Is It A Lemon?

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The unleashing of the AI monsters have many in publishing concerned. Two stories caught my eye and left me feeling faintly sick. It was predicted but seeing these things blatantly promoted is confronting. 

A publishing startup/ tech company has decided to disrupt publishing (why?) by using AI to help edit, polish, and sell books. Spines reckon they could publish 8000 books a year with this model. If you give them $5000 you will get their personal attention. 

If you have $5000 – pay for a decent editor and cover and do it yourself.

Following on from this was the wonderful idea of taking out of print classics and getting AI to write new forwards and repackage them for sale. Slate has an in depth article exposing one Get Rich Quick scheme to teach you how to do this. This is problematic if you don’t check where the AI is scraping its content from. You could be breaching all sorts of copyright with university presses or believing the outright lies that AI likes to spin. (N.B. AI is not a super intelligent version of an encyclopedia which has been vetted for veracity.) 

Get Rich Quick publishing schemes have been around forever and using AI is just the latest twist of lemon in the publishing cocktail. Often these schemes are a front for a scam or are morally dubious. 

If you care about producing quality work with your name on it, stay away from them.

 

In audio publishing news, Spotify announced a deal with Bloomsbury. It looks like Spotify are approaching traditional publishers and gobbling up direct deals. Amazon has quickly moved to offer more audio choice. Spotify want to be all things audible… can Amazon compete with this? Mark Williams takes a look at the seismic shift happening with Spotify.

 

The New York University’s Advanced Publishing Institute 5 day conference is open for registration. If you have a spare $5000 you can attend in January. Publishing Perspectives has a quick overview of one of the talks that will be given by Penguin Random House on Shifting Consumer Tastes in Social Media. They hope to give tangible advice on this and other thorny problems to the attendees. For that amount of money it will have to be gold plated!

 

Publishers Weekly is releasing some of the talks from Frankfurt. This interesting article caught my eye by Ed Nawotka on the explosion of AI startups dedicated to the publishing industry.

 

If you follow Taylor Swift you might have heard that she has a book coming out based around her Era’s tour. If you are in publishing you might be surprised that she has not partnered with any publisher. She has the money and the clout and the fan base to be successful without a publisher backing her. However, not all celebrity books do well. The Atlantic looks at how she might upend the model and will there be room for a traditional publishing partnership down the trail.

 

The biggest author publishing conference happened in Las Vegas this month. Written Word Media put together a takeaways article about the trends and issues that were discussed at Vegas. Collaboration is King. 

Derek Murphy ( Creativ Indie) shares his slide show presentation and talks about Authentic Creativity As A Response To Artificial Intelligence.

Back in the day when Twitter was young and had no inkling of what a new owner might do, the publishing world flocked to the social media site. Then things changed. Publishing industry folks left for other pastures and it became harder to get back the tribe you used to have. Bluesky has spent the last week adding almost a million users a day and the publishing industry people started to flock together. Rachel Thompson takes a look at whether Bluesky will work for writers. 

 

Darcy Pattison has put together an excellent article on how to take a rights released book from Traditional Publishing and give it a whole new lease of life. Those books that didn’t get their series finished or didn’t find their audience don’t have to be consigned to the dustbin.

If you are struggling with NaNoWriMo this month you are not alone. Elinor Florence writes on Jane Friedman’s blog about how she got through the train wreck of her own NaNoWriMo project.  

In The Craft Section,

Going deeper with characterization- Lisa Hall Wilson- Bookmark

Balancing your cast of characters- September Fawkes

Don’t tie your story up in a neat bow- P J Parrish- Bookmark

How to write great dialogue- C S Lakin- Bookmark

What is your characters wounding event- Sue Coletta

 

In the Marketing Section,

Is your target readership meaningful to agents and publishers- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

5 essential steps to maximise your books success-Written Word Media- Bookmark

Social Media engagement- a how to from Hootsuite- Comprehensive

What to do when book sales start slipping- Thomas Umstattd- Bookmark

Turbocharging book sales with preorders- Mark Coker

 

To Finish

It’s Black Friday this week and there are deals galore for writers out there. You can check out Dave Chesson’s huge list of deals. 

