Write Your Own Empire

Recently Danielle Steele was interviewed about her writing day and her answer shocked a lot of writers. No 9-5 for Ms. Steele often 22 hour working days. Aerogramme Studio decided to ask four fiction writers about Danielle's typical working day and what they thought of it. 
Is this what it takes to build an empire?

Anne R Allen is always a voice of sanity around the publishing blogosphere. This week she looked at the psychology of how book scammers work. This is a must share article. There are so many book scammers that prey on the book vulnerable. They are building huge scammy money making empires from the clueless.

Book Expo America ... or the PR room for Book Publishing empires. Bookbub gathered together the hottest trends in promotion at BEA 2019 to share.

Joanna Penn is working on making her name as well known as Jon Snow’s but with a better outcome. She details the steps she went through on her Arc of the Indie Author. Empire awaits.

Celedon Publishing is a new kid on the Trad publishing block in America. However, this didn’t stop them from running a savvy campaign to generate word of mouth for their first book. The Silent Patient launched at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Bookbub took a look at how Celedon achieved this. 

Orna Ross recently wrote on the Alli blog an interesting article on the psychology of success for authors. Do you think self-publishing is second best? It is a fascinating article on growth mindset versus a fixed mindset and got some interesting comments.

Kristine Rusch is at the big licensing fair this week and in her prep for it, she came across an interesting article on the Led Zepplin empire. What does that have to do with writers you wonder? Changes in the music industry hit before changes in the book industry. In many ways, we are following behind the music industry. So when a music publisher suddenly pivots and exploits the backlist of a band... what does that say about where there will be future changes in the book industry? Read this article, especially if you have Trad contracts.

Jami Gold has an interesting post this week on story planning. How tightly do we hold onto our plot details? Is there room for spontaneity? How do TV scriptwriters do it? This is a great craft article to get you thinking.

In The Craft Section,

Stay Thirsty- secret to storytelling- James Scott Bell

Gameify your writing life- Rochelle Melander- Bookmark

When should you stop revising- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Giving writing feedback- Now Novel

Extended metaphors- Reedsy

In The Marketing Section,

How to get free book reviews- Penny Sansevieri

How to use Google Data Studio to analyse Facebook ads- Karley Ice Bookmark

Identify your reader – Chris Well

The most nonsensical terms used in book blurbs- Be Aware- Litreactor- Bookmark

Should you crowdsource your cover design?- Publishers Weekly

To Finish,

Who would be a bookseller? The Guardian recently went in search of booksellers and found quite a few who wouldn’t do anything else. The Indie booksellers had great tales to tell of community building but the fringe bar takes bookselling to another level. Buy a book and receive a complimentary alcoholic drink... My vision instantly leaps to a chain of book bars... An empire in the making.

Maureen
@craicer

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When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

If you know any bright six-year-olds... my Circus Quest books are available. Book 3 has just arrived so there is a sale to celebrate. Click my books page link.

Pic: Iron Throne from Bytesdaily

Author Rewards- Can You Afford An Elephant?

This week around the publishing blogosphere the chat was around author business.
Nate Hoffelder flagged that the new Amazon publishing dashboard has added a projected royalty earnings button. Things must be on the up. Markus Dohle CEO of Penguin Random seems to think so. Talk this industry up he says... 

Every writer has struggled with rejection. Writing is subjective. Not everyone will love what you write. In fact, as a writer, you regularly go through rejection of your own words. Anne R Allen has a fabulous post on rejection and why it feels so awful... 
Writer Unboxed came at rejection from another angle- Are you making writing harder than it needs to be? 

Joanna Penn has been on fire recently with great podcasts that this blog post is in danger of becoming an exclusive ode to The Creative Penn. If you have yet to watch/ listen to a podcast you are missing out on one of the most valuable sources of knowledge about Indie publishing around. Joanna also transcribes her podcasts... so you can read all the great information. So check out Why you need to treat your writing like a business and Joanna’s great interview with Frances Caballo on Pinterest and Instagram. And if you look carefully there are two more links in Craft and Marketing – both Bookmarked!

Understanding metadata and SEO is important in marketing. Miral Satter besides being CEO of Bibliocrunch is also savvy on SEO. (Search Engine Optimisation.) Miral has a must-read post on ways to nail author SEO.

I often wish for a nice team of elves to take over social media marketing and asking for reviews. It is so hard as I hate to bother anyone... Ingram has got a great post on how to build a community and get a team of elves together. Penny Sansevieri has a good post on how to get review recommendations.

Have you often wondered if there was a secret writers club that the big players are members of? There is, it’s called NINC.  They have amembers only newsletter but I recently came across a link to their article on crowdfunding for authors. This put me in mind of Kris Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smiths Crowdfunding campaign that is breaking all sorts of goals. If you donate even a little bit of money you get author workshops... books...courses... Seriously, seriously good prizes and there are only a few hours left...

In a Writer Beware moment – I often come across new writers in writing groups plaintively asking about publishers who want to publish their work if they would pay some money in first. Now there are Hybrid publishers who do a good job for authors and then there are the scammers who don’t. Here is a great article that lays out what you should be looking for to tell the difference. Pass it around- the more everybody knows the better for our industry.

In The Craft Section,

How to write with emotional truth- Bang2write- Bookmark

B speaks for A dialogue tricks- Stephen Pressfield

Using writing sprints- Paul Bonea- Bookmark

How to love self-editing - Hayley Milliman- Bookmark

Flawed characters= Great fiction – Kristen Lamb

9 weird ways to beat writer's block

In The Marketing Section,

How to make the most of Goodreads- Joy Rancantore- Bookmark

Author entrepreneur ethos- Jarie Bolander- Bookmark

Testing Bookbub ads- Bookbub- Bookmark

Choosing a publicist- Jane Friedman

3 simple mistakes to avoid in marketing- Jeff Bullas

Book Hooks and Blurbs- Sacha Black

To Finish,

This little video of A Day In The Life Of An Author popped across my Twitter feed today. I was intrigued by the elephants in the garden... every author has them.
They will be first on the list when I make my millions in royalties... LOL.

Maureen
@craicer

My monthly newsletter is where 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 mini book crammed full with marketing notes. I always appreciate virtual coffee love. If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons William Warby – Elephants at Whipsnade Zoo