Entries Tagged 'social media' ↓

We kick this fry-up off with a boldly-titled article from John Barber: There Will Be No More Professional Writers in the Future. It takes a pessimistic point of view of the changes undergoing publishing, bringing forth a series of arguments about the aggregation of free content and the rise of self-publishers who have outflanked the traditional industry.

In contrast, Stephanie Lauren’s  has delivered the keynote at this years RWA conference in the USA that celebrates the changes in publishing and the ability to focus on connecting with readers, rather than publishers, as the measure of success.

Guy Kawasaki looks at the increasing lack of limitations in his Doctrine of Self Publishing post at the Kirkus site. While his Doctrine post is all about the advantages of self-publishing, it’s followed up by Plan C in Self-Publishing that succinctly outlines some of the things that self-publishers are giving up.

DearAuthor.com have been following the Roni Lauren lawsuit regarding pictures used on her blog, and have posted The Principle of Fair Use and Image Use for Bloggers.

There’s a language warning on this link, but it’s a great one for when you get stuck. Help Me Be Fucking Creative uses twitter to curate a list of advice for creatives who a suffering a creative blank, and offers up one pearl of wisdom every time you go to the site.

J. W. Manus argues that Electronic Files Shouldn’t Be This Hard that talks about what is, and isn’t, achievable with current ebook conversion technology.

Rachel Hill offers up some advice about approaching magazine editors with freelance submissions.

Jane Gleeson-White has blogged about her experiences at the Reality Bites non-fiction literary festival.

Porter Anderson asks What if your platform becomes your shadow career?

Finally, there’s been a run of guest-post at Louise Cusack’s site every Wednesday, covering topics such as How to use a writing contest to score a book contract, dealing with the media, and some advice on self-publishing an ebook from an Australian perspective.

First up, a handful of links for writers just beginning to build their online platform. The Booklife Now blog offers seven core pieces of advice for those new to blogging in So You Want To Star A Blog, covering everything from scheduling to platform.  It’s a good base-line understanding for newcomers.

We also recommend YA-author Lili Saintcrow post about Basic Internet Safety for Authors. It’s a topic that’s frequently under-represented in terms of advice aimed at authors, and we’d be interested in hearing about the kinds of precautions Speakeasy members have instituted.

Finally, a cautionary tale from Roni Lauren, who discovered that You Can Be Sued for Using Pics On Your Blog without getting the permission of the copyright holder. Lauren’s tale is based on an innocent mistake, perpetuated throughout the internet, and her post includes some advice on where to find images that can be used safely.

From promotion we move onto process, with Christina Katz’s advice on How to Impress the People You Interview. Conducting a successful interview is one of those things that seems easier than it is, so we’re happy to consume any advice we can on the topic.

YA author Justine Larbalestier has posted a streak of great content over the last couple of weeks, but we’ll cherry-pick our favourite and direct you towards her post on Becoming a Brand versus Writing What You Want and, ’cause we’re feeling a little retro, her 2008 post on rewriting which is a perennial favourite we were reminded of by one of Justine’s more recent posts.

In other parts of the internet, Australian author Kim Wilkin’s celebrates publishing over 2 million words of fiction by sharing some particularly blunt advice about writing. The link does come with a language warning, but with twenty novels in publication, we’re prepared to overlook a curse-word or three.

We get a little digital when The Hub poses the question: Have eReaders Killed the Book Cover, which was a particularly timely question in light of our post about ebook covers earlier this week. Does the adoption of a thumbnail sized image destroy the book cover, or does posing a new design challenge simply create new opportunities?

Finally, Mashable presents a round-up of 8 Tools to Create Irresistible Ebooks. The tools actually cover each stage of the process from production to process, and includes some old Fry-Up favourites such as 750words.com.

Those are the links that caught our attention around the office this week – how about you? Let us know about anything we’ve missed in the comments.

Writer and critic offers up 14 Definitions of What Makes a Classic, courtesy of Brian Pickings.

What do writers block and Evel Knievel have in common? More than you’d think, according to C. G Blake and his post Mind the Gap: Strategies for Getting Past Writers Block over at Writer Unboxed. Blake’s notion of the gap as it relates to writers block makes for some interesting reading.

Ken Scholes talks about Writing Rituals over on Genrealtiy, which probably caught my eye because I read it immediately after finishing The Power of Habit and starting to ponder my own writing rituals. I foresee a few weeks spent paying particular attention to the queues I use to tell myself get writing now as a result.

