Weekend Links: Carnival Of The Indies Edition

I took part in the most recent Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies. I also managed to visit a number of the other contributors. My favorites:

Book Cover Design: Judging a Book by Its Cover--Part I at WGB.  If I ever self-publish another eBook, I'll pass this along to Computer Guy.

Should You Convert Your Ebook Yourself, Or Hire A Professional? at Learn Out Live. I should have passed this on to Computer Guy before self-publishing Saving the Planet & Stuff.

Why Self-Publishing Needs a Sundance (and Who Should Be Redford) at Electronic Bindery. It's hard to believe there isn't one.

How I Created My First Podcast  at Small Blue Dog Publishing. I did send this one to Computer Guy. I love listening to podcasts while I'm working in the kitchen. (Yeah, as my Facebook friends can tell you, I don't mind spending time in a kitchen.) I have a podcast fantasy.

Team Indie Author Games: Elevator Book Pitch at Electronic Bindery.   Possible conference workshop?

The Elementary Marketing Tactic You Don't Know You're Missing at Be a Freelance Blogger. It's just one word. It is important in blogging, and I'm not sure how many writers realize it.

Weekend Links

As my Facebook Friends know, I experienced another manic cooking episode this weekend. I've collapsed now and am hoping I'll be able to maintain enough energy to finally do a Weekend Links post.

While baking cookies last weekend, I listened to the Oct. 14, 2012 New York Times book podcast interview with Lois Lowry (scroll down). Lowry talks about her book, Son. She also discusses the death of her own adult son. I knew he'd died in a service-related accident, but not the details. In addition, the point is made that her book The Giver is considered the first dystopian novel for young people.

This will be old news for some, but 'Island of the Blue Dolphins' woman's cave believed found.

Lynda Mullaly Hunt did a guest blog post on a teaching writing mini-lesson earlier this month.

The Book Smugglers did a post on backlist middle grade books. It appears that it will be a weekly feature.

Mother Daughter & Son Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews are hosting a Best of Summer 2013 Giveaway Hop. Sixty-four blogs are giving away book-related stuff. This Hop runs through September 6th.

Speaking of things being given away, Little Hyuts has extended the giveaway period for Indie Author Spotlight Week to September 7th.

Early Reader is a fantastic personal essay in the NYTimes Book Review from Aug. 22. It describes a condition I'd never heard of called hyperlexia, in which children begin reading extremely early. This is not necessarily a good thing.

Hmm. I mentioned Facebook earlier. J. L. Bell picked up on one of our Facebook conversations and ran with it in A New Angle on Narrative Momentum at Oz and Ends.

The anti-resume is a great idea. While I do keep track of submissions, I predate spreadsheets and still don't use one. I can't even begin to imagine how much time it would take me to pull an anti-resume together. Or how long it would go on. By the way, I found this through one of Erika Dreifus's Friday Finds for Writers.

And that seems like enough reading pleasure for one weekend.

Weekend Links

How long has it been since I've had time on a weekend to do a Weekend Links post? It's probably better not to dwell on it.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the general problems of writers who are also care givers. Candice Ransom wrote more specifically on the topic at Cynsations.

Matthew Dicks' post at the Huffington Post on redefining author appearances could be useful to writers planning on speaking in public.

Speaking of author appearances, Jeannine Atkins had a post back in June on an all too common author experience related to appearances. The title says it all--Rows of Empty Chairs.

Is there a "Politics of the Muggle Generation?" For that matter, is there a "muggle generation?"

A is for Aging, B is for Books  is a blog on "positive images of aging in children's literature," a subject I haven't seen addressed before in an entire blog.

Greg Fishbone had a guest post at Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America on Writing SF for Young Readers

In June, Author of... did a series on graphic novels. Scroll back from Cecil Castellucci's 'Odd Duck' to catch all the posts.

Weekend Links

I already shared this at my professional Facebook page and Google+, but I'm sure I haven't hit every Judy Blume fan who wants to trace her career. (At New York Magazine.)

Author of  is a lovely looking new site that involves interviews with writers.

Leila's Dispatch from BEA#1: the Bloggers Conference at Bookshelves of  Doom is interesting reading. It made me feel perfectly okay about not being there.

I almost didn't look at the trailer for Fat Angie by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo because it's about twice as long as I usually want to sit through. But it's good. This is like movie theater trailer quality.

