Collaboration or Not.

In publishing news this week,

The cockygate case has been resolved… by the withdrawal of the lawsuit. Some of the parties are said to be happy with the outcome. 

Walmart and Kobo are set to rattle the ebook cage a little. A joint venture between the biggest chain store in America and Kobo e-readers could change the look of the ebook industry in the very very near future.

This week Publishing Perspectives had an article about the new publishing city one-stop-shop marketplace, palace in Sharjah that I found very interesting. If you have an eye to the Arabian market they are looking for good partnerships. However the main interview subject was with a rep from Austin Macauley, a firm that has been suspected of dubious practices. David Gaughran took them to task about giving this firm legitimacy.

Publishers Weekly had an interesting article this week. What editors wished authors knew and what authors wished editors knew. Some interesting takeaways here.

Maisie Williams has started a nifty app for creative people to come together and work with each other. Techcrunch has the in-depth interview.

Kris Rusch has taken a look at what happens when business over-capitalize and fail. What’s this got to do with writing? You are a small business. Are you being sucked into the Amazon easy money stream?

Ruth Harris has written a nifty article on what to do with your old manuscripts. No, don’t use them for fire starters… get in there and mine them.

Have you tried dictating? I keep thinking I will and then floundering and giving up. Joanna Penn interviews Christopher Downing on practical tips for dictating your manuscript. These tips make a lot of sense.

September Fawkes has an interesting article on genius. What does it mean to be gifted? How does that apply to writing you ask? Read and find out.

In The Craft Section,

18 ways to writer funnier- Writers Digest

How to dump info without dumping- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Punctuation without tears- The Creative Penn- Bookmark

How many POV characters does a book need?- Marcy Kennedy

7 ways to write thematically pertinent antagonists- K M Weiland-Bookmark

Complications, reversals and roadblocks-Go Into The Story

MS Word styles and formatting- Joel Friedlander- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Book signing event tool kits- BuildBookBuzz

Two great posts from Penny Sansevieri 6 reasons to revise and re-release your book- and

5 ways to sell more books for the holidays start now- Bookmark

Ebook pricing- Written Word Media- Bookmark

How to reach the right readers- Diana Urban- Bookmark

18 Book marketing tips- Frances Caballo

How to update your book without losing your reviews- Kat Tilton 

To Finish,

Reedsy has a great info graphic article on the hero’s journey- just right for all you teachers of creative writing out there. 

Decoist has an article on closet office nooks. I write on the kitchen table because I can’t find my desk under the piles of ‘temporary’ stuff placement that my family think is fine. My dream is an office just for me… in the meantime maybe I can find space in a closet… 

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.  I’m heading into NZ Book Awards Week… hopefully with an all clear from the Doc. If you want to shout me a coffee to get through it, feel free to hit the Kofi button. Thank you to my caffeine sponsors!

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Dwyane Madden

Was it something I said?

It has been a horrible week for some kidlit writers and agents in the blogosphere.
Danielle Smith, a ’respected’ agent who having worked for high flying agencies struck out on her own
was shown to be a fraud. This has stunned her colleagues, her clients and her staff. The kidlit
community is a tight knit community and are rallying round as they do with offers of help coming
from all over.
The bottom line in all of this is - Once you get an agent... the work begins. Follow up regularly.
They work for you. If they can’t or won’t communicate at least quarterly… ask who they have subbed to?
Ask publishers to split the check at source. They can pay agents fees separately… if your agent is
upset about this, ask why.

There are a whole lot of writers and illustrators taken on by Danielle Smith, who have no idea what
properties have been taken on or off or subbed or not...  and not only that... it goes back years through other
clients for other agencies where she was an agent on staff.
A hashtag search in Twitter #Daniellesmith pulls up some sad stories.

Forbes has covered the latest scams in the publishing world this week just as
this was breaking… Be Aware that there are some awful predators out there.

In the continuing serial decline of  CreateSpace, Nate Hoffelder reports that Amazon has hammered
another nail in the coffin. This week they pulled the plug on publishing CD’s and DVD’s. Will the Kindle
Print arm pick these up too? Everyone still in CreateSpace are hanging on grimly…

While Amazon is putting the screws into CreateSpace, Publish Drive has been wooing China. Publish Drive
are doing some interesting things in the global publishing marketplace… If you want world wide sales take a look...

Data Guy was asked to present at the Sci Fi & Fantasy conference just held and he posted up his
slides looking at the last years sales of SFF across the board.  The SFF Marketing Podcast crew
took a look at the trends - Even if you don’t write SFF this is a good podcast to follow.

