The weather scientists this week said that Winter has been
so warm that Spring has come a month early. And this is a symptom of climate
change. At the moment we have a late blast of winter going through and it is
bleak and wet out there. (So breaking Elmore’s sacred rule never start with the
weather....)
In the publishing blogosphere this week...
KOBO KOBO KOBO KOBO...
Kobo launched three new e-reading devices this week in NewYork...and got the publishing blogosphere talking...because along with the
hardware...Kobo has new content to go on the hardware. Kobo Kids a dedicated
e-bookstore for children...Beyond The Book for all stuff beyond the book
including a special Font for dyslexics... and other nifty things. So another
shift in the publishing world has happened.
Also in a quietly heralded move...The Alliance of Independent Authors has done a deal with PubMatch. If you are a member of Alli
you can get a 90% discount on getting all your overseas rights sold...Read all
about it...It is an interesting move.
Dave Gaughren has been comparing distributors...Smashwords
and new kids on the block Draft2Digital.
Long Time readers of this blog will know that I have a bit
of a geek thing with space etc etc and that this year the prominent writers in
the SFF Geek community have been calling out misogynist and threatening
behaviour towards women in the community. John Scalzi (just stepped down as
Pres. SFF) has been targeted for his very vocal support by troll lowlifes. This
week around Social Media a picture of John in a dress went viral calling John a
feminist. John’s beautiful reply will have you chuckling. Way To Go John...also
if you haven’t read any of his work...you are really missing something, he is a
great writer!
Bob Mayer has 53 books under his belt and has decided to
write a quick article about ten things he has learned as a writer...This is a good checklist for yourself.
The fabulous Debbie Ridpath Ohi and her comics on rejections...This will put it all in perspective.
Roz Morris runs a few blogs which I have referred to over
the years in this blog...however I haven’t ever profiled her Undercover Soundtrack blog. Writers who write with soundtracks in their ears, talk about
why they write to music and what sort of soundtracks they use.
In Craft,
In Marketing, There are some very fine articles this week.
Website to check out.
If you write Midgrade...Check out Emblazoners. This is
another example of an author collective that niche market themselves. Roam
around and get a feel for what they are doing and read the excellent article on
writing midgrade series.
To Finish,
Rachel Gardner writes about Happy Authors and the things they don’t do.
Be Surprised.
pic from Flickr/ Creative Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clearlyambiguous/
