Thinking Marketing Links

I’m out and about visiting the other hemisphere...while I’m away from my usual haunts I thought you might like to take a look at good links on different subjects.

Ten links to get you thinking on MARKETING YOUR BOOK

http://www.passiveincomeauthor.com/5-clever-tactics-to-get-more-ebook-sales-per-reader/

http://www.passiveincomeauthor.com/the-uncommon-truth-about-marketing-your-books/

http://www.lindsayburoker.com/book-marketing/how-to-improve-your-ebook-sales-at-barnes-noble-

smashwords-and-itunes/

http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2012/03/29/book-marketing-publicity-advice-from-three-experts

http://www.authormedia.com/2012/01/16/89-book-marketing-ideas-that-will-change-your-life/

http://www.thewriterslens.com/2012/01/five-ways-to-market-indie-books.html#comment-form

http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog/2012/01/25/how-to-write-the-perfect-pitch-to-sell-your-novel-in-person/

http://blog.bookbaby.com/2012/06/promote-your-book-on-a-budget/

http://www.originalimpulse.com/blog/write-book-manifesto/

http://www.lindsayburoker.com/book-marketing/book-promotion-roundup-useful-articles-for-new-authors/

Hot of the press links for you

Craft Writing a quick first draft

Margaret Atwood is writing serial fiction

Enjoy,

Maureen

Thinking Indie Links

I’m out and about visiting the other hemisphere...while I’m away from my usual haunts I thought you might like to take a look at good links on different subjects.

Ten links to get you thinking on HOW TO BE AN INDIE AUTHOR

http://janefriedman.com/2012/02/10/10-questions-epublishing/

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/06/top-8-cover-design-tips-for-self-publishers/

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/02/self-publishing-basics-how-to-organize-your-books-front-matter/

http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/creating-author-platform-that-sticks.html?spref=tw

http://catherineryanhoward.com/2012/07/17/the-easy-way-to-get-your-us-tax-back/

http://www.mywritingblog.com/2012/06/fast-track-route-for-non-us-authors-to.html

http://catherineryanhoward.com/2010/09/06/how-to-format-your-e-book-the-non-migraine-inducing-way/

http://catherineryanhoward.com/2011/12/07/5-things-im-always-having-to-tell-self-publishers/

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/the-sustainability-of-an-indie-author%E2%80%94will-self-publishers-survive/#comments

https://www.createspace.com/en/community/docs/DOC-1851

http://www.llumina.com/back_cover_copy.htm

So now you know I can’t count...hehehe

Hot of the press links for you

Youtube book promo tips

The rise and rise of small publishers

Enjoy,

Maureen

Thinking Crafty Links...

I’m out and about visiting the other hemisphere...while I’m away from my usual haunts I thought you might like to take a look at good links on different subjects.

Ten links to get you thinking on CRAFT

http://annerallen.blogspot.com/2012/01/hooks-loglines-and-pitches-what-every.html?spref=tw

http://www.wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/does-your-story-need-subplots.html

http://kidlit.com/2012/04/25/change-of-heart/

http://www.darcypattison.com/revision/11-revision-questions/

http://www.yaindie.com/2012/04/10-ways-to-increase-your-daily-word.html?spref=tw

http://thescribblerscove.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/emotional-structure-in-your-novel.html?spref=tw

http://writerunboxed.com/2012/01/24/on-quirky-character-names/

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/01/leave-breadcrumbs-behind-are-you-asking.html

http://jamigold.com/2012/02/how-to-use-the-save-the-cat-beat-sheet/

http://ollinmorales.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/lifegrammar/

http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/why-your-hero-needs-yappy-sidekick.html

http://storyfix.com/hunger-games-9-the-entire-story-in-nine-sentences

http://storyfix.com/your-structure-is-off-what-does-that-even-mean

So now you know I can’t count...hehehe

Hot of the press links for you

Craft - Another look at the heroes journey in time for NaNoWriMo

Chuck on why writers must beware quacks at conferences.

How to use Amazon to sell more books

Enjoy,

Maureen

Marking With An X

It’s Banned Books Week and some top writers have been interviewed on how they feel about having their books banned. I remember a NZ writers comment about having his children’s book banned in the US. Sales went through the roof!

A challenged book, placed on a list gets noticed. This in the hands of a canny publicity team can ensure that these books get a huge profile. A children’s book on the banned list is usually pointing to society expectations that we protect children from reality. Is it what the characters say that is upsetting or what the book asks children to consider...or the setting of these books?

