Opportunity Knocks

In Publishing News...

Anybody want to buy a bookstore? How about a chain of bookstores? The continuing saga of the struggling Barnes and Noble bookselling chain has many in the publishing industry worried. 

How open are you to opportunities? Will you say yes to everything? Or do you lock yourself away in your writing garret? Wendy Jones talks about the power of saying yes to everything and what that has done for her writing career.

Nick Stephenson has an article on whether authors should still blog. Blogging goes in and out of favour all the time. If you are a fiction writer it can be problematical thinking up what to blog about. Nick has some great ideas on this.  Check out the top 50 writing craft blogs .

Tara Sparling asks an interesting question this week.Is your book good looking enough for  the internet? Is viewing books in thumbnail sizes changing the way cover designers approach the book cover?

Jane Friedman has an interesting guest post from Betsy Fasbinder about public speaking for authors. For many writers this is a side of the business that is the least liked. Betsy has some great tips.

Staying with the business side of writing, Joe Solari has an interesting article on managing cash flow in your writer business.

How to legally use quotations in your book. This question comes up again and again. Helen Sedwick gives you the legal lowdown.

I came across this article- Microtargeting with Facebook ads- and had to think carefully about the Brave New World we are living in. On one hand, as authors, wouldn’t it be great to have our dream reader profiled and targeted so that they always saw our books. On the other hand...  

In The Craft Section,

Advice that saved my novel- Therese Walshe

Protagonist vs Nemesis Key to conflict- Go into the story-Bookmark

Should you outline backwards- K M Weiland- Bookmark

The characters controlling belief- Mary Atkinson

6 steps to consider before writing a novel- Rebecca Monterusso

2 fantastic posts from Jami Gold Showing vs telling in context and

Creating Layered characters- Bookmark Both

In The Marketing Section,

Everything to know about ISBN’s 

(In NZ you can get free ISBN’s from National Library)

Self publishing 101- Nick Stephenson

Amazon Author Central – book discovery- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

What’s new in Pinterest for writers- Frances Caballo

Grow your email list through Pinterest

Updating your author bio- Alli blog- Bookmark

How to create Merchandise for books 

3 Book Promotion myths- Build Book Buzz

The easy opt in gift- Writetodone- Bookmark

To Finish,

Being a writer is so much more than just being the typer of words. It is to be a marketer, a cheer leader, a critic, a business owner, an editor, a muse wrangler...

Greer Macallister has put togther 25 truths about writing over on Writer Unboxed. You will smile and agree with most of them.

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. Thanks everyone who hit the coffee button this week. I appreciate the virtual coffee love.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Rebecca Siegel

Predicting 2018

Down Under the turn of the numbers to a New Year is clouded by the fact that we are all on our Summer holidays and we don’t want to think about work... let alone make goals for the year. However Back To School sales in stationery stores get the writer brain ticking. How can I justify getting that shiny new journal? 2018 Goals... that’s how!

So now you have the shiny journal, the cool pen and you’ve eaten all your Christmas chocolate. Time to make some goals. Jo Eberhardt over at Writer Unboxed has a great article on making SMART goals. This is the advice you need for making goals that are achievable. A must read.

My Twitter feed has been filling up with crystal ball gazing for the coming publishing year. Along with pleas for submissions to stop as Agents and Editors get the NaNoWriMo onslaught of manuscripts that January always brings.

To start planning for 2018 it is wise to look back at 2017 and see what worked and make plans for more of the same. Kris Rusch has a great wrap up article on what the big five publishers did last year and how this will impact publishing going forward. This is well worth a read and a think about especially if you are or have been Traditionally published.

Mark Coker has compiled his list of what he thinks will happen in 2018... more of 2017. However he does make a few points that seem to be echoed everywhere. Audio still hasn’t hit its limit.... It is the fastest growing format and now there are some real competitors in this market. Audible, who did a lot to grow the market by hooking listeners into hearing free audio books, may need to change their T.O.S to remain top of the heap. (If you think that last sentence sounded familiar think Kindle and free eBooks and that Amazon owns Audible.) Mark has plenty of other nuggets to get you thinking.I’ve finally checked out his new podcast- Smart Author- and its chock full of great information.

Written Word Media have written a very full article on what they see coming in 2018 and how writers should be positioning themselves to take advantage of it.

Orna Ross from the Alliance of Independent Authors has been crystal ball gazing as well. Orna has turned her focus on how technically savvy authors are going to have to be to take advantage of new technologies and trends if they want a career that sustains them in the long haul.

