Losing The Plot

Last week when it was February and I was still thinking it was early February... (which caused me to miss an important birthday and completely screw up my calendar,) I mentioned a scandal that was just beginning to be noticed about Scammers stealing writer credentials and money laundering through Amazon. So now that this is becoming more widely known is anyone going to do anything about it....

Romance authors are spitting tacks about the pathetic royalties being offered by Amazon Audible Romance Subscription- think Kindle Unlimited but for Audio. They promised only good times ahead for authors who wanted to offer Audio books. The first Royalty payment is in... and it is shocking! Not only that but it is split with the Narrator and tied up for seven years. There is gold in them thar audiobooks...

I love my Book Cover Designer... They are truly important in the visibility of your book, regardless of which way you publish. So Terry Goodkind (famous SFF writer) really caused shock when he came out to diss his latest novel cover. Things got out of hand... Unless you are Indie publishing then you have little to no say over what the publisher chooses for the cover. If you have a problem take it up with the publisher.... Lets play Good and Kind out there people!

It has been two years since Harper Lee’s death and the feelings of disquiet felt amongst the author community at how her estate was being handled. So this week when a court ordered that the will be made public there was considerable interest. As one commenter noted... the person who drew up the will benefits from the will... is that legal? Warnings to all writers out there... Know what you want to do with your literary estate!

From time to time I post articles about what is happening in the educational publishing landscape. They are the last bastions of the $150 cheap print textbook. McGraw Hill has plans... big plans... and it just might be that the last barricade will be over run by cheering students.

Teachers in Canada are not cheering... They are taking the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency to court in a bitter battle about what isfair use... demanding repayment of tariffs. This is a case to keep an eye on.

The lovely Ursula K Le Guin died last month and many people have been digging into her work and mourning the loss. Karen Fowler wrote about the ten writing lessons she learned from Ursula...

In The Writing Craft Section,

2 great posts from Bridget. Villain motivations- make it real- and Foreshadowing examples- Now Novel- Bookmark Both!

2 Bookmark worthy posts from Anne R Allen 9 secrets to supercharge your fiction- and Plot holes and pot holes- Bookmark BOTH!

Using the Comic Relief Character for more than Comedy- Joanna Penn

Ten tips on how to clean up your MS before sending itanywhere- Must Read!

What can you do about limiting your bad writing days...Robin Lovett has the answer.

Showing vs Telling from the fabulous Jami Gold- Bookmark

In The Book Marketing Section,

Are you ready for video? Help for the author.

Formatting using MS Word Styles- Joel Friedlander- Bookmark

3 ways to blogging success

Critical cover rules

5 author tools for authors who hate marketing- Bookmark

Sell more books overseas- Bookbub

4 affordable ways to master Book Marketing- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

To Finish,

Who writes to music? Film scores are the go to for lots of writers but have you ever consciously listened to pop songs about writing... hmmm

Lit Hub dug up a list of 11 and I was surprised... among the list was Devo’s Whip It...

March Madness starts now!

Maureen

@craicer

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons/ Kate Ausburn

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links from the last month. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. Come and join our happy band.

Is This The Real You?

Facebook is changing its algorithms. So marketing on Social Media needs a rethink. Penny Sansevieri lists the bare minimum interactions andmindset that authors should be doing.  Writers Digest also has some good advice on how not to panic but take advantage of the changes... It’s all about being your authentic real self...

Hands up if anyone knows who Arnaud Nourry is? Hmmm, not many. He is the Chief Executive of Hachette Livre which is why his comments this week, on eBooks being stupid, raised eyebrows. His company makes loads of money from them.... However he thinks the future is in 3D and digital...

Another week... another scandal... Amazon started sending out Tax notices this week and one author got a nasty surprise. His account had been used as a money laundering service and he's not the only author being targeted.  Brian Krebs takes a look at what happened and how easy it is to do....

Anne R Allen always has great advice and here she looks at blogging for authors. Do you really need to do it? 8 reasons to start an author blog. It has generated a lot of comment so if you are on the fence or need to rethink your strategy go and read what she has to say.

Kris Rusch was surprised to see an editors name on the front cover of a fiction novel. Apparently this is becoming a thing... and not for the better. Kris breaks down why this is ethically and morally dubious... let alone a sales nightmare.

If you are a visual learner you will love this neat little video on Storytelling by George Saunders. ‘Get out there and do something beautiful...’

