Hailstorm

I’m sitting in a warm house listening to classic jazz and being completely distracted by the hail hitting the windows. I am supposed to be on a writing retreat. That’s where you run away to a distraction free zone and wrestle with your manuscript. As I write this Stormy Weather is playing on the stereo… and out the window. Honestly you would think I was writing fiction.

It has been a little bit stormy out in the publishing blogosphere this week.

There have been storms of internet bad behaviour over at Goodreads… which follows the Twitter storm over E L James last week.

Anne R Allen has a great blog piece where she talks about the rise of the bullying culture among readers, authors and reviewers and what we can do about it. She quotes Anne Rice, who this week declared she ‘was fed up with censorship by troll.’

The Alliance of Independent Authors is promoting their ethical author manifesto and it has a clause about not engaging in troll behaviour along with other good acts of authorship.

Writer Beware has an interesting post on Amazon reviews. Amazon has been tightening up the reviews it posts because of sock puppetry and one star bullying behaviour but they may have gone too far in the zealousness. It all hinges on their data mining… and boy do they know a lot about you.

(Sorry just had to take a break to dance around to Louis Armstrong’s Aint Misbehaving.)  

Mike Shatzkin takes a pot shot at the WSJ and the Guardian. This week they will both be publishing the first chapter from Harper Lee’s new book, Go Set A Watchman. Aside from the 1950’s era of journalism involved, Mike thinks they and Lee’s publishers have completely missed the point in getting readers for this book.

Nathan Hull of The Bookseller is lamenting the way the rest of the world is looking to the US subscription model woes as a reason not to go the subscription way. Subscriptions can work for authors and publishers if they realise that Europe is not the US which is still operating on a paper and print mentality.

Jane Friedman  always has interesting things to say. Here she looks at the P and L sheet publishers have to fill in before they decide to publish. Authors should also be aware of the Profit and Loss Sheet and how it impacts them.

In the Craft Section,

Two great posts from Janice Hardy –  Five edits to strengthen your writing and Setting mood and tone in your scenes.

What is your Narrator viewpoint?

Different types of tension- Ava Jae

Five important ways to add symbolism- K M Weiland

Seven tips for adding humour – Rhoda Baxter

73 ways to make a difference in your writing

In the Marketing Section,

If you are thinking about audiobooks in your writing future check out this interview by Joanna Penn with Jeffrey Kafer.

If you are interested in the latest cover designs, Shelftalker has rounded up this year’s trends in Y A. Hands are in…

For the design types… a discussion on the latest typography offerings for digital books.

Molly Greene on the 99c ebook sale.

How authors can use Mailchimp and the best ways to use Goodreads.

When your cover gets copied – what you can do about it. (Writers helping Writers)

Website of the Week.

Bob Mayer always has interesting things to say. This week he has a great post on outlining your novel. And for those people thinking about going to a conference in the near future here is his slideshow on how to get the most out of a conference.

To Finish,

Wimbledon is on this week. They are sweltering in the heat. Publishing Perspectives has an entertaining look at what it might be like if publishing was like Wimbledon.  

Back to wrestling with the manuscript...

Maureen

@craicer

Flagging Down Karma

This week the power of group/mob behaviour was in full view around the blogosphere.

And it wasn’t pretty!

E L James had a torrid time on an ‘Ask E L James’ Twitter chat that her PR people should never have enabled. Mob behaviour was in evidence when she was publically vilified at a live event. You can hate the stories... just don’t read them, but don’t attack the author. They are a human being. Porter reports on the fallout and how Chuck Wendig coped with it.

For the anonymous haters who hide behind computer screens and avatars to say hate speech- there will be KARMA.

This week Apple’s appeal against their sentence of collusion with the big publishers got thrown out. (See Karma...) Fortune magazine details just our cozy the deals Apple and the publishers made. It is not pretty reading.

