This week two critiques of James Patterson’s Master class in
writing bounced around my Twitter feed. One was from The Observer and the other
from Writer Unboxed.
James Patterson is a prolific bestseller who has a team at
his publishers devoted only to his work. This year he started a fund for
booksellers to encourage reading. Our local children’s bookseller was a lucky
recipient. So a master class from him was always going to be interesting. It’s
a huge bang for your buck. ($90US) I can’t help thinking that other writing
craft gurus will have to lift their game.
The other topic to get bounced around this week was the cost
of publishing.
Joanna Penn has a critical analysis of her own writing business and six figure income. Kate Flora has a critical analysis of how much it costs to write traditionally.
(i.e. with a Trade publisher.)
Nick Stephenson is also talking about the cost of self publishing but he sees it as a value....
Last week I linked to Steve Hamilton's fight with St Martin's press Kristine Rusch has an excellent post on this and the fact that had he done it in 2005 his career would be over… but authors who have done it have some tricks up their sleeves….
Porter Anderson takes a look at balancing Trad and Indie publishing interests. Whether you come in on one side or the other or are firmly hybrid, there is a lot of discussion in what way a writing career can go now. Porter mentions Deborah Cooke’s recent essay, What I miss about Traditional publishing, (very interesting) as he compares the two camps. Jaye Manus takes issue with some of Deborah’s ideas especially where she says that Indie publishers need someone to say NO that is not a good idea.
Elizabeth S Craig has a great post on publishing podcasts...
She talks about her favourites and finds a few more from her readers.
Anne R Allen has an excellent post on social media... she is
not a fan of email newsletters. She talks about the best way you can promote.
Have you heard about ageism in YA? A young writer points out that teens aren't being listened to...
In the Craft Section,
What 4 agents are looking for in memoir- Alan Rinzler
Character psychology- 9 common errors- Kassandra Lamb
Revision techniques- Janet Fox (Bookmark)
Planning your plotting – Janice Hardy
In the Marketing Section,
13 reasons why your novel query was rejected- Anne R Allen
Looking good on a web cam – Rachelle Gardner
Molly Greene has two great posts- 45 ways to sabotage your social media success and
Why readers download books-(Bookmark)
To Finish,
Whether you are Trad or Indie inclined you still need to
write a ripping good yarn. So here is the word from Bob Mayer – Finding the
shiver effect!
maureen
Pic From The Fabulous InkyElbows
