What goes in...

This week I sat down with a bunch of committed writing friends to start to pull together four months of creative ideas of what to include in our National Conference of Children’s Writers and Illustrators 2015. Planning a good conference takes time and much thought. My guiding principal is IT IS A WORKING CONFERENCE. Attendees must get knowledge out of it for their money. It is a big chunk of cash and writing time that poorly paid writers and illustrators have to give up so every dollar needs to really be worth it.

Kameron Hurley has a guest post on Terribleminds which is the must read post of the week. (year) Kameron outlines the need for writers to think business. These are some of the issues I would like to explore at the conference.

Hugh Howey takes a hard look at Barnes and Nobel booksellers. What they are doing wrong and will it destroy them. This was echoed yesterday in a comment from one of my writing friends about New Zealand’s biggest book seller chain.

Passive Guy takes a look at agency clauses in contracts. This is an interesting post about tricky legalese in contracts.

The Futurebook team have a twitter chat every week and this last week they were looking at Metadata. How can you find out what you need to find out... and why is it so important. 

Jon Bard takes a look at the KDP Kids Books app that Amazon released last week.

Lauren Sapala has the two most important things writersneed.

  

In the Craft Section,

How to plot a character driven story or why Harry Potter didn’t end up a nutcase.

How to make sure readers don’t close the book

How to draw fantasy maps

How to write for the 21^st century (pet peeves from an agent)

How to use a developmental editor

How to edit first drafts (great post)

How to set the stage (great post)

In the Marketing Section,

How to use the Manuscript Wish List site effectively.

How to boost book sales passively

How to use Noisetrade book marketing effectively

To Finish,

Six years on from the first conference we organized and issues we never thought of then are now on the table. Storytelling has different wrappers now.

Gaming companies need story content too. This week one of my writing friends was asking for some help with a project her company was working on. They had the idea, they had the graphics, they just needed the story to go with them. Kevin Spacey looks at how storytelling has changed in the shows he has been in.

maureen

Sorry late again… Recovery one step forward two steps back...

Pic: Flickr/Creative Commons Inger Maaike

Wouldn’t this be a cool conference bag?

Sharing The News

Today my Twitter and Facebook feeds went a little nuts with the announcement from Amazon that they have a cool new publishing tool for kids writers.

The first comment I saw on Twitter was from Laura Hazard Owen. 

KDP Kids = Get ready to see some really, really bad art
— Laura Hazard Owen (@laurahazardowen) September 3, 2014

I took a look at what they were offering and thought hmm 650MB not a big file and what about the illustrators? Amazon does not do Royalty splits. Yet.

Recently Hugh Howey wrote a list of Stuff I Want To Know where he calls out to Amazon for answers.  Bundling and royalty splits were on the list.

Also getting comments on Twitter, Mike Shatskin's article on Author Branding and Marketing, are the authors responsible or the publishers?

Book Apps seem to be a hot topic with a comprehensive How To Use Authorly at The BookDesigner site.

HarperCollins UK has put a stake in the ground and is selling ebooks from its own website. This has raised eyebrows for ‘why has it taken them so long...’ and is a direct nose thumb to the ZON. Among the comments is this little gem where HC state that their authors will get a much higher royalty from them than Amazon.

Jim Hines is a funny writer for kids but his two articles this week deal with serious topics. The first, Writer Despair, had a host of writers nodding their heads. The second on the outrage he feels for the justifications used by idiots that viewed hacked pictures this week. This rant is one of the most succinct call outs I have read. Brilliant.

On the subject of call outs... A serial plagiarist has been caught out. This is a sobering read and a timely one. It was so easy for her to do this... Be Warned!

And on that subject Porter Anderson has been examining Author Ethics. Jane Steen has proposed 8 ethics for self published writers... but may be they need to be taken further.

In the Craft Section,

Joanna Penn interviews that Snowflake guy

6 vital questions to ask your first readers

21 writing tips from the greats

Using  method acting to increase drama

Janice Hardy on fixing episodic fiction

Larry Brooks on the 6 epiphanies that great writers have

James Scott Bell on avoiding the tar pits of fiction

Becca Puglisi on writing the page turning novel

The Plot Whisperer has a tip for that sagging middle

In the Marketing Section,

Joanna Penn has gathered all her translations advice into ahandy list

Scott Carter has a great post on Using Free Effectively

Writer Collaborations… a few tips.

Susan Kaye Quinn on using the new Amazon preorder buttons effectively. Great post!

To Finish,

I use Twitter for research... it is a very good tool. Editors occasionally play the #MSWL game where they post on Twitter what they would like to see. Today was one of those days. It is always interesting (just put #MSWL in the Twitter search bar) and now there is a nifty website to go with it. 

Chuck has a note of caution to writers who blindly try to follow the trends - don’t write what they want, Chuck exhorts, Write What You Love!

maureen