Scribd, the ebook subscription company, has come up against the voracious romance reader and decided that limiting their subscription is the way to go. There are howls of protest from readers who are instantly penalised for reading too much and from writers who find their books have just disappeared. The Bookseller looks at the issue and what might be a solution.

Writers trying to get their head around the new Amazon subscription service pay per page read would do well to check out Susan Kaye Quinn’s comparison breakdown. Susan’s straight forward analysis clearly shows the writer just what a pay per page means as opposed to a borrow. Math wins and so do some writers.

Fake online reviews are still happening and some authors are being burned by negative review campaigns. Amazon is rolling out some new algorithms to clean this up. Porter talks about what can be done, should be done, is being done about sock puppetry.

In the Craft Section,

3 small changes that will transform your writing

Revising without tears (Bookmark)

Don’t trim words- Chop them out.

The writers skill- Stephen Pressfield

The secret behind making me care about your characters- Chuck Wendig (usual warnings)

Why starting with action messes up so many beginnings- Jami Gold

6 writing techniques

How fiction writers can ramp up tension and pacing- CS Lakin (Bookmark)

Truth and Fiction- Girl Cliques- Becca Puglisi (Bookmark)

In the Marketing Section,

Behind the scenes making a cover- Dane Low

Podcasting tools

Book marketing checklist –Tim Grahl (Comprehensive)

3 questions for indie authors

Social media for authors

Book marketing plans – (Bookmark)

Special forces tools that help writers-Bob Mayer

Book Market results- Nicholas Rossis (Fascinating! Bookmark)

Website of the Week

Grammar – You can’t ignore it. There are some great websites out there to help you write more better (spot the deliberate grammar mangling.) Check out the Grammarly blog for nifty tips and great articles.

To Finish,

Jane Friedman has an interview with Nathan Bransford on her blog. Nathan has been it all... an agent, a writer, a reviewer.... He is in a unique position to comment on today’s publishing industry.

maureen

@craicer

Pic: From Grammarly blog on writing retreats.

Challenging Contracts

This week my Twitter feed is still full of the Kindle Unlimited pay per page write ups from media... So much angst out there.

What does it mean? Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service- like a library. Authors who have their book in KU (which is exclusive) used to be paid per borrow. Now they will be paid per page read. If you write short stories- great. If you write page turning epic fantasies of encyclopedia proportions- great. If you write boring rip offs of turgid junk - not so great. This comment seems to sum it up - They are paying us to write well.

 The Authors Guild fair contract campaign is gathering momentum. Take a look at what the Authors Guild are asking for... Are you shocked that authors don’t get these rights in their contracts? After years of reading Writer Beware posts... I think its about time Publishers were being called on this.

This week Taylor Swift called out Apple for not paying artists on free trials of their music streaming service... and Apple backed down. Phillip Jones from The Bookseller notes what Taylor has done for the music industry and asks do we need Taylor to come over to publishing because there are a few things...

Molly Greene has an interesting post on estate planning forthe self published writer. Even if you are traditionally published you need to think about your literary estate. Have you got any ideas on what might happen to your work? If you have a shonky contract your publisher may be able to do anything....

 Anne R Allen writes some good solid advice. Here she outlines the six bad reasons to write a novel and also the six good reasons.

James Scott Bell has the ten things you need to know about the writing life. This is a print it out and stick it on your wall kind of post!

Janice Hardy has an Indie Author business series happening on her blog. This week Marcy Kennedy is looking at competitive analysis in the business plan. This is a fascinating dig deep look at your genre and what works…. (Bookmark)

Recently Susan Kaye Quinn was interviewed by Lindsay Buroker for the SFF Marketing podcast. This was a wide ranging interview just stuffed with great questions and answers about what works and what doesn’t for marketing online. This is well worth a watch! It is long so set some time aside. I’m really looking forward to chatting with Susan at our conference in October.

In the Craft Section,

Are you scared of plot?

