Have I got a deal for you!

This week the Seattle Weekly took a close look at the world of Bezos. Is Amazon publishing over?

Hugh Howey is trying to understand digital disruption. Could the author become obsolete?

Script Mag has a post on author’s estates if the worst happens… 

BUT REALLY…

November is all about NaNoWriMo. (National Novel Writing Month) This is where the writer commits to writing a 50,000-word novel in a month. Just to let you know 50,000 words is on the light side for a novel unless it’s a children’s one. Agent Janet Reid has the genre word count lists... so you might want to rethink your 50,000-word picture book.

If you are diving into NaNoWriMo there are always lots of cool deals around for writers...

Scrivener (MS software) always has a free download trial and there are various writing craft book deals around.

Last week I urged you to pick up Joanna Penn, David Gaughran, Sean Platt and Johnny B Truent’s book bundle for 99c. Each day Joanna, Dave, Sean and Johnny are writing great articles and linking to their 99c deal, which is available for the rest of this week!

Kevin J Anderson has chosen 12 books to go into a mega NaNoWriMo bundle for the month of November. You pay $15 or more and you get all 12 including the writer craft books from Kris Rusch, Dean Wesley Smith, Chuck Wendig... whom regular readers will recognize as often being referenced in this blog. (Christmas came early...Yeah!)

Live Write Thrive has a list of inspiring books that aspiring writers should read. Have you read them all? (4...)

Helen Sedwick recently got the chance to hear someone from Author Solutions speak -  Welcome to the Hotel California...

Author Solutions has some dodgy clauses in their contracts... and they are the behind the scenes company for many SP options being run by the big 4...(this is a Writer Beware situation.)

Murderby4 is a group blog of Thriller writers. They have a nice post about helping budding authors without killing their spirits.

Long time readers of this blog will know that I am a fan of group blogs... Romance University has a great post on how to set one up.

James Scott Bell has a post on Killzone about writing what you love and earning money from it.

BooksellersNZ have an interview with Julia Marshall of Gecko Press. (She’s looking for junior novels at the moment...)

In the Craft Section,

Creativity on demand... The BICHOK solution.

Chuck Wendig on NaNoWriMo writing tips...

Stephen Pressfield on the most important minutes of the day

Teaching yourself to write better

How do we describe characters –Jami Gold

In the Marketing Section,

How to use Rafflecopter

Storyboarding a book for marketing – Bob Mayer

How to help your books sell themselves – Sean Platt (Don’t forget the 99c bargain)

How to kick start your sales – Dave Gaughran (Don’t forget the 99c bargain)

Marketing - how to use your early readers

To Finish,

Last week I hinted that Joanna Penn was coming to Auckland. 

IT’S TRUE and she wants a meet up with any Kiwi Authors who would like to meet her. 16/18^th December.

Go here and fill out a form for her... so she can figure out how best to cater for everyone!

Sadly I won’t be there... but you guys can party with Joanna on my behalf!

maureen

Pic from Flicr/creativecommons Eastlake Times

First Steps Into A Secret Life

In my secret life I am taller, thinner, brainier and permanently aged 30. Of course, when I was 30, I was all of those things. I just wish I had celebrated it more...

Not a bad first line...a bit of pathos...a bit of thinking...line two and three follows on developing the theme...

Why am I looking at the first line....because Lisa Stiles has a great article on her blog about first lines and their power. She has some great examples and analysis on the first lines of the famous books.

If I am talking to anyone on the power of the first line I send them straight to any Dick Francis book. Pick any one. Read the first line and that gives you a huge clue as to why they are bestsellers.

Tahereh hasn’t been blogging very long but has made an impact with her witty blog. This week she posted a great list of what 81% of Agents would like on the first page. If you trawl around her site you will find other laugh out loud articles for writers. Tahereh is also graphic artist and she made up a spoof cover called Querypolitan. This has now morphed into reality as an online magazine (she is looking for contributors...)  which is as funny as her blog.

Angela Ackerman had a recent contest on her blog asking readers to nominate blogs they could not live without. She posted the extensive list divided up into Agents and Industry, Query and MS Tuneage and Writers, Authors and Writing. I have quite a few on my regular check list but I will be checking out some new ones based on this comprehensive list. My Twitter follow list will be getting a workout. 

Robin LaFevers and Mary Hershey together run The Shrinking Violets Blog. This blog is dedicated to Marketing for Introverts. As introverted children’s writers they have a wonderful handle on what it takes to step out and market your book in front of an audience. This week one of their readers, Jenn Hubbard has written a great guest post on how getting together with other writers to market your books can help the introvert writer. (Extroverts will like it too.)

Our collective writing group project is coming together and as part of the nuts and bolts of going live we all have to have a profile and pic on the website...I hate the camera and the camera hates me. You may have noticed that I have cool space pictures all over my social media presence. However with the help of some cool free software and my kids, I have an avatar pic, which wonder of wonders makes me look taller, thinner, brainer and permanently aged 30.  Who could ask for anything more? Check out the sidebar!

Over on Craicerplus (my Amplify page) there are links to articles on

The Literary Lab - Keep Your Middle From Sagging

5 Writing Super Powers I would like to have.

Children’s Book Apps get curiouser and curiouser.

Melvin Burgess’ Top Ten Books for Teenagers.

Big Publishers have reason to be happy about how the book market is evolving.

Maybe ET is calling but we have the wrong phone.

How to create Buzz before opening week(end).

Agents won’t survive just by charging a higher commission.

enjoy,

maureen