The news
around the blogosphere this week has been one of disbelief.
No it wasn’t
delayed reaction to Steve’s death.
Several prominent bloggers and agents have
come out to say the blogosphere is getting crowded and unless you are getting
around 15k visitors a month it is not worth it.
So why do
it?
The reaction
has been swift and many bloggers are sitting down and examining whether they
want to go on a blogging holiday like Joe Konrath, who has one of the most
heavy trafficked blogs around, or to keep going in the hope they get to the
magic number....
And then
there are prominent bloggers who say the argument is seriously flawed, because
your blog is where you as a writer can interact with your readers, or your
community, by either writing a great blog that shows off your writing voice or
writing a blog that adds value to the sum of knowledge out there.
Roni Loren has written a great breakdown about blogging addressing the issues raised this
week and putting all the rants into perspective.
Bob Mayer
has taken a hard look at indie publishing with his post, The Sustainability Of The Indie Author. He doesn’t sugar coat and some of the points he makes could
choke you....As always, read the comments to get a sense of the discussion this
post has started...and breathe deeply.
Mike
Shatzkin has been looking at the other side of this with his interesting post
on whether traditional publishers can maintain their primacy as eBookpublishers.... Magazines and other media are beginning to publish their own eBooks...but
will they stop there?
This week
Jane Friedman posted two excellent interviews on her blog. The first was with Scott Sigler and looked at how Scott is using new technology and a new service to get
his self published books into as many hands as his bestseller trad books do. Read
and be inspired...I’ve told you before there’s merch and audio and limited
edition and.....
The second interviewis with Sean Platt who started out as an entrepreneur and then moved into
writing. Sean talks about the mistakes he made but also what he has found works
in marketing your book.... Both these interviews can give you some concrete
goals if you are feeling a little bit battered by the first links.
Angela Ackerman
of the wonderful BookselfMuse also has a guest post with Donna Gephart. Donna
is a great mid grade writer and she talks about how children’s writers are
promoting their books and that you don’t have to go crazy over marketing.
Socialmediaexplorer has written a warning post on social media contests...There have been law
changes and bloggers could find themselves in legal hot water if their contests
break the new rules...and if you think it doesn’t apply to you because you are
in different country think about where your website is hosted...Yes, it may
apply.
The popular
blog YA Highway has taken a good hard look at writing mid grade. In particular
they have looked at nailing the mid grade voice.
Over in the
Craft Section
Storyfix has a popular series of posts looking at ten important tips to nail your NaNoWriMo.
This weeks post is on the first 12-15 scenes...the set up (NaNoWriMo is next month).
I09 has a
great list of ten types of writers block and how to overcome them...
Over on Craicerplus
(My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on
Future Proof
Your Digital Publishing...This is an important article about the changing formats
of epublishing.
Suffragette
Steampunk...a match made in heaven?
Digital
Rights...Do you really know how many you have?
To finish,
The
Frankfurt Book Fair is happening right now and if you want to get a feel for the topics under discussion drop into this German blog which has roundups on every topic...It is in English!
There are
posts on gamers needing storytellers, eLearning futures where Taiwan is leading
the way, Books meeting games...
It is where
we are heading...Are you going to be still there?
maureen
pic is from here
