After the Feast

This week Wellington has been celebrating writers. As part of the International Festival of the Arts (held every two years) a week is devoted to writers. An eclectic mix of genres including literary and poets was represented. Stars like recent Booker prize winner Eleanor Catton, Tom Keneally, Marcus Chown and Jung Chang along with children’s book luminaries Ulf Stark from Sweden and Leo Timmers from Belgium.

Writers feasted their ears for pearls of wisdom, feasted their eyes on books, or just feasted with friends and discussed books, writing, their dwindling budget and soaring credit card.

The independent bookshop Unity made a brand statement all over Wellington as they held bookstalls outside all the writer venues with copies of the speaker’s books. Their distinctive Unity bag was everywhere on the streets.

For those unable to get to Wellington this week, bloggers Maria Gill and Phillipa Werry provide some excellent notes on sessions they attended. Thank you to Kathryn Carmody and her team for all their efforts in bringing together such a great lineup.

Around the publishing blogosphere comment is still continuing over ACX and their dropping royalty payment. Porter devotes an Ether post to the discussion...because Amazon owns ACX will royalty payments for ebooks also drop?

Another post getting comment is Mike Shatzkin’s. Mike initially got the wrong end of the stick when commenting on a Huffington Post article by Mark Coker on data but then he crunched the numbers himself and found he was backing up Mark’s claims of Indie earnings.

Bob Mayer takes a look at the interview with the Harlequin CEO and shakes his head. Does Harlequin know who their competitors are now? Bob points out some facts the CEO overlooked.

Warrior writers has a great post from an editor/agent on taking criticism like a pro. This piece echoes discussions I have had with other writers this week talking shop after various writer events. 

Maya Rodale has an interesting article in Huffington Post on Serial Fiction and a new app called Rooster which chunks a book for you in 15 minute bites so you can read on your

phone.

Jane Friedman has a free article from Scratch to read (you need to create a login but it is worth it) Four agents talk about the business and what they are doing. Kristin Nelson is doing some interesting things with her digital arm which echoes this guest post on Joel Friedlander’s site this week. It will turn your ideas of content upside down.

In the Craft Section,

Sarah Megibow on having an Emotionally Healthy Publishing Career

Elisabeth S Craig talks about writing in longhand (something I do.) and the differences it makes to thinking about your writing.

7 ways to write thrilling crisis scenes

K M Weiland on tying up loose ends in your story.

James Scott Bell on writing the middle first...brilliant post from the master!

Jami Gold on Beat Sheets...Bookmark!

In the Marketing Section,

Getting Book Reviews

21 ways to add magic to your brand and stand out as a creative

Joanna Penn on Changing Book Covers...this is an interesting look at what works and what doesn’t and the emotional connection of the reader.

Website of the week...Two again.

3 habit building apps for writers.

Darcy Pattison has a wealth of information for the writer on her website. Check out this one on using spreadsheets to keep track of characters.

To Finish,

Chuck Sambuchino from Writer’s Digest’s Agent’s blog profiles new agents and updates books regularly. There is a contest on his blog for midgrade contemporary novels looking for agent representation. You have to spread the word to enter the contest. An interesting way to run a contest...win/win. (and No, I am NOT entering I’m full up on midgrade SciFi.)

maureen

Pic from Shodan

Flickr/Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/klauspost/92783024

Data Differences

This week, around the blogosphere, the comments were on the awesomeness of IndieReCon and the news that Amazon has dropped the royalty payments for ACX, their audio publishing arm. 

ACX is not available to writers outside the US but it is helpful to keep an eye on these developments with one of the biggest publishers. 
Chuck has a few pithy comments to say on the general argggh coming from authors around ACX. (Wise up people.)

 One of the great things about Online Conferences is that information stays online so you can refer to it...or in the case of writers in another hemisphere, get to it at a time that suits you. IndieReCon stuff is still available. I dropped back in to read Angela Ackerman’s post on collaboration that was really informative. Of course I then scrolled down... So much good stuff in there. Take some time to delve into the chats and posts. 

Joe Konrath has been a vocal member of the writing community for a long time. He recently took issue with comments from literary agent David Gernert. He raises some good points about gate keepers...the changing nature of the agent and who they are working for and contracts… 

If you are interested in contracts check out this post – Don’t Get Screwed- Contract Provisions Every Creative Should Know. 

Porter Anderson gave Hugh Howey the floor (his space in Writer Unboxed) to answer a comment from a reader about what Hugh considers the ideal print publishing deal he would go with. It is very interesting as Hugh describes the deal he has with Random House UK over the US part of the operation...and why he went with UK... (he tangata, he tangata, he tangata! people, people, people!) 

Hugh also has his 3rd report up... a look at Barnes and Nobel, a bricks and mortar chain bookstore and a snapshot of sales...surprise surprise or perhaps not as the figures are still hitting the same marks. 

Data and the need for it, exercises the Harvard Book Review this week. This is a call out to the publishers to maybe start providing some. 

Forbes takes a look at Brands... and finds out some very interesting information. Would you rather be a Grisham or a Jack Reacher. Which earns you more? 

In the Craft Section 
Jami Gold has an excellent post on How To Be A Good Editor. 

6 Ways To Survive Rewrite Hell. 

The Write Practice- How To Finish Projects 

Create Inspirational Workspaces 

Jody Hedlund on Developing Characters 

In the Marketing Section 
A big article on Discoverability and Marketing- they are essentially the same thing. 

Tim Ferris On How to make a viral book trailer 

10 Book Marketing Mistakes Self Publishers Make 

Website of the Week: K M Weiland. 
I know I reference her a lot but have you actually trawled around her website... check out this post. How Not To Be A Writer -15 Signs You Are Doing It Wrong 

To Finish, 
Neil Gaiman has a different take on piracy.... data food for thought…

maureen

Pic from Flickr/Creative Commons/Mezdeathhead
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mezdeathhead