Call Yourself A Writer

 

In Publishing News this week,

This week the London Bookfair started in its new calendar slot as the first of the Western centric Bookfairs. The opening day was busy and Publishing Perspectives editor Porter Anderson reported that interest was high in the publishing business talks that are happening at the fair. Porter reports on the talking points from day one.

 

Publishers Weekly also has a profile on The London Book Fair. They report on the way publishers are dealing with AI and copyright and the problems of innovation.

The big moves by the European Union to regulate AI has everyone looking to see whether this will act as the sheriff in the Wild West world of Large Language Models. One of the interesting moves is to hasten each member countries establishment of compliance authorities. 

 

One of the big issues in the publishing world is sustainability. Not only do we need to keep the business afloat but we must be kinder to the planet while we do it. This year the CFO’s of publishing houses were invited as a group to LBF to talk about good sustainable practice.  Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article on this including links to white papers of research. 

 

Scholastic has shelled out a lot of money to buy an animation company outright. So what do you think they will do with it. Well, they have a lot of intellectual property and animation is pretty big in the kid centric visual world….

 

It looks like the way to get your new Kickstarter style platform really moving is to invite Brandon Sanderson to run a campaign on it. Brandon was only looking for $2,000,000 to create leather bound copies of one book. Along the way he has created another record and he’s up to $18 million and he still has the rest of the month to go.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a very comprehensive post on how to write to trends. First you do your research.

 

Sam Missingham has a great website with loads of advice and resources for authors. Recently she made an archive section where she has gathered a lot of free resources together. She also has a great newsletter full of tips. 

 

Jodie Hurst has a guest post on Anne Allen’s blog about writing in the age of AI. This brings up interesting questions that writers have been wrestling with how much AI is too much.  

Given most writer tools like Grammarly use AI we are probably interacting with it more than we think. 

 

Two great posts from writers at Killzone Authors caught my eye this week. Debbie Burke has tips on finding the right critique group who can help you grow as a writer.

James Scott Bell has the answer to when you can call yourself a writer.

 

Jami Gold has an excellent writing craft post on avoiding déjà vu in your series. How many times can you remind readers about what has gone before. Jami has some brilliant ways to make this work for you. A must read! 

 

In The Craft Section,

Building a writing practice- Rachel Toalson- Bookmark

Optimising word counts – Rachel Thompson

Timelines and plotting your novel-Cindy Sproles

Guide to backstory- K M Weiland- Bookmark!

3 techniques for powerful writing-Janeen Mathisen- Bookmark

Story Planner Success- Now Novel- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Don’t waste the dust jacket- Sharon Woodhouse

Marketing on a budget- Karen Cioffi- Bookmark

After your book wins an award-Book Award Pro

Who reads books – Sandra Beckwith - Bookmark

Best promo sites – Written Word Media- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Becca Puglisi has a great article on 8 steps from Amateur Writer to Pro. If you have ever wondered what makes the difference it is not sales, it is attitude. Becca outlines the attitudes you must have. This is a timely reminder for writers – how well are you doing with your writing practice and learning? It’s all part of the pro writer tricks of the trade. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

 

 

Trick Or Treat

In Publishing News this week,

Audiblegate… Version 2 ‘Here’s a cool trick to play,’ said Booktok influencers, Amazon lets you read the book and return it for a new one and you can keep doing it… and you won’t be charged. 

Since Booktok influencers started sharing this ‘tip’, the rate of returned books has tripled. Authors are reporting that readers are reading an entire series, returning each book for the next one. Understandably this has authors hopping mad. There is a petition to sign to get Amazon to look at the problem and fix it- If the book is fully read there should be no refund.

 

With companies pulling out of Russia, how are the people of Russia coping? Their government is looking to make piracy legal. First up are entertainment companies.

 

Many authors are fond of podcasts, either listening to them or creating them. Substack, known for its subscription newsletters, is dipping a toe into the podcasting arena. Mark Williams reports that a battle is looming ahead for your ears with Patreon.

 

London Bookfair is on now… in person…. Publishing Perspectives shares what is on offer at the stripped back show that also has an online companion show. The way of the future seems to be an all-access pass to the online version along with your ticket to the in-person book fair.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors was started 10 years ago at the London Book Fair. They recently shone a spotlight on four of their authors and how they have succeeded in the last 10 years. 

Over the years Alli have hosted 24 hour online conferences in conjunction with the major book fairs. This year they have a mini-conference happening. Check out the speakers and subjects. Sign up … its free.

 

Kris Rusch wraps up her dive into copyright this week. As ever she is a must read if only so that you can be a little bit informed as to what you can make money on. This week she looks at why all the big musicians are selling their music catalogues.

 

Lisa Ellison has an interesting guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog about why your writing groups might be failing you. As you write you learn more and change your focus…is your writing group helping or hindering you?

 

Anne R Allen has a great post on writing secondary characters. Do your secondary characters try to take over the story? (yes) Anne has 5 tips to help you write great secondary characters who stay in their lane.

