For What Its Worth

This week the publishing blogosphere was soul searching as the news filtered through that Huffington Post was proud to not pay its writers. When the dust settled over the initial outrage, some great posts about the problem of free and paying the writer emerged.

Porter pulled together some of the articles and great discussions. Chuck wrote a piece that was full speed ahead, man the torpedoes. Jami Gold’s post, last week, was prescient about knowing why you are writing for free.

This week Joanne Harris dropped out of attending a literary festival over the restrictive nature of the contract. Festival appearance contracts are becoming very odd. With Phillip Pulman making a case to pay the writers for appearances of dubious value to the writer, some literary festivals have found another way to exact a pound of flesh. Restricting an authors public movements seems to be going a step too far though.

Writer Beware has been seeing some weird publishing contracts lately with termination clauses popping up with fine print saying the writer will have to pay costs... even if the writer didn’t terminate the agreement. Keep an eye on new contract language.

Ellen Oh wrote a heartfelt plea to white writers over how they write coloured characters. At first many writers thought she was saying white writers shouldn’t write these characters, but Ellen was saying something different. Be authentic in your writing. It is a great post to mull over.

Today Simon and Schuster launched a new imprint... specifically aimed at Muslim children’s books. This is a great addition to their imprint list and a great statement to make to the publishing world.

In the Craft Section,

Conquering Self Doubt

5 methods to meet writing goals-

Scenes as capsules of time- C S Lakin- Bookmark

Creating Author business plans- Janice Hardy

2 great posts from Becca Puglisi- Pacing- and Writing memorable characters- Bookmark both

Hack your readers brains by using senses- K M Weiland- Bookmark

How to write a fight scene- Christine Frazier- Bookmark

In the Marketing Section,

How authors can use Pinterst- Jane Friedman

Book marketing trends

How not to ask for a free review

Subject codes on your book cover

Make your book the best marketing tool

Goodreads and why you should be there.

10 clever ways to grow your email list- The Book Designer-Bookmark

To Finish,

If you are on Twitter and you are searching for some interesting writer accounts to follow then you can’t go far wrong taking a look at this nifty list that the Expert Editor has put together. A little something for everyone here.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic Flickr Creative Commons/ khrawlings

Chasing The Reader

This week in the publishing blogosphere

Scribd changed its subscription model. A little shiver fluttered through the online publishing community at the news. Were they going to fold? With the dominance of Amazon Unlimited and the demise of Oyster, Scribd is really the only alternative in subscription reading. Scribd still lives but the day of the all you can read buffet is ending.

This week Google entered into the reading market... with books that cannot be printed.

These books aren’t even for e-readers. They are short, just right for a commute and designed to be read on a phone.... and they are choose your own adventure type books. Taking the story and gaming it into your phone challenges conventional storytelling. With Google behind this experiment it will be interesting to see where it goes.

At the end of January, Berlin hosted a Future Publish conference. One of the keynote speakers, Chantal Restivo-Alessi, talked about the value of the story across all mediums, harnessing digital across all platforms and building deep engagement. Backlists are crucial and Authors and their brand should be marketed on a global scale. This is a really interesting article. (I can't help wondering what it would do for NZ if the individual imprints here marketed NZ Books globally instead of to two chain booksellers.)

Jane Friedman has an interview with Agent Laurie McLean specifically about one of her clients who operates in a hybrid fashion across the publishing and music industries with one feeding into the other. So Simon Curtis writes a Y.A. book and happens to create music and so references it in the story and brings out an album of music which promotes the book which promotes his music and.... Hybrid storytelling going in all directions now.

By now your brain has probably gone into Popcorn Kitten mode so you should read what James Scott Bell has to say about coping with the writers bane of too many ideas crowding in all at once. This is excellent advice which will keep you productive or at least allow you to sleep easier.

Writer Beware is continuing to warn authors about the many and varied scams that Author Solutions are perpetuating across all their various fronts for reputable publishing companies. The latest examination is the marketing on-sell. This is where they really make their money charging hundreds of dollars for simple services. The charges are truly eye-watering. Even if you know that you will never get caught on this - read it so you can inform others.

Jami Gold has been thinking about the times when an Author might work for free. This is hotly debated in the creative community where we see little enough money for our work. A few weeks back we had Phillip Pullman campaigning to pay authors at festivals. Jami has some good points to make about choosing carefully which projects we do for free.