I haven't heard of most of these young detectives in a Guardian article, but that's why it's good to read book news from another country once in a while.

I've actually read a couple of these greatest essay collections of all time.

Weekend Links

We're into little bears here, so I was interested in this list of top 10 bear picture books at The Guardian.

Every time I pass on something here like Beware of Book Blurbs (Salon), I fear that I will one day have an agent or editor who will insist that I have to find some poor soul who will provide me with one. And yet I continue to pass them on.

The idea of a writing retreat is very attractive to me. I mean the kind where you really do live sort of like a monk for a while, not taking classes and networking, just writing and perhaps meeting in a critique group once or twice. (I would be willing to eat meals with the other writers. And not in silence. There's a limit to how far I'll carry the monk analogy.) I've never been to a retreat of this sort because of the time and expense involved. Plus, since I am alone in my house all day several days a week,  I get the feeling that the people around me view all my work days as a writing retreat. Given all that back story, you can understand why I had to read Planning Your Own Writing Retreat at Write It Sideways.

I've actually read three of Flavorwire's 25 Greatest Essay Collections of All Time.

I collect Twitter articles because I'm headin' there. Yes. I've made the decision to go over to Twitter because that's the social platform that makes all the difference. Plus, I read recently that writers should have 7 ways for readers to find them, and right now I have only 6. And they still can't find me. So, seriously, Twitter will make all the difference, right? Another back story that explains why I'm sending you to The Top Ten Most Prolific Authors On Twitter. Shoot. Looking at those slides has impressed upon me that I need a Twitter handle. I knew that, but I didn't know that. What I hadn't realized was that I'd also need a Twitter profile. Now I must angst over whether to go simple, direct, and straight to the point (Margaret Atwood) or reach for something endearing (Ian Rankin).

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here about Alloy and book packaging. According to Gwenda Bond in Pack(ag)ing It Up, Amazon has a licensing agreement with Alloy so it can publish fanfiction written around the worlds of books Alloy packages. Bond says she found the response to the Amazon/Alloy deal interesting because of "how few people immediately recognized these are all packaged properties. I have seen a lot of worry about the authors who created these characters getting money, and how the rights worked, and etc. etc. and I am reminded once again that lots of people--even savvy industry types--don't realize how prevalent packaging is in YA (and probably elsewhere too--I am most familiar with YA and so that's what I'm talking about here)." Her point is that for some of the series involved there isn't an author who will be impacted because the books are written by multiple people or that some of these authors are working for hire, so they don't have the some contractual intellectual property rights that other writers do. Read Bond's post. Gwenda will explain it all to you.

Weekend Links

So you've probably all seen that gas pump video from the Tonight Show by now. Old news. And you've probably heard that there is some question as to how authentic it was. If not, check out How Much Lying Is OK on Late Night? at Slate. Why does this make my Weekend Links post, you're wondering? The author, David Haglund, claims that "... when humor’s involved, people grant a lot more latitude. David Foster Wallace’s unacknowledged use of composite characters in his very funny pieces for Harper’s and elsewhere disappointed some people, but it has not really besmirched his reputation. David Sedaris fictionalizes his “nonfiction” considerably, and yet when this is pointed out, most people shrug." This is of interest to me because I write essays, though they aren't all particularly funny. Haglund also says "that people seem to hold writing to a higher standard than storytelling on screen or on a stage." Which may be true, but it didn't seem to fit in with the rest of his essay.

In When Fanfiction Took Over Children's Publishing at Oz and Ends, J.L. Bell comments on Peter Rabbit and the Tale of a Fierce Bad Publisher in the new issue of The Horn Book. (This is a really good article, by the way.) He concludes, "...it appears the British children’s literature establishment has turned to fanfiction."

Also on the subject of fanfiction: 10 famous authors who write fan fiction at The Daily Dot.

Tanita Davis did a link roundup Friday at Finding Wonderland, which is how I found Diversity 101: Who's That Fat Kid? at CBS Diversity. I do have an overweight character in an unsold manuscript, and I'm going to be rethinking how I deal with him as a result of reading this article.

I got started on Google+ a couple of months ago. As with every other form of social media that isn't blogging, I'm finding it underwhelming. Seven Ways Writers Can Build Online Authority with Google+ makes me feel that perhaps I'm the one who's underwhelming.