If you are thinking about  Christmas/ Holiday gifts check out Sandra Beckwith’s big list of goodies designed for writers.

Infostack have their big bundle of writer resources on sale again.

Yes, It’s that time of the year already. The Credit Card Crunch!

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Tirza van Dijk on Unsplash

The Rise Of The Machines

In Publishing News this week...

Frankfurt Bookfair opened this week with an almost return to normal programming.

The opening press conference had comments from the Fair director about the challenging times we live in and how important it is to keep the lights on in publishing houses. With the war in Ukraine stepping up, the price of heating is going through the roof in Europe. It is going to be a tough Winter. 

A reminder that SelfPubCon is on soon. A free 24 conference focused on writing and marketing from The Alliance of Independent Authors. 

 

Just what is going on around returns and unlimited subscriptions? It’s a constantly changing landscape. European companies like Storytel are experimenting with tiered access. Amazon is not… or are they. Mark Williams takes a look at what model will come out on top. (If you are a children’s writer thinking about audio this may help.) 

 

Recently Joanna Penn interviewed Derek Murphy about his experiments with AI-generated art. They talk about the wide-ranging nature of the AI’s and how they learn to produce the picture you want from your prompts. This has been contentious as the AI’s can reproduce pictures in particular artists' styles. This is causing disquiet among artists as reported in Business Insider. Will they be able to opt out? With Microsoft ready to roll out Dall-E to everyone this space is rapidly changing.

 

Kris Rusch explains the idea behind her 39 days 39 stories Christmas advent calendar. This is when you get to be wildly creative as a writer because you can and you bring your fans along for the ride. 

 

Writer Unboxed has another in their series of marketing posts from Anne Marie Nieves- Do You Twerk? This is an interesting post on how much social media is really authentic you or your online persona. As ever, I recommend reading the comments as well.

 

The Insecure Writers Support Group has been around for a while and aside from the great name they have a thriving community. Recently they launched another anthology and posted about ways to market the books.

 

Anne R Allen has a great post on tropes and archetypes vs clichés. If you constantly get these mixed up this is the post for you. Anne breaks down the main genre tropes.

 

In The Craft Section,

Transitions- building bridges between your plot islands- P J Parrish- Bookmark

Creating Names- Janice Hardy

How to write a chapter- Now Novel- Comprehensive

 2 posts from Angela Ackerman -Brainstorming the hero and

How to use GMC (Goal Motivation Conflict) to test a story idea - Bookmark Both

 

In The Marketing Section,

Why isn’t my title selling- quiz-Penny Sansevieri

5 reasons to be a speaking author- Sandra Beckwith

Back Cover Copy formula- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

Book signings that wow- Becca Puglisi

Cover design what works in 2022- Alliance of Independent Authors- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

It’s not long until November and the challenge of NaNoWriMo. Reedsy has put together a great prep document to get your creative teeth into. Don’t forget to check out the NaNoWriMo deals and the super Storybundle of craft resources. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

 

The Danger of Words

 

 

In Publishing News This Week

 

The news that Salman Rushdie was stabbed at a literary event shocked the world. The death threats against him had faded from the public mind. Rushdie spent ten years in hiding and when the death threats weren’t actively being promoted it seemed that he was being left alone. Not So. His plight highlighted author safety, the problems authors face when they speak out, or up, or hold dissenting views. The right to Free Speech is held up everywhere as a feature of a functioning democracy. You have the right not to agree with their views, but you can’t deny them a voice. This week The UK Society of Authors chair Joanne Harris has been accused of not sticking up for authors who hold dissenting views, which she denies. The argument is being reported in the media and there is an open letter in support of Joanne from authors in the UK. While all this is playing out the recent survey on writers’ safety is warning that threats against writers are on the rise.

 

Frankfurt Book fair looks like it is back to the old numbers of pre covid days. 4000 exhibitors have registered to display their books and I note that Spotify and TikTok are among them. Publishing was changing fast before the Pandemic, but I don’t think anyone predicted that either of these two influencers would be at Frankfurt Publishing Fair.