The NY Times interviewed Lois Lowry, author of The Giver, one of the most banned books in the last 30 years. Tamora Pierce adds her insightful comments at the end. Katherine Paterson is also interviewed on the risks of great literature. Her books regularly turn up on banned book lists.  Take a look at Amazon’s list of banned children’s books, it is a who’s who of famous children’s authors.

This week Nicola Morgan has been talking about copywrite education. Try to explain to kids that downloading pirated books and movies actually benefit big corporations and not the creators...It is a great article and should be passed around...let’s get some education out there...

Melinda Szymanik has also written a passionate plea on this subject.

The UK children’s booksellers conference has just wrapped up and there was a digital focus as gaming companies addressed publishers about unlocking the rights and getting together to exploit all the storytelling opportunities...

Author Platform is getting another airing with Rachelle Gardner commenting on author collectives and platforms. Everybody shares, everybody reaps benefits...

Chris Brogan has the essential how to do an author platform now, list of do’s...and don’t bothers...

For those flirting with indie publishing, 

Joel Friedman has a great post on mono typefaces...and Shannon of the mega helpful Duolit girls has 3 common mistakes to avoid when indie publishing.

Does your novel have rising tension...how can you tell? Publishing Crawl has the answer...drop your story plot points into this graph...(for those writers that love info graphics.)

If you are looking at your finished manuscript and wondering what next, check it over for these common editing mistakes and what to do about them.

Last weekend Karaveer Writing School had their first rewriting and editing course and it was a great success. So another popular course gets added to the portfolio. There is an advanced course coming up in November for published novel writers, a master class tune up which has a couple of places left.

In the craft list,

Develop your antagonist...

Don’t leave your characters in limbo, develop the setting...

Ten ways to barf a book...just get that first draft out there and on a simila theme Jane Friedman says Kitchen sink it!

Angela Ackerman has gathered all her great craft resources posted on twitter together...

Martina from Adventures in Children’s and YA publishing has the Go To post on Concept...It all begins in line one!

Seekerville has the best post on keeping reader empathy and I know my writing mentors will be waving it at me....

How is your productivity? Could it use a little tune up?

Dana Sita has got a productivity routine that works for her...maybe you should try it or you can immerse yourself in Chuck Wendigs 25 ways to get your creative groove back...(warning it is Chuck!)

To finish,

Buzzfeed looks at Aladdin and Titanic and discovers they are the SAME story.

and to refresh your memory...the following video is on basic plots....and everyone of them has shown up on the banned books list...

maureen

pic from pic from http://www.flickr.com/photos/takomabibelot/2875992647/

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/

Choosing To Be Creative

This week on the writing blogosphere RAOK has been the catch phrase. 

Random Acts Of Kindness. This has been started because Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have finally made a print version of their wonderful Emotion Thesaurus and they celebrated with a RAOK blitz week which lots of writers got behind.

The Indie vs Trad argument has been heating up with many diatribes on both sides hitting the blogosphere this week.

Just for the record...You don’t have to be one or the other. You can choose the publishing medium with each project. You can be small press, Indie press, mainstream, give stuff away for free to build readers. It is up to you. Don’t get sucked into the Trad is bad or Indie is to die camps which diss each other and lose sight of the whole picture.

Anne R Allen has a nice piece about the bullies of both sides and what a new writer should be doing...take your time!

I post weekly and weekly it seems is the nature of change in the publishing landscape. This week Waterstones, a large bookselling chain in the UK has announced a partnership deal with Amazon. Some commentators have likened this to the hens asking the Fox to move into the henhouse. Here is Futurebooks take on this breaking news and the gamble and possible benefits for the booksellers.

Chuck has his 25 reasons to quit writing...of course you can turn it on its ear and choose to write. Either way Chuck is always thought provoking...(warning it is Chuck!)

Sometimes tho the act of writing is painful. Roz Morris looks at coping with RSI and what she has had to do to get through these times. I know this from bitter experience and am writing these words with tingling feelings in my left hand. (off to find my brace...)

In the craft corner, Here are some great posts on

Converting back story into character from Romance University

Margie Lawson looks at humour and the use of it to hook readers

20 craft rules from Stephen King

Mary Kole straight talks about Sounds great, No substance.

K M Weiland looks at not sabotaging your main character.