Jules at Seven Imps writes about a picture book she hopes won't be written off as another book about bullies, Ben Rides On.

 

Weekend Links

The Greenhouse Literary Agency is offering the Greenhouse Funny Prize, with a U.S./Canadian winner and a UK winner. The prize is representation, and the deadline is July 29th.

The most recent Poets & Writers includes Digital Digest: Algorithms for What to Read Next. The subject is the reliability of on-line reviews. The juicy bit: "Estimates about the proportion of phony reviews to the overall total run as high as 30 percent, with Gartner research predicting that paid endorsements (deemed illegal by the Federal Trade Commission unless disclosed) will account for 10 to 15 percent of product feedback by 2014." At lunch today I told a family member about that 30 percent estimate, and he said, "That's all?" He would have thought the percentage of fakes would be higher.

Blog anniversaries: A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy is eight and Teaching Authors is four.

I like the idea of a slow writing movement, which I stumbled upon at the American Society of Journalists and Authors. So I googled the term and  found slow writing movement pieces at Rock Your Writing, Another Word, and a few other spots. I suspect it's a movement that will be, uh, slow moving.

Another World Book Night recap at The Book Wheel. Be sure to check out the comments and note the number of givers who ran into people worried they were peddling religious tracts.

Tanita Davis reviews Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger at Finding Wonderland.

The Emerging Writers Network will be observing Short Story Month in May. This is a neat idea, and if only I'd known about it much, much earlier, I would have planned my May differently.

Weekend Links

I missed last weekend's links, so I've got a bit of a pile up today.

I was never able to get into Veronica Mars, but this post at GreenBeanTeenQueen on what to read while waiting for the movie appears to be a listing of YA mystery. Except for Rats Saw God, which I read back in 2004.

Are teen readers moving back to print from eBooks? Leila at bookshelves of doom wants to know. Yeah, me, too.

A huge list of YA mystery at Stacked.

Love Dorothy's World at Oz and Ends.

Secrets & Sharing Soda's contribution to March's Carnival of Children's Lit, which it hosted, was on Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle. Secrets & Sharing Soda said of it, "This is one of the creepiest children’s books I have ever read." I remember reading that book. I do recall some oddness to it. I also am 90% certain I read it to my kids. This is a book I'm probably going to revisit sometime.

Since I've been on Feedly, I've been able to do more visiting and reading, so I've been able to add friends' blogs. I particularly liked the poem Call Me Ishmael in this post at Tanita Davis's blog. But be sure to read the body of the post, too.


As I'm sure I've mentioned here before, when I was in high school I read The Wild Boy of Aveyron by Jean Marc Gaspard Itard. So I always have to read about new versions of the story, such as Wild Boy: The Real Life of the Savage of Aveyron by Mary Losure.

New NESCBWI member Mark McNulty is starting a blog relating to his soon-to-be experiences as a father. The jaded, broken mom in me wants to go, "Hahahahahaha, like you're going to blog and write fiction after that kid is born! Like you're going to bathe after that kid is born!" But I work really hard to control that part of me. Mark, the author of The Sea Shack, is also going to be reviewing books at The New American Dad.

Weekend Links

This is an all self-pub Weekend Links.

Hugh Howey explains how the big Wool deal came about. This story will send tens--if not hundreds--of thousands of people into self-publishing.

John Winters has not had Hugh Howey's experience. Not even close. Tens--if not hundreds--of thousands of people should read this, but probably won't.

Hugh Howey kind of rebutts John Winters. I agree with a lot of what Howey has to say, except for the part about "learn your craft while producing material. You win over your fans directly."  He compares learning to write with learning to play a musical instrument and perform with same. "How many people teach themselves to play the guitar? We celebrate this, don’t we?"..."They go on to strum on the sidewalk with a hat by their feet much like someone might blog and hope for a donation. They play small venues on open-mic nights that we can think of as free books on Smashwords. They get a few paying gigs, which is like self-publishing on Amazon." He carries the comparison on until he gets to "This is how artists are born. They are self-made. They perform for people. They learn and improve as they do both."

