Yes, I am a day late. Summer holidays arrive and we begin the traveling around New Zealand catching up with family. Inevitably the traveling has happened on Blog day Thursday. I didn’t plan it. I know that I can write my blog in advance and post it when I want but I don’t. This is partly because I enjoy researching and I want to bring the latest comments and opinion to you and partly because I get lazy and then suddenly remember I should be putting the list together and so I had better research and so on.
Yesterday we started back down the country in search of reliable internet with no lightening strikes...and no rain. I can count on the fingers of one hand the rain free days I have had since we came north to the sub tropics for Summer. The whole country is wondering whether that week of fine weather in November was Summer only we didn’t realize it at the time.
Around the blogosphere Writers and Readers are looking at the impact of the Amazon behemoth as it becomes by default a big publisher and trying to set New Years Resolutions for themselves to support Independent Bookstores and small publishers. What to do when you want to buy that eBook... isn’t Amazon or B &N the only game in town? Well no ! Check out this article on the rise of eBooks being sold in Indie bookstores from Salon.
Chuck Wendig has a provocative post (aren’t they all...) urging self published writers to lift their game so it benefits readers and offering some points on how they might do this. (Warning it’s Chuck!)
Writer Beware has a warning post about a book marketing company working under a variety of names to rip off writers.... Marketing is the hard part of publishing and writers and small publishers are getting burnt by some of these tactics.
Jane Friedman has an interesting blog post in answer to a question on eBook rights for out of print books. This had me thinking about some of our wonderful New Zealand children’s writers with a long publishing history here staring at the end of their career because of the publishing industry contraction. Great books go out of print here quite quickly because the print runs are so small. If the writers own their eBook rights they may have a wonderful second chance. It is worth checking out!
The passive voice guy has an interesting post on publishers and book distributors and why they are rearranging the deck chairs.... The comments give great insight into current practice and pitfalls of eBook distribution.
Commenting is the name of the game, at the moment, with a new challenge up. Challenge yourself to leave five comments a day. Greg Pincus has the low down on how and why you should do this.
Over in the craft section,
Anne R Allen has a great post on hooks, loglines and pitches. Loglines are becoming more popular so get thee over there and learn to craft them properly.
Janice Hardy has a great blog where she puts the spotlight on submitted writing and shows how to fix it up. Today she looks at multiple first person main characters...(something I am writing which is probably why it is taking so long... all that head hopping...on Mars.)
To finish,
If you were wondering how the children’s publishing world was holding up, the 100 best sellers of 2011 has been announced Children’s books make up a quarter.
The Dynamic Duo of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake have been celebrated...as stamps! Check out the new issue from the Royal Mail.
Getting this blog in ahead of the rain...
maureen
maureen
