Chasing The Reader

This week in the publishing blogosphere

Scribd changed its subscription model. A little shiver fluttered through the online publishing community at the news. Were they going to fold? With the dominance of Amazon Unlimited and the demise of Oyster, Scribd is really the only alternative in subscription reading. Scribd still lives but the day of the all you can read buffet is ending.

This week Google entered into the reading market... with books that cannot be printed.

These books aren’t even for e-readers. They are short, just right for a commute and designed to be read on a phone.... and they are choose your own adventure type books. Taking the story and gaming it into your phone challenges conventional storytelling. With Google behind this experiment it will be interesting to see where it goes.

At the end of January, Berlin hosted a Future Publish conference. One of the keynote speakers, Chantal Restivo-Alessi, talked about the value of the story across all mediums, harnessing digital across all platforms and building deep engagement. Backlists are crucial and Authors and their brand should be marketed on a global scale. This is a really interesting article. (I can't help wondering what it would do for NZ if the individual imprints here marketed NZ Books globally instead of to two chain booksellers.)

Jane Friedman has an interview with Agent Laurie McLean specifically about one of her clients who operates in a hybrid fashion across the publishing and music industries with one feeding into the other. So Simon Curtis writes a Y.A. book and happens to create music and so references it in the story and brings out an album of music which promotes the book which promotes his music and.... Hybrid storytelling going in all directions now.

By now your brain has probably gone into Popcorn Kitten mode so you should read what James Scott Bell has to say about coping with the writers bane of too many ideas crowding in all at once. This is excellent advice which will keep you productive or at least allow you to sleep easier.

Writer Beware is continuing to warn authors about the many and varied scams that Author Solutions are perpetuating across all their various fronts for reputable publishing companies. The latest examination is the marketing on-sell. This is where they really make their money charging hundreds of dollars for simple services. The charges are truly eye-watering. Even if you know that you will never get caught on this - read it so you can inform others.

Jami Gold has been thinking about the times when an Author might work for free. This is hotly debated in the creative community where we see little enough money for our work. A few weeks back we had Phillip Pullman campaigning to pay authors at festivals. Jami has some good points to make about choosing carefully which projects we do for free.

I have been thinking about Dean Wesley Smith's article all day. He takes a look at the longevity of the writer in the digital age. It does make you think. If books don’t go out of print because digital backlists are still selling... authors really need to understand the long game and plan their careers for it. Dean is still finding readers for books that are 30 years old... and you can too.

In the Craft Section,

The Book Designer- 3 mistakes you made writing the first book.

Tara Sparling- Dissecting the blurb formula

September Fawkes – 15 tactics for writing humour- Bookmark

What not to do when writing for teens

Steven Pressfield -The difference between subject and theme- Bookmark

Effective outlining in Scrivener using metadata

Anne R Allen – a guide to co writing -Bookmark

Darcy Pattison- find your novel opening

Janice Hardy – Deep P.O.V is not the only P.O.V.

In the Marketing Section,

Rachel Thompson- 4 ways to improve your sales

How to promote your book

Anne R Allen- Using Google plus and why you should. (This post is getting a lot of comments 

around the blogosphere. You should read it!)

How writers ruin their Amazon links- Bookmark!

Jane Friedman on finding a Book Publicist

Ways Authors can reach Readers

Website of the Week

Besides being an awesome blogger Lindsay Buroker manages a podcast called SFF Marketing. This podcast is a deep look at marketing issues and has great guests. Being a podcast it’s easy to listen to while doing other things. Today they interviewed Data Guy of Author Earnings. The latest Author Earnings report is ruffling a few feathers. Data Guy is being touted as a guest at Digital Book World’s upcoming conference so this podcast is a must listen if you are following what is happening in the Indie World. Then you can check out all the other goodies in past podcasts.

To Finish,

Angela Ackerman writes some great articles.  This one for Romance University on romancing the reader is a must read. After all readers are why we spend so much time crafting the characters. We want them to love our characters as much as we do.

Loving the reader means we have to show up for them. 

This week the annual SCBWI conference in New York was rocked by an amazing keynote from children's author Gary Schmidt. Besides reading the keynote... check out the great conference blog.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic : Flickr /Creative Commons/ Rene Schwietzke

Gatekeepers

Gatekeepers...the ones who you have to placate or bribe to get into the hallowed ground...They are tasked with only letting through the gates those that are worthy...

This week on the publishing blogosphere Rachelle Gardner has a post about gatekeeping on your mind. If you have discovered that as you increase screen time reading and interacting with social media there is a corresponding downward spiral in new and exciting ideas coming out of your brain you may be struggling with the same issue.

Chuck Wendig has decided to name February 6^th the anti pirate day and started the ball rolling with his thoughts about pirates; Why I hope you don’t pirate my book. Many authors joined him and posted  their open letters to book pirates.

Jody Hedlund has written about when your family doesn’t appreciate what you do and how hard it is to get them on board...they are gatekeepers of your writing time and energy, and what to do about it.

