Using Other People's Words

In Publishing News this week…

Spare a thought for the Australian women who, with the best intentions, decided that picture books celebrating famous Rap artists and using their lyrics as examples was a good thing. The Guardian explains that Jay Z is not amused.

This week Keynotes from the Future Book conference have been talked about in Publishing Perspectives. Alex Fane explained how staging spoken word events with famous authors are now becoming big business. He is the guy behind all the advertising for Margaret Atwood’s series of talks here early next year. Is this the way of the future for author events? I’m wondering how the conference organisers feel.

Future Book also had a session on audio books. I found the statistics reported of how many and who listened to audio books startling. I never would have guessed 3 out of 4 young men listened to an audio book. Interesting news for publishers who have never looked at this brand demographic and thought that’s where the readers are…

Earlier this month Writer Beware had an interesting story about one of the richest short story prizes on the planet and the rights grab inside of it. I was shocked when I read it. I guess I thought The Times would have been above all that… 

Ruth Harris has a great blog post on the publishing rollercoaster. Are we prepared for failure because it will happen and what about all those good times. 

Kris Rusch has been busy speaking at conferences. She talked about the pursuit of perfection and how the road to finding your best work is long and slow. You are in it for the long haul aren’t you? Are you like Beyonce and constantly raising the bar?

Did you know that writers can lose their fingerprints…. The implications for thriller plots abound. Of course it was a thriller writer who discovered this. Sue Coletta talks about it on The Kilzone Blog.

What are the necessary evils to a novelists life? Writer Unboxed guest Jael McHenry came up with two that sparks fear in every heart. Hat tip if you guess them! 

In The Craft Section,

Weaving Story Threads together – Rosie- Danan- Bookmark

Crime writing tips- Books by Women

How to Ground and Hook your Readers- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

How to outline a non-fiction book that readers can’t put down- Joshua Lisec- Bookmark

How to tell if you are writing in deep point of view- Lisa Hall Wilson- Bookmark

4 steps for perfecting one page and long form synopsis-Writer Digest

In The Marketing Section,

5 ways to sell more books in 2020- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Survival Guide to Facebook for authors- Debbie Emmitt- Bookmark

How and Why to Market Yourself- DIYMFA

Book Promotion for the Holidays – Written Word Media - Bookmark

How to make and animated book cover- Positive Writer

To Finish

I think of Terry Pratchett every day and regret the fact that there will be no more great satire from his pen. It’s easy to do when you wander through my house and stumble over a Pratchett book in a pile or put down somewhere odd because the reader was interrupted. They never rest for long collected on a bookshelf. So reading this article on Terry’s writing advice felt like visiting again with a master storyteller.

The Librarian would be pleased. OOOK 

Maureen 

@craicer

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Sustaining The Words

This week was 'the after week' of one of Indie Publishings biggest conferences, 20 Books Vegas. Nearly 1000 indie authors and publishers  got together to look at best practice and share thoughts about publishing. Already the plan is to significantly ramp up the conference for  November 2020 with news today that it will expand to 1500 attendees. After 20 Books, attendees go home heads stuffed with learning and plans, they share their thoughts and takeaways on social media. To give you a little sample- here is a link to Dean Wesley Smith's keynote on having a sustainable writing career. Absolutely must watch!

The Returns system is often called flawed because it can encourage waste of epic proportions. Publishers are locked into big publishing runs and then Booksellers get locked into taking huge amounts of books, which they can’t sell so they get returned for a credit at the publishers. Often those books are in such a poor state they need to be dumped or pulped... a scheme ripe for graft as one enterprising bookseller, now in court, found out.

If by lucky chance the books are returned in good condition they can be on sold quietly to Big Bad Wolf- A book retailer in Asia known for the huge discount booksales fairs. BBW have just celebrated 10 years in the business with the startling prediction that in the next 5 years they WILL be selling 1 billion books.

The New Publishing Standard have been trying to find out just how big the book market is in China. All indications are that the market is seriously underrated. If you take Amazon and their bookselling dominance and then look at Alibaba- the eastern equivalent- they must sell books as well. The fact that Alibaba recently clocked up 1 billion dollars in sales in 68 seconds-( yes, that is not a typo,) indicates that if the book market was proportionally as big as Amazon’s then it must be huge!

It’s the middle of November and NaNo WriMo is getting serious. If you have the mid month writing blues check out these prompts. 

Or gamify your sprints with 4thewords- and slay some monsters while adding more words to your daily total.

Or read this inspiring article on the secret of writing success by Diana Wink.

The secret life of an audiobook narrator was an interesting read. Nobody prepares you for the fact that you can’t read the words you have written. It’s harder than you think-says Bill Bryson.

Are you a push writer or a pull writer? This is a thoughtful read about motivation and getting the words down.

In The Craft Section,

How to add dimension to your story- September Fawkes Bookmark

What micro tension is and how to master it – C S Lakin- Bookmark

6 tips to descibe place- Now Novel

How to overcome fear as a writer- K M Weiland

Writing a series, 7 Do’s and Don’ts-  Kassandra Lamb- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Do you know what book awards are out there you can enter?- Bookbub

How to write a blog post people read- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

How to DIY an audiobook- Renee Conoulty and Sacha Black- Bookmark

Prerequisites of author marketing success- Joanna Penn

Email sign up forms- Blogging wizard

To Finish,

A Reedsy rep emailed me, this week, to tell me about a new plot generator that they had developed. 

So much fun!  When you are in the middle of NaNo WriMo and you need some inspiration to crack on with the final 20,000 words...check it out for inspiration or even just your next project!

Don’t Forget the Storybundle NaNo collection of Writing craft books- only available until the end of November.

Maureen

@craicer

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links every month, you can subscribe and you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.