Scattered Thoughts...

Sometimes my mind scatters and I can’t concentrate on any one thing for long. 

Things around the house get started and not finished...my reading preferences skip straight to Sci Fi and I find it hard to sit down and work through something for longer than fifteen minutes before jumping up or changing position, sit to stand to pace to slump to edge of seat to...

I think my mind is jumping around trying to find a steady job with long term prospects...oooh shiny pretty... what’s over there or there or there...I’m looking for the idea that will capture me and make me tell the story.

With these thoughts in mind I trip into the blogosphere...and lo some great posts pop out.

How to audition your main characters...

5 reasons why your opening scene is like a blind date...

Do your characters fail enough and why they should...

These all reflect a percolation of ideas shooting round my brain... who are these characters.. will I like them or do I dislike them enough to have a really good story...

Sometimes Writers jump into something without taking time to research properly...

Writer Beware takes a look at authors who shoot the messenger without first understanding the message. This is a slow down and breathe and find out what it really means post over the Lendink debacle caused by authors.

Dean Wesley Smith talks about shooting yourself in the foot many times...and how you can avoid this if you are a writer...Take the time to find out what works people!

The self publishing team take a look at 5 Writer Scams...Lets be careful out there...

Sue Grafton made waves in the blogosphere with the statement that self publishers are too lazy to get a publishing deal. After the furore, she quickly apologised but it did generate some interesting and entertaining responses like this one from Megg at Author To Author (hehehe)

Jami Gold looks at the value publishers add to your project. This is a great little post where Jami reflects on keynote presentations at RWA and the strong messages said there.

Matt Richtel has a wonderful guest post on The Kill Zone looking at what killed the thriller writer...your attention span...He makes some great remarks about the use of short fiction to enthuse you again and bridge the gap between books...

Susan Kaye Quinn has a stellar post on creating your five year writing plan. This is a must read post.

Author platforms are still a big talking point on the blogosphere...so this is a timely post from NYT author Rebecca Skloot on lessons learned.

Kristen Lamb look at what writers can learn from Star Trek...

Every now and then I come across a blog post that encapsulates the publishing industy and the authors place in it perfectly. It makes sense of the swirl that is publishing now. Hugh Howey, author of indie smash hit, WOOL (optioned by major film company this month after a straight up the charts launch) looks at publishing from an author perspective now. He has had every kind of author deal and he knows....Learn from the master, people!

And with that I will leave you to go and finish off some half  finished projects.

maureen

photo Flicker

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melindasutton/6210437093/

The Quest For Quality Content

There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about ‘indie’ publishing and how many wannabe authors have jumped on the bandwagon and are happily uploading eBooks by the score. The books are badly formatted with sloppy editing and containing spelling and grammar mistakes in the hundreds. 

This plethora of dross overwhelms the Reader, who is searching for a quality read. 

The Author who has worked hard on editing, formatting and laying out a quality read, is buried in the slush. 

What To Do....

The Reader starts to look for quality filters...word of mouth...book clubs and others to make navigating to the quality content easier.

The Author is stuck in the bind of having to market and promote like crazy, to get their name out there enough, so it stays in the readers consciousness long enough for the reader to click the buy button...while trying to write more quality content.

This month the Craic book project has stalled...due to unforseen family circumstances and so I have done no marketing on Craic. I have just checked the Google search on Craic and found some new bars have opened up in New Zealand with the name of my fictional rock band...hmm wonder where they got that name from.... 

What I should be doing...

How authors can effectively use Goodreads...and doing it.

Making sure I don’t commit any of the 7 worst mistakes of the indie author.

Checking out pet peeves of marketing and vowing to get better...

Have I mastered the secret handshake of successful digital publishing.

When I find time to write more quality content I should be looking carefully at my word choice...(warning this is a Chuck post...great... but his word images are not for the faint of heart.)

I should be reading quality craft books and practising finding my 'Aha' moment. (just bought two of James Scott Bells and am preparing to throw myself into the work as I have two manuscripts to rework, one to finish and one to start...I need more quality content to follow up Craic you see...)

In my quest for quality content to read and learn from I need to look at what others have done and how they have had the stars fall into line...

Grammar Girl springs to mind, along with this TED talk by Andrew Stanton on Storytelling. (the guy who wrote Toy Story and Finding Nemo...)

A couple of agents examine middle grade fiction and what they think authors need to be aware of.

Joel the book designer has a handy post on designing your book yourself... Lets not be sloppy out there!

The Horn Book (that august filter of quality work) has turned its sights on the picture book app and has a check list of what is a quality app and what is not!

I should be checking my author platform... finding where I should be, and BEING THERE.

Somehow I need to fit this in and stay sane enough to cope with the chaos of my home at the moment. So...if I am a little distracted beer/bear/bare/ with me and I will hopefully get it all together sometime soon when I find my Wonder Woman cape and magic bracelets.

By the way Craic is available on...

 Amazon

 Barns and Noble

 iTunes

 Kobo

and Smashwords for ePub

It is a quality read....hehehe.

maureen

get your wonder woman costume here

Taking A Different Route

Just as we all got used to the thought of Summer....we get a blast of Winter to make us shiver and huddle together for warmth. 

Sometimes I think the publishing industry is like this as well. 

Just as you get used to travelling along the publishing road...along comes a new roadmap that offers a more thrilling/scary route to take you to your destination.

We are now used to the concept of eBooks. We know some important facts about them.

1. They are outselling print.

2. They are changing the landscape of publishing.

Joe Konrath has a guest post on his blog from popular ghost writer Lee Goldberg, that explains why he is not signing any multi book deals anymore...and Joe adds a breakdown of his own print versus eBook sales from the first half of the year...this makes sobering reading on the current state of the marketplace.

So we now have some hard numbers.

Ebook covers just got interesting. Take a look at this just released eBook cover for a debut Young Adult book...A twitter comment  described it thus...I spent so much time playing with the cover I forgot to look at the book!

My, that landscape up ahead looks interesting!

Mike Shatzkin and Bob Mayer have been trading views on an interview Mike did with Bob on the success an author can have going it alone. Mike says it is going tobecome rarer...and Bob says It can still happen if the writer does all the right things and has a back list. Go and take a look at the arguments!

Gosh are those mountains or hills up ahead....?

The author platform arguments have been getting another airing this week. Most pundits believe it’s critical for non fiction and optional for fiction. The drunkwritertalk group (yeah, interesting blog too...) have a useful article on what you should or should not do...great read.

Hazel Edwards (the author of the wonderful cake eating hippo) is profiled in a piece about how her savvy use of the internet has made her money...this is maximum use of your platform!

Wow that’s pretty....Oh look over there!

Sibel from Writers Guide to eBook Publishing has A MUST READ post up on why she turned down a Hollywood/New York Agent....She posts up the main points of the contract and what The Passive Guy (Lawyer writer) told her about what each clause meant.....Read it!!!!!!!

Oh boy, that was scary! Pass the wipes...

I think I need a change On the journey you might like to check out virtual book tours. Check out this article, 5 Dumb Things Writers Do On Virtual Book Tours.  

Are We There Yet?

I’m busy with the WCBA Christmas Quiz tonight...so you are lucky this is a short post....See you next week!

maureen