Warning! Links can be addictive....

In my quest to find interesting materiel for my blog...I follow links on others blogs...I’m thinking of you that’s why I do it. (yeah right) and tripping over to Tania Hutleys blog, I was caught by a link and followed it to the Book Publicity Blog.

When to schedule a bookstore event and when not to...and this blog was written with the help of tweeps ...people on twitter who post one line comments back. to the blogger. There were some good points to consider but lovers of Neil Gaiman will appreciate the comment on this post about an event he has just appeared at in Dublin’s Chapters Bookstore.

One of the first things that struck me after I read the good post on book store events was the huge list of book related blogs that Yodiwan has linked to on their own site. Bookgasm, bookninja, books and booze, books and you name it the list goes on and on and on.

Johanna Knox is about to start another blog as if the three she has got going isn’t enough. This one,tho, will be about books. She is already lining up guest bloggers....good marketing Johanna....(thanks for asking me....shameless self promotion.)

So book blogging is the topic toujour....

There have been various attempts to use the internet and writing in real time in creative ways.

Some writers are posting chapters on line and building up an audience for their work...One author I have heard of (not children’s) in NZ is having fans pay her to write the next thrilling instalment....

Publishers are starting to ask for extra content especially in the YA market. This sort of thing is becoming more prevalent in contracts overseas. The publisher writes a clause into the contract about adding content on their websites in character voices....or supporting full blogs in character voices....

Imagine the take up if you had to write a blog for Edward Cullen from the tween community....I note that P J Hoover has got lots of comments after she posted on the ages reading the Twilight books and they are young (about 9 and 10 yrs old) which is quite scary...because they often still believe that the fantasy world is real...

I have a book blog for Bones (clic on the pic)which has chapters that were cut out on the final edit and extras such as how I came to write the book etc. I always write the blog address for kids when I’m signing...so they can see the extra content.

That book is finished but what about book blogs from writers who are still writing...

The lovely Tania Roxborough is getting quite a lot of interest in her book blog and the book isn’t even published yet.

Banquo’s Son is a sequel to Macbeth....and who better to write it than Tania or TK Roxborough. How she fits it in with full time teaching secondary English as well as a full on family life is amazing!

Check out her blog and the cool template for it and read some of the juicy excerpts in what I know will be a great book.

and lastly tho not quite on the book blogs topic....Tim Jones has the press release up for

The Cuba Street Garret writers colony.....

If you are in Wellington looking for writing space....this could be for you. Doug Wilkins (on the NZSA Wgtn committee) has previously set one up in San Francisco and there could be a chance for a writers exchange.

Go have a look!

Warning! Following links can be addictive. Where have you been taken to lately...?

Chain link pic is from http://www.author-promotion.com/ (Spot the new links in my sidebar)

Win a free weekend

The tag line says it all. In a new twist, author gives away a first-class weekend in London to promote his book.

So you think a free weekend huh....who is this guy....This idea is the brain child of an author PR firm. I guess it helps that the author in question has written a Wall St crime thriller book and is supposed to be one of the hottest bachelors in London. No expense spared in the prize either....Take a look

I found this on a free PR site. Just a simple google search can bring up all sorts of things...and spark all sorts of ideas. So remember when I said 'write your own book reviews and post them... ' here is something else you can do while you are waiting for the book deal. Write your own press release and post it here. www.prlog.org

Or better yet sponsor someone to the Spinning Gold conference...(shameless plug for the conference in September. )

Thanks to Barbara who emailed me a message to say my Kiwi bites Book ‘Bones’ is Number 2 in the popularity stakes with Wheelers Books... My small moment of fame sandwiched between Margaret Mahy and David Hill (great for the ego sitting next to these two stellar writers) however fame is fleeting and I see today I’m number 14.

The pic is The Labyrinth. (big news in our house...most weekends spent on it...)

The largest outdoor mosaic-ed one in the Southern Hemisphere. I worked on the building of it ten years ago when it was situated in the grounds of a retreat house. It has been shifted...a mammoth job... to the grounds of Lower Hutt Hospital and I am on the team rebuilding it. It reopens March 1.

I could say a lot about it... but this blog is supposed to be about children's writing and marketing ideas...

maureen

Going Digital...3 links to contemplate...

Yes this post is all about the digital revolution...well actually it’s not a revolution any more. It’s life moving fast on the digital highway.

I too have finally succumbed...Life got too complicated last week and so I went and bought....a....mobile phone....Yup and my thumb is sore! Learning to text....OMG.
I am not giving out my number...because I can’t remember it...and if I get a text from the two family members who know it, I fumble and drop it and miss it and take 15 minutes to text Five words...

