web stuff 4 writers

It’s midway through November and its associated writing challenges.  NaNoWriMo writers who are on track to finish on the 31st, should have written over 25,000 words by now.  NaBloPoMo participants should be on their 17th blog entry. 

I’m afraid that my novel writing hasn’t recovered from my trip to Oxford last weekend for the Society of Young Publishers’ careers conference, with the word-count of the new version still languishing at around 12,000.  And while this is my 17th blog entry, it’s going to have to be another short one, as I’ve got so many other writing and web projects to get on with this weekend.

Your thoughts

If you’re doing NaNoWriMo or NaBloPoMo or any other writing challenge this month, how’s it going for you?  Are you finding it easier or more difficult than expected?

Tags: Finding inspiration // 2 Comments »

It seems to have been a good week for a website launch - and not only the one I wrote about on Tuesday evening.

Following the release of her debut novel, Cover the Mirrors, Faye L. Booth has moved her website, www.fayelbooth.co.uk, to a new server, updated her About page, and added page about 19th Century Spiritualism. At the end of the latter page, there’s a link to a password protected page with information for book groups, with the intriguing sentence ‘The password should be pretty easy to guess if you’ve read the book’ (though perhaps, as she suggests, once I read the book - I’m still waiting on the copy I ordered from Amazon - things will become clear).

Rebecca Laffar-Smith has also updated the look of her website, and moved it to it’s new domain name, www.writersroundabout.com. This week, Rebecca’s also posted her first blog review, alerting me to another great site, Writing for Writers, by Melissa A. Donovan.

Finally, I received a message through Facebook today, letting me know that the new Legend Press website is now live. Again, the site is based on a blog format - which will accomodate their regular updates. It also incorporates an online shop where, at the moment, they’re offering special package deals to celebrate the launch.

Your thoughts

Launched a new site recently? Started a new writing-related series? Written a great post? Please let me know by leaving a comment on this entry.

Tags: Web links // 6 Comments »

What is a blog carnival?

A blog carnival is a type of blogging event. One blogger (the carnival organiser) will name a topic, and call for others to write blog entries on that topic and send in their links.

Once submissions close, the organiser publishes an entry with a description of the carnival and a list of links. You can see this in action at a post called ‘Writers from across the blogosphere’ over at The Writer’s Block blog.

Why should I submit entries to a blog carnival?

First a disclaimer: blog carnivals are another topic that’s new to me. However, after researching them for this entry, I’ve decided to take part in a few over the next month and will write a follow up post once I’ve seen the results.

For now, I can say that blog carnivals look like a good way to publicise your blog and drive traffic to your site – both from other carnival participants and from other readers who chance upon the list of links.

It also seems to be a good way to discover other writers who have similar interests to you.

In his post about how he became an A-list blogger, Scott Allen writes that he ‘can’t say enough about the value of blog carnivals.’ He suggests that in any given week, a blogger should be able to find at least five carnivals to which they can submit a recent post.

Where can I find open blog carnivals to join?

The Blog Carnival website provides a list of carnivals, which can be sorted by category (eg. writers) or searched by keyword.

Your thoughts

Have you participated in a blog carnival? Did you find that you had more visitors to your site as a result?

Tags: What is? // 1 Comment »

Returning to the regularly scheduled web stuff 4 writers programme, here is this week’s writing about writing topic.

Writing about writing, Week #8

What one piece of advice would you give someone who was just beginning to write fiction?

If you’ve answered this question in your blog, please leave a link to the entry in the comments box below.  Alternatively you can write/paste your answer directly in the comments box.

Tags: Writing about writing // 2 Comments »

Well, it’s not exactly for writers…

… but it is most definitely web stuff.

It’s the culmination of a lot of work from a lot of people, including my web team colleagues and myself, throughout the last year.

Here it is: the new Alzheimer’s Society website, with all its factsheets, and its events, its news stories and its publications, personal experiences, local information, online forms, and yes, I’m rather proud.

Tags: General // Add Comment »

Sixty seconds of fame has come the way of web stuff 4 writers this week with the site being mentioned on Mur Laffety’s I Should Be Writing podcast.

I Should Be Writing is billed as ‘the podcast for wanna-be fiction writers, by a wanna-be fiction writer’. It’s a show that was recommended to me in the comments on my first postcasting post and I’ve been a subscriber for about a month now. Over that time, I’ve enjoyed Mur’s commentary on her own writing and her advice to other writers so much that I’ve also downloaded a number of her back episodes.

In her most recent episode (ISBW#79 – Feedback episode), Mur responds to questions from listeners, talking about what to do when you lose interesting in your characters, world building and the perils of combining alcohol and writing. Then, about 20 minutes in, Mur says that she’s received an email from Caitlin, letting her know about web stuff 4 writers.

So thanks to Caitlin for sending the email; thanks to Mur for the mention; and welcome to any first-time viewers to this blog. Please leave a comment below, and let us know who you are, what you write, and how you’re using the web.

Tags: Finding inspiration, General // 2 Comments »

I’ve probably seen hundreds of trailers for films in my lifetime.  Almost every trip to the cinema begins with those short clips, highlighting the best bits of movies-to-come.

This week, I’ve seen my first book trailer - or rather my first nine book trailers - which have been posted on YouTube to promote the launch of Douglas Coupland’s new book, The Gum Thief.  Three of the snippets are from the point of view of Roger, the main character.  Three are from the point of view of another character, Bethany.  And three are extracts from Roger’s own novel, Glove Pond.