I have been thinking about Dean Wesley Smith's article all day. He takes a look at the longevity of the writer in the digital age. It does make you think. If books don’t go out of print because digital backlists are still selling... authors really need to understand the long game and plan their careers for it. Dean is still finding readers for books that are 30 years old... and you can too.

In the Craft Section,

The Book Designer- 3 mistakes you made writing the first book.

Tara Sparling- Dissecting the blurb formula

September Fawkes – 15 tactics for writing humour- Bookmark

What not to do when writing for teens

Steven Pressfield -The difference between subject and theme- Bookmark

Effective outlining in Scrivener using metadata

Anne R Allen – a guide to co writing -Bookmark

Darcy Pattison- find your novel opening

Janice Hardy – Deep P.O.V is not the only P.O.V.

In the Marketing Section,

Rachel Thompson- 4 ways to improve your sales

How to promote your book

Anne R Allen- Using Google plus and why you should. (This post is getting a lot of comments 

around the blogosphere. You should read it!)

How writers ruin their Amazon links- Bookmark!

Jane Friedman on finding a Book Publicist

Ways Authors can reach Readers

Website of the Week

Besides being an awesome blogger Lindsay Buroker manages a podcast called SFF Marketing. This podcast is a deep look at marketing issues and has great guests. Being a podcast it’s easy to listen to while doing other things. Today they interviewed Data Guy of Author Earnings. The latest Author Earnings report is ruffling a few feathers. Data Guy is being touted as a guest at Digital Book World’s upcoming conference so this podcast is a must listen if you are following what is happening in the Indie World. Then you can check out all the other goodies in past podcasts.

To Finish,

Angela Ackerman writes some great articles.  This one for Romance University on romancing the reader is a must read. After all readers are why we spend so much time crafting the characters. We want them to love our characters as much as we do.

Loving the reader means we have to show up for them. 

This week the annual SCBWI conference in New York was rocked by an amazing keynote from children's author Gary Schmidt. Besides reading the keynote... check out the great conference blog.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic : Flickr /Creative Commons/ Rene Schwietzke

The Trials Of Growing Up

In publishing news this week...

The news is filtering through about mega selling YA Author Cassandra Clare being taken to court over plagiarism by another big selling YA author Sherilyn Kenyon. This is an interesting case as it hinges on whether you can plagiarise an idea. 

While authors digest that one- if you were thinking of translating into German you need to understand that titles are copyright protected in Germany. Joanna Penn talks to Rebecca Cantrell about this and other meaty topics in the hybrid world of publishing.

A new Author Earnings survey is out. For the first time they included print books. The numbers make interesting reading. Traditional publishing still holds up Print... but the Indies are not far behind.

This week Nielson announced that they have decided to track ebooks. This is slightly after the fact as ebooks have been around for a few years now. However the data may be useful in the future.

Publishing will be rubbing their hands at the news that an 8th Harry Potter book is about to be launched on July 31^st in print and ebook. This is the book of the script of the play which also opens in July. With over 70,000 fully illustrated books of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (retailing in NZ at $70) sold in the last three months, I’m going to predict that there will be a market for this book featuring a grown up Harry Potter. Add to that a new expanded version of Fantastic Beasts and all things Potter will be the publishing saviour of 2016.

Outside the phenomenon of Harry Potter, Children’s Books receive very little review space in print media. A UK author has launched a campaign to try and redress this. This has been picked up by The Bookseller magazine with an article about why these reviews are so important.

Jami Gold has an interesting article on the dilemma for the writer of a public life for a private individual. 

Janice Hardy has an interesting article by Marcy Kennedy on the single biggest mistake authors make... and its important... BACKUP. Marcy details the ways you can fix this!

Jane Friedman has a guest post by Ursula Wong on writer groups and co ops. This is a comprehensive how to article on what types of groups are around, what they do and how they can be set up. 

I have long been an advocate of writer groups... of all kinds. They can be a great support individually and can morph into small publishing companies.

After all that’s how Bloomsbury started and look who they first published... J K Rowling

In the Craft Section,

How to write open ended endings

10 tips for trimming a lengthy manuscript

Kathryn Goldman-When and when not to use Trademarks- Bookmark!

K M Weiland - 5 reasons a book is re readable- Bookmark

Anne R Allen- How to hook the reader- Bookmark

Kristine Rusch on The Serious Writer Voice- Bookmark!