What type of secret does your character keep?- Angela Ackerman

Writers rituals and why they work

Using Back Story effectively- Kristen Lamb

Seven sneaky ways to bring your dialogue alive- (I do this all the time)

Will readers find your protagonist worthy?- Angela Ackerman

Getting what’s in your head down on the page- Janice Hardy (Bookmark)

In the Marketing Section,

5 book promotions that really work- Molly Greene

Public speaking tips

The top 10 resources for self published authors

Building a literary community- Joanna Penn

Indie authors offline marketing strategies

Seven reasons why authors fail to publish-Michael Neff (Bookmark)

To Finish,

All writers go through the feeling like a fraud syndrome, sometimes every day. Bob Mayer has some questions for you to ponder about how far into The Imposter Syndrome you are and tips for getting over it.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic: Flickr/Creative Commons -Nobmouse

A Week Of It

Such a busy week, Monday started with the  NZ National Librarians Children’s Book Awards. A great night with some expected and unexpected wins. The Hells Pizza chain committed to another year of sponsorship. These are the only book awards left in NZ with sponsorship.

Then Tuesday night our Tinderbox conference opened for registrations. The team gathered to toast the opening and watch the screen fill up. Some workshops are close to full already less than 48 hours later. It looks like we got the mix right with hands on workshops on writing and illustrating, marketing, tax, contracts, editing, presenting, school visits, self publishing, copyright and translation. Phew. After adding in various dinner and wine events, we all needed a lie down before we opened for registrations. Don’t leave it too late to register we might be fully subscribed in less than a week.   

This week Amazon changed their Kindle Unlimited pay per borrow rules. Now it is pay per page read... The sky is falling ran the comments on Social Media. Hugh Howey shook his head and launched into finger waving as he called out the worst nay sayers. Hugh doesn’t think there is a problem at all. Porter took a more measured approach with comment from lots of sources... Do you want one entity to know so much about your reading habits?

This week the Authors Guild launched their fair contracts for writers campaign. Its time to let the public know just what can be stuffed into a writers contract. Porter talks to the new guild president and finds out why they are calling on readers to back the authors. Frankly the increasing prevalence of harsh non compete clauses deserve to be exposed as unethical and unreasonable bullying.

The lovely Janice Hardy has a great post on can we know too much about the publishing industry. here she outlines three mindsets and encourages everyone to find what inspired them most to start writing. Sometimes you need to block out the publishing world.

Today Smashwords launched a nifty addition- pre orders across the board to all their outlets... and you don’t need the product ready.  You can use your pre order date as your writing deadline. Mark Coker explains all in his blog today.

In the Craft Section,

Tiffany Reisz on dialogue - Great Post

K M Weiland on Character goals

Different Story Starters

The Seven Sins of World Building

10 Simple keys to Story Structure- (Bookmark)

Complex Book Plotting – Great Post

Creating Menacing Antagonists

Writers Block – ways to combat this.

Joanna Penn interviews Jen Blood on Editing (Bookmark)

In the Marketing Section,

How to get readers hooked from your e-book sample

How to Design a great e-book without design skills

Anne R Allen on dos and don’t for author bloggers

E tools for freelancers (comprehensive list)

Free Marketing tools.

Website of The Week

Writers In The Storm have a great website with interesting resources and articles. This article by Susan Spann is from earlier in the year on protecting your copyrights online.  Always relevant!

To Finish,

Joanna Penn interviews Nathan Meunier about gaming and writing and some very exciting software that allows you to write a choose your own adventure book and turn it into a game...

And the week isn’t finished yet!

Maureen

@craicer

Pic Flickr /Creative Commons/ photosteve101

This Diverse Business

This week the NZ children and Young Adult Book Awards finalists were announced and in a new move The Children’s Choice finalists, voted on by NZ kids, were added. The kids choice and the official judges marched in step for about half the time and then diverged so altogether there is a much wider sampling of books. This is great because it shows the depth and the breadth of the amazing writers and illustrators in our country. They are still looking for sponsors. So if you know of anyone....

