The Trials Of Growing Up

In publishing news this week...

The news is filtering through about mega selling YA Author Cassandra Clare being taken to court over plagiarism by another big selling YA author Sherilyn Kenyon. This is an interesting case as it hinges on whether you can plagiarise an idea. 

While authors digest that one- if you were thinking of translating into German you need to understand that titles are copyright protected in Germany. Joanna Penn talks to Rebecca Cantrell about this and other meaty topics in the hybrid world of publishing.

A new Author Earnings survey is out. For the first time they included print books. The numbers make interesting reading. Traditional publishing still holds up Print... but the Indies are not far behind.

This week Nielson announced that they have decided to track ebooks. This is slightly after the fact as ebooks have been around for a few years now. However the data may be useful in the future.

Publishing will be rubbing their hands at the news that an 8th Harry Potter book is about to be launched on July 31^st in print and ebook. This is the book of the script of the play which also opens in July. With over 70,000 fully illustrated books of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (retailing in NZ at $70) sold in the last three months, I’m going to predict that there will be a market for this book featuring a grown up Harry Potter. Add to that a new expanded version of Fantastic Beasts and all things Potter will be the publishing saviour of 2016.

Outside the phenomenon of Harry Potter, Children’s Books receive very little review space in print media. A UK author has launched a campaign to try and redress this. This has been picked up by The Bookseller magazine with an article about why these reviews are so important.

Jami Gold has an interesting article on the dilemma for the writer of a public life for a private individual. 

Janice Hardy has an interesting article by Marcy Kennedy on the single biggest mistake authors make... and its important... BACKUP. Marcy details the ways you can fix this!

Jane Friedman has a guest post by Ursula Wong on writer groups and co ops. This is a comprehensive how to article on what types of groups are around, what they do and how they can be set up. 

I have long been an advocate of writer groups... of all kinds. They can be a great support individually and can morph into small publishing companies.

After all that’s how Bloomsbury started and look who they first published... J K Rowling

In the Craft Section,

How to write open ended endings

10 tips for trimming a lengthy manuscript

Kathryn Goldman-When and when not to use Trademarks- Bookmark!

K M Weiland - 5 reasons a book is re readable- Bookmark

Anne R Allen- How to hook the reader- Bookmark

Kristine Rusch on The Serious Writer Voice- Bookmark!

Jane Friedman on Creating Audiobooks

In the Marketing Section,

Writeitsideways has a nifty post on 4 steps to take forAuthor Branding.

Jane Friedman looks at whether paid book reviews are worth it- Bookmark

Writers in the Storm has a great post on helping your readers to write good reviews

Lindsay Buroker has a great post on Amazon adverts for authors- read the comments!

Promote a book without using Social Media

Miral Slatter has a great post on putting together a marketing plan for your book. Bookmark

Joel Friedlander has a post on the importance of keywords for Amazon

If you still need help with websites and ideas check out FirstSiteGuide. Lots of interesting articles.

Passive Guy links to an excellent article on going exclusive or going everywhere with your book

To Finish,

If you are thinking about productivity apps- here is a full on one- Flowstate... keep typing or lose all the words you have written. No time for musing or looking at kitten pictures... I wonder if J K Rowling uses this.

Maureen

@craicer

Hugh and Cry Revolt

Last week, buried in the middle of my blog post were these lines.

Yesterday Icelandic author Baldur Bjarnason wrote a great piece on ethics in publishing. This is a great observation on what a lot of commentators are seeing as the great divide between the two different publishing communities.

Hands up those people who can tell me what the two communities are....hmmmm.

Today, in a breaking news bombshell, those communities just got wider with a new website launched and funded by Hugh Howey looking specifically at crunching the data on publishing stats and earnings for Self Publishing and Hybrid authors. 

For those of you who don’t understand what this means...

If you have a Traditional publishing contract. Your book gets published...you may get an advance. You may get up to 10% net of print price or up to 25% ebook price. You may get a quarterly statement on how sales are going but no other information. The marketing window for your book is usually 6 months...that’s 2 months before publication and 4 months after. After that the publisher is onto the next book and any blip in sales comes from author promotion. In the fine print of your book contract there may be a non-compete clause, you can’t publish with anyone else or anything else except the publisher. Your rights may be held in perpetuity (US law is the lifetime of the author plus 70 years) with no rights reversal clauses.

