Winning At Productivity

Earlier this week I attended the New Zealand National Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Every year I try to pick the winners and end up with about a 50% strike rate.  Book Awards are subjective. What might be your jam could be the judge’s tripe stew. I often think that just making the short list is a major cause for celebration. However it was great to catch up with old friends, celebrate their success in being shortlisted and catch up on gossip.

In the writing blogosphere this week Smashwords introduced a special deals extra for their online store and revamped their coupon codes.

David Gaughran tells a cautionary tale of marketing gone wrong at Amazon because of a rogue publishers mistake. If you advertise on Amazon you need to read this.

With the melt down in international politics Anne R Allen helps everyone out with a timely reminder of good online author etiquette.

Joanna Penn has an interesting post from Zsofia Macho of Publish Drive on publishing in other countries. PublishDrive are a service like Draft2Digital but based in Hungary and cover Asia and Europe.

How do prolific writers stay productive? Check out these writing strategies. This is a fascinating insight into the world of the master writer.

If you are a traveling writer... Daniel Smith has some productivity tips to help you enjoy your travels and still do the work.

Kris Rusch talks about negotiating TV and movie deals. It helps if you know exactly what you want. A very interesting post on this market.

Johnny B Truant has an interesting post on Book Covers. Yes they go out of fashion and yes you need expert design help. Johnny shows his cover progression and why they were mistakes.

Since I figured out how to listen to podcasts in the car. I have been dipping into some interesting writing ones. Jennifer Laughran is going from strength to strength with her new podcast on kidslit publishing. Check out this one on publicity.

Lorna Faith has an interesting podcast interview on marketing plans with Nick Thacker and four part story structure.

In The Craft Section,

Two great posts from Go Into The Story- The 3E’s of scene description and

Where you stumble there lies your treasure.

How to write novella’s and why you should- Anne R Allen – Bookmark

When you lose the desire to finish- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

5 things you can do to make your deadlines- Book Marketing Tools

Character motivation- Rescue a loved one- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Challenges of first person POV- James Scott Bell

In The Marketing Section,

How to create pre launch buzz for your book right now- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Book Design Chapter Openers- Joel Friedlander

Corporate Sponsors want to work with non fiction authors

4 social media productivity tips – Frances Caballo - Bookmark

How to use leaflets to market books.

How to build a media kit - Molly Greene- Bookmark

What are the weaknesses in your book marketing platform?- Digital Book World- Bookmark

16000 preorders in 6 months- A case study- Gwynn White

To Finish,

It’s been a week of highs and lows. Productivity has taken a beating. Sometimes you just need to stare at cat gifs... or you can get creative and come up with a Periodic Table for Villains.

Maureen
@craicer

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Rob Schofield

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces every month. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. I went down a rabbit hole this week but I promise the newsletter will go out this weekend... with pictures...

Navigating Writing in the Whirlwind

This week politics filled the news channels. Domestic and foreign policy was under the spotlight. Writers went around in circles trying to make sense of the narratives or gave up and wondered if we had crossed over into a parallel dystopian universe.

I have regularly struggled with the notion of where should I be marketing my books given that I am a children’s writer... Publishing Trends takes an in depth look at this problem that children’s writers face and has some solutions.

Spare a kind thought for Kat Rosenfield who wrote a Vulture article this week on The Toxic Drama of YA Twitter. Readers criticising a manuscript before it is even finished seems to be at the far end of acceptable behaviour. I’m not surprised that Y A authors might be playing it safe after reading this.

So if children’s writers have to play it safe what do they do on Social Media?

Anne R Allen has a great article on her blog on why blogging should be where an author is.

Agent Janet Reid talks about the contact page on your author website and how important it is. It’s not about whether you can be contacted. It’s the way you say it!

Jane Friedman has been hosting some great guest authors on her blog lately. Recently she has a case study by literary fiction author Nicole Dieker who self published her book. This is a fascinating ‘how to’ for a difficult niche.

Also in the case study file Jennie Nash has a terrific article on Why Writers Should Conduct A Performance Review. And you should download her review template. Call it professional development!

Startup Indie Author has gathered together a list of resources of great books, podcasts and articles on launching a new book. I can endorse this list because I have half the books and they are really good. (If you are looking for more information on this subscribe to my monthly newsletter and get my Book Marketing Summit notes for free.)

Kris Rusch has her final post on discoverability and it’s a must read. Kris looks at aggressive growth strategies – No it is not scary... it’s about timing.

Angela Ackerman’s post on authors working collaboratively is still making the rounds and getting comments. If you missed it from last week’s roundup- Check it out!

Tabitha Lord has an excellent article on Writers Digest about editorial calendars and how to use them to juggle the writing life.

In The Craft Section,

Two Bookmark posts from James Scott Bell

Story and Structure in love and  Let your characters breathe

Character motivation-hurting characters- Angela Ackerman

Writing all around your MS- Susan Dennard- Save the Cat-Bookmark

Character transformation in Guardians of The Galaxy- Bookmark

Write yourself into a corner- Janice Hardy – Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Unique swag ideas- Kate Tilton

10 twitter hashtags for writers- Bookmark

Increase book sales – Ryan Holiday

10 things your competition can teach you- Chris Syme

Effective lead magnets- Meera Kothand- Bookmark

Using Beta readers wisely- Shelley Hitz

Market to grow your platform- Matt Aird- Bookmark

To Finish,

Chuck Wendig is always a sure bet for making sense of the turmoil of writing. This week he looked at writing as an act of resource management. This is entertaining and relevant as we all try to find our way through the politics and back to the page.

Maureen

@craicer

My monthly newsletter will be going out this weekend. I round up the best of the 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. I appreciate the virtual coffee love so a big THANKS to everyone who hit the coffee button this week.

Pic: Flickr/ Creative Commons - Jon Aslund