 

In The Craft Section,

How To Study Plot and Character- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Theme – the marrow of your story- April Bradley

Swearing in children’s books- Mary Kole

Adjectives- do you really need them- Kathy Steinemann- Bookmark

6 key qualities of the B story- September Fawkes - Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Ways to use video to engage with readers- Bookbub-Bookmark

Productivity hacks- Rachel Thompson

How to format a book using Microsoft Word- Bookmark

2 interesting posts from Thomas Umstattd, 10 reasons to delay your book launch and

How to promote using Goodreads

New advertising updates on Amazon – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

DIYMFA has an interesting post from Brittany Capozzi about the Vagus nerve and how it can be used effectively by writers. As I read this article I was struck by how familiar it felt to me. When you are writing an action scene do you find yourself mimicking breathing or facial expressions? (Thank goodness I don’t have a mirror near me.) Check out the article, it might turn you onto a neat trick to try when you want the muse to work harder.

 

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 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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

 

It’s All About The Author Business

London Book Fair is on.

Along with all the usual Fair news there was one item which was making waves. Publica announced that they had published the first blockchain author. I spoke about the future of publishing in an event at the end of last year, where I mentioned that blockchain publishing was on its way. The future is now.

Around the time of the London Book Fair the Alliance of Independent Authors has a free online conference. This year the schedule is packed full of goodies. If you want to partake you need to sign up so you can get the webinars. It is free and you shouldn’t miss it.

 Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Wattpad is eying up the Southeast Asian market for... film, television print and digital content. They already have a toe in the water, it looks like they are going to dive in. This could be very interesting for all the Young Adult authors. Check out what else they have in store...

Amazon is not coping with scammers very well. The Digital Reader reports that they have asked a court to confirm an arbitration... which doesn’t even go after the big guys. Meanwhile they are pulling Cassandra Clares brand new book series because they thought she would never self publish... this has caused another Amazon storm this week.

Kobo, that upstart Canadian rival to Amazon’s digital distribution model has published an interesting interview with one of the big stars in the Indie Author world, Marie Force.  How did she create her empire and what tips does she have...

Joel Friedlander has written an informative article on print distribution and discounting and all the ways you can do it. This is a good starting point if you want understand what it entails.

Anne R Allen has a fabulous article on ten tips for protecting your creative writing self as you go about the business of publishing. This is a must read!

Sacha Black has written the best article on Series bibles and keeping track of characters timelines etc for the Writers Helping Writers website. If you are neck deep in series writing this is a must read!

In The Craft Section,

10 ways to show character emotion- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

How to write a Book Proposal for a non fiction book- Writelife

Story Structure- the whole enchilada- Larry Brooks- BOOKMARK

Delaying submission to an Agent- Why you should- Mary Kole - Bookmark

Dragon Dictation for authors- Nick Stephenson- Bookmark

A story idea every day for April- Go Into The Story- Bookmark

10 typesetting rules for Indie Authors- Michelle DeFillipo- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Query letter strategies that don’t work- Writers Digest

Email marketing mastery- Derek Murphy- Bookmark

Promo sites- Nicolas Serik-BOOKMARK

How to create pre launch buzz- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

The dollars and sense of audiobooks- what authors need to know- Deborah Jacobs

How and Why to clean up your email subscriber list- Emily Wenstrom - Bookmark

To Finish,

Joanna Penn interviewed Jane Friedman about her new book, The Business of Being A Writer. This is the latest book on understanding author business. Jane, coming from an academic background, has written this as an academic textbook aimed at the MFA students who discover that writing that bestselling book didn’t make them rich. Check out the interview- two great gurus in one place!

The Independent Book Publishers Association has started a new podcast. They have got some great speakers and great plans for their podcast. Check out their first week’s playlist. Impressive!

Maureen

@craicer

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces in a monthly newsletter. (This weekend I promise!) When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes.
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Pic: Flickr Creative Commons / infous

Easter Link Eggs

The royals have been and gone... the weather is getting worse... all is in train for a wet and wild Easter weekend. So what better way to use this in-house time to have a trawl through some great writing sites...read some interesting articles and make plans for the rest of your year...OR YOU COULD JUST WRITE.

The London Book Fair wrapped up and much digestion is taking place.

Joanna Penn had a mind blowing fair and has written a powerful article on what she has learned. Read!

Jane Friedman checks in with KOBO boss at L.B.F. and finds out some interesting statistics on E sales.

Publishing Perspectives had a chat with games companies at L.B.F. about how writers can get into this field they also have a good post on Using Translators as agents for your work in other countries.

Chuck’s ramble, this week, is an exhortation to young writers... the ones who have enrolled with high hopes in Creative Writing courses.  Not for the faint hearted! But good advice!

Bibliocrunch has a post on royalty rates from all the different independent ways to publish.

Publisher’s Weekly looks at Bloombury’s new YA imprint (think upmarket babysitters club books.) If you write clean teen romance....

This week I came across two posts on writers collaborations... in partnerships and in author collectives. On Joe Konrath’s blog two authors talk about writing partnerships – Great article.

The Triskele team blog has been looking at author collectives...and profiles this one with a Kiwi writer in the forefront. This is a collective that works across the world to promote their books collaboratively and under their own brand.