If you choose to self publish you may get up to 70% of ebook price with Amazon and whatever you set the profit of the book, after your costs have been taken out, on print. You do all the marketing work for as long as you want to.

In both models the author doesn’t really know what they are doing right or wrong with marketing. Data on what works and how different publishing models are successful is very thin on the ground.

From time to time surveys come out with data that says how well self publishing is doing against traditional publishing. I have linked to a few over the last few years in my blog. 

The ebook market where most authors self publish has been on the up. 

Today Hugh Howey’s report was released looking at raw data that crunched the numbers of the biggest selling genres (romance, sci-fi/fantasy and thriller/suspense) on Amazon on one day. 92% of the top 100 genre bestsellers were ebooks. Indie authors were outselling Traditional Big 5 authors in these categories. 

There are many bombs in this report. Porter Anderson does a good job of looking at them and extrapolating ideas but you should read the report for yourself. Hugh is the leading voice in the Indie author community at the moment. He is advocating a change to fairer contracts for authors and a partnership model with publishers. Below is his mission statement for the AuthorEarnings website.

Welcome to AuthorEarnings, where our purpose is to gather and share information so that writers can make informed decisions. Our secondary mission is to call for change within the publishing community for better pay and fairer terms in all contracts. This is a website by authors and for authors.

Two weeks ago he made it very clear just exactly what he thinks author contracts should consist of and what he thinks author societies should be advocating.

So after a few hours digesting The Report, Digital BookWorld weighed in with their analysis and they took issue with the one day data and the extrapolation thereof... however they also agreed that there was something rotten in the state of ....

Now Hugh is the first to say that this is one day...on Amazon... in January... and he is keen to have that dialogue from other authors on their experiences (see the website for ways to contribute to the discussion.) Steve Moseby takes up the challenge, he looks at the figures from The Report and wonders whether they are true based on his UK print figures and annual income after only one days data.

In Other News

Passive Guy sends out a warning over a contractual clause where any future law changes in any territory in the world will be the problem of the author. This, after an author was accused of blasphemy, following the passing of a law in India after her book was published. It all hinges on the word ‘will.’ He follows that up with another post on contracts. (As he is a lawyer he doth know what he speaks of.)

Cassandra Clare is tired of the constant carping of some who keep asking why she is still writing her book series ... she notes that male authors don’t get asked this. A thoughtful restrained response from a YA author.

In the Craft Section,

LiveWriteThrive on compelling novels centering on the goalof the protagonist.

Victoria Mixon on 3 tricks to increase tension.

How many characters should a book have?

What is more important Plot or Character Development?

KillZone Authors on pumping up your creativity.

5 big screenwriting mistakes and 5 fixes...(this is a bookmark post!)

How to organise writing ideas.

In the Marketing Section,

Jami Gold - A newbies guide to self publishing.

Goodreads strategies to increase sales.

K M Weiland - Story Cartel...how she got 50 + positive reviews (great review site)

Joanna Penn- On creating stronger bonds with readers.

Julie Musil - On connecting charities with books...this is a great post!

CreativeIndie on 300 cool fonts to use on book covers.

To Finish,

Hugh Howey again... He responds to a writer who has decided not to be tainted with self publishing because the goal is to emulate his heroes and publish the same way. A very interesting read and response by Hugh.

maureen

 Pic is from Passive Voices new range of tee shirts...check them out and chuckle... and maybe buy one or two.

Bookmark It

This last week I’ve been meeting up with writers in various venues discussing writery things.... Sometimes it was what we thought the librarians would pick as their top books for 2012 in the Librarian and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa or the LIANZA’s as they are most commonly referred to. The awards are out...and I have great pleasure in saying to various writers.... including award winners...I told you so!

In other publishing blogosphere news... LA SCBWI conference wrapped up this week. This conference is the one everyone in children’s writing wants to go to, (or the NY Winter conference.) A few years ago they got a team of writer bloggers together who blog the conference for all of us who live around the world and can’t get to LA. Go to the blog and scroll down on the right for all the topics covered... Take your time and dip into the conference panels, keynotes, interviews....aaaaah. There is even a sampling of fabulous tweets from #LA13SCBWI throughout the four days.

When you finish that...breathe deeply. Squash down that green imp of jealousy and register for WriteOnCon...a free two day online conference for children’s writers, now in its fourth year, happening next week. With another brilliant line up of speakers again. WriteOnCon 2012 is still being referenced around the blogosphere now. IT WAS THAT GOOD.