Jane Friedman on Creating Audiobooks

In the Marketing Section,

Writeitsideways has a nifty post on 4 steps to take forAuthor Branding.

Jane Friedman looks at whether paid book reviews are worth it- Bookmark

Writers in the Storm has a great post on helping your readers to write good reviews

Lindsay Buroker has a great post on Amazon adverts for authors- read the comments!

Promote a book without using Social Media

Miral Slatter has a great post on putting together a marketing plan for your book. Bookmark

Joel Friedlander has a post on the importance of keywords for Amazon

If you still need help with websites and ideas check out FirstSiteGuide. Lots of interesting articles.

Passive Guy links to an excellent article on going exclusive or going everywhere with your book

To Finish,

If you are thinking about productivity apps- here is a full on one- Flowstate... keep typing or lose all the words you have written. No time for musing or looking at kitten pictures... I wonder if J K Rowling uses this.

Maureen

@craicer

Diverse Publishing

This week I have been thinking about Diversity and the representation of diversity in publishing. Some of this was sparked by the campaign of an 11 year old girl who was searching for books that showed people of her race as the main characters in books.

I was talking with my writing buddy recently over my characters and I made the comment that none of my main characters were the same colour as me. I always saw them as mixed race though I never made a point of describing them as such. As my writing buddy hears and critiques my writing first... the fact that the characters were mixed race was news to her. This sparked a conversation about whether to info dump character information. (NO)

Info dumping statistics this week was Lee and Low, children’s publishers, with their report on Diversity in Publishing. We all know that publishing is White Skin dominant... It is also female gender dominant...

Porter Anderson takes a look at other statistics to pop out of the report.

Here in very multi cultural NZ, the loss of many of our NZ publishing offices to Australia has always concerned writers here. It widens the ditch that our distinctive Maori/Pasifica stories have to hurdle over to get published.

Today I was watching #Pit2Pub on Twitter. It was interesting to see the number of pitches that used diversity hash tags. A new kid on the Twitter pitch block is Pitch Match. – this is a 3 hour pitch fest broker party happening on the 11^th.

A brief Twitter storm happened with the reporting that Amazon was opening bricks and mortar bookstores across the U.S. This was quickly shut down on Twitter but it still raises questions...

Bob Mayer has been rallying the writing troops this week with two great posts on ambushing writing fear and what is becoming his annual exhortation to writers to face up to the harsh truths of this writing business. Go in with your eyes open...

This has been echoed by Agent Jennifer Laughran when she answered a question about sham agents and how you can tell who they are. (Especially important for people doing Twitter pitches)

You’ve dodged the sham agent and got your diverse story polished, what can you do next on your publishing journey?

You need an Author Business plan. This one is a comprehensive lists of things to think about on your way to establishing your author business.

Joel has put together a workflow checklist for book designing and publishing your project.

When it comes to selling this discussion on Ingram’s acquisition of Aer.io, a turn key bookstore that can be dropped into an author website, by Bookworks has some interesting opinions.

In the Craft Section,

The problem with revealing information- Janice Hardy

Using Twitter for research

Using a scene template- C S Lakin Bookmark

Mastering the art of the cliffhanger chapter ending- Bookmark

Seven stages of the writer process- Orna Ross- Bookmark

What’s killing your creativity

Who is the better hero - Han or Luke?

Drafting in layers- Elizabeth S Craig- Bookmark

In the Marketing Section,

Metadata-why it matters to Authors

How to develop and perfect your author marketing- Rachel Thompson Bookmark

24 tips for using photos in your POD book- The Book Designer

Rethinking book cover design – Dave Bricker

Book Marketing ideas -Bookbub- Bookmark

5 reasons Canva is your blogging design heaven

To Finish,

The last memory I have of the late, great Dame Katerina Mataira (Ngati Porou) was the speech where she didn’t mince any words to the publishing establishment. ‘Where are our Maori books? ‘The market is too small’ they said. So I have to do it myself.’ She went on to write, publish and sell in all genres across the board at over 70 years of age. “You have a niche product. No one will publish you. Get out there and do it yourself.”

The Pic is the cast of the new Harry Potter play. Yes, that is the Golden Trio. J K Rowling has said she never mentioned skin colour in the books for Hermione. Score for Diversity!

