This week, around the blogosphere, the comments were on the awesomeness of IndieReCon and the news that Amazon has dropped the royalty payments for ACX, their audio publishing arm.
ACX is not available to writers outside the US but it is helpful to keep an eye on these developments with one of the biggest publishers.
Chuck has a few pithy comments to say on the general argggh coming from authors around ACX. (Wise up people.)
One of the great things about Online Conferences is that information stays online so you can refer to it...or in the case of writers in another hemisphere, get to it at a time that suits you. IndieReCon stuff is still available. I dropped back in to read Angela Ackerman’s post on collaboration that was really informative. Of course I then scrolled down... So much good stuff in there. Take some time to delve into the chats and posts.
Joe Konrath has been a vocal member of the writing community for a long time. He recently took issue with comments from literary agent David Gernert. He raises some good points about gate keepers...the changing nature of the agent and who they are working for and contracts…
If you are interested in contracts check out this post – Don’t Get Screwed- Contract Provisions Every Creative Should Know.
Porter Anderson gave Hugh Howey the floor (his space in Writer Unboxed) to answer a comment from a reader about what Hugh considers the ideal print publishing deal he would go with. It is very interesting as Hugh describes the deal he has with Random House UK over the US part of the operation...and why he went with UK... (he tangata, he tangata, he tangata! people, people, people!)
Hugh also has his 3rd report up... a look at Barnes and Nobel, a bricks and mortar chain bookstore and a snapshot of sales...surprise surprise or perhaps not as the figures are still hitting the same marks.
Data and the need for it, exercises the Harvard Book Review this week. This is a call out to the publishers to maybe start providing some.
Forbes takes a look at Brands... and finds out some very interesting information. Would you rather be a Grisham or a Jack Reacher. Which earns you more?
In the Craft Section
Jami Gold has an excellent post on How To Be A Good Editor.
6 Ways To Survive Rewrite Hell.
The Write Practice- How To Finish Projects
Create Inspirational Workspaces
Jody Hedlund on Developing Characters
In the Marketing Section
A big article on Discoverability and Marketing- they are essentially the same thing.
Tim Ferris On How to make a viral book trailer
10 Book Marketing Mistakes Self Publishers Make
Website of the Week: K M Weiland.
I know I reference her a lot but have you actually trawled around her website... check out this post. How Not To Be A Writer -15 Signs You Are Doing It Wrong
To Finish,
Neil Gaiman has a different take on piracy.... data food for thought…
maureen
Pic from Flickr/Creative Commons/Mezdeathhead
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mezdeathhead
