Champions

April arrives and now suddenly we are heading into the last week of the month. The Easter break seemed so much longer when I was a kid… 

In the publishing blogosphere… Nora Roberts has filed legal proceedings against the person responsible for #CopyPasteCris. For those of you who missed this earlier in the year. As of the filing, more than 40 authors had over 100 sections of books lifted and pasted into someone else’s novels. The person responsible is claiming that the ghostwriters she hired did this, but it is looking pretty murky. Nora is going into bat for the authors that haven’t got the money to do it themselves. (sainthood beckons)
There is a small light on the horizon for those authors who can prove that their work was ripped off. Amazon has a claim form… where you can get all the royalties that were paid to the scammer. 

Joanna Penn has a great interview with a TV and Film producer on how to get your work in front of production companies. If you think you have a story that would translate well check out this interview.

Publishers Weekly have reported a second month of dismal sales in bookstores. Everybody is still chasing the next big thing… on the up are Young Adult titles.

Anne R Allen has a great post on using Social Media effectively and thereby avoid the cesspool. This is timely as April has been a shocking month for all things horrible on social media. 

Kris Rusch has been hunkering down and dealing with her critical voice. She has worked out how to use this persistent nay-sayer in her life. Give it a job. This is a great post!

Katie Weiland always has great posts on her blog about scene or structure (Her Marvel series ones are epic.) She put together a great structure blog post which has a way to calculate how long your book is going to be. Smart cookie, Nadine Avola, has worked up a brilliant template for this post, just plug in the numbers.

Jami Gold has a great post on revising verses completely rewriting your manuscript. At what point do you throw the whole draft in the bin and start again. I have writer friends who have trashed whole novels. Is there another way?

In The Craft Section,

What can you do when you don’t have time to write?

More than a happy ending- Jami Gold- Bookmark

How to write a perfect scene- Bang2write- bookmark

2 great posts from Scot Myers- Character driven storytelling and Story Types-Bookmark

Working with a large cast of characters- September Fawkes

Master list of copy editing skills- Jami Gold

In The Marketing Section,

5 tips to spice up your Amazon author profile- Joanna Penn

Marketing tips for debut authors- Bookbub

Seasonal book marketing- Debbie Young - Alli Blog

6 gadgets to take to your next book fair- Janice Hardy -Bookmark

Newsletters for the reluctant author- Elizabeth Craig

5 tips for making videos- Bookmark

Series pages- IndiesUnlimited- Bookmark

To Finish,

Every now and then you read a feel-good story that just combines everything the world needs in a cute package. Sick of your job... Love books... want to make a difference in kids lives... I give you the amazing traveling bookshop.

Maureen
@craicer

My monthly newsletter, where I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links is due soon. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. I appreciate virtual coffee love so if you like the blog hit the coffee button up top. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Gandhi- Matt Brown

Creativity

Around the writing blogosphere this week the talk was all about the Writers Guild suing the big talent agencies over shonky deals with writers. I have been hearing over the years the grumblings from the screenwriters over Agencies practice of packaging which has torpedoed careers and projects. It’s an insidious form of creative accounting. NPR explains what is happening and why. 

Wattpad has been moving from being an online publisher of fan content to being a TV and movie studio... to being a 'proper' publisher. They have a new imprint for the country from which their biggest supporters come from. It's not who you think... 

Amy Shojai has an interesting post on the Alliance of Independent Authors blog on audiobooks. This format has been increasing in leaps and bounds over the last year with some new players on the block shaking things up. Also well worth trawling through is the Alli conference website with all the fabulous goodies from their recent 24-hour online conference.  

We are heading in Easter weekend and writers everywhere will be wondering how much writing they will get done over the weekend. Here are three really interesting posts on the creative life.
Creativity and discipline- 3 ways to cultivate it by Nathan Wade, guest posting on The Creative Penn

Creative life boundaries by Scott Myers from Go Into The Story

The critical voice- Kristine Kathryn Rusch- Excellent blog post!

E J Runyon has a guest post on Anne R Allen's blog on writing what you know as a starting point for writing. She discusses using sense memory as a creative kick start. Great Post! 

In The Craft Section,

Story structure explained- September Fawkes- Bookmark

The understory- Stephen Pressfield- Bookmark

Struggling with flashbacks?- Sara Letourneau- Bookmark

Are writing prompts helpful- Savannah Cordova- Bookmark

Ctl Alt Del 3 act structure- Go Into The Story

In The Marketing Section,

How to promote with your posse- Pauline Wiles

Focused goals help sell books- Penny Sansevieri

How to use your book cover to sell more books- A D Starrling- Bookmark

Metadata and Book distribution resource checklist- Alli Blog- Bookmark

Creative resources for making the most of Instagram - Frances Caballo- Bookmark

To Finish,

Collaboration is a beautiful thing. The most fun I've had is when I've been involved in a team planning a project. There's something about creative energy in a team that magnifies your ideas and kick starts your own creativity. I'm lucky to belong to the Fabo team of writers who started quite a few years ago writing story prompts for children in the winter terms of our school year. We kick off again at the beginning of the next school term. However, read this little gem of a story which takes the collaboration model of writing and kicks it up a notch.

