Productivity and Risk

Last week the writing blogosphere was up in arms about that MFA dude and his comments about students doing MFA’s and their talent or lack of it. When people calmed down there was some great writing about talent. Do you need it? Is hard work enough? Melinda Szymanik has a great comment on this.

Kristen Lamb looks at the evolution of the writer from Neophyte to Master and all the stages in between.

Cathy Yardley looks at the publishing cycle... What happens when you get the next big thing? With the publishing lag to bookstore sometimes taking two years how will you know if your genre will still be hot? She has also got a great post on how to prevent publishing agony.

Publishing perspectives has an interesting article on whether US and UK publishing is getting stale. Is this why they are mining the Asian and European market for stories they can translate?

Over the last year Mike Shatzkin (publishing futurist) has had a straight up learning curve on the disruption of the publishing industry. Here he identifies the ways publishers need to change their ideas about marketing.

Victoria Mixon has an interesting article about copyright.Yes it applies to blogs. Self publishers need to be very aware of the risks of copying content.

In the Craft Section,

The character most writers get wrong.

How to make the most out of writing critiques. (Warning it’s Chuck)

If you have ever wished for writing prompts Reedsy is for you. Every hour a new one.

5 ways regret can deepen your main character.

7 productivity tips to boost creativity and productivity for the scattered writer.

World building and the freedom, or not to do this in speculative fiction.

7 key character motivations.

In the Marketing section.

Joel Friedlander takes a look at the different ways to publish now.

Copyblogger wants you to set content goals as part of your marketing plan.

Punching up a blurb or query.

11 free apps you can use for productivity related things.

Website of the Week

Joel Friedlander is The Book Designer but if you trawl around his site you find out so much more... from interesting articles on fonts to his amazing Book Design Templates.

To Finish

Jane Friedman has put together a survey for Authors about how they are feeling about their publishers... early indicators are in. It might surprise you. Do you want to risk not knowing?

maureen

pic from Flickr/Creative Commons Dennis Hamiton

Saints and Sinners

The publishing world woke up yesterday to the news that Mal Peet had died suddenly. There was a collective Whaaat Noooo gasp around Wellington. Mal and Elspeth had stayed here two years ago when Mal was Writer in Residence at Victoria University. He made an impact from the first day and was always affable and approachable, charming us and being charmed by us. He teased us... gently. He was a brilliant Young Adult writer  and the sadness over his passing is for ourselves and the world because there will be no more Mal Peet books. Our thoughts are with Elspeth. (What a wonderful team those two made...)

Earlier this week my Twitter feed was being burned up by responses to an article written about MFA programs by an ex MFA teacher who decided it was time to write his feelings about being a teacher of an MFA program. As Chuck Wendig (usual warnings) exploded over the dismissive tone he used in his article... I was thinking, yes but he did have a point here or there, which Chuck concedes. (However his rant is more entertaining than the original article.)

Anybody venturing into the wonderful world of publishing should always find out as much as possible. Yes Book People are wonderful people but there are sharks out there, like any other industry and regularly dropping in to Writer Beware is a good habit to get into.

This week Victoria shines a light on contract clauses that make your hair curl and the latest news about Author Solutions.

If you are a newbie you won’t know that Author Solutions is the subject of a class action suit. As this outfit has a wonderful chameleon reputation running ‘concierge’ services for some of the biggest publishers out there, they look bone fide and their tactics are anything but. Dave Gaughran has the latest twist in the plot of who is the next big publisher to swim with the sharks.

Chris McVeigh has written a heart felt post about the disconnect between publishing industry professionals and authors and the state of publishing industry today after a recent trip to London. Chris has his own solutions to fixing this disconnect, which is very real and what I hear on an almost daily basis.

One author who has stepped into the disconnect and carved out a different model is Bob Mayer. He is interviewed by Reedsy about his work and his publishing house Cool Gus. Bob and his team (Jen) work with other authors to publish their books under a collaborative model. He has a really interesting publishing model and he’s a great writer.

If you write for children you will know that print is still king but there are different e-book

/app models being trialed all the time. Jane Friedman has a magnificent interview with two children’s book agents where they talk about e-books for children. Is it going to be like the adult take up?

In the Craft section,

Oh the goodness of Jami Gold who has some brilliant worksheets for writers on her website...

And a halo goes to Janice Hardy who has started a month long series of story structure analysis posts.

K M Weiland has a wonderful post on passive voice...

The awesome Jenny Crusie has a next level post on ‘agency’ something that Chuck is very in to. That's when you unleash your characters.

The Crimson League has a post on killing your characters needlessly...or how not to do this.

How to write productively – sometimes it’s the simple things.

The most important thing an author should know...

In the Marketing Section,

Jane Friedman and Christina Katz on building better author bio’s and making use of them.

How to Hack Amazon effectively for authors.

21 Book Marketing tips.

If you are thinking about book trailers Joanna Penn has interviewed a book trailer making expert so this is chock full of tips and then talks to Debbie Young about getting your book into bookstores and libraries.

Making the most of your publicity – tips from the agent.

The art of ARC-ing. What to do with those Advance Reader Copies...

Website of the week

It’s more of an infographic.... but this is THE infographic of Book Genre’s.  Any genre with examples...Check it out.

To Finish,

This week we launched the first news about Tinderbox2015 - The National Conference of NZ Children’s Writers and Illustrators. It’s happening October 2-5^th in Wellington this year. It aims to ignite sparks, shed light on new practices, and nourish and energise authors and illustrators. Tinderbox 2015 will be a hands-on conference, with workshops and panels, both experiential and inspirational, it's not to be missed.  We are thrilled with the enthusiastic response already and hugging ourselves because we know what is coming... tho we are still working out some details... hehehehehe. You can go on to our exclusive mailing list at 2015tinderbox at gmail dot com or head on over to our Facebook page, Tinderbox 2015. Our website will be up and doing soon.

In the meantime you can speculate as to what this might mean... and an innovative real-time, collaborative project that will run alongside other sessions....

maureen

@craicer

pic from Flickr/Creative Commons – Caroline Wickham