What I’m reading #96

Guy Kawasaki offers The Top Ten Mistakes Writers Make When Self-Publishing a Book. There is gold in the comments. Quote unquote:

You need to start building a marketing platform as soon as you start writing because the process takes a year. You should already have thousands of followers on social media on the day that you ship.

On Friday I had lunch with an old friend – from Glenfield, now lives in Devon – I haven’t seen for 25 years. She has published several non-fiction books and one novel. For her second novel, due out in January, she has Tom Wolfe’s agent and Scott Turow’s editor. She has 8000 followers on Twitter and is a genius at using Facebook for promotion without it looking like promotion. Her agent flew from New York to take her to lunch in London and wouldn’t let her order until she had outlined her next two books: they want one a year. So, a treadmill, but a good one. Show me a better treadmill, frankly. 

Craig Cliff on being edited. Quote unquote:

Getting edited is a bit like receiving the worst review ever. 

Paul Litterick on marking essays by architecture students who get it wrong – as we all do – about the Sydney Opera House. Quote unquote:

If only they were to read this blog, then they would know how to avoid humiliation and failure.

Mick Hartley on transgressive art. Some of it is officially approved, and some of it isn’t. Guess what the difference is? Contains the phrase “What could be more subversive than challenging the hegemonic discourse”, but in