Engagement

Each week I look over my collected links to see what an over arching theme for the blog might be. Sometimes it’s a stretch to link up the content but this week everyday there was something about writers being connected with readers and the disconnect from publishers and distributors with writers.  This is nothing new. I have been observing this for the last five years. However it is interesting to look at this within the context of this week’s headlines around the publishing blogosphere...

Libraries are where the readers are.

Last year two ebook library subscription services models kicked off, Scribd and Oyster. For a flat monthly fee subscribers had unlimited access to ebooks across formats. The big publishers sat back and watched developments and are now jumping on board. Today Simon and Schuster added their 10,000 book backlist to the services, following HarperCollins earlier this month. This is a bid for reader’s affections. All You Can Read buffet for $8:99/month. The publisher gets a cut when a book is lent... Mike Shatzkin is predicting that the biggest publisher of them all, Random Penguin, will start their own global library. (Or will there be a nice buy out in the future...)

Smashwords has just partnered with OverDrive the biggest library database system in the US to make all their books available. This model is interesting. If the one copy of the ebook is checked out customers have the option to buy their copy through the library...a win/win for libraries. And what about the chance for celebrity curated lists of books just for librarians to recommend.

The Amazon vs Hachette fight doesn’t look like it is winding down... Mike Shatzkin looks at the power play and how publishing has been flipped over with the power now belonging to the retailer who has the customers.

If you are an author in the middle of all this what can you do? Take control where you can of your own reader engagement. (get in the libraries...sell from your website.. reader fan email databases...)

Hugh Howey brought out another Author Earnings report this week. The howls that once greeted these one day snapshots of where the money is going in the publishing world have become muted... Everybody is scratching their heads...how can this be... the same figures again... Is Hugh right? If you are traditionally published this could be a game changer for you.

Joe Konrath has practical advice for how you navigate this changing world...(a bookmark post!)

Bob Mayer also tells you to take responsibility for your own work. Complaining is not a business strategy!  Change your mindset!

Dean Wesley Smith talks about foreign deals and how you do them...

Lindsay Buroker on whether it is worth becoming an Amazon affiliate.

In the Craft Section,

Feed the Reader within the Writer

Chuck on Writers Block (Trigger warning for your ears)

Stealing from other writers (it is not a bad thing....)

The ultimate guide for becoming an idea machine

Elisabeth S Craig on developing thematic ideas

Drama belongs in your logline not its creation.

5 essential story ingredients

In the Marketing Section,

How to create the perfect trailer. (useful for book trailers)

Slideshare book marketing from Joanna Penn

Free image sources list

How to Make WOW blog images with Pic Monkey (from the amazing Jami Gold)

How to build a contact list of readers.

How to manage an email list...software etc

Self publish a print book worldwide. 

Advertising on Goodreads

Dave Gaughran has discovered a new site, Noisetrade, which aims to build your fan base. They have just branched out into books from Indie Music.

Website of the Week: August Wainwright has collected the 50 best Indie resource sites around. Many of these are on my regular check list. (one stop shop)

To Finish,

How are the successful authors out there navigating on the publishing sea. Russell Blake a publishing phenomenon is interviewed on how he has gone from 0 to 500,000 sales in a couple of years. (you may hate him after reading but you can't ignore him…) MindBodyGreen checks out 10 things successful writers do differently.

Engage the reader... Make it easy for them to find and buy your next book... SIMPLE. (DUCKS…)

(There are lots of links in the Craft and Marketing sections to help you.)

maureen

After The End, What’s Next?

Comic: Death and the Writer. pic.twitter.com/aPDK8joGWm
— Debbie Ridpath Ohi (@inkyelbows) May 14, 2014

Sorry for the day delay in posting... There are some big articles in my round up this week, so grab a large drink and settle down for a brain expanding session.

‘Which leads me to, as my final point, the only real prediction I have made today. It’s one I made earlier: I think most existing publishers will disappear over the next decade or two.’

