When I sat down
to review the list of links I have made for your perusal this week I found that
there is a strong craft element showing through. This is probably unconscious
on my part as I have been back in the Martian landscape trying to move my
characters from their unintentional holiday spot....
I own some great craft
books on writing and I find myself obsessively reading them when I need to
tackle my manuscript...this flows into my internet reading. Hence the
collection of good links for you along with my usual foray into current
trending topics, springing up from BEA and enlightened or thought provoking
comments from writers in the trenches.
In the New
Zealand blogosphere this week the comment has been all about The Frankfurt Book
Fair. With New Zealand being a Guest of Honour and Children’s Literature being
the focus genre, Kidlit writers here had high hopes. Unfortunately our government
saw a Book Trade Fair as a place to promote New Zealand tourism...food and wine
and forgot about waving the flag for the BOOK aspect. We waited with bated
breath to see who was on the list and now the kidlit community feels badly let
down. They are worthy people but there aren’t many writers in the total group
of 160 going. Melinda sums up what we are all feeling...and talking about.
Mike Shatzkin, publishing futurist, rounds up what he learned at Book Expo America this year
and as usual it makes interesting reading. He flags MetaData Mess, Digital
Rights Databases and the slow down of ebooks as the main concerns going
forward. Picture Books will stay printed...but what about enhanced books?
The Gurdian
highlights some research showing that enhanced ebooks actually harm children’s reading ability.
For those of us
who dream about going to BEA... Publishers Launch has made available 5 keynote slideshow presentations...however they stress if you have limited time check
out the presentation by Bowker on Global Sales...of course to us in the
Southern Hemisphere we are firmly fixed on global but it does highlight what
formats are doing well in what countries.
Goodreads has
published an interesting article where they flagged what makes a book take off. There are some interesting comparisons and author agility is a must.
Writer Unboxed
has a guest blog from the writer of Scrivener for Dummies. If you haven’t
checked out Scrivener...read this post...Many writers say they will never go
back to word processing software again. Scrivener is especially targeted at
writers.
Kristine Rusch
and Dean Wesley Smith are great at putting the finger on the pulse of changing
attitudes in publishing and these posts are no exception.
Dean talks about
just realising that books he was paid for but were never published can have a whole new life...
Kristine has been
looking at the whole Indie vs Trad publishing debate and she has an interesting article on the long tail of each of these ways to publish...add to this 77
thoughtful comments. You need to take some time out to digest this great
article and ongoing conversation.
This great
article on how to do an author interview can be flipped on its head for authors...and
if you add in this Fabulous post from the Midgrade writers site The Mixed Up Files Of... on tips to help create a memorable author visit to schools then you
are on to some marketing gold.
In the craft
section,
From The
YAMuses...how to push through the soggy middle of your MS
From
Kidlit.com... guiding the readers emotions, you are the puppet master.
From the
incomparable Larry Brooks...when you get told that your structure is off and what does that mean...just brilliant.
From K M Weiland, 25 ways to blow your book.
How to find weak
verbs...just change your tense.
In the US, Print On Demand Book Espresso Machines seem to be taking off...Check out how authors
are using this creatively and Joanna Penn has a
list of 7 networking ideas for authors.
It is tax time
here in NZ and I must really get down and carve out some time to get this
in....
This TIMELY and
INFORMATIVE Article from Nick Dawes deals with how you get one of those US tax numbers if you live outside the US but you publish on Amazon...BOOKMARK IT.
This week this post, responding to a letter about how downloading pirated music is ok, went viral...I flagged it on FB expecting to see comments and got
zilch...maybe writers are too busy or have their head in the sand thinking that
this attitude will never happen to books...As someone commented on the original
article...it happens to all artists. I’d be interested in your thoughts...
