The Sabotage Backup

Today we suffered the first of the big winter storms. Half the country seems to be digging themselves out of snow or suffering power cuts because of high winds and wind blown debris. I saw a comment today from an illustrator friend who was obsessively backing up her work every 30 seconds just in case. So....

Have you saved your work today? Do you have a plan for saving your work? Mary Moore has a list of ways that you can save your writing just in case...

This week CreateSpace rolled out a new barcode policy. Things get tricky when you have a barcode generated that doesn’t fit their guidelines.  They are being very specific about where the barcode should be on the back cover. Being forewarned will save you time and money.

SCBWI summer conference just wrapped up. If you are a children's writer and dream about attending from afar... (like me) Check out their conference blog. The next best thing to being there.

Audio books are this years hot topic with ACX finally getting competition from Draft2Digital. Kevin Tumlinson explains why writers should think audio as part of their publishing strategy. Anne R Allen talks with her Audio Book narrator about producing audio books and how to choose the right narrator.

Sophie Knowles has an interesting post on Digital Book World about resources for Indie Authors. She highlights a few great sites that are worth checking out.

Kris Rusch continues her branding series with an in depth look at brand loyalty with a strategic look at the also boughts on the Amazonpage. There is a wealth of information right out in plain sight!

Molly Greene has been doing other interesting things instead of writing and publishing this year. She takes a candid look at what happens when you step away from your production treadmill.

Suzanne Lakin has a great post on self sabotage. Writers can be excellent at this. She has a must read post on how to recognise the signs and ways to deal with it. It’s all tied up with your self esteem as a writer.

James Scott Bell is a master at the craft of writing and this post shows you why. How do you stand out from the crowd with your work? How do you ride the edge of great writing. This is a must read!

In The Craft Section,

K M Weiland has got three great posts for you to Bookmark

Myers Briggs for characters

Examining the first act in your sequel

and her Free Scrivener Template.

Writing Dialogue for teenagers.

How to steal time to write.

When is imagery description overkill- Mary Kole

How to create an elevator pitch

In The Marketing Section,

Using Amazon's preorder to boost sales- Penny Sansevieri

2 great posts from Joanna Penn Instagram for authors and Mistakes with book promotion- Bookmark both and the link to Freebooksy

139 tools and resources for building your author website- Bookmark

10 sneaky hacks with Draft2Digital

Three keys to selling more books with social media- Chris Syme

To Finish,

In the old days writers weren’t at the mercy of a power cut but they didn’t have the luxury of endless tinkering of a sentence before they printed it. The craft of writing has remained the same though. Take a look at Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 tips on how to write a good short story and ponder them deeply. And for extra homework, check out his ideas on shapes of stories which has now been backed up by a computer.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic: Flicker Creative Commons- Andrew Fogg

Backup Data. ;)

I round up the best of the months bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. Subscribing to my monthly newsletter also is a form of backup plus you get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes when you subscribe. 

Party Details

Today I hosted an hour of an online FB Book Launch Party for a Y A thriller by Helen V Fletcher called Broken Silence (Promo: grab the ebook for 99c.)

I felt a bit nervous as I have never done anything like this before but Helen said she would hold my hand and so I jumped in. It was a blast! I started with party music and the hour just flew by. Lots of authors joined in the launch. They talked about their books and had giveaways and mini competitions for prizes. And the prizes are up for 24 hours so jump on over and join in the fun.

Helen’s book is contemporary Young Adult. Anne R Allen has a great post on her blog about writing contemporary fiction. I had no idea that the word lengths were getting shorter. Anne writes about the reasons you can’t write War and Peace anymore and expect it to sell.

If you were writing a huge novel you need time to beaver away. Where do you find it? Aha! Try this technique for working smarter, suitable for any writer.  While we are on nuts and bolts of the writer’s physical environment check out Copyhackers best practice for setting up your home office!

My lunchtime break saw me riveted to the SFF marketing podcast. Lindsay, Joe and Jeff were interviewing Joanna Penn on her new book Launch to Market 3rd edition. Joanna says that it is 60% different from the first edition, which I have so... It’s on my want list.

Cynthia Shannon has a comprehensive breakdown of all the things you need to do for planning and having a Goodreads giveaway. I have been watching the results of experiments in an author group I belong to and it seems like a good thing to try.

Kathryn Goldman has a comprehensive post on audio rights. Who actually owns them? This can get tricky when you produce your audio book. Performance rights... broadcast rights...  translation audio... All the rights you didn’t know you had... (see Joanna Penn’s interview above for more options.)

The fabulous Kris Rusch continues her excellent series on marketing and brand discovery. Her in depth attention to detail posts are like a university course. I feel she should be required reading in a Creative Writing diploma.

Writers Digest has an interview with Kristen Owens on 10 actions she has learned in her first year of professional writing.

In The Craft Section,

Avoid opening page info dump- Jami Gold – Bookmark

How to skip the boring parts of your writing- K M Weiland

The power of the unlikely protagonist- Writer Unboxed – Bookmark

What is irony?- a cool post from Reedsy

8 tips for writing in cafes- Louise Marley

How to add meaningful subplots- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Saving the day by solving the problem- Beth Hill- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Using your official name on Twitter- Roz Morris

Digressing slightly to shout out to Kevin Tumlinson who writes such great content for the Draft2Digital site. Here are three recent posts.

8 elements of a good title- Bookmark

10 low or no budget ways to promote your book- Bookmark

Author overheads-What you need to know.

Kevin is also the host of the Wordslinger podcast, which is one of my new great podcasting finds!

To Finish,

Today has been a day about organising... Helen organised a fun online book launch but it wouldn’t have worked without attention to detail. What were the secret schedules of the great authors... did they work the same way? Check out this article and be surprised!

maureen

@craicer

It’s nearly time to schedule my monthly newsletter. (Hi to the new subscribers!) I round up the best of the months bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. Thanks everyone who hit the coffee button this week. I appreciate the virtual coffee love.