Here is my favourite - it’s an introduction to Bethany:

You can view the rest on Douglas Coupland’s YouTube page.

Your thoughts

I’m probably not the best person to comment on the effectiveness of these videos, as I’ve already bought and read (and enjoyed) The Gum Thief.  For anyone who hasn’t read the book, do these videos leave you wanting to find out more?

Tags: Promotion // Add Comment »

What is Bookcrossing.com?

Bookcrossing.com is a book sharing website.  Members register their books on the site, then leave them in the wild (on park benches, in coffee shops, in trees and so on) for others to find, or pass them on to another read through organised bookrings.  Each new reader writes a journal entry about the book, so that previous readers can track its journey.

How writers can use Bookcrossing.com

I’ve been a member of the site for about four years now, and – through finding books in the wild and through bookrings – I’ve been introduced to authors and works that I might have otherwise missed.  Though the Bookcrossing.com monthly meetups, I’ve also met a number of fellow readers, in Melbourne when I lived there, then in Wellington, and recently in London. 

There may be people out there who’ll argue with me, but I believe that reading and talking about what you’re reading is of great benefit to a writer.  And by following the journal entries of the books I’ve read, I’ve been able to see what does and doesn’t appeal to certain readers.

Earlier this year, I also set up two bookrings for my novel Lessons to Learn: one for Bookcrossing members in Europe and North America, the other for members in Australia and New Zealand.  On the day after the launch, I mailed the copies to the first participants.  The feedback has been mixed: some have enthused, some have been indifferent – but it’s feedback either way and it has been interesting to see what each reader has picked up on. 

Does Bookcrossing.com hurt book sales?  No more, I’d argue, than libraries do.  Perhaps less.  After all, I have been know to buy extra copies of my favourite books so I can share them with others through Bookcrossing.com  On the Bookcrossing.com forums, this topic is discussed further in a thread called Authors and Bookcrossing.

Your thoughts

What are your thoughts on book-swapping websites such as Bookcrossing?  Are you a member of any?

Tags: What is? // 1 Comment »

Earlier in the year, the UK rock band, Radiohead, announced that they were going to sell their latest album via their website, inrainbows.com. Nothing new there. What was different was that, when the buyer got to the virtual check-out, they were presented with a pound sign and then an empty box. Click on the question mark next to this box and they got the message, ‘it’s up to you’.

In other words, as the consumer, you could pay what you thought the album was worth.

Fast forward to earlier this week, when I discovered this Associated Press article: Most Fans Paid $0 for Radiohead Album. According to the study quoted in the article, 62% of the survey participants downloaded the album for free. The remaining 38% paid an average of US$6.00.

So, at first glance, it seems that Radiohead’s not making as much money out of this album as they would if they sold it through the music stores. What they are doing though, is making headlines. They’re getting their name out there, creating a buzz. And a buzz will sell box-sets, and buzz will get people to their gigs.

Also, when you download the album – even if you pay nothing for it – you have to register for an account with the inrainbows.com website. I’m not sure how this data will be used, but when you sign up for any website, there’s the potential that you’ll be made aware (usually by email) of any future products or campaigns.

Your thoughts

Do you see this business model working for book sales? If you had the option of downloading it for free, would you still pay for the right to download a book by your favourite author?

Tags: Promotion, Publishing // 1 Comment »

It doesn’t matter whether you’re hiring a team of professional web-designers to create you a high-tech, database driven website to promote your writing or whether you’ve got a couple of friends who are going to pull something together for free – there’s still some questions you might want to ask them before they begin.

1. Can I have a look at some of your past work?

In most cases, yours won’t be the first website that this person has developed. Ask if they can email you some links to other websites they’ve worked on, or if they can mail you a site or two on CD. Looking at their previous sites may give you a better idea of what you like or don’t like, and an indication of what the designer may be able to do for you. Of course, building any website is a usually team effort, so it may be worth asking your prospective web person, which part of the site he/she built. It’s no point choosing someone because of the fantastic graphics on one of his/her portfolio sites, if those were designed by someone else altogether.

2. How do you charge?

Some web designers will quote for the whole job, and ask for a percentage up front and the remainder once you’ve signed off on the project. Others will charge an hourly rate. If you intend your web designer to update your website regularly, you may also want to ask if these updates will be at an hourly rate or at a fixed charge per update.

3. Can you recommend a good hosting company?

At the end of the day, you don’t want a great website sitting on your computer hard-drive. You want your great website up on the web. To do that, you’ll need a website hosting company for space on their server or find somewhere to host your website for free. Your web designers may be able to recommend a company they’ve used before, or provide you with quotes for a number of services.

4. Will everybody be able to find and see my website?

It’s no good having a website that doesn’t show up on search engines. Similarly, it’s no good having a website that doesn’t display correctly on certain browsers (especially if those browsers are major ones like Internet Explorer and Firefox). Ask how much testing will be done before the website goes live.

5. How will my website be updated?

This will be particularly important if you want to update the website yourself. Ask if you will be able to update the website online, or whether you will need a software programme such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver. Does the amount that you’re paying for your website include training in how to update it? Will you be given a copy of the files at the end of the project?

Your thoughts

Are there any other questions that should be added to this list? If you’ve had a website created for you, how was the experience of working with a designer? Are there things you wish you had asked or did it all turn out okay?

Tags: Creating websites // 4 Comments »