Resources and tips for the self-published author.

Publishing News Roundup Series: Why Are Writer Tribes Important?

by Maureen Crisp •  May 30, 2018  •   Follow

Published in News  •  One comment

 

Humans are social people. Writing is a social art.

Which is why writing communities are the best way to improve one’s writing. Having one’s own writer tribe will not only help your writing, but keep your mind healthy and social. Having a job like writing keeps writers ostracize from each other. Staying in touch with a writer tribe can help fill that social void.

 

Inside Your Writer Tribe

Pic: Flicker Creative Commons- David Rosen

 

Today I met some writer friends for coffee. This is a monthly ritual where we leave our writing caves or hectic lives and check in with each other. There is the usual round robin of what are you working on… advice sought or freely given and stories told. I have been thinking about writer tribes and how important they are. Joanna Penn has an excerpt from her Healthy Writer Book where she explains the health benefits of a writer tribe.

 

Earlier this month Jami Gold had a standout post on the cockygate saga. Her conclusion was the author didn’t have a writer tribe. Anne R Allen looks at the fall out of this and examines the author brand and 10 things that will tank it. This should be required reading for all new authors.

 

What happens to author rights when a publisher changes to a subscription model? In a surprise move, education publisher, Cengage is moving to a subscription model for students. It’s business as usual says Cengage. Not so says authors, How come our royalties have become non-existent? Publishing Perspectives reports on two authors who are going to court in a test case to get legal scrutiny on the changes. If you write for the academic or education markets this article is a must read.

 

Amazon is giving money away… if you want to design Apps to play with Alexa. One company has secured funding from Amazon for an Alexa App that adds sound effects to children’s books. In April I linked to a little video doing something similar. Writers might like to think about the whole audio production of stories when they are writing to take advantage of these the robot apps.

 

The Book Designer, Joel Friedlander has been doing some nifty things lately like designing the ultimate writing journal but he also has an interesting blog with lots of guest posts. This one caught my eye. Selling out: Going wide or going exclusive to Amazon by David Kudler

 

Critique groups… Do you love them or hate them? Litreactor has an interesting article about the 3 things they are good for and the 3 things they really aren’t. Does your critique group stack up?

 

Janice Hardy has two great posts on questions to ask when you are writing scenes and the difference between a revision, a rewrite and a redraft. These are Bookmark posts.

In The Craft Section,

Writing prompts– Writepractice
 
 
Self editing– Merry Writer
 
How to deal with the passage of time– Jennie Nash- Bookmark
 
How to read a screenplay– Go into the story- Bookmark
 
Deep dive with emotion– Christina Delay- Bookmark
 

In The Marketing Section,

Createspace vs KDP Print Interesting breakdown.
 
Does a fiction author need a blog– Anne R Allen- Bookmark
 
 
Elevator pitches– Standout books
 
 
 

To Finish,

Kris Rusch muses on the books we want to write but others have written before us. Do we still write them? After all everyone’s tale is unique or do we nod and move on? This is a great article on the influences of writers… sometimes they are other writers. Does our tribe subliminally influence what we write?

 

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.