Selling Your Wares

This week in publishing,

Last week’s hot news of Storytel partnering with Spotify has been rippling through the publishing community. It’s been a rollercoaster lately with publishers buying publishers and audio publishing subscription services getting bigger. This week Amazon laid down $8 Billion and bought MGM. Not everyone in the entertainment business is pleased about this. Mark Williams looks at the IP treasure trove that Amazon has just acquired.

Meanwhile, Amazon inks its first library deal.

 

Jane Friedman wrote a salutary article How Much Do Authors Earn which has us all wincing but agreeing. Many authors earn more from side hustles than from straight writing. But all is not lost says Jane.

 

Being an Author is all about…Networking. Did your soul just shrivel a little when you read that? The Alliance of Independent Authors has a comprehensive post on the art of networking for authors. How and why it is important and full of great tips. If you are really struggling as an introverted author for marketing advice check out this week’s 6 figure author podcast especially on marketing for introverts.

 

Today is the last day to pick up the Storybundle of writing business books. Don’t miss out.

 

SEO Sherpa recently contacted me to let me know of a comprehensive post on metadata that they have prepared. Before you scroll past- Stop. Do you have a website? Do you want your website to show up in searches? Do you know that a few simple tweaks of your description metadata will boost your website in a google search? If you know all the tricks scroll past- if not, take a look.

 

Kris Rusch is continuing her interesting blog series on fear based decision making. She is making some strong points in this series about how this affects what projects get greenlit. If you know how to frame a project so it sounds familiar, you have a much better chance of getting it picked up.

 

Jordan at Now Novel has a comprehensive post on how to write critiques and evaluations. This is something that every author should have in their toolbox of tricks- you never know when you will be asked to give critical feedback. (Like today’s request from my nephew…)

 

In The Craft Section,

How to submit to Literary Journals- Meredith Allard

5 ways to write realistic dialogue- Courtney Walsh

Balancing your cast of characters- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Organising research and notes in Scrivener - Gwen Hernandez

Setting as character- Jami Gold - Bookmark

What to include in your first draft- J D Edwin- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Planning a Book Launch- Bookbaby- Bookmark!

How to write a query letter- Nathan Bransford

Are you ready for book marketing? -Frances Caballo

Help others, help yourself- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Unique Marketing ideas for June- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Writers Digest has been in the business of writing inspiring articles for writers for many decades. Recently they asked a bunch of authors, what is the one piece of advice you would give to writers. Here is a comprehensive collection of advice with links to interviews. Go forth and be inspired. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links, come and subscribe. You will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. Thanks for the coffee love this week. I really appreciate it. 

Thanks.

 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Chas B

 

The Long Haul Writing Career

Today I was reflecting on my online home. It’s part of the spring cleaning happening here. Over ten years I hadn’t changed much on the blog. Now that I have a little bit of energy and because I have a book coming out in a few months, I’m getting more creative and adding new things like a new books website. What will my writing life look like going forward? I’m in re-launch mode of my writing career.

Jane Friedman wrote an interesting article this week on whether authors should concentrate on Social Media or their Author Websites. Note: it is now assumed that all authors will have a website. (and if not... why not?)

Kris Rusch has also been looking at author career longevity. How are the mid-listers faring at their respective publishing houses? Do they still have a career? Are publishers thinking about their business in terms of the long haul?

Joanna Penn has just celebrated her sixth year as an author entrepreneur. She breaks down all the things she has learned on her journey and why she has a long term mentality for her writing career. It’s all about the pension plan...

Susan Kaye Quinn has written an interesting article on the Alli blog about going wide – selling on multiple online platforms instead of just Amazon.  Susan is a powerhouse of great information. (As we head into the next national children’s writers conference, I am reminded that I interviewed SKQ for a keynote speech at the last conference. She knocked it out of the park!)

If you are thinking about a long career you need to keep your eye on the international markets. Diana Urban takes a look at seven things you can do to get more international exposure.

Book Marketing Tools has an in depth look at how to attract and engage more readers. After all that is what makes a career in the long term. This is a great read and a bookmark post.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing podcast team interviewed Brian McClellan on the state of epic fantasy in traditional publishing. It is a very interesting interview and some of the things Brian talks about were surprising. A must watch if you are into epic fantasy.