When you have done that...

Make the time to watch this fabulous video where Joanna Penn interviews James Scott Bell on writing, self publishing and the business of being a prowriter. It is top notch brilliant. I have two of James Scott Bell’s books and they are amazing!

And after that...

You must read this blog post.

Susan Kaye Quinn on writing the five year plan and the fiveyear creative plan...So much writer awesomeness in one package.

If you are interested in gatekeepers...(you want more of them) copyright protections...(you want less of it) then you need to take a look at Porter’s Ether for the week and that will bring you up to speed on what has been talked about this week around the water coolers in New York.

If you want to get right to the craft bit.

Developing a strong third person voice...from Killzone.

Carol Riggs on knowing when your MS is ready to be sent out.

K M Weiland on making your book live up to its potential.

Ginger Clark...(Uber Kid’s Lit Agent) answers questions from writers...great round up including is there an optimum time to send that query?

In Marketing

Bookbaby has free book launch strategies.

So there you have it every one a bookmark post!

To Finish,

I have been following the misogynist pull up in Sci Fi for the last month. It is Con season in the states...and the trolls are out in force. Sci Fi writers are often at Con’s as part of their publishing contracts and it has been sad to see them having to defend their right to be there if they are women. However there are quite a few male Sci Fi writers pushing the misogynists right back, as John Scalzi beautifully says in ‘A Creator’s Note To Gatekeepers’ it’s an economic argument. Women read and play these cool games too.

So around the blogosphere there has been general high fives when one writer called the police over the 50 rape and murder threats she received in two hours...ongoing. And there was an arrest. When a writer commented on this in her BBC radio programme she was inundated with the same kind of troll calls. So she asked to talk to a couple of trolls. It was enlightening for everybody!

Along with this was Cassandra Clare’s experience as a YA novelist at Comic Con this week with the City Of Bones movie set to come out very soon. Interviewers questions were inane because they saw the movie as being for teenage girls and they weren’t worth wasting time on.

Anyone seeing red yet?

Read the great slap back which is being tweeted around the blogosphere today.

"We write by the light of every book we've ever read." Richard Peck

maureen

pic from Flickr/creative commons- The Laird of Oldham The flag of Greater Manchester City.

Looking Sideways

This week I have spent a lot of time staring out through car windows as we have traveled the length of the North Island. We don’t usually travel this trip in mid winter and the familiar summer landscape morphed into unfamiliar with ice and snow touches which generated lots of interest inside the car. The volcanoes looked spectacular and we detoured to give the kids an hour playing in the snow.

My reward for driving the tricky mountain icy road and taking lots of pictures of my snow loving family was to spend a good hour chatting with my fellow FaBo writing team member Kathy White as we plotted dastardly twists that we could put into the next FaBo story...heheheheh.

Fabo 3 gets underway next week, so tell a child near you to check it out. Nine writers...a story that twists and turns...and a challenge to KIWI KIDS to try an outwrite us every week for prizes and fame...and coz we might need some ringers when we need a break....

Today I have been thinking about the marketing options writers have with movies....I hear you all saying WELL DUH! but it is bigger than that. Popular teen authors have this whole movie buy in sorted. They get their fans to come up with dream casting of their favourite characters... promote and discuss these...and if they have a film option generate hype for every little piece of news...this of course feeds into the books...with competitions for best fan book cover, best fan book cover for movie tie in...movie poster art with your dream cast...etcetc. What makes this a marketing mania tour de force is that the books titles are constantly being talked about in a sort of sideways move.

Today Cassandra Clare, having a keen finger on the fan pulse, had a pivotal piece of news to share with her fans on the casting of a major character in the City Of Bones movie. She told her fans she wouldn’t reveal it until they made it a trending topic in Twitter. One hour later it was the worldwide trending topic and she had to spill the beans. Cassandra is generating huge hype for the movie but at the same time those books are getting pushed in front of everyone. Not bad when she has two more books to go to wrap up two series and launch a third.

Catherine Ryan Hyde, she of Pay It Forward fame, talks about what happens when Hollywood gets hold of your book and then rewrites it...how does an author cope...

Both of these posts look at author marketing in a slightly different way. The next two links help you to understand what is going on. Betty Ming Liu teaches social media in her journalism class and she has put together the guide to the best way to use Twitter. This is how I use Twitter and how I tell others to use this tool.