Every year about this time Joanna Penn takes a yearly snapshot of her working life…
It is really interesting… I always learn something from this indie powerhouse.

In The Craft Section,

Killing off an important character -Live Write Breathe- Bookmark

5 things psychology can teach writers- Angela Ackerman

How to show emotion on the page - cheat sheets - Jessica Grace Kelley

9 character types to include in your story- Writers Cookbook- Bookmark

Different Types of movie stories- Go into the Story

In The Marketing Section,

Why authors should be speaking about their books- Joel Friedlander

5 terrible ways to launch your book- Kevin Tumlinson

How to create pre-launch buzz for your book- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Are you paying too much attention to Amazon reviews?- Barry Faulkner

2 Bookmark posts from Frances Caballo Publishing your first book - follow these steps and
Selling more books- tips from experts.

To Finish,

As you may have noticed this is short and a day late. I had an unexpected hospital stay this last week.
This screwed up quite a few things publishing wise for me. The first two circus books were nearly live online
but the print ones are not. Pro tip from me… build in plenty of time for life's hiccups and rest where you can…
I wonder if the wicked witch of the west cursed me last week for using her picture on my blog.

Maureen

@craicer

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. I appreciate all the virtual coffee love from people who hit the Kofi button as a thank you for the blog.

The Good and The Bad….

In publishing news this week,

Book Funnel has released download codes.
These are one use codes that you can hand out at events for free copies of your books…
This is another great tool in the PR arsenal for writers.

The New York Times has an article about the alternative Nobel Prize for Literature that the
Swedish librarians are promoting. If you haven’t caught up with Nobel news… due to a scandal the
Nobel Prize for Literature was not awarded this year.

Joanna Penn has two really interesting videos up this week on her blog.
Writing a series - the continuation issues to avoid. This is part of her video shorts series.
The other video is a long form interview with Stephen Pressfield. I linked to Stephen’s blog
last month … he has been posting his latest book as a serial on his blog, The Artist’s Journey.
Stephen is a writer’s writer. He looks at deep issues that fuel or stop creativity.
It is a great interview.

Kris Rusch has an interesting blog about reader tastes and blaming the writer.
Many people agree that not everything released on TV or at the movies is to our taste but somehow we
hold writers to a different standard. What happens when our favourite writer tries something different?

Editor/Agent and Kidlit specialist Mary Kole writes interesting writing craft articles.
This week she looked at writing the book that you don’t want to… what can you do about it?

What would you sacrifice to be a successful writer? First born child… health…. Sanity?
Writing and wellness has an article on the five sacrifices every writer must make in order to succeed.

Jeff Goins writes interesting long form articles.
This one touched a chord with a lot of writers commenting. What to do when you feel like a fake?
Why a shadow career is necessary. (Jeff references Stephen Pressfield in the article.)
Jeff talks about the dance we make between art and money...

Blogging isn’t to everyone’s taste.
Many writers struggle to know what to put in a blog.
I did, hence you have been reading writing craft tips and marketing ideas etc for the last ten years on this blog.
Anne R Allen has an interesting post on how blogging jump started her career.
Long term blogging does work for your writing output and has other unexpected benefits.

Sara Letourneau is celebrating her ninth blogoversary with a list of great writing tips.
Sara always has great advice so check these out.

In The Craft Section,

Katie Weiland has been on fire with great craft articles. I discovered I had
bookmarked four of them for this weeks blog.

Write a better antagonist

Point of View Problems

How to write unique themes

The truth your character believes.

Mythcreants has an interesting article on hiding your foreshadowing in plain sight.

Now Novel looks at Person vs Society conflicts- Bookmark

Reedsy has The Book Title Generator… go and have some fun….

In The Marketing Section,

Mailing lists for authors- Chris Fox- Bookmark

10 reasons Book Reviews still matter- Interesting long form article from Litreactor

Book reviews - The primer- The Book Designer

When to start book marketing - The Creative Penn

How to make instagram work for authors- Monica Corwin- Bookmark

12 key ways to make sure your website is helping you sell books-Penny Sansevieri

The lazy authors guide to platform building by the fab David Gaughran.

To Finish,

There are writers who you read everything they write...follow their social media… enjoy hanging out
with talking shop… or worship from afar through time and space.
And then there are the other kind- The ten types of writers we need to throw down a well.

Amy Collins details what you should do to not be a bad writer on social media.

Maureen

@craicer

 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. I appreciate all the virtual coffee love from people who hit the Kofi button as a thank you for the blog. (I needed it... I'm nearly ready to push the publish button on my first two Circus books...)