Publishers Weekly have taken a close look at the figures from AAP and sales were ... up. Leading the charge, Kids books at a wopping 20%. Yes they could be said to be saving the publishers bacon.

This year there have been several campaigns about publishing diverse books. Leading Agent Sarah Davis talks about what books are crossing her desk and how the publishers are now calling for diverse books.

Porter Anderson follows along on this theme with a look at gender in publishing. What’s fairness got to do with it. There seems to be a lot of women in publishing until you get to the board room.

Still in business... How European VAT is affecting selfpublishers.

Kristen Nelson talks about whether subscription services are good for authors ... and the rise of the author space in offices. (Fantasy... the New York office loft with some writing buddies.)

Which brings me to... Author collaboration. How to go about it. Triskele books has a tool kit you need to Bookmark! I’ve said it for years, Authors need to look at this model to make an impact!

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are going from strength to strength. Here they announce their new venture to go with all those cool writing thesauri ... Software. They are such cool and savvy writers!

Kris Rusch has a new project- Women in Sci Fi especially the forgotten women. I fell in love with Sci Fi when I was a teen and discovered Andre Norton. And it blew my mind to find out she was a woman. Kris looks at her legacy and the history of how these writers became forgotten. This is an amazing post!

In the Craft Section,

Breaking the 10,000 words a day barrier.- Lyndsay Buroker

7 mistakes to avoid when writing about the military.-2 Navy guys (Military mistakes always causes the book to be thrown out in my family.)

Metaphor writing exercises

How story structure relates to our lives.

Theme and Intent- getting these right. –Bob Mayer

Fun literary devices- Janice Hardy

Twice the writing in half the time

6 tricks for building a strong writing habit.-Ali Luke

In the Marketing Section,

Are you using pinned tweets- (this opened up a whole new world for me.)

Molly Greene has two great posts- collaboration with authors on boxed sets and

How to make an author video. (Bookmark both)

Is your website up to snuff.

The Creative Penn interviews Mark Dawson- On writing fast. This is a great interview.

My book is being pirated what do I do- (Bookmark)

How to find the right critique group-Jane Friedman (Bookmark)

Website of the Week

Chuck Wendig has made the occasional appearance on my blog for a few years now. He is a best selling children’s and adult Sci Fi writer. He is NSFW and some of his metaphors will stay with you all day. He is entertaining but also tells important truths on writing. Here are his most frequently asked writing questions and his very truthful answers-Be Warned.

To Finish,

Planning conferences is hard work. I’m happy to say we have finally reached the important programme day a week after we wanted to. It’s tricky juggling the right speakers who will inspire, challenge, teach, and up-skill writers and illustrators across all stages of the profession. I think our team have done a fantastic job. I wish I could split myself into three because I want to attend everything.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic: The Grand Dame of Sci Fi- Andre Norton 1912-2005

Business Choices

It is cold and wet. June blasts from Antarctica have ensured that we know Winter has arrived. I spent a hopeful five minutes today looking at this publishing mini conference on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. It is in the northern hemisphere winter... and as I turn up the heating and work on the Tinderbox conference I’m wishing I could just transfer the whole thing onto a cruise ship.

This week Book Expo America (BEA) has been on. Online discussions have been on the business of publishing and reaction to Scalzi's $3.4m publishing deal. There are a whole lot of green eyed authors out there who have let their vitriol get away on them. Then there are the calm reasoned authors who talk about the business and what Scalzi’s deal might mean to authors going forward. Kris Rusch has an excellent analysis and I urge you to read the comments for the great discussion on contracts. Then there is John Scalzi himself who lays out what the deal means to him for the next decade.  This is a very generous set of posts for an author to do. Read and Learn and raise a glass to him. By the way he is a fantastic author!

