Entries Tagged 'Writing Resources' ↓

Marketing guru Seth Godin recently launched a kickstarter project for his next book. Although Godin’s move to the kickstarter model is interesting in and of itself, I’m far more fascinated by the post over on We Grow Media about  Godin’s campaign in which Dan Blank examines the way an argument is being positioned in Godin’s Kickstarter rhetoric that’s all about speaking to his fans and less to do with reality.  It’s fascinating stuff.

In April, the DOJ filed suit against five of the big 6 publishers alleging an illegal price fixing conspiracy to increase the price of ebooks. Several publishers have since chosen to settle, while others continue to fight, and the publishing world is waiting for the results of the trail with interest. Dear Author has put together a great recap of the lawsuit that includes a time-line of events and several links to commentary that makes it clear exactly what’s going on.

Whether you get it or not, phenomenal success of 50 Shades of Grey has given writers, publishers, and booksellers plenty of things to think about. TeleRead.com rounds up some of the more interesting commentary, dealing with how the book’s success seemed to come out of nowhere, and how the industry can capitalize on the momentum.

We’re used to celebrating authorial success, but Corinne Purtill’s post about failure for Salon.com, My Book Was a Bad Idea, speaks to the realities of the writers life. Sometimes you write, fail, and keep on writing.

In a campaign designed to appeal to the tech-savvy, a British hotel in Newcastle is swapping out the the Gideon bible found in hotel drawers for a dedicated e-reader.

John Birmingham wrote an interesting follow up to John Scalzi’s post on becoming a New York Times best-seller that we linked to in the last fry-up. It’s interesting to note the points of similarity between John’s experience as an Australian best-seller and Scalzi’s experience as an American.

Writer Beware on the difference between rights and copyrights, and what you should look out for in contracts.

Rachel Hills on why writing for exposure doesn’t work.

Sarah Alderson offers some advice on How to Get an Agent.

YA author Justine Larbalestier talks about Researching for Novels.

For years, reading has been a private act, but with the rise of e-readers and the ability to track reader data your ebooks are now reading you.

Those are the links that caught our attention this week. As always, we’re interested in hearing from our Speakeasy readers: What writing and publishing issues are you pondering this Friday? What links have caught your attention?

John Scalzi has a very matter-of-fact post about what it takes to become a New York Times Bestseller. There’s no great secrets there, but its a great example of an author looking at their own success and contextualising the work it took them to reach that point.

The fluidity of content in ebooks allows authors and publishers to make quick updates, but it seems this freedom comes with a downside. Dear Author vents their aggravation in When I Bought Your Book I Didn’t Sign Up To Be Your Beta-Reader.

A similar theme emerges in Kristina Rusch’s post on writers and perfection this week, although it also covers re-releasing backlists, workshop environments, and other elements along the way. Rusch argues that writers don’t have to be perfect, and that the quest for perfection is only going to ’cause trouble.

Jane Litte offers up some advice for bloggers about working with publicists.

Carleen Brice writes about How to Tackle Critique Notes over on Writer Unboxed, offering advice on the most effective ways to synthesize editorial feedback and apply it to your work.

Catherine, Caffeinated offers up The Writers Guide to Making Google Your Best Friend, which tackles the question of how useful SEO truly is for writers and what we should consider doing instead.

Those are the links that caught our attention here in the AWM offices this week – how about you? If you’ve come across a great post about writing, the writers life, or reading, please share it 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.

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.

Preparing to do the edit on you latest manuscript? Agent Rachel Gardener presents a quick and dirty list showcasing How to Cut a Thousand Words Without Shedding a Tear. A lot of the advice may sound familiar, but her comment on the math of editing is brilliant and incorporates some of my favourite advice about first drafts into rewriting.

Novellas: they’re two short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, and people tend to get all awkward when you ask them to explain why they’re different to either. Despite this the people who love the novella format really love it, so it’s great to see Seizure launch Viva La Novella competition for works between 20,000 and 50,000 words.  Entries close November 1st, 2012.

The Emerging Writers Festival has released its full program for 2012, and they’ve started their search for the next emerging editor who’ll work on next years installment of the Emerging Writer series.

Nansi Kunze makes a great argument for the place of humor in YA Fiction.

The resurgence of the Booklife Now blog continues, and it seems to be even stronger than the blogs first iteration. This week we recommend the brilliant guest post by Angela Slatter and LL Hannett about collaboration, as well as contributions about how to interview an author and How to Get Booksellers to Love You (and Sell Your Book).

Need to develop a thicker skin? There’s some real tongue-in-cheek brilliance in the existence of Online Rejection Generator – a service that will send writers one of several rejections, from the mild to the breathtakingly harsh, in order to take the sting out of the process before they start sending work out.

There’s a lot of aspiring writers who want to do what they do full-time, but there’s far fewer aspiring writers who actually prepare for the realities of being their own boss. Survival of the Freelancer: 7 Tips covers some of the things to consider when it comes to running your own writing business, from making the right choice to getting a good accountant and thinking about superannuation.

Those are the links that caught our attention at the AWM offices this week – how about you? We’d love to hear about the posts, articles, and links that got you thinking this week 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’re big fans of being online here at the Speakeasy, but we’re equally aware that sometimes you just want to shut off the internets and get stuff done. How to Go Offline (and Not Kill Your Site) starts off with some handy tips for stepping away from your online platform, but it ends with an interesting discussion on how to differentiate between the quality and quantity of your visitors.

Of course, once you return from your hiatus you’ll need to start generating content once more. If you get stuck, try 101 Ways to Blog as a Book Author for some inspiration. Still at the beginning of the process? Try following these four easy steps for branding yourself when designing your blog.

Pretty much everyone on my twitter feed was a big fan of this one, but just in case you missed it Justine Larbalestier has a brilliant post up titled I’ll Know I’ve Made it as a Writer When…

Word Needs to Die talks about setting up a digital workflow and the problems with using the .doc format default that comes with Word. If you’re interested in doing more with your digital process, AWM editor Meg Vann writes about agile methodology over on the Meanland blog and how it can be applied to both fiction and non-fiction.

What about you? What writing and publishing links have whet your taste-buds this week? Let us know in the comments.

It’s Friday, and once again we celebrate with a fry-up of useful links.

Pinterest is the  hot new social network of the moment, and in If You Like It Then You Shoulda Put a Pin On It Tasmanian writer Tansy Rayner Roberts starts looking for ways it can be used as a promotional vehicles for writers. If you’re feeling a little more old-school, this list of 40 Twitter Hashtags for Writers may come in handy.

10 Ways to Create Digital Magazines includes a number of interesting digital tools for producing digital content aimed at tablets and mobile phones.

Need some help getting into the habit of writing every day? It may be time to sign up to 750words.com, a free website that exists solely to encourage people to write 750 words every day. Once you set up your account you can set automated reminder emails, earn badges for writing streaks, and get detailed feedback on how long it takes you to reach your word-count (and how many breaks you take along the way).

The link to James Scott Campbell’s Listen to the Book appeared on our AWM twitter feed (thanks to @porteranderson). It’s a short post, but a useful one. And Speakeasy reader Bonnee recommended  the Writer Unboxed blog in the comments last week (being a fan of food and fiction, I was naturally drawn to their post  about Treating Readers Like Fine Diners).

What about you? What writing and publishing links have whet your taste-buds this week? Let us know 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.