The Writing Life Game

In Publishing News this week...

The Guardian reported on the take down of a  book piracy site that had the pirates claiming authors were elitist. Unfortunately The Guardian’s headline could have been more tactful.

"Entitled: Copyright thieves blame victims when illegal site is taken down." There, @guardian. Fixed that dodgy headline for you.https://t.co/pQ9MFTnbsY

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) August 8, 2018

Cory Doctorow talks about the changes that Audible have instigated that hit authors in the pocket. Word on the street says don’t take an exclusive audiobook deal...

The alliance of Independent Authors are now advising that authors should move from Createspace to Kindle Direct for print. (Having my own Kindle print headache at the moment so be prepared.) They also have a great post on research trip claims and expenses.

Last weekend was the annual Society of Children’s Book writers and Illustrators Summer conference in L.A . Over 1100 delegats, three days... fabulous panels etc etc. Check out the SCBWI blog which live blogs most of the conference. Scroll down the right hand side and read the gems from the conference. 

Writing through life’s catastrophes. This is a pertinent blog post on what to do when life really falls apart. How do you write through the chaos?

Jess Lourey guest posted on Jane Friedman’s blog  with the definitive post on how to republish your back list after getting your rights back. This is a must read post if you are in this position. 

Kris Rusch takes a look at the Crazy Rich Asians author and how he gatherered together a team to negotiate his way through the Hollywood film scene. In advance publicity for the film he talks about turning down a huge deal from Netflix to take a smaller deal which gave him more say. Shrewd marketing or a huge risk... Great read.

Anne R Allen has a superb post on studying personality disorders to make more complex and interesting antagonists. There are some really good descriptions here of different types of disorders and how they manifest. A Bookmark post. 

In The Craft Section,

Two great posts - Simple pacing techniques and 4 ways to choose a better theme for your book-from K M Weiland- Bookmark

Elmore Leonards advice to writers- Open Culture

The 5 most common editing mistakes- Writers Digest

Research ethics for Science Fiction

How to write a novel- Step by step with Jerry Jenkins

How an editor knows your novel isn’t ready after the first chapter- Meg Latorre- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

11 ways to simplify your book promotion life- Penny Sansevieri

Why are wannabe screenwriters getting scammed- Hollywood reporter (This is also useful info for writers doing pitch contests.)

Using Cafepress for Book Merchandise- Elisabeth Craig - Bookmark

5 ways to promote your book after the launch- Build Book Buzz

Spice up your Amazon Book Pages- The Creative Penn- Bookmark

How to use Vellum on a PC- Paul Teague

3 ways to avoid marketing hell- Nick Stephenson

To Finish,

Do you play games on your computer or phone? Do you feel guilty that you should be writing? Fear not Bold Hero! There is a quest just for you. How would you like to battle fearsome monsters and save the *fantasy* world through your word count. Game your writing. Take a look. It could be just what you need to bust that word count target. 

I can breathe a sigh of relief after last night’s award ceremony for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults is over. It was a huge honour to be a judge and nerve wracking as well. The finalists were all amazing. The winners well deserved. The judges still have to write up their reports but now we can talk and attend social events again.... 

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter ( coming soon) 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. If you want to shout me a coffee, feel free to hit the Kofi button. Thank you to my caffeine sponsors! Life has been a roller coaster lately. I couldn’t have done it without the magic brew. 

Speaking Our Fears

The week the world has been shaken up and now everybody is thinking about mortality. 

We are not invulnerable. 

In the writing world Tech Crunch analysed the publishing industry and came to the conclusion that there is a new parallel publishing universe happening. Welcome To The Dark Side.

Catherine Ryan Hyde has written an amazing post onrejection. This tells the story of Pay It Forward. Catherine has some great advice for writers struggling with the lows of the publishing world.

Dean Wesley Smith talks about the times that the writer becomes overwhelmed by the critical voice in their head saying ‘What’s the point?’ This is a great post about reconnecting with the joy of writing.

Jane Friedman recently wrote about the myths of writing and then linked to an interesting article on writers and addictions by Douglas Millikin.