How to write from the Male point of view.

Great tips

Jane Friedman has some tips on getting the best online advertising for your dollar.

Joanna Penn talks multi media and why different media can complement your brand. 

Janice Hardy has ways that you can be more productive. 

Writers Digest has the definitive info on word counts for each genre.

Melinda Szymanik has a great post on the importance of being at the Frankfurt book fair with this year’s fair focussing on Kidlit.

And I will leave you with the video that is making waves through the creative community. This week Neil Gaiman gave the commencement speech at the University of Arts...These are words to live by no matter what stage of creative endeavour you are.

maureen

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?)

Book Trailers - It's All Marketing

Part 3 of The Craic project: Book Trailers.

The part where Maureen becomes a movie producer....

Book trailers are the visual commercial for your book.

They have their detractors...why bother to film a commercial for the book, people will just want the movie.

They can cost mega mega dollars... if you want a good one you have to hire a proper movie producer and actors etc etc.

They have to be art forms eg Maggie Stiefvaters book trailers (all created by Maggie) and how many of us can do that?

In my talks with school librarians they tell me that if a book has a book trailer it instantly makes it marketable to kids. Librarians use the book trailer on the library website... and kids being visual beings...well you know the rest.

Start by having a look at other book trailers to see what others have done and to get some ideas. Some book trailers are all static images, some have short snippets of video...some are animated...Some are the pictures from the book itself with audio sound bites.

A book trailer does not and should not condense the whole book to 2 minutes of visuals. 

It does not need to be acted out...or filmed in a big budget way.

Entice people... Entice...Think of how you get an editor interested in your project.

Look at your back cover blurb and loglines...this is a handy start to storyboarding your book trailer. Define the images you need to convey the message you want, atmosphere, main characters, compelling plot point. But don’t tell the whole story you want to entice the reader....Repeat after me... entice... entice.

For my storyboard, I turned three pages on their side drew up a grid pattern and worked through the images and the text I wanted. I started with a little bit about character motivation...and the opening conflict point...then I added images which represented different factors...the rock stars... the security and I finished on an image that was a running gag through the story. So hopefully the book trailer would still be relevant after the reader had finished the story.

Then I imagined the finished project as if I had lots of money and I was in a darkened theatre.

I realised that I liked the image of words appearing on a screen as that fit with the whole fake online identity of one of my characters. My teen then pointed out that our computer could record text as it is written in power point. So all I had to do was type reasonably fast with no mistakes. (yeah right!)

Now you have your list of must haves and your story board sheets, it’s time to check out photo stock libraries.

This is where it costs. Can you find a cheaper image that conveys the same message? Is it a must have image?

After you have selected your images. Download them to your movie making software and play around to get the whole thing looking just right. Check the length of time you want each frame to stay on screen and how you transition from frame to frame. My movie making software took my text recordings as short videos. Don’t forget to have images of your book in the trailer, as well as where you can find out how to buy it. After all that’s why you are doing this...

Music is an important part of the book trailer. It conveys atmosphere and tension and brings a whole professional edge to the project. Finding the right music is important.

Warning! Listening to royalty free music sites is a tremendous time suck! (but oh so enjoyable... I thought about writing books to soundtracks...dubfunkreggaesoul book anyone?)

I was looking for some hard driving rock (because of the rock band motif...) but with a soft beginning...

I checked out the wonderful Kevin MacLeods Incompetech site but found the music that fit the project the best at 300 Monks. They aren’t a donation site but $27 for the perfect track isn’t too much to pay I thought.

I arranged the images and text videos and dropped the music track on to it. Then I checked the highpoints in the music track were matching the right images. (This is fairly easy to do with Apple iMovie, however I had a teen sitting next to me fixing up any mistakes I made. Tip: Have a handy teen around if you aren't familiar with the software.) 

I sorted out a credits end shot, tweaked a little, uploaded it on to YouTube and voila! It was done.

If you click on the Craic book site at the top of the sidebar you can go straight to the Craic website and view the trailer ... or skip on down to the bottom of the link roundup and have a look there...

Ah the Link Round Up...the reason I spend so much time on social media...hehehe.

This week has been the jump on Franzen week for making us all feel bad about having an ebook. Monkeysee puts the gripes into perspective.

Compelling Characters...Do you have one? Or are you kidding yourself? Check out this post from the writepractice to see if you need to up the ante. 

