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| Auckland City at dusk. |
Hey everyone! Hope
this week sees you all enjoying the warmer weather. We've had a busy
week and a super crazy weekend – we moved downstairs but it felt
like we moved down-the-line!
I have enjoyed
'researching' many different fairy tale adaptations this last week,
and I've pick up a few Steampunk stories as well. I don't know when I
will get sick of the cross-genre but for now I still have many more
authors to read through.
It has been an
interesting week nation wide and world wide in the area of
publishing. Amazon and Hachette are still at each other's throats
over ebook pricing and I'm not truly sure who is in the wrong but
both sides are making much of the controversial situation blaming
each as a money hungry, author stomping, power manipulative, bad guy.
NZ is still
adjusting to changes as well with the withdrawal of four major
publishing firms early last year. It has seen a pretty significant
drop in book sales nationwide in the last few years. But at the same
time, ebooks are becoming more and more popular.
This has lead
publishers and writers to figure out new ways of selling their books,
and many of these new ways are quite innovative. Some are writing
music to go with their books – not a new thing but when you marry
ebooks and sound/music audio files it becomes an exciting new read.
Other publishing houses are now using Google search hits as a tool
for marketing – they are writing books to meet the popular Google
search terms. It is interesting to see how technology is forcing
change and how that change is forcing how technology is used.
But I love how
self-published authors are getting together to find new ways of cross
promoting and marketing. They are even setting up book fairs which I
totally support. One of the reasons for this is that existing book
festivals don't really cater to self-publishers, sometimes charging
huge amounts for little reward.
I'm hoping to head
over to Devonport this weekend to support some fellow Kiwi authors at
the first Auckland Independent Book Festival. They have over 90 exhbits at the festival - 90! That is amazing! We are going to make a
day of it and hopefully meet some new friends in the NZ writery
world!
It is being held
this Sat, 16th August at the St Paul's Chess Centre, 100
Victoria St, Devonport from 10am until 4pm. More info here:
OK, so my last week
was super busy, and I didn't get much writing or editing done. But
there is always this week!
* I read Snow White
Sorrow (Book #1 in the Grimm Diaries) by
Cameron
Jace. It was an interesting Vampire take on the Snow White fairy
tale but not one I really enjoyed.
What I hope to
achieve this week:
* Go and visit the
Auckland Independent Book Festival on this coming weekend, yeah!
* Set up a mailing
list for my Steampunk Fairytales
* Add progress bar
to my blog
* Print off goals
for Steampunk Fairytales
* Write first five
chapters for 'Briar' – my Sleeping Beauty adaptation
* Edit 'Pinnacchia'
and 'Snow'
Here are some links for
you to check out this week:
Why mailing lists
are important for authors: David Gaughran:
How to build a
killer mailing list: Nick Stephenso:
Amazon Vs Hachette
debate: The Plot thickens as 900 authors battle Amazon:
The NZ Post Book
Awards are open for the People's Choice Award, vote here:
NZ Herald published
an article on 'Online search key to publishing blockbusters':
And I found a Disney
Princess CGI make-over – not book related but very cute!
The Word Meter Builder - will be adding this to my blog once my Technical Advisor - aka hubby - shows me how! :)
What a busy week I
have in store, I am really looking forward to it!
That's all for now,
over and out.
~ Joy Findlay