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. I appreciate virtual coffee love so if you like the blog hit the coffee button up top. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Tristan Schmurr

Telling A Story For Eleven Years

Eleven years ago... Amazon released their first Kindle for general release. (Their first attempt sold out in 5 hours and they took 6 months to get over it.) They needed content to put on their Kindles... and so the miniscule ebook market got an Amazon rocket and the only direction was up. 
I was a debut author wondering all about the publishing industry. 
My fabulous friend, Fifi Colston, this years Otago University Children’s Writer in Residence, said start a blog. I decided that I would find out as much as I could about what was happening overseas and share it every week to my fellow writers. So much has happened in eleven years. 
Along the way the blog has morphed into a curated news collection, has been syndicated and shared around the world and provided a reference resource for conference planners. It provides a rhythm to my working week and an excuse to noodle around on social media. (And I was hugely honoured to be the recipient of the Betty Gilderdale Award for outstanding service to the children’s literature community in part due to blogging weekly for over ten years.)

Lessons learned. 
Always keep a word doc open for snippets for the blog.
It is ok to not make your deadline of 11.59 pm. (I write this at 10.30pm.)
You never know who is reading the blog so don’t assume they know as much as you do.
The world is smaller. Eleven years ago it took eighteen months for changes in the publishing industry to filter down to New Zealand. Now it is less than six months. 
We still need to work on our author collectives to truly make an impact here and overseas.
Side Note: FABO is back for another year. See sidebar for details.

Thoughts for the future... I’ll keep learning and writing the blog and I hope you always get at least one nugget of rich learning every week. Thank you for the odd cup of coffee or email of encouragement. It does mean a lot to me. 

Now back to the reason you are here - Things that caught my eye this week.

Do you remember Dungeons and Dragons? Hands up if you played it... hmmm. Writers Digest has a great guest article on how Dungeons and Dragons can make you a better writer.

Bologna... Bologna... Attendance was up... exhibitors were everywhere and children’s books were celebrated. Porter has the rundown on all things Bologna – The worlds biggest children’s book fair. (Shoutout to two kiwi children's book writers who are about to live the dream as guests at the Dubai Book Fair.)

Bookworks has an interesting roundup of online book creation tools... write and produce your book in the cloud. Pie in the sky thinking?

Rachel Thompson always has an interesting blog of super strategies for authors. This week she wrote about her pre-launch strategies for authors. 

Kris Rusch has a great post that resonated with me on writing for fun. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the publishing world and our personal goals that the fun goes out of the writing. She looks at her long career and talks about what happened when she wrote just for herself. (After having publishers sit on my writing submissions for YEARS before making decisions, I completely agree with her.) 


In The Craft Section,
First Pages and character emotion- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

16 Villain Archetypes- Tami Cowden- Bookmark

Writing a novel – How to hook your readers- Robyn Murphy

Storyteller Rule Book- Have at least 6  painful decisions- Secrets of Story

7 things to try when writing is hard- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Bonding the character and reader- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,
5 steps to a social media strategy in 2019

5 facebook ad mistakes- Social Media Examiner

2 great posts from the Alli Blog -Narrating your audiobook and Automated Emails for reader magnets- Bookmark both.

Trends- What Bookbub readers are buying- Bookbub blog

How to increase your mailing list- Indies Unlimited - Bookmark

To Finish,
A story popped up on my Facebook feed about a town called Story, that is for sale. A whole town for sale? My imagination went wild. What could you do with a little town... Writers this could be your chance. Wouldn’t it make a fabulous writer’s colony... only $3 million. (Maybe in my next eleven years... LOL)

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. I appreciate virtual coffee love so if you like the blog, hit the coffee button up top. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Ian Bruce

Trudging Forward

It’s April already?
How did that happen? 
I feel like I’m sludging through treacle at the moment. One foot in front of the other battling forward on the twisty road to getting another book out. If you battle imposter syndrome... read this timely post. 

I’m finally catching up with the fabulous content from the Alli 24 hour conference. Check out Adam Croft’s video on spreadsheets or just trawl around the conference blog and dip into great things.

Mark Williams from The New Publishing Standard has an interesting post this week on where China sits in the overall publishing world... This makes fascinating reading.

The Guardian published a plaintive piece about Aussie publishing professionals being paid poorly. It wouldn’t happen here... ( of course not... never crossed my mind... oh look a flying pig...)

Bookbaby has a post on 8 ways to reach readers through mobile marketing this week. Some cool resources in here including a free app builder.

Lit Reactor is singing the praises of Bookstagrammers and Writer Unboxed is examining which features you really need in Scrivener.  William Hahn has a great guest post on Anne R Allen's blog on sneaky world building in your manuscript.

Joanna Penn recently had a great podcast with Damon Suede about jazzing up your words. It’s an instant injection of word energy. 

In The Craft Section,

Pulling weeds from the writer garden- Laura Zimmerman

How to write a book in 8 steps- Leigh Shulman

Character vs Plot -Drive vs Focus- Jami Gold- Bookmark

What does your hero want- Michael Hauge- Bookmark

How do you show age?- Janice Hardy

5 ways to use theme to create character arc- K M Weiland- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Author brand protection- Bookworks

Use book excerpts to promote your book- Bookbaby

Content themes for blogging- Blogging wizard- Bookmark

10 ways to get reviews for your book- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Bookmarketing – The five foundations- Alli Conference video-Bookmark

To Finish,

Kris Rusch has an interesting post on outrage fatigue. Another day, another instance of clueless writers being scammed. This time it’s Indie Press dubious practice. Write for us (flat fee paid- lose your IP.) This is especially horrible when it’s your world creation you are giving up. If you are contemplating a ghostwriting deal be very clear on what and why you are doing it.

Maureen
@craicer

In my monthly newsletter, which is really late… I have a story to tell tho… 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. I appreciate virtual coffee love so if you like the blog hit the coffee button up top. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Goproo3