The Unexamined Life

This week there was lots of chat around the writing watercoolers about the surprise of a joint win at The Booker awards and then came a surprising tell-all complaint about the judges and the process from one of the publishers of a shortlisted book. The whole process seems to be murky and not what you would expect from a high-end literature prize.

Meanwhile, Writtenword Media released its author income survey, for everyone who hasn’t won The Booker. Yes, we aren’t making much money but they drill down into who is and how you can change things.

This week Jane Friedman looked at the current trends over 2019 in book publishing. Publishers have finally caught on to Backlist reprints for serious money. Audiobooks and graphic novels for children (reading by other means) and there are problems ahead for the midlist children’s authors. 

Roger Packer explains the backlist experiments that the Traditional Publishers are doing... but have they got it all wrong with the pricing? In an Alliance of Independent Authors piece, Eliza Green comments on a reader rebellion... over the pricing and breaking up of Patricia Cornwall’s latest book. Amazon may have thrown their prize catch under a bus.

It’s been a while since we heard from Chuck who has been facing some pretty hefty life changes recently. This week he looks at Writer Self Care and the delicate balancing act a writer has to do to produce Art while not falling apart. 

Anne R Allen has a very thought-provoking blog this week on unexamined beliefs in writing. Do you know someone who has sabotaged themselves over a belief that is untrue but seems hardwired into their brain? So it is with writing. Are you holding on to beliefs that are sabotaging your writing?

Kris Rusch is also looking at the writing business. How are you examining the choices you make in your business? Are you leaping from one thing to another or are you examining the way carefully? Does that mean you may miss out on opportunities?

Unleash your storytelling superpower! Gabriela Pereira of DIYMFA has a new series looking at how to identify the specific archetype that you are drawn back to again and again. 

In The Craft Section,

The 10 step checklist for writing a better than average novel- K M Weiland- Bookmark

5 misunderstandings that keep writers from Plotting- Mary Buckham

How To Develop Your Book Idea- Now Novel – Bookmark for NaNoWriMo

The Ins and Outs of Internal Dialogue- Writersinthestorm- Bookmark

Pre plotting a novel – Martha Aalderson

Tips for NaNoWriMo

In The Marketing Section,

10 best Book Trailer types- Adam Cushman 

The 30 scariest author website mistakes- Pauline Wiles- Bookmark

Building a fan base- Angela Ackerman

How To Write A Book Blurb- Tara Sparling- Bookmark

You can now add audiobook codes to your Universal Book Link – Yay!

To Finish,

With all the stress factors involved in writing why would you do it? Give it all up and leave it to Artificial Intelligence. Yes, AI’s are writing books and designing book covers. You can buy a print book today, untouched by a human hand. ( A quick examination shows they probably aren’t suitable for The Booker, yet.)

Maureen
@craicer

My monthly newsletter is due out this weekend. It's a long weekend here so there are no excuses... (kids, garden, market bookstalls... I will prevail...)When you subscribe to the newsletter you 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.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Thomas Galvez

Planning For The Future

This week I have been thinking about Preptober and the drive to write a novel in a month. I was listening to Joanna Penn’s interview with Grant Faulkner, the executive director of NaNoWriMo and the comment came up that even if you don’t write your 1700 words in a day or you binge write and take day-long breaks- you are still laying a foundation of habit. The habit of writing. 

While we are in Preptober... Reedsy has a roundup of things to help you prepare for November. Perry Elisabeth has 15 simple things to help you survive NaNoWriMo
If you are wondering about giving dictation a go in November check out Daily Writing Tips. They recently had an article about dictating books into speech recognition software. There are writers who absolutely swear by this. 

Jami Gold has been thinking about vision and goals. How do we know we have succeeded in our goals if we never articulate them? Jami has gathered together great worksheets and resources to help with goal setting and author business.

Over in the Publishing world, it’s Frankfurt Book Fair, one of the biggest industry book fairs in the world. Publishing Perspectives reported on the opening keynotes. Did you know that Netflix is sourcing content from books in translation? They are looking at best sellers in other languages and then creating a TV series. Book then TV show.

The other keynote that caught my eye was the warning to the publishing industry about the rise of AI and what that may mean for copyright going forward. This is a hot new topic and one that is getting a lot of traction from publishing commentators. Last week I linked again to Joanna Penn’s article on how she thinks AI will impact the author community. Keep an eye on this tech development.

Mike Shatzkin keeps an eye on the publishing industry. He has been a commentator and consultant on publishing and future predictions for over 40 years. Recently he published an article on the 7 ways publishing will change in the next few years. Backlist will be king and watch out for major changes in Non-Fiction publishing.

The other writer I like to go to is Kris Rusch. She also has a long history in the publishing industry. She has edited, commissioned, written just about every type of writing there is. In this weeks article, she looks at the three types of writers that are in publishing now. She predicts only one of them will survive. 

Kris references that article that I commented on last month. If you are still trying to get to grips with what a book deal means and what an advance is check out this article from Electric Literature where an agent explores the ins and outs of a book deal.

James Scott Bell has a great post on How To Describe Your Main Character. You may think duh, but how often do you write a list of attributes? Do you sprinkle them in your writing or avoid it altogether? This week I had a conversation about this with a writer from a minority culture. I have tended to avoid descriptions thinking readers would fill in their own preferences until it was suggested to me that readers have been conditioned to expect that the character will always be white, able-bodied and without glasses unless specifically stated otherwise.  Hmm. Lots of food for thought for me. I imagine all my characters as mixed race. I don’t know why because I’m not. I have never described skin tone deliberately in my writing, maybe it’s time to start. 

In The Craft Section,

How to create an antihero- Icy Sedgwick

Rules – do we need to follow them?


How to proofread- TCK Publishing

Watching out for redundancy- Jami Gold- Bookmark

A story idea each day- Go Into The Story- Bookmark

Tweak boring stereotypical white dudes- Litreactor- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

How to build a long term career- James Scott Bell

Two great posts from Penny Sansevieri- Using competing book titles for book marketing and 12 questions I’m always asked about Book Marketing- Bookmark

3 reasons to start planning Christmas Social Media campaigns now- Frances Caballo

Using kindle keywords- Dave Chesson (New research from Dave.) – BOOKMARK

Tips for compelling book description Part Two

To Finish,

Every year the good folks at Storybundle put together a special bundle for NaNoWriMo. Over the years I have filled my Kindle up with great writing craft books from these bundles. Take a look at this year's Nano Storybundle. The money goes directly to the authors, a little bit goes to charity, you get a great bargain... WIN/WIN

Maureen
@craicer

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter?
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.

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