Link Love for Writers on Friday

Another round of interesting reads from the last week.

Publishing and the Industry

• Writer Unboxed » 5 Attitudes Toward Publishing You Should Avoid – Jane Friedman guest posts and makes sense, as usual. Note – while this post was published, Writer Unboxed went through a denial-of -service attack, so hopefully the links are sorted out.
• A New Definition of Writing Success – James Scott Bell speaks success with pie charts, on the Killing Zone. 
• Carnival of the Indies Issue #16 – the January edition of The Book Publisher’s Carnival of the Indies link-fest for writers went live.
• Gender Issues In Publishing. Using Initials As A Female Thriller Writer – Joanna Penn decides to be JFK Penn in the male-dominated thriller domain.
• A fiction author reviews iBooks Author App: Should you try it? — Cheri Lasota tries out the app which caused all the controversy last week, and loves it. 
• Playing Tag the Self-Publisher Way – Judy Croome guest posts at The Book Designer to discuss amazon tags. 
• Crime Fiction Collective: Is Amazon Select Really The Big, Bad Wolf? – Andrew E Kaufman talks select business, with some information worth knowing for those published in excerpt or sample anthologies.
• The Atlantic: Will Amazon Kill Publishing? – The Atlantic Weekly reports on a Bloomberg Businessweek description of a publishing financial arms race. 
• The Great Social Media Flim-Flam – Susan Kiernan-Lewis can’t find a line between all the social media activities she’s been doing and book sales. 
• How to Get Published–Part 1 – Lynda R Young tells us to pay attention.

Writing Craft

• 10 Writing “Rules” we wish Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors would Break – an interesting write up at IO9. The comments focus on women SciFi authors, but many of the other clichés used in the genre are perhaps more fundamental.
• Fundamental Check: Do Your Scenes Have What They Need? – some excellent advice from Janice Hardy for those in first draft or revision exercises.
• Game Changer: Create An Inner Dialogue Within your Hero, and Your Villain – Larry Brooks talks about finding your character’s inner demons and bringing them out at the dinner table (okay, I’m abbreviating here).
• How to Get Out of Your Own Way: The Secret to Becoming a Successful Writer – Anne R Allen‘s blog, Written by Ruth Harris @RuthHarrisBooks tells us to love the deli guy amongst other tidbits.
• Writing Memoir by Making Lists – Marion Roach Smith (@mroachsmith) uses lists to help write short pieces of memoir.
• Bryan Thomas Schmidt (@BryanThomasS) #writetips The Importance Of Distance From Your Work To Revisions bit.ly/ylBXAR
• The empty world – is your novel eerily deserted? – Roz Morris @dirtywhitecandy from Nail Your Novel tells us to fill our scenes with extras. 
• Person? Place? Thing? Let’s Talk About Nouns – Janice Hardy takes us to noun school, with a diversion through Joey off ‘Friends’
• 25 Things You Should Know About Story Structure – Chuck Wendig lists out several, with a swear words swapped in.
• Ebook Buyers: Can You Afford To Lose Them? « Virginia Ripple’s Blog | The Edge of Eternity – Virginia provides some excellent links for those wanting to learn how to format ebooks, and a story on why we might like to do this. 
• The Big Reasons Indie Authors Aren’t Taken Seriously – The Huffington Post mentions editing, quantity over quality, lack of gatekeepers and even quotes Chuck Wendig. 
• R-E-S-P-E-C-T isn’t FREE!!! – Kristen Lamb has two posts up lately against free book giveaways. Interestingly, two big names she mentions – Bob Mayer and JA Konrath are currently doing precisely that (Konrath is part of the huge #BigKindleBoogie http://bigkindleboogie.blogspot.com/ giveaway ending 2nd Feb which involves several thriller authors, 10 Kindle Fire Prizes and dozens of books going free – which I’ve gratefully filled my Kindle app with). However, in Kristen’s context, both writers give credit to her position that free only has credibility with more titles to offer, and what is not given away.
  

Inspiration

• Study: The Brains of Storytellers and their Listeners actually Sync Up – Discover discusses findings that shared experiences show the Same brain activities.
• Via Laurence O’Bryan (@LPOBryan) The Huffington Post – 9 Ways To Be More Creative, for all of us: huff.to/yKTnKy
• Butt OUT of Chair – Istaylor tells writers how to look after our butts.
• Set Up Your Author Pinterest Profile In 10 Easy Steps – Caitlin Mur gives some excellent tips here regarding Facebook Settings (if you login or share Pinterest via FB) and gives an example of one author using the social aspects of the pins.

Topic of the Week 1 –  Pen Names

• The New World of Publishing: Pen Names – Dean Wesley Smith tells me (finally!) that it’s okay to have pen names – provided I build the brands. 
• Promoting a Pen Name – Elizabeth S Craig then gives me some excellent ideas for dealing with more than one. 

Topic of the Week 2 – E-Books vs P-Books (And Self-pub vs Trad-pub)

• Via The Telegraph : Jonathan Frazen says Ebooks are damaging society. I don’t think he really says that, but he does point out the permanence of a simple paperback book, and something all of us into digital products of all types should be aware of – changing formats and reading devices over time. Remember beta video, or floppy disks?
• The self-epublishing bubble | Ewan Morrison | Books | guardian.co.uk – although JA Konrath might well dispute this, the article is a must-read for those like me approaching publishing. There are many points that make sense, including considerations like price-points, personal expectations of being published in both trad or the self-pub industries, and considering what we might get out of such a quick-change world. As Ewan Morrison finishes with – “it’s all speculation”.
• Franzen and the Ebook Bubble – JA Konrath talks about both of the above articles.
• Twitter took to the articles – two examples out of many : Jason Pinter (@jasonpinter) I bet Jonathan Franzen doesn’t hate royalties he accrues from ebook sales; Pete Cashmore (@mashable) Jonathan Franzen Is Wrong: eBooks Are Good for Everyone, by @LanceUlanoff – on.mash.to/wKn703
• No More Ebooks Vs Print Books Arguments, OK? – Jonathan Segura points out that it’s not an either/or situation. 
• Self-Publishing Takeaway Game – Lilith Saintcrow talks simple sense, royalty statements and choosing the publishing platform to suit.  Read this. 

Question of the Week

I’m just wondering if this is a female writer thing The Three-Goddesses Chat: Book Collages, or do male writers make book collages (collections, files of images, databases) too?

Extra question – is something like Pinterest more accessible nowadays for those wanting to gather inspiration?