The quote is from Baldur Bjarnason who had a keynote address at Publishers Forum last week in London. As you can imagine the above comment coming towards the end of his address would be pretty novel given his audience. However as you read through his speech published on Publishing Perspectives, you find yourself nodding. For Authors, it is life as we know it. For Publishers it may be too late.

In the wider publishing world...News Corp buys Harlequin for not much over Harlequins annual revenue. How could it be so low? (another tick from Baldur’s speech)

Amazon and Hachette are having a fight... and low and behold Hachette’s books are delayed in shipping. We have seen it all before. Who gets hurt? The author.

After these three hit my brain I was on a mission to find some good news.

Alas,

Blogger Middle Grade Ninja who has a nice blog interviewing Agents (mostly for children’s books) revealed his disquiet over some agents practices which have been disturbing him and that he hoped were one off’s until they became too frequent to be ignored. (part two)

Scarlett Johansson is suing a French author claiming he stole her image when the novel is about a look-alike getting into a mess. Implications for authors who reference pop culture in their books could be alarming.

Dave Gaughran, on how to increase piracy... which explains why it is happening and what we can do about it.

Author Solutions which was supposed to be cleaned up after Penguin bought it...ummm This is a read and share...

Bridgid Kemmerer on why author expectations never live up to reality...

By now you may be feeling punch drunk. (time for a refill.)

Where is the good news!?

Agent Jonny Geller on his top 10 tips for being a literary agent. (yes, there are some good ones out there.)

The amazing interview with Jane Friedman on Money, Writing and Life by Joanna Penn. Take your time. Transcript under the podcast. This one just fills your heart with zing. (possibilities are endless.)

Hugh Howey once a month talks about how he is running his mythical publishing house NewHarperCollins. Prepare to have your mind blown. Here he looks at IP and worldbuilding. I watched Cassandra Clare do this with her YA author buddies in the last year.  She grabbed a few friends, went on a writing boot camp holiday where they all wrote short back stories featuring one character from her Mortal Instruments series. Then they released these stories, one a month, digitally. By the fourth month they were hitting best seller lists. (so it is being done...by authors!)

In the Craft section,

Building Catchy Titles,

Boost your creativity with an idea log.

Elisabeth S Craig on keeping things fresh in a series.

5 tips for running a writers circle

Ava Jae on Twitter chats. I tune into a couple every week #kidlitchat and #indiechat

Excellent article from Jami Gold on Character Internal Journey.

K M Weiland on The message in your story.

In the Marketing section,

53 Freelancing mistakes...

Self promo and marketing that works.

How to create a self paced email course...this is really interesting!

Crowdfunding a children’s board book.

Do you have an editor repelling email address?

Website of the week.

Gigaom. This tech/ publishing/ catch-all magazine website always has interesting articles and is run by very savvy people. Laura Hazard Owen looks at publishing startups and how they go head to head with Amazon and Apple. These startups change the face of publishing... until they get bought and incorporated. Check out what’s next on the block.

To Finish,

Last week I referenced a project that Mark Coker was involved with e-publishing kids stories with teachers and librarians.

This week I see that High School teachers are making up their own text books using iBooksAuthor to directly support their students.

Everyone has the potential to be a publisher... Baldur just pointed out current reality to the publishers.

maureen

Pic is from the cartoonist/illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi (AKA Inkyelbows) whose cartoons on the writing life are so funny.  Love seeing them pop up in my Twitter feed.  

Discovery

This week the rumours were confirmed that the sponsors of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards, our national book awards are finishing after 18 years. 

It is a long time to have such dedicated sponsors for Children’s Books and although we in the New Zealand children’s writing community are very sad that the sponsorship has come to an end we are also very mindful that we have been so lucky to have such a wonderful sponsor promoting and encouraging children’s books. Thank you New Zealand Post for being our champion!

