This week the winners of the LIANZA’S (Librarian and
Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) were announced at lovely event
in Wellington. I spoke to one of the judges at the event and we talked about
the depth of books on offer this year. The judge said that they could have
picked another 5 in each category, so I raised the issue that maybe they need a
long list. After all The ManBooker has one. One of the important things about a
long list is it raises the profile of up and coming authors. This is really
important in a small country with a shrinking publishing market. Sales into
libraries and schools make all the difference in our small publishing world. A
good long list can become a first port of call for school book buyers. (here’s
hoping they take it on board!)
"I was brave in my writing, in a way I wasn't in my life."
-Judy Blume
#LA14SCBWI pic.twitter.com/UgfCHFKyEt
— Samantha Berger (@BergerBooks) August 3, 2014
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators 2014
annual conference wound up in LA this week. Over 1300 kids lit people in one
space...WOW. This conference is usually a sellout every year. Some great
keynotes and panels were on offer. Fix your self a long drink and scroll down the conference blog where they had notes on all the events.
If you are feeling in need of a conference the ever popular WriteOnCon is back in a couple of weeks. This is a free online conference over two days for Kids Lit writers. It is worth dropping into... getting up early and attending.
This week the stoush between Hachette and Amazon hits the 4th
month and the online letter to Amazon from concerned writers hit 900
signatories.
Also in the news is the opening up of the Authors Guild (finally) to Indie writers. This has been loudly applauded... and the appointment of best selling Indie C J Lyon’s to the board has the blogosphere jumping with excitement. First up she called for ways to make the guild better. Joe Konrath produced a 12 point plan that was a masterpiece. Every writers organization should be taking a look at it. The discussion has been wide ranging and is still on going.
The LA Times has been talking ebook numbers...and the sometimes skewed reporting around them.
The Huffington Post has an article on how Barbara Freethy became a best seller...(Interesting post)
Eileen Goudge is a traditional best seller and she is looking at her first foray into self publishing because her publisher no longer felt she was a hot property... after 13 NYT best sellers...
In the Craft Section,
In the Marketing Section,
Lessons from 2014 RWA –tips for marketing success – Jami
Gold
Social Media Platform infographic (this is a printout post!)
To Finish,
Jane Friedman has an interesting guest post about an Appcalled Episode. It allows writers to post up chapters with animation or comic
book styles and have reader interaction. Perfect place to play with characters
etc and the whole thing is specifically designed for mobile reading... A sign
post for the future.
maureen
maureen
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