Putting Your Best Foot Forward...

Don’t write to trends.

Midgrade needs humour

High Concept and Good Writing

Tell a Good ...Great...Amazing... Story.

These are only a few takeaways from the Editors and Agents at the SCBWI New York Conference held last weekend.Go on over to the official Team Blog and scroll back to the beginning...or dip in and out from the sidebar.

Publishers Weekly this week looked at What do Children’s Book Consumers Want...and How Digital Multimedia Is Changing Children’s Publishing.

After reading all the links above you will be a little shell shocked and wondering where you fit in the fast changing world of Children’s Publishing. Take Heart. Overall the feeling out there is one of cautious optimism. Children’s publishing hasn’t taken the hit that the rest of the publishing world did.

Everybody is still looking for a great story... You just have to write it.

There are more opportunities to share your writing than before. Self publishing, ebooks, blogs, podcasting...all these are becoming easier to use to reach an audience. Many writers are getting together to share experiences and pool their resources in group blogs, ebooks and publishing companies.... They are sharing their stories, leading the way and breaking new ground.

But the day of the author recluse is over. The word out there is that the author must engage with their audience.

To help you with this The Mixed Up Files group of Midgrade Authors have put together a great resource on tips for school visits-Thinking Outside The Box.

Andrew Pyper has listed  the Do’s and Don’ts Of Public Readings and Janice Hardy has written a thoughtful post on Blog Tours...That’s when you go on a tour to other author blogs to promote your book/work from the comfort of your own office.

Of course you will have a website....and here you need to be looking at the best use you can make of this resource...because it is a resource for you and your audience. Kids want to find out about you and your work and what your favourite cereal is. You want to tell them about the cool stuff you write and why you have an addiction to milk bottle lollies...Potential publishers are researching you too as they build a strong case to overcome the number crunchers into taking a chance on you.

Irene Watson has written a great article for authors on sellingbooks.com about using your website stats.

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on

40 Creative Manipulations To Feast Your Eyes

Is Writing The Cause or the Cure For Anxiety-The New Yorker

Extreme Book Design...And You Thought They Used Photoshop.

Katie Weiland has guest posted on Victoria Mixons blog about 5 Writing Rules You Can Break. This could be useful information as you write that High Concept Amazing Story.

Spare a thought for those in the prolific author category. Rachelle Gardner has outlined how life can be difficult when you have too many finished projects.

And for an alternative view...Chuck Wendig has launched a mortar at badly self published books. Eye wateringly funny....but warning....it is full of ‘content.’ (I did warn you!)

enjoy,

maureen


pic is from clown ministry

Sticking Your Neck Out....

It has been a clear-the-decks week. 

Empty out a room. Paint it. Put it back together. Chuck out what you don’t want. Find stuff chucked out and rescue it. Justify why you saved the chucked out item.

Writers are hoarders. Teachers are hoarders. I am doubly dammed or blessed whichever way you look at it.

While I have been painting and contemplating treasure or trash... Bob Mayer has been taking a hard look at the Digital Book World conference and weighing up the worth of their speakers and the comments on twitter about where digital publishing is going...self publishing... and being your own publisher/bookstore owner.... This is a must read. Bob walks the talk. He pulls no punches.

Another person weighing up epublishing and her experiment with it is Zoe Winters. 

Zoe has released a couple of ebooks and designed and executed an amazing campaign around getting her name out there. This name is a pseudonym and in this critique of her year, social marketing her ebooks she compares it with her other ‘real life’ writer persona. Zoe shot to fame on the writer’s blogosphere with her video series Who is Zoe Winters...clever marketing. This article is also a must read for people contemplating ebooks.

I post these articles because the face of publishing is changing rapidly and writers should be aware of what is happening in the industry and what other writers are experiencing.

This week Publishing Perspectives posted an article entitled Half of US Publishers Believe ebooks Will Be Dominant By 2014 and Mike Shatz of Nokia wrote a guest article on Moconews On Why Online Retailers will Squeeze out Publishers In the Book Business.(as always I recommend you read the comments that these articles generate.)

Know what you want to do and go in with eyes wide open.

So after that dose of reality...back to Fiction

Callihoo has posted George Polti’s 36 dramatic plots...a good reference tool and Publetariat has answered the question How Do You Keep Your Plot from Feeling Contrived..if you are stuck for ideas. 

On Craicerplus (my Amplify page) I have links to articles on

Hunger Games- Why Kids Love Disaster Distress and Dystopia...(not only kids...this is a great article by a psychologist.)

10 Steps for Working Past The ‘This Stinks’ Blues.

How To Organise Your Assignments, Research, Interviews and All The Rest

How To Write Your First Novel In Under Four Weeks.

A Handy Beginners Guide To ebook Formats Apps And Devices.

Conference season is upon us and WriteOnCon kicked off with an Agent’s Panel which is covered on Heather McCorkles Blog.

And the Big One SCBWI NEW YORK...kicks off tomorrow....However you can hole up in your office and follow it all as it happens by going to the live blog site...I did that for LA...great little insights and it didn’t cost me the ticket...(but oh how I wished I was there.)

If you are interested in a conference closer to home Spinning Tales in Auckland is still open for registrations for another month.

Anita Laydon Millar advises that you must stick your neck out because you never know where it might lead you...(all from a reader of her blog...)

Here is episode 2 of Zoe’s Self Publishing Video Series...have a laugh.

enjoy,

maureen