Learning From Pulp Fiction

Over one hundred years ago Pulp Fiction was born. Pulp paper was cheap and so many magazines sprang up looking for content. Famous writers learned their writing chops writing for the pulps. Crime, Sci-Fi, Mysteries, Thrillers, The Noir Detectives, Westerns, and many more genres were born in the fifty or so years of Pulp publishing. I have shelves of Louis Lamour and Leslie Charteris ‘Saint’ books. They wrote fast and they wrote for their readers. This week Christopher Wells examined the ebook publishing phenomenon and compared it to Pulp Fiction. 

Joanne Harris spoke out against the absurd focus on debut writers in the publishing world and pleaded with publishers to support their existing writers instead of always chasing the next debut. The Bookseller has a roundup of her Q and A with Sam Missingham. Joanne makes great points on age banding in children’s books, why genre fiction is seen as lesser and the invisible women writers. (Share this article around!)

Last week I pointed you to Dean Wesley Smith’s great post on doing the maths in a writing business. He has a follow-up post responding to the various reactions to his post. Explaining again how writing is a business. While we are in Dean’s neck of the woods he also has an interesting post on how licenses are not the end of the road. This is a great post about helping writers to understand all the tricky rights paragraphs in contracts.

The Audible lawyers are insisting that the judge should throw out the Caption Copyright case. If you haven’t been following this, Audible owned by Amazon wants to introduce written captions to their audiobooks. Publishers say this is eBook publishing and an infringement on their rights and licenses.

Joanna Penn has just passed her eight-year anniversary as an author entrepreneur. She has a great blog about how she is working now and why she has started even more content generation podcasts.

Anne R Allen has a super post on how well-intentioned friends and family can sabotage your writing and your self-belief. This is one of those posts that every writer will identify with. Reading the comments will make you wince. How do you protect your writing sanity?

Kris Rusch looks at Failure this week. Failure is good. Failure means you tried something. And all the best learning comes from failure. I was fascinated to read about Ben and Jerry's flavour graveyard.

This week Jami Gold had an interesting post on Writing Projects- Are we ever done? How do you cope with project overwhelm? Jami offers some good advice for when you can’t see the project because the TO DO LIST got in the way.

In The Craft Section,

5 character flaws to shake up your cast- Litlangislife

An easy way to find the right words- Writer CEO

Two great posts from Writelife- Writing action scenes and How to write a memoir- Bookmark both.

Evoke reader emotions-K M Weiland- Bookmark

Rules - who cares- Kathy Steinemann- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section, 

10 reasons readers unsubscribe from newsletters- Nate Hofelder- Bookmark

SEO for authors- Alli Blog

3 reasons authors need content strategies- Abbie Mood

Simple ebook design means good marketing- Alexandria Szeman

5 things to plan right now for good holiday sales- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

To Finish,

Joel Friedlander talks about understanding Styles in Manuscript formatting. I debated with myself whether this was craft or marketing and decided it was both. Knowing how to use styles is Very Useful. It will help you to craft the interior of a book as well as organise your manuscript.

Colleen Story has a way to boost your writing creativity- Go on a colour walk. She offers 5 ways to do this activity and how it can inspire your writing. You could even have fun with purple prose.

Maureen
@craicer

If you want the best of my bookmarked links, why don’t you subscribe? Then you can also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you.
I appreciate the virtual coffee love so if you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top.
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Pic : Flickr Creative Commons- Will Hart -1943 Prince of Corpse Makers – E Hoffmann Price

Crisis Mode

This week I put the above cartoon on my Facebook page. To me, it highlights the disconnect of the world that our children are facing and how we are trying to protect them from it. Sometimes I have muttered under my breath at the latest dire news bulletin ‘Stop the world I want to get off.’ But it is important to take a deep breath and continue to support the changemakers. This month UK children’s publishing house Greystones announced that all their non-fiction books coming out will be issues-driven. (I wish that we didn’t have to have preschool books explaining climate change. Gulp.)

Publishing Perspectives reports on the changes to Book Expo for next year. In the past, the changes have resulted in very dissatisfied publishers and agents so 2020 Book Expo is almost a return to normality except that its shorter. Why, when the book industry is supposed to be expanding?

The week has been filled with reaction to the Medium article by Heather Demetrios -How to lose a third of a million dollars without really trying. This sad little tale comes from an Author who got big advances for debut novels and then watched the dream descend into a nightmare. 