Book Awards and their publicity are an easy way for the general public to find out what is being published every year. NZ Post also sponsored the traveling road show of finalists visiting schools in far flung areas of the country in the lead up to the awards. Schools enjoyed the visits...authors enjoyed the schools... positive publicity all round for literacy. Book discovery did not have to rest on a chance encounter with a book on a back shelf in a small chain store, the harassed book rep at school or book club flyers. We may have to get more creative in our visibility in future.

Barnes and Noble (very big chain store in the US) is having some problems and Agent Rachel Gardner looks at what might happen if they follow Borders into liquidation.... It is not all doom and gloom.

Mark Coker, of Smashwords, shares an interesting publishing project that librarians, teachers and students have been working on with him. The poetry book the students wrote designed and uploaded with Smashwords has become a best seller. Mark would like to encourage other schools to try out this form of publishing with their students.

Jane Friedman was the Keynote Speaker at the Boston Muse and the Marketplace writers event which was held last week. A lot of erudite people came together to look at the changing nature of the marketplace for writers. Jane shares the reactions and expands on her very good keynote address -Be Optimistic About Publishing. Take some time to read this.

Last month I linked to an article about writers and game developers meeting at the London Book Fair. Publishing Perspectives talks to a UK publisher who is exploring this new path of collaboration.

Agent Janet Reid shares a cautionary tale on beta copies... be careful of your friends...

Porter Anderson takes a look at the cost of ISBN’s (they’ve gone up in the US) and why you need them (it’s all about metadata visibility.) Just a reminder if you are a Kiwi author you can get them free from National Library... but you have to lodge copies with them for reference.

In the Craft Section,

5 things Indiana Jones taught me about writing

Getting your manuscript over the finish line

Janice Hardy – on fixing episodic mistakes

Story-a-day – creative writing prompts

Character profile questionnaire and Four Types of Character Flaws 

from the fab team of Ackerman and Puglisi

Agent Donald Mass on Plot vs Heart

Jami Gold - Raising the stakes

  

In Between...

The green eyed conference monster

Virtual writing groups

Attitude is the author secret sauce

Getting the best from your writers retreat

  

In the Marketing Section,

Anatomy of a copyright page

Audiobooks and marketing

Joel has added some more children’s book templates...ahhh

Writing a fiction series...tips for spin offs

Important tips for self publishing success

How to brand yourself without a red hot iron

Marketing - an Author Primer

When the agent rejects a MS (which was subbed for their MSWL) Why?

To Finish,

Interviews with two writers which may be of interest Jo Nesbo who talks about his children’s books...the ones he writes when he is not writing hard boiled detective stories... and Scott Nicholson whom KOBO recently profiled as one of their self publishing success stories.

I have been thinking about Keynote Speakers for our conference next year and the criteria I need to evaluate who would be of most value to the average attendee. (KSWL) On my Wish List. Children’s author... who is doing new and exciting stuff... is available... can inspire and teach across the newbie and professional spectrum... is cheap... (factor in flights to NZ etcetcetc) Or can get up in the middle of the night for Skype.... Susan Kaye Quinn ticks a lot of these boxes. Check out this little webinar… drop me a line and tell me what you think (and she is a rocket scientist... of course that wasn’t a deciding factor…:)

maureen

Pic: Discovery Shuttle

Photo Credit: NASA/GSFC/ Rebecca Roth

Being Diverse.

This week I have been reflecting on the rise of self publishing and small press in our small pool of children’s books published in New Zealand. I popped into The (Award Winning and Independent) Children’s Bookshop in Kilbirnie and had a chat with co-owner Ruth about how many books were now being author published. We then had a look at the finalists of the New Zealand Children’s Book Awards...bet you can’t pick the self published books on this list. The strength and depth of the stories from the finalists*, the production values and attention to detail of all the books and that half of them are from small press.’ shows a very good snapshot of what is happening in our publishing industry.

(*and boy was that hard to pick as several phenomenal books I thought would be automatically on the list were left off.)

