Entries Tagged 'Books and Publishing' ↓

Ever wondered how readers find books? It’s certainly one of those topics that’s of interest to publishers everywhere, and to the folks behind the Goodread’s website. They’ve recently posted an Anatomy of Book Discovery: A Case Study using Charles Duhigg’s nonfiction book, The Power of Habit that makes for interesting reading

If you’ve ever found yourself wishing for something akin to  movie review aggregator Rottentomatoes.com for books, you may have gotten your wish. The recently announced iDreambooks aggregates book reviews  from “professional critics”, which translates as reviews from many of the  major American newspapers and magazines. They’re hoping to fill a niche that isn’t serviced by either traditional print reviews or massive online review sites such as bookslut.com or The Millions.

Alan Rinzler has a great post on What should you expect from a developmental editor?

Install your own website or use an established service such as blogger or wordpress.com? Blogging: Self-Hosted or Not? addresses one of the core questions writers face when they decide to initiate their online presence, and presents Pros and Cons from writers on both sides of the argument.

Chris Flynn has a great post about Pathways to Publication over on the Meanjin blog, outlining some of the paths available to Australian novelists seeking publication.

It may not be open for submissions, but poets might be interested in the possibilities that come with Wearable Poetry and its ability to bring an unexpected burst of poetry into public spaces.

Booklife.com has a great post that suggests Success is Like Lightning, complete with the ways in which you can prepare before you’re struck.

Mary Robinette Kowal has been running a series of Debut Author Lessons on her blog, which encompasses topics  from book launches to signing bookstore stock to  signing up for a frequent flyer program.

There’s plenty of advice about long term goal setting for writers, but is this doing more harm than good? A recent study examining the psychology of goal-setting suggests that focusing on the results, rather than the practice, could be doing more harm than good.

Those are the links that caught our attention here at AWM this week. How about you? What posts, opportunities, and rants caught your eye? Let us know in the comments.

First up, a couple of posts you may want pass on to those closest to you. Justine Larbalestier offers advice to friends and family: You Don’t Have to Read My Books. Dave Farland offers more advice for the friends and family who surround the writer: Keeping Writers as Pets.

Author Leah Peterson blogged about receiving a Cease and Desist letter regarding the title of her book recently, which in turn lead to a great blog post on The Passive Voice about the distinctions between copyright and trademark law as it pertains to fiction.

Crikey posted the provocatively titled want to cut filesharing by 40%? Here’s how, citing statistics from a recent study that looked at how many Australian’s file-share and why they do it. The article is primarily focused on film and television file-sharing, but one only has to read Alan Baxter’s I’m an author, take my stuff for free and Jani Patokallio’s post explaining why ebooks will be obsolete in five years to see different takes on the issue of availability as it pertains to prose in ebook form.

Another interesting statistic to consider is the news that Nearly 100% of Publishers Have Seen E-Booksellers Get Their Metadata Wrong. Given how important meta-data is to ebooks, it’s a troubling statistic.

Do you abandon books once you’ve started reading? Book Riot discuses the art of letting go of a book when you’re not enjoying it (Personally, I have to admit, I’ve never quite wrapped my head around this one – I’ll doggedly pursue a book I’m not enjoying right to the very end).

Those are the links that caught our attention at the AWM offices this week. As usual, we’re keen to hear about your favourite links in the  comments – tell us the advice, opportunities, and essays about writing and publishing that caught your attention this week.

Apologies for posting this a little later than usual on a Friday – it’s been a busy week here at the AWM offices with the announcement of GenreCon and the work going on behind the scenes for the next Australian Writer’s Marketplace print edition. But we’re sneaking this in under the wire, and there’s plenty of interesting links for you to chew over on your weekend.

If you’ve paid attention to publishing in recent years, you’ve noticed that everything seems to be changing, and the future looks increasingly uncertain. Other people have noticed too, which is why we recommend the Syllabus for the Future of Reading – a collection of links to books and articles about the future of the book and publishing.

There are myths about writers and there are truths about writers, and one is invariably more interesting than the other. It’s a split that Kim Wilkins looks at in her most recent blog post, What Writers Do, although it’s possible the thing we’re most excited about in that link is the news that there’s a new  novel coming up.

We link to a lot of advice here on the Friday Fry Up, but there’s no doubt that there are times when too much advice is almost as bad as having none at all. For those situations the Booklife blog offers up a handy decision tree that can help you ensure the advice you apply is the advice that will work best for you. They also offer some handy advice should you find yourself in the unenviable position of choosing to leave your agent.

If you’re interest in scriptwriting then the 2012 Neighbors Initiative is a great opportunity. The Australian Writers’ Guild and FremantleMedia Australia are giving  two writers the opportunity to spend 6 weeks with the story department of Australia’s favourite television serial, learning the ins and outs of writing for television.

