Thursday, April 30, 2015

Disruptors



Digesting the London Book Fair and Indie ReCon generally takes a good month. So much information about writing and publishing  in big bites means you can quickly get full of rich information. Sometimes that means putting nice links aside to digest later.
Createspace has a quick overview on what were some good takeaways from London Book Fair and Young Adult author, SK Holder also has a list of great info learned at the Author HQ Hub. (This is a new venture for London, actually encouraging Authors to the Fair.)

Indie ReCon has posted the panel video How Self Publishing Is Changing Traditional Publishing, held on the last day of their conference. This is a fascinating look at the industry in the middle of change. Well worth grabbing a coffee and taking time to watch.

Publishing Perspectives has a model they suggest publishers should be looking at. Louis CK.
But he’s a comedian I hear you say. Yes but he has taken control of his own content and is using it in new ways. Now if Publishing Perspectives is urging publishers to look at this model...what about writers?

This leads in to the wonderful Roz Morris and some very important words of wisdom for the Author publishing in 2015. (BOOKMARK)

Dario Cirello opens a little can of wriggly things when he did a guest post about crowd funding and patronage. Do you agree or disagree with using crowd funding for your writing project or are you skeptical? The conversation is in the comments so make sure you read them.

Mike Shatzkin takes a look at the next Amazon contract negotiation with the last of the big 5 publishers. It will be the meeting of the behemoths of publishing. Who will blink first? How will it change the industry as a whole? A lot of jobs will be on the line when RandomPenguin and Amazon sit down to parley.

In breaking news, Booktrack (that little Kiwi startup from a few years ago) has some nice big news for authors. (Yes, someone wants to pay us.)

In the Craft Section,
Janice Hardy talks about creating depth with mini arcs. (great post)

Elizabeth Spann Craig’s handy checklist - Is your book ready for publishing.

Bob Mayer has a no holds barred post on traits you must cultivate to be a successful writer.

Chuck Wendig also has THE post on stupid writer tricks. (BOOKMARK)

Jody Hedlund has a great post on using your setting effectively. (BOOKMARK)

Here is a little challenge for you. Describe your current MS in 10 syllables. Make it a DEKAAZ poem. Circus Mystery: Clowning around with codes. (Yes I cheated. It’s all in the pronunciation.)

In the Marketing Section,
Molly Greene has 5 Self Publishing lessons (and a great comment stream.)

Publishers Weekly has the Google Ads 101 guide.

Joanna Penn has a huge post on why she has just changed book titles and covers. (BOOKMARK)

Creative Indie has 7 Design Tips for Book Covers.

The Book Designer has 7 tips for effective Metadata (BOOKMARK)

How to partner with your local bookstore- Do you know what it is like on the other side of the counter. (Interesting Read)

Website Of The Week
David Gaughran, besides being a digital publishing guru, has made it his mission to educate writers about the horrible traps out there for newbie writers. Especially those publishing packaging companies that promise you everything... just sign over your first born child. His article, this week, on the many faces of Author Solutions makes sobering reading and is a must read. (Even if you know about them, you will still be surprised at how far their tentacles spread in the publishing world.)

To Finish,
We all love a good infographic and Jane Friedman has put together  a great one on the various ways we can publish now.

After 100 years of business as usual we are now living in a constant state of disruption in the publishing landscape. We must be making up for lost time.

maureen
@craicer

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Standing Up for Conferences


This week I’m still digesting the mega online Indie publishing conference Indie ReCon. I still haven’t caught up with all of the online content, but I’m happy it will stay there for a while. There is so much juicy information there. A big cheer to the behind the scenes team for putting it all together. More than 25,000 people dropped into Indie ReCon last year. I would say that was surpassed this year, hugely!
Porter Anderson, spent some time at the London Book Fair and dropped into The Indie ReCon meet-up at Foyles in London.

Two interesting developments have caught the eye of The Passive Guy this week. The rise of digital reading in China, over 50% of adults are reading online.
And a new bookselling venture in Florida. This one caught my attention as it seems to be taking the showroom bookstore model and tweaking it for Indie Authors. There are lots of comments about how successful this model might be.
I am seeing more Indie authors grouping together to share resources and publish collectively. I’ve been saying this is the way to go for years - this  bookstore selling model seems to take it all a step further.

Authors rarely talk about the hazards of their profession but with J K Rowling tweeting this morning about writers back... (too long sitting in one position,) attention is back on stand-up writing desks. Michael Hyatt blogged about his desk this week and then Nicola Morgan decided to share how she improved her health dramatically in the last month. I’m eyeing up my desk... if I can get to it. It seems to be the repository of the families clutter.

Author websites have been the focus of Joanna Penn’s blog this week. This is an ultra comprehensive post on the subject. You will find yourself coming back again to it. Don’t get overwhelmed as she says... small tweaks.
Joanna has also interviewed Tim Grahl about book titles, productivity, marketing and other stuff.  It’s a wide ranging interview and full of tips.

Last week I linked to Delilah Dawson’s plea about Self Promotion and Social Media. This week staying with this topic Rachel Thompson gives some tips to deal with this stress and not become a spam monster.

In the Craft Section,

Roz Morris on tips for writing when time is scarce (which also has a link to her indie Recon video)

All about Pacing. This is a great post on that tricky craft subject.

Improving your character action beats- great post from K M Weiland

Editing – craft tips

Picking the right editor for each stage of writing.


The ultimate guide to what to do about the boring bitsbetween scenes. Bookmark


In the Marketing Section,

Book design tip- include reviews

Author Newsletters- Bookmark this



Website of the Week
Dropping back into The Book Designer for a guest post on time saving tools for writers

To Finish,
This is one writer’s experience of attending Indie ReCon. I would agree with her. It is always good to meet up with other authors somewhere just to reassure yourself that you are not alone in this writing gig. Although Indie ReCon was amazing, checking in face to face at an author event is also important. We can spend too much time sitting in front of a screen. Tinderbox 2015 is gathering steam... the timetable is becoming a juggernaut with lots more cool stuff being added. (We’ve got to stop tweaking it!)
I’m off to re-jig the Tinderbox2015 timetable, again, and play around with my writing desk.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic is from a review of Standing Desks… this one goes up and down at the push of a button.
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