Rain... Rain...(sing it with me...)

Yes, I am a day late. Summer holidays arrive and we begin the traveling around New Zealand catching up with family. Inevitably the traveling has happened on Blog day Thursday. I didn’t plan it. I know that I can write my blog in advance and post it when I want but I don’t. This is partly because I enjoy researching and I want to bring the latest comments and opinion to you and partly because I get lazy and then suddenly remember I should be putting the list together and so I had better research and so on.

Yesterday we started back down the country in search of reliable internet with no lightening strikes...and no rain. I can count on the fingers of one hand the rain free days I have had since we came north to the sub tropics for Summer. The whole country is wondering whether that week of fine weather in November was Summer only we didn’t realize it at the time.

Around the blogosphere Writers and Readers are looking at the impact of the Amazon behemoth as it becomes by default a big publisher and trying to set New Years Resolutions for themselves to support Independent Bookstores and small publishers. What to do when you want to buy that eBook... isn’t Amazon or B &N the only game in town? Well no ! Check out this article on the rise of eBooks being sold in Indie bookstores from Salon.

Chuck Wendig has a provocative post (aren’t they all...) urging self published writers to lift their game so it benefits readers and offering some points on how they might do this. (Warning it’s Chuck!)

 Writer Beware has a warning post about a book marketing company working under a variety of names to rip off writers.... Marketing is the hard part of publishing and writers and small publishers are getting burnt by some of these tactics.

Jane Friedman has an interesting blog post in answer to a question on eBook rights for out of print books. This had me thinking about some of our wonderful New Zealand children’s writers with a long publishing history here staring at the end of their career because of the publishing industry contraction.  Great books go out of print here quite quickly because the print runs are so small. If the writers own their eBook rights they may have a wonderful second chance. It is worth checking out!

The passive voice guy has an interesting post on publishers and book distributors and why they are rearranging the deck chairs.... The comments give great insight into current practice and pitfalls of eBook distribution.

Commenting is the name of the game, at the moment, with a new challenge up. Challenge yourself to leave five comments a day. Greg Pincus has the low down on how and why you should do this.

Over in the craft section,

Anne R Allen has a great post on hooks, loglines and pitches. Loglines are becoming more popular so get thee over there and learn to craft them properly.

Janice Hardy has a great blog where she puts the spotlight on submitted writing and shows how to fix it up. Today she looks at multiple first person main characters...(something I am writing which is probably why it is taking so long... all that head hopping...on Mars.)

To finish,

If you were wondering how the children’s publishing world was holding up, the 100 best sellers of 2011 has been announced Children’s books make up a quarter.

The Dynamic Duo of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake have been celebrated...as stamps! Check out the new issue from the Royal Mail.

Getting this blog in ahead of the rain...


maureen

Taking A Bite of 2012

I’m here in the winterless North of New Zealand wondering where the sun went.

This is supposed to be the middle of summer... but no we have rain, rain and more rain. Today the sun taunted us and came out...We soaked it up wearing bathing suits and light clothing...and then went back to sweatshirts and raincoats. Nothing else to do but stay inside and eat...

Over on the blogosphere the rumours are flying... Apple may be about to launch a publishing company...in competition with another company starting with A. Check out the gossip on Passive Guy about how things could impact for the author.

Also on the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them front’ check out this link about indie bookstore becoming publishers...if you know a bookstore owner tell them to check it out, it might tickle their tastebuds.

There is a new blog on the block that is making a stir. Passive income author aka Skellie examines what works about author and eBook marketing and is writing some great posts to help others. Check out these two - The uncommon truth about marketing and 5 tactics to get more eBook sales per reader.

Jody Hedlund takes a thoughtful look at what skills she thinks writers will need in 2012.

Yesterday, because I was on holiday, I was able to join in the weekly kidlit twitter chat. The topic was predictions for 2012 for kidlit writers. One of the most discussed predictions was an increase in book trailers for mid grade. I am interested in this as I have a mid grade book coming soon and I have created a book trailer for it. Some good ideas were tossed around in the chat. You can go

to Kidlitchat host Greg Pincus’s blog to check out the transcript...it might not be up just yet but it will be soon in the meantime check out the other topics Kidlitchat has chewed over in 2011.

Chewing over meaty topics is what Mike Shatzkin and Jane Friedman do best.

This week Mike has taken a hard look at children’s publishers and what 2012 may hold for them. He particularly examines Picture Book publishers as they are the only ones doing well in print. He asks the hard question, Can digital really deliver an immersive reading experience?

Jane Friedman responds to a readers question this week - How do you know if your agent is any good? Jane lists questions to ask the agent and advice to follow. Do they stack up?

In the craft section,

The brilliant Adventures in Children’s Publishing blog have posted a ‘print out and stick on the wall’ checklist of 40 questions to ask your manuscript.

Over at wordservewatercooler they have a post looking at the emotional development of your characters. You can’t afford to ignore their emotional growth....

New challenges get underway this week around the writing blogosphere.

You might like to get involved in Row80 (a Round Of Words in 80 days) the wonderful Jenny Hansen is sponsoring this first quarter.

If you are picture book inclined there is a 12x12 in 2012 running over at Julie Hedlunds blog...Tara Lazar kicks it off looking at PB endings.

Today I was asked if I thought small far flung communities of writers could get together and promote their work through eBooks and a website. I most emphatically said YES.  Groups of writers are doing it all over the place from Killzone to Readergirlz. What better way for an isolated group of writers to get readers and support by joining together with a common goal.

 Go on... Take A Bite!

maureen

Major inspiration video follows....  

http://www.youtube.com/v/-GCm-u_vlaQ&hl=en&fs=1&autoplay=1