Time Pressure

 

 

This week in publishing,

 

The dynamic duo of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have launched a new writing thesaurus – The Conflict Thesaurus. As usual, there are lots of cool giveaways but first, you have to go through a choose your own adventure in the writing camp of doom. This is lots of fun and the new thesaurus looks amazing. Well done Angela and Becca!

 

The School Library Journal is an important trade journal for teachers and librarians. They recently had an article on the supply chain woes that are beginning to bite. Libraries are starting to see a slowdown in acquiring books. 

 

Joanna Penn interviewed an anthropologist this week on creating cultures. It is fascinating stuff. Are you trying to create cultures for games or book worlds? Find your trusty anthropologist… or dust off those old Uni notes from those courses you did- it turns out that you can have an exciting career in anthropology after all.

 

Paul Simon is releasing an audiobiography. If you thought I spelled that word wrong- I didn’t. Paul has been working with Malcolm Gladwell and recorded an audiobook autobiography with some new music he has been working on. He has also added conversations with his close friends along with stories of his life. It is an expansion of the audiobook format to encompass a documentary for the ears. This offers loads of possibilities to writers wanting unique audiobook ideas.

 

How much do you know about the paper your books are printed on? Do you know what 80 gsm or uncoated means? Jane Friedman has a guest post from Andrew Watson who has delved into the treasure trove of printed paper and compiled a book of tips and explanations for working with printers. 

 

Writer Unboxed has an interesting post from Kathleen McCleary on being a passive protagonist of your own writing life. This gets to the heart of some knotty issues that you may be facing but didn’t know it. 

 

Barb Drozdowich has a guest post on Anne R Allen’s blog on the 5 Indie author mistakes. The first one caught me by surprise- a failure to think globally. As I was reading, I was thinking about the implications of selling yourself short. Are you frightened of success?

 

We are beginning the last quarter of the year and Penny Sansevieri has a timely post on refreshing your book marketing. She suggests 5 core marketing strategies that you do every quarter to keep yourself current. 

 

Angie Hodapp of the Nelson Literary Agency has an interesting post – Genre Isn’t Everything and High Concept Isn’t King. She breaks down stories based on four different types of appeal. This is a great article for looking at your stories in a different way.

 

In The Craft Section,

Using writer’s intuition to solve problems- Laura Highcove - Bookmark

The only reason your story premise is important- K M Weiland - Bookmark

5 tips for nail biting suspense- Savannah Cordova

How and why reading improves writing- Sue Coletta - Bookmark

Are epilogues good or bad?- Mythcreants- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

14 Virtual tour strategies- Leila Hirschfeld- Bookmark

Top 10 tips for a BB featured deal- Draft2Digital

Advertising design elements that impact ad clicks- L A Sartor- Bookmark

How to grow your author social media platform- Frances Caballo- Bookmark

How to do a Multi-author anthologies- This is a fascinating read- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Colleen Story, a writing coach, talks about the four questions you should ask yourself about why you write and whether writing really matters to you. This is a chance to dive deep into your psyche and examine your motivation.

Kristine Rusch has been looking at these questions from the deadline end. Do you have external deadlines? Do you make internal deadlines? Are they stimulating or terrifying?

Are you more productive when someone else is holding the stopwatch? 

 

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: Flickr Creative Commons – William Warby

Any Excuse

 

In Publishing news this week,

Heading into the last quarter of the year and Author social media has been commenting on the saga called Bad Art Friend. I don’t think there are any winners in the story of writers behaving badly. The real winner was the man who got the kidney.

 If you are going to write about a true event – change the details.

 

Dave Eggers is launching a new book. However, he has a caveat. He is only allowing certain bookshops to stock it. Maverick move or cunning publicity stunt- Check out the Guardian article and see who gets the new book.

 

Another publishing platform follows in Wattpad’s footsteps. Techcrunch reports that Inkitt has scored some big money to get into film, audio, and merch, all from an AI figuring out what the top stories are on their platform. While we’re on the tech side- StoryOrigin has launched a Beta reader model for authors.

 

If you have been trying to figure out just how we ended up in a paper – ink - labor - haulage- book shortage, read this explanatory article from Vox. And order your Christmas books now!

 

The New Publishing Standard has an interesting article on Podcastle- an AI podcasting production platform. I went down a rabbit hole checking them out and they really sound interesting. It seems like every week I have something about AI and audiobooks in my blog. This form of publishing is rising like a rocket.

 

Fiction has been renamed. I can see you all scratching your heads and saying To What?  Fiction is now ‘Upmarket Fiction’. Anne R Allen explains how this term became a catch all. I think I’m still firmly in the down-market fiction bookshelves…

 

Kristine Rusch has been musing on writer burnout. When everything gets too much, and you come to a screeching halt in your work what do you do? Do you take your own advice?

Be kind to yourself- We are living in interesting times.

 

Joanna Penn talked with Katie Weiland in the latest Creative Penn podcast. K M Weiland has been writing excellent blog posts on the craft of writing for years and has a series of excellent craft books. (I have some.) Check out the podcast and/or the transcript on outlining. Lots of meaty craft tips.

 

Do you need a Writing Coach? Jane Friedman has a guest post from Seth Harwood, a writing coach, on what it is they do and how to figure out whether you need one.

 

Now Novel has an interesting article on how to develop a story idea. This is chock full of advice so bookmark or print it out to study.

 

In The Craft Section,

7 ways to write pertinent antagonists- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Writing and the art of surrender- Lindsay Syhakhom

How to write conflict without bad guys- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Self editing tips- Write Life

How to kill your side characters- Sacha Black – Bookmark

10 ways to write better plots – Now Novel

 

In The Marketing Section,

Maintaining an Author blog is easy- Anne R Allen – Bookmark

How to be your own book publicist- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Don’t rely on Facebook- Miral Satter- Timely!

Be where your readers are- Frances Caballo

Promote your book before its published- Bookbub

3 simple ways to improve your platform- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

The Alliance of Independent Authors collected a list of craft books that their members think are indispensable. There are some familiar titles on the list. If you are thinking of getting any of them for Christmas, order now.

Every year Kevin Anderson curates an excellent collection of writing craft books for NaNoWriMo. It’s out now and there are some hot off-the-press ones in this collection. As I said in my newsletter- It’s a win/win. The authors get the money directly, you get great books and for another win you get to support a charity.

 

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: Flickr Creative Commons – Daniel Oberhaus (2020)