Jen's Writing Journey

The Business of Writing

Ain’t That a Shame
Author Justine Larbalestier shares her thoughts on the cover for her book Liar. The protagonist is African American, but the girl shown on the cover is White. Larbalastier campaigned strongly for a different cover, but she did not win that battle. What do you think about book covers? Does it bother you when the people on the cover look nothing like the characters in the book?

Industry Notes
Theresa at Edit Torrent gives some information about the trends in publishing based on what she saw and heard at RWA. Fewer trades; more mass market. Fewer standard erotic titles. And a publisher who slipped under the $1,000 advance mark.

Teresa Says It Loud and Says It Proud: I Write Romance Novels
Teresa Medeiros shares some amazing stories of the profound effect her books have had on people’s lives.

Is It True? Are 40% of Books Pulped?
Moonrat gives a thorough report of the sometimes crazy ins and outs of the publishing profit and loss philosophy.

Craft

Deep Point of View Versus Omniscient
Author Camy Tang discusses the publishing’s move toward deep point of view–when the reader is inserted fully into a character’s mind and body–and how to use it in your writing.

Writerly Round-up: Revision
I’m not sure if it’s overly tautological to link to another roundup, but here it is. A great collection of posts about revisions.

Fiction

Some Great Tips from Mystery Author Betsy Webb
F. M. Meredith of The Blood-Red Pencil attended a conference where she got the chance to hear this author give her tips of crafting a compelling novel.

Crazy People Think They Are Sane
Writing Career Coach Tiffany Colter provides a method for ensuring that your villain is compelling and believable. Remember: no villain thinks he or she is the bad guy.

Freelancing

Six Signs It’s a Job Scam
CNN and Career Builder provide a good resource for evaluating the at-home writing jobs you see on the job boards.

Five Must-Have Qualities to Become a Top Freelancer
In the first of the Freelance Folder posts I’ve included this week, Glen Allsop gives his tips to building a strong freelance business.

Are You Undervaluing Your Freelance Business?
My guess is that the answer is yes for a lot of us. Freelance writer Laura Spencer helps us get over our insecurities and begin to treat our writing businesses as important and lucrative endeavors.

Special Focus on E-publishing

Aside from the Publishers: How the Other Stakeholders Fare as Ebook Adoption Continues
A good look at the history of ebook publishing and how it has worked for the end user and the distributors.

From the Comments
Here, Theresa from Edit Torrent responds to some of the comments on the post I included under The Business of Writing. In response to Green Knight, she offers her viewpoint on the Rogue Digital Workshop at RWA, which included epublishers and epubbed authors talking about the business model and realities of epublishing.

Rogue Digital Workshop
Another summary of the rogue epublishing workshop at RWA, this one by Elisa Logan.

Will Publishers Ever Make Money Off E-books?
Paul Sweeting looks at the profit model of ebooks. I personally think the point is moot. Ebooks are the future, and publishers need to figure outa way to make money on them.

Amazon, Orwell, and the Truth about DRM
P. Bradley Robb discusses the recent deletion of copies of George Orwell’s books from users’ Kindle devices. Amazon has since apologized for the way they handled the situation–read the apology here. The really interesting part of Robb’s article is his discussion of how DRM turns us into renters of content rather than owners.

Fun Stuff

The Writer’s Cave
Ever wonder what your favorite author’s writing space/office looks like? Paige Cuccaro has pulled together a collection of photos.

Related Posts

• Book Review: The Boss of You The Boss of You: Everything a Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business by Lauren Bacon and Emira MearsWhen Lauren Bacon and Emira Mears set out to begin their own web design company, they looked for books that would help them start their small......
• Book Review: Novel Shortcuts by Laura Whitcomb Young adult author Laura Whitcomb shares techniques that will help even the most seasoned wordsmiths write better and faster....
• Writing Roundup, May 29 Let's start by re-checking our goals for the month. Did you achieve them? If not, what can you do next month to reach your goals? Blogging How to Devalue Your Blog and Burn Yourself Out Men with Pens have done it again. This post about the need to find a......
• Writing Roundup I'm wishing you a happy Monday with a set of good read for the week. Enjoy!The New Austerity in PublishingLike other industries, publishing appears to be tightening its belt. Gone (for now) are the big expense accounts and annual raises. I think this is a temporary measure, and things will......
• Writing Roundup, December 11 The Business of Writing Craft Fiction Freelancing Platform The Business of Writing Should Publishers Delay E-book Releases? This was big story this week, as publishers reported that they would try to save paper publishing by delaying important e-book releases. Agent Nathan Bransford explains the flaws in the logic and......

Related Websites

• Review: Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die by Chris Santella Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die is a unique book that offers 50 short takes on the ultimate destinations for fly fishing. Taking...
• Perfume Books Worth Buying If you are serious about getting into the world of perfumes, then buying certain perfume books may prove to be useful for you. The following...
• Author Love #3 Welcome to the third edition of author love. We've got book reviews, how-tos, and writing tips. Book Reviews swapnil warang presents switch2life: Book Review:"White Man...
• Top 5 Article Writing Tips for Business Marketing Writing effective articles is pretty easy if you know the basics. Know the basics apply it in your right-ups and wow you readers! Writing effective...
• How Do You Market Or Promote Your Easy Home Based Business Opportunity When you start with a good idea for an easy online business opportunity you should realize it is not like a regular store front business....