In the world of social media even a familiar tool, such as facebook or twitter, can change without warning. That’s why Mashable offers 6 Ways to Stay Ahead of Social Media that’s recommended reading for any writer whose interested in their online platform.

Speaking of social media, Australian fantasy author Trudi Canavan posted A Pinterest Guide for Authors based on her early experiences with the platform.

Over on Digital Book World, Bob Mayer is Throwing out a flag of truce in the publishing war.

Finally, in the lead-up to Readercon in the US, Julia Rios has offered up Tips for Moderating Panels at Conventions.

Those are the links that caught our attention this week – how about you? Let us know about any interesting writing and publishing links, sites, or blogs in the comments.

Story Shots has a list of 22 Storybasics I’ve picked up in my time at Pixar, featuring a range of advice from the expected (“1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes”) to the surprising (#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?).

From Scribendi, there’s Five Habits to Avoid in Fiction that should prove handy to anyone at the stage of editing a short story or novel.

YA author Lili Saintcrow posts about how she doesn’t believe in writer’s block, taking apart many of the usual excuses people are using when they use the phrase. And, honestly, I’m a fan of any advice that ends with “now go kick some pen-and-ink ass.”

Writers’ Unboxed has a post on How to Maximize Ebook Royalties and Minimize Hassles that details the royalty rates used by many of the major ebook markets and aggregators. Meanwhile, Indie Jane looks at some of the changes that have taken place in the Amazon ranking algorithm.

Authonomy has an interview with Dave Kuzminski, Editor and founder of the website Preditors and Editors, about identifying a legitimate opportunity versus dealing with a predator. As always, we recommend the Predators and Editors site alongside Writer Beware as tools that every well-informed writer should know about.

Caitlin Mur offers some advice for entering Zen Mode in Wordpress - a useful tool for any writer whose using the popular blogging platform to host their website. It transforms the writing portion of the blog into a full-screen mode, allowing you to craft without being distracted by Wordpress’ various bells and whistles.

Kickstarter has been getting a lot of press as a crowd-funding resource for artists recently, largely driven by the success of various musicians and game companies (Australian’s aren’t able to access the site as kickstarters, only supporters, but there are local alternatives such as Indiegogo offering the same service). Despite it’s increasing media attention, it’s interesting to note that more than half of the projects listed on Kickstarter never get off the ground, and that publishing focused kickstarters are statistically less likely to get off the ground.

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.

We open our Fry-Up with the news that the Spunc (the Small Press Underground Networking Community) has announced its Inaugural Independent Publishers Conference and a new prize for small publishers, The Most Underrated Book Award. The conference is set to take place at the Wheeler Centre, Melbourne, in November of this year.

Writer’s Beware has a great post about Vetting an Independent Editor, and another dedicated to the editing clauses you should look for in your publishing contracts.

There’s been some great advice about promoting books come our way this week. Jane Friedman offers 4 Ways to Immediately Improve Your Book Marketing Efforts, covering the best ways to leverage social media and more in four quick steps. If you’re struggling to identify the gatekeepers Friedman mentions in her article, the advice on offer in Livehacked’s How to find the perfect audience for your book, and sell it to them may help you when you’re brainstorming.

There are always days when social media doesn’t seem like it’s worth the effort, but Australian Author Jody Hedland offers up 8 Reasons Not to Quit Social Media When You’re Burned Out. Meanwhile, ReadWriteWeb offers up a great post about the history and use of twitter #Hashtags.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch has a great post about Traditional publishing, DIY, and finding the right balance between  Time and the Writer.

WorkingWriters has a great post with 10 Crucial Proofreading Tips that can help you put together a rigorous proofing routine. I find their third suggestion - Create a customized proofreading list that is particular to the writer’s habits – is particularly useful.

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.

According to the New York Times the rise of the ebook market has come with one indelible truth for writers: One Book a Year is Slacking Off. It seems writers in every genre are being asked to produce that little bit faster – whether it’s an extra story or novella, or a whole new series of books.

This isn’t the first time such things have been posted either – the publishing world is undergoing upheaval and the long-term tactics that make a successful writer seem to be changing with them. It’s easy to turn yourself into a nervous wreck when this kind of news comes out, which is why we’re coupling it with Monica Valentinelli’s response to the Times article, Where Author Insecurity Comes From.

Another follow up – albeit with a slightly different tone – is Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s response taking issue with the Times articles characterisation of 2,000 words of fiction a day as a “brutal” writing schedule. Her response moves from examining the double standard being applied, given the author of the times article wrote four additional articles that week that were easily a thousand words long, then looks at some of the elements of genre and publisher expectations prevalent in the original article.