So I will get there...This from the geek who reads PopSci and PopMechanics...I know about it intellectually.....Anyway the model I have has the features I want which I’m still trying to make work.

But investigating this marvel of modern technology I discovered no games, but a cool music composer...You can sing into it, convert it to a score, change keys, rhythm, and instrument and save it.

Who needs games....

And so onto the digital bytes that relate to marketing and writing and conferences that I have for you this week.....(I’ll add this to the marketing links sidebar next week because there are some great links. )


100-internet-possibilities-to-investigate

’The future is now. Sometimes, we don’t look outside our little angle of it, and that means we miss some possibilities. Other times, we realize something’s out there and we have part of the puzzle, but we’ll catch a different view that gives us even more. I’ve compiled a list of 100 possibilities and things happening out there on the Internet that might be of interest to you. You may have even more to add.’

The amazing Chris Brogan (expert in social media) posted this post at the end of January.
I scrolled down the list and there were links everywhere for more effective web marketing, running your e-business, you name it and Chris did.

One of the points Chris made was that you should be looking at the opposite of what you do on the web so you can get ideas... sounds funny doesn’t it, but you have to read the post.
More important is the list of nearly 100 posts responding to it with people around the world adding to the list...Brilliant stuff...I’ve already sent links to peoples way from the responses.

Chris has broken down his list into these categories.

Streams of Information
Web based work
Video
Small and local
Mobile Applications
And Money


The seminar programme for the Digital Publishers Forum is up....and a varied programme is on offer.
Martin Taylor is talking on e-books fresh from a NY conference on them
Adrian Keane from Pearson Education... is talking about educational digital publishing
Neale Pitches from South Pacific Press is talking on his experiences e-publishing.
And a bloke with my brother’s name... but he’s not....tho he sounds just as interesting....
The Wellington seminar is on April 1 ....and a 50% discount for NZSA members looks well worth it...

For those of you waiting for news of the conference....It’s coming....it’s coming... We are finalising the programme as you read this....we have a cool logo nearly ready to go...and we are putting the call out for sponsors...So if you Book People know anyone who wants to partnership with us, Please get in touch! Don’t forget to get on our advance notice mailing list, if you want to come. See sidebar.

But to whet your appetite on Children’s Book Conferences...Here is the amazing Alice...She has just blogged The three day New York Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators Conference. There are some great observations on talks and panels and people and publishers. The photo’s are awesome especially the winners of the Illustrators award. And don’t worry about the recession...well that’s what they were saying in New York last week.
http://scbwiconference.blogspot.com/

Maureen

The pic -the hottest tee shirt item on the web at the moment... couldn’t resist...sorry Twilight fans....I’m sure Stephen King will be wearing one given his comments on the series this week.

Back on the blogosphere with news, views, and a pretty picture.

I have a good friend, a marketer by trade, who knowing of my interest in marketing for authors sent me this link to David Meermans Scotts web blog.

Trawling around the site I discovered little gems on marketing and case studies where companies have got it all right The world wide rave....or horribly wrong....the worldwide rant.....

Have a look. David talks about how Lisa Genovia self published a book and then through great viral marketing it became a NY Times best seller.

We came back from the extended holiday a few days ago and in the midst of getting children’ ready for school and dealing with the ‘on hold until we get back’ issues, I have been working and swearing about the latest funding application for the Conference.

In mid December we released information about the conference inviting people to register their interest by going on our mailing list.....wow what a flood of interest there is....we sort of suspected there would be.... the list is climbing towards 100 and that’s after only a month in the blogosphere and being emailed around.

If you haven’t registered your names for early bird updates do so...the intention with the mailing list is to let everybody on it know first, before the general public, when registrations open...It will be on a first come first served basis...i.e. because we only have 80 places.

The big bloggers are waiting for our official logo (coz they like pretty pictures) and the mocks of the proposed logo look funky indeed. We have some amazing speakers confirmed we’re waiting on a few more....and obviously funding applications because our overriding quest is to provide you with a conference YOU CAN AFFORD to go to.

In our conference meeting on Saturday...two of our number have confirmed books coming out this year and two of us have been rejected due to the recession....(I’m one of them... yet again it was we would publish but.....) I will be very interested in the quality of the books published this year by the publishing houses who have contacted me with their rejections....I would like to have a career not a hobby.

I would like to thank my eldest child...smart, beautiful and most of all kind... for looking after the younger two so I can use the computer with relatively little interruption....

Just a little note as I tweak my blog layout....I came across this from Janes blog...Does the author need indie epublishing platforms....lots of food for thought....go look....

pic is tulips among the vegies in our garden...