In The CON Zone.

I’m just popping up from the world of virtual conferences to write this blog post.

Conferences have been the main topic of the week for me. It started earlier in the week when I had a book association meeting and on the agenda (officially) was conference 2015. Yes I know that is next year...yes I know that it is probably last third of next year... Yes I know that is 18 months away. But when we planned the last National Conference of Children’s Writer’s and Illustrators we started 18 months out. You have to if you want a good Keynote speaker... and other great faculty presenters. You have to if you want a good venue... You also have to find out from your potential attendee’s what they want to learn about. **

Twitter was full of NY2014 SCBWI chat about how awesome it is and was. The great thing about the NY and LA Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is the live blogging that goes on at these events (great for us writers on the other side of the world.) So instead of feeling envious of Kyle (pres of NZSA) getting to go (his choice, he paid for it, he deserved it) you can live vicariously and go visit the blog and scroll down on the right, dropping into those presentations that interest you. (Alternatively you can buy Kyle a couple of beers and pick his brains next time you see him.)

IndieReCon is happening now. 3 days of awesome virtual conference which is free. There are quite a few kids writers on the faculty of this conference which is Genre Writing orientated and very practical for writers looking into Indie publishing. There is lots of info on marketing, book production, agents etc. I started, yesterday, listening to a webinar on Fear and Writing with the Awesome Susan Kaye Quinn. I had already bookmarked her Marketing Indie Mid Grade books post to share here...(Read It!)

In the story that doesn’t die...more commentary on the Author Earnings site and the talking/hand wringing that is going on.

Brian O’Leary on The Empire Strikes Back – if Trad publishers would get past the handwringing and realize the game has irrevocably changed and what they can do about it.

Eoin Purcell on understanding the technology shift where writers have moved quicker than publishers.

Passive Guy (who is also presenting at Indie ReCon) on Mark Coker’s, guest column in Publishers Weekly (subscribers only) this week, reaction to the Author Earnings reports...yes I know that was long winded... (badly worded, it’s late..) just read the link...Passive Guy quotes extensively from the article.

In the Website of the Week

I want to highlight two.

Writer Unboxed is a website that has a large list of contributors. It is like a classy magazine with long form essays exploring some aspect of writing or publishing. The contributors are publishing and writing veterans. Jane Friedman contributed a long form essay from her new magazine Scratch on serial or episodic writing which is fast becoming a reader favourite. This is an examination of what it is and how to do it and who is doing it and why.

Today was #MSWL day on Twitter. Manuscript Wish List. If you type #MSWL into the search bar all the tweets from editors and agents come up of what they want to see. If you have a story that fits that criteria...when you query, following their individual website guidelines, you must put #MSWL in the query. It makes for interesting reading.

In the Craft section,

What is magic realism?

Jody Hedlund on writing scenes- a quick 5 point checklist.

Jami Gold on How to skip the boring parts

Screenwriting – the 3 act structure and how to break it.

Susan Kaye Quinn on tools for helping you write faster.

Larry Brooks on The Bermuda Triangle of Storytelling (Bookmark this!)

In the Marketing section

Bibliocrunch has a list of book sites that do bookpromotion.

Check out IndieReCon....

To Finish,

The Daily Dot has an article looking at the restarting of an authors career in Kindle Worlds...The Kindle Fan Fiction site...ho hum you might think until you find out that the author is L J Smith who was the original writer of Vampire Diaries who found her rights to her own work cut out from under her when she was fired from the TV show of her own creation...

**If you have any ideas for topics to learn about or conference wants... either comment here, on Facebook, or through email. We are preparing a short survey which is coming soon.

To finally finish....Hank Green, Brother of John (half of the Vlog brothers) posted a great Video today on books...its a rant really but entertaining...as only the vlog brothers can be...

maureen

Creating Plan B

Last week the blogosphere was filled with reaction to Hugh Howey’s new website in aid of authors. Hugh got what he wanted, lots of dialogue...lots and lots of dialogue.

Discussion was everywhere. Porter Anderson took a look at what was being said... all sides of the report are being debated (tho interestingly very few traditionally published authors are saying anything at all.)

Last week Hugh’s first report looked at the top selling genre’s. This weeks report he takes a whopping 54,000 sample snapshot and looks at the other genres including childrens books (not YA)

Ebooks are not big in the children’s publishing world, compared to the numbers you see out there for adult genre titles, so it is interesting to get a little look into what might be around the corner.

This week, a friend who teaches in a not very affluent school, down the road, noted that all her kids had ipads and she was looking for good reading apps to download onto them. I would be very interested in seeing the numbers of Educational and Story Apps out there... and I wonder if Transmedia is where children’s publishing may be heading rather than an ebook take up.

Print is still king in the children’s publishing world despite what Hugh says. 

Interesting times...

Among the debates around the reports are the increasing recognition that Hybrid authors (who straddle Trad and Indie) are doing OK. Jami Gold takes a look at this in a very interesting post on hybrid authors and small publishers. 

Julie Muesil guest, Alex Cavanaugh looks at the small publisher side of the equation.

Yahoo Finance blog also weighs in with a publishing is not dying post.

Writer Unboxed has a must read post on Plan B when the career/contract/book dream seems over.

Chuck has written his final post on the subject of selfpublishing... and the report. (usual warnings) He has a great conclusion  ‘We should demand the best and most beautiful of one another. Not encourage the worst and ugliest.’

Passive Guy took some time out to look at a contract story that had the publisher say to the negotiator – You don’t like the contract –self publish...in other words, I aint gonna change it. This brings up all sorts of issues- Take a look.

In Craft,

Elisabeth S Craig looks at the pro’s and con’s of outlining. (I agree with her)

K M Weiland looks at the Antagonist needing a mushy moment...(say what?)

Janice Hardy Looks at what a good proof reader can do for you...(yes yes yes)

Archetypes Vs Stereotypes and Do you know the difference???

5 Voice Tools to help you write without a keyboard...(I’m trying out Evernote)

In Marketing,

One comprehensive post... Seven strategies and over 100 links to find readers and reviewers

The incomparable Kris Rusch (who’s Retrieval Agent story I just raced through) has Part 9 on her 

Discoverability series of marketing blogposts and it is a bookmark read...as is all the others in her series.

Janet Reid Lit Agent explains (begs) how to do a book comparison in a query properly.

Website: The 2nd Indie ReCon Free Online Conference is on next week. 10,000 people dropped in last year... and it was an amazing line up. Check out this years line up and try to catch it. Everything Indie.

To Finish,

Creativity is the one thing we fall back on in our writing... we need to be creative.

Here are two posts on Creativity - 3 Career Investments Every Creative Should Be Making and The Seven Stages Of Creativity -a new perspective on writing a book.

maureen

Pic from Flickr Creative Commons /Evelyn Giggles