Last week I highlighted the hot button issues exercising the minds of the publishing industry. These issues are still being talked about. Porter has a roundup over the boys and books debate and Jonathan Emmett which was the subject of last weeks Ether Issue chat.

The Diversity button continues to be pushed as the panelists for BookCon for the KidsLit were announced, (4 white dudes) and then this was followed up by John Green (white dude) being named as a Y. A. prophet in The Times 100 most influential people (much to John’s discomfit) and this caused howls about how JG should be using his influence to highlight...Diversity.  Book Riot have started a campaign asking people to highlight #WeNeedDiverseBooks in various ways. Librarians and authors across the spectrum have jumped into highlighting this issue, including Chuck Wendig (the no holds barred version.)

In the Grab A Big Cup of your favourite beverage and hunker down to read...

Bob Mayer looks at the harsh truths of making a living as a writer.

Chip McGregor answers author’s questions on his Lit Agent blog... a good resource here.

Jane Friedman asks questions about issues I covered last week, including Mike Shatzkins big change of tack.

Joanna Penn on productivity for authors and fighting overwhelm. (Great article)

In the Craft Section,

How to use emotional growth to propel the character

Free resources for writing and editing

Pros and cons of writing a novel in the present tense

The Capt. Jack Sparrow method of first drafts.

Developing your writing voice

5 common problems I see in your stories...(great post by Chuck!)

What killed it for me...#8 in this list of when the reader stops reading.

How to enjoy editing

Seven core competencies for writing success- K M Weiland

How to do location research.

Using macros to show vs tell...amazing post from Jami Gold

In the Marketing Section,

What is a cover reveal?

How to make people read your business card

Author website checklist from Darcy Pattison

ACX tips for authors and producers of audiobooks

15 places to promote your book for free

Running a business as an author – excellent article from Joanna Penn

11 ways to quote and promote your book using images

To Finish,

Elisabeth Spann Craig is one of my favourite Go To writers for practical help around all things publishing. She is one of the duo behind Writers Knowledge Base but also she is not afraid to show how she is coping with the Hybrid publishing journey. In this excellent post she looks at her mistakes and procrastinations and so of course you can’t help loving her more as she reveals the very human side of being a writer.

maureen

Pic from Oakland Library for the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign.

Pressing Hot Buttons

Hey genre snobs, Shakespeare did fantasy (Tempest), thrillers (Macbeth), comedies (As You Like It), YA (Romeo & Juliet) & erotica (sonnets).
— Matt Haig (@matthaig1) April 23, 2014

This week the publishing blogosphere was doing some soul searching as they digested an article by Jonathan Emmett on the gender imbalance of children’s books, that The Times picked up and ran away with...causing a mini feeding frenzy from other news outlets around the world. 

The Times headline trumpeted that the majority of buying/ producing/ reviewing in the publishing industry is being run by women so it is no wonder that boys aren’t reading.

This is a hot button issue. 

There are many angles to this story. Why has publishing become dominated by women? (low paid... low status...= women) Where are the books written by men for boys? ( low paid...low status...= ?) Who are the gatekeepers and why aren’t more books for boys being promoted and reviewed? - they would review if there were books for boys being written and published (low paid...low status...)

Why is it a women’s problem if boys don’t read? (Jonathan Emmet say’s it is not our problem.)

The next hot button issue... the same arguments this week but this time over diversity in publishing... Where are the books written by and for people of colour? In this Buzzfeed article the same blocks are being questioned. The editors are white middle class women who don’t understand the issues/stories from another cultural/colour perspective.  Few books by these authors are being picked up for publishing... which equals less readers... which then becomes one of those assumptions...that people of colour don’t read.

Why is this a middle class white woman’s problem?

Who are the majority of readers?  Demographic/age group.... (answer in your own time)

How do we address the imbalance?

How do we make reading cool for everyone?

Where do the brown boy readers go when they get to high school? (our resident representative of that demographic reads Stephen King Horror (Thanks Mr King! He is still reading!)

