Writer Rage

It has been a challenge keeping calm this week with the political news dominating the media. Many writers are stuck. Do they try to steer a middle path or ignore what is happening or make a comment. I have seen writers being attacked on Social Media for daring to have a political opinion and voicing it. They are being told that their work is entertainment and to stick to that and not point out anything different, because as one fan said 'I want a small corner of sanity where political views don't intrude.'

So to put your mind at rest I will not be commenting... I will leave it in Chuck's capable hands to tell you what writers should be doing

Anne R Allen has been seeing red lately over people not respecting Book Bloggers or any bloggers in the publishing blogosphere. I understand how she feels. I don't have the readership that Anne has but I get at least two appeals a week to write guest posts or highlight someone or update a post with new information. It is annoying because it clearly shows they don't read my blog. I ignore them including all the 'follow up' emails. Anne has great points to make if you are suffering the Troll Blues.

This week Geraldine McCaughrean won the Carnegie Medal for her novel Where The World Ends, a mid grade- early secondary book. She used her winner's speech to highlight the problems of publishers dumbing down language for children. She has direct recent experience of publishers asking her not to write long words. What happens if we don't stretch our reader's minds? Read the Guardian article on Geraldine's speech and find out.

With the biggest publishers of content in the world (*FAANG) taking over the interface between the creators and the consumers what is next for the poor content creator. Alli director Orna Ross published an article on the Alli blog looking at Self Publishing 3.0 -direct sales between authors and readers. We have the means. We have the technology. What is stopping us?

Last week I highlighted Kris Rusch's blog post on author learned helplessness. The Passive Guy - contracts lawyer in real life- added some learned commentary on Kris' article backed up with some recent discoveries of his own. (If you haven't read Kris' blog post, you are missing out on a valuable learning opportunity.) This leads on to an excellent article about the growth mindset of authors by Jennie Nash. Do you have a growth mindset? It may make all the difference to your career.

In industry news... a wrinkle. Audible (owned by Amazon) has started making audio first deals with writers. This has some major implications to rights sales and contracts.  Melville House Publishers saw it as a tricksy problem for publishers. Read their blog from a writer's perspective before you make up your mind. 

Should you start an author newsletter before you have a book contract? The writer chicken and egg problem. Tamela Hancock Murray suggests that you should and moreover she details just what you should put in one too.

Rebecca Monterusso has written an intensive breakdown of what a scene actually is, on Jane Friedman's blog. "They should do the same thing your global story does: upset the life value of the character and put them on a path to try and restore it."

This is a great article on the basic building blocks of story. A Bookmark Post.

In The Craft Section,

8 common pacing problems  and How to dump info - September Fawkes- Bookmark Both

Writing riveting inciting action and What is a plot point- Now Novel- Bookmark Both

5 tips for writing good prose- Roz Morris

What should your characters talk about - KM Weiland

In The Marketing Section,

Spice up your Amazon Book Pages- Joanna Penn - Bookmark

How to update without losing your reviews- Kate Tilton

Combating release day stress- Elizabeth S Craig

Self publishing marketing strategies- Indiereader

8 cover design secrets- Derek Murphy- Bookmark

Agents Tips to use on Social Media- Bookbub- Bookmark

To Finish,

In our house we have extroverts and introverts and people who sit squarely in the middle. This can make for challenging conversations when it comes to attending Book Launches. The introverts would rather have a quiet celebration dinner. The extroverts a full on party! So what happens when an introvert has to launch a book with a splash? L L Barkat  has the introverts guide to launching a book. 

Happy Solstice Day -

Congratulations Prime Minister on the birth of your baby girl- I'm sure children's writers all over the country are wrapping books for you.

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter, I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you want to shout me a Solstice coffee to say thanks for the blog you can hit the coffee button up top... Thanks.

*FAANG- Facebook Amazon Apple Netflix Google (finance speak for media stocks)

Pic: The Scream - Edvard Munch

Acquisitions Arguments and Awards

This week around the publishing blogosphere...The news that Hachette has acquired the Perseus group is filtering through. Hachette is taking the publishing arm and on-selling the distribution arm to Ingram. Why should you care? Remember the predictions last year about publishers having to get bigger to survive? Hachette gets bigger. Ingram’s gets bigger and knocks out their major competitor along the way. This move has many implications for Indie publishers as Perseus was a main publisher of niche imprints and the main distributor of Indie Publishers. The move has fueled some speculation of what might be coming down the pipeline.... However it is a Sign That The Predictions Are Coming True.

Also in the wider news Amazon is flexing its muscles in the UK and Europe. Amazon is pressing for new terms with publishers some of which include that publishers cannot undersell Amazon even on their own websites and that Amazon is to provide a POD book for every print title currently out of print. There is a nice little phrase, (Most Favoured Nation) being bandied about.

The Carnegie Medal has been awarded. It is one of the top prizes in Children’s Literature... and not everyone is pleased. The book is a Young Adult novel for starters...and it just goes down from there. Kiwi Kids Lit authors will be familiar with this scenario as we watched it unfold last year after our own National Awards.

This years New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards was another celebration of the depth and breadth of children’s writing in this country. The winners were hard to pick from the stellar finalists in each category. Children’s Literature won on the night...with New Zealand Post finishing its 18 year sponsorship in style. Everyone hopes we find another sponsor just as dedicated to celebrating our Children’s Literature awards as NZ Post. (crossed fingers)

In the Craft Section,

Why Backstory is the Spine of your Story... (great article)

What Writers can learn from Jane Eyre

The real meaning of Show, Don’t Tell

When Smart Characters Do Dumb Things.

Get Back To Basics –Janice Hardy

Story Midpoint mirror moment –Angela Ackerman

9 common exposition mistakes

In the Marketing Section,

The best TED talks on Marketing...This is a great collection and worth bookmarking.

Query letter pet peeves from Agents

Public speaking for introverts.(video from Joanna Penn)

Who is your distributor?

Creating a Business Philosophy -Elisabeth S Craig

To Finish,

Writers are bibliophiles. Huffington Post has a collection of things YA Readers say about reading… but really these could all come out of writers mouths.

maureen

pic: The Margaret Mahy Book Of The Year 2014 awarded this week to Vasant Unka. (Penguin NZ)