Up and Down

This week in the publishing blogosphere...it’s all about Amazon going public about their dispute with Hachette. Of course then the second guessing fills social media sites and news sites as everyone tries to find an angle… because contract negotiations between mega corporations don’t get boiled down to a couple of explanatory paragraphs… do they? Bloomberg News took the objective angle. 

The Passive Guy looked at The Wall St Journal coverage and his followers weighed in.

Mike Shatzkin looks at digitizing back lists and what publishers should be doing. This is an important post by Mike who is calling publishers to up their game.

Futurebook examines subscription services with a warning to publishers.

Writer Beware looks at some sticky agent contracts…can they take a piece of future writing if you self publish?

Huffington Post has an interesting article on whether having books free is damaging to the writer.

Jane Friedman hosts Angela Ackerman talking about writer business plans. This is a great post.

The Big Bigger Biggest Children’s writing conference kicks off this weekend in LA (SCBWI,LA14) Check in to their blog…(on the right in my blog list) which runs all weekend for a virtual taste of what’s on offer.

In the Craft Section,

How to create your own children’s writing niche

How to make your book unputdownable

How to think about theme

Does your series tell a bigger story

Showing conflict in dialogue

How to make writing happen

Negative character arcs

Writing Dialogue

Building Catchy Titles

Edits, Editors and the secret weapon

Three TED Talks that examine storytelling

In the Marketing Section,

How you can avoid a huge marketing mistake

How to build a killer email list

How to support an authors new book

5 tips to succeed at Indie publishing

How authors can use listmania

Brand yourself for Indie success.

To Finish,

Two years ago Jane Friedman addressed a conference where she outlined what she saw coming and what publishers needed to do about it. She has just made that presentation available...How close was she to what we have today...

maureen 

Pic from Flickr/ Anthony Mayfield

After The Break

 My predictions for what the blogosphere would be talking about while I was taking a medical break were very nearly right. 

The Self vs Trad debate became an examination of the take home pay of the author. The Guardian got stuck in on Author Earnings... Even the NY Times weighed in on Author income. 

Bob told everyone to grow up, again. It is all about fairness.

The Amazon /Hachette argument is still going on with Hugh Howey commenting yesterday on various open letters circulating and whether we should be holding out for higher prices. 

But the big news that has everyone hopping around the publishing blogosphere is the launch of Kindle Unlimited. This is a subscription service launched by Amazon. Authors who have their books enrolled get a share of the monthly pot of gold set aside if their book is lent through the service and at least 10% of it is read. (just think about this level of attention to your personal reading habits that the mighty ZON knows about you from your Kindle.) Is it worthwhile to the author?

Dave Gaughran examines the fors and againsts… and Mark Coker thinks they could do better... Many authors agree that exclusivity can be a problem.

Outside of this...

Dean Wesley Smith has started a new series of thoughtful teaching posts for authors on thinking like publishers.

Kirkus has even elevated Indie publishing to legit with a great opinion piece on getting a publishing team together.

The big Thriller conference has happened and Joanna Penn had her mind blown... as it included a visit to the FBI who are anxious that writers get it right, the conference delivered on many levels. Great Post!

The Killzone guys are having fun with a co operative marketing venture if Thrillers are your reading drug of choice.

Publishers Weekly has been looking at the issue of piracy especially that of YA authors books.

In the Craft Section,

Making your hero complex

K M Weiland on Story Voice

The Blood Red Pencil has one on Narrative Voice

Blogging do’s and Don’ts from Anne R Allen

Porter Anderson on use of one star and five star reviews to boost or punish a writer.

Porter also has a thoughtful post on standing up writing desks and how they should be seriously considered by writers for their health. (this is something I have been interested in for a while...)

In the Marketing Section,

Everything you ever wanted to know about Twitter. I use Twitter for research and I learned some good tips from this post.

Branding tips for authors

Book cover clichés and why they help you sell more books.

How to grow your personal mailing list. (comprehensive post)

Lindsay Buroker - what I would do if I was starting today... (must read post)

Steve Scott has been looking at his author income in detail over the last year...as he tried various things. This is an interesting post with honest breakdowns...from a non fiction writer. (I wish I could find something similar for children’s writers)

To Finish,

Writer Unboxed has a letter to my aspiring writer self... which has struck a chord with writers who have added a few post scripts...

I’m on the slow recovery road...this means I get to read more. I have just devoured James Scott Bell’s latest craft book. Write Your Novel From The Middle...seriously good.