Jody Hedlund has a post on How To Drive Yourself Crazy As AWriter. Jody gives great advice so make sure you drop in and read what not to do.

By now you may be reaching for a stiff drink!

On the good news front. China needs more books. Publishers Weekly has just covered the Shanghai Children’s Book Fair and the news is allpositive... and great opportunities are opening up.

Rick Riordan has managed to get his foreign publishers to stop white washing his characters on the cover of his books. This is great news. I wondered if it was a language translation problem but sometimes that is not the case... Marketing can make the wrong decisions! I was thinking about my own characters this week and realised that all the characters in my head were biracial... but I don’t describe them by skin tone. Something to work on maybe...

In the Craft Section,

Molly Greene has a great novel outlining method

How to write violence like it’s real. Bookmark!

Joanna Penn on writing the first draft.

How to decide how many POV characters to have.- Angela Ackerman/ Marcy Kennedy

3 mistakes that stop us reading.

How to create a memorable setting- Pat Verducci-Bookmark

Actions speak louder than dialogue- C S Lakin-Bookmark

Sabotaging your chance with an agent- Jane Friedman

How to write cliff hanger chapter breaks- K M Weiland Bookmark!

In the Marketing Section,

Critical edits to Book Description Copy- Diana Urban - Bookmark

4 easy things to do if you don’t want to market your book- Penny Sansevieri-Bookmark

12 critical elements for home pages

How to get the right non fiction title- The Book Designer/Derek Doepker

How to lose fans when selling your book

21 ways a reader might find your website- Bookmark

Book Marketing tips- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Website of the Week

Kristine Kathryn Rusch has been on fire this week with some excellent posts on the publishing industry. She is a multi talented writer/ editor across many genres and is much respected. She doesn’t pull any punches or suffer fools. She will give it to you straight... Read Her!

Getting in Touch with Writers and Talking to Writers

To Finish

This week I’ve been thinking about talking.  I’m comfortable with chatting to people one on one, small groups etc. Then at our recent National Conference I had to Skype interview in front of 100 people, the lectern was shaking I clutched it so hard. A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed on radio for a new magazine style programme being developed. That microphone looked like an interrogation spotlight! 

Talking in public is important for writers to master. Elizabeth S Craig has a great post on public speaking for writers.

The Podcast for Writers Island is in the sidebar if you want to listen to some cool Indie Music and Writer Tidbits and me. I guess I should probably tell you that a version of this blog is up on Bibliocrunch every week. Talking isn't so bad… when you are writing.

Maureen

@craicer

Sparking Ideas

My brain is still buzzing from Tinderbox – that and I’m finding myself falling asleep at odd times. Some of this, I’m told, is body readjustment after a long campaign of heightened stress levels. I put it down to operating on about 3 hours sleep a night for a week.

For those of you who have never been on a committee putting a big event together... there are many behind the scenes details to organise. We started planning Tinderbox 18 months ago, scoping out what we wanted to have at our conference and researching who would be the best fit to deliver it. We had to do all this with one eye on the changing publishing marketplace. With themes established then it was booking presenters in and finding a suitable venue. Booking your presenters early is key! Along with the quality of the presenters the following list can make or break a conference, food, wifi, room size, assessments, hands on workshops, goodie bags and transport. All of this needs to be tied down early so that if anything falls over you have time to fix it.

Tinderbox was fantastic! The presenters were inspiring, the food was amazing and the high creative energy of the delegates was encouraging. My team were called Goddesses and I bow down before them. And the Wifi stayed on, with a little help.

Meanwhile in the outside world....

Stephanie Meyer sent the publishing world into the Twilight zone... with a gender bent version of Twilight.

Waterstones – the biggest bookshop chain in the UK decided that they would cease to sell the Kindle, apparently because e-publishing is failing.

Porter takes a look at whether Print is really triumphing, while Traditional publishers are joining Kindle Unlimited.

Yup everybody is still mixed up.

