Was it something I said?

It has been a horrible week for some kidlit writers and agents in the blogosphere.
Danielle Smith, a ’respected’ agent who having worked for high flying agencies struck out on her own
was shown to be a fraud. This has stunned her colleagues, her clients and her staff. The kidlit
community is a tight knit community and are rallying round as they do with offers of help coming
from all over.
The bottom line in all of this is - Once you get an agent... the work begins. Follow up regularly.
They work for you. If they can’t or won’t communicate at least quarterly… ask who they have subbed to?
Ask publishers to split the check at source. They can pay agents fees separately… if your agent is
upset about this, ask why.

There are a whole lot of writers and illustrators taken on by Danielle Smith, who have no idea what
properties have been taken on or off or subbed or not...  and not only that... it goes back years through other
clients for other agencies where she was an agent on staff.
A hashtag search in Twitter #Daniellesmith pulls up some sad stories.

Forbes has covered the latest scams in the publishing world this week just as
this was breaking… Be Aware that there are some awful predators out there.

In the continuing serial decline of  CreateSpace, Nate Hoffelder reports that Amazon has hammered
another nail in the coffin. This week they pulled the plug on publishing CD’s and DVD’s. Will the Kindle
Print arm pick these up too? Everyone still in CreateSpace are hanging on grimly…

While Amazon is putting the screws into CreateSpace, Publish Drive has been wooing China. Publish Drive
are doing some interesting things in the global publishing marketplace… If you want world wide sales take a look...

Data Guy was asked to present at the Sci Fi & Fantasy conference just held and he posted up his
slides looking at the last years sales of SFF across the board.  The SFF Marketing Podcast crew
took a look at the trends - Even if you don’t write SFF this is a good podcast to follow.

Every year about this time Joanna Penn takes a yearly snapshot of her working life…
It is really interesting… I always learn something from this indie powerhouse.

In The Craft Section,

Killing off an important character -Live Write Breathe- Bookmark

5 things psychology can teach writers- Angela Ackerman

How to show emotion on the page - cheat sheets - Jessica Grace Kelley

9 character types to include in your story- Writers Cookbook- Bookmark

Different Types of movie stories- Go into the Story

In The Marketing Section,

Why authors should be speaking about their books- Joel Friedlander

5 terrible ways to launch your book- Kevin Tumlinson

How to create pre-launch buzz for your book- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Are you paying too much attention to Amazon reviews?- Barry Faulkner

2 Bookmark posts from Frances Caballo Publishing your first book - follow these steps and
Selling more books- tips from experts.

To Finish,

As you may have noticed this is short and a day late. I had an unexpected hospital stay this last week.
This screwed up quite a few things publishing wise for me. The first two circus books were nearly live online
but the print ones are not. Pro tip from me… build in plenty of time for life's hiccups and rest where you can…
I wonder if the wicked witch of the west cursed me last week for using her picture on my blog.

Maureen

@craicer

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. I appreciate all the virtual coffee love from people who hit the Kofi button as a thank you for the blog.

Rumblings and Rumours

O what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.*

The more authors dig under the cockygate saga rocks, the more slimy practices are being exposed. They seem to be going in a circle as David Gaughran has sleuthed a connecting rod from one chancer to another.  Book Stuffing - a scam to fool the page read algorithm so the author can grab more from the pot of money in Kindle Unlimited gets a close look. 

Following closely on this is the bribery and the bullying tactics being placed on readers. This hurts everyone in your genre. We want to nurture our readers not pillory them.

Kris Rusch has written an interesting post on learned helplessness.  Do you suffer from it? Have you got fixed in your mind that you need to have help to achieve in your writing career? Many writers actually suffer from it though they might not know it. 

Stephen Pressfield is writing a new book on the writers journey.  He's writing it as a serial on his blog first. Stephen is pretty famous for his writing book, The War of Art, which is a fabulous read. Take a look at some of his serial entries.

Now that Book Expo is over, the analysis of the new format begins. Separating the rights area off from the main display hall might have been a sound idea in theory but in practice...