The Nielson figures came out this week on e-book sales last year and Futurebook has a handy analytical break down of the figures. Overall the sales were down 6% but as Nielson was doing a five year comparison, in 2010 the number of e-books sold were 68 million and last year it was 240 million, I don’t think anyone is too worried. Among lots of interesting data was this nugget, juvenile fiction is on the rise.

Publishing Perspectives reported on BEA and the global rise of... adult colouring books. Invest now in Faber Castell.  Porter Anderson reported on the digital conference held at BEA. With the huge amount of books now we need curators more than ever... and that is where the reader has to step up. Interesting article.

Jane Friedman is one of the Go To people for a perspective on the publishing industry and here in her latest interview I think she nails how the publishing industry is now and where it might be going in the future. This is a bookmark post.

In the Craft Section,

Attention Grabbing Story Structure

Inside an edit on Non Fiction

Putting your best work out there- Jody Hedlund

5 big tips to write well

10 steps to editing with focus- (Bookmark)

How to write a brief synopsis- Janet Reid- (Bookmark)

Character portraits

How to organise your writing life, tracking characters- Julia Kelly (Bookmark)

In the Marketing Section,

5 lessons learned between books 5and 6 - Molly Greene

A quick lesson on creating imprints- Joel Friedlander (Bookmark)

How to get books top rated at Amazon

Formatting to print from MS Word – Jami Gold (Bookmark)

How to repurpose your blog posts -Nina Amir

5 top apps for writers – Wendy Jones

To Finish,

Who can resist an Infographic? Here is a great one looking at the publishing process. Two years to a print book.

Choices abound in publishing 2015 but you can’t get away from this pithy piece of advice.

Writing is an Art and Publishing is a Business – Chuck Wendig

Maureen

@craicer

Pic: Flickr/Creative Commons/ Mauro Parra - Miranda

Either … Or

This week the theme of my weekly roundup seems to be which ever path you choose... choose wisely. 

Jane’s Friedman has a great post on whether self publishing will get you a traditional deal. This has become a bit of a Cinderella story in the last year and a lot of people seem to be racing to self publish because they can... but whether they should is another story.  Porter Anderson takes a close look at the overselling of self publishing.

Kris Rusch has a great blog and is well worth reading frequently. This week she comments on writing by committee. It is a great read and I found myself nodding, having experienced it in the educational publishing world. Some times the ‘team’ can kill the storytelling aspect of the story. Kris then lists what you need to do to succeed as a writer. First get a reader, not a writer, to read the finished draft.

Joanna Penn has been at a crime writer’s conference and she was asked about the pro’s and con’s of self publishing. Joanna outlines honestly what she is thinks is the good and the bad and has advice for those people trying to make up their minds.

Jane Friedman has a post up on her blog about literary self publishing. Can you even do this? It seems to be accepted that the literary genre is steeped in the traditional publishing model. But really literary is just a genre and you can self publish it if you are careful about it.

James Scott Bell continues his series - Is our writing culture in mortal danger? This week he looks at whether it is a good time to be a writer. He says yes and then tells you why. Long live storytelling.

A great storyteller, Susan Kaye Quinn has a nifty post on the 5 tips for success as a self publisher. Susan has straight forward advice which can also apply to traditional publishing. Susan will be a Keynote speaker at Tinderbox 2015 and I’m looking forward to talking with her on her publishing career. Check out the webinar at the end of her post. (hint: It’s another keynote theme.)

This week Google pulled books out of Google Play because of the pirating issues. But how come it took a huge Dutch collective to make them do something about it.

The Passive Guy has an interesting discussion this week on whether you should respond to negative reviews. Should you even respond to the good reviews? The comments are always where the discussion is.

In the Craft Section,

6 writing techniques learned at Storymasters

Story descriptions and depth in stories from the incomparable K M Weiland

Ten ways to tighten your writing - Kristen Lamb

How to develop your theme – Janice Hardy

Staying in character – the convergence of POV and voice – C S Lakin

Fun writing exercise – Joe Bunting- Bookmark

How to justify your writing time – Julie Duffy (Bookmark)

In the Marketing Section,

How to turn your novel into an audiobook

10 tips for choosing the right book title –Anne R Allen This is a Bookmark post!