 

Cory Doctorow has a new book out that shines a spotlight on punitive contracts in the creative economy. Chokepoint Capitalism- How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We’ll Win Them Back. Cory has many popular writers supporting this book and because he names Audible as one of the worst for contract terms, he is having a Kickstarter to get the book recorded outside of that ecosystem. 

 

Writer Beware shines a spotlight on the scammers who prey on authors. If you suspect an offer is too good to be true check the website to see if your fears are realized. The latest scam to come across their desk is offers from agents whose identity has been impersonated. If the offer comes from an agent out of the blue…check into it. Your email query for legitimacy might be a heads up to an agent whose name and reputation have been targeted by scammers.

 

The dreaded writing critique workshop has scarred many a participant. For many prestigious creative writing courses, the Iowa method or the Milward method is the way to conduct a critique workshop. Tor’s guest editor S L Huang found out that this method was pioneered by a deeply flawed poet deeply immersed in the cold war rhetoric. There are other ways to critique creative writing and ripping the author to shreds as some sort of rite of passage is based on warped thinking. If you are interested in workshopping read the article and send it on to your writing tutors.

 

Kris Rusch brings a dose of common sense to the writer who believes other writers are competition in her latest post in her series on how writers fail. 

Sandy Vaile brings hope in her excellent post on how to have an enduring career.

 

Two interesting posts caught my eye this week. A Youtube channel that compiles writing music for authors and an interesting post on toxic productivity that afflicts writers.

 

Joanna Penn interviewed Becca Puglisi on the new Conflict Thesaurus that Angela and Becca have just released. This is volume two. Becca has some great ideas for levels of conflict in your writing. It doesn’t have to be a huge conflict but it does have to be there.

 

In The Craft Section,

Two great posts from Angela Ackerman. Does conflict belong on every page and How to build a flesh and blood character- Bookmark Both

The What When and How of character backstory -Cheryl Burman

Four steps to create perfect plot twists- C S Lakin- Bookmark

How to do a scene by scene breakdown- Scott Myers

 

In the Marketing Section,

How to create a book publicity tip sheet- Sandra Beckwith -Bookmark

How to get book reviews with special promotions- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Do you need to copyright a character or title- Anne R Allen blog – Bookmark

How to make your book newsworthy- Reedsy

What makes a book cover work- Ingram Spark

 

To Finish

Last month everybody was talking about the rise in AI picture creation. There was speculation about whether AI scraping pictures was breaching copyright. Derek Murphy decided to look into an AI Picture generation site as inspiration for his characters. The results are stunning. Derek discusses the moral ambiguity of using AI images. As a cover designer himself, he sees it as another tool but not a replacement. AI hasn’t taken over yet. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

PIC Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Break Out The Cake

 

 

In publishing news this week…

This week there was a heartfelt cry from a publisher on Twitter about the print and paper supply problems that have hit publishers hard.

With the shortage of paper, printers are having to book print runs far in advance of normal. This puts pressure on the publishers to figure out how big a print run they need 6 months earlier than usual. Publishers' book reps traditionally go into shops to presell titles which is how a lot of publishers get a ballpark number for their print run. This causes problems all along the production line. What if they have a hit on their hands? Reprints can take up to four months to book in. Will interest still be in the book four months later? 

Then there are other problems like the one facing Graphic Novel publisher Fantagraphics, who have an entire print run of a popular graphic novel stuck on a container ship that has run aground. This is the second time this has happened to them. (Guess the name of the ship.) With shipping almost stopped because the Shanghai port is almost at a standstill, the pain is only going to get worse for publishers. Supply chain problems will force changes in publishing. 

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard, takes a look at the New York Toy Fair which has just been canceled again and draws some parallels with the publishing industry. We were all happy when the Bookfairs came back face to face this year but has the industry learned anything or changed its mindset to be more sustainable going forward? 

 

Publishers Weekly recently looked at 25 years of changes to book publicity. This article explores the changes in the publishing world from the days when a publisher had a marketing team to make the author a star through to today when the author needs to have a 50,000 follower social media channel to make the book a star.