Maureen

@craicer

Reality Bites

January is full of predictions and goal setting for the coming year. Writers enjoy marking off their new wall planners with book goals and organising their writing desks. Then reality sinks in as they note the first deadline is coming up fast. Productivity tool posts start filling up the internet. Writers In The Storm have a good blog post for the writer’s greatest challenge- Time Management. You may need to select from one of these useful collections of tools and tricks.

Time Management Apps.

No Cost tools for writers- Publication Coach

Five Writing Apps from DIYMFA

Every year The Write Life blog collects their 100 best websites for writers. Regular readers of my blog will see familiar names in the list. However their are some nifty new names in the different categories. (They also have a great post on writing residencies – in case you were thinking if it is worth it.)

Victoria Strauss has collected a list of Writer Beware posts from 2015. Writers should be regularly dropping into this site and getting familiar with the scams and dodgy contract language that is directed at them. Writer Beware has direct support from many writer associations.

Susan Spann is doing guest posts on what to watch out for in Contract Clauses- This month is the Out Of Print Clause.

Passive Guy takes a look at Kameron Hurley’s post on Non Compete and Rights Grab Clauses (PG is a lawyer so he has an eye for this.)

Today Kris Rusch warned about Anthology Contracts by new independent publishers. They have the best intentions and their contracts are the worst! Kris has seen some absolute nightmares in the last few weeks. Last week she wrote a great post - Whining is not a business model! Writers you must carefully look at your contracts. This is your work, your future earnings... you need to read the small print and walk away if it is not fair.

In the Craft Section,

The joy of nuances and shades of feelings- Celtic Frog-Bookmark.

Building Empathy- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark.

Sara Letourneau – Character evolution- Bookmark.

Self Editing for Dummies- Bookmark.

Five steps to writing faster.

In the Marketing Section,

Authors often struggle with Book Marketing. It is out of the comfort zone of the introverted garret dweller who talks to imaginary people. 

This week there were helpful posts on author blogs from Joanna Penn - Author blog mistakes, Molly Greene – What authors can blog about, Veronica Sicoe – building relationships with readers and Angela Ackerman- Social Media - why I don’t follow the rules.

Penny Sansevieri has a good post on Amazon reviews.

Lindsay Buroker has one on tips for getting a Bookbub advert.

Rachel Thompson- 4 ways to improve your sales.

Silas Payton has a guest post on Joe Konrath’s blog on collaborative marketing.

To Finish,

Digital Book World has an interesting post today from Jason Illian on the real future of digital publishing. Jason looks at a few company results which journalists didn’t cover and then started asking questions. This is a must read! In the comments SCBWI blogger Lee Wind referred to Enthrill (a company I have been watching for a few years.) They are about to ramp up their eBook gift cards after a long time developing and testing. I have a feeling that 2016 will be an interesting year in the digital book world.

Maureen Crisp

@craicer

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons/ DLG Images www.directline.com

Taking Good Advice

This week in the publishing blogosphere writers were cheering when Philip Pullman took a stand on writers having to do festival appearances for free, when everybody else was paid.

Phillip is the current head of UK Society of Authors. They are campaigning on this issue, so he saw it as only logical. Others didn’t see it quite that way and a lively debate happened over Twitter. However there has been a change in attitude from the festival in question and a nice wake up call to all to the wider Lit community.

As Penguin and Random House draw ever closer lots of change has been happening recently. My first post of the year looked at Author Solutions being sold off... but while authors may be cheering that move, the closing of some imprints is not so good.

Mike Shatzkin (publishing futurist) has been sounding a wake up call to publishers for a few years now and recently he had two long posts that make interesting reading if you are a publisher- (Self publishers should scan these.) The importance of Author SEO to a publisher and playing on a theme coming through on what 2016 trends might be, Global, Mobile and Author Backlist and how publishers ignore these at the peril of the bottom line.

Kris Rusch has taken issue with the Author Guilds letter on Contracts. She questions the letters bone fides as the AG membership is not only authors... so their call for better contracts is suspicious. Great Rant!

January is the month where many make plans and goals for the coming year. Roz Morris has a great blog post on this with advice to the 2016 writer.

Hugh Howey also offers his opinions on writing now... (great new website- I wasted time looking at his new boat video.)

Joanna Penn interviewed Jane Friedman on trends to watch in 2016 – this is a podcast with a transcript. Grab a drink and find some quiet space to absorb this.

The Smashwords 2015 survey is out. It makes interesting reading... what worked last year and what you should keep in mind for this year.