Catherine Ryan Howard talks Google and SEO which is something that authors need to understand...especially Metadata. How does a search engine even find your book?

LJN Dawson reminds us that this whole book explosion thing is recent and nobody has a handle on Metadata...but we should.

Chuck takes a look at 25 Bad writing behaviours....(warning It’s Chuck...so be prepared to have your hair stand up! You will nod and laugh sheepishly at the same time tho.)

Laura Hazard Owen talks about the new publishing kid on the block for women writers...you pay but they vett...an interesting model that may well point to the way of the future!

Agent Rachelle Gardner talks about 7 ways that writers give up their power and why this is not a good thing.

For the illustrators out there Debbie Ridpath Ohi has the most magnificent helpful collection of blogs for writers...but she is a talented kids book illustrator. She has started a blog just for kids book illustrators...which you should check out!

In the craft section

K M Weiland talks about tone...do you struggle with it?

Janice Hardy talks about filtering...that is words that distance the reader from the POV character.

Agent Mary Kole talks about a common problem she sees often in manuscripts...when the problem is too difficult...the characters become unbelievable...

Writer Unboxed has a stand out post on the curse of the middle book..that is the one in the middle of a trilogy...How do you get it to stand on its own when everybody knows it’s the middle book!!!

To finish,

Ollin Morales always has an interesting blog and this piece on the ten rules of grammar all writers need is an inspiring reminder to look at rules sideways.

maureen

pic is from this cool tee shirt on line shop

Better Than Gold...

This last week has made me stop and think about friend relationships and how precious they are. 

When one of your friends is fighting for their life in hospital, you do stop and reflect on how much that friendship means to you and why. You do want to know that you have done everything in your power to help and support them because frankly you are not ready to deal with the hole in your life should they not be there.

This thinking leads on to an examination of your own life, (nothing like ICU with all the waiting around with other families facing similar or worse scenarios to get you thinking.) Am I doing what I should be doing with my life?

I have to say Yes. I love researching for this blog. I love all my writer friends. (Online/offline) I love the weird questions we ask each other, the laughter, tears, and shared wine, coffee and agony of waiting on the manuscript outcome.

I want to say Thanks Fifi, for getting me into this blogging game... Thanks all of you for reading and sharing writery thoughts with me via facebook, twitter or commenting or blogging or emailing or ringing me up or seeing me at book events...The value of friends outstrips the value of gold.

So what do I have for my friends today....

For those of you who are looking at independent publishing, How not to publish your print on demand book and How to get your ebook noticed, are great articles to read and get ideas from. Bob Mayer also has a great article on what it takes to succeed...

For those looking at the craft of writing, staring at your latest Manuscript and thinking there must be a better way to tell this...

Larry Brooks has a great article on 3 edgy tips to make your writing more compelling and Jane Friedman has a great article on adding structure to your writing life.

For those friends who have to get their head around self promotion and marketing, Kristen Lamb has a great post on helping you to understand that You are the brand, not the book...and why some marketers get author branding so wrong.

If you are interested, and I am, in what other children’s writers are doing to collectively share the self promotion load have a look at Kidslitauthorsclub. (NB.The FaBo team is about to get underway again soon...)

If you are feeling like a possum caught gazing into the headlights of the publishing change train...mesmerised by the possibilities...Take a look at a new phone app that has you writing and publishing online...from your phone. And there is a great audio interview with Seth Godin on the new face of publishing up on Litopia.

Over on Craicerplus (my Amplify page) I have links to articles on

Publishers Obsessions with IPads Elitist?

Bookstore Events- Hints for Success.

Adverts in Books- Watch This Space...(Ads in ebooks are being discussed...who will get the income? Can the author control the ads?....because it will happen, the publishers are trying to stay afloat by any means.)

Where Are The Male Writers?

E publishing Success - How Do They Do It?

To Finish,

Children’s writer, Neil Gaiman, was called “a pencil necked weasel thief”, this week, by a Republican Senator in the House of Representatives (USA) for accepting a cheque for a speaking engagement of $45,000 last year in Minnesota. 

Anybody who knows about Gaiman’s huge charity work and this event in particular knows the Senator made a very bad call...It is all over the internet...Neil blogged about it this morning in an effort to deflect the press from constantly interrupting him asking for comment.