In The Writing Craft Section,

21 fun writing prompts- TED ED- Bookmark

Wrestling with tense and point of view -Writer Unboxed- Bookmark

Writing Craft master list- Jami Gold- Bookmark

Plotting- Big Picture vs Small picture- Janice Hardy – Bookmark

5 ways to deepen emotional layering- Lakota Grace- Bookmark

Getting set pieces down

Character voice writing prompts

In The Book Marketing Section,

Using box sets and bundling- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Tips for the new Goodreads giveaways-Chris McMullen- Bookmark

5 Book Contract terms to understand- Bookmark-

How to give away ebooks on your website- Digital Reader

Promote your books with online groups- Non Fiction writers Assoc.

5 Terrible ways to launch your book- Draft2Digital- Bookmark

Boost your print sales by discounting ebooks

To Finish,

The Digital Reader site run by Nate Hoffelder has an interesting collection of news, comment and resources. This infographic is lots of fun. How to determine your character by the fonts you use...

Maureen

@craicer

It is nearly time for my monthly newsletter. I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links from the last month. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- April Killingsworth

On A Pedestal

I wondered if I should make a comment about the revelations in the children’s literature community this week. At first I thought No but as the ripples have become king tides I thought that people might wonder why there is no reference to this weeks biggest story in publishing. Children’s writers are human. They are put on a pedestal as special guiders of behaviour, decorum and models of decency for 'they influence children'. You want to know that the books they write have no hidden fish hooks and are wholesome enough to give to young developing minds. (Teachers also get these labels.) Most children’s writers are women. (SCBWI figures put it at 9 out of 10) The males often have the added burden of having to write specifically for boys to encourage them to read. This makes them more likely to speak at conferences and festivals and libraries. Women writers are working just as hard to lift boys reading rates but they are often asked to change their name or ghost write or use initials to make their stories palatable to a male audience. They don’t get the same level of invites. (As for POC, they are often invisible.) So this week to have a major news story about the sexual abuse meted out to women in the children’s literature community felt like a body blow. Publishers Weekly tried to take a calm tone... but now the stories are being confirmed and corroborated and Agents are distancing themselves or dumping clients. A good reminder to writers that everything you do is in the public eye and if you fall off your pedestal you don’t just hit the ground... you bury yourself in a huge crater of snakes and molten lava is poured on top.

In other news.

Joel Friedlander of The Book Designer has been looking at the nuts and bolts of print publishing for a long time. He is seeing a shift in the way authors are now viewing print and he has some advice about when you should consider using offset printers instead of Print On Demand.

Has Instagram saved poetry?  Publishers Weekly seems to think so. I wonder if the Poets agree?  I bet if Byron was around now he’d be on Instagram...

Anne R Allen has a guest post on her blog this week from a creative writing teacher. I had to laugh when I read it... this fits exactly what friends who are writing teachers have to contend with. Read and weep with laughter.

Joanna Penn interviewed Becca Puglisi about the latest thesaurus – Emotional Wounds This is a great interview.  You should check out the book too.

In another writing craft interview Michael Hauge and Will Smith talk about the four must haves in storytelling. (Yes, that Will Smith)

In The Craft Section,

Master list of story development skills- Jami Gold- BOOKMARK!

How to introduce characters and Movement and action in dialogue-2 great posts from Now Novel-

Bookmark Both!

Banish interruptions in your writing time and Writing introspection- Writers Helping Writers  guest 

posts from Colleen Story and September Fawkes- Bookmark

How fan fiction helps your writing- Mythic Scribes

Trusting your process- Lauren Sapala –Interesting essay

In The Marketing Section,

8 ways to tell if your site has been hacked- Digital Reader- Bookmark

65 book marketing ideas- Mark Coker- Brand new FREE updated book from Smashwords founder. (Mark has been podcasting sections of this book this year.) Grab it!

Finding and researching agents step by step

Avoid Book Marketing traps –Penny Sansevieri Bookmark

Author Platform Cheat sheet- Bookmark

To Finish,

Valentines day was this week. Have you ever thought of writing a book with your life partner? Alli interviews husband and wife team Charlotte Zang and Alex Knudson about how they make it work.

This week Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi celebrated ten years of The Emotion Thesaurus... AKA The Bookshelf Muse. Ten years and six plus books later they are the must have authors on your writing desk. Angela and Becca have a special message to all their fans. Congratulations Team! (Raising a glass for your next 10!)

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.  If you want to shout me a coffee, just hit the coffee button on the top right. Thanks.