Stephan Pinker, Linguistics Professor and International Grammar Guru, declared that writing rules were only superstitions.

Macquarie University published their findings on authors in Australia which makes fascinating reading. Your average Aussie author is a woman, writing genre fiction, earning twelve grand.

In Florida the Novelists Inc (NINC) conference wrapped up. This conference is for novelists who have had two or more books published. Elizabeth S Craig has a round up of what was discussed at the conference. Very interesting takeaways here...

In The Craft Section,

NaNoWriMo is coming up so here are 7 ways to keep it going throughout the year.

5 tips for making writing a daily habit (Bookmark)

Hiring a freelance editor

How authors and editors can work well together

How to hook readers - Setting the stage and Puzzle Pieces

Understanding Point Of View

Style Sheets and Guides -Ruth Harris (Bookmark)

In The Marketing Section,

Can serials be profitable in Kindle Unlimited?- Lindsay Buroker (Bookmark)

Translate your book with Bablecube

6 tips for finding a cover artist- Jami Gold

How to Twitter tips- Molly Greene (Bookmark)

5 lessons learned between debut and second book

Website Of The Week

Inky Girl has a newsletter. This is a great resource for all those artists out there. 

And the Bookshelf Muse Library software is launched!

To Finish,

The Ten commandments of Indie Publishing is a very good pep talk for writers as is Jane Friedman’s Author Business models, a must read!

As I was putting together this roundup I was struck by the fact that many these links were ideas discussed at Tinderbox. Just add coffee and an enthusiastic crowd soundtrack. Or make plans to go to the next National conference in two years time.

To bed to bed….

Maureen

@craicer

Pic Flickr Creative Commons / S J Liew

Messy Details

Twitter is always interesting for the pithy quote on a current news situation.

Clarkson and One Direction: two devastating blows to publishing in the same day
— Philip Jones (@philipdsjones) March 25, 2015

This Tweet comes from the Editor of the UK based Bookseller magazine. On one hand it acknowledges the celebrity nature of publishing current trends, (this enables those other books to be published.) On the other it shows when events/people get messy in public, sales of books plummet.

In other messy publishing news, my Twitter feed is filling with comments about the new censorship app, Cleanreader, which you may download to your reader of choice and run those pesky books through. It will take out and replace all those horrible naughty words that authors unwisely decided to use in their stories.

Joanne Harris (Chocolat) takes issue with the extreme nature of the ‘clean’ being perpetrated and the complete lack of understanding by the App developers of the authors position. (You can imagine Chucks Wendig’s reaction.)

Equally messy is the position of a large Book Festival who have trade space being used by a predator concierge company owned by Penguin Random House. The festival report that they can’t get out of it because then PRH may withdraw their support. It is not a new position in publishing as Dave Gaughran points out.

Publishing is always looking for what the next big trend is, so one eye is always being kept on the tech sector. This week, Joanna Penn gave a guest article on Virtual Reality becoming the next big thing in publishing. Heady stuff. 
As I was trying to imagine it, up popped these two articles. Picture Book Apps and the vanishing author... with some timely comment and then Publishers Weekly highlighted what Mary Hoffman (author of Stravaganza series) is doing with a multiplatform VR App for kids. Definitely a trend to watch.

Jane Friedman has a guest post from an author who has partnered with a small press. He extols the virtues of working this way.

Bob Mayer looks at the basics for being a successful author now.

Mike Shatzkin has some starter thoughts for publishers to be thinking about on their author websites. (Authors might be thinking somewhat differently tho.)

In the Craft Section,

Smart tactics for describing a character in 1st person POV.

What does your character want? (Great post)

A first chapter checklist

Using growth hacking to write faster.

Building your own world.

Character Talents and Skills (from the Angela and Becca’s new Thesaurus)

The five best online tools for outlining your novel.

How to get that book written this year.

Critique Etiquette - (Bookmark)

In The Marketing Section,

Two interesting articles from the Book Designer blog - The ultimate guide to Twitter for writers and Quick Book Marketing tips.

In the spoken word realm, Audible wants writers to work exclusively for them... think radio serial style.