Joel Friedlander talks about the new edition of the Self Publishers Resource Guide.

If you suffer from sore wrists and hands after writing, here are the best hand and wrist exercises.

In the Craft Section,

Two great posts from James Scott Bell - Lifting the middle of the Thriller plot and how to avoid writing paralysis due to over analysis (guilty) Bookmark!

Three current trends in screenwriting

How to write chapter structure- Bookmark

8 online writing tools

10 things that flag newbie writers- Anne R Allen. Bookmark

Make your hero suffer – Stephen Pressfield- Bookmark

In the Marketing Section,

7 Book Marketing trends you can’t ignore- Joel Friedlander

Build Book Buzz has their roundup of last year’s popular posts.

5 Book Marketing models- Jane Friedman. Bookmark

5 lies that authors tell themselves

7 Instagram tips for Self published writers

6 tips for author newsletters – Jami Gold. Bookmark

7 tips for platform building – Anne R Allen. Bookmark

5 guidelines for approaching Book Bloggers – Janice Hardy

Book Marketing tips you need to know- Rachel Thompson. Bookmark

Website Of The Week

I have linked to Katie Weiland’s posts in my craft section so often I should have her on a shortcut link button. I have her great book on structure. Her website is a great resource on craft questions that come up but she also offers some free downloadable resources that are just special!

To Finish

In the writing business it pays to keep an eye on what the Romance writers are doing – they are so savvy. Today I came across an article on a new Romance App that had my eyebrows lifting right off my head. I never even suspected this was a thing. I’m still not sure what to think about it... it could be a virtual reality step too far... OTOH if you love your book heroes enough to have a text relationship...

Chuck Wendig decided to do some thinking about mid career writers. This is his ramble on what you should be doing. It echoes others that I have linked to in today’s post but with the Wendig spin on the Good Advice.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic from Flickr Creative Commons / GotCredit

Questioning Karma

This week I have been thinking about Karma. (As we sow, so shall we reap.)

Jami Gold has an excellent post which generated lots of comments on Writer Sanity and Recognising Takers. This follows on from last weeks excellent post on what do you do for others in the writing community. 

Jami always has really interesting articles about all things writing. Her name comes up a lot in my blog along with Anne R Allen, K M Weiland, Janice Hardy, Jane Friedman, E S Craig, Angela Ackerman and Kris Rusch. Along with many others they GIVE an enormous amount to the writing community. But some people don't understand that this takes time away from their own writing. Takers expect answers to their specific questions and feel entitled to get an answer right away- They can be pushy, and demanding of your time. They usually don’t bother with thanks either. I have experienced many of the situations Jami’s commenter’s have. I shrug it off and wish Karma back on that person in such a way that they learn. My Karma is to teach and remain positive, (tho in this game it is sometimes harrrrrd- pours wine.)

All of us Paying It Forward to the writing community would just like to say... before you ask your question...

1. Can you Google your question and then read at least the top two pages of links first. (We all did- that is how we learned!)

2. Find an expert in the field and then read everything they write on the subject. (Again, it’s a learning thing.) A lot of blogs have search functions. Read the comments as well. There is usually a ton more information in the discussions

3. Check out a curated blog (like this one) for links to lots of experts. Read them for a while, chances are your question will be answered somewhere.

I always have to laugh when someone asks me a question- about 90% of the time the answer was in one of my roundups within the previous month.

David Gaughran (an all round stellar person) has had his Karma moments on Twitter.

David has a great book, Let’s Get Visible, on author digital visibility. He posted a chapter quite a while back as a promo on the Alli blog. This was ripped off along with other peoples work and posted in an elaborate software scam. As David and Writer Bewares’ Victoria Strauss work through the implications... it gets murkier and murkier. Other writers have been taken in. There are arrest warrants out there.

Julie Hyzy has an interesting tale to tell about a work forhire situation. This is a glimpse into the world of book packaging, which can be lucrative for writers but perils await when the editors move on.

Roz Morris has taken a good hard look at what it means for Ingram Spark to own Aer.io. And it means that she is about to change her marketing strategy. This is Ingram expanding their book distribution service into storefronts for authors. (In the battle for P.O.D. Ingram may have scored a coup over Createspace.)

In the Craft Section,

How to write Fabulous Dialogue

Writing conflict to ruin characters lives- Bookmark!

Mastering the art of the cliffhanger ending- Becca Puglisi- 
Boomark!