Pic Flickr Creative Commons- Christopher Michel

Ramesseum in Egypt. The Ozymandias Colossus:

I met a traveller from an antique land, 

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, 

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, 

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, 

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; 

And on the pedestal, these words appear: 

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; 

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! 

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare 

The lone and level sands stretch far away.” - Shelley

What’s In A Name...

I was listening today to the Spa Girls podcast on pen names and it got me thinking about how much a name identifies the author brand. In my blog posts I use the names of the content creators I reference as my label tags. This is probably against all the blogging rules. I have a list of experts whom I see as essential to check in with on a regular basis to provide overview of the industry or smart tips or new ideas. They are among the best in the business so I know that I am passing on quality advice.

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware is someone that you should check in with if you are ever offered a ‘too good to be true,’ deal or for peace of mind. This week Writer Beware had a post about all the clones that Author Solutions spawned. It makes sobering reading. There are so many hydras in the forest of publishing.

Joanna Penn and Orna Ross get together once a month to talk about issues for experienced authors in a Q and A for Alli. This week they were talking about personal branding, the latest Author Earnings report and the controversy it has caused, and rebranding the Indie Author Fringe conferences

Along with this good advice Alli have put together a quick overview of author business models. What systems should you be thinking of putting in place for your author business?

Kris Rusch continues her look at 2017 and turns it around for 2018. Self publishing is not the new kid on the block. Indie publishers are now a force with almost 1 in 5 books sold coming out of the Indie community. Kris and her husband Dean have more than 30 years in the publishing industry doing everything you can think of. They are the Go To people for the Gurus of the Indie world.

Jane Friedman has a guest blog on her website about rocking a free promotion day. If you are trying to get the word out about your book, here are some places and tips you can try.

Last week I highlighted all the big changes that have happened in the last two weeks in publishing. It’s not over yet. Barnes and Noble, America’s biggest bricks and mortar bookstore, want you to tell them what you like about the book you just read. The Digital Reader is trying out their beta version... Competition for Goodreads anyone?

Write On Con starts tomorrow... Online free conference for children’s writers... Jump on over and check out the fun.

Bookbub have a list of suggestions if you want to sell your books overseas... and it doesn’t cost much!

Kimberly Rempel has written a guest post on perfectionism and how it can derail the author. This is a timely post as I find that reading some very fine books over the Christmas period has left me a little flat when I look at my own writing. I must follow Kimberley’s advice.

In The Craft Section,

Using indirect dialogue- Anne R Allen – Bookmark

25 mistakes that send your screenplay to the trash- Bang2Write- Bookmark

Using exclamation points- Editors blog

Writing characters clothing- Now Novel-Bookmark

How Google Docs improves writing

3 paradoxes of slow writing- Roz Morris

All you need to know about story structure in 5 minutes-writetodone- Bookmark

Pattern and Repetition- Gabriela Pereira- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Capture readers with better book description- Kevin Tumlinson-Bookmark

Using giveaways to find more readers

Boost your chances to get a Bookbub deal- Bookbub – Bookmark

27 author website resources

25 content ideas for newsletters

Mistakes made in book promotion- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Bookstagram (Instagram tips)- Bookriot

To Finish, 

Among other groups rebranding their identities are the Self Publishing Guys who kicked down the doors of publishing and said follow us into the promised land. Jonny, Sean and Dave are pivoting... into something new.... Check out their new venture in their own typical style...

Maureen

@craicer

(It’s really me...)

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. This blog runs on goodwill and coffee. If you want to shout me one, just hit the coffee button on the top right. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons / Bodo

Taking Turns

It’s February already???

Where did the time go?

The kids went back to school this week. I tried to find all my writing projects. They are scattered around the house in folders of scribbled notes... because the kids kept taking my computer.

This week there was a semi quiet announcement, which was pounced on by industry commentators. Walmart announced a deal with Rakuten Kobo. Walmart is a very big chain of stores selling all kinds of products including grocery. Kobo started as a Canadian eBook distributor with its own hardware reader. They operate ebook stores all over the world but not in the US. This is going to make 2018 very interesting with increased competition for Amazon.

While Kobo have been making moves so has Apple. They have rebranded their ebook store. The Digital Reader has some ideas on what Apple can do next to really ramp up the competition in the ebook market place.

Next it was Google Play’s turn. They started to sell audiobooks this week. If you have been looking at the audio format and wondering whether to do a deal with Audible with a 7 year contract lock in.... Maybe it’s time to take a look at all the other players who have audio book storefronts.

