Swimming With The English Babel Fish.

This week an article from Publishing Perspectives caught my eye.

Non English speaking countries are seeing the tech revolution and rather than being left behind are encouraging their populations to learn English. It got me thinking about how many of these new readers we must be overlooking. Do we think to market in Turkmenistan? This is a fascinating article on diversity and the new lingua franca- English

Publishing Perspectives also had an article looking at a subscription model for children’s books. Amazon is offering a curated selection of PRINT books to be sent to your child on an ongoing basis.

Kris Rusch writes about cultural change this week. What happens when you are flavour of the month and then the flavours change? How many writing careers have been sabotaged by this thought?

This week Cambridge Analytica closed its doors... and authors wondered if was safe to dip their toe back into the FB water. With all the problems of author pages needing to be boosted all the time to get visibility two posts crossed my path this week on how to circle around this. Facebook Groups seem to be the answer. Joel Friedlander has an interesting guest post from Frances Caballo exploring 10 ways Authors can grow Facebook groups and Lois Hoffman has a neat article about how to build your author platform with Facebook groups

The Alliance of Independent Authors have a wealth of information, check out their recent conference page.... They also have some great articles like this one from John Doppler on piracy and impersonation and what you can do about it.

Jami Gold is aptly named because she dispenses craft writing tips that are pure gold. Head hopping in a story can be problematic for both the writer and the reader. Jami takes a look at how to avoid it. A must read.

Anne R Allen looks at writing a great first sentence. Here she details 22 first sentences that caught her eye and why they work. A must read.

In The Craft Section,

Rewriting a children’s book series- Heather Moon

The secret to journaling -Wicked cozy authors

How to info dump without info dumping- September Faulks- Bookmark

Point of view- Reedsy

World building in Science Fiction- The Creative Penn

Plot isn’t story- K M Weiland- Bookmark

27 writer’s residencies... Go On Take A Look

Why you need grit- Aliadventures- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Book cover design fundamentals- The Creative Penn

How to get Amazon reviews- Lisa Tener- Bookmark

How to survive the DIY Book tour- Writer Mag

May inspirations for author marketing – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

When to submit to a publisher without an agent- Nathan Bransford

7 fool proof marketing tips for your blog- Nicholas Rossi

6 ways to make your book more discoverable- Alli- Bookmark

To Finish,

The inventor of the original Babel Fish, Douglas Adams, was a unique writer. If you loved Hitchhikers guide or Dirk Gently take a look at these top ten writing tips.

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you want who hit the coffee button this week... feel free, I appreciate the virtual coffee love.

Pic: Flicker Creative Commons- Anna-Maria Olehn