And the next hot button issue.

Are we over being good literary citizens? Have writers had enough of supporting publishing platforms?...because it’s good form and expected by their publishing houses but costs in time and money for the writer. Where are the blogs/ reviews from the CEO’s promoting the books? Why does the writer have to promote other writers and reviewers...and bookstores and .... Jane Friedman has a nice response to the above article.

When Mike Shatzkin came out to talk positively about When Authors should Self Publish  (minor earthquake in publishing world) and then goes on to ask for submissions from everyone about the next five years in digital publishing where he predicts that Trade publishers will conduct most of their business online... then you have a lot to talk about.

We are 18 months out from the next National Children’s Writers and Illustrators conference and so Mike makes timely reading as we look to work out what issues should be on the hot button list to discuss.

Pick your button… PRESS.

In the Craft Section,

How not to begin your novel.

James Patterson on how to write the unputdownable story.

Using a crowd to create tension in your story.

Bob Mayer on The Story Grid - a writer’s tool

Janice Hardy – when you’ve got everything right how do you leap over the line into requested/ bought 
territory.

What will be the next big YA sub genre?

10 SciFi and Fantasy stories that editors are so over...

When the first book kills the series... Great article on the fine line of writing a first serial book.

In the Marketing Section,

Building audience with bundles... Dave Gaughran’s book bundling experiences.

Popular Tumblr’s for readers – how authors are managing Tumblr

7 tips to help promote your self published book.

To Finish,

This is my 300^th post on the Craicer blog, my sixth year of providing a weekly look at the hot topics and trends in publishing. In six years I have seen the publishing world go through huge changes. The amalgamation of publishing houses... the collapse of bookstore chains... the rise of author publishing. Six years ago I would not have predicted the topic of this article from Porter Anderson but it does show how far the publishing pendulum has swung for the author.  Predicting where they may be heading to next will continue to be a fascinating weekly hot button on Craicer.

maureen

Easter Link Eggs

The royals have been and gone... the weather is getting worse... all is in train for a wet and wild Easter weekend. So what better way to use this in-house time to have a trawl through some great writing sites...read some interesting articles and make plans for the rest of your year...OR YOU COULD JUST WRITE.

The London Book Fair wrapped up and much digestion is taking place.

Joanna Penn had a mind blowing fair and has written a powerful article on what she has learned. Read!

Jane Friedman checks in with KOBO boss at L.B.F. and finds out some interesting statistics on E sales.

Publishing Perspectives had a chat with games companies at L.B.F. about how writers can get into this field they also have a good post on Using Translators as agents for your work in other countries.

Chuck’s ramble, this week, is an exhortation to young writers... the ones who have enrolled with high hopes in Creative Writing courses.  Not for the faint hearted! But good advice!

Bibliocrunch has a post on royalty rates from all the different independent ways to publish.

Publisher’s Weekly looks at Bloombury’s new YA imprint (think upmarket babysitters club books.) If you write clean teen romance....

This week I came across two posts on writers collaborations... in partnerships and in author collectives. On Joe Konrath’s blog two authors talk about writing partnerships – Great article.

The Triskele team blog has been looking at author collectives...and profiles this one with a Kiwi writer in the forefront. This is a collective that works across the world to promote their books collaboratively and under their own brand.

Website of the week: The Alliance of Independent Authors was launched at London Book Fair 2 years ago and has gone from strength to strength. Have a look around their website and read this great interview with Catherine Ryan Howard - She who is known as Catherine Caffeinated and my first Go To when Indie publishing was in its interesting infancy. Her final advice in this interview I endorse whole heartedly. A few times a month I am contacted by someone wondering what they should do... I don’t mind but sometimes I am saying the same things as Catherine...only in my head.

If you are looking for writing tips to shake up your writing life over Easter.

In the Craft Section...

10 ways to up your word count

Script-lab 10 central themes in film

The art of creating memorable villains

Elisabeth S Craig- on developing story ideas

Small scale scene structure. – great article.

