Are you writing every day?

This week around the publishing blogosphere... 

If you have a Kindle ebook you might have noticed that books are disappearing all over the Amazon ebook store. Nate Hoffelder investigated and found there is a bug loose... 

Meanwhile Mark at The New Publishing Standard (TNPS) has a post about the Amazon’s stock market hit and why we should take notice.

This week some important imprints were dropped or consolidated. For writers this means fewer outlets picking up novels. For the big publishers... are they saving money? 

Mike Shatzkin takes a look at how and why the big publishers are consolidating imprints. 

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s blog for years... He is the master of the short post with the big nugget inside. In this post he talks about the value of daily blogging...- Just think daily writing and there you have a new way of getting your thoughts out there.

Techcrunch has an interesting article on text serials. A writing team has a dark fantasy text serial going through Snapchat. Storytelling is compulsive and comes in all sorts of containers... echos of last NaNoWriMo where I ended up writing a big speech 

It is NaNoWriMo... (National Novel Writing Month.)

All over the world writers are gathering supplies and hunkering down to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Of course there are the rebels out there who commit to writing 50,000 words but spread over different projects or the writers who focus on writing a 500 word picture book a day... because they are...(fill in the appropriate adjective/noun combo.)

Here are a few great links for anyone for needs some NANO inspiration.

Perfectionism and procrastination- Lisa Poisso

How to write a book in 30 days- Now Novel

Faster progress on writing projects – Ali Luke

Two great tools for NaNoWriMo- Angela Ackerman

If you want to treat yourself to some great writing craft books head on over to the Storybundle – NANO page. Every year Kevin Anderson curates some GREAT books and you can get them all very cheaply! (Every year I can’t resist buying them...)

Joanna Penn has a great post from Zara Altair on the three stages of editing.  This is a comprehensive look at what each stage is and how to approach it. A must read and bookmark for November- NaNoEdMo.

In The Craft Section,

Two great posts from K M Weiland-How to turn an idea into a story and

Writing a righteous character- Bookmark Both

What type of secret does your character keep-Writers in the storm

Do you start with protagonist first or situation?- Janice Hardy

When you need to do radical revision- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

3 ways to create a stellar antagonist villain- Screencraft- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

How to target and engage your reader- Bookworks

3 more things to do on Goodreads- Elizabeth S Craig -Bookmark

How to upload and Sell books on KDP- The full rundown from Fitsmallbusiness- Bookmark

Two Bookmark worthy posts from the Bookbub Blog- Biggest bookbub ad mistakes and 50 inspirational marketing tips.

To Finish,

I was noodling around the internet looking at pre made covers for inspiration- Yes there are writers out there who stockpile covers for books they want to write. I’m have all my sci fi series covers ready... but I’m still writing the books. (That was last years NANO project -then I ended up writing a big speech. LOL)  This week I came across this great pre made bookcover site... One of the great features is that you can play around with titles and placement instantly and see what it looks like before you buy... and the covers aren’t expensive at all. Lots of happy playing when I should be writing. 

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter 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 book crammed full with marketing notes. If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee hit the Kofi button up top. Thanks.

Pic Flickr Creative Commons- sure2talk- Quill

Exploring The Future

In The Publishing Blogosphere this week...

October is nearly over... that means writers around the world are preparing for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month.) October is usually prep month for this. It also is filled with things that go bump in the night. Publishing Perspectives takes a look at Serial Box a micro subscription storytelling service that is rolling out Holloween stories in a tag system from writers. Take a look at the future of binge reading.

Last year I received a fancy award that meant I had to deliver a 40 minute speech. The topic of my speech was on storytelling not being dependent on the container it comes in. I mentioned the development of blockchain technology that is set to be a publishing disruptor. This week Sony announced they were getting into blockchain technology as a way to control DRM. The upcoming year will be interesting as other tech companies won’t be left behind.

PublishDrive, Europes fast growing digital distributor are also interested in blockchain. They announced a few exciting developments at Digital Book World. They have improved ebook file generation, along with metadata scraping by AI for keyword generation and they have introduced subscription for authors in royalty payments. Get all your royalties managed for you with a subscription payment. I wonder how many authors will take them up on it...

How well do you know copyright? This week Kris Rusch looks at how Intellectual Property and who has the rights to it, is the name of the publishing game this century. Have you ever stopped to wonder why the publishers want world wide and now universal rights to your stories?

Nathan Hoffelder, besides keeping an eye on all sorts of publishing news also has a nifty page where he lists all the free courses around for authors. Take a look at his big list. There is something there for everyone. He also has an interesting guest post on how readers choose their books... Do you match up?

Jane Friedman has rounded up a best marketing advice list. There are some great gems on it. Have a look and see what you might have missed from my bookmarked links.

Joel Friedlander has got a great collection of ornaments together. What does this actually mean for authors? Ornaments are the little flourishes that you see in books... between scenes or chapters or below headings. They are part of font families. If you format books, ornaments can make a page look snazzy. So a handy collection of where to find these is a bookmark worthy opportunity.

In The Craft Section,

Finding the right sentence to start the story- NowNovel- Bookmark

The usefulness of lists for your writing- Wordstrumpet

Writing office hours- Live write breathe

MS word styles for formatting- Joel Friedlander- Bookmark

7 steps for Beta testing a story- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Should you write faster?- Ali Luke

The 7 deadly sins of Novelists according to Editors

The mirror moment- James Scott Bell/ Mark Tilbury- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

15 secrets to selling more books at events- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

How to use your facebook group to get email leads

How to get a good author photo- Bryn Donovan

Distribution – Should you go wide or narrow? Dave Chesson- Bookmark

Advance Reader Copy sharing- Bookworks- Bookmark

How to write a bestseller- Jeff Goins

To Finish,

Sometimes all you want to do is curl up with a great fantasy novel and forget the world for a while. Spare a thought for the fantasy writer who has to make the world. That’s where a handy map comes in. For some enthusiasts the map is everything. How to map a fantasy world might just help you to plan your escape.

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter 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 book crammed full with marketing notes.
 

Pic Flicker Creative Commons- Captain Nemo