketing, commentators that I like...great for researching.

I blog, so that my name is searchable and that any kids who stumble across my book and do an internet search can find me and get to the Bones book website if they want. And for anyone else out there who stumbles across me, I hope that they find something interesting and relevant on author marketing to think about.(waving to my hidden followers....)

I privately email and play on a wordpress site...that one day may morph into a public website (or not...depending on whether any publishers pick up any of my novels currently languishing on their desks...)

Nathan Bransford has bogged on author privacy recently here. A great post as ever...there is a comment on Neil Gaiman’s fiancé Amanda Palmer who lives her life on line purely for marketing purposes as a musician....as Neil blogs and tweets obsessively I guess he is fine with it...although he has kids....(hmmm one of my novels deals with the fall out of a parents famous public life on a child...)

The great Jane has blogged on two wonderful posts I recommend you read on writing, for the money? Jennifer Topper on why she has a free ebook novel...and Mark Barrett has a fabulous post on a new interpretation of Yogs law - that money should flow to the writer not away from the writer. It has a whole new perspective on the changing face of the middlemen in publishing...ie how content gets to readers...Go read and ponder...

To answer my own question at the beginning...

It’s a wysiwyg. (what you see is what you get)

I don’t think I’m any different on line.....hahahahahahahahahaha. ducking now.....

maureen

PS Alice Pope Of CWIM fame posted this video on her blog...take it away Erin.....

Twittering....

No I have not joined the tweeting throngs...I’m too busy for that...that’s why I like Jane Friedmans Friday posts called ‘I watch twitter so you don’t have to”

There are some interesting links...here’s one that will be of interest to a few people who are planning on attending the Spinning Gold conference. (programme up on Friday hopefully)
Mark Coker of Smashwords has a great interview up with Sramana Mitra, an indie author on 'How authors can build their personal franchise.'

This interview shows what can happen when the author embraces the new digital age....here is a little taster of the interview...but go and read the rest...

[Sramana Mitra] - Entrepreneurs often bootstrap their way to proving their concepts, and then follow up with additional financing from investors. Authors can think of it the same way. Develop your concept. Bootstrap. Build a blog. Write books. eBooks. Columns. Build a platform. Build a franchise. Build a following for your work. Then, if you like, you can also get to work with regular publishers and get additional leverage. This is how I operate.

And for all the geeks out there...

Astro Mike is twittering from space. He is on the mission updating the Hubble Telescope...the last of the shuttle missions to do this. The shuttle fleet is retiring in 2010...what will they do then, I wonder.... (and so do many thousands more)

Right back to work on the conference.....

maureen

Pic is from www.drawingcoach.com