 

Derek Murphy has been exploring Artificial Intelligence to get ideas for writing. He shows what he fed the AI and what the AI wrote. It is fascinating stuff. Remember though, the tool is only as good as the ingredients you give it. And it is a tool for ideas…at the moment.

 

Anne R Allen highlights the need for a Social Media executor. Recently she found out that a dear writer friend had died two months after the fact. Social Media accounts are part of most authors' marketing and networking lives. An executor can save your estate a big headache and protect your reputation.

 

Kris Rusch is looking at scheduling her writing time at the moment. She examines how to think about projects in a big picture way and why blocking out time is good for your mental health. 

 

Dave Chesson has an interesting deep dive into typesetting- If you are interested in book design take a look at all the nuts and bolts of book layout.

 

Diving sideways…who knew punctuation could be so interesting. P J Parrish has an article on the Killzone blog about the messages you send with your punctuation. 

 

Storybundle has a great collection of writing craft books on offer for this month. Check out the collection. It’s a pay what you like deal. All the money goes to the authors. You get the books on your preferred device and they are yours. (Remember that eBooks bought on Amazon etc are only licensed to read on your device.) Storybundle send the books as documents so you get to keep them. I have many writing craft books on my Kindle from Storybundle. It’s a good way to keep up with the craft.

 

In The Craft Section,

Why authors should kill their characters- Sarah Hamer

 

2 Great posts from Becca Puglisi-Creative ways to brainstorm story ideas and Subtext in dialogue – Bookmark Both

How to write a compelling action scene- Emily Young

How to construct a story bible- Staci Troilo- Bookmark

How to find your writer's voice- Scott Myers

 

In The Marketing Section,

What to do with Amazon A+ content- Sandra Beckwith-Bookmark

Clever ideas for bonus content- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

A collection of essential publishing tools and resources- Joanna Penn

Creating pre and post-publication flyers- Judith Briles- Bookmark

Email marketing for authors- comprehensive article.

 

To Finish,

This week marks 14 years of the weekly blog. It is a constant marker of the week's progression in my family life. Will I have time to do the blog…is always the running mental commentary on a Thursday. More often I hear ‘we can’t do it on a Thursday, Mum has her blog.’ To the long-time readers… Thank you for all the encouragement, the occasional coffee, the comments and laughter. To my loyal monthly newsletter subscribers- Thanks for reading the roundups and my writing news and woes. The stats tell me that almost everybody opens the newsletter so I must be doing something right. 

Let’s head off into year 15 and see what is on the horizon… I might even buy myself some craft books to celebrate, along with cake! 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

 

Little Details

 

 

This week in publishing news

 

Subscription seems to be on everyone’s minds and not in a good way.

If you are in the Entertainment Business and writers are, you will have heard of the stoush between Neil Young and Spotify. Spotify refused to listen to complaints about Joe Rogan peddling covid misinformation. J R has a show that appeals to the male 25 + bracket and Spotify probably wants to stay in their good books. Neil Young took exception to this and pulled his music from the  Spotify site. Neil survived polio as a child but it left its mark so no one cares more than him about life-saving vaccines. Many musicians came out in support of Neil. 

However other musicians are caught between a rock and a hard place. If the biggest game in town is Spotify, can you afford not to be on it even though they pay appallingly? 

This goes to the heart of fixed-term pots of money for creators. The more creators, the less the slice of earnings available. Tiktok has just added a creator fund pool. Watch for things to get a bit   more dynamic in the Tiktok quarter. 

Recently, Mark Williams looked at the creator fund from Amazon which is the KU payout, and mused about similar issues. Subscription services may be the most contentious topic of 2022 for creatives.

 

Derek Murphy has flagged a potential problem with Amazon and the glitch in their sales reports and rank listings. If you are publishing on Amazon check it out it is getting a lot of comment.

If you haven’t tripped over to Creative Indie recently you really should. Besides interesting articles, Derek has some great free resources for writers.

 

Writer’s and Time management seem to be a theme this week around the blogosphere.

Zoe McCarthy has 5 great tips to keep all your writing-related tasks straight.

