Global Fears and Solutions

This week seemed to be a global focus week.

Is there a books market outside of the UK and the USA and assorted countries that speak English?

Why Yes.

How do we know?

Because Amazon thinks so.

This week Amazon made moves into South East Asia... Alibaba,the East’s version of Amazon, is not amused.

Neither is India’s publishing and book trade. Suddenly they have less book shops than they did before.

Where Amazon goes so do Indie publishers. But how do you price for the market in the East? There are so many currencies?

This week Publish Drive talked about pricing books in South East Asia and what Indies need to bear in mind if they enter this part of the world.

Smashwords introduced Global Pricing. Now you can tweak each countries book price. They have made some changes to their dashboard too.

Jane Friedman takes a snapshot of the publishing industry at the moment. Is there a resurgence in Print books? Just how much of the eBook market does Amazon have?

The Guardian printed an interesting article by Y.A. author Meg Rosoff on the point of Fairy Tales. This is a rebuttal to Richard Dawkins and the government and the push to only make education fact based. This has seen a decline in the funding of the arts in tertiary education and beyond. Do we really need fairytales?

Sarah Moore has written an interesting post on nipping your creative fear in the bud. Just what do you have to be scared of?

OK 

Now how do you manage that fear?

Anne R Allen has been writing up a storm on her blog with two great posts recently.

Do podcasts sell books? There are some great publishing focused podcasts out there and I try to listen to one most days. It makes me feel productive when I’m taking a screen break. Also professional development also...  If you haven’t dipped in to one yet, you are missing out!*

The use of pop ups on authors sites is getting ridiculous. Anne asks is it time to kill the pop up?

Bang2Write have a beautiful Infographic on 12 unusual and achievable productivity hacks for authors. This is a print out and put on your wall post!

The Write Life takes a look at that deep fear of authors. What happens if I lose my work?

Here are some solutions you can implement straight away.

In The Craft Section,

10 tips for writing characters with anxiety- Hannah Heath

Mastering outer motivation- Michael Hauge- Bookmark

Why strong dialogue matters

What should the story climax include- Jami Gold – Bookmark

Systemic sabotage of aspiring novelists- Larry Brooks- Bookmark

Writing Romance fight scenes-Now Novel

7 questions to ask when you lose the desire to finish- Denise Jaden

6 rules to keep critique partnerships golden

Writing an outline- Tasha Seegmiller-Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

5 reasons to be a social media minimalist- Chris Syme- Bookmark

The relaxed release- Elisabeth S Craig

Ebook checklist before uploading- Digital Book World- Bookmark

3 unconventional ways to use social media to find readers- Dan Blank

Two great posts from Kevin Tumlinson on the Draft2Digital blog, 10 sneaky hacks and Making yourself a brand.

To Finish,

This week in an online writers group the discussion turn to Authors selling Merch. I had a sudden vision of an author selling table filled with knick knacks. Somewhere in amongst the jumble of author branded merch on the table was the lone book that inspired it all. (Rather like our big brand bookstore....) Then one author said take a look at this... and we all said OOOOH. A whole different level of Merch for authors...

Maureen

@craicer

* Kiwi author Nalini Singh was on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing podcast this week. One of our publishing rockstars!

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces every month in a newsletter. When you subscribe you will also get my nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. The blog runs on coffee fumes. If you want to say thanks feel free to hit the coffee tab. My brain says Thanks!
 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Guilhem Vellut

In The Fine Print

This week I’ve been catching up with what was happening at Book Expo America (BEA) which is North America’s largest book fair. Porter has a quick run down of what everyone was talking about.

The Wall Street Journal took a good look at book covertrends... it’s all about yellow! Cover designers are being asked to pop it on book covers because...digital. (And here I thought the ‘in’ colour was blue and there had to be water on the front.)

Meanwhile Meg Rosoff was collecting her Astrid Lindgren medal and stating publically that childhood now is under threat from governments. Well said Meg!

In Ireland Catherine Ryan Howard was musing about what happened when she chucked what she thought she should write in favour of what she wanted to write – everything changed.

Kris Rusch is continuing her great Deal Breakers series with a MUST READ on Rights clauses. Writers need to be reading this series by Kris. This week I have also seen comments about authors needing specialised lawyers to read publishing contracts because they are getting trickier.