Screenwriters have to be able to characterise quickly in their writing. Knowing common archetypes is a must in their business. Take a look at this list of ninety nine archetypes and stock characters.

In The Craft Section,

10 dialogue errors to avoid- Writers Writer- Bookmark

Nipping creative fear in the bud

How to write without filtering- Ava Jae- Bookmark

Insights into your mid point scene- CS Lakin- Bookmark

5 reasons to let go little edits

Police Procedural fact checking- Rebecca Bradley

Translating story beats to any genre- Jami Gold- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Book Marketing in person- Maria Dismondy

Daily deal services- 18 promo sites- Writer Unboxed-Bookmark

How to not be a Bone Head promoter- Janet Reid

4 must haves for your author platform- Chris Well

Changes in Social Media – Frances Caballo- Bookmark

Vital steps in your book marketing plan- Book Marketing tools

How to best optimise SEO on blog posts –Rachel Thompson

To Finish,

I am revisiting a great post by Jane Friedman on the importance of author collectives. This has been on my mind this week as I wrapped up the judging for my stint hosting the FABO Story Writing competition for kids. Fabo Story has been going since 2011- with a few new faces but the same core cast from way back then. That’s a long haul as a collective.

Maureen

@craicer

It’s time for my monthly newsletter to go out. 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 my nifty book crammed full with marketing notes.  The blog runs on coffee. If you want to shout me one, please hit the coffee tab. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- GPS 56

Caring for your Writer

We are half way through Winter and the local news is about flooding and snow storms and we are going into Election Season. It’s enough to make you depressed. So what’s happening in the Northern Hemisphere? They are in the middle of Summer and the news is just as dire and everyone is depressed.

Writer’s suck in the atmosphere around them and try to make sense of it in their writing. Their words can be the solace at a difficult time... a challenge to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes... an idea that changes a world.

The price for this can be carved out on the writer’s soul. Sometimes it’s hard to remain upbeat.

Anne R Allen has a standout post on Writers Block and Depression. This is a must read. Even if you have never suffered from Writers Block, recognising the signs might help you to care for your self better.

Self Doubt is another insidious dis-ease that writers suffer from. Cat Friesen has some practical ways to cope with this common writer ailment.

For a bracing dose of writer medicine read Chuck Wendig - So you are having a bad writing day.  Don’t beat yourself up about it!

If you are struggling to explain why sometimes this industry gets you down. Take a look at Kristen Lamb’s post from December. It’s a reminder on how much publishing has changed in a decade.

Looking at changes to the familiar, Frances Caballo has taken a close look at the changes on Twitter and Facebook. She explains how useful the new tools we’ve been given are.

Last week I linked to a post by Jami Gold. Did you notice her new website? Jami writes this week about why and how she changed her website. (This is all interesting to me as I play in a private sandbox tweaking ideas for a revamp here.)

Alli- or The Alliance of Independent Authors have a great blog. Recently Richard Bradburn shared his thoughts on the proper care and feeding of Beta Readers. (This week my Beta Readers found a critical mistake, proving that it doesn’t matter how many times you check something, another person’s eyes on your work is worth gold.)

PublishDrive has an interesting article on publishing books on Google Play. They can do it. While you are checking out the article, check out the company, who are an ebook distributor based in Europe. They now sell in over 400 online stores including all the big ones and they sell into Asia. (The next big market according to Joanna Penn.)

Joanna Penn has been promoting her new edition of How To Market a Book all over Social Media. She has an excerpt from the book about the polarities of Book Marketing. What do you do if you have no money to market...

In The Craft Section,

Two great articles from Angela Ackerman on setting. – Make your setting a character and Turn your setting into an obstacle course. Bookmark

How do you know when you need to revise- Blood Red Pencil

Describing character eyes- Now Novel-Bookmark

Feedback Frenzy- Everyone’s opinion - Janice Hardy

Structuring events in sequence- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Sensory details in setting- Christina Delay

In The Marketing Section,

Networking for indie authors

How to create pre launch buzz- Rachel Thompson - Bookmark

Building an email list for your book – The Write Life

Bookcovers and Indie Author brands- Bookmark

How to be a top book on Goodreads- Penny Sansevieri

Advanced approaches to author marketing- Draft2Digital- Bookmark

To Finish,

I like to dive into a podcast over lunch or on car journeys when it’s just me. It is a way of connecting to the wider publishing world. Some podcasts are mini workshops. If you haven’t listened to a podcast take the plunge. Check out 30 outstanding podcasts for authors. Today I listened to the superb team from the SFF Marketing podcast who chatted about editing and mailing lists. I always learn something new which helps me to stay upbeat in this crazy publishing world.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic: Spa. Flickr Creative Commons- Stephanie Riddell  https://www.familiesonline.co.uk

I have a monthly newsletter with the best of the months craft and marketing links. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. Come and join our happy band!

