Marking With An X

It’s Banned Books Week and some top writers have been interviewed on how they feel about having their books banned. I remember a NZ writers comment about having his children’s book banned in the US. Sales went through the roof!

A challenged book, placed on a list gets noticed. This in the hands of a canny publicity team can ensure that these books get a huge profile. A children’s book on the banned list is usually pointing to society expectations that we protect children from reality. Is it what the characters say that is upsetting or what the book asks children to consider...or the setting of these books?

The NY Times interviewed Lois Lowry, author of The Giver, one of the most banned books in the last 30 years. Tamora Pierce adds her insightful comments at the end. Katherine Paterson is also interviewed on the risks of great literature. Her books regularly turn up on banned book lists.  Take a look at Amazon’s list of banned children’s books, it is a who’s who of famous children’s authors.

This week Nicola Morgan has been talking about copywrite education. Try to explain to kids that downloading pirated books and movies actually benefit big corporations and not the creators...It is a great article and should be passed around...let’s get some education out there...

Melinda Szymanik has also written a passionate plea on this subject.

The UK children’s booksellers conference has just wrapped up and there was a digital focus as gaming companies addressed publishers about unlocking the rights and getting together to exploit all the storytelling opportunities...

Author Platform is getting another airing with Rachelle Gardner commenting on author collectives and platforms. Everybody shares, everybody reaps benefits...

Chris Brogan has the essential how to do an author platform now, list of do’s...and don’t bothers...

For those flirting with indie publishing, 

Joel Friedman has a great post on mono typefaces...and Shannon of the mega helpful Duolit girls has 3 common mistakes to avoid when indie publishing.

Does your novel have rising tension...how can you tell? Publishing Crawl has the answer...drop your story plot points into this graph...(for those writers that love info graphics.)

If you are looking at your finished manuscript and wondering what next, check it over for these common editing mistakes and what to do about them.

Last weekend Karaveer Writing School had their first rewriting and editing course and it was a great success. So another popular course gets added to the portfolio. There is an advanced course coming up in November for published novel writers, a master class tune up which has a couple of places left.

In the craft list,

Develop your antagonist...

Don’t leave your characters in limbo, develop the setting...

Ten ways to barf a book...just get that first draft out there and on a simila theme Jane Friedman says Kitchen sink it!

Angela Ackerman has gathered all her great craft resources posted on twitter together...

Martina from Adventures in Children’s and YA publishing has the Go To post on Concept...It all begins in line one!

Seekerville has the best post on keeping reader empathy and I know my writing mentors will be waving it at me....

How is your productivity? Could it use a little tune up?

Dana Sita has got a productivity routine that works for her...maybe you should try it or you can immerse yourself in Chuck Wendigs 25 ways to get your creative groove back...(warning it is Chuck!)

To finish,

Buzzfeed looks at Aladdin and Titanic and discovers they are the SAME story.

and to refresh your memory...the following video is on basic plots....and everyone of them has shown up on the banned books list...

maureen

pic from pic from http://www.flickr.com/photos/takomabibelot/2875992647/

Passing The Hat

This morning I have been thinking about Creative Tribes and their power.  

When the tribe idea was first being kicked around I blogged about it ...yes way back then...and this grew into a series of posts around the 1000 fans concept that same year. Just type 1000 fans into my search box.

This week I have been struck by the power of the Tribe in funding creative projects. 

Amanda Palmer is having a block party in New York as I write this, because she raised over $1 million in her Kickstarter campaign for her creative project. She didn’t set out to do this. All she wanted was $100,000 but her Tribe got the word out and all through the month of May she has broken every Kickstarter record.

Yesterday my friend Fifi Colston put up her request for funding an Art Exhibition of her work here in Wellington on the New Zealand site Pledge Me. Within 24 hours she had reached her modest target. 

The reward system that Kickstarter and Pledge Me use is interesting. Think of it as buying the product or experience before it is made. I don’t know if anyone has bought Fifi’s offer for a personal portrait of themselves but that would be worth having...she is so talented.

Fifi’s comment when she reached her target...

Whatever I earn goes straight back into the business of being a freelance creative. I am currently trying to have some money in reserve to enable me to work on my next book project. It will be months of writing, illustration and photography to get it done. And it will be a stunner. So thanks for all your support to me and everyone in the arts...

Around the blogosphere this week there was a lot of comment on The New York Times article on writers slacking if they ony write one book a year.... Most of the comment was on the ‘brutal’ regime of writing 2000 words a day but there were lots of other red flags being waved at writers through publishers comments in the article.

Kristine Rusch examines this article and some of the flags raised, including the current publisher asks of short form novella ebooks effectively for love as a marketing tool for publishers and what it means to a writers career. This is a great and timely article and a good heads up for people.

Elizabeth S Craig has another take on the N Y Times article about being a writer who puts out 3-4 books a year and what it means for her.

As always, I urge you to read the comments of both these posts...for extra information and insights.

Writer Unboxed had two posts this week that got everybody talking.

What Authors Seem To Forget About Marketing and

Tawny Stokes On The Bandit Creek Series.

The Bandit Creek series is written by a writers collective, who write stories based on the fictional town of Bandit Creek, as a cool self publishing experiment for themselves outside of their traditional published roles. 

You all know how interested I am in writer collectives, this is a really interesting model and with FaBo 3 in the planning stages...it could morph (just kidding Fabo team....)

James Scott Bell has a great post on 5 things every author needs to know before going the self published way.

Catherine Ryan Howard finishes up her month of blog posts on self publishing by looking at the best way to use Amazon.

In the Craft section

James Killick has a post on why writing a treatment before you write the novel is a good idea.

There is a great post on storytelling the Pixar way

A group taking storytelling into the business world is doing some great stuff - take a look.

And for those who like pretty pictures, here is the periodic table of Storytelling!

For those of you into numbers...

Galley Cat has an info graphic on how many kids are reading on electronic devices.

Roz Morris has help for you on doing your Taxes.

Rachelle Gardner takes a look at what a publishing contract should contain.

This week I have been finalising details for a group doing a writing course at Karaveer Writing Retreat.

Writing retreats are great for an all out focus on your work. I get huge hunks of work done when I am on a writing retreat because there are no interruptions from kids, phone, internet, kids.... You get the picture.

If you can’t get away to Karaveer you could look down this list of inexpensive ideas for a writing retreat for yourself. Of course if you want to take a trip up North...and get some hands on tutoring from one of the best romance writers in the world, well Karaveer could be just the place.

I leave you with a fun comic on critiques by Inkygirl who’s website is well worth a look around.

maureen