And what kind of hero are they? There are three to choose from now.

Character names...how do you choose the right one. Here is a great post on naming characters or yourself if you need to.

Now that you have the name and the character arc... Are you falling into a stereotype? Fantasyfiction has a great article on Alpha’s, Beta’s and Losers and wonders if the upsurge in Beta’s is because of the upsurge in woman editors...(Do women want Alpha males anymore?)

Last week I gave you a link to Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s Sell Sheet. Brian has part two up. What to do with one after you have made it...This is good solid information. (Thanks Brian)

Kristen talks about R.E.S.P.E.C.T. and the word Free as part of your marketing bag of tricks.

The writerlens has 5 ways to market indie books. 

This is expanded on in a huge way by Author Media with 89 ways to market your book.

Yup it’s all about the marketing!

So check out this book trailer for this great book! You can even go to the website and read the first chapter...(2.99 on Amazon and Smashwords.)

The Craic-the-book Project

Who’s your 3am friend?

www.craicthebook.com

‘Why don’t you turn one of your manuscripts into an eBook?’ The question was posed as a challenge but it also pointed to a way to use all that research on my blog for the last three years, (as several friends pointed out.) ‘And you can tell us all how to do it.’

So begins the Craic-the-book Project.

First I made a list of everything I needed to do. Each item was going to be a project in itself. I took a deep breath.

ISBN numbers. (if I was going to do an eBook I should look at Print and Audio as well.)

Book cover. Book Trailer. Book website.

Formatting for different devices and media.

Distribution and Storefront.

In effect the whole project was to turn myself into a publisher.

As eBooks began to change the publishing landscape my weekly blog roundup reflected the hot topics under discussion.  Publishing eBooks whether you do it on your own or with an eBook publisher or with an agent or a traditional publisher, the big concerns can be broadly grouped into three categories.

Quality of the Content.

Marketing.

Career Impact.

Quality of the Content.

eBooks range in quality from badly written, badly formatted, 500,000 word epics to 5000 word pristine short stories. It can be vanity publishing at its worst and niche publishing at its best.

My manuscript Craic had been doing the rounds here in New Zealand staying between 6-12 months at each publisher.

“It’s a great story. We’re sure someone will pick it up.”

After five years of getting positive rejections and nearly getting a contract twice you feel somewhat crushed. So using the positive rejections positively I felt I had quality content.

Marketing

Marketing starts at the book cover. With different formats it was going to be important to have a strong cover that could be scaled down to thumbnail size on a computer which is how the rest of the world would be finding the book.  With the rise of the eBook has been the rise of the book trailer. There are different opinions about whether book trailers work. In several discussions with school librarians, both here and overseas, they were adamant that a book trailer sold a book to kids. Librarians used them on websites and kids queued for the book after seeing the trailer. My book is a midgrade and book trailers aren’t as common as in Y A so I had to decide whether to do one or not.

A dedicated book website this could be the store front. As my blog is my author home page I needed a site that could be all things Craic. I had already created a book website for my book Bones (published by Penguin) so I knew roughly what I needed to do.

Career Impact

As my career seemed stalled, movement on that front was always going to be a positive. I haven’t abandoned traditional publishing. With the recession in publishing and the impact of e-publishing on traditional print publishers everybody is looking for the magic solution. The writer now has many options, epublish only or a mix of traditional and epublishing either on their own or with an agent or print publisher.

Midlist, midcareer writers who have been abandoned by their print publishers are now discovering huge opportunities in their out of print back list, making them available as eBooks. This now has print publishers scrambling to get back this potential gold mine by sending updated contracts to authors with very very fine print. If you are in this position, check out any new contract with a magnifying glass.

Here endeth Part One of The Craic the Book Project.

Next week... Book Covers and Book Trailers

Now for those of you who need your weekly fix of great links....

In the blogosphere this week there was the big discussion over negative reviews and the huge stoush on Goodreads between writers and reviewers...OUCH. The Guardian tried to sum it all up.

Alan Rinzler looked at The Pitch...Specifically the new author pitch - Show Don’t Sell. He breaks down when and how to use different pitches and to whom.

Will Terry looks at his epublishing year and breaks down the numbers. This is an interesting post on reality checks and cheques.

Jane Friedman has been quoted all over the place this week with an article that have got everybody talking on eBook statistics.