Kris Rusch muses on time management and when not to jump on shiny new things and Now Novel blog has a great article on writing rituals and how they can start good habits.

Penny Sansevieri has a great post on the best way to market books in 2022. This comes from her podcast which is short and full of great tips.

 

Congratulations Joanna Penn on achieving podcast number 600. It’s a phenomenal effort and shows the value of consistency as Joanna is one of the most trusted voices in the Indie Publishing World.

Litreactor has an article that made me laugh and then think – hmm why not? The top ten insane things no writer has done but maybe someone should.

 

Jane Friedman has some great guest posters on her site. This week Joe Ponepinto has an excellent post on using telling details to describe your characters.

 

In the Craft Section,

Identifying your characters fatal flaw- Becca Puglisi

Thirteen books for writers- Writer Unboxed

Backstory versus the past – Donald Maass- Bookmark

Strategies to incorporate agent/editor feedback- Good story company Bookmark

Creating a series bible- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

10 secrets to successful book marketing- Bookbaby

Free book promotions- Frances Caballo

 2 great posts from - Rachel Thomson Easy blog calendars and the best way to grow your social media following - Bookmark

7 ways to blow a media opportunity- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Unique marketing ideas for February- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Ruth Harris has a great post on clothes. Yes, choosing the right clothes for your characters can be a great insight into their personalities without you having to spell out all sorts of details. This is a fun read and a great insight into how little details can make the reader fall in love with your story.

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or go here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

 

Sometimes you just need coffee

(to stop you reaching for the bottle…)

This week the Cilip Carnegie and Cilip Kate Greenaway medals were announced. These awards are for the best children’s book and best illustration published in The United Kingdom. There were two things that stood out for me when I read about the winners.

The Cilip Carnegie went to a dyslexia-friendly independent publisher- Barrington Stoke for Lark by Anthony McGowan. This is a win for all those publishers who take publishing risks to make books accessible to children who struggle with reading. The other winner caught me by surprise- I am so used to seeing Shaun Tan’s brilliant work that I thought he had probably won it before. Not only is he a first-time winner of the illustration prize but he is the first winner in the history of the prize to be a person of colour. (Fill in your oath of surprise here.)

The Black Writers Guild sent an open letter to UK publishers, this week, making specific requests to tackle inequalities and representation in the publishing business. It was signed by over 100 Black authors. The publishers have responded with many saying that they will do better… 

Meanwhile across the pond – The Department of Justice is suing Senator Bolton over his forthcoming book in an attempt to halt publication. You can’t buy this kind of publicity and Simon and Schuster know this…They are promoting three books with all their free publicity, including a tell-all from the president’s niece and a biography of the president’s wife.

Mark Coker of Smashwords writes an annual crystal ball prediction at the beginning of each year. Today he released a crystal ball prediction for life in publishing after Covid 19.

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware has updated her post on 6 things to watch out for in contract clauses. It is a very good guide for how to spot red flags. I watched a twitter exchange today between two big Science Fiction Authors about contract negotiations and saw one advise the other to get limited terms. This means when the rights revert back to the author. Savvy authors are now putting this into their contracts- although it’s a fight. Many writers are asking for Limited Terms for Rights Reversal for a period of way under 10 years. 

Jami Gold is taking some time to reassess how much time she puts into her blog. As much as she loves to write one of the best writing process blogs around she also needs to watch her health. This is a timely reminder to readers of her popular blog. Are you doing too much and neglecting your health? Cutting back is better in the long run than falling over completely. 

Derek Murphy of Creative Indie has written some interesting workaround posts over the years. Here he takes a look at the review policy of Amazon in particular the ARC’s review policy. How can you work around their rules to get reviews?

Along with interesting posts, Derek also makes available great tools to help writers. Here is a free novel outlining template for Scrivener. (Derek is also the guy behind Free DIY Bookcovers and the 3d book cover generator)

Mark Tilbury has a great post on the mirror moment in your writing. If you aren’t sure what it means check out the post. He gives a shout out to James Scott Bell’s Book – Write Your Novel From The Middle- which is superb.