These are the best of the roundups that I have seen in the last two weeks so grab a cool drink and think about new things to learn or new goals to make.

Joanna Penn has a great blog on productivity tips that can give you a few new tools to try in 2018. These are all common sense goals but maybe they can help you stop procrastinating and get those words down.

Anne R Allen has started the new year with a great post on 8 things more important than writing talent. This started a great conversation in her blog comments. It is not enough to want to be a writer... you have to do the work!

In The Craft Section,

4 reasons readers stop caring about your story- Janice Hardy

Best free resources roundup for writing-Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

Why we shouldn’t shield children from darkness in our writing- Time

100 best websites for writers- Writelife

How to present literary themes in book series- Sara Letourneau- Bookmark

Creating interesting subplots to move the story forward.

Secrets of good storytelling- K M Weiland- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Why Facebook is still important for authors in 2018

Publishing wide and how to do it from your website- Joanna Penn

Selling truckloads of books - Penny Sansevieri-Bookmark

The best book marketing advice from 2017- Jane Friedman

Embedding social media in your posts- The Book Designer- Bookmark

Street teams and how to use them- Draft2Digital-Bookmark

Shameless Book Promotion- Writelife

To Finish,

Setting goals can sometimes create stress. There is the immediate self doubt stress... along with the-big-obstacle-course-that- life-likes-to-throw-at-you-when-you-thought-it-was-going-to-be-a-smooth-path stress.

Sacha Black has some tips for making goals that don’t stress you out trying to keep to them.

As you start into the New Year you need some inspiration along with all the goal setting. Orna Ross talks about creativity with Joanna Penn. Are you filling yourself up on creative projects that don’t feel like work?

Here’s to a fabulous start to the writing year...

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter, coming soon, 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 want to shout me a coffee just hit the hit the coffee button. Thanks.
 

Pic: 

The Act Of Writing

I was reflecting this week on the dark night of the soul. That’s the part of the book at the end of act 2 when the protagonist has to make a choice and carry on....

This week I was coming across articles that could have come from the dark night of the writers soul.

The Book Designer had an article about another publisher who went belly up owing millions in law suits. He did some quick author life saving. Recognise the signs and Beware Sharks!

Ruth Harris had an article on how to recognise overload in writers. Is it stress or burnout?

March McCarron had one on data loss and what to do when it strikes you.

Book works has a comprehensive article on estate planning for authors.

Tara Sparling asks if there is a slush pile on our Kindles?

And then there were the glimmers of dawn...

Heather Webb kicked off a great discussion on Writer Unboxed on what fiction trends say about us.

Joanna Penn added a list of great writing books everyone should read.

Elizabeth Craig had a great article on organisation. How do you organise your life around your writing...

The moments when the dawn shadows revealed rocks that looked like dragons...

Roz Morris on whether you are showing off or sharing your writing. Should you be killing your darlings? A great read. What is your motivation...

Fine Art Views on the depth of your fan growth. Is it quantity over quality? How can you engage them better in what you produce?

Kris Rusch on Writer finances in a paycheck world. What you should be doing with that unexpected windfall of cash.

Now the sun is up and you can see what lies in the shadows... and just when you think the way seems clear news comes out that a large bookstore chain is secretly opening up independent shops in a trojan horse play....

You need to arm yourself with the best apps for writers going into the third act.

In The Craft Section,

Zero Draft 30- An interesting writing challenge.

7 things that will doom your novel- Writers Digest

How to write a book in excel- Author Tech

A quick tip for getting to know your characters- Janice Hardy

The dark night of the soul- Sara Letourneau – Bookmark

Improving your writing style- Pamela Hodges

Creating conflict with multiple antagonists- Hannah Collins

In The Marketing Section,

The perfect back cover blurb- Writer Unboxed

Optimising the back cover-Bookworks- Bookmark

Social Media Checklist- Caitlin Burgess

9 things authors need on their landing pages- Karen Dimmick-Bookmark

Is expecting help to market your books lazy?- Excellent discussion from Rachel Thompson

Newsletter surveys- Kate Tilton – Bookmark

To Finish,

Chuck Wendig has put together his vital list of writing advice that you cannot ignore as you head out into the third act salt mines and to the eventual glory of writing the words... The End.

Maureen

@craicer

The latest Writers Island podcast is up. Just click the link in the sidebar. Thank you to the wonderful people who have bought me a coffee using the Kofi button.

If you want to get my best of the month roundup and other goodies you can subscribe to my newsletter.

