Counting Down The Year

January continues to be....

Scorching.... Bitterly cold.... Heat wave.... Blizzard.... Torrential rain.... Amazing....

All of the above....

In publishing news this week... A ‘mistake’ on Amazon royalty pages had the Indie publishing world wildly speculating whether there were moves afoot from the biggest player in the market. When it comes to Amazon, a sniffle... could mean the Black Death for authors.

While authors nervously await royalty changes Kindle haschanged their publishing guidelines on cover images. Now that Kindle is unrolling its print option... every move is being analysed by the industry. Sadly that includes the layoff of over 50 editorial CreateSpace staff this week.

Author services companies continue to improve and change. Book Funnel is unrolling a service that will add selling direct from your website to the impressive list of things they also do for authors. They have also started a nifty blog.

Ingram Spark have started a podcast for indie authors... They promise 15 minute episodes filled with tips among other new things that they will be unrolling this year.

Kris Rusch has written the second part of her 2017 year inreview... and its another knockout post. There is lots to think about as you make your goals for 2018.

I’m always interested in what is coming down the track for writers in the future that is why I fell on Joanna Penn’s latest podcast with cries of ... “Really! OMG.” So If you want to know what got a lot of people thinking about future tech check out Publishing Tech trends for authors 2018.

I was recently asked about imposter syndrome... this can be a very real problem for authors. Here Chuck talks about it and ways to combat it. (Warnings on language... but that is half the fun of Chuck, images you can’t forget...)

Have you ever looked at a chain bookseller and wonder how they can get those deals with publishers that indie bookshops can’t? An Indie bookshop owner has come up with a way to get many Indies to collaborate for bargains. If you know any booksellers... send the link along.

Judith Briles has an interesting post on The Book Designer about Author inner circles. These are people who are trusted by the author, who understand the publishing world. How many and who should be in your inner circle?

Children’s writers in New Zealand are thrilled that one of our own is shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award... Joy Cowley has been a huge supporter of children’s writers in New Zealand over the years and her books are adored the world over. The HCH Award is also known as the Little Nobel Prize... so we’re all crossing our fingers... (Coming on the heels of NZ’s highest honour- Joy is having a fantastic year and it’s only half way through January.

K M Weiland has a great post on Why We Write- Have you ever stopped to think about it. Katie has four possible reasons why we can’t help but scribble words down...

In The Craft Section,

How to goose the muse- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

How to write a memoir- Reedsy-Bookmark

How to harness creative momentum- Gabriel Pereira- Bookmark

How to kill book sales with 10 mistakes –Anne R Allen - Bookmark

How to turn dead time into productive time

Dumb little writing tricks that work- Go Into The Story

In The Marketing Section,

Preorder strategies- Bookbub – Bookmark

The reason Branding confuses you- Rachel Thompson

How to brief a cover designer

Trends in cover design

Why I’m writing under a new name - Litreactor

The eyes have it- Michael Alvear- A fascinating look at how people view the Amazon  buy page- BOOKMARK

How to get Book reviews without begging. – Dave Chesson- Bookmark

To Finish,

I’m a sucker for infographics... and K M Weiland has put together a series of great infographics from all over the place to show storytelling nuts and bolts... Go on print them out and plaster your office with them.

Then take this little quiz to see what kind of storyteller you are...

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter 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. Coffee always welcome.  Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons/ Bill Ward

https://www.flickr.com/photos/billward/16294164331/in/photolist-qPRRnM-7WEHn-

Changing The Variables

March is New Zealand Book Month. Already I have attended a National Address, hosted a dinner, attended a book launch and organised an award party. Somehow I have managed to be out nearly every night since March began.

The National Address, The Janet Frame Memorial Lecture, was given by Joy Cowley. Joy is one our most beloved writers for children and as befits one of our own being chosen to give this prestigious address, the children’s writers were out in force. There was a huge crowd! Afterwards I hosted a dinner for members of the Wellington Children’s Book Association. It was a great night.

I missed one of our member’s book launches but managed to attend another. Mandy Hager has finished her Blood of the Lamb trilogy with Resurrection.  This whole series has been a tour de force.

Our Patron, Jack Lasenby, turned 80 this week and as he has been shortlisted for the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards (his 30th novel for children) we thought it might be a good idea to get all the other Wellington area finalists together. It was a bit of a mission but we managed to surprise them all with flowers and Jack with a large birthday card signed by quite a lot of people...(it helped that he couldn’t make the memorial lecture as I was running around like a mad thing getting signatures and the card would have been hard to hide.)

Today I was reflecting on Bob Mayer’s article on the three author variables and thinking about the quality of the writing here in New Zealand. Both Joy Cowley and Jack Lasenby are among the very best writers for Children we have produced. Joy is known internationally with her readers and picture books and the famous Mrs WishyWashy. Jack is not. He has been a huge influence on generations of children through his work as a School Journal editor and the fact that he has personally known and encouraged our best literary writers over the last 50 years to write some stories for children.

Bob talks about the mix of Platform, Product and Promotion. We have always had strong product but New Zealand is small and our publishers are small and the print runs are small and so the head offices of the big publishing companies pretty much ignore books printed here. With internet and the new global market place, New Zealand children’s books might just be ready to be discovered. All we need is a strong platform and great promotion.

Somebody who has been swinging all the variables of Platform, Product and Promotion is Seth Godin. David Meerman Scott interviewed him on his new project, Poke The Box.

Anne Mini has taken a look at how clichés can destroy your chance of being picked up with a series of funny examples of overridden cliché queries that are in need of editing or just search and destroy.

John Rember has written a guest post for Jane Friedman on the relationship between author, agent and publisher and the need to examine this carefully in the fast changing world of publishing.

March is also Small Press Month...and Elisabeth Spann Craig has taken a look at small press vs large press. Which is better?

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

9 Questions Editors Ask When Reading Your Submission

Authors Engage Or Die

Justine Musk On The Best Way To Blog

Harpers ebook Lending Policy Trashed.

To finish,

Mashable is looking at new digital trends...the way the news is being gathered is changing also how brands are becoming social media and how aggregation is changing bestselling statistics. This is a good article to read if you want to know how these trends will change the variables in publishing through the rest of this year. As New Zealand is about six months behind we have a little bit of lead in time...use it wisely.

The New Zealand Book Council’s video shows some 3D storytelling which is our associations next event in New Zealand Book Month. 


enjoy,
maureen