Online Identity

The debate this week on the blogosphere is Author Websites.

They take too much time.

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

Most author websites are outdated...never updated and boring.

VS

Engaging websites connect readers with the author.

Connected readers are your marketing team.

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

So many opinions on this one...

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

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

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

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

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

In Craft,

6 ways not to start your novel

Kidlit.com looks at building your book lexicon

Top 5 reasons to write New Adult

An easy technique to make your writing more immediate and effective

In Marketing,

PublishingGuru -  Twitter for authors

Training Authors – are you losing customers over this common problem

Your Writer Platform – defeat obscurity tips

Gordon Burdett on a handy tip for titles

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

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

To Finish,

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

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

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

maureen

Pic from Flickr/Creative Commons/ SEOplanter 

Trolls and Turtles

Reviews...fake...nasty...and contained has been the topic around the Blogosphere this week.

Goodreads moved to ‘set the appropriate tone’ of reviews on their site this week.  But some cried foul as they saw it as censorship.

As I have said before, if you don’t like the book don’t review it...or say why you don’t like the book and back it up....

Goodreads new policy is to try to stop the bullying reviews and personal attacks of authors on the site. The freedom of anonymity, while you are sitting at home, to write on the internet a corrosive review of a book or author because you can...and no one will call you out to your face for your behaviour...brings out the troll in some people. And trolls seem to seek affirmation of their troll behaviour from other trolls.  Any writer putting their head above the parapet to call out troll behaviour gets targeted. Hugh Howey talks about this and how he was guilty of ducking it until this week...A great article from Hugh.

Being the geek I am, I read PopSci and this week PopSci looked at a scientific study of negative reviews on science stories and found that constant negative reviews which are emotive, skewed the perceptions of the readers to put aside the facts of the science article.

PopSci pulled the plug on comments on their articles on their website...there are still ways to comment...FB, Twitter.... but not on their website. 

If you carry out those results to their logical end--commenters shape public opinion; public opinion shapes public policy; public policy shapes how and whether and what research gets funded--you start to see why we feel compelled to hit the "off" switch.

Self-publishing advice has an article which tells you about the subculture of Amazon Reviewers...yes they talk to each other...

Porter Anderson spends a lot of his Ether just looking at the articles flying about reviewersthis week and there are many... So take a long break and maybe reach for alcohol.

The Frankfurt Bookfair is about to kick off and as usual there are lots of side events looking at the state of publishing. Publishing Perspectives takes a look at one aspect that will be big news at the fair... Self Publishing : the industry implications and impact.

Another must read is Kris Rusch. This week’s stand out article is the stages of an Indie writer. This is being tweeted around the blogosphere...

Elisabeth S Craig also has a nice little post on being a Hybrid Writer.

Chuck has always been Mr Nice when talking about traditional publishers, after all he may cuss but he is not a hypocrite.  (Unlike a certain author who is getting roundly dissed for his hypocrisy all over the web.) Chuck traditionally publishes but doesn’t diss Indies or Amazon or anyone that plays fair... until today when he came out in Chuck mode in an open letter... Dear Publishers.

In Craft,

Star Wars...and the 8 things it can teach us about writing.

Simple Writing  has one of the best explanations ofVoice I have read in a while.

In Marketing,

Julie Muesil looks at the brilliant way that Hugh Howey markets.

MediaBistro takes a look at how to do book covers with public domain pictures.

DigitalBookWorld looks at 5 ways that authors can handle bad reviews.

Website to go look at,

This is an author run co-op with some illustrious members...making waves in the indie publishing world. Check out how they got together and how they publish their work. I keep saying this is the way of the future...

To Finish,

SCBWI has introduced a new award for non traditionally published books...and Katherine Applegate (Animorphs) has been signed by HarperCollins for a new series on the strength of 3 sentences...

The green trolls of jealousy should be gathering to pull her down about now. 

More Power to Katherine’s Arm. 

I saw in my Twitter feed today a nice reminder....

If you think your idea is too weird to fly... just remember these four words. 

Teenage. Mutant. Ninja. Turtles.

Feel free to comment....

maureen

Pic courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons/ Frankensteinnn