Pic: Flickr/ Creative Commons/ A Birken Caghan

Contingency Planning

This week New Zealand was rocked by a 7.8 earthquake. As luck would have it, it struck two minutes after midnight on Monday morning. After we picked ourselves up we spent the night on a hill waiting for the Tsunami.

New Zealand is known as the shaky isles and we have had our fair share of big earthquakes recently. In the back of our mind we think we are prepared for just such an emergency. But when you are sitting on the side of a hill in the middle of the night waiting for the all clear it occurs to you that better planning would have meant you ate chocolate instead of the cough drops from the bottom of your coat pocket.

In publishing this week Roz Morris has been on a panel lately looking at the convergence of Self Publishing and Traditional Publishing. Roz wrote a great article looking at the spectrum of publishing.

(Read the comments.)

Publishers Weekly has an article on Horror Writers and the growing rise of Self Publishing in that genre.

This week Amazon allowed paid advertising on Amazon.com for ebooks. Previously you had to jump through several hoops and make sacrifices but now it seems straight forward.

Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article on the Danish Book Fair. They like to mix it up and this year had some interesting new things. They must be on to a good thing as they break records for attendence.

Lawyer and Author Susan Spann does a great Wednesday Pub Law tweet stream. This week she has been looking at spreadsheets and author finances. While we are on things legal take a look at copyright rules for settings

Keeping one eye on children’s publishing trends. Reedsy talked with an illustrator from Finland who had an idea... and went looking for a writer... and then Kickstarted a business.

If you are hankering to write your own children’s book, Writer Unboxed has a good article on the midgrade voice.

In The Craft Section,

3 tips to strengthen our voice- Libby Heily

Writing vivid descriptions- Mythicscribes

Using archetypes to develop novel concepts- C S Lakin- Bookmark

Ten steps to developing the practice novel- Writer Unboxed- Bookmark

What is the theme?- Writingforward

What is head hopping?- Bryn Donovan

10 keys to plot structure-Michael Hauge- Bookmark

What English to use. American... British...- Roz Morris

Using multiple Points Of View- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Does paid marketing work? -Alli Chat

Fiction email lists- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

4 step plan to sell more in less time on Social Media- Chris Syme

Respectful Book Reviews

11 ways to quote from your book- and 7 signs your book is professionally published - Book Designer

Using Facebook groups to build Book Buzz- Bookbub- Bookmark

Book Layout basics- Bookmark

KDP – The rules roundup now-

To Finish

Is your plan for success I just want to write my books? Judith Briles wrote a kick in the pants article for The Book Designer today. In this modern time of publishing it is not enough to just write your books. You need to plan before, during and after the book.

And this is true for Earthquakes and other natural disasters....

Always know where the chocolate is!

Maureen

@craicer

If you want a handy collection of the best of my bookmarked links and other interesting items click here to subscribe!

Pic from  Kaikoura Coast near the epicentre of the earthquake. - TVNZ

Going This Way or That Way

Daylight saving happened this week. We put the clocks forward by an hour. ‘So is this why your blog is early?’ I hear you ask.... I am traveling so you get an extra day to enjoy this roundup.

Bob Mayer was musing this week that publishing has become same old same old. This is an interesting blog post from Bob.  Indie publishing has seen a dip in sales. What can you do about it?

Bookworks has an interesting interview with a family that decided to publish books. Each member works on a different genre. So they set up a publishing company...

Writer Unboxed has a great post on knowing when to walk away from a publishing deal. This is always a hard decision.  Read the comments. It does open up the discussion.

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Toby Neal on keeping a series fresh and price points. This is well worth a read/listen!

Kristine Rusch has finished her excellent Deal Breakers Series and is taking some time to look around at the publishing business now. She talks about the positive changes from Draft 2 Digital and other distribution services.

Nate Hoffelder doesn’t think the UK Society of Authors is going far enough with their request for the UK to adopt an EU directive that would protect authors from a take-it-or- leave-it contract.  When you read the examples your heart does sink a little.

Publishing Perspectives has an interesting interview with Merilyn Simons former head of the Canadian Writers Union on the changing state of publishing in Canada. She looks into the future - to survive Traditional published and Indie published writers might have to merge.

As we move into October... which gets us closer to November... NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. October is traditionally NaNoPrepMo. Janice Hardy has a great post on 5 ways to make the most of October planning.

