Are you giving books this Christmas?

If you want the industry to survive and thrive say Brazilian Publishers, you had better step up and buy some books. This plea from the publishers struck a chord with Booksellers everywhere reports the Guardian. Unfortunately Barnes and Noble seem to have missed that memo.

The FutureBook conference was held last week in London. Among the topics discussed were the rise and rise of Audiobooks, voice technology, and podcasts. Can we make publishing rival Netflix was the cry… With Google entering the audio market we could be seeing interesting times soon.

While you are contemplating the news from FutureBook, Richard Charkin was issuing a list of Don’ts to traditional publishers about 2019 in Publisher’s Weekly. If you read the two articles together you will have a fair idea of the state of play in the publishing world going into the new year.

While Joanna is down under, (Hope the weather in Auckland is nice Joanna!) she is continuing to put interesting articles on her blog. Here are the two latest that I found interesting. Money management for authors and Tips for keeping in a Creative Routine while on holiday.

WriterHQ also has an interesting article on how to stay motivated in the Summer holidays… Tip one- ignore kids and don’t do housework… Roz Morris also has a great blog post on staying in touch with your writing project while navigating your way through Christmas madness.

Jami Gold has a great post on writing rules- what rules? - We don’t need those stinkin’ rules and don't forget to check out the writing gift Advent calendar from Becca and Angela! 

Reedsy has started a podcast for writers. The focus is on writing craft. Bang2Write reinforces this focus on writing craft by taking issue with the words aspiring writer. (Remember to expunge the word aspiring from your vocabulary at your next Christmas party.)

This week was my last week running away to my creative happy space for the year. I love it because I’m not faced with laundry, dishes, phone calls, etc. (Everybody needs a creative happy space.) My writing buddy and I spent our last day for 2018 studying Suzanne Lakin’s posts on vision and strategy for 2019. These are well worth doing. Check out all the posts in the series and grab your planner. 

In The Craft Section,

Plotting on Notecards- AR Beckert

Lessons from a lost novel- K M Weiland

The pitfalls of writing a series- Gordon Long

Inciting incidents- Reedsy- Bookmark

The hero’s journey- Joseph Campbell- Bookmark

Writing technique- Euphonics- Bookmark

Taking character relationships to the next level- Mythcreants- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Visibility- Nicholas Erik- Bookmark

Nate’s big list of free and paid book promo sites- Nate Hoffelder- Bookmark

Twitter advertising infographic- Barb Drozdowich 

Bookbub ads- David Gaughran- Bookmark

Best Book Covers of 2018

14 Twitter apps/tools for writers- Frances Caballo

Indie Authors – empowered

To Finish,

The Christmas decorations are up everywhere you look. The sun is beating down!  It’s a struggle to get the kids out of bed in the last week of school. Let alone make sure all your present buying is done by then. Writer’s gift lists get updated
so you can buy for yourself... always a good idea. But Tara Sparling has the definitive article on what 
a writer really wants for Christmas.

Maureen
@craicer

My monthly newsletter will be hitting inboxes in the next few days. 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 like the blog and want to shout me a Christmas coffee, hit the coffee button up top or (Look Right) buy a book for your favourite 6+-year-old. My books are available in print and ebook- and you can feel good about buying books for Christmas.   Next week will be the last blog post for the year... 

Future Creativity...

This week I have been thinking about creativity and the future. 

This came about because I was at the Storylines committee wind-up dinner (being an email member qualified me...yippee) and Adele Jackson fab co-ordinator and all round creative ideas professional started talking to me about Creativity and the impact on the classroom of the news that creativity is falling away as we focus on assessment.

Of course the teacher in me takes notice. Adele is in touch with some very classy educationalists whom we invited to The Spinning Gold conference to give us a perspective of writing and illustrating for the classroom in the future. Derek Wenmouth of CORE had posted an article on his blog about creativity which featured an excellent video address by John Cleese on the subject. If we don’t block out sustained quiet time we will not have any creative ideas. We must work at it...carve out time!!!

So of course after those stirring words I looked at my to do list and carved out time. Yes I got some big projects done but unfortunately some more got added to the list...Oh well I know what I need to do. Unplug the internet! (yep I hear you all laughing) I am resisting all efforts by the family to make this a wireless household...too easy I think to get sucked in into checking facebook when I am supposed to be writing. Fleur Beale has a good system, every morning she goes to an office in town without internet and writes...which is why we are all going to the launch of her new book Fierce September tonight....(a great launch and Fleur is going all techy with added content on linked blogs to the book. Check out the Fierce September website.) 

 Looking into the future is what the sci fi pop culture site i09 is all about. It has some great articles abut what is current, analysis, reviews etc...geek stuff including ask a physicist... I was interested in an article this week about the rise of Science Fiction lit. novels and how writers who previously were known for ‘literature’ were now moving into Science Fiction....(making it legit? Guess my reaction...)

E books are on their way to Australia and  New Zealand with news this week that major publishers are about to sign deals that will enable their lists to be published as e-books. As the readers start to make their way into this part of the world it would be good to have local content available to read on them.

Sydney Salter, one of the 30 mid grade authors running the midgrade site From The Mixed Up Files has a great blog post looking at her reaction to her child who saved up and bought herself an e-reader. So is this what kids of the future want to spend their money on? Sydney was sceptical but her non reader is now reading...

So how to get that content picked up so you can be part of the publishing lists of the future....

Mary Kole of Kidlit.com has been interviewed on several blogs about being a young agent and she has written a thought provoking post on how she acquires authors. Here in NZ we don’t have many agents...so we do more ourselves but overseas getting the agent can be the hardest part of the whole publishing process.

Sunny Frazier has written a no nonsense straight talking guest post on being an acquisitions editor...she doesn’t bother with the query letter but goes straight to google search to find out how web savvy the author is...go read it...it is eye opening!

 If you are now in a state of shock about your publishing and the future you might want to check out this collection of tips from authors who are using social media for marketing... and Chris Brogan has a good post on blogging and websites if you need to do something concrete...(Thanks to Justin, for the link.)

Over on Craicerplus (my Amplify page...which is getting a following of its own)

I have links to articles on

Finally Someone Admits To What The Print On Demand Business Model Really Is

Genreality- Self Publishing Realities

Ten Ways To Improve Your Writing

13 Wonderful Truths About Publishing

Dear Dan Brown...(you will laugh)

Ten Tropes you Will Find In Science Fiction Over and Over Again...(geeking over the video clips)

How To Effectively Manage Your On Line Reputation

How To Read A Publishing Contract

In the good news corner Debbie Redpath Ohi,  whose cartoons I have enjoyed over the last few years, got some well deserved recognition purely by accident and through a rejection picked up a publishing contract and a new career...nice one! She carved out time in her hotel room in a frantic rush but the payoff was oh so sweet.

So how do YOU carve out time for writing? All tips appreciated...

enjoy

maureen

pic is a bike for the future...