Bookbub and Goodreads have been learning off each other... changes are afoot. This is an interesting article that Indie publishers should scan.

Becca and Angela are bringing out two new writers thesauri and in their research have come up with 5 ways to help your favourite authors.

In the Craft Section,

Character development a two sided sword- Jami Gold -Bookmark

Characters can never remove their tattoos can they?

5 ways to use dialogue to spice things up

What are those strange pinch points? C S Lakin- Bookmark

A writers guide to editors- Ruth Harris -Bookmark

Turn cliches into reader surprises- Zoe McCarthy

Botched beginnings- common first page killers- Kristen Lamb

In the Marketing Section,

How to optimise your book description and Email sign upforms- Jane Friedman Bookmark

Facebook advertising- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

How to find and select a cover designer- Janice Hardy

Making our books visible on Google- Elizabeth S Craig – Bookmark

5 things you are probably screwing up with your books

Website of the Week

The Alliance of Independent Authors (Alli) has been posting video and audio from their fringe events at London and BEA. This is a great resource. Here are just two excellent postings Mark Coker on using pre orders effectively and Kiffer Brown on the 7 must haves for self publishers. Trawl around their site for other great resources

To Finish,

Sometimes you need to stop and reassess what you are doing and what you want to achieve. Kate Moretti has a great guest post on Writers in the Storm about Cutting through Busyness to get to writing. This is excellent advice here for the writer feeling overwhelmed with what they didn’t tell you in the fine print.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic: from inside a Romeo and Juliet - Choose Your Own Adventure... by Ryan North.

What You Should Be Doing

Bologna trends: people want middle grade. They want funny middle grade. MIDDLE GRADE IS BACK. #bbf14
— Ginger Clark (@Ginger_Clark) March 24, 2014

This week in the publishing blogosphere the news has been about what everyone should be doing...

because the publishing world has shifted again,

because the next big thing is right around the corner,

because the Bologna Book Fair is on,

because the world has changed.

In my Twitter feed this morning was an announcement that Diesel e-books was shutting down after 10 years of indie publishing however new startups are happening all the time and another to hit the starting blocks tomorrow is this new subscription model.

While this is happening Digital Book World is talking up that Apple is now the second largest book store...what does that mean in reality?

Passive Guy shares a rant that got everyone talking this week about what Penguin Random (or Random Penguin) isn’t doing and what they should be...Read the comments they are all entertaining.

Mike Shatzkin followed this up with his very pointed summary of what the Big Publishers should be doing and aren’t (this could be helpful with your own promotion...once you get over the comment of don’t read the book to find the metadata tags...)

This must read post from Elisabeth Spann Craig looks at her experiments with hybrid publishing and the very real questions she has about continuing down that road. Elisabeth has been blogging about her journey over the last year and it is a very honest look at the realities of publishing now for a writer with a traditional back list.

That happy block quote at the top came from Agent Ginger Clark who hit the Bologna ground running, her appointment book already full before she got there.

Publishers Weekly gives the low down on what are the biggest sellers... requests...talk ups at the Worlds largest Children’s Book Fair.

Book Fairs are tricky beasts for authors... It is all about deals...principally foreign rights and authors don’t usually negotiate these...here is where Agents earn their money. However if you were thinking about translating...Susan Kaye Quinn has just done it in an interesting Indie move and she has a great post about how she did it.

Jody Hedlund looks at the value of agents and the difficulties of hunting for a new one.

Because the world is changing and writers have to hang in there,

Bob Mayer has an article on the true grit you need to be a writer and K M Weiland has one on the five motivations of the writer.

Chuck has a rant on his answers to common writing questions... (pro writers will laugh)- usual warnings apply.

Meg Rosoff also has a heartfelt post on what keeps you from writing, which can also fuel you... (especially good post for those of you who juggle many things before writing.)

The wonderful Catherine Ryan Howard has a rant about contact details on writer’s websites...coz she just may have a deal for you and how can she get hold of you...(this reminds me to check my writing email inbox.) and Fastcompany shares the best PR advice, which writers should think about.

In the Craft section, you should be doing...