Email marketing for authors- Tim Grahl (Bookmark)

Writing front and back matter for your self published book.

If you are really serious about writing for the market, check out this piece of software.

5 mistakes authors make with book bloggers – Molly Greene

Website of the Week

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi started a little website (The Bookshelf Muse) exploring words that described emotion. Then the Emotion Thesaurus was born followed by The Positive Trait Thesaurus and then The Negative Trait Thesaurus. These books are fast becoming the go to indispensible books on the writer’s desk, right next to the dictionary. Angela and Becca have just launched their fourth book The Emotional Wounds Thesaurus... and it looks just as great as their other books.

To Finish,

A few weeks ago I had a link to standing desks... these are designed to help the writer be less sedentary and healthier. Writer Bruce Brady asks whether writers really know what a good back support system is. He gives examples. Today on Twitter this exercise regime was being passed around. Either you take care of yourself OR you face the consequences.

Maureen

@craicer 

Pic: Flickr /Creative Commons – Dave Lenker

Taking A Stand

This week my Twitter feed began filling up with comments about that Game Of Thrones episode. Quite a few writers castigated using violence/rape against women, as a motivating factor in advancing the story or the character of the hero, as lazy storytelling. Chuck Wendig compared how the latest MAD MAX film and the GOT episode treated violence against women as a motivating factor. He makes excellent points and my hat is off to him for raising this issue.

Should Illustrators be credited in the Nielson ratings? This question has started a lot of comment, mostly along the lines of  Whaaat? You mean they aren’t? or It’s about time! or This is a debate? Porter Anderson takes a look at the issue and held a #futurechat on it this week. Nielson claim it is too difficult to credit illustrators. It is all about the metadata, folks.

Are literary journals in trouble?  Jane Friedman examines the way literary journals are run and whether they will still be around in a decade. Can they afford to rest on their laurels as print gatekeepers in today’s digital age? The comments make interesting reading.  Would you accept rejections for 10 years until they took one of your pieces?

Kris Rusch wrote this week about what it is like to stand up for yourself as a writer to your agent or editors. When you have to burn the bridges to get out of a toxic relationship that will harm your career. She has great advice and is well worth reading from a writer beware point of view.

James Scott Bell has responded to a post by Porter Anderson on the proliferation of writing services to authors. Are they worth it? Can writing be taught? Is the digital revolution, widely trumpeted as the best time to be an author, like the gold rush? The only rich people on the gold fields were the guys selling shovels. Lots of comments on both these provocative posts.

Mike Shatzkin has put a stake in the ground. He lists what Publishers need to do if they really want to tackle digital publishing. Although he is focused on Traditional Publishers his list of important points are good for Indie Publishers to take a look at.

In the Craft Section,

K M Weiland has two great posts on finding the perfect midpoint of your novel and the story climax.

Jody Calkins has 5 keys to great storytelling.

Kristen Lamb has a post on story structure.

Now Novel has a post on romance writing mistakes and a list of the best Sci Fi research sites for authors.

Janice Hardy has a great post overview on what a good YA should have and Hugh Howey tackles YA from a different perspective.

In the Marketing Section,

Penny Sansievieri has a great post on timing an Amazon preorder.

Anne R Allen has a must read post on Reviews - Don’t pay for them and what is considered payment – this surprised me. (Bookmark)

Kristen Lamb has a post on pen names. When do you absolutely need one?

7 ways Authors are using Instagram- The Book Designer

DBW is analysing 12 publishers websites. If you want to see how your website stacks up take a look at the criteria.

Publishing Crawl has a post on author photos. How to choose the best shots.

Apple has a new starter kit out for using iBooks.