Electricliterature has an interesting post on those writers who have nipped round the back to the side door. Author Entrepreneur...The Hybrid Author. They have some very interesting stats on this new Hybrid model.

John Scalzi (head of SFA) has a post detailing the sales numbers of his latest book... print, audio and epublishing and talks candidly about what is working for him. The fact that he is able to to talk numbers for his trad book is astounding...and The State Of a Genre Novel makes for interesting reading.

If you didn’t get a chance to look at Dean Wesley Smiths post on crunching numbers in a Hybrid world a few weeks ago (it was no 5 in his series) Read this post, No 4 and then No 5. In fact go read the whole series. If you wanted a no nonsense set of guidelines to follow this year to be a successful writer...it’s all in these posts.

Last year I gifted myself Steven Pressfields, War of Art and a nice gift it was too.

Editor Shawn Coyne has written a thought provoking post on Steven’s blog about where the midlist writer is now in the big six, five...world...Nowhere. Ouch what is a midlister to do...

Apple have decided to highlight self published books...This is an interesting article detailing the latest moves in the Gatekeepers of online publishing.

In craft,

K M Weiland on sure fire awesome setting creation and structuring scenes.

Victoria Strauss is guesting over at Children’s Publishing and she has a nice post on letting your characters into your head.

Plot Conflicts and Desires...or how to get the best out of your plot.

James Scott Bell on how to get emotional about your novel.

In Marketing,

Perfect press releases...

QR codes...which are apparently big in NZ...

Iain Broome has collected seven articles on Authors using Goodreads effectively.

Top Ten mistakes in self publishing.

5 Reasons to Set your novel in a famous place...

To finish,

How to deal with crushing feedback on your creative work...it may not be what you think it is...or you maybe in this situation.

maureen

pic from Flickr /counse

Eyes Wide Open

Today I was discussing the concept of ‘The Hybrid Writer’ with Melinda. 

For those of you wondering about what a hybrid writer is...the term has been used lately to describe a writer who has some Traditionally Published work, some Indie published work, some Digital only published work, a mixture, in other words, of publishing outlets for their creativity. Hybrid can also describe a mix of print publishing outlets, Big Press, Small Press and Indie Press.

A writer is a small business of One selling creative works to interested publishers. Some publishers are huge corporations with a commercial focus, some publishers are passionate small businesses with a niche focus and sometimes the publisher is the author who just wants to find a home for a good story. (Yes, it is a business.)

A writer has to be very aware of how each publisher works and what the advantages and disadvantages of each one are to the writer. If you are a regular reader of Craicer you will know that I have linked to many writers discussing the current upheaval in traditional print publishing and why writers must keep informed of the current changes and the impact this will have on their careers.

Roz Morris has two agents and decided to self publish a book with their support....she discusses this move and why she loves the term Hybrid Writer.

In the blogosphere writers are still discussing the implications of agents moving into publishing. Passive Guy who is a lawyer as well as a writing blogger has some interesting comments to make on the Bookends Literary stoush (I linked to last week) and the legal implications for writers and agents. As always please read the comments as they add a fuller picture to the current discussion.

Bob Mayer takes it a step forward by weighing up whether an agent should step into the publisher’s shoes. His arguments are well reasoned and the comments are very meaty. There are lots of issues for the writer to think about. Step Into This World With Your Eyes Wide Open!

Laura Paulin discusses with her readers the impact of vanishing shelf space in her local chain bookstore. As the bookstore becomes increasingly filled with novelties and not books, what impact will this have on the writer?

Kris Rusch explains how carrying less books in a bookstore leaves writers with less time than ever to promote their book before it is pulped. Even the big name authors are hurting...when you can’t find any earlier books by them in the bookstore, something is up.

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware detailed this week the cruel hoax perpetrated on a new writer who was led to believe they had a reputable agent and a book auction in three days...except the agency had never heard of her. 

Anne R Allen is sharing the load over at her popular blog and in the post introducing her new blogging buddy she shares 6 things that writers won’t miss about the big 6 ‘when they’re gone’

Jane Friedman has taken issue with Adrian Zacheim’s blog post on The Myth Of Self Publishing. If you  are thinking about this take a look at the arguments put forward.

Over in the craft corner,

For all you closet comic readers out there, superheronation has defined 17 stock plots for getting Bruce Wayne into and out of trouble.

Harry Potter For Writers takes a look at how the final battles of Deathly Hallows were crafted and what writers can learn from the twists and turns of the story arc.

Jane Friedman has posted her worksheets for writers to help them become pitch ready.

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on

New Book Anaylytics App

Finding Qualified Book Reviewers

Q R Code Mistakes

To finish,

If you are thinking about dipping your toe in the water with ebooks, Sarah Billington has set up an ebook project management business. Sarah has expertise in cover design editing and formatting. Check out her site and her unbelievable rates.....

SCBWI  LA summer conference is about to start. You can attend it virtually by hanging out at the SCBWI blog...I have done this for the last two years and although I get a case of writer envy there are lots of little bon mots to share. It all helps to keep me informed about what is happening in children’s publishing.

How are you staying informed?

maureen