Party Details

Today I hosted an hour of an online FB Book Launch Party for a Y A thriller by Helen V Fletcher called Broken Silence (Promo: grab the ebook for 99c.)

I felt a bit nervous as I have never done anything like this before but Helen said she would hold my hand and so I jumped in. It was a blast! I started with party music and the hour just flew by. Lots of authors joined in the launch. They talked about their books and had giveaways and mini competitions for prizes. And the prizes are up for 24 hours so jump on over and join in the fun.

Helen’s book is contemporary Young Adult. Anne R Allen has a great post on her blog about writing contemporary fiction. I had no idea that the word lengths were getting shorter. Anne writes about the reasons you can’t write War and Peace anymore and expect it to sell.

If you were writing a huge novel you need time to beaver away. Where do you find it? Aha! Try this technique for working smarter, suitable for any writer.  While we are on nuts and bolts of the writer’s physical environment check out Copyhackers best practice for setting up your home office!

My lunchtime break saw me riveted to the SFF marketing podcast. Lindsay, Joe and Jeff were interviewing Joanna Penn on her new book Launch to Market 3rd edition. Joanna says that it is 60% different from the first edition, which I have so... It’s on my want list.

Cynthia Shannon has a comprehensive breakdown of all the things you need to do for planning and having a Goodreads giveaway. I have been watching the results of experiments in an author group I belong to and it seems like a good thing to try.

Kathryn Goldman has a comprehensive post on audio rights. Who actually owns them? This can get tricky when you produce your audio book. Performance rights... broadcast rights...  translation audio... All the rights you didn’t know you had... (see Joanna Penn’s interview above for more options.)

The fabulous Kris Rusch continues her excellent series on marketing and brand discovery. Her in depth attention to detail posts are like a university course. I feel she should be required reading in a Creative Writing diploma.

Writers Digest has an interview with Kristen Owens on 10 actions she has learned in her first year of professional writing.

In The Craft Section,

Avoid opening page info dump- Jami Gold – Bookmark

How to skip the boring parts of your writing- K M Weiland

The power of the unlikely protagonist- Writer Unboxed – Bookmark

What is irony?- a cool post from Reedsy

8 tips for writing in cafes- Louise Marley

How to add meaningful subplots- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Saving the day by solving the problem- Beth Hill- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Using your official name on Twitter- Roz Morris

Digressing slightly to shout out to Kevin Tumlinson who writes such great content for the Draft2Digital site. Here are three recent posts.

8 elements of a good title- Bookmark

10 low or no budget ways to promote your book- Bookmark

Author overheads-What you need to know.

Kevin is also the host of the Wordslinger podcast, which is one of my new great podcasting finds!

To Finish,

Today has been a day about organising... Helen organised a fun online book launch but it wouldn’t have worked without attention to detail. What were the secret schedules of the great authors... did they work the same way? Check out this article and be surprised!

maureen

@craicer

It’s nearly time to schedule my monthly newsletter. (Hi to the new subscribers!) I round up the best of the months 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. Thanks everyone who hit the coffee button this week. I appreciate the virtual coffee love.

Navigating the Writing Road

This week was Book Expo.

What used to be the biggest Book Fair in America has been slimmed down. The fair was split into a Book Con and a Trade Book Fair.  Porter Anderson rounds up the key takeaways from the Book Expo conference on Wednesday. A big focus was children’s publishing and library trends.

Not everybody was impressed with the new look Book Expo. Independent publishers were being shunted off to the side and all the innovative Book Marketing companies are starting to court the Traditional publishers. Brooke Warner of She Writes Press examines Book Expo from a small publishers point of view.

Alongside Book Expo was Indie Author Fringe. This 24 hour conference was put together by the great folks at Alli - Alliance of Independent Authors. The conference theme was book marketing and there are some standout presentations up on the Alli blog. I have been dipping into them all week. Just chock full of brilliant advice. For a taster check out Chris Well's presentation on Media Kits for Authors.