Podcasting and Indie Writers.

Hot book marketing tips for Indies.

Jane Friedman has distilled her Social Media philosophy and it makes for interesting reading. Are you being genuine in your outreach?

Website of the Week

I enjoy dropping into Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s blog. She writes with passion about the need for authors to keep educating themselves in the industry. This week she highlights how your attitude to writing and publishing can see you have a short career or a long one.

To Finish,

If you are on Twitter you will sometimes see conference takeaways being tweeted. This week the Pubsense conference looked at publishing in the future. The #pubsense15 Twitter stream was full of good comments.

Bookbaby decided to put up a nifty video using Neil Gaiman’swriting advice... Lets take it right back to the reason we write in the first place.

Maureen
@craicer

Educating Ourselves

This morning I read an interesting article about the Princess Author Syndrome. As I was reflecting on it I was thinking about the need for all authors to educate themselves on the industry. Especially if you are thinking about traditional publishing as these tweets from Writer Beware blogger Victoria Strauss this morning illustrate.

Grrr! Email today from writer who signed with schmagency, got referred to "independent" editor who's actually boyfriend of schmagent. 1/6
— Victoria Strauss (@victoriastrauss) February 25, 2015

Editor charged insane 5-figure fee, schmagent offered contract for edited ms, then turned around & demanded more editing. 2/6
— Victoria Strauss (@victoriastrauss) February 25, 2015

(read the rest in my Twitter feed)

Scott Berkun takes an unsentimental approach with 28 things no one tells you about publishing.

If you are into experimenting with Indie publishing you will know that learning never stops in this game. Kathryn Rusch has a great blog post on this and how she is weighing up which of her many projects will go down the traditional route. (Along with a fascinating story about a rejected YA series because of main characters race.)

Elisabeth S Craig talks about the pro and cons of being a Hybrid author and that ties nicely into Porter Anderson’s big thought piece on publishing terms that get confused. Porter also profiles a company that wants to partner with authors... but be wary. (see above)

Ryan Hanley looks at the 7 harsh realities of self-publishing as a side hustle from your day job.

Kiwi author D C Grant has a great opinion piece on the ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors) blog about collaborating with publishers on projects. Here in NZ we face the real prospect of having celebrity rugby players biographies or chef’s cook books as the only NZ themed content on the shelves in the next decade. Which brings me to another excellent Alli post on collaboration with other authors in marketing and publishing. (Take the time to have a look at the Triskele Trail e-book,)

Charlie Redmayne CEO of HarperCollins addressed the Scottish Book Trade conference this week with a warning that Amazon could be disrupted this year. The Bookseller reports on Charlie’s candid state of the publishing nation speech which includes why they bought Harlequin, what kind of celebrity book they are looking for and yes he is related to....

In the Craft Section,

10 reasons the hero needs flaws.

Script mag on writing log lines – Great post.

5 really good reasons to outline your novel first.

When you need a pep talk – reach for these inspirations.

How to crack the first line.

Moving from Scene to Scene.

6 must have elements of a WOW story. (Bookmark it!)

Finding the right writing group – start your own

In the Marketing Section,

Book covers- forget Fabio d-i-y covers. (Bookmark this!)

Goodreads giveaways – don’t do what you are told.

50 questions to ask yourself about your author platform. (Your marketing 101 course)

5 ways to fall in love with marketing your work.

Jody Hedlund shares how she creates great launch buzz.

Simple promo tips - call your book by its name and put your author bio on the front and back covers.

Book Marketing truths few experts will admit- a stellar post by Angela Ackerman.

Website of The Week

It’s not really a website...more of a web guru. Jane Friedman is a great resource for writers. This week she talks with Laura Backes on picture e-books for children and shares her round up of 5 great digital resources for writers.

To Finish,

Roz Morris asks whether you can teach writing to anyone. This is always the dilemma faced by creative writing tutors everywhere.

Chuck Wendig explains why adults read so much Young Adult fiction. (This is the argument you use when someone questions your book choice.)