Y A High Fantasy – How to do it (only if it’s your thing) and How to create names for it.

Road trips – How to take readers on one and How to write active settings (great post!)

Author Voice – How you can find it and How you can use it to keep your readers up all night

Writing fast – How you can do it faster and The tools you need to help you get there. (great post on Scrivener)

Writing Short Stories to help you learn stuff.

In the Marketing Section, You should be....

Building a personal network

Making strong covers

Not making these 10 mistakes

Following these 6 steps to be successful

Keeping your marketing lean and focused

Learning from the worlds best marketers...(great post!)

To Finish,

In the end all the writer has is their own creativity and a willingness to get out there and just create, so here is the 18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently because that’s what writers do.

Her Majesty's Voice

If you have a pitch-perfect awesome VOICE to your manuscript, you could have other weaknesses. But if you have a weak voice, you're screwed.
— jennifer laughran (@literaticat) July 17, 2013

I’ve been thinking about Voice lately. 

Voice is that ‘something’ that informs the reader about the style and motivations of the characters without actually being visible on the page.

Meg Rosoff, in her Writer Unboxed article on voice this week, says

There is nothing superficial, however, about voice when used in the context of writing. Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.

This is the ‘something’ that writers struggle with. 

Do they have the same voice for every protagonist? Is every book they write in some way autobiographical from their deepest being?  

Ah the big questions. 

If somehow this is true...how come nobody picked the distinctive voice of J K Rowling...after all we have been told by literary critics that she is not much of a writer, using all those adjectives and not writing tightly enough...or did the fact that she had a male pseudonym fudge the fact that it was quite a good story...moved along ok... did everything a detective novel should. The cynics are out saying great PR by her team and now you can only buy the hardcover on eBay at hugely inflated prices. The Passive Guy has a look at the Robert Galbraith (aka JKR)saga.

Porter Anderson has been looking at agent relationships this week. In two articles for Publishing Perspectives he examines the agent/writer relationship now in this Hybrid/Indie revolution. How close can it be? The Agents who have cannily enrolled best selling Indies to manage print deals and the Agents who-have-become -Publishers...He takes a close look at Rogue Reader...and very interesting it is too. 

David Gaughran has sharply criticized PenguinRandom...in particular the RandomPenguin washing of Author Solutions. Author Solutions began as a vanity press that did everything for you at a huge cost. They are facing a class action lawsuit because of some of their questionable practices and you would think that maybe they would pull back...but no. This is a Writer Beware story that will make your writer heart shrivel a little.

The New Yorker has an opinion piece on the decline and fall of the book cover...and Bibliocrunch checks out virtual writing group hangouts using Google and Skype

Chuck Wendig has a distinctive voice...and a distinctive turn of phrase that occasionally makes your hair curl up and spontaneously combust. His latest 25 things post looks at Story Stakes...very good. And a superb little post on ten stupid writer tricks that might actually work.

In Craft,

The character therapist examines an archetype on the therapists couch. These are always interesting.

Two most underrated things writers do to build trust

7 cardinal virtues of successful writers

What we should expect from Freelance Editors

In Marketing,

From The Book Designer, two great articles, 7 strategies of Blog Marketing and

Amazon Algorithms (this is all the latest on metadata Amazon style - a must read.)

Another Must Read is what this author is doing right across the tech spectrum...his character has taken over...is this the future?

Website to check out,

This list has a solid helpful link for every creative you know...There is literally something for everyone working in the publishing industry here.

To Finish,

One of my favourite adult fiction authors Jenny Crusie (who has a fantastic voice) has written a great post on Sharknado. This film, shown on US cable this week, had my twitter feed fill up with writer reactions. The premise is so off the wall that there are very jealous writers out there wishing they had thought of a tornado that sucks up sharks and dumps them on a town in a hungry and vengeful mood. Jenny writes about high concept, going with your gut, ideas that are so off the wall and the courage a writer has to have to grab something like this and make it work.

I’m out and about around the country next week...so there won’t be a blog post...but by then Twitter will be filled with Royal Baby news and the cynics who don’t care...so just as well I’m taking a break...heheheheh.

maureen

Tweet from Agent Jennifer Laughran...talking about MG this week on Twitter.