Great Expectations

This week I have been thinking about expectations. This was sparked by Kris Rusch’s excellent blog post on the Indie and the Bestseller. Do you even know what questions to ask for your writing career or are you asking the wrong people? This applies to both Indies and Traditional published people.

Meanwhile Bob Mayer was also thinking along the same lines but looking at being an Introvert writer in an Extrovert world. How do we even cope?

John Scalzi takes a look at what life is like for the writer at the top of the heap. It is not all Champaign and roses.

Kelly Van Sant has an interesting blog post on Pub Crawl about what previously published means to an agent. She explains her reasons on why she doesn’t take on manuscripts from Wattpad. Read the comments for other schools of thought on this.

Do you have a media kit? What is in it? Joel Friedlander has an excellent article from Joan Stewart on what things make your media kit stand out. Dressing up your Media Kit.

Laurence O’Bryan has put together an interesting project called Author Teams. Check out what he thinks authors can do in collaboration with others.

Joanna Penn has been down under recently. While here in NZ she conducted workshops and found time to announce her new press imprint. She writes here about why she decided to go into what looks like being a Traditional publisher. Fascinating Joanna!

The Winter SCBWI conference has just wrapped up in New York and if you are interested in children’s books you need to check out the conference blog. They have a team of writers live blogging the whole event so it is chock full of interesting bits and pieces.

Tahlia Newland has been looking at audio companies. She has a comparison about who is best and why you should choose them for your audio book production.

In The Craft Section,

5 things to think about when hiring an editor

Ten Writing tools

5 things I learned when switching genres- Stephanie Morell

10 tips for choosing the right book title- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

Writing Cues- Prolifiko

Joanna Penn interviewed on her writing and research

Top Time Savers for Writing- Elisabeth S Craig-Bookmark

Three types of character arcs- Sarah Letourneau- Bookmark

  

In The Marketing Section,

The top emerging Social Platforms

Book Cover Font Guide- Bookmark

Why email marketing rocks- Frances Caballo - Bookmark

6 Essential Book descriptions

5 reasons authors should blog- Anne R Allen-Bookmark

Book Cover Design- Reedsy-Bookmark!!!! (with amazing infographic)

10 content marketing mistakes- Jeff Bullas

To Finish,

Suzanne Lakin is always a great Go To when looking for inspiration for your writing. In this great post she looks at that old standby of authors... Procrastination. What might be behind it?

If you have always been a careful writer, and therefore are slow to finish writing then this article by Pamela Hodges on vomiting out the first draft and why you should could be a writing life changer.

Vigilant readers will see a new icon on the right hand side... It’s nearly ten years of weekly blogging. It would be nice if the blog bought me a cup of coffee.

Maureen

@craicer

My first newsletter of the year is out. If you want to get a monthly roundup of my best bookmarked links and other goodies... Subscribe here.

Gazing Into The Crystal Ball

Over the last week I have been watching agents trying to figure out on Twitter what kinds of books might be popular in the upcoming few years based on the political upheavals in the U.S.

If you type in #MSWL in the Twitter search bar you can get a snapshot of what they are looking for. It got me thinking about what people read in times of political upheaval. Do they read safe stories or stories about how to cope when a society is disintegrating?

Kris Rusch has a great blog post on writing in difficult times. I think it’s a must read for every author.

Tara Sparling takes a different tack and screams for Book Heroin from Publishers who are playing it safe.

Slate has an interesting post on using sensitivity readers. These are readers representing the various communities you may be writing about to give your MS a beta read. But can their wishes change the story too much.

Litreactor has decided that we all need to take a deep breath and not post on Social Media about certain things. The list is not long but it is very pointed.

Getting a book distributed is a tricky thing if you are a self publisher. Jane Friedman has written a quick guide to get you started. New distributor on the block, Pronoun, has one upped Createspace. Looks like interesting times ahead.

Jeff Goins has a few words to say about book launches and he should know... He is one of the fastest selling non fiction authors around.

Simon Owens talks about using Patreon to support various writing projects. This is an interesting alternative to crowdfunding. Build your own paying tribe... which may be what's needed as The Guardian reports that Award winning writers are forced out of full time writing.

In The Craft Section,

Effective ways to make memorable characters- Dean Elphick

How to use schedules to write- Scott Myers- Bookmark

Formatting interiority- Mary Kole

What does an agent look for- Chip McGregor

Does your character description work?- Michael Hauge- Bookmark

Conflict between protagonists- Chris Winkle - Bookmark

Story hooks- K M Weiland- Bookmark

How long should your series be- Rachel Aaron- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

7 essentials for your book launch-Keely Keith- Bookmark

Content marketing and Selling Non Fiction Books Two great posts from Joanna Penn Bookmark

DIY Marketing tools – IngramSpark

But I don’t want to blog- Indies Unlimited

Online education as book marketing- Publishers Weekly

What’s new on your marketing list – Molly Greene

Are indie authors following the music script- Interesting article from Bookbaby

Going from launch to 1000 sales in 3 weeks- Kboards- Bookmark

Social Media Marketing myths- Bookmark

To Finish

A few years ago Anne R Allen published this great blog post which is still relevant. 12 signs your novel isn’t ready to publish. This checklist is always a good wakeup call. If you can tick all the boxes you might have the next book answer to that difficult question, what to read to escape from real life.

Maureen

@craicer

I’m nearly ready to send out my first newsletter of the year. If you want to get a monthly roundup of my best bookmarked links and other goodies... Subscribe.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Mr Muggles