Website of the week: The Alliance of Independent Authors was launched at London Book Fair 2 years ago and has gone from strength to strength. Have a look around their website and read this great interview with Catherine Ryan Howard - She who is known as Catherine Caffeinated and my first Go To when Indie publishing was in its interesting infancy. Her final advice in this interview I endorse whole heartedly. A few times a month I am contacted by someone wondering what they should do... I don’t mind but sometimes I am saying the same things as Catherine...only in my head.

If you are looking for writing tips to shake up your writing life over Easter.

In the Craft Section...

10 ways to up your word count

Script-lab 10 central themes in film

The art of creating memorable villains

Elisabeth S Craig- on developing story ideas

Small scale scene structure. – great article.

K M Weiland on developing character arcs

10 ways pre published writers can start establishing their careers now

Easter Weekend could be the time look over your online presence or start one or finally get that manuscript out the door.

In the Marketing Section...

A manuscript is not a book... (primer on MS presentation)

7 brilliant ways author can build buzz

How to get more readers for your blog – an oldie but a goodie from The Bookman as well as his best 5 fonts for books covers.

Avoiding the voiceless query

The best way to write a query letter – Jane Friedman

How to get the most out of your book reviews –great article

YouTube features for marketers

Recording your short stories

Why Tumblr is useful for bloggers – Ava Jae

Indie Author Facebook tips

To Finish,

Jody Hedlund’s blog is one of my go to sites and her great articles often get mentioned here. However she has a Pinterest site just full of writing quotes. So if you need some writing inspiration this Easter check it out!

HAPPY EASTER 

maureen

Colourful Easter pic from https://www.flickr.com/photos/praktyczny_przewodnik/7047496769

Feeling The Emotion

ANZAC day* is always emotional. Whether you are braving the chilly dawn for the memorial service or later in the day at a full civic ceremony...there is always the tear in the eye, the tight feeling in your throat. On this day I think of all the members of my family who served in their different wars and are still serving. The one who didn’t come back in 1916, age 23 with no known grave...his brother, my grandfather who did. My husband’s grandfather, one of less than 200 that survived Gallipoli and the Western Front. ANZAC day is always harder when one of our family is overseas serving as a Peacekeeper.

When we were overseas last year, we met a Turk on a train in Italy. It was a special moment as we both talked about the war that forged our two nations. Each of us had a story to tell about visiting Gallipoli and crying. He talked about seeing a fused piece of metal, the result of 25 bullets that all hit together at once.

What a hell it must have been!

In the blogosphere this week a different kind of war was happening as reaction to Barry Eisler’s keynote address to the Pikes Peak writer’s conference was furiously debated on Twitter. Agents and Publishers taking exception to Barry’s comments that Legacy publishing was a lottery and their only value was for print distribution deals. Once the hot comments were out of the way and agents and publishers climbed down off the ceiling...debate was more constructive. Read the comments people...but give yourself some time...

In the last year very successful indie e-publishers have begun partnering with big publishers for print only deals and agents are becoming publishers on the side, organising editing, covers and marketing of eBooks or POD...it is pretty easy to see Barry Eisler’s point.

The London Book Fair has just wrapped up and there was lively debate around the changing nature of agents. So do you want a manager, a partner, a business coach...or a deal maker? And No an Agent is not necessarily going to do all of that.

Joanna Penn was also thrilled to be at the Fair. She has a huge blog post filled with video interviews and comments about the 2013 Fair, which had the most writers attend ever. Take some time over this one.

Joel Friedlander talks about his war on Word...how Word won...and what he is doing about it. Check it out and get a great deal on his solution!

Seven Steps To The Perfect Story is one of those amazing graphics that you really want to print out, stick on your wall and gaze at for a long time.

Myths about Query letters to Agents...don’t get too worried.

Elizabeth Spann Craig has been looking at Audio books and ACX. This is a feel good post telling you how to use ACX.

In Craft, It is all about Character Emotion...

3 Tips For Realistic Character Emotion

Real Life Diagnostics- Hooking The Reader- Janice Hardy dissects a submission.

Susan Sipal dissects your favourite Harry Potter Character Emotion Arc’s

4 Things You Need To Understand About Character Emotion...great roundup here.

Dropping into the Emotion Thesaurus, it’s all about sarcasm....

To Finish,

Roz Morris talks about Obituaries and why they are so important for writers...

maureen

*ANZAC Australian and New Zealand Army Corps remember their fallen soldiers on 25^th April the date of the landing of the Corps at Gallipoli in Turkey 1915. New Zealand lost ¼ of their men and more than ½ were severely wounded. The Turks lost twice as many allied casualties and their leader Ataturk Kemal became the Father of Modern Turkey. After a disastrous nine months the Allies left the peninsular in the dead of night leaving behind more than 44000 dead to lie with 87000 dead Turks. New Zealand suffered the largest casualties relative to their population of any Allied Nation and the campaign changed forever both Turkey, who won, and Australia and New Zealand, who lost but found and forged their own national identities away from Britain.

I saw Dire Straits perform this live when I was 21...it never fails to remind me of the loss and weariness of war and the need for Peace.