Winning At Productivity

Earlier this week I attended the New Zealand National Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Every year I try to pick the winners and end up with about a 50% strike rate.  Book Awards are subjective. What might be your jam could be the judge’s tripe stew. I often think that just making the short list is a major cause for celebration. However it was great to catch up with old friends, celebrate their success in being shortlisted and catch up on gossip.

In the writing blogosphere this week Smashwords introduced a special deals extra for their online store and revamped their coupon codes.

David Gaughran tells a cautionary tale of marketing gone wrong at Amazon because of a rogue publishers mistake. If you advertise on Amazon you need to read this.

With the melt down in international politics Anne R Allen helps everyone out with a timely reminder of good online author etiquette.

Joanna Penn has an interesting post from Zsofia Macho of Publish Drive on publishing in other countries. PublishDrive are a service like Draft2Digital but based in Hungary and cover Asia and Europe.

How do prolific writers stay productive? Check out these writing strategies. This is a fascinating insight into the world of the master writer.

If you are a traveling writer... Daniel Smith has some productivity tips to help you enjoy your travels and still do the work.

Kris Rusch talks about negotiating TV and movie deals. It helps if you know exactly what you want. A very interesting post on this market.

Johnny B Truant has an interesting post on Book Covers. Yes they go out of fashion and yes you need expert design help. Johnny shows his cover progression and why they were mistakes.

Since I figured out how to listen to podcasts in the car. I have been dipping into some interesting writing ones. Jennifer Laughran is going from strength to strength with her new podcast on kidslit publishing. Check out this one on publicity.

Lorna Faith has an interesting podcast interview on marketing plans with Nick Thacker and four part story structure.

In The Craft Section,

Two great posts from Go Into The Story- The 3E’s of scene description and

Where you stumble there lies your treasure.

How to write novella’s and why you should- Anne R Allen – Bookmark

When you lose the desire to finish- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

5 things you can do to make your deadlines- Book Marketing Tools

Character motivation- Rescue a loved one- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Challenges of first person POV- James Scott Bell

In The Marketing Section,

How to create pre launch buzz for your book right now- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Book Design Chapter Openers- Joel Friedlander

Corporate Sponsors want to work with non fiction authors

4 social media productivity tips – Frances Caballo - Bookmark

How to use leaflets to market books.

How to build a media kit - Molly Greene- Bookmark

What are the weaknesses in your book marketing platform?- Digital Book World- Bookmark

16000 preorders in 6 months- A case study- Gwynn White

To Finish,

It’s been a week of highs and lows. Productivity has taken a beating. Sometimes you just need to stare at cat gifs... or you can get creative and come up with a Periodic Table for Villains.

Maureen
@craicer

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Rob Schofield

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces every month. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. I went down a rabbit hole this week but I promise the newsletter will go out this weekend... with pictures...

Heroes and Villains

David Gaughran deserves a medal- or at least a big payday. 

David has been pointing out scammers and highlighting the rip off artists that prey on writers for years along with Writer Beware. Lately he has been trying to make Amazon aware of the click farm scammers on their websites. This is becoming a real problem. The click farm scammers take away money from the legit writers in page reads. They also skew your research. (I have been watching the children’s bestsellers... and shaking my head over number 1 and now I know why!)

Anne R Allen has an interesting post on the rise of publishing cults and cyber bullying among authors. I hear you all muttering, how could they, but when you read Anne’s article you realise how small actions turn into large hate fests targeting hapless authors. This is a must read and share.

Bad Reviews- Do you take them to heart? Tamar Sloan recently shared her psychologist knowledge on Writer Unboxed about why readers leave a bad review. It’s not about your book.

China has a new craze... reading. But not print books. Their online serial story platform numbers are heading into the stratosphere. This is a market to watch and if you can... get involved!

Jane Friedman recently interviewed two creators who have their stories on Tapas. This is a new kid on the block online reading experience that pays the creators. If you are a web comic creator or a writer check out the interview and have a poke around the website. It’s fascinating.

Jane also has an interesting article on whether authors should be using social media. Many authors struggle with the extroverted nature of social media. Jane offers some sound advice and lots of links for further learning.

Porter Anderson takes a look at the new white paper, The Business Of Books 2017, for Frankfurt Book Fair business members. Porter looks at three important points in the paper, competition, blockbusters and digital pricing. This is an interesting look at the global impact on publishing from a few brands and a heads up on what publishers will have to come to grips with going forward.

Bookbub recently polled 14 authors on how they use preorders and whether establishing a preorder was effective. Rachel Thompson has also been looking at preorder marketing and how you can create buzz around your book before it is even out.