All the money was donated to charity as Neil always does. The huge speaking fee is an attempt by Neil to stem the massive flood of requests to speak at events...so when an organisation fronts up with the cash...Neil donates it. The Library System in Minnesota had to use the remaining cash in their budget for writers to rural libraries or lose it back to the government and get their budget cut for next year. Neil lives in the area...perfect sense really.

The senators server has crashed...

Moral of the story;

Check your facts and don’t try to bully someone with 1,556,000 followers on Twitter.  

Happy things on the horizon...

Cassandra Clare is visiting Wellington on her Mortal Instruments tour. (Auckland is in for a great treat at the festival.)

My friend may go into a ward soon.

maureen

pic Neil Gaiman's poster for a Parkinson's awareness charity project.

Comfort and the Reader

I have been contemplating the power of well written genre fiction. 

It can comfort, challenge or make sense of the world. At different times I find myself reaching for my old book friends because I need their comfort or challenges to help me process what is going on in my life. None of the books I reach for are Adult Lit Fic.  My comfort/challenge books span across the genres with the exception of Horror. I have never seen the need to frighten myself to know that I am alive.

Children’s books are seen as a genre but within them they span the whole genre range... mystery, adventure, science fiction, romance, historical, fantasy, horror.  There are exceptionally well written books in all these genres within Children’s Writing.

From Ingrid Laws mid grade Savvy and Scumble (just brilliant writing) through to Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series* (the power of the storytelling) and these are only two examples that spring to mind immediately. In another hour I could have two different ones...(the whole list of NZ Children’s Book Finalists...and some that didn’t make it.)

If you want to write children’s fiction you must read children’s fiction. You must seek out the best...the most current...the books being published by the editors you want to work with...the books you hear about through the grapevine...the ones that booksellers try to hand sell you... the books that librarians recommend....

Kate Hart has taken a look at the last 12 months of Publishing Deals in YA to see if there are any genre trends to take note of. Of course I can hear you all saying paranormal but Kate has discovered differently.... Hot off the press to add to these numbers...The funny and talented Tahereh Mafi has signed a wopping deal for her Y A dystopian trilogy including 13 foreign rights and a film. Yup couldn’t happen to a nicer blogger. (first book too)

Victoria Mixon has delivered a brilliant guest blog on Storyfix this week on the differences between the Amateur and the Professional writer...and no it is not about whether they have been published...(Some of the literary lions could do with reading this.)

As you research good writing you should be researching agents. Janet Reid has written a plea to writers to do this and save everyone some grief. (Read the comments too for some good tips)

Mary Kole of Kidlit.com has added a new blog to her bow (ok really mixing the metaphors here.) Kidlitapps is dedicated to looking at digital publishing content for...Kids. And this week she has a focussed her attention on what should be in an App and what should not be...This Is A Must Read! (Yes, even for sceptics out there.)

For those of you grappling with website development, Social Media Examiner has 9 Ways To Transform Your Website Into A Social Media Hub.

James Scott Bell has decided to Epublish. This is big news. Epublishing was (stupidly) seen as only for those who couldn’t get a book deal...so when established authors turn to epublishing you need to take another look at this. Randy at Advanced Fiction Writing asked James why and got some interesting answers.

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

Harpers ebook Lending Policy Gets Trashed...(librarians revolt)

Why Book Design And Editing Matter (print or web)

Sci Fi Author declares War On Lit Fic....(yeah!)

Important News For Authors With FB Fan Pages (it’s change time on Facebook)

Linking Cover Pics To Shopping Carts (for when you sell your own books)

Alicia Gross has been interviewed on the Kidlit.com website about being a rebel rule breaker. This is a great interview and she finishes with this.

The book you should write, should be the book that you want to read. It shouldn't really be like any other book out there. It should be your own, unique thing. This is where being a rebel comes in really handy. Instead of being an imitator, write a book that a few years from now everyone else will be trying to imitate.

It is St Patricks day so I leave you with a feel good video featuring Irish Dancing as you have never seen it before. Simon Cowell the judge commented at the end that making the audience feel good is the goal of entertainment. This is especially true with great books. 

That is why we write, to make the reader feel good about reading our story.

Slainte!

Maureen

* Cassandra Clare is touring New Zealand soon. Her fifth book in the Mortal Instruments Series will be out next month. If you haven’t read any... DO!   

pic is from brilliant bookcases