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Platforms and Communities – The Big Words in Author Marketing
Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:06:17 +0000
Agents, editors and publishers have wanted authors with platforms for quite a while now. The logic is simple – an author with a platform comes with an audience ready to purchase a book. These sales can either prime the pump and build word of mouth or, if a platform is large enough, make a book profitable in the first run.
What exactly is a platform?
The traditional definition of a platform is a position of authority through which a defined community can be reached. This typically revolves around being a subject matter ...
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Using Social Media To Build Your Platform This is a presentation that I gave at the Social...
Author 2.0 – A Video Introduction This is a project by Joanna Penn, perhaps best...
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Who are “The Big Six”?
Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:40:33 +0000
The term “The Big Six” is commonly used on blogs and within publishing circles to talk about the six largest publishers in the industry. Each of the big six publishers has a collection of imprints, or smaller publishing houses, that reside with relative autonomy within the larger publishing umbrella.
Here’s a quick overview of just who the Big Six are where they fit in the modern corporate world.
Hachette Book Group
Formerly Warner Books (of Time Warner), Hachette was acquired by Hachette Livre, itself a subsidiary of the French media conglomerate Lagardère ...
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Publishers Turn to Scribd Both Publishers Weekly and the Washington Post/TechCrunch ran stories in...
Penguin Books Wants Literary Bloggers The “New Think for Old Publishers” panel at this year’s...
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Pam Satran’s Novel Experiment
Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:15:15 +0000
Pam Satran is neither a stranger to the Internet, nor the best seller lists. Her numerous baby name books have made the leap online into the successful NameBerry.com, and her blog How Not To Act Old was picked up by HarperCollins and landed at number 7 on the New York Times Best Seller list. However, as Satran was wrapping up her latest conventional novel, she felt another story bubbling up.
Looking down the multi-year process of writing another novel, Satran decided to take the success she found in her other online ...
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What The Heck Is High Concept? Several agents and editors make a regular point of requesting...
Vonnegut’s Second Rule of Writing Give the reader at least one character he or she...
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Annual Checkup
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:05:06 +0000
Fiction Matters recently passed our first year mark, our first anniversary if you will. And that event was marked by work getting in the way of any posts at all last week. So, this week I’ve decided to sit Fiction Matters down and have a good talk with it, really hash some things out, put all the cards on the table.
Let’s start with the good news, the stats.
Fiction Matters is international!
In our first year, Fiction Matters has been read in over 140 countries, which on a map leaves very ...
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What’s New At Fiction Matters Over the past few weeks, I’ve been experiementing with a...
Introducing the Fiction Feed Wow, November put some distance between myself and the Internet....
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The Allure of Pantsing
Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:45:29 +0000
As previously stated, pantsing is a term used to describe writing done with the least amount of pre-writing possible. At it’s logical conclusion, pantsing is a term used to describe the sheer act of writing, of capturing something ephemeral and turning it into something concrete, not by careful and logical study, but rather through emotional surrender to a greater idea – the muse, the moment.
The Natural Method
Many, if not most, of us began writing as unabashed pantsers not out of pride, but rather out of youthful ignorance of the rules. ...
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Vonnegut’s Seventh Rule of Writing Write to please just one person. If you open a...
It’s Not a Story If It Doesn’t Have A Story The esteemed, and often controversial John Gardner once said: “The...
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A Week About Pants
Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:55:09 +0000
This week, I’ll be taking a step back from talking about the greater publishing industry, and instead talking about pantsing. And by pantsing, I do not mean the scourge of middle school gym class, but rather the writing method.
The origin of the term pantsing doesn’t come from a world of writers, but rather the pilots of World War I. Before the advent of proper instrument panels, pilots were forced to rely on skill when flying, an act that was often described as “flying by the seat of your pants.”
Writers who ...
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Week in Books – 2009 Dec 18 Week In Books – 2009 Dec 18 from Bradley...
Vonnegut’s Fifth Rule of Writing Start as close to the end as possible. -Vonnegut As...
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Free Book: Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy)
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:06:14 +0000
Author: J.M. Barrie
Description: Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up and Peter and Wendy are the stage play and novel (respectively) which tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and his adventures on the island of Neverland with Wendy Darling and her brothers, the fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, the Indian princess Tiger Lily, and the pirate Captain Hook. The story was written by Scottish playwright and novelist J. M. Barrie, inspired by his friendship with the Llewelyn-Davies family. [source: Feedbooks.com] ...
Related posts:Free Book: Siddhartha Author: Hermann Hesse Description: Siddhartha is an allegorical novel by...
Free Book: Mortal Ghost Description: It’s a fiery hot summer, and sixteen-year-old Jesse Wright...
Free Book: The Call of Cthulhu Author: Howard Phillips Lovecraft Description: “The Call of Cthulhu” is...
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Letter From Macmillan CEO, John Sargent
Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:53:46 +0000
The following is a letter from Macmillan CEO, John Sargent regarding the company’s forays into the digital book world. Included are discussions on royalties and Amazon.
I am sorry I have been silent since Saturday. We have been in constant discussions with Amazon since then. Things have moved far enough that hopefully this is the last time I will be writing to you on this subject.
Over the last few years we have been deeply concerned about the pricing of electronic books. That pricing, combined with the traditional business model we were ...
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Amazon Continues to Make Aggressive Moves Hot on the heels of the Kindle DX press conference,...
Amazon and the Barrel There is a maxim attributed largely to politicians regarding the...
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Write Your @ss Off Day
Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:55:09 +0000
While it’s important that the modern writer have an expanded stable of skills – editing, marketing, networking – the core of what we do will always revolve around writing. Events like NaNoWriMo help to push us in that direction by surrounding writers with fellow travelers. Moonrat, the enigmatic blogger behind Editorial Ass, has recently come up with just such an event – Write Your @ss Off Day.
The concept is quite simple, carve out an eight hour block of time, plant yourself in your favorite writing setting, and go. There aren’t ...
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The Psychology of Writer’s Block Jason of Paperback Jack fame has put together a wonderful...
Too Scared To Write? This poor blog has been quiet for the past few...
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Amazon Flanks – The First Battle of the eBook Wars
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:32:21 +0000
If you were away from your computer this weekend, you might have missed the first volleys of the eBook Wars. It’s been known for some time that publishers were not happy with Amazon’s pricing structure, going so far as to call the $9.99 eBook “predatory.” On Thursday, Macmillan CEO John Sargeant decided to do something about it.
Were the events of the past five days fiction, they wouldn’t have been believable. The pieces were too smooth. The timing was too precise. The public relations moves too timely. The impact too ...
Related posts:Big News From Two eBook Sellers: Amazon and Smashwords Amazon held a press conference this morning, officially announcing what...
eBook Pricing Math As frequently noted on many other blogs, there is currently...
Amazon Files In-Book Advert Patents Amazon has a history of filing patents that often seem...
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