Written Word Media has an interesting post on pricing. What is the optimum price for your book in a promotion? It depends on what you want to acheive....

Agent Jennifer Laughran has started a podcast. This will be of interest to children’s writers as she is a top agent in the field of children’s publishing. She talks to Laurel Snyder about imposter syndrome in her first episode.

In The Craft Section,

Seven ways to bring characters together- Mythcreants- Bookmark!

Myths on Villains and Mental Health- Sacha Black- Bookmark

Adding suspense – Roz Morris- Bookmark

Develop Character Voices- Don Fox- Bookmark

Three reasons you don’t need a character arc- Janice Hardy

5 things I learned from Story Expert John Yorke- Bang2write

John Grisham’s tips on how to write fiction

In The Marketing Section,

How to price match free on Amazon- Molly Greene – Bookmark

Bookfunnel bundles- Katherine Hayton- Bookmark

When reader targeting goes wrong – David Gaughran

10 things I did right in my debut- Litreactor

Tips for finding your audience on Goodreads- Carman Amato- Bookmark

Creating a Book Sell Sheet- K S Brooks- Bookmark

The marketing rule you can’t forget- Ryan Holiday – Bookmark

 9 ways to get the best out of your cover designer- Damonza and Joanna Penn- Bookmark

To Finish,

Do you remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? Every time you got to an exciting crossroads you had to make a choice. Now think about writing one. Got a headache yet?

Have a look at this hand drawn map from a CYOA book author. This is a fascinating insight

into intricate plotting.

Maureen

@craicer

My monthly newsletter has the best of my 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. Come and join our happy band! This blog survives on coffee so a big THANK YOU to everyone who hit the coffee button this week. I appreciate the virtual coffee love.
 

Pic: Guess who?

Rocking

Over the last week I have been wandering up and down the country avoiding the earthquakes in my home city...they were waiting for me when I came back...another three today...It’s like being on a moored boat every now and then the floor rocks.

Rocking the publishing blogosphere is some Amazon bashing that is going over the top...Melville House engages in some strong rhetoric that had the blogosphere shaking heads. Passive Guy takes a look at the impassioned argument from Melville House in Breaking News: Amazon declares war on the Book Industry and discusses what it may mean...someone needs to have a lie down.

Here in New Zealand the keynote speaker, Sandy Grant, at our local Publishers Association Awards...painted a disquieting picture echoing some of the passion from Melville House as well as looking at copyright issues and government efforts to break this. Authors are left scratching their heads...um where are we in all this?

Jami Gold has discovered new and horrible ways that authors are being pirated...and scraped by lowlifes and you will need to hang on to a table while you read this. It involves mash ups...fan fiction...scraping and Amazon...actually mixing that lot up and it could be some sort of new adult stuff which is the target of pirates at the moment. Wouldn’t it be simpler to write your own book?

Every now and again there is a publishing blogosphere story that won’t lie down...and the RandomPenguin washing of Author Solutions is one of them...Porter devoted a whole Ether post to it last week...I flagged it for you in my last post but since then it has got bigger and murkier....

Finally some happier news...after all how many shocks can you take...(last count over 1900 this week)

The fab Literary Agent Jennifer Laughren, from whom I shared a tweet with you a couple of weeks ago, had a Reddit community question time when you got to ask her anything on the agenting business. It is a great little read and explains why she is one of the top agents specializing in Kids Lit.

And Smashwords has a preorder button...Media Bistro tells all about it.

In Craft,

Chuck - Ten Thoughts On Story...by now you should be used to the warnings on content.

James Scott Bell from the great Killzone blog on creating conflict in fiction.

Elisabeth S Craig on creating back stories for characters.

The League of Extraordinary Writers have their top craftbooks list...and I’m pleased to say I have about half of them...and JOLLY GOOD they are too. I’m working on acquiring another couple.

Writers In The Storm have a great post on figuring out turning points in your story...

In Marketing,

Joel Friedman has copyright disclaimers that you can use in your book

Getting the most out of Facebook

Selfpublishing advice talks to Bob Mayer on How He Did It....which echoes Kobowritinglife’s advice on how to promote on Kobo...

Bestsellerlabs has the second part of their navigating the book marketing maze...full of helpful tips.

Darla has another list of self publishing tips...

To Finish,

If you think you would like to try doing the audiobook yourself... Joanna Penn has a nifty little article for you about what it entails.

Since I started writing this...we had another three quakes...mostly they are little but every now and again Mother Earth likes to wake us up...which is why you need Resilience if you are a writer (Rachel Gardner) or just live in an earthquake zone....

maureen