Brenda Novak’s Annual Cure for Diabetes 2011 starts on May 1st and runs through May 31st. There are fabulous items for writers, readers and pretty much everyone. Last year her auction “set a new annual record by raising $303,000!” Please check it out, win big prizes and help her raise more this year.
Agent Jennifer Laughran at Andrea Brown Lit blogs about author-agent agreements.
Don’t miss this fascinating interview with legendary editor Robert Gottlieb on writing and editing.
Author and former agent Nathan Bransford talks about social media:
“…social media is about having a base somewhere. You use one thing as your base. My blog is my base. That’s where I devote the majority of my energy, and it’s where the majority of people are following me. On Twitter, I just do a couple of tweets a day, but that doesn’t take very long, it takes ten minutes. “
MJ Rose talks about social media, too, saying it’s not necessary for authors to use social networks for promo. She backs up her claim with stats.
Screenwriter Dan Bronzite summarized The Hero’s Journey in a 3-act structure.
Vince Mooney wrote a great post on rewarding readers on your pages to make your books best sellers.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch wrote an update to her previous post about incorrect royalty statements from publishers, which spurred writers into action.
Penguin launched Book Country, where writers can post their unpublished works for others to critique or praise. According to the NYTimes, Penguin will offer self-publishing options for a fee.
The Association of American Publishers reports that, “E-books sales top paperback sales for the first time.” Since this is based on reports from publishers, when you add in the amounts from self-published writers, the percentages given in the article should be even higher.
In the same vein, HarperCollins president and c.e.o. Brian Murray says that heavy book buyers are avoiding bookshops, and instead are buying digitally.
Amazon is now in Germany “with the largest selection of any ebook store in Germany.”
A Los Angeles Times article says that according to a survey, “2 out of 3 Californians like reading ‘a lot.’” It also confirms that “e-readers can lead to more reading.”
” Thirty-four percent of Californians surveyed said that with an ereader, they read more books than they did before.”
Agents are pressing for e-book escalators:
An escalator clause means the royalty rate changes according to the level of sales. One leading agent said: “A number of publishers in the UK and the US are now offering escalating royalties [on e-books] . . . I want to work totally with publishers but I think they should at least be open to an escalating royalty rate on e-books.”
Amazon is launching a lending library for Kindle books that will be available for OverDrive, “the leading provider of digital content solutions for over 11,000 public and educational libraries in the United States.”
The way to write quality books is to write quantity, according to Kris Kennedy on Romance University. She sums it up in two words: “Write crap.”
That’s a great way to end my last Industry News column. I’ve learned a lot while doing the column, and I’m looking forward to reading posts by the new reporters, who I’m sure will be amazing.
Thanks for the link to my interview with Nathan Bransford!
Meghan, your site is great! I’m just reading the one about social influence scores. I’ll pass it on to the next person doing this column.