Educating ourselves about the publishing industry is just good sense, don’t you think?

Maureen

@craicer

Pic: Flickr/Creative Commons – Cindy Shultz

Scrubbing Up

This morning parts of New Zealand were declared officially in drought. (finally…)

The kids have gone back to school. 

The floor still needs scrubbing. 

I’m still trying to find my desk under the summer onslaught of papers, Christmas wrappings and other detritus that has to be put away. 

Business as usual.

I need to change my mindset.

Scott Berkun has descriptions of 3 writer mindsets that he switches through.

I need to revisit the story that makes me have nightmares.

Mark Wisniewski has 3 pieces of advice that he should have given when he taught writing.

I need to understand my history as a writer and view my books as an annuity.

Seth Godin on The truth about Sunk Costs and Mark Coker on treating your ebooks as annuity earnings.

I need to relook at my print book project.

Elisabeth Spann Craig on why we still need print copies of our books.

Conference planning is underway with my great team. News will be coming soon. If you found yourself instantly linking to some of the above for a different way of looking at your career ... you may want to keep October 2-5^th free and come to Wellington.

In the Craft Section,

Every one of these is a bookmark post...

How to place turning points on a beat sheet

What your first 250 words is telling your reader

11 secrets to character description

The art of story - when telling trumps showing- Angela Ackerman

4 ways to think about narrative architecture- (Warning-ChuckWendig)

What are the needs and goals of your character- Jami Gold

What it means when they say the story is didactic.

In the Marketing section,

40 questions to ask an agent

The one page synopsis- Killzone

Giving the people what they want

12 book marketing tips

How to send review copies

How to use Facebook to help other authors

Tools for writers.

To Finish,

Joanna Penn revisits her favourite craft books for writers... and I’m nodding my head as I own about half of her list... Now do I dive into a craft book or scrub the floor…(save the water…)

maureen

Pic from Flickr/Creative Commons- Nick Perez

Breaking The Container

This week in the publishing blogosphere...

If you have any interest in the global publishing world you will be aware of the new VAT rules coming into the EU. This is where the governments of the EU finally get tax off Amazon... or rather Amazon tells all authors who publish with them that they will add the tax on.

The ongoing saga of Maurice Sendak’s estate is back in the news. He had collected some amazing paintings folios and first editions. Then the executors pulled 10,000 original items from the Sendak collection held at a Philadelphia library. Is it in accordance with his wishes? There is quite a debate on as the executors are not writers...

Boy books.... Girl books.... Book books!

A seven year old girls complaint about a non-fiction book being promoted as a boys book has prompted a change in policy from a publisher.

The news that over 60,000 UK boys have failed in their literacy by age 11 has galvanized a children’s writer. But he has an interesting way of going about it. Build some free gaming apps to go alongside his novels. Is there buy in from his publishers... YES. (This reminds me of a proposed idea along these lines here - No publisher buy in.) This is all interesting in light of a recent study on the use of tablets in schools.

Where are the books exploring conflict for children and teens from the other side. One writer is appalled that they are the only one writing with middle eastern protagonists.

New Zealand writers have been reeling lately with a string of publishing houses closing their NZ offices. Writer Beware has posted a warning, that writers taking their own rights back after disputes with publishers have to be very careful.

Jane Friedman has a guest on her blog sounding a note of caution on signing up for Kindle Unlimited.

Rachel Gardner details the kinds of rejections from editors she gets as an agent. (These are for books that went on to do well –we are not alone)

In the Craft Section,

What makes your characters uncomfortable- Janice Hardy

Double your Story Conflict in seconds. –K M Weiland

Are Series worth it if you are not published? –Ava Jae

The brutal truth about Beta Readers

20 ways to become a more productive writer

Plotting the non plot driven novel

Scenes - and how to write them

New ideas on how to plot

10 tips for short story writing

In the Marketing Section,

Social Media- how to toot your own horn without turning off your audience

How to develop a business mindset- Rachel Gardner

Juggling multiple projects – Elisabeth S Craig

Update on the ACX alternative in audio books. (I linked to this a few months ago, so the update makes interesting reading.)

