R.I.P Rights, Readers and Elmore

Today the news came through that writing legend Elmore Leonard died. He was a popular crime and thriller writer getting his start in pulp fiction. He had 10 rules for writing that have become a popular meme around the blogosphere but Leonard often broke his own rules. Here is a link to the interview where Elmore Leonard explains when to break the rules.

If you are looking for a cheat sheet in the game of life...Lifehacker has 10 infographics and cheat sheets to help you.

Last week I was immersed in WriteOnCon...and this week it’s Romance (a family member is staying here to attend the Romance Writers conference.)  Romance Writers are a savvy bunch often way ahead of other genres in marketing and trends. Here is a collection of great writing articles for Romance writers but they could easily apply right across all the genres.

However if mid grade is your specialty (and it’s mine) here is Peter Lerangis on writing for this age group.

Read this through carefully.

By posting your content on the Sites, you expressly grant Random House a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up worldwide, fully sub-licensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, transmit, perform and display such content and your name, voice, and/or likeness as contained in your User Submission, in whole or in part, and in any form throughout the world in any media or technology, whether now known or hereafter discovered, including all promotion, advertising, marketing, merchandising, publicity and any other ancillary uses thereof, and including the unfettered right to sublicense such rights, in perpetuity throughout the universe.

Are you shaking your head and wondering why anyone would sign a contract with this in?

Well lots of writers have....it could be in .4 in your latest contract. However this little excerpt comes from a Random House contract where they invite writers to contribute blog posts to their online blogging universe. FOR FREE.

Read all about this latest devious way to screw the content creator from the world’s largest publisher.

In the blogosphere this week...Barnes and Nobel and Simon and Schuster have made up. Great news for the writers left out in the cold... However Barnes and Nobel are not having a good week with reaction to their quarterly earnings out yesterday bringing out the doom sayers. Mike Shatzkin takes a look at the bookstore that wants to compete on all fronts. 

Another bookstore getting a mention is our local proudly independent Children’s Book Shop...check out this article on what a bookstore should be doing by British author Mal Peet who graced our city with his presence in the first part of the year.

Passive Guy asks Do You know What Your Rights Are Worth? This is a good run down on different rights in your contract.

Galleycat has a list of what agents have on their wishlists.

In Craft,

There is a swag of very good articles today.

Elisabeth S Craig on Outlining...This is very good.

Bookshelfmuse on sagging middles...Excellent

Justine Larbalesteir on rewriting...Just Brilliant!

Kristen Lamb on Editing...Excellent

Jim Mercurio on beating exposition...very good

Jami Gold is calling all pantser’s and if you are not sure what type of writer that is you need to check out the article from the very clever Ms Gold.

In Marketing,

The Indie 50 best sites...this is a mix of craft and marketing...

Should you do your own Audiobooks?

Twitter lists and how to use them...a great how to guide.

Website to check out,

The Oatmeal....comics on grammar...

To Finish,

Publishers Weekly has been looking at where our audience has gone...The latest YouTube meetup had nearly 7000 vloggers...with teens to the forefront. Some of these teens have over 2 million subscribers to their channels....Where are the publishers? Can authors tap into this underground movement... or are we a dying artform...

Maureen

pic: Flickr Creative Commons /Eddie

A Two Day Package Of Awesome

Around the blogosphere this week...WriteOnCon.

 The seriously brilliant initiative of some savvy KidLit authors is in its 4^th year of awesomeness. A free online conference for Kid Lit authors who can’t get to a conference...and believe me when you are on the other side of the world, in a small country, you salivate at the conference schedules. WriteOnCon has just wrapped up and you can go onto the site and see some of the keynotes and videos. I got lost today in watching the live pitch hangout, which wasn’t live for me but had heaps of information in it. I will be dipping into all the archived sessions for the next few weeks and I confidently predict that the keynotes will continue to be blogged about all year, like last years WriteOnCon.

While I was otherwise focused...Mike Shatzkin was pointing out Losing Bookstores is a Big Problem for Publishers. Now you might be thinking, duh heard it all before, but Mike highlights some important points for publishers of children’s books and books that are outside the straight fiction narrative.

Porter Anderson covers the other top watercooler topic...The Bowker Annual Report just out and if you want the complete report which many publishers subscribe to, hand over $799 or take a look at the articles Porter highlights, where they break down and explain the significance of the figures.  In-store awareness is slowly giving way to increased importance of author Web sites, product placement on a e-reader or tablet app and review and recommendations.

Who is buying what, and this may surprise you, men bought more hardback format last year. Porter gives a comprehensive run down on all the discussions happening as a result of the report.

Kristine Rusch, as usual, delivers a comprehensive article on the publishing industry now. This week she looks at markers of success for writers. Kris has a wealth of experience and lays it out for writers...and then she talks about Indie publishing and how success markers here may be quite different.

Passive Guy has a great article on protecting your film rights and Victoria Mixon on 21 things writers know that non writers don’t.

Elisabeth S Craig has been writing about her journey to hybrid author and she shares some home truths about juggling the two strands ofher career.

In Craft,

The 35 questions Proust asked his characters.

Killzone on how to write a novel readers won’t put down.

Jody Hedlund on when to show character emotions.

The Bookshelf Muse on writing an authentic fight scene. (My Dad commented a couple of days ago to me about a fight scene written by a women that was really bad. ‘Men don’t stop and analyse what the next punch will be...’)

10 tips from Billy Wilder on how to write a good screenplay...useful for novels.

Why every writer needs to hire an editor.

In Marketing,

Joel Friedlander on book layouts and page margins.

What literary agents want to see when they Google your name and they do Google it.

Passive Guy links to 5 successful marketing strategies.

To Finish,

Chuck has a guest post on his blog. 25 steps to being a traditionally published author –lazy bastard edition. You will laugh... you will wince... Yes, other people write in Chucks style...be warned and entertained.

I'm off to drop back into WriteOnCon...

maureen

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