For two very interesting perspectives on this article, you need to read Dean Wesley Smith and learn about what you don’t know. Then read Chuck Wendig for a dose of reality.
This is a business. After the flowers and the Champaign of your first book launch, you need to understand the book world and you need to ask questions. There is no question too dumb as Chuck points out in his own style.

Chris Syme has an interesting guest post on Anne R Allen’s blog this week about crisis management. When an author needs crisis management… it’s not as bad as you think it is.

David Gaughran, the fearless knight defender of the little author, writes about a book exhibit scam that is wrapped up in a veneer of publishing respectability. The big Book Fair comes around and there are companies ready and willing to take your book and exhibit it to the international book-buying world. Yeah, about that….. 

This week Joanna Penn interviewed James Scott Bell on his latest craft book- The Last 50 Pages. If you haven’t come across James Scott Bell’s craft books check them out. He is a master at showing another way to look at craft!

In The Craft Section,

Character development tips - Now Novel- Bookmark

Creating memorable characters- David Griffin Brown

3 tips for writing children- Lucia Tang

5 types of character arc at a glance – K M Weiland – Bookmark

Beyond two-dimensional character-building- Therese Walsh- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section

Book Ad design tools- Bookbub

What the ideal writer website should look like- Laksmhi Padmanaban- Bookmark

Before marketing your book- Boni Wagner Stafford

How to improve your email newsletters- Barb Drozdowich- Bookmark

Cover design terms you should know- Mary Neighbour

Selling books to an international audience – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

To Finish,

Killzoneblog is a great blog to drop into for all things writerly. Recently Jordan Dane wrote a fabulous post on rediscovering your writer mojo. I was reminded of this as I dropped into Alli’s 24-hour conference earlier this week and saw Dean Wesley Smith talking about the negative associations of calling writing ‘work.’ It got me thinking about mindset and negativity, which helped me over a hump in some scenes this week. Go out there and rediscover writing FUN!

Maureen
@craicer

The monthly newsletter is due this week. If you want the best of my bookmarked links, why don’t you subscribe? Then you can also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you.
I appreciate the virtual coffee love so if you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top.
Thanks.

The Plot Thickens

Digital Book World is on and straight after it is the 24-hour free online conference put on by ALLI – The Alliance of Independent Authors. Register NOW so you can have 3 days perusing all the info before it is gone! 

In Publishing Business News…
Canada Independent Booksellers report a rise in print revenue according to Publishing Perspectives. This is good news if you have just launched a bookshop. (see last week’s post)

Meanwhile, Publish Drive have changed their author fees. They had introduced a flat fee for handling all the distribution in exchange for 100% royalties. Now they have a four-tier model. It still might be worth considering if you have quite a few books.

The French Military, taking a leaf out of the US military playbook, has put out a call to Science Fiction writers to write scenarios for them. Who better than a bunch of authors to come up with plots that might actually happen. (Debt of Honour by Tom Clancy published in 1997, 4 years before 9/11)

This year the Frankfurt Bookfair has a pavilion dedicated to Romani Gypsy literature. I first read of ethnic minorities becoming nation-states without borders in a Science Fiction novel. This pavilion recognises an ethnic minority, without a nation-state, and their literature. Literature is above borders.

Kris Rusch has published the next installment in her rethinking the writing business series. It’s all about money and licensing. How do you know how much to charge for each license?
(BTW Dean, her husband, is speaking on this topic in the free Alli conference if you needed another reason to register.)

Dean Wesley Smith is annoyed with the misinformation out there about how much it costs to Indie Publish. In his dumbest new myth blog post he points out it is relatively cheap… so anyone charging you $2000 plus you need to give the side-eye to. As ever, read the comments!! Some of the commenters added new resources to Dean's list that make it even cheaper!

Agent Janet Reid sends out a warning of a scam that she recently came into contact with. People who offer to represent you to agents… her thoughts… BURN.

The Alliance of Independent Authors has updated their publishing business reviews. If you are thinking of working with anyone in the publishing world it worth checking out whether they have a good review from ALLI.

Kathy Steinemann has a nifty list of ways to record the fabulous plot ideas that arrive in the middle of the night.

Amanda Rawson Hill gets a rave review from September Fawkes and just reading this guest post on How Theme and False Theme affect your protagonist, you can see why. 
This is a knockout… print this out and pin it on the wall post!