5 ways to start building your fan base

To Finish,

Two big projects that made the news this week.

One of the biggest YouTube sensations in recent years is a teenage girl blogging about her life. Girl Online by Zoe Sugg was released as a book this week and broke all sorts of records for a first book. How did this happen?

Serial, a podcast sensation, finished its first season... and asked its listeners for donations to do a second. How can publishing learn from this success? The Bookseller asks.

The power of the storytelling transcends the container it is delivered in.

maureen
Pic from Flickr/creativecommons/Joanna Bourne

Deals and Demigods

This week around the publishing blogosphere the news was all Simon and Schuster. While Hachette and Amazon are still embroiled in their contract war, Simon and Schuster quietly went about negotiating new contract terms with Amazon. And everyone wants to know just what those contract terms are.... Hugh Howey has a pretty good idea... it is probably very close to what the Indie authors are getting.

Hugh has been busy this week. His latest quarterly report Author Earnings is out. And it is the first one that looks at the impact of Kindle Unlimited on author income. Porter Anderson has a very detailed look at what Hugh found out. Subscription models look here to stay and authors need to keep a weather eye on their impact.

Australian Author Patty Jansen has been looking at her Indie income with a fine toothcomb. A very interesting analysis.

Articles about the Frankfurt Book Fair are still coming out. Reedsy has one looking at a panel discussion on when publishers get it right... with sales and content. Great read!

In our neck of the woods Walker seems to be going through a tough time. A long time popular editor has been let go and some Picture Book contracts have been cancelled. This is devastating news to the authors concerned as the illustrations were nearly finished. Picture Books can be anywhere from 18 months to four years in production and to pull them at such a late stage in the process sends alarm bells. Time to pore over those contracts... with a lawyer.

The huge success of the Percy Jackson series has the New Yorker looking hard at the quality of the books children choose to read. They draw on Neil Gaiman’s famous address which was in the “Just–so-long-as-they-are–reading” camp and contrast it with Tim Parks essay on reading habits where he suggests there is little evidence of reading upwards from Pulp to Proust. Having a Percy Jackson fan in my house I was treated to a diatribe this week about the important characters in the Greek demigod world. I don’t have a problem with that at all. Where else is the average Kiwi kid going to find out about thirty centuries old myth and legends?

In the news this week Disney has turned its sights on the South Pacific and their newest ‘Princess’ movie is in the works. Moana... ably supported by the demigod Maui. (Please Disney, don’t make it a white bread yawn!) Taika Waititi has written the original screenplay.

In the Craft Section,

Janice Hardy on finding the right rhythm and voice to nail your beginning.

Now Novel on Unreliable vs Omniscient narrators

How to get around using Trademark in novels from a Trademark lawyer. This is a Must Read post!

K M Weiland on the difference between Story Concept and Story Premise.

Quality not quantity in your writing.

In the Marketing Section,

Elisabeth S Craig looks at making your content work hard

Julie Muesil has a list of podcasts that are required viewing/listening. In the list are two people whom I have referred to before, Joanna Penn and Sean Platt. This week Joanna interviewed Sean so it’s a two for one deal in excellence!

Book Marketing tips for eBooks.

K M Wieland has a guest post on Book Cover design.

Matt Wallace has a comprehensive post on selling books from your own website.

The best ways to use Twitter lists

Tips on monetizing websites.

Using Book Trailers to promote your work.

To Finish,

NaNoWriMo is almost upon us... so Janice Hardy revisits her prep list for this event.

Every year Scrivener writing software do a free trial for the month… Go here to find out about it.

The Book Designer has a wonderful bundle discount on book interior designs. Well worth a visit and to grab an absolute bargain!

Huge Congratulations to Jack Lasenby who is receiving a Prime Ministers Award for literature tonight. Jack is one of New Zealand's finest writers for children. I am lucky to be attending this event… where we celebrate NZ demigods of literature.

Unleash your Demigod!

Maureen

Pic from The Disney press release