Here's the big difference that he's not considering: Musicians may be learning performance and improving their performance as they perform but they have to have learned some kind of skill before that point or they aren't going to get many opportunities to perform in the first place, even on sidewalks. What's more, because we're talking performance, once that performance is over, it's gone. (Unless someone records it on their iPhones, of course. But try to see my point.) They are able to practice performance in public, but also somewhat privately because in most cases the public can't go over and over what they did and keep assessing it. With writers, it's different. You've committed something to paper or you've digitized it and the public has it and can keep looking at it. While everyone should continue to learn and improve throughout a career, if you are taking the attitude that it's appropriate for you to truly learn to write while you are publishing, then the public can be reminded over and over that your writing wasn't of professional quality with that first book. That you weren't really that good with the second one. Malcolm Gladwell writes in Outliers about how many hours the Beatles spent performing before they hit the big time. But they were performing in a strip club in Germany. How many people were able to hear those performances after the fact? The Beatles actually had a certain amount of privacy in which to perfect their performance skills. Personally, I think writers ought to consider looking for a similar type of privacy to learn their craft.

The Self-Published Authors Share 5 Things They Learned in 2012 series at Live Write Thrive Note that a few of these people stress the need for editing.

Some info on self-publishing in paper  from Maria Murnane

Info on making digital picture books at e is for book

Weekend Links

Many of this weekend's links are recent ones because the Feedly reader is working so well for me, and I'm able to hit the blogs I actually want to follow on a more regular basis.

Go to India with Mitali Perkins. Great photos and captions. At the end of this post, Mitali writes about being able to speak in Bangla in many of her conversations while in India, mostly due to her parents. Not two hours before I saw this post, I had been feeling really proud of my self because I'd been able to read and understand an off-color joke in French that my cousin had sent me. It was kind of as if Mitali and I had had the same kind of linguistic experience, don't you think?

Every marketing effort counts--Author Scott Peterson is in California, but a Connecticut on-line paper gave his new book some coverage because he used to live there. That's, like, the other side of the country.

Heard through  Jen Robinson this week that Robert Cormier's books are available in eBook editions. This reminded me, of course, of my Robert Cormier story.

I shared 20 Embarrassingly Bad Book Cover for Classic Novels at my professional Facebook page, but it's good enough to share again and again. Got this from Melissa Wiley.

I've only read one book on this list,  Magic for Beginners, but the list really sounds like one for those teenage girls who aren't jumping up and down waiting for the next girl-torn-between-two-boyfriends story.

I love the idea of including "Authorial Asides" in a book post, the way Tanita does in this one for Awakening by Karen Sandler.

Roger Sutton on judging some of the judges involved in this year's Battle of the Kids' Books.

Weekend Links

I actually have a few minutes this Sunday. This should be fun.

Melissa Wiley at Here in the Bonny Glen did an inspiring post this week How Do You Manage To Read So Many Blogs? She did a follow-up post, Sending Web Content to a Kindle (or Kindle App) for Reading Later that I haven't read yet but want to. If only I could send it to my Kindle. Actually, I think I'm going to send it to Computer Guy. Now that the Saving the Planet & Stuff eBook has published, he has nothing to do.

Because of Melissa's post, I poked around at some blogs I have been visiting only off-and-on recently. As a result, I learned that Leila at Bookshelves of Doom is doing an Elizabeth Peters week.

Another Melissa, Melissa Stewart, did a post on the surge of interest in narrative nonfiction for children. Does Story Appeal to Everyone? raises the question of whether presenting fact in a narrative/story frame is something that adult children's lit gatekeepers like more than child readers do.

Narrative nonfiction is a term for creative nonfiction. I actually like narrative nonfiction better for two reasons. 1. It describes the writing. A narrative follows a storyline. You know what narrative nonfiction does because it is called narrative nonfiction. The term creative nonfiction doesn't tell me as much. 2. The creative in creative nonfiction is confusing for some people, leading them to believe it's acceptable to create material the way a fiction writer would because a fiction writer is creative and creative writing is about making things up, right? This type of nonfiction isn't about making things up; it's about how you organize the factual things you've accumulated through research.

And while we're on the subject of narrative nonfiction, Nieman Storyboard has a piece on short-form nonfiction narratives in journalism.

Finally, this week we have 31 Things We Learned From Laura Ingalls Wilder. I wish this had had a subtitle like "31 useful things for the twenty-first century."

Weekend Links

 I actually worked several hours today, which I don't normally do on Sundays, and that has cut into my linking time. I can only offer three quickies.

