May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour

Hunger Games. Hunger Games. 

Everywhere you look. Hunger Games.

The promo is big...all over the Internet...FB...Twitter...TV...Radio...the stupid Team names have been assigned...are you Team Peeta or Team Gale...(completely missing the point but that is a rant for another time.) 

Katniss is the quintessential kick ass heroine down to her boots and braid. How and Why did this book get to be so popular? and What does it mean for an author contemplating their WIP and wondering if their story has the same potential to grab hearts and throats, wallets and imagination as Suzanne Collins story has.

Salon has broken down how the story became a bestseller and it makes interesting reading.

Word of Mouth is the key thing to remember...Hand Selling...Bricks and Mortar bookstores...Librarians...Children’s Book Reviewers...they were all targeted with advance copies of the manuscript which was photocopied...slapped inside a spiral bind cover and passed around six months before publication.

Oh the delicious irony of the very institutions under threat at the moment in the Brave New eWorld being the key that started the engine of this years blockbuster movie.

Helping The Odds

Word of Mouth...getting the word out about your project...and hopefully generating some excitement or at least readers is a hot topic in the blogosphere this week.

Jody Hedlund has Word of Mouth at the top of her list of how a writer can become and stay visible.

Rachelle Gardner has a timely list of 8 things writers should know about Goodreads.

The FAB Elana Johnson (WriteOnCon and YA Author) has an in depth look at Goodreads and Facebook marketing for children’s writers.

Kate Hart has taken an in depth graphical look at what has been selling in the last year in the Y A category...Contemporary is back....but what is following closely behind?

If you would like to check out some more intricate pictures that show lots of information...check out this one of the origins and then the sub genres of Sci Fi.

In Your Favour

Writers In The Storm have a guest post by lawyer Susan Spann looking at royalty clauses...this is a good overview about some tricky language that affects our bank balance...net... gross... wholesale....

Dean Wesley Smith has a good hard look at dead tree printing and concludes that it is worth it...and POD is the way to go. This is a very in depth article and the comments following it (over 80) are just as in depth...so take some time over this one.

The TOC conference is on in Bologna and they have been looking at the digital children’s book marketplace. Publishing Perspectives gives a quick overview of what people are saying on this topic.

A couple of quick resources for you.

Free Mac tools for writers.

The IndieBook Collective is a nifty little site that has lots of resources for writers who are Indie bound.

The Hunger Games Movie is a 5 star effort all the way. The screenwriters, and Suzanne Collins was one of them, hit every note from the book just right. The best movie from book adaptation I have seen.

Go see it... take tissues and pop corn!

maureen

Gotta Fly...

This week’s blog post is going to be an ‘on the fly’ posting.

It could have been a rant on the NZ government screwing up the school terms for the benefit of the rugby world cup...meaning that all primary sport tournaments have changed...leaving us with conflicting schedules all over the place...

It could have been a thoughtful look at the impact of the reorganisation of chain bookstores and the rise of indie bookstores and authors selling direct in Australia and New Zealand.

It could have been a rant about the first released pics of the male lead characters in the Hunger Games film and how my teen has just found time to start reading the book after I warned her not to do so because her Nationals are this weekend and she needs her sleep. It is unputdownable and why do teen male leads have to look like beef cakes...this is not reality that I have seen...are we setting boys up to fail in the beauty stakes?

It could be about the wonderful Wellington Children’s Book Association AGM tonight where we celebrate the year with a panel discussion on Is Storytelling Dead?

We hope not...

But on the Twitter feeds at the moment there is discussion about the LA Times dropping all their book reviewers...and how Forbes Magazine is highlighting their ‘content creators.’ (Sort of a formalising of the brave new world...)

Jane Friedman has gone out on her own, because she has the clout to do so after maximising her visibility through Writers Digest...(Something Forbes maybe trying to tie up, by giving their journo’s permission to do likewise.) Jane has a great take on how to transition yourself...

Over on Craft

Jami Gold looks at Character Driven vs Plot  and how we fall one way or the other...and Procrastinating Writer has one on Establishing Writing Rituals.

Over on Craicerplus ( My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on

Indie, Big 6 and Small Press Publishing (and how a writer can do all three)

The Hybrid Writer........(you have permission to be one)

To finish,

I would have talked about the huge stoush/debate/argument/angsting going on over at Bookends Literary blog over their decision to set up an epublishing arm. This has become the place where the whole agents becoming publishers debate is being held! At least they are trying to engage the writing community....tho some want to hang them out to dry...

And I was going to look at why book trailers could be the next big thing in your marketing arsenal following on from last week...

And this year’s Bulwer Lytton winners are out...(for the worst opening sentence)

But I have to fly...AGM’s... Tournaments...and National Dance events...are all steaming towards me....

maureen

pic is from Gizmodo...a new plane design