October: Events, Scholarships, & Resources
NEW online marketing seminar, event advice, & the perfect early fall tea
Greetings writers!
It’s tilting into fall, here in New England. With the equinox behind us, leaves are shifting from green to copper and the air oscillates between sun-warmed and the cool, crisp of autumn. There’s a kind of seasonal shift that happens once the summer ends, for writers too, from one creative mode to another. From creation to revision, maybe, or from writing to promotion. Either way, the publishing industry is waking back up from it’s summer doze and we’re dusting off our projects, ready to get back to work.
My big goals for this summer were to 1) start a new novel project and 2) start a prettier newsletter. The latter goal is coming in a little late, but I’m a firm believer in wiggle room where personal writing goals are concerned. Welcome to my brand-new newsletter and all it’s lovely features. You can expect updates about once a month.
Upcoming Seminars
The events marked with ** require registration and usually fill up! And for the first time ever, I’m offering one online. Tune in from the comfort of your own home!
October 3rd: Speculative Fiction Variety Hour (The Writer’s Loft)
October 12th: Marketing & Platform Building for Writers — Whether You’re Published or Not (GrubStreet)**
November 2nd: Marketing for Writers: A Business Seminar (Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance) <— ONLINE!**
Not available these dates? Connect with me for one-on-one coaching that fits your schedule!
Writing/Marketing Resources
How to Amplify a BookBub Deal as a Traditionally Published Author explores, in-depth, how author Mike Chen’s strategic combo of Facebook ads, social media, and BookBub helped him gain access to a wider audience (also his book Here and Now and Then is super fun: time traveling secret agents! Time loops! Secret families!)
Book Expo 2019: Authors and Indies Working Together is a great summary of a panel event with booksellers (moderated by Emma Straub!) discussing how authors and bookstores need and help each other, a topic near and dear to my heart.
Bonus: Shelf Awareness is also an excellent newsletter to subscribe to for book recs and bookstore news.
On the flip side, Why Authors Are Holding Book Events at Museums and other Nontraditional Venues also made me whoop. I love a good bookstore event, but an author’s audience is so much wider than that. Alternative venues allow writers to explore different event models and reach other readers, as writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel explains.
GrubStreet Inc’s The Muse and the Marketplace conference has #Muse20 scholarships available! I’ll once again be presenting at this Boston-based conference in 2020 and it’s one of my favorites — it’s well-run, has a wicked smart faculty, and is an incredible opportunity to network. Check out some of their previous (incredibly moving!) keynotes.
Personal Marketing and Why it Matters, Even if You’re Not Published By yours truly, I discuss why ‘personal’ marketing is so important for authors at any stage in their career, along with some real-life examples of authors putting their personal marketing strategies to the test.
Industry News
Amazon broke the publishing embargo (think Harry Potter release-style) on Margaret Atwood’s new book The Testaments, releasing copies of the book to customers a week early. While this may sound like an added bonus for those readers, it’s bad news for bookstores, as Lexi Beach of Astoria Bookshop explains: Why It Matters that Amazon Shipped Margaret Atwoods The Testaments a Week Early.
The John W. Campbell Award, the well-known science fiction writing award for best new writer, has been renamed to the Astounding Award after an impassioned speech by Jeanette Ng. As the most recent recipient, Ng used her acceptance speech to highlight Campbell’s legacy of racism and exclusion and called for a new name for the award. The NYT goes into more detail here.
The New York Times Bestsellers lists are changing again. Publisher’s Weekly has the scoop on the evolution of the List, what’s staying, and what’s going.
Audible’s Captions program takes another turn in the ring. Earlier this summer, major publishers filed a lawsuit against Audible’s upcoming Captions program, claiming Audible doesn’t hold the specific rights that would allow them to create text-based versions of audiobooks. Now Audible is fighting the lawsuit with a filing that claims the technology is fair use.
Tea
Transitioning from summer to fall means I’m less likely to refill my iced tea pitcher and more likely to brew up something warm. A tea that goes pleasantly in either direction is a ginger peach green tea. It’s eminently drinkable, whether served hot on a frosty morning as a fruity, spicy, caffeine pick-me-up or with more tropical notes over ice once it’s cooled.
Let me know about upcoming events, marketing campaigns, and projects so I can help signal boost!
Happy writing!
~Allison
Writer & Marketing Coach
Keep Writing, Keep Connecting! Twitter | Facebook | Newsletter | Website
Allison has happily made books her life’s work. She spent four years marketing and publicizing academic titles at The MIT Press before she went to work for Wellesley Books as a children’s bookseller and event coordinator. She is now living her dream: putting her B.A. in Creative Writing to good use as a novelist and as a writing/marketing coach for authors. She enjoys science fiction, cupcakes, and a hot cup of tea.