What are the current trends in writing? Everybody wants to know.
Writers do know some trends. Their incomes are all over the
place or dropping.
The current political situation is seeing dystopian themed
books being dusted off. The South by South West film and television festival is currently full of Handmaids from The Handmaids Tale, a book by Margaret Atwood. This book freaked people
out when it was first published and seems set to continue if all the articles
about the festival handmaids is anything to go by.
The London Book Fair is on* and chat on the floor suggests
that Brexit will hit UK publishing scene hard. Also I see on Twitter that it’s
not just the Brits who are un-nerved. Several EU countries are facing Brexit
calls of their own in upcoming elections.
We are in unsettled times.
The Bookseller talks about the difference between a bestseller and a profitable book. I was surprised to learn that they are not the
same thing.
If you have tried to make sense of your publishers royalty
statements lately, read Mike Shatzkin’s recent blog on Profit and Loss formulas and how publishers are getting them wrong. Could be some ammo in there for
negotiations.
Sacha Black wonders if now is the time to go wide given the
current trends of income uncertainty.
The latest Author Earnings report is out, and interesting
reading it is too. Here in NZ we recently had our own version of Writer Income
surveyed... which was pretty dismal reading. Data Guy has some comments on the
NZ situation in English language publishing.
Mike Sahno wrote a guest post on Anne R Allen’s blog about the
5 pieces of bad advice regularly given to literary writers.
Auburn Seal of Bibliocrunch has some rock solid advice if you are spinning around with writing speed trends. Should you write faster or
write slower? If you are feeling overwhelmed with everything you should do...
set some solid goals.
Dan Blank has some sage advice for figuring out where you should be placing your book, marketing wise... way before you publish it. This
is a must read.
Subscription curation is all the rage in children’s publishing
according to Publishers Weekly. Publishers are directly helping parents choose
wisely along with publishing classroom versions of popular books to get around censorship.
Elizabeth Craig was recently asked why didn’t she sell her
books on Etsy. And this sparked a whole new way of looking at writing.
In The Craft Section,
Understanding story flow- and 3 steps to raise our story stakes- Jami Gold- Bookmark both
How to brief Beta readers for the best results- Belinda
Pollard- Bookmark
Creating an Irresistible Series- Sandra Haven
Developing Themes – The midpoint- Sara Letourneau- Bookmark
Using Scrivener – Writer Unboxed
What makes a good story- Now Novel
How to take charge of your novel’s symbolism- Christine
Frazier
In The Marketing Section,
5 tools every Indie author should use- Frances Caballo-
Bookmark!!
6 Basic tech skills authors should learn- Carla King-
Bookmark!!
How to hitch a ride on someone else’s holiday to sell books-
The Book Designer
Why I’m turning Trad pub deals down- Elizabeth S Craig
How to set clear goals and objectives for your book launch-
Book Marketing Tools- Bookmark
How to best optimise your blog posts SEO- Rachel Thompson-
Bookmark
Why you should track your book sales and how to- Fix my
Story- Bookmark
To Finish,
Reedsy is a great resource for writers. They often have
great infographics... (I’m such a sucker...) However Ricardo has recently been
putting together a huge list of writing competitions. Have a look.
And for all those people who want a publisher to look at
their work... Catherine Ryan Howard’s 50 easy ways to get a publishing deal will resonate with everyone.
* Don’t forget to check out Alli’s LBF Indie Fringe 24 hour conference. You might just get a jump on some writing trends.
Maureen
@craicer