In The Craft Section,

Setting the scene- NowNovel Bookmark

Emotional mastery for fiction writers – C S Lakin- Bookmark

How to approach writing a villain protagonist - Scott Myers- Bookmark

The inner struggle- Janice Hardy

How to tell if you have too much plot and not enough character- K M Weiland - Bookmark

How can we make our conflict stronger- Jami Gold- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Behind the scenes of an author newsletter- DIYMFA -Bookmark

Forget what you learned in Kindergarten, copy Madonna- Janet Reid

Promote your book hacks-Reedsy- BOOKMARK

2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri, Easy SEO for author marketing and 5 quick ways to ramp up 
your author central page-Bookmark Both.

On producing my own audiobook- James Scott Bell

To Finish

Do you call yourself a Bookworm or a Bookshark? Lit Reactor can tell you the difference. I was nodding my way down the list… so I know what I am.

Today is a day that haunts many people. Inevitably it has filled the internet with sad stories. So maybe we need to turn to Roald Dahl for the perfect quote (collection)
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like,
So long as somebody loves you.
Roald Dahl- The Witches

Maureen
@craicer

It’s nearly time for the monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links, why don’t you subscribe? Then you can also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you.
I appreciate the virtual coffee love so if you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top.
Thanks.

Pic : Flickr Creative Commons- Rab Driver-  Cat Plotting Revenge

New Kids On The Block

Tonight I was at the launch of a Bookshop. Usually, I’m at Book Launches so it was interesting to be at a bookshop launch. Every community needs a good independent bookshop responsive to the community it serves. Locally there are a lot of technology firms as the Mayor reminded us and the new bookshop is themed around STEM subjects. This means that along with the usual bookshop fare is the truly eclectic and interesting deep dive into STEM subjects. With books face out and on big tables, You don’t know what you are going to find and immediately want to buy. It’s a cunning sales plan*...and why Amazon’s bookshops have their books face out. Go out and support your local community bookshop. After all, we want them to stay around.

The New Publishing Standard had an item in their news today that got me thinking. Nickelodeon has just launched a kids e-reading subscription in France. Now I’m wondering if in the next year we are going to see subscription battles as companies try to compete with the Everything store for entertainment subscription eyeballs. After all how many subscriptions does the average family want to have?

Larry Brooks of Storyfix has been beavering away on a new Writers Craft Book which is coming out with Writers Digest next month. Larry has produced some great craft books over the years so check out what he is tackling now.
Larry name-checks another great writer of writing craft books James Scott Bell who has a great little article on how realistic your action scenes need to be. This is timely as I’m trying to choreograph a spaceship battle. Do I go Star Wars or Star Trek? Does the new bookshop have a book on this subject?

Maps. They can suck you in... and if you are a writer you can spend hours pouring over them. We have a map book full of writer fantasy maps... one of those essential books you come across and have to have. Chris Fox has been playing with Wonderdraft. A map-making tool for the gamer or writer out there. Take a look at how it works. Brilliant stuff!

Kris Rusch is up to part 10 of the licensing series and she shines a spotlight on what a lot of authors do, but don’t know. Buy licenses. Once you really think about it, licenses are everywhere in publishing. Now think about your own Intellectual Property... rethinking your writing business.

In The Craft Section,

2 great posts from Bang To Write – How To Plot Like A Goddess and Do You Really Have  A Story- Bookmark both

4 keys to a powerful denouement- September Fawkes- Bookmark

8 ways to improve your writing- Literary Architect

The definitive list of Cliches- Go Into The Story-

Writing yourself into the heroes journey-Lara Zielin 

In The Marketing Section,

3 simple hacks for your mailing list-Miral Satter- Bookmark

Using Goodreads to increase book sales- Christine Nolfi

Weave Buying Persona’s into your landing pages- Blogging wizard

How to drive sales with Pinterest- Avasam

How to use a book award for marketing- The Book Designer- Bookmark

6 marketing myths that harm writers- Lisa HallWilson - Bookmark

To Finish,

Besides reading and buying books... Canva is one of my guilty pleasures. I love playing around with fonts in design.  Recently I came across this collection of cool font generators... Do you want glitter or glow or 3D effects? It’s all here. Font Nerds Unite.

*my wallet got an airing at Schroedinger's, Jackson St, Petone.

Maureen
@craicer

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter?
When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you.
If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons - Jonathan Rolande