Sue Coletta talks about what to do when pursuing the Trad Publishing dream.

Website of the Week

Storybundle is a website that offers curated bundles of eBooks. These bundles mean that authors get a bigger share of the pie, they also support charity and you get some great reading. The bundles are up for a limited time. This week Kris Rusch has curated a bundle of writing craft books. Included are some I have had my eye on for a while. So now I own 10 for the price of the 4 I was thinking of.  A present to myself for my 350^th blog post.* 

To Finish,

Alex Cavanaugh founded the Insecure Writers website which has grown from strength to strength. All writers suffer from insecurity at some time or other. She has a great post on taking small steps to conquer insecurity in your craft and move forward and maybe take a stand…

* Thank you for popping by every week to read. Thank you for all the comments over the years either on the blog, Twitter or Facebook.  I really appreciate it.

maureen

Pic: Flickr /Creative Commons- David - Joan of Arc

Great Communities

This week I have been thinking about writing communities. There is the small community of writers that you meet with regularly, then the larger community of writers that you know of in your genre that you see occasionally at events. The engage-with-only-online community and the global community of writers. There is a wealth of online information for writers but make sure you meet up with other writers for face to face interaction. It is an important part of feeling that you belong in the community.

Jane Friedman posted an interesting article on her website on the importance of community to an author. You cannot promote into a vacuum. 

The UK publishing community got together recently for their association AGM and heard some straight talking from their guest panel on changing publisher perceptions. Publishing Perspectives reports on the speeches that must have made uncomfortable hearing while any author in the room would have been silently cheering.

Claude Nougat has a blog post saying that Newbies should not be self publishing. The game has changed so much it is a waste of time. It is an interesting point of view and she makes some good points. All communities need robust voices.

Zetta Elliott has an article in the School Library Journal that makes the call to change the publishing community from the 89% white to a more diverse lineup because surely this would result in more diverse publishing. She has to self publish to get important black stories out there for children. It is an amazing article and echoes indigenous issues in publishing here in NZ.

An interesting comparison was recently examined in the Huffington Post on book launches.

A self published author and a traditional published author compared notes. It is an eye opening read. I keep thinking that authors grouping together to tackle this would be the way to go.

Over on Twitter there is a Twitter Fiction festival contest happening. A J Walkley talks about how to participate and how Twitter helps writers. #TwitterFiction

In the Craft Section,

Seven secret weapons that will make you a better novelist – Larry Brooks

(Bookmark)

Foreshadowing

The Worst Types of Plot Fails

101 plot resources for writers

When your scene is dragging 5 ways to add tension

Story Climax- forcing your characters to move onwards (bookmark)

Do you know the heart of your story?

What to do with a chapter that is too short- Janice Hardy

Joanna Penn talks screenwriting with Lucy Hay and how it can help authors.

In the Marketing Section,

How to make your best webcam impression

Promoting books in a saturated market

Do you have a publishing plan- Jami Gold (Bookmark)

Going on an offline book tour

Have you failed – awesome (bookmark)

How to sell more books on Amazon

Preparing your book marketing for KDP Select free days

Website of the Week

If you haven’t checked out Alli (Alliance of independent authors) you should. There is a ton of information on their website and blog including this gem for how to make pre orders available on CreateSpace books... and how you need a good writers retreat. A great example of a writing community.

To Finish,

Chuck Wendig (warnings on language) is master of the descriptive sentence that explains a writing truism. Here he explains the writing journey for experienced writers to a newbie writer in his Chuck style... a nice example of community. (choking with laughter warnings)

As I have been writing this my region has been undergoing flooding and roads have been cut off all around. People have been opening up homes to stranded commuters all across the city. Half of my family are sleeping in a strangers home tonight. A great community celebrates its members and also reaches out and supports its members in times of crisis.

Thank you Wellington.

maureen

@craicer

Pic: Flickr/Creative Commons/ Jim Baker