Getting The Facts Right

Yes the round up is up early! 

It’s a small one because I’m a bit busy at the moment. Friday is the first day of our National Conference of Children’s Writers and Illustrators, which has been eighteen months in the planning. We are like ducks, looking like we have it together on top and paddling furiously below the surface!

In News this week, best selling children’s author Cornelia Funke parted ways with her publisher over a disagreement in editing. She is going to self publish the last book in her best selling series.

Two weeks ago I wrote about the Nielson kids book summit and the angry responses from writers about some panelists comments. Porter breaks down what happened, what went wrong and why people should just get their facts right before screaming all over Twitter. Very Good Advice!

Joanna Penn has a fabulous interview with James Scott Bell on his latest writing craft book. He talks about his daily goals, writing discipline and the joy of writing. It’s a must listen/read.

Writers at all stages of their careers will understand the struggling writer syndrome. Writers Digest has an article with four pieces of advice to take to heart.

In The Craft Section,

Seven dialogue basics- Jody Hedlund

Hidden enablers that make your story work.-Roz Morris on her Venice Masterclass. (Bookmark)

Five reasons to track questions and answers in your novel. (Bookmark)

Getting to the bottom in creating characters.

Five tips for creating a superior sequel.

What is Theme? (Bookmark)

In The Marketing Section,

How does an expensive box set of books make it to KOBO number one?

The risks of offering a freebie- Jami Gold

Five questions to ask before you Indie publish.

To Finish,

Creativity... We all have it but how do we use it? Seven of the worst tropes about creativity from Jon Westenburg. This is an interesting read over a beverage of your choice…

And in Karma Land… Ted Dawe's banned book has been picked up by a US publisher.

I’m off to do last minute organising for Tinderbox2015. See you all on the other side!

Maureen

@craicer

Pic from Flickr/ Creative Commons- Toshihero Gamo

Can you afford Oysters?

Every few months there seems to be another revolution in the publishing industry. Startups come and game change for a while and then a Big Fish snaps them up.

This week Oyster – the subscription reading service, got snapped up by Google.

Laura Hazard Own has a good analysis of recent history and a pointer to where next it could all go.

With Scribed the only other subscription service outside of Kindle Unlimited providing competition, is Google finally making a play? Mike Shatzkin uses this week’s news to look at the viability of ebook subscription models and what about Apple...

Oyster’s team were very good at Mobile Reading Apps and none of the Big Fish have made a move in this direction so far... So Google has ‘acquihired’ Oyster and their mobile reading technology. There may be big moves in mobile digital publishing ahead. But the subscription ebook model may be going bad...

In amongst the dredging for Oyster news... The Author Earning team of Hugh Howey and Data Guy did some analysis of their own on author incomes. After seven quarters they have enough data on what individual big authors may have been earning... It makes fascinating reading.

Jane Friedman has put together a great series of charts on the publishing industry and an eye opening interview with Richard Nash. He is in demand to talk to conferences about the future of the book. This is a must read for authors! In the future all your income could well come from personal appearances, the wine you select... the endorsements you have... not from your book.

In the Craft Section,

To prologue or not to prologue- Kristen Lamb

Fast writers and slow writers.- Eizabeth S Craig

What thriller authors can teach you

Writing Prompts- (Bookmark)

Essentials of Pitching – Ava Jae (Bookmark)

What type of secret does your character keep

Finding fresh ideas

In the Marketing Section,

Writing back cover copy

50 ways authors can kickstart their publicity –Molly Greene

How to get your Indie book translated – Anne R Allen (Bookmark)

5 ways to jumpstart creative thinking- Bob Mayer

Selling books at Conventions - Patty Jansen

7 rules to be successful as an author- The Book Designer

How to market to a niche audience (Bookmark)

Connecting to readers -C Hope Clark

Website of the Week

K M Weiland is one of those go to writing craft bloggers. This week she shared her publishing year breakdown. This is a great snapshot of what Indie Authors need to do.

To Finish,

This week in the Ask Polly section of The New York Times was a plaintive letter asking Polly if the author should just give up on writing. The reply was quoted all around the blogosphere. Go on and read the pearls of wisdom in this wonderful piece.

Tinderbox is about to strike! Lots of crazy last minute conference details to do until it goes BOOM. I wish I could clone myself... then I could get everything done and attend every workshop!

 Maureen

@craicer

Pic from Flickr Creative Commons - Jeremy Keith