I've mentioned here a number of times, I'm sure, that I've been a martial arts student for over ten years. That's why you often see me writing about writing and studying the same as training, which is what we do in my taekwondo dojang. Imagine how much I loved stumbling upon The Writer's Dojo: Where Writing Ninjas Come To Train. It is an entire website for writers developed around what you might call the martial arts training metaphor. It's very clever and probably very helpful to the writers who train there.

This is kind of a 360 turn from martial arts, but I've seen two blogs offering assistance to people suffering from Downton Abbey withdrawal. GreenBeanTeenQueen did a Post Downton Abbey Reading List. The Porter Square Books blog  did a Downton Abbey Fan? We've Got Some Books For You post. Oddly enough, there is no duplication.

Weekend Links

My first link today is Little Miss Bronte JANE EYRE at Kelly Fineman's blog, Writing and Ruminating. Why? you may ask. Because it's a board book. A Jane Eyre board book. According to my calculations, I have posted about Jane Eyre here at OC twenty-three times. Because, you know, I love her. And that's enough to get you to link to a post about a board book, Gail? No, I bought the book Friday night. I am determined to spread my love of Jane to other generations of Gauthiers.

I found a terrific stash of podcasts at Write the Book. Write the Book is a radio program out of Burlington, Vermont that is all interview, and all "interviews with authors, poets, agents, editors, and illustrators." What I like about these podcasts is that they truly are "all interviews," which is why I keep repeating those two words. I've stumbled upon a couple of other podcast stashes in which the hosts describe their podcasts as including interviews or being about some particular subject but then organize the podcast as if it was a variety show covering a number of other things. Thus I am stuck listening to five or ten minutes of fluff before I get to the one thing I want to listen to. Write the Book...again...all interview.

Does Social Media Sell Books? Gillian Flynn's Agent Gives Her Perspective at Huffington Post has some interesting points. According to the interviewer, two of 2012's best-selling authors weren't terribly involved in social media, at least themselves. And agent Stephanie Rostan says, "...no matter how active an author is online, the conversation about them and/or their book must be picked up and carried on by others for it to truly have an impact on sales." I think a lot of people--writers and people in publishing, too, probably--forget that part. We have blogs. We have Facebook pages. That's not social media in itself. The group has to accept the message and pass it along to get the social part.

On that sad note, I need to sign off.

Weekend Links

I've just stumbled upon Interviews: How to Become a Writer at Kelcey Parker's blog, ph.d in creative writing. I haven't read any of the interviews yet, and, I must admit, I haven't heard of any of the writers in this series. That doesn't say anything about them, or me. Writers are very specialized and function in different worlds. What I'm liking is Parker's "basic premise is that becoming a writer is not rocket science, but it’s not magic either. Being a writer is a lifestyle choice...It requires writing about writing, reading, writing about reading, attending readings, meeting writers, writing to writers, writing about writers, maybe even teaching or class-taking. (Notice that I haven’t even mentioned publishing. That will come.)" Oh, my gosh, yes. You have to like and want the lifestyle because that is what sustains you when nothing else does. (Excuse me for sounding all deep. Not to worry. It will pass. Yup. There it goes.) Scroll down to her four reasons for doing the How to Become a Writer series. "Most advice out there is about short cuts: how to write better novels or how to get published or how to outline a killer plot..." Once again, Oh, my gosh, yes.

Hmm. Ms. Yingling says that the number one concern of middle school students is losing long time friends. That seems like a little tidbit I should file away for later use. Then check out her experience with boy readers and eBooks, as well as those of her commenters.

Top 10 Things One Writer Learned About Social Media Marketing at Mystery Writing Is Murder (By way of Cynsations). Note in particular Items 2 and 5. I've seen this kind of advice a lot. Yet I also see writers on Facebook who only show up to make an announcement, then disappear, and writers who use their blogs as an announcement page, posting maybe a dozen times a year. I'm never going to win any awards for my social skills, but I understand what the word "social" means. Yeah, that's why later this evening I hope to post a picture of the pizza I made for dinner tonight at my personal Facebook page.

This is not very much, I know, but I've been shoveling a lot of snow this weekend. I'm hoping in the future to include more podcasts, and you'll be hearing why in a week or two. If you are in New England and you don't have power, stay warm.