Publishing News Roundup Series: What Makes a Book “Award” Material?
by Maureen Crisp • August 22, 2017 • Follow
Published in News • No comments
You just wrote a book. It’s the best book. Everyone will love it. You can see the awards before you.
But how do you get them? Of course you love your book, but how do you really know if your book is “award” material? And what can you do to guarantee it is?
Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Rob Schofield
Earlier this week I attended the New Zealand National Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Every year I try to pick the winners and end up with about a 50% strike rate. Book Awards are subjective. What might be your jam could be the judge’s tripe stew. I often think that just making the short list is a major cause for celebration. However it was great to catch up with old friends, celebrate their success in being shortlisted and catch up on gossip.
In the writing blogosphere this week Smashwords introduced a special deals extra for their online store and revamped their coupon codes.
David Gaughran tells a cautionary tale of marketing gone wrong at Amazon because of a rogue publishers mistake. If you advertise on Amazon you need to read this.
With the melt down in international politics Anne R Allen helps everyone out with a timely reminder of good online author etiquette.
Joanna Penn has an interesting post from Zsofia Macho of Publish Drive on publishing in other countries. PublishDrive are a service like Draft2Digital but based in Hungary and cover Asia and Europe.
How do prolific writers stay productive? Check out these writing strategies. This is a fascinating insight into the world of the master writer.
If you are a traveling writer… Daniel Smith has some productivity tips to help you enjoy your travels and still do the work.
Kris Rusch talks about negotiating TV and movie deals. It helps if you know exactly what you want. A very interesting post on this market.
Johnny B Truant has an interesting post on Book Covers. Yes they go out of fashion and yes you need expert design help. Johnny shows his cover progression and why they were mistakes.
Since I figured out how to listen to podcasts in the car. I have been dipping into some interesting writing ones. Jennifer Laughran is going from strength to strength with her new podcast on kidslit publishing. Check out this one on publicity. Lorna Faith has an interesting podcast interview on marketing plans with Nick Thacker and four part story structure.
In The Craft Section,
Two great posts from Go Into The Story- The 3E’s of scene description and Where you stumble there lies your treasure.
How to write novella’s and why you should– Anne R Allen – Bookmark
When you lose the desire to finish– Jane Friedman- Bookmark
5 things you can do to make your deadlines– Book Marketing Tools
Character motivation- Rescue a loved one– Angela Ackerman- Bookmark
Challenges of first person POV– James Scott Bell
In The Marketing Section,
How to create pre launch buzz for your book right now– Rachel Thompson- Bookmark
Book Design Chapter Openers– Joel Friedlander
4 social media productivity tips – Frances Caballo – Bookmark
How to build a media kit – Molly Greene– Bookmark
What are the weaknesses in your book marketing platform?- Digital Book World- Bookmark
16000 preorders in 6 months- A case study- Gwynn White
To Finish,
It’s been a week of highs and lows. Productivity has taken a beating. Sometimes you just need to stare at cat gifs… or you can get creative and come up with a Periodic Table for Villains.
Maureen
@craicer
About Maureen Crisp
Maureen Crisp has been writing her weekly publishing roundups for over seven years. She is a traditionally published children's author as well as indie-published. She lives in New Zealand and is heading the team organising the 4th National Conference of Children's Writers and Illustrators. She is currently trying her hand at writing a children’s book series if she can drag herself away from forever tweaking her Mars novel or obsessing over space.