Jane also appeared on U S Television tonight talking about the SOPA and PIPA Bills which are being discussed in the US Senate. If you want to know how it these bills may affect you check out Wikipedia, they blacked out their page in protest yesterday.

Apple is set to make a big announcement later today...Rumours suggest it is an ebook publishing app specifically targeting Textbooks. (Like Garageband for ebooks.) Groundbreaking? Probably!

I’ll finish with Chuck. He has a brilliant post on the 25 things a writer should do.

(warning its Chuck.)


Update: Apple's new announcement...yup take a moment to think about how easy it will be to create an enhanced book....

I’ll leave you with a little book trailer....

maureen

Last Minute Shopping

Yesterday I was traveling up the North Island so of course my blog did not get written. I left a gorgeous day in Wellington...yes we do have amazing days in the windy city, when there is no wind, the sea is flat calm and the sun sparkles off the hills surrounding the harbour like a rare gem. 

Today Auckland is misty and overcast. I’m waiting for the full on sunshine and last minute shopping trips to begin.

If you are shopping for any authors...check out these presents.

Offbeat gifts for writers.... and for inspiration...what has been described as voodoo dolls of authors.

The predictions for 2012 are beginning and Mike Shatzkin’s name is being tweeted all around the blogoshere for his ‘not predictions list but questions’ that need to be addressed in 2012. Check it out, there is something for everyone in the publishing industry to ponder.

Of course Mike also had a hand in making the Digital Book World 10 Predictions for 2012...this is also getting a twitter beating as Number 7 gets talked about by authors.

In the fun category -  if you know an author who has begun using skype for author visits you may want to point them to this post from a 'don’t do what I did’ tongue in cheek expose of a skype visit to a book club. (Children’s writers can get themselves in sooo much trouble just with one of these gaffs.)

If you are looking for personal inspiration you must check out  the editors blog for a beautiful call to writers to push themselves a little more. 

If Chuck is more your style he says the same thing but in his own gritty voice...(warning It’s Chuck!)

I had hoped to bring you a sneak preview of the project I have been working on for the last couple of months but time pressures and end of year hype has delayed it...so I may just start the New Year with it.

It will be an interesting journey for me to share with you. Bring on 2012.

Merry Christmas from the sunny Southern Hemisphere. (still waiting for that sun Auckland...)

Oh and here’s the annual Christmas video treat for you. 

Off for last minute Christmas shopping...oh look sun!
maureen

Links to Giveaway...

Last week there was a lot to read through...so I forgive you for not making it to the end and discovering the cool giveaway! (Maureen watches last week’s post stats jump....heheheh)

This week I have some interesting links for your delectation.

The awesome Cris Dukehart explains why she loves her job as an audiobook narrator and the little tricks you need to know if you want to do this yourself.... A brilliant interview with tips for authors to help make their work more audio friendly.

One of the Blue Rose Girls, editor Alvina Ling gives a detailed breakdown of what happens when she gets a manuscript to edit. This is a fascinating look at the editing process and there are lots of tips to think about for writers when you get to the editing process.

Joanna Pennhas an interesting post on series continuation hassles...when you discover that you have a series on your hands how do you go about retro planning for the future life of your characters. Lots of comments on this one with some great advice.

Lydia Sharp has taken a look at the difference between inciting incident and catalyst and breaks it down with examples. This is a great reference for writers out there looking to nail how their plot can move forward.

Nicola Morgan has taken a long look at the synopsis and defined what really should be in it. Don’t get hung up on your timeline...say what...? Go and read this valuable post.

Bob Mayer has been attending the Storyworld Conference and he has some interesting things to say about transmedia and the three screen revolution...Is this where we are all headed?

On a similar theme Publishing Perspectives takes a look at the hoops publishers have to go through to produce a halfway decent picture book on an eBook platform.

Two marketing links that may be of interest...

Tony Eldridge looks at 10 Ideas for Non Traditional Book Marketing 


Hubspot has taken a close look at Facebook business pages and has highlighted the best ways to get them moving and sparkling...This has great relevance for websites so check out the article.

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

Keeping Your Superpowers Current

7 Gadgets That Won’t Be Around In 2020

To finish, 

Roni Loren has an hilarious article on the life cycle of a blogger and...
 Amanda Hooper has created the ultimate dream (and referenced her friends) for a writer who has a book coming out...watch the video!

I’ll keep the ebook giveaway up for another week...just remember to comment with your Zombie name...
enjoy,
maureen