When Self-Publishing is More Useful as a Marketing Tool is a great post about one of the core things that’s overlooked when it comes to successful self-publishing – shifting your mindset from writer to creative entrepreneur – and why self-published ebooks can still be useful even if you aren’t interested in being a small business. Joanna Penn’s Self Publishing and the Definition of an Indie Author covers similar territory, and it’s a great post for anyone interested in the difference between Indie and Self-Published.

The April e-Book Cover Design Awards have been posted over on Bookdesigner.com. The commentary is a great resource for any writer wanting to learn the basics of ebook cover design.

Mashable offers up a Beginners Guide to Facebook – a great primer for anyone who’s just starting to dabble in the social media field and build their online platform. Already a Facebook fan? Mashable also has a post containing 10 Facebook Tips for Power Users that can help you fine-tune your engagement with the social media site.

Over on The Idea Logical Company Mike Shatzkin puts forward the argument that Everyone In Hollywood Needs an eBook Strategy. It’s a brilliant essay in and of itself, but it also name-checks a couple of projects I hadn’t heard of prior, such as the recent move by Warner Brothers to release over 300 classic film scripts in digital formats.

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.

YA author Diana Peterfreund posted a glib-but-accurate list post about the difference between Revising and Rewriting earlier this week, but even more interesting was the follow-up post about the way the process changes once you’re a writer under contract.

In keeping with the YA theme, Malinda Lo has a great post on Writing about Kissing. It’s a great examination of various kinds of kissing scenes, with examples and details on why they work.

Ever wondered what a publisher or writer really means? The Intern has posted a bunch of amusing euphamisism used by publishers, writers, and people querying agents about their submitted manuscripts.

If you spend enough time listening to the internet you may come to believe that writers are in a perpetual state of war with themselves, trying to balance the demands of getting things written with the need to build a platform to promote their work. Fortunately there are some very sensible things said over on Writer Unboxed about Writing versus Platform on when to give each the most focus.

Last week we mentioned Seizure publishing’s Viva La Novella competition, but if you’re still trying to wrap your head around the form then Daniel Torday’s essay on The Secret Life of Novellas can point you towards some texts you probably hadn’t considered to be part of the novella camp.

The Other Side of the Story is running a great series on becoming productive as a writer. Part Three went live this week, although the first two installments are still available and it looks like there’s more to come.

Ever been so irritated by a book that you’ve thrown it across the room? Well the good news is that you’re not alone – over on omnivoracious blog there’s a great post about Four Book-Throwing Offenses (And How to Avoid Them).

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.

One of my favourite writing blogs, Booklifenow, has come back to life after a long hiatus this week and among the kick-off posts is a bit of useful advice for working during air travel and the bluntly titled you need a website. The advice to pack a small power-board along with your laptop is brilliant, especially if you’ve ever had the experience of searching for a free power-point in a small airport when there are flight delays.

The Guardian’s feature on Why I Hate the Myth of the Suffering Artists is a great look at the myths that dog the steps of fiction writers.

Pinterest continues to pick up momentum as the hot new social media of note, and despite it’s visual nature there are people figuring out how to make it work for writers and readers alike. This week Media Bistro curated a list of 10 Pinterest Boards with a Literary Bent that serves as a great example of what writers can do with the Pinterest platform.

Artshub has a great article about The Future of Freelancing that looks at the impact technology is having on freelance journalism.

Lawrence Block offers up some great advice on Getting By on a Writer’s Income. The article was originally published back in 1981, but the advice seems to hold true today (in fact, it gels rather nicely with the more recent Unasked For Advice For New Writers About Money by science fiction writer John Scalzi).

A great post from Lindsay Buroker’s that answers the question Are More Authors Than You Think Making a Living Self-Publishing? with some sensible, level-headed advice as to what goes into making a successful self-publisher in the ebook field.

People are used to asking when do you find time to write, but Theodora Goss wonders if perhaps it’s time to address The Real Problem of where do you find the energy. It’s an interesting post that makes you wonder if we’ve asking the wrong question all along.

The Pew survey on The Rise of E-Reading has gotten a great deal of attention on the internet this week, with one-fifth of Americans reporting that they’ve read an ebook in the last year. If you’re looking for some posts that put the data into context, you might find some of the commentary at The Shatzkin Files and Dean Wesley Smith’s site interesting reading.

Those are the links that caught our attention at the AWM offices this week – how about you? As always, we’d love to hear about the posts, articles, and links that got you thinking this week 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.