Publishing Perspectives looks at what they got right, what they got wrong and where to next for these big book expo's. 

Bookbub looks at all the shiny new marketing tactics on display there.

The Author's Guild is like the American version of the Society of Authors. They have been changing their way of operating to make it more responsive to its members needs. Regional chapters and a help desk with a direct line into Amazon have made writers sit up and take notice.

There are rumblings and rumours about whether Amazon is winding down Createspace in favour of KDP Print. Nate Hoffelder takes a look at what might be happening within the world of Amazon Print On Demand.

As the Northern Hemisphere slides into summer, thoughts turn to all the big writing conventions that happen over summer.  Gail Carriger has the must pack list for authors who are planning their professional development trips.

In The Craft Section,

Are sneaky plot holes lurking in your story- Jami Gold- Bookmark

Writing exposition in your science fiction novel

How writing romantic and fight scenes are the same- Now Novel-

Bookmark

What to do when there is no clear antagonist- Janice Hardy

Writing rules vs Writing Guidelines- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

A cop reveals how to write a realistic crime scene

In The Marketing Section,

How do you work out what your brand mantra is?

Turning your readers into fans- Bookworks- Bookmark

5 tips for getting a non fiction deal- C S Lakin

6 book marketing lessons from the big guys- Bookbuzz- Bookmark

5 ways to build your local market- Indie Reader

To Finish,

Kate Krake has listed 52 fears of writers. Who knew we were such a fearful lot?  Naming your fear and confronting it can help. Spending too much time worrying about your writing fears can paralyze you. 

Check out this post by Ann Kroeker on filling and stilling your mind so that you can cope with your writer fears.

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 just want to say thanks for the blog you can hit the coffee button up top... Thanks.

Pic: Flicker Creative Commons- Steve Glover

 * Walter Scott

Write On Writers

This week has been a busy one. 

Two writing deadlines and in the middle of that WRITEONCON.

This year WriteOnCon was in the middle of the week...as it is based in the Northern Hemisphere our time zones don’t quite match up...but WriteOnCon is online so even if you don’t get to all the live forum events you can still follow along as everything stays online.

There is a HUGE amount of information. To give you an idea...there were more than 30 kidslit agents and editors. They hosted panels and keynotes from YA to PB where they decontructed pitches and queries that were randomly selected from the many many submitted. This was great learning. It was always exciting when one of them in the forum said I’ll message you privately for a full request. 

There were keynotes and workshops on all sorts of topics from more than 30 experienced writers, illustrators and editors. Attendees were encouraged to register their pitch, 1st 250 words, first five pages and their query. A team of Ninja Agents would troll the lists over the two days looking for projects that interested them...No one knew who they were, they had code names...but everyone soon knew when they were ‘in the house.’

This year there were 15000 attendees from around the world  and more than 2 million hits on the web site in two days.

Check out the feast of links and set aside some time with a huge cup of coffee. You will not regret it....Then make plans to attend next year!!

WriteOnCon is the brain child of seven writers who got together in 2010 to offer an on line conference for people who couldn’t get to one. A fabulous idea which struck online gold straight away...Many kudos and writer prayers to this stellar bunch of writers!

Because WriteOnCon was the bulk of my online  trawling this week I have a short (but good) list of links for you to check out.

For those of you looking at self publishing these two links have been getting lots of rave comments this week.

Joel The Book Designer, On why a book looks self published and what to do about it.

Roz Morris looks at Createspace and Lightning Source...which one is better for POD books.

Agent Rachelle Gardner looks at ways to promote your books.

Joanna Penn interviews  Lisa Cron about using brain science to hook readers. This is an interesting article on why we like genre...it’s all biological!

One of the talking points in the blogoshere this week was the Forbes article looking at Publishing entitled Publishing is broken we’re drowning in indie books and it’s a good thing!  Some very interesting comments about gate keepers and what happens next in the industry.

FaBostory is ramping up...we have some keen young writers out there. It’s quite tricky knowing that they are soo good(when you are trying to write your own chapter!) Pop into the website and read some very good young writers!