Special Days in June to Market You Book – Edie Melson does it again! Did you know this week is “Fishing Week”?

Publishers Should Invest In Authors, Not Just In Books - from Forbes magazine online. What do you think of what she is saying?

The Seven Deadly Myths of Digital Publishing – I found myself nodding in agreement while reading this article by Bill McCoy the executive director of the International Digital Publishing Forum.

Are You Ready to Contact an Agent? Take This Short Quiz and Find Out - A clever way to ask yourself some key questions in your pursuit.

Free is not the magic number: New trends in ebook pricing - This is an ongoing debate within the publishing community. What is the value of a book? $2.99? $5.99? $0.00? $9.99? The implication have enormous economic consequences.
Note how one self-published author uses Pulsing and Pacing in her ebook pricing strategy.

21 Platform Building Insights from Authors and Experts Who Excel at It - Wow.Far too much good advice to absorb in one sitting!

by Steve Laube

Many authors are also speakers and as such usually have a book table in the back of the room where the audience can purchase a copy of their book during an event. This can be a very valuable source of income for the author if they have negotiated a “buy back” price (also known as the author’s discount) at the time of signing their book contract.

Check Your Contract Restrictions
It is crucial that you read your contract if you plan on selling copies of your book. No publisher will allow you to resell your books to a commercial account. In other words don’t try to buy thousands of books at your author discount and then re-sell them to Wal-Mart at a special price. That is a no-no. And is a logical restriction.

Also, there are a couple publishers that do not allow you, by contract, to sell your books in any public venue. If you scoff at this after signing the contract and are caught, you are in breach of contract and could face the consequences.

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Oh my, this was too funny.
Been there. Done that.
Don’t try to fix it!

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by Tamela Hancock Murray

Recently someone posted a question I get asked all the time:

After finishing my current book should I write the sequel or start something new?

This question is usually posed by a new author whose agent is marketing a series. The editors have not had a chance to weigh in with their interest in the series or lack thereof. Meanwhile, the writer is bored and wants something else to write.

What about curve balls?

If the series is contracted and the author already has much of the second book written, there is less to do and less pressure. Sounds like a plan. Well, maybe. Maybe not. While it seems to make sense to get as much done ahead of time as possible, with the contract offer still being pie in the sky, writing the second book may not be productive except as keeping with the discipline of being a writer. And, what if you get a contract offer, only to find the editor wants the second book to focus on a different heroine than you planned? Or what if the first book takes a different direction that will make huge plot impacts on the second book? I’ve seen these scenarios more than once so the idea that you’ll turn in two or three books that will remain almost untouched is unlikely. This is often a reality even for experienced authors.

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by Karen Ball

The English language is full of persnickety quirks, the most despicable of which are buzz words. Words and phrases we’ve decided work better than plain speech. Why say what you mean when you can just toss out a phrase that says what you want, but in such a vague and convoluted manner than people spend so much energy figuring it out that they can’t challenge you? Genius! Or how about those words we overuse, or misuse? Oy, da pain!

So here, for your reading pleasure, are some of the words and phrases that drive this logophile right up the wall. Literally!

Can you unpack that for me?

Nope. I can’t. Literally. What’s more, I don’t want to. I don’t like packing or unpacking. And what does packing have to do with anything? Whatever happened to the plain and simple, “Would you explain that, please?”

Repurposed

Folks, we all know what this means. Fired. Laid off. Out of a job. You can’t take away the devastation by giving it some innocuous name and hoping nobody challenges you on it.

Baby bump

Seriously? It’s not a bump. It’s a baby. Way better than a bump.

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Create a Great Title for Your Book – A well done article that could help your Muse

Five Things Indie Authors Do Very Well – Dr. Alison Baverstock makes some solid observations.

Cover Letters and Book Proposals – Looking for some help with these? This article provides the basics.

Proofread Like a Pro – Never hire me as your poorfreader. Need I say more?

Are E-Book Sales Declining…in Canada? – Don’t forget that Publishing is a global concern.

Why American Kids Have ADHD and French Kids Don’t – Fascinating. Do you agree or disagree?

Enjoy these definitions of “Biblio” (via tumblr)

From A Passion for Books by Harold Rabinowitz, Rob Kaplan

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by Steve Laube

Whenever I lecture about money the room becomes unusually quiet. Instead of a common restlessness from listeners there is a thrumming impatience to reveal the punch line. The punch line that declares every writer will be rich.

Now that I have our attention let’s turn to the topic of the day. The Advance. This is defined as the money a publisher pays to the author in “advance” of the publication of the finished book. We read about the seven-figure advances in the news because they are unusual and quite substantial. The amount given to everyone else can be rather different. (Read the article where Rachelle Gardner answers the question “What is the Typical Advance.”)

Payout Schedule

The money is not given all at once. There is usually an amount given for signing the book contract and the balance comes at various stages of the writing process. Some pay half on signing, half on acceptance of an acceptable manuscript. Some pay one-third on signing, one-third on acceptance, and one-third on publication. There can be other triggers to create payments like an acceptable proposal for subsequent books in a multi-book deal. We even had one highly unusual situation where the total amount of the advance was divided up over the course of 15 months and the publisher paid the author monthly.

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I love Henri the Cat. (aka “the existential cat.”)

Enjoy his most recent adventure “Cat Littérature.”

and one of our favorites:

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by Tamela Hancock Murray

In 1995 I watched the movie Cold Comfort Farm. A British comedy, the story was not without charm, though I wouldn’t recommend this parody of literature for everyone. Early on, Aunt Ada, who seemed to be a bit crazy, said, “I saw something nasty in the wood shed.”

Throughout the movie, I waited to find out what Aunt Ada saw. I waited. And waited. But the question was never answered, at least not for the viewer. I tried to find out if the novel solved the mystery and was unsuccessful in that quest, making me believe the book did not reveal the answer, either.

In my mind, the story broke its contract with the viewer. Since whatever Aunt Ada saw had a great effect on her, I think the nasty something should have been revealed.

Apparently I am not alone. Even now, the Internet is rife with posts about the mystery.

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by Karen Ball

I was just talking with a client the other day about the writing life. She’d struggled with getting started on her novel. Then, once she started, she said it was as though she couldn’t keep her backside in the chair. Everything else caught her attention: laundry, dishes, kids, dogs, yard work, and on and on. And when she finally managed to write most of the book, there was that darned ending! She’d written and rewritten and rewritten it again. What’s more, she was about to rewrite one more time!

“Am I the only one who struggles with all this? Does anyone else?”

After I snorted my coffee—and then cleaned up—I told her the bald truth: “Only everyone.”

Okay, maybe not every writer struggles with these things. But more writers do than don’t. It’s SO much easier to do…well, anything…than to stay focused on writing. It’s not that we don’t love what we do. Of course we love it. But it’s just so hard! And getting immersed enough in the story to stay immersed can be a real battle. So what’s a writer to do?

Well, use the different level of focus, for one thing.

I’m firmly ensconced in the camp of writers that has trouble starting, continuing, and ending well. Which is what got me focused on focus to begin with. And here’s what I’ve found. It helps a great deal to start out with mountaintop focus. How? By looking at the whole picture, I can then break it down to bite-sized pieces. And breaking things down into bite-sized pieces engages my love of puzzles and my desire to “fix” things, which gets me fully engaged. I do this as often every week, or as little as once a month, depending on how the writing is going. Any time I realize I’m out of the chair more than I’m in it, I take a day to do an overview—mountaintop focus–of the book. I consider the following:

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