Thursday, November 26, 2015

Premature Babbling


This morning my Twitter feed filled up with reaction to a new kid on the YA publishing block and his attitude. Normally a new kid on the block would be welcomed and included but when the new kid talks down about the very genre they are writing in and then writes some dubious blog posts, the YA community will not ignore you. Chuck explains it best with his witty no-holds-barred post on not spitting on the legacy of the writers that have gone before you.

The Guardian also has a pertinent article on literature writers who deny that their work is actually genre... they wouldn’t lower themselves. SIGH! Read it and cheer.

This week there have been a few posts celebrating pre orders and warnings about pre orders.
Publishers Weekly has an interesting article by Mark Coker of Smashwords on using pre orders to ramp up your first day sales. You need to have preorders across the bookselling sites to get on the bestseller lists.
If you are contemplating using pre orders in your marketing strategy, Carefully reading both these articles will give you the full picture.

November looks like the month I mention Asia every week. Mark Williams has a very detailed post looking at the global publishing industry using mobile phones. If you are looking into the future of publishing, check out what he has to say... grab a beverage of your choice, as it will take a while but it is worth it. Time to think GLOBAL!

Anne R Allen has a blog post that is being mentioned a lot around Twitter. If you are still trying to get your head around the changes in Amazon’s review policy, Anne has carefully laid all the do’s and don’t out for you.

Joann Penn has a very interesting interview up with LiteraryEstate lawyer, Kathryn Goldman. There are lots of things to think about in this interview. If you haven’t given a thought to what might happen to your Intellectual Property in the future... you need to read or listen to this interview.

Future Book has a section on Future Book Tech.  As we are in the middle of exam season here this post caught my eye. Here is a profile of a young man who saw a need to provide mobile exam preparation courses. He is now partnering with some of the worlds biggest educational publishers.

In the Craft Section,




Expand deepen and create – September Fawkes Bookmark!


In the Marketing Section,

Rachel Thompsons book marketing tips part two (Part one was in last weeks blog)



Marketing plans- Jessica West

To Finish,
Last week I had Kristine Rusch as my website of the week. This week she wrote a great post on the journey of one writer, Marie Force. Often we hear we should write to the market... or we shouldn’t write to the market or we should write contemporary or we should write genre.... Read Kris- (take it to heart) and Write what you love!

Maureen
@craicer




Thursday, November 19, 2015

Speaking Our Fears




The week the world has been shaken up and now everybody is thinking about mortality. 
We are not invulnerable. 
In the writing world Tech Crunch analysed the publishing industry and came to the conclusion that there is a new parallel publishing universe happening. Welcome To The Dark Side.

Catherine Ryan Hyde has written an amazing post onrejection. This tells the story of Pay It Forward. Catherine has some great advice for writers struggling with the lows of the publishing world.

Dean Wesley Smith talks about the times that the writer becomes overwhelmed by the critical voice in their head saying ‘What’s the point?’ This is a great post about reconnecting with the joy of writing.

Jane Friedman recently wrote about the myths of writing and then linked to an interesting article on writers and addictions by Douglas Millikin.

Jody Hedlund has a post on How To Drive Yourself Crazy As AWriter. Jody gives great advice so make sure you drop in and read what not to do.

By now you may be reaching for a stiff drink!

On the good news front. China needs more books. Publishers Weekly has just covered the Shanghai Children’s Book Fair and the news is allpositive... and great opportunities are opening up.

Rick Riordan has managed to get his foreign publishers to stop white washing his characters on the cover of his books. This is great news. I wondered if it was a language translation problem but sometimes that is not the case... Marketing can make the wrong decisions! I was thinking about my own characters this week and realised that all the characters in my head were biracial... but I don’t describe them by skin tone. Something to work on maybe...

In the Craft Section,
Molly Greene has a great novel outlining method



How to decide how many POV characters to have.- Angela Ackerman/ Marcy Kennedy


How to create a memorable setting- Pat Verducci-Bookmark





In the Marketing Section,






Book Marketing tips- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Website of the Week
Kristine Kathryn Rusch has been on fire this week with some excellent posts on the publishing industry. She is a multi talented writer/ editor across many genres and is much respected. She doesn’t pull any punches or suffer fools. She will give it to you straight... Read Her!

To Finish

This week I’ve been thinking about talking.  I’m comfortable with chatting to people one on one, small groups etc. Then at our recent National Conference I had to Skype interview in front of 100 people, the lectern was shaking I clutched it so hard. A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed on radio for a new magazine style programme being developed. That microphone looked like an interrogation spotlight! 
Talking in public is important for writers to master. Elizabeth S Craig has a great post on public speaking for writers.

The Podcast for Writers Island is in the sidebar if you want to listen to some cool Indie Music and Writer Tidbits and me. I guess I should probably tell you that a version of this blog is up on Bibliocrunch every week. Talking isn't so bad… when you are writing.

Maureen
@craicer

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