Dictating a Book – tips for editing- The Book Designer

Janet Reid on using italics for thoughts-

How to write loglines- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark!

10 habits of successful authors- KM Weiland

Joanna Penn on her creative process.

In the Marketing Section, (Bookmark All of Them)

Molly Greene has a great post on low cost ebook givaway hosting.

Jane Friedman has two excellent posts - Optimizing Amazon descriptions and an interview with Patrick Walsh, a book publicist.

Lindsay Buroker – How to increase sales at Apple ibooks

Elisabeth S Craig on Timing Book Releases and her take on Ingram Spark

Carolyn Howard Johnson has a post on altering a published book – Do you need a new ISBN

Website of The Week,

Anne R Allen has a very informative blog. There are great articles on writing and publishing and guest posts from industry insiders. This week she has a great guest post, looking into the future, from Laurie McLean, a Fuse Literary Agent.  Recently she had a post on what to do with social media accounts in the event of your death. Very interesting stuff and a must read.

To Finish,

Often signing up for webinars is problematic because of our Time Zone but I try to attend various ones that have content available after the event. Joel Friedman and Joanna Penn have put together a great one on Self Publishing in 2016 this week and added some cool extras. Find a quiet space to meditate on Karma and thank these two for a great 90 min video.

Maureen

@craicer

Publishing Mobility and Catfish

I have been reading a lot of publishing industry 2015 reviews and 2016 predictions with Mobile, Global, Audio, and Change, the most common themes being discussed.

Jane Friedman has an excellent eye for these trends, her article is well worth a read.

In the self publishing world Bookworks has an excellent roundup of predictions from industry leaders.

Porter Anderson has been looking at the changing relationships between editors and authors. This is an excellent piece to share with your editor over a drink.

The call for realistic publishing contracts is gathering momentum with take up from Writers Guilds around the world.

The Bookseller examines this campaign and proposes a new one- how to get more readers in 2016.

While Authors are globally mobilising forces for change in contracts, the news that PRH has dropped Author Solutions was welcomed by authors. BUT as David Gaughran points out All Is Not What It Seems. Please read and share around to all those Newbie Authors out there. This is Vanity Publishing with Shark Bites taken out of Clueless Authors.

However even savvy authors can get burned. This week the publishing blogosphere was catfished. (When someone pretends to be someone they are not.) This elaborate scheme targeted writer reviewers and was pretty audacious.

This week news that GRR Martin will not be publishing the next book anytime soon had the blogosphere hopping with agitation. Bookriot published an excellent article about leaving authors to get on with writing in their own time.

Chuck Wendig took this a step further and delivered his first 2016 thought piece on writing. It is timely advice especially for 2016 writing resolutions....

Kris Rusch has also started 2016 with an excellent post on the publishing industry. If you ever wondered why publishers seem to publish the same sort of book... this explains it!

On the same theme Stephen Pressfield looks back in time to how Random House came to give all their employees a $5000 bonus.

You have made your writer resolutions for 2016 and you have vowed to commit to writing x amount of words every day (oooh look shiny distraction...) You are going to be faster, better, stronger... (Olympic theme tune.) You are going to rule this writing gig!

So below is the reason you drop in to my blog every week.... (Thanks for coming over!)

In the Craft Section,

R L Stedman has a great post on negotiating your contract if you don’t have an agent.

Roz Morris on how much you should talk about your novel.

The Pro’s and Con’s of writing in 2^nd person.

Helena Helme on 5 ways to learn your craft! (Ahhh Casablanca!) Bookmark!

Janice Hardy- Those Red Flag Telling words!

Jane Friedman on Query letters for Non Fiction.

In the Marketing Section,

Getting your website ready for 2016

Secrets to Self publishing success in 2016 – Lindsay Buroker- Bookmark!

How to nail your Author SEO- Miral Satter- Bookmark!

Molly Greene’s best posts about blogging

Digital Book World – Ingredients of a successful marketingplan – Bookmark!

To Finish,

Smart readers will realise that my first blog of 2016 is a day late. Excuses: I’m still in holiday mode... I’ve got lots of books still to be read on the holiday reading pile... I should be plotting Book Four in my series... I’m recovering from Christmas/ New Year... still... I’ve got to master all these Book Nerd resolutions!

Onwards to a successful 2016!

Maureen

@craicer

Pic from Flickr/Creative Commons- Missouri State Archives