Putting Your Best Foot Forward...

Don’t write to trends.

Midgrade needs humour

High Concept and Good Writing

Tell a Good ...Great...Amazing... Story.

These are only a few takeaways from the Editors and Agents at the SCBWI New York Conference held last weekend.Go on over to the official Team Blog and scroll back to the beginning...or dip in and out from the sidebar.

Publishers Weekly this week looked at What do Children’s Book Consumers Want...and How Digital Multimedia Is Changing Children’s Publishing.

After reading all the links above you will be a little shell shocked and wondering where you fit in the fast changing world of Children’s Publishing. Take Heart. Overall the feeling out there is one of cautious optimism. Children’s publishing hasn’t taken the hit that the rest of the publishing world did.

Everybody is still looking for a great story... You just have to write it.

There are more opportunities to share your writing than before. Self publishing, ebooks, blogs, podcasting...all these are becoming easier to use to reach an audience. Many writers are getting together to share experiences and pool their resources in group blogs, ebooks and publishing companies.... They are sharing their stories, leading the way and breaking new ground.

But the day of the author recluse is over. The word out there is that the author must engage with their audience.

To help you with this The Mixed Up Files group of Midgrade Authors have put together a great resource on tips for school visits-Thinking Outside The Box.

Andrew Pyper has listed  the Do’s and Don’ts Of Public Readings and Janice Hardy has written a thoughtful post on Blog Tours...That’s when you go on a tour to other author blogs to promote your book/work from the comfort of your own office.

Of course you will have a website....and here you need to be looking at the best use you can make of this resource...because it is a resource for you and your audience. Kids want to find out about you and your work and what your favourite cereal is. You want to tell them about the cool stuff you write and why you have an addiction to milk bottle lollies...Potential publishers are researching you too as they build a strong case to overcome the number crunchers into taking a chance on you.

Irene Watson has written a great article for authors on sellingbooks.com about using your website stats.

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on

40 Creative Manipulations To Feast Your Eyes

Is Writing The Cause or the Cure For Anxiety-The New Yorker

Extreme Book Design...And You Thought They Used Photoshop.

Katie Weiland has guest posted on Victoria Mixons blog about 5 Writing Rules You Can Break. This could be useful information as you write that High Concept Amazing Story.

Spare a thought for those in the prolific author category. Rachelle Gardner has outlined how life can be difficult when you have too many finished projects.

And for an alternative view...Chuck Wendig has launched a mortar at badly self published books. Eye wateringly funny....but warning....it is full of ‘content.’ (I did warn you!)

enjoy,

maureen


pic is from clown ministry