Conferences have been the main topic of the week for me. It
started earlier in the week when I had a book association meeting and on the
agenda (officially) was conference 2015. Yes I know that is next year...yes I
know that it is probably last third of next year... Yes I know that is 18
months away. But when we planned the last National Conference of Children’s
Writer’s and Illustrators we started 18 months out. You have to if you want a
good Keynote speaker... and other great faculty presenters. You have to if you
want a good venue... You also have to find out from your potential attendee’s
what they want to learn about. **
Twitter was full of NY2014 SCBWI chat about how awesome it
is and was. The great thing about the NY and LA Society of Children’s Book
Writers and Illustrators is the live blogging that goes on at these events (great for us writers on the other side of the world.) So
instead of feeling envious of Kyle (pres of NZSA) getting to go (his choice, he
paid for it, he deserved it) you can live vicariously and go visit the blog and scroll down on the right, dropping into those presentations that interest you.
(Alternatively you can buy Kyle a couple of beers and pick his brains next time
you see him.)
IndieReCon is happening now. 3 days of awesome virtual
conference which is free. There are quite a few kids writers on the faculty of
this conference which is Genre Writing orientated and very practical for
writers looking into Indie publishing. There is lots of info on marketing, book
production, agents etc. I started, yesterday, listening to a webinar on Fear
and Writing with the Awesome Susan Kaye Quinn. I had already bookmarked her Marketing Indie Mid Grade books post to share here...(Read It!)
In the story that doesn’t die...more commentary on the
Author Earnings site and the talking/hand wringing that is going on.
Brian O’Leary on The Empire Strikes Back – if Trad
publishers would get past the handwringing and realize the game has irrevocably
changed and what they can do about it.
Eoin Purcell on understanding the technology shift where writers have moved quicker than publishers.
Passive Guy (who is also presenting at Indie ReCon) on Mark Coker’s, guest column in Publishers Weekly (subscribers only) this week, reaction to the Author Earnings reports...yes I know that was long winded... (badly worded, it’s late..) just read the link...Passive Guy quotes extensively from the article.
In the Website of the Week
I want to highlight two.
Writer Unboxed is a website that has a large list of
contributors. It is like a classy magazine with long form essays exploring some
aspect of writing or publishing. The contributors are publishing and writing
veterans. Jane Friedman contributed a long form essay from her new magazine
Scratch on serial or episodic writing which is fast becoming a reader
favourite. This is an examination of what it is and how to do it and who is
doing it and why.
Today was #MSWL day on Twitter. Manuscript Wish List. If you
type #MSWL into the search bar all the tweets from editors and agents come up
of what they want to see. If you have a story that fits that criteria...when
you query, following their individual website guidelines, you must put #MSWL in
the query. It makes for interesting reading.
In the Craft section,
Jody Hedlund on writing scenes- a quick 5 point checklist.
Jami Gold on How to skip the boring parts
Susan Kaye Quinn on tools for helping you write faster.
Larry Brooks on The Bermuda Triangle of Storytelling (Bookmark this!)
In the Marketing section
Check out IndieReCon....
To Finish,
The Daily Dot has an article looking at the restarting of an authors career in Kindle Worlds...The Kindle Fan Fiction site...ho hum you
might think until you find out that the author is L J Smith who was the
original writer of Vampire Diaries who found her rights to her own work cut out
from under her when she was fired from the TV show of her own creation...
**If you have any ideas for topics to learn about or conference wants... either comment here, on Facebook, or through email. We are preparing a short
survey which is coming soon.
To finally finish....Hank Green, Brother of John (half of
the Vlog brothers) posted a great Video today on books...its a rant really but
entertaining...as only the vlog brothers can be...
No comments:
Post a Comment