In The Craft Section,

20 Book Title hacks for any Genre- C S Lakin-Bookmark

First Drafts- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

Self editing tips- Joanna Penn

Scenes vs Chapters- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Thinking like a writer- Darcy Pattison

Keeping your readers hooked- Elizabeth Spann Craig

Pro and Cons of referencing the real world- Jami Gold-Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Rocking an author festival- Bookmark

Preparing for a cover design meeting- Elisabeth Spann Craig- Bookmark

10 things authors need to stop doing on Social Media- Digital Book World

Author website elements

Email Auto Responders Part 2- Jane Friedman

10 tips for book marketing- Bookmachine- Bookmark

Curing ugly sample syndrome- Bookbusiness

To Finish,

Nothing beats a great podcast. You can listen while you do other things... Today while preparing dinner I was listening to the Author Biz podcast with guest Stephanie J Pajonas.

It was so interesting I was in danger of burning dinner. Stephanie talked about how she uses auto responder to engage with her email list. How she grows her email list and using Instafreebie.... It was a riveting show.

Maureen

@craicer

Get a selection of the months best links and other burning ideas when you subscribe to my monthly newsletter.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons /Tim Green

Waiting For The Sun

This week I attended the NZ Children’s Book Awards. As in recent years Indie publishers were 25% of the finalists and winners. Some of the small publishers from a few years ago are growing, which is good news. This year’s winners came from a group of writers who have consistently produced great work but have never won big awards. We all celebrate their moment in the sun.

I have been thinking about stickability, especially from the writers that keep producing good work year after year. They barely make a living yet they still keep writing and contributing their time to the writing community. All of the winners of the children’s book awards this year exemplify this. Finalists have to take unpaid time off work to visit schools and libraries as part of an awards roadshow. Kristen Lamb has a great article on embracing the grind. Ann Kroeker also has a wonderful article about writers seeing the 3D sound effects movie in their heads and the feelings when this translates as 2D flatness of their writing.

We’ve all been there. We are there still. Someday we will crack it!

Chuck Wendig wrote an interesting blog post this week, 25 reasons why I put down your book. This is a great list to remind authors that first and foremost you have to entertain the reader. (Warning it is Chuck so be prepared!)

From the writers point of view sometimes things can get a little dicey in your head. Stuart Nadler has written a moving tribute to all the characters he has killed off who haunt him still. Every writer has struggled with their conscience as they killed off a character... but sometimes the ghosts live on....

Writer Unboxed had an interesting article from Jo Eberhardt that garnered over 290 comments. The problem of female protagonists. If you look at your bookshelves how many of your books have Female protagonists or are written by women? Jo highlights recent research into the myth that we are writing gender balanced books. A very interesting read.

Jane Friedman has an interview with two literary agents on hybrid authors and how they can navigate their way in the publishing world.

David Gaughran reminds all authors to research who you are working with and go in eyes wide open.

In The Craft Section, (A fabulous list today)

13 ways to add depth to your novel- Victoria Mixon- Bookmark

How your characters failures are a recipe for self growth- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Choosing your antagonist- Blood Red Pencil- Bookmark

How to write a synopsis- Bookmark

How writers can stretch their creativity- CS Lakin- Bookmark

When Theme smothers premise- Larry Brooks- Bookmark

How to write stronger characters- SheNovel- Bookmark

Sequel scenes- K M Weiland - Bookmark

In The Marketing Section

Do Indies have to do print- Digital Reader

7 tips for blog traffic- Anne R Allen – Bookmark

Marketing a book after the buzz dies down- Bookbub

Tips for branding your book series- Book marketing tools – Bookmark

How I launched my book and sold 20K copies- Daniel Arenson- Bookmark

2 Goodreads features – Frances Caballo

Indie publishing paths- Janice Hardy

To Finish

Angela Ackerman has written a fabulous article on influencers. How to find them, what they can do for you and more importantly what you can do for them. This is a must read! All authors need that helping hand... and big mouth to spread the news about your latest book.

You can’t rely on winning an award right off the bat. It takes years of crafting relationships and being prepared for the long haul before  the sun comes out. Then it will feel absolutely blinding if the reaction from one of my friends who won this week is anything to go by.

Maureen

@craicer

Get a selection of the months best links and other interesting extras when you subscribe to my monthly newsletter.

 Pic From Flickr/ Creative Commons/ John Taylor

You thought I was going to post a picture of the sun.... hehehe. TA DA!

From Space.com

Living To Write

Some weeks in the publishing blogosphere the focus seems to be all on one particular topic.

This week everywhere I turned it was on writing craft.

The Atlantic put out a story about a computer analysing 2000 stories and coming up with the six main arcs of storytelling. The most popular one involving a glass slipper. This is an interesting read.

Then Neil Gaiman’s advice to authors popped up all over my Twitter feed. Neil has cult status out in publishing land but hasn’t made it onto the bestseller list for the worlds richest authors (who are making a tidy sum off kids books and movies.)