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Nick Stephenson on managing time and it is really worth taking some time to listen or watch her podcast. There are so many ways to automate what you do.

Another great podcast to drop into is SFF Marketing. Lindsay Buroker and co hosts Jeff Poole and Joe Lallo  talked this week about all the hot tips Joe learned from Book Expo on Book Marketing.

Bookbub also pulled together a great roundup of 7 marketing takeaways from Book Expo.

Jami Gold has put together a great roundup table of contents for all her indie publishing series of posts. This has been a mammoth series over two years. It is more than a 101 course... more like a Masters degree.

Kris Rusch continues her branding series with a great post on Brand Identity. If you have been wondering how to straddle genres or just what exactly is author branding you need to check out this article.

With the introduction of Amazon Charts there has been some discussion about the worth of bestseller lists. Amazon breaks up their charts by Most Sold and Most Read, they are not the same and there is no distinction on genre. (New HP Covers anyone?) Polygraph Lit Magazine’s new imprint, Pudding, takes a look at gender bias on the bestseller lists and in MFA programmes.

Publishers Weekly interviewed the outgoing chair of the Independent Book Publishers Association about his radical idea for Bookstores.Why don’t they have Book Espresso machines and other goodies... They could be a hub for the community... and sell ... BOOKS.

If you have ever thought about owning your own bookstore... It is now possible with Aerio. Have a curated list of books on your own website and get an affiliation cut if anyone buys a book from you. Judith Briles tells you how to do it.

This week I have been hearing about the rise of audio books and how this section of the industry is taking off. Savvy authors out there are holding onto audio rights. But now the big publishers are waking up to this gold mine. Michael Sullivan posted a breakdown on his wranglings with his Traditional Publisher Del Rey and why they are parting ways. Audio rights was the break point. This is a must read for any traditionally published author.

In The Craft Section,

Making unlikeable characters likeable- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Three types of Character Arcs – Sara Letourneau - Bookmark

Are you a writer or a storyteller- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Hiring an editor-Anne R Allen- Bookmark

Stop info dumps before they start- Jennie Nash

Collaboration mistakes to avoid- Joanna Penn and J Thorn- Bookmark

Create Awesome Female Villains- Sacha Black

In The Marketing Section,

Best categories for book sales on Amazon- Bookbaby- Bookmark

Newsletter surveys- Kate Tilton

The ultimate cheat sheet on queries- Bookmark

No one is born famous- Penny Sansevieri

Marketing your books as a group (another author collective idea)-Bookmark

Q and A on Kindle worlds and fan marketing- Aleatha Romig

Tips for selling more books on Amazon- Written Word Media

To Finish,

Navigating your way through all the advice on writing is almost a fulltime job. But have you thought about the journeys your characters are taking on the page. Writer Unboxed examines Google Maps and how you can plot out your characters journey in real time.

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.  Get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes when you subscribe. Thanks for hitting the kofi button this week. I’m living on caffeine as mother of the bride.
 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Mike Tually

Shiny New Toys for Authors

What more can Amazon come up with to change the publishing landscape? 

(I hear you whimpering.) The Kindle, Subscription reading, CreateSpace, Audible, GoodReads... Taaa Daa.... Amazon Charts.

No more wondering what book is the biggest seller... No more wondering if anybody has even read the bestseller or if the publisher bought the slot. Now every Wednesday you can find out... and that’s not all everyone in publishing is talking about. Porter Anderson takes a look at the first list.

Reedsy has published a white paper where they examine the take up of editorial freelancers to Traditional Publishers. With everyone outsourcing for editing, design, formatting, proofing etc, in publishing, is everyone on a level playing field?

Scribd has finally ‘fessed up to how big their subscriber base is... and they have added newspaper subscriptions... so is this where we are headed? Instead of subscribing individually to news outlets we subscribe to a service and have a buffet from everyone?

Digital Book World takes a close look at why audiobook growth is soaring.

Along with The Creative Penn podcast I like to drop in to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing podcast. This week, the team were the interviewees. This was a great listen on what they are all individually doing to market their work. (After all they’ve learned from their guests....)

Kris Rusch continues her branding series of posts with a meaty article on the first things to define when you are sorting out your brand. This is a writer must read. Even if you think you know what you are doing, take the time to read this.

