Sometimes you just need coffee

(to stop you reaching for the bottle…)

This week the Cilip Carnegie and Cilip Kate Greenaway medals were announced. These awards are for the best children’s book and best illustration published in The United Kingdom. There were two things that stood out for me when I read about the winners.

The Cilip Carnegie went to a dyslexia-friendly independent publisher- Barrington Stoke for Lark by Anthony McGowan. This is a win for all those publishers who take publishing risks to make books accessible to children who struggle with reading. The other winner caught me by surprise- I am so used to seeing Shaun Tan’s brilliant work that I thought he had probably won it before. Not only is he a first-time winner of the illustration prize but he is the first winner in the history of the prize to be a person of colour. (Fill in your oath of surprise here.)

The Black Writers Guild sent an open letter to UK publishers, this week, making specific requests to tackle inequalities and representation in the publishing business. It was signed by over 100 Black authors. The publishers have responded with many saying that they will do better… 

Meanwhile across the pond – The Department of Justice is suing Senator Bolton over his forthcoming book in an attempt to halt publication. You can’t buy this kind of publicity and Simon and Schuster know this…They are promoting three books with all their free publicity, including a tell-all from the president’s niece and a biography of the president’s wife.

Mark Coker of Smashwords writes an annual crystal ball prediction at the beginning of each year. Today he released a crystal ball prediction for life in publishing after Covid 19.

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware has updated her post on 6 things to watch out for in contract clauses. It is a very good guide for how to spot red flags. I watched a twitter exchange today between two big Science Fiction Authors about contract negotiations and saw one advise the other to get limited terms. This means when the rights revert back to the author. Savvy authors are now putting this into their contracts- although it’s a fight. Many writers are asking for Limited Terms for Rights Reversal for a period of way under 10 years. 

Jami Gold is taking some time to reassess how much time she puts into her blog. As much as she loves to write one of the best writing process blogs around she also needs to watch her health. This is a timely reminder to readers of her popular blog. Are you doing too much and neglecting your health? Cutting back is better in the long run than falling over completely. 

Derek Murphy of Creative Indie has written some interesting workaround posts over the years. Here he takes a look at the review policy of Amazon in particular the ARC’s review policy. How can you work around their rules to get reviews?

Along with interesting posts, Derek also makes available great tools to help writers. Here is a free novel outlining template for Scrivener. (Derek is also the guy behind Free DIY Bookcovers and the 3d book cover generator)

Mark Tilbury has a great post on the mirror moment in your writing. If you aren’t sure what it means check out the post. He gives a shout out to James Scott Bell’s Book – Write Your Novel From The Middle- which is superb.

In The Craft Section,

 2 Great Posts from Angela Ackerman – How To Avoid A Half Baked Idea and How to describe a location you’ve never visited -Bookmark Both!

A-Z of Character Archetypes- Wordhunter- Bookmark

Determine your raison detre as a writer- Katherine Grubb

Weaving The Backstory- Anne Hawkinson

How to become a writer- C S Lakin

In the Marketing Section,

2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri -How to market a book with a virtual event  and The ultimate guide for authors on SEO- Bookmark Both!

Go Local first for book publicity- Joan Stewart- Bookmark

When book sales limp along- Judith Briles

Blurbing and being Blurbed – Barbara Linn Probst

To Finish,

From time to time I mention author book collectives and how the power of a group can supercharge your writing success. I have mentioned Triskele books before but recently Roz Morris interviewed the founders for an in-depth look at what makes their collective work.

Last week I had fun doing dictation into my word document although I noticed that I was mostly writing dialogue. Bang2Write has a great post on writing 1000 words before 9 am. Not quite sure how they say you can do it without coffee tho.

Maureen

@craicer

My monthly newsletter will be coming soon. I round up the best of my bookmarked links and other assorted tips.

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.

Pic: Flickr – Creative Commons –  Daniel Cadenas

All Aboard

This week in the publishing trenches… 

Marches are still ongoing to highlight BLM. This week there was a frank interview with two Young Adult writers about Police Brutality, Y A Literature, and the Nuances of Black Storytelling. It is a sobering and candid interview about all the expectations the writers carry and how their work is made invisible in the publishing world. Along with this interview, I saw another which highlighted that publishing, dominated by a particular world view, perpetuates the stereotypes because that’s what they think the public understands. A writer who was writing a factual account of her experiences in prison found that because her story didn’t fit the stereotypical story she had difficulty getting published. 

 

Can the reading public cope with stories selected from outside a narrow band of white university-educated middle-class gatekeepers? A data analysis that came out this week on the New York Times Bestsellers list which answered this question. The figures are confronting.

 

The inequality in publishing was again highlighted this week with the hashtag #PublishingPaidMe.

Here writers were asked to lay out their publishing deals. This was brave of many and the numbers confirmed what many writers suspected.

 

With all the focus this week on publishing deals, Jane Friedman pulled together a list of questions that writers should be asking their editors or agents about deals. As you run your eye over it think about the deal in a business way. If you substitute the term “book” for a “super new gadget” wouldn’t the answers to these questions be the bare minimum in a business deal? How many writers even have these conversations?

 

With writers in the firing line, behind the firing line, or fueling the fires, a couple of articles tried to make sense of the turmoil.

Barb Drozdowich had an interesting article – Who are your readers? Do you piss them off?

Kris Rusch wrote an extra article today on Speaking out. Do you stand up for what you believe or play it safe in public?

 

Anne R Allen has been annoyed once too often this week on scammy online marketing solicitations. This fueled a blog post rant on why content marketers can really miss their mark with bloggers. I completely agree with her. I don’t get as many solicitations in a week as she does, but I do get them. In 12 years of writing this weekly blog, I can think of only about five times that I got a solicitation that I actually used, and three of those were from Reedsy when they were just starting out and proved that they read my blog. 

 

After all the battering to a writer’s mental health this week, it was interesting to read an article about caring for your back. This is timely as I write this curled up on the couch, my back not as supported as it could be. You don’t want to get writer’s back!

 

Gabriella Pereira of DIYMFA is in the middle of a virtual conference with a long list of writing interviews over two weeks. There is something for everyone in her guest lineup.

In The Craft section,

4 ways to make the most of your supporting characters- Shaun Leonard

A deep dive in points of view- Amanda Bennet- Bookmark

10 ways to keep writing when you would rather be doing other things- Meg Dowell

Script analysis – Knives Out- Scott Myers

Making a good first impression with our characters- Jami Gold- Bookmark

Writer Igniter- Writer prompt app for brainstorming- DIYMFA- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to pitch radio and become a talk show guest- Sandra Beckwith

Take your career to the next level- Mark Dawson and Joanna Penn – Bookmark

How to promote your books right now- Rachel Thompson

How to use your book cover for marketing – miblart- Bookmark

6 tips for marketing on your author central page- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish- on a positive note

Every now and then you come across an offer that looks too good to be true. Nick Stephenson sent an email out this week with a link to the latest infostack bundle for writers.  He is part of it but he took the time to investigate everything on offer… and over $4000 of products were in the bundle which is only $49 this week. So head on over and check it out.

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.

 

Pic: Titanic