There’s a great live-blog of the London Book Fair Digital Minds Conference that covers topics such as the development of JK Rowlings website, Pottermore, and the blurring line between writers, readers, and publishers in the digital realm. Lots of interesting reading and well worth checking out.

There’s so much discussion surrounding Amazon’s role as a bookseller that its easy to forget that they’ve started their own publishing arm. Paid Content’s article in which Larry Kirshbaum shares details on how Amazon Publishing will work offers a slightly different conversation than the ones we ordinarily hear about the Amazon brand.

And those are the links that have caught our attention this week – how about you? Let us know about any interesting links we missed in the comments.

We’ve got a handful of links for you on this Good Friday Fry-up, although we’re keeping things short this week so you can get back to your long weekend.

To start off there’s a handy article over on The Book Deal about Book Marketing and Publicity: Advice from Three Experts. While some of the questions asked revolve around the changes in the book publicist’s role, there’s plenty of advice there for those looking to start promoting their own work (afterwards you might want to check out Mashable’s feature, 4 Tips for Authentic Online Engagement).

There’s also an interesting article in the New York Times about the wave of teenage novelists that have resulted from the boom in self-publishing and print-on-demand models.

The new Queensland Premier has axed the QLD Premiers Literary Awards this week, sparking a number of responses from commentators in Queensland and Australia Wide. If you want to see what the literary community’s been saying, there’s a handy list of links to blogs and articles being curated by Queensland Writers Centre.

When Chuck Wendig posts something titled How to Be a Full-Time Writer, you can be guaranteed of three things: it’ll involve swearing and abrasive language; plenty of people will be offended; and it’ll contain twenty-five pieces of useful advice on how to start writing full-time.

Writers who are trying to figure out which idea they should focus on might want to check out Writer Unboxed for the next couple of weeks – they’ve just launched a series on developing an idea from story seeds written by Donald Maass.

Those are the links that caught our attention this week – how about you? As always, we’d love to see your favourite writing and publishing links shared in the comments.

Google advice, e-publishing advice, getting Australian novels published, and a reader’s guide to travelling without being disturbed. These are the things that ‘caught our attention this week – how about you? If there’s a interesting writing or publishing link we missed, let us know in the comments.

Why is it so hard to get Australian novels published? Call My Agent answers the question with a question – when was the last time you bought an Australian novel? - and a fairly simple solution.  Not, it’s argued, that this is entirely the readers fault.

A few weeks back Jane Friedman posted 10 Questions to Ask Before Committing to Any E-Publishing Service before you commit. It’s great advice for anyone wanting to educate themselves about the basics of producing and distributing e-books.

While we’re on the topic of ebooks, the momentum blog touched on one of the difficulties of the medium for writers who like to stretch the limits of narrative. Their Experimenting with form and structure in ebooks is a recipe for confusion post is interesting, but even more exciting is the question of what experimental writers will do when the ebook does come of age as its own medium (and if you are interested in such things, we’d really encourage you to follow the if:book Australia blog as they explore the future of books and publishing).

If you’re in the habit of using Google for your writing research, these 10 Google Search Tricks could help you find what you’re looking for and get back to writing that little bit quicker.

And finally, if you’re planning on travelling in the near future, you might want to check out The Misanthrope’s Guide to Reading While Travelling (or How to Be Left Alone) for some tips on getting some reading done while in transit.

March is one of my favourite parts of the year, often because news starts to filter through from literary festivals and writers conferences that take place around the country. Which is why we start this Friday Fry-Up with news that the National Young Writers Festival will take taking proposals now from people who want to be involved when the Festival takes place in September.

Registrations are also open for the Romance Writers of Australia’s 21st Annual Conference . It takes place on the Gold Coast from the 16-19 of August and their featured guests include Eloisa James, Alexandra Sokoloff, Monique Patterson, and Helen Breitwieser.

From the writers events coming to the future we move to one going on right now – the Adelaide Writers Festival is in full swing at the moment and there’s a dedicated team of attendees live-tweeting the sessions for those of us who can’t make it.

If you need a little help getting into a writing mood this weekend, try checking out John Steinbeck’s thoughts on The Art of Fiction over at the Paris Review. Even if you’re not familiar with Steinbeck’s work, his Six Rules for Getting Started are some inspirational reading.

If you’re in a more practical mood, Jane Friedman’s advice for Building a More Effective Author Site is a great way of giving your online presence a quick check-up. Run down the list of five things Friedman believes every site should have, and ensure you’re not making one of the five most common mistakes.

Finally, UK writer Kerry Wilkinson’s Misadventures in Publishing post over on Futurebook traces his journey from best-selling self-published writer to his recent deal with Pan Macmillan. Wilkinson comes off as a very smart, passionate writer who looks at both traditional and e-publishing with an eye towards building the career he wants to have, rather than the career others are expecting him to have.