Jane Friedman has an interesting post on how mainstream media outlets sometimes highlight the wrong thing in a publishing story... She uses the latest publishing news about Amazon changing the buy buttons on their site as an example. Are 3^rd party operators really that bad if they bid for and get control of the buy button on your book?

If you are wondering about how you can get the word out about your book... Check out The Book Blogger List... It is an amazing resource of who’s who in the Book Blog review world.

How to form an Indie Collective (There she goes again... Seriously, why wouldn’t you?) Take a look at all the different ways you can use each others expertise.

In The Craft Section,

Choosing the right protagonist- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Two great posts from Now Novel- How to write a classic and Writing Suspense Cliffhangers

How to write better endings- Writers On The Move

Writing subtext- Forever Writers- Bookmark

Memorable protagonists

Creating believable characters- Grace Rankin

Romantic Subplots- Writers Write

In The Marketing Section,

How to write an author bio- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

Amazon ads for indies-Frances Caballo

Using Statistics to find your ideal reader- Bookworks

Children’s Book covers-Penny Sansevieri

Creating a successful email campaign- Bibliocrunch

Optimizing your back cover- Bookworks- Bookmark

Content marketing for authors- WritetoDone

Go local in your publicity first- The Book Designer

Using Goodreads effectively- Barb Drozdowich- Bookmark

To Finish,

Jami Gold has rounded up some interesting resources for the cash strapped author. Oooh Shiny Shiny... and I’m not just talking about the way to put glitter animation on your book cover...

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. Thanks everyone who hit the coffee button this week. I appreciate the virtual coffee love

The Merry Go Round

As I write this, news is filtering out from agents and publishers on Twitter about changes to the New York Times Bestsellers List. In 2015 The NY Times added a lot of categories that were seen as good news for publishers and authors in the diverse and children’s markets. Not any more. It seems that most of the children’s books categories have been pulled leaving only MG and YA Hardcover and Picture Books and Series. Mass Market Paperback and Graphic Novel bestseller lists have been pulled. Print and Ebooks have been combined.

I haven’t been able to find an official report on this but I expect it will come soon. (Edit Update, Now out from Publishers Weekly) 
Publishers and Agents are already flagging that unless you have a lot of marketing dollars to go hardcover, chances will be slim to get on the list in future.

In other news George Orwell’s 1984 is topping the Bestseller lists... I wonder why?

In the decline and fall category, but in a good way... Writer Beware points to the latest Bowker statistics. The drop in ISBNS issued to Author Solutions companies...

Now that the Digital Book World Conference is finished, people are reporting on all the great ideas to take forward into 2017. Jane Friedman and Porter Anderson have a comprehensive roundup of ideas, themes and tips discussed. And Goodreads gets specific with their 7 Savvy Insights for Book Marketing from DBW17.

Take some time to look at what everyone was talking about.

Publishing Perspectives took a look at New Zealand’s Storylines Festival changes. If you haven’t caught up with the news... coming to a small town somewhere in the provinces this year...

Joanna Penn has a guest post from Rachel Amphlett on her popular site about getting into libraries. However if you are in Auckland on February 11^th you can see Joanna Penn in person and learn lots of tips about Self Publishing and Marketing books in person. Joanna also talks about 5 ways to make money from your books in 2017.

Elizabeth Craig has a great post on preorders. She has been trialing them and she writes about what impacts they have on her writing and sales.

Larry Brooks has an interesting post on the bottom line explanation of why authors fail. This is a must read and a soul search.

Roni Loren has an inspirational post on choosing a word that will encapsulate your writing year.

The 12 by 12 Picturebook challenge is on. Every year I say this year will be the year to do it... and then I get sidetracked. Go and have a look. It is awesome!

Reminder also Write On Con is coming soon...

In The Craft Section,

Reverse Outlining- Purdue University

Storyboarding your plot arcs- Bookmark

6 vocal tips to cultivate voice

How to make your home office work for you

An authors guide to Book Subtitles-Ingram Spark  Bookmark

Writing Memoir- Think outside the book- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

How to make a good story in 9 steps – Now Novel- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

5 tips to create a cover that sells

Tech tools to produce and sell children’s books

7 things authors must do differently in 2017- Penny Sansevieri- 

Bookmark

Sell sheets – Judith Briales- on The Book Designer- Bookmark

Essential tips to promoting Non Fiction on Goodreads

Podcasting for authors -Sean Platt-Bookmark

The Bookblogger list- Bookmark

To Finish,

The SFF Marketing podcast is well worth your time. The team of Lindsay Buroker, Joe Lallo and Jeff Poole have great guests and the marketing discussions are universal. Their latest podcast is on the 80/20 marketing ruleand tips learned in 2016. 