Now Novel had a great post on writing advice from Nobel prize winners. You can’t beat that for excellent craft advice. (And then a whole lot of great craft articles went into my Craft Section.)

Joanna Penn had a fabulous interview with Ellen Bard on writer self care. This is a must read as every author I know can relate to this. As the weather has turned super cold here, looking after your self and your mental health is timely.

Teleread has an interesting article on Amazon Author accounts and how to make sure that Amazon doesn’t close you down over something trivial.

Joel Friedlander has an interesting article by Judith Briales on Book Piracy. Judith has a list of things you can do if your book ends up on a nasty site.

The biggest children’s writers and illustrators conference is over for another year and a good time was had by all. Those of us who live vicariously through the SCBWI LA16 Conference blog have got some excellent reading ahead with quick outtakes from every session.

In The Craft Section,

Agent Kristen Nelson continues her series on 9 story openings to avoid

Janice Hardy- On putting your five senses in. - Bookmark

Jami Gold- When is a shocking scene necessary or gratuitous- Bookmark

Roz Morris- You know what your book means but does your reader?- Bookmark

Two standout posts from KM Weiland on structure- What the mouse can teach you and Don’t make 

this structural mistake- Bookmark both.

How to evoke wonder in your writing- Writer Unboxed – Bookmark

Abbi Geni On using description in your settings- Bookmark

From the Writers helping Writers website- a comprehensive list of writer tools- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section

7 marketing trends that no longer work and what you can do instead- Penny Sansevieri Bookmark

How to market the 99c ebook sale – Molly Greene

The best ways to use Amazon Giveaways

How to get more traffic on your author website

The latest Facebook changes and what they mean for authors

To Finish,

Jane Friedman has a guest post from Jessica Strawser on 5 ways to keep writing when life intervenes. This is one of those thought provoking articles where you reflect on your writing life and think about your writing goals. Are they pushing you over the edge or keeping you from falling.

Maureen

@craicer

Get a selection of the months best links and other extras when you subscribe to my monthly newsletter.

Pic from Flickr /Creative Commons/Killa Bea

Thoughts in Translation

This week Amazon announced they were cracking down on fake reviewers. GULP went all the authors. Authors always think the worst. So what does it mean? Passive Guy takes a look at why Amazon has tweaked the review system. It’s all about trust.

The Frankfurt Book Fair has been happening and suddenly everyone is talking about translations. Germany just happens to be a huge market for translations. The Bookseller talks about the move to global authorship.

Amazon is in the translation business (of course) and Publishing Perspectives this week talked about the huge injection of cash into Amazon Crossing and sounded a note of caution to the translators who make it all happen.

Joanne Harris delivered a speech this week at the Manchester Literary Festival which is getting shared all around the internet. Why do people expect authors to work for free? Do readers ever ask what does the author wants from them? This is a fabulous read!

Jami Gold asks authors - What is your long term plan? This is one of those posts that have you thinking for a long time after you read it. Every author should read this.

This author life has its ups and downs, Lance Rubin wrote a great post on blocking out the noise and just creating.

Sometimes you come across a piece of writing that turns you on your ear and that you just have to share with someone. That happened to me this week when I heard a podcast interview with Paul Bishop on Authorbiz. I listened to it in the car and then couldn’t wait to share the ideas with my writing partner. Just WOW.

In the Craft Section,

Now Novel has two great articles- What is good writing and Guide to Writing a Romance novel

The secret power of Voice – James Scott Bell

Tips for Queriers- query, synopsis, first page

Brainstorming the hero – Angela Ackerman

Book critique ABC’s for authors – Kate Tilton

Secrets of bestselling authors

Letting go of the practice novel- Writer Unboxed- Bookmark!

Turning a unique phrase - Joanna Penn

In the Marketing Section,

The secret to a powerful author brand- Kristen Lamb

Help - My Amazon reviews have disappeared

5 tools to double your eBook sales

Get books into global markets- Molly Greene

5 basic elements of an Author website – The Book Designer - Bookmark

How to write the best author bio

Building an Author platform

How to deal with the stress of self publishing

Website of the Week.

Larry Brooks has an excellent website full to bursting with great content on writing. Here are just two recent stand out posts. The unspoken pinch point – climax and How to plan your novel in 6 weeks. Both are bookmark posts!

To Finish,

Infographics... Translating lots of information into handy charts.

The 8 infographics every author needs and The infographic for how to organise your writing desk.

And now you know everything.

 Maureen

@craicer

Pic From Flickr Creative Commons- Dan McKay