In The Craft Section,

 2 Great Posts from Angela Ackerman – How To Avoid A Half Baked Idea and How to describe a location you’ve never visited -Bookmark Both!

A-Z of Character Archetypes- Wordhunter- Bookmark

Determine your raison detre as a writer- Katherine Grubb

Weaving The Backstory- Anne Hawkinson

How to become a writer- C S Lakin

In the Marketing Section,

2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri -How to market a book with a virtual event  and The ultimate guide for authors on SEO- Bookmark Both!

Go Local first for book publicity- Joan Stewart- Bookmark

When book sales limp along- Judith Briles

Blurbing and being Blurbed – Barbara Linn Probst

To Finish,

From time to time I mention author book collectives and how the power of a group can supercharge your writing success. I have mentioned Triskele books before but recently Roz Morris interviewed the founders for an in-depth look at what makes their collective work.

Last week I had fun doing dictation into my word document although I noticed that I was mostly writing dialogue. Bang2Write has a great post on writing 1000 words before 9 am. Not quite sure how they say you can do it without coffee tho.

Maureen

@craicer

My monthly newsletter will be coming soon. I round up the best of my bookmarked links and other assorted tips.

When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr – Creative Commons –  Daniel Cadenas

Angst, Perfection and Envy- The Writer Triple Threat.

Is the sky falling? 

This week there seems to be all the angsty opinion pieces about the death of reading because of Social Media or ..... (fill in latest fad.) Publishing Perspectives has an open letter from the Authors Guild about Big Tech Content being a threat to writers.

The Guardian has an opinion piece asking if YA films are dead... 

I can’t help thinking that this is Back to School angst in the Northern Hemsiphere.

Nate Hoffelder looks at the weeks biggest news in publishing... Walmart and Kobo’s new ebook venture. Everybody waiting to see how it goes. What is interesting is about five years ago I was following tech companies that had Ebook gift cards on shelf displays...it didn’t get much traction.  Kobo and Walmart seem to be bringing that technology back. Will it work this time?

Derek Murphy has a stellar guest post on Anne R Allen’s blog on 10 mistakes I made as an Indie. It’s a must read. Derek wraps up common problems offers solutions and resources. It is a long post chock full of great advice. 

Joanna Penn has a great little video on writer priorities. She is examining her writer business and making changes. Do you need to to be asking yourself hard questions about writer goals? 

Is perfection an art or author sabotage? Judith Briles examined this question on The Book Designer blog this week. I so needed to read this. Sometimes I need someone to say... Let it go out into the world... 

Katie Weiland is always a must go to website for her great posts on writing craft as well as her in depth articles on character. She has some great writng craft books too. I was interested in this weeks post on Writer Envy. Everybody needs to read this post. It’s a good explanation on why we suffer it and what we can do about it.

I always like to lead into the Writing Craft and Marketing Link section with something craft related. Now Novel has a huge post on 30 character flaws. This is a good run down on how to deepen your characters.

In The Craft Section,

How to shut out writers block so you can fast draft- Lisa Hall Wilson

Two great posts from Janice Hardy - How to slash your word count while editing- and What to do in act two - Bookmark

Writing blockbuster plots-mastering scene-Martha Alderson

Balancing multiple viewpoints- Fictorians- Bookmark

How to come up with a character name- Reedsy

Using dysfunctional behaviour for character wounds- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

And Angela also has this cool list of great tools- check out weavesilk... addictive!

In The Marketing Section,

How to get blurbs- Tim Grahl

Change a book title without losing reviews- Alli blog- Bookmark

Platform building and related terrors- David Gaughran- Bookmark

Optimizing book review process- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

When 60 is the new 50 – pages to submit to agents- Agent Janet Reid

How to build a following with uniqueness- Travis Jonker-Dan Blank- Bookmark

To Finish,

Dave Chesson has an interesting podcast and suite of Author products. Here he has collected all the book title genenerator tools in one handy list. It doesn’t matter what genre you write there is a title generator 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 will also get a nifty short book crammed full with marketing notes. 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Barbara Ann Spengler- Arizona Winter Sky