K M Weiland on developing character arcs

10 ways pre published writers can start establishing their careers now

Easter Weekend could be the time look over your online presence or start one or finally get that manuscript out the door.

In the Marketing Section...

A manuscript is not a book... (primer on MS presentation)

7 brilliant ways author can build buzz

How to get more readers for your blog – an oldie but a goodie from The Bookman as well as his best 5 fonts for books covers.

Avoiding the voiceless query

The best way to write a query letter – Jane Friedman

How to get the most out of your book reviews –great article

YouTube features for marketers

Recording your short stories

Why Tumblr is useful for bloggers – Ava Jae

Indie Author Facebook tips

To Finish,

Jody Hedlund’s blog is one of my go to sites and her great articles often get mentioned here. However she has a Pinterest site just full of writing quotes. So if you need some writing inspiration this Easter check it out!

HAPPY EASTER 

maureen

Colourful Easter pic from https://www.flickr.com/photos/praktyczny_przewodnik/7047496769

Surfing The Future

Everybody in publishing wants to get a handle on where the future is in publishing. 

The big changes... the new trends... the ‘Will I have a book deal / career... next year kind of questions. Analysis of what’s being discussed in the halls of the book fairs dominates Twitter along with the kitten pictures. Indie....Trad... digital...print... book sales...up graphs... down graphs, everybody is trying to grab a stake to hold onto as the floodwaters of change pull them in over their heads.

The London Book Fair is on. #LBF14 If you want to dive into the maelstrom and surf the comment wave.

Among the talking points so far...BookTubers…their presence and prominence in book discoverability. A force to be reckoned with.

Random Penguin and the new Goodreads style community My indie bookshop (still in BETA testing but getting hyped at LBF)  Readers rank their ‘best of’ book lists which have a buy button to their favourite Indie bookshop. Readers earn money as an affiliate...Independent bookshops earn money...win/win.

Porter does a round up of Day One at LBF14

Discoverability is on every publishers mind. (Reminder: If you Indie publish –you are a publisher.) How do you break through the crowded marketplace?

Is Kindle Countdown the new free?  

Why customer reviews are so necessary to discoverability.

Is Hybrid just a phase for authors and will we ever go back to the good/bad old days (like last year.) and yet more comment on Elisabeth S Craig’s amazing post which I highlighted a couple of weeks ago.

Kris Rusch finishes her series on discoverability with a flourish.

Roz Morris reflects on what she is telling people now about publishing at LBF. Learn the business regardless of what side of the road you go down. Get better informed about all the little facets of publishing a book.

Bologna Children’s Book Fair is still being talked about.

What’s on the want list at Bologna

Bologna and the shift towards Digital.

Wipeout

Two authors have given up publishing over the constant trolling and stalking happening to them on review sites... this is a cautionary tale to all authors.

Bestselling author Shannon Hale pleas to be left alone to write books. Constant demands for engagement from fans are causing huge stress. This is the other side of success.

In the Craft Section,

How to deal with the Dreaded Sagging Middle

How to complete every writing project that you start... (rewire your brain- great post!)

The Character Pyramid

The skill list- ReWriting

6 places to find novel ideas

Great descriptions in SF (great post)

The Periodic table of Storytelling.

What to look for in a critique partner.

In the Marketing Section

Free apps for book trailers

5 author website mistakes and

11 must haves for Author Websites

The periodic table of content marketing

Distribution options for indie authors

8 business publishing necessities that every author needs

Killing the myth that self publishing is easy –Dean Wesley Smith.

To Finish,

Among the many posts that caught my eye this week were these two.  The Importance of Community for Authors and

Seven Reasons to Join an Author Collective.  I have said all along I think that author collectives  are the future model which will work best for going forward into the future. The power of the group model can be a lifeboat in the rushing water of the publishing journey.

maureen

Pic is from Michael L. Baird, flickr.bairdphotos.com