That’s the news and blog-posts that’s had our interest this week – how about you? Post your favourite writing, publishing, and freelancing links in the comments and let us know what we missed.

Tip 1: Write scene breakdowns

I find scene summaries very helpful in large works but any short that’s ‘lost the plot’ can benefit too. Write a sentence or two for every scene or change in POV. Then you can see how to get things a move on…which characters need to get busy making trouble or blocking the way or finding a way out. 

I write scenes to find out what’s going to happen next and I also plan big story arcs, like what do I want to happen at the end of this book? Since I write mostly in trilogies, I need to have some idea, if for nothing else than telling my publisher. They like to know where you are going, even if you change halfway there…

Tip 2: Set a word count goal

Setting that word count goal is vital. I always write to a goal. It helps!

Reminder: tonight’s Writing Race special guest will be award-winning US fantasy writer Jeff VanderMeer (www.jeffvandermeer.com).

This is a unique opportunity to write alongside Jeff, who will be joining us from the US.

To take part, visit www.awmonline.com.au shortly before 8pm tonight. All welcome!

At tonight’s Writing Race, we will welcome crime fiction writer Katherine Howell, the author of Violent Exposure and Cold Justice. To find out more about Katherine, visit www.katherinehowell.com.

To have some fun and gain feedback from Katherine on your own writing, feel free to join us at www.awmonline.com.au at 8pm.

All welcome!

During last night’s (3 May) Writing Race, our special guest author, James Moloney, shared some fascinating insights into how he engages with his young adult readers.

Here are some of James’s experiences and tips:

Writing for teenage boys

‘I was a teacher librarian and that was where I got a lot of the background for my boys’ stuff. The boys were a real inspiration for my writing, too. I used to imagine I was writing for specific groups of kids I knew by name.

‘I was a very sporting boy and understand that mindset, but I later became quite (quasi) intellectual and there are many boys who seek that. What got me into books after years of rejecting them as a boy was the thirst for ideas that my mind was feeling in my late teens. Ditto, there are many boys in the same boat. There is a general sense that setting texts can put kids off. I didn’t really get into books until the final two years of high school, when the books we were set, Lord of the Flies and The Power and the Glory, spoke to something inside me. Both are very masculine books, too, yet the main protagonists are vulnerable and by no means ‘tough’ types. The way we studied the texts (in an all-boys school) was instructive, too. We took the plots apart a like a car engine and looked at how the symbolism fitted together. I loved that and began to look for it in other books. That got me hooked and pretty soon I was saying, "I could do this, too."

‘I like kids and find writing for them keeps me young. I wish there was a magic formula in working out the best books for a class set situation but I never did discover what it is. For boys, though, you need to understand that boys don’t read as quickly as girls, on the whole. They simply don’t process the text as easily and therefore books that take a while to describe things and get to the point are hard work. You can talk about Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet as a classic boys’ book because it is all about what a kid has to do to survive through a winter in the forest on his own. But I think the success of this book is the brevity with which it is written and the way he has avoided going into detail about the boy’s emotions. That is not to say that book is without emotion or that it doesn’t evoke a great deal in the reader. There’s something to think about – giving a blow-by-blow inventory of a hero’s or heroine’s emotional experience isn’t necessarily the way to help a reader explore his/her own emotions. That is a personal thing experienced within the reader, and can come about with a quite minimalist stimulus from the writer.’

Writing for teenage girls

‘I do what I have always done with my stories: I try to put myself into the shoes and therefore the mindset of the character. I have two daughters and watched them through their teen years which helped and I remember girlfriends from my own youth which must also have fed into the mix. I know the simple things – that girls are focused more on relationships than what happens, but I have always been a plot-driven writer and to stop doing that would put me out of my zone. So lots of things happen in my new movel, Silvermay. I make my heroine the centre and I examine her heart’s response to some of the things she does, more than I would with a male character.

‘With dialogue, I switch to the way I hear the female voice and put that on paper. Blokes can do that if we have an "ear".’

Writing romance in Young Adult fiction

‘Where I have gone for a romance, such as in Touch Me and Kill the Possum, the relationship has been integral to the plot, a real driving and motivating factor.

‘Romance and "love scenes" among teenagers aren’t really that much different from adults. There is no plumbing, of course, unless you are courting controversy and probably won’t get published anyway. It is about the emotion and feelings of the characters and because teenagers feel things more intensely and are new to the experience of love, they tend to expect too much of others and of themselves. I haven’t yet created a relationship between teenagers that I see as becoming permanent. I think this is honest. Teenagers are lovers on training-wheels and they expect to fall off, even though they will not feel that way at the time.

‘Honesty from an adult who is writing for teenagers is paramount, so give the readers insight into the thrill and also the letdowns – that’s my view.’

To find out more about James Moloney, visit www.jamesmoloney.com.au