Here in NZ we are lucky to get free ISBN’s for our work. It would be nice if we got free I.S.N.I. -International Standard Name Identifier. This means that the code attached to your name identifies you as the owner of a public work. If there are 500 Jane Smiths all saying they wrote a book... which one are you? YouTube has just become a registration agency for ISNI. What does it mean for creators? Publishing Perspectives takes a look

Kris Rusch has an interesting blog post on things that can be learned about the Indie Publishing business from the publishing train wrecks of 2017. A little bit of distance to think calmly is always a good thing.

Karen Meyers has an interesting opinion piece on the ALLi blog. Why do you need to learn to market? Her answer; Do you want to be in business? It all comes back to what you want from your writing career. A very interesting and thoughtful post.

Ann Kroeker has a solution to the ‘where to start’ problem of writing. Reverse engineer your editorial calendar. Start right from the end... publishing it. This post turns writing on its head... but it just might work.

Janet Reid answered a readers question about how hard it was to restart a writing career from an Agents perspective. It is not impossible but...

Jane Friedman has a guest post from Jennifer Probst on creating amazing secondary characters. I have been guilty of letting a secondary character have too much limelight. How can you manage these characters properly?

In The Craft Section,

7 steps to for plotting novel and personal goals- Martha Aalderson- Bookmark

How to use dictation for healthier writing- Passive Guy- Read the comments for great advice.

How Authors become better readers- K M Weiland

Script analysis – Coco  Scene break down- Go Into The Story- Bookmark

5 types of surprises- SeptemberFawkes- Bookmark

9 secrets to supercharge your fiction- Anne R Allen – Bookmark

Characterisation- Fear – Ruthanne Reid

In The Marketing Section,

What to put in your Author Newsletter- Glen Miller- Bookmark

Have you got a catalogue page- Darcy Pattison- Bookmark

Sales theory for authors and How to promote your book on the cheap- Book Marketing Tools

Why you need an author profile and where to put it- Erica Verrillo

Media friendly website content- Bookworks

18 Book Marketing predictions for 2018- Penny Sansevieri

How to Give Away an eBook from an author website-Digital Reader- Bookmark

To Finish,

It’s time for a bit of inspiration... Jerry Jenkins asked 41 Authors what they wished they knew when they were starting out...

For me... it’s amazing how much you can get done in sprint writing. AND get a computer the kids can’t borrow...

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. A coffee is always nice so if you want to shout me one, just hit the coffee button. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons / Elliott Brown - Merry Go Round at London Zoo

Looking After Ourselves

This week after a long time away Author Earnings came back with a roar. They have sharpened up their spider bots and have delved deep into the data and have found more interesting things about all things publishing with Amazon... and they are sharing some interesting data finds with authors.

Because they are so much better at combing the data, Passive Guy was moved to sound a warning that they have to be careful as they know more about the industry of publishing than some big publishers do and this might open themselves up for lawsuits.

Mike Shatzkin has also been looking at the publishing business and he checked in with Data Guy about some key things in the book selling industry. Data Guy backs up most of what Mike has been pointing out over the last few years. There are some interesting points about Romance books and bestseller lists. (If you want a sneak preview about where we all might be heading with retail stores check out Amazon Go – Its newest bricks and mortar store.)

Agent Laurie McClean has been crystal ball gazing about what is going to be hot around the publishing offices. (If you want to get a quick glance at what agents are calling for type #MSWL in theTwitter search bar.)

Have you checked out the sexism in children’s books lately? The Guardian has and made a special study of it too. I was surprised to see such high figures of gender imbalance. Did you know that most main character animals are male?

Publishers Weekly has a great post by Jane Friedman on the value of free content... no, it’s not valueless, It is all in how you use it.

The book industry got together recently in Tunisia to look at finally doing something about piracy. Publishing Perspectives reports on the conference and the piracy discussion. It might be a case of too late...

WriteOnCon is back! The free online 3 day children’s writing conference starts in a few  weeks. Check out the schedule and book some time to soak up the great posts on your calendar. (If you write for children you really should check it out!)

Are you a healthy writer? I’m not at the moment. Moving anywhere in this heat wave is exhausting. However over the years I have been looking at standing desks and dictation. I finally got my computer to accept dictation... Unfortunately that computer is heading problems with my excellent stop it doesn’t speak clearly- (Translation; Unfortunately the computer is having problems with my accent. It doesn’t speak kiwi.) Joanna Penn has a great excerpt from her latest book on the healthy writer on dictation.