And if you are looking for more resources check out this list of Apps for the Serious Writer.

Everyone is heading back to school and work this week. Get your writing plans locked in and jump on the Merry Go Round again.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic from Flicker Creative Commons- Forsaken Fotos

If you want to catch up on the best of my bookmarked links every month make sure you subscribe to my newsletter.    

Planning For Chocolate

Last week my theme was contingency planning... and knowing where the chocolate is. This week planning is still a hot topic.

Jane Friedman has a great article on checklists for authors... it’s comprehensive and covers everything you can think of and a few things you may not have thought of. Jane also has a great article on editorial control. Who has it (at what stage) and How to keep it.

Kristen Lamb has also been thinking about planning but in a different way. Do you protect yourself as a writer? She has an excellent post on ways to protect your muse and it starts by getting rid of toxic time wasters...(sometimes known as relations.)

Porter Anderson exhorts writers to think of the pain readers are in and to commit to telling great stories for them. In times of great trouble and upheaval writers can touch others by their words and ideas.

Jan O’Hara talks about exploiting your own vulnerabilities to complete your book by viewing your strengths and weakness’ in a different way. It is a shift in perception that opens up a new way of working.  A very interesting article.

Joanna Penn has a fabulous interview with Gabriela Pereira of DIYMA. This is a MUST watch/ Listen/ Read on creating your own course of study to up-skill your writing. (Your own M.A. in writing.) Gabriela has a huge library of articles and ideas as well as a very involved community.

Continuing our education up-skilling, Lindsay Buroker and the chaps at SFF Marketing podcast were talking to Tom Corson-Knowles about Amazon Ad marketing, email campaigns and effective social media. This is a masters level course in targeted marketing. Absolutely riveting stuff and a Must Watch also.

The Alliance of Independent Authors has some great resources and recently they had two standout posts.  A Kiwi author talks about marketing using Instafreebie  and the other post is on the right combination of CreateSpace and Ingram for Print On Demand books.

About five years ago I talked about Book Espresso machines. This is a book printer machine that sits inside a bookshop. Publishers Weekly recently took a look at what bookshops are doing with them. From becoming publishers to vital links in the community.

Forming communities of like minded writing buddies and doing something wonderful has long been a hobbyhorse of mine. Whether it’s to exploit Instafreebie or growing your email list or group marketing your books or producing an Annual. There is  power in harnessing collective creative brains.

In The Craft Section,

30 Minutes 30 Days- The WriteLife- Bookmark

Middle of NANO pep talk from Maggie Stiefvater

Stupid Writing Rules- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

5 keys to write 50k

3rd person omniscient and deep POV- Reedsy- Bookmark

How to write Story Descriptions- Karen Woodward- Bookmark

How to write backstory- NowNovel- Bookmark

Tension – Make it worse- Zoe McCarthy

In The Marketing Section,

Master your Amazon Keywords- Bibliocrunch

5 Bookbinding styles- The Book Designer

Do This Not That- Book Promotion (November Edition)- The Book Designer

9 ways to help you find readers- Sacha Black

3 Marketing Strategies

Blogging got you down? Try this- Frances Caballo - Bookmark

12 Book Discovery tools - Bookmark

To Finish,

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Rusch are a powerhouse couple for clear eyed advice in publishing. There is nothing that they have not done in their publishing lives. This week Dean talks about writing what you want to write and how to look at the long game in publishing. Kris talks about running a writing business in a time of uncertainty and how to plan for this.

We are still getting after shocks from last weeks earthquake. Every day brings news of another building being evacuated. We sat down and did some planning and now our Go Bag is packed by the door. I know where I’ve stashed a supply of chocolate.... 

Maureen

@craicer

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter for a collection of the best of my bookmarked links and extra's (Christmas Draw coming up.)

Pic : Flickr Creative Commons- Thechiaroscuro