Craic-er

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Navigating the Writing Road

This week was Book Expo.

What used to be the biggest Book Fair in America has been slimmed down. The fair was split into a Book Con and a Trade Book Fair. Porter Anderson rounds up the key takeaways from the Book Expo conference on Wednesday. A big focus was children’s publishing and library trends.

Not everybody was impressed with the new look Book Expo. Independent publishers were being shunted off to the side and all the innovative Book Marketing companies are starting to court the Traditional publishers. Brooke Warner of She Writes Press examines Book Expo from a small publishers point of view.

Alongside Book Expo was Indie Author Fringe. This 24 hour conference was put together by the great folks at Alli - Alliance of Independent Authors. The conference theme was book marketing and there are some standout presentations up on the Alli blog. I have been dipping into them all week. Just chock full of brilliant advice. For a taster check out Chris Well's presentation on Media Kits for Authors.

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Nick Stephenson on managing time and it is really worth taking some time to listen or watch her podcast. There are so many ways to automate what you do.

Another great podcast to drop into is SFF Marketing. Lindsay Buroker and co hosts Jeff Poole and Joe Lallo talked this week about all the hot tips Joe learned from Book Expo on Book Marketing.

Bookbub also pulled together a great roundup of 7 marketing takeaways from Book Expo.

Jami Gold has put together a great roundup table of contents for all her indie publishing series of posts. This has been a mammoth series over two years. It is more than a 101 course... more like a Masters degree.

Kris Rusch continues her branding series with a great post on Brand Identity. If you have been wondering how to straddle genres or just what exactly is author branding you need to check out this article.

With the introduction of Amazon Charts there has been some discussion about the worth of bestseller lists. Amazon breaks up their charts by Most Sold and Most Read, they are not the same and there is no distinction on genre. (New HP Covers anyone?) Polygraph Lit Magazine’s new imprint, Pudding, takes a look at gender bias on the bestseller lists and in MFA programmes.

Publishers Weekly interviewed the outgoing chair of the Independent Book Publishers Association about his radical idea for Bookstores.Why don’t they have Book Espresso machines and other goodies... They could be a hub for the community... and sell ... BOOKS.

If you have ever thought about owning your own bookstore... It is now possible with Aerio. Have a curated list of books on your own website and get an affiliation cut if anyone buys a book from you. Judith Briles tells you how to do it.

This week I have been hearing about the rise of audio books and how this section of the industry is taking off. Savvy authors out there are holding onto audio rights. But now the big publishers are waking up to this gold mine. Michael Sullivan posted a breakdown on his wranglings with his Traditional Publisher Del Rey and why they are parting ways. Audio rights was the break point. This is a must read for any traditionally published author.

In The Craft Section,

Making unlikeable characters likeable- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Three types of Character Arcs – Sara Letourneau - Bookmark

Are you a writer or a storyteller- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Hiring an editor-Anne R Allen- Bookmark

Stop info dumps before they start- Jennie Nash

Collaboration mistakes to avoid- Joanna Penn and J Thorn- Bookmark

Create Awesome Female Villains- Sacha Black

In The Marketing Section,

Best categories for book sales on Amazon- Bookbaby- Bookmark

Newsletter surveys- Kate Tilton

The ultimate cheat sheet on queries- Bookmark

No one is born famous- Penny Sansevieri

Marketing your books as a group (another author collective idea)-Bookmark

Q and A on Kindle worlds and fan marketing- Aleatha Romig

Tips for selling more books on Amazon- Written Word Media

To Finish,

Navigating your way through all the advice on writing is almost a fulltime job. But have you thought about the journeys your characters are taking on the page. Writer Unboxed examines Google Maps and how you can plot out your characters journey in real time.

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. Get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes when you subscribe. Thanks for hitting the kofi button this week. I’m living on caffeine as mother of the bride.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Mike Tually

Thursday, June 1, 2017

The Writing Rules

Thou shalt read the writing rules... well they are just guidelines because every writer is different.

However there are some rules that you can’t break.

1. Don’t send a manuscript out to a publisher in Comic Sans font.

2. Don’t submit your child’s drawings as illustrations with a picture book manuscript.

I’m sure you can think of a couple more.

Ruth Harris has a comprehensive post on writing rules and guidelines, which is well worth a careful read.

Kris Rusch has another stellar post on brand and defining your target audience. I always struggle with this. Kris has some great advice. This is a timely read.

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are two rock stars in the writing blogosphere. They have a great post on helping authors succeed, because we are all in this together. Angela has put together a list of actions that everyone can do to help others. They have a pay it forward mentality... so of course they also reached out to promote Kristen Lamb’s first fiction book. Kristen has a great post about running your own race in your writing career but choose carefully who your running buddies will be.

Jane Friedman has an interesting post on FOMO (fear of missing out) and how it can cripple your productivity. How do you stay focused on the writing prize?

Danica Davidson has an inspirational post on 7 things to do when you want to give up. (Instead of giving up.) When you read she started submitting novels as a teen you realise she does know what she is talking about.

Penny Sansevieri has a must read post on book sales. It’s not about how many followers you have... it’s about engagement. Think super fans and micro influencers....

Derek Murphy likes to change things up by breaking rules or guidelines.... Recently he wrote about the weird ideas he does to write and publish bestsellers. He starts from the cover....

Julie Munroe Martin was writing recently on Writer Unboxed about putting together a survival pack if you are a writer. (No. Not a pack full of wine...) A way to keep you hitting your writing goals.

This weekend is the second 2017 Indie Fringe event run by the Alliance of Independent Authors. This free one day online conference has the focus of book marketing and some great topics will be covered check out the speakers!