Joanna has also interviewed Alex Anders on writing diverse characters. Are you doing this correctly or are they all cardboard cutout cliches...?

In The Craft Section,

How to build suspense- Peter Rey

Writing a Novella- Mythic Scribes- Bookmark

How to choose character names-

7 steps to plotting a novel- Martha Alderson- Bookmark

Learn How to write as you read- Now Novel - Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Best way to publish print books

Book Promotion tips – The Book Designer- Bookmark

How to rock a free day promotion- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

11 tips for the most effective AMS ads- Bookmark

The complete guide to eBook distribution-Reedsy

Facebook changes their news feed... what does it means for authors? A must read on how the changes affect you.

To Finish,

With all the planning for the year underway... Writers need to take care of themselves too. Sometimes we find it hard and we wonder why. Lauren Sapala has a great article on mental attitudes that trip us up, and how we can trick our brains out of sabotaging us.

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. If you want to shout me a coffee just hit the hit the coffee button. I’m nose deep in iced coffee to cope with the heatwave...Thanks.

Pic: Flicker Creative Commons/ Ben Dalton

Counting Down The Year

January continues to be....

Scorching.... Bitterly cold.... Heat wave.... Blizzard.... Torrential rain.... Amazing....

All of the above....

In publishing news this week... A ‘mistake’ on Amazon royalty pages had the Indie publishing world wildly speculating whether there were moves afoot from the biggest player in the market. When it comes to Amazon, a sniffle... could mean the Black Death for authors.

While authors nervously await royalty changes Kindle haschanged their publishing guidelines on cover images. Now that Kindle is unrolling its print option... every move is being analysed by the industry. Sadly that includes the layoff of over 50 editorial CreateSpace staff this week.

Author services companies continue to improve and change. Book Funnel is unrolling a service that will add selling direct from your website to the impressive list of things they also do for authors. They have also started a nifty blog.

Ingram Spark have started a podcast for indie authors... They promise 15 minute episodes filled with tips among other new things that they will be unrolling this year.

Kris Rusch has written the second part of her 2017 year inreview... and its another knockout post. There is lots to think about as you make your goals for 2018.

I’m always interested in what is coming down the track for writers in the future that is why I fell on Joanna Penn’s latest podcast with cries of ... “Really! OMG.” So If you want to know what got a lot of people thinking about future tech check out Publishing Tech trends for authors 2018.

I was recently asked about imposter syndrome... this can be a very real problem for authors. Here Chuck talks about it and ways to combat it. (Warnings on language... but that is half the fun of Chuck, images you can’t forget...)

Have you ever looked at a chain bookseller and wonder how they can get those deals with publishers that indie bookshops can’t? An Indie bookshop owner has come up with a way to get many Indies to collaborate for bargains. If you know any booksellers... send the link along.

Judith Briles has an interesting post on The Book Designer about Author inner circles. These are people who are trusted by the author, who understand the publishing world. How many and who should be in your inner circle?

Children’s writers in New Zealand are thrilled that one of our own is shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award... Joy Cowley has been a huge supporter of children’s writers in New Zealand over the years and her books are adored the world over. The HCH Award is also known as the Little Nobel Prize... so we’re all crossing our fingers... (Coming on the heels of NZ’s highest honour- Joy is having a fantastic year and it’s only half way through January.

K M Weiland has a great post on Why We Write- Have you ever stopped to think about it. Katie has four possible reasons why we can’t help but scribble words down...

In The Craft Section,

How to goose the muse- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

How to write a memoir- Reedsy-Bookmark

How to harness creative momentum- Gabriel Pereira- Bookmark

How to kill book sales with 10 mistakes –Anne R Allen - Bookmark

How to turn dead time into productive time

Dumb little writing tricks that work- Go Into The Story

In The Marketing Section,

Preorder strategies- Bookbub – Bookmark

The reason Branding confuses you- Rachel Thompson

How to brief a cover designer

Trends in cover design

Why I’m writing under a new name - Litreactor

The eyes have it- Michael Alvear- A fascinating look at how people view the Amazon  buy page- BOOKMARK

How to get Book reviews without begging. – Dave Chesson- Bookmark

To Finish,

I’m a sucker for infographics... and K M Weiland has put together a series of great infographics from all over the place to show storytelling nuts and bolts... Go on print them out and plaster your office with them.

Then take this little quiz to see what kind of storyteller you are...

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. Coffee always welcome.  Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons/ Bill Ward

https://www.flickr.com/photos/billward/16294164331/in/photolist-qPRRnM-7WEHn-