Thursday, April 21, 2016

Fair Learning


This week is all about the London Book Fair. (It is still Book Fair season.)
The Alliance of Independent Authors hosted a packed online conference at the London Book Fair. They had some wonderful speakers and have put blogposts up on their website with all sorts of juicy information and learning. This is well worth spending some quiet time trawling through.

Publishing Perspectives has their eye on the fair and the interesting ideas to come out of it and Lithub finds out how easy it is to get lost but then you find other things at the fair.

Sukhi Jutla has a great blog post on lessons learned at the London Book Fair.  This is of special relevance to independent authors or those thinking of the hybrid author model.

Joanna Penn has another great podcast, this week, on building your author business. This is an interesting subject because even if you follow the traditional approach to publishing you are still in the author business.

Mark Coker has released his 2016 survey on insights and habits of the bestselling authors on Smashwords. This is a comprehensive look at pricing sweet spots, box sets, etc. etc.

This week Passive Guy pointed out an interesting article in the WSJ about the new selling footprint of famous independent bookstore Shakespeare and Co. The new owner has turned it on its head. Is this the bookstore of the future?

In the Craft Section,



show- Angela Ackerman-Bookmark






In the Marketing Section,



Bookmark



To Finish,
After spending so much time Book Fair related it is time to take a break. Bustle has an article on why authors should take a reading break every now and then. This is a funny post about the need to step away from books in order to write them.

Maureen
@craicer
Thanks for all the kind messages about Craicer's 8th Blogoversary throughout the last week.


Thursday, April 14, 2016

Fair Value


This week I have some links to articles about the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (as promised last week.)

The New York Times had a piece looking at the rise of children’s publishing and the large Chinese contingent at the fair. This augers well for the new fair being inaugurated this year in Singapore for the ASEAN nations.

The London Book Fair is underway right now. Publishing Perspectives has a quick look at what the major talking points will be.

Children’s author C Alexander London this week wrote a brave article about coming out as Gay to children... and their reactions. All they really wanted to know was when the next book was coming out.

Larry Brooks has a great article on story development. What is the key criteria to the story? It’s a compelling premise. Another must read article from Larry.

Molly Greene has been carefully examining her earnings and her book goals. She sets out her Marketing goals for 2016 and the reasons why she is doing all these changes to her book business.

Recently I was chatting to my husband about Scrivener as I thought it might be useful in his office for a project his team was working on. He downloaded a free version and became a convert. This seems to be what happens when someone tries Scrivener- instant writing software love. Here is a master tips article for all those Scrivener users.

What are the marks of a Professional Independent Author? The key word in that sentence is ‘professional.’ The Book Reviewers site has a breakdown of what you should be aiming for.

Elizabeth S Craig has a great article on valuing your time. Writers are often asked to do things for free and it’s hard to say No. How do we evaluate the events we participate in so that they add value to us as writers? This is a great article to get you thinking about your time price.

In the Craft Section,

Essential writing tools -Angela Ackerman Becca Puglisi Bookmark


In the Marketing Section,

Using images for marketing- Joanna Penn Bookmark!

An Instagram primer for authors- Frances Caballo Bookmark


To Finish,
This week marks the eighth year of Craicer. I have been thinking about all the things I have learned along the way.
1. Commitment to a deadline. There is nothing like the creeping hour hand of the clock to make me stop researching and get the blog published.
2. Chances to push out of my comfort zone. Researching and writing this blog every week has made me a Go To person for speaking to groups or planning programmes or podcasting. Somehow people think I know stuff.
3. When I’ve struggled with my health the fact that I had a regular appointment to research and write up for others what I have learned has kept me sane. Ok not as crazy as I could be.

I am grateful for the people who read the blog, ask questions or share the blog to new readers. It always makes me laugh when I’m with a bunch of authors and someone asks 'how do you...' and the response from the group is “Read Maureen’s blog!”
Thanks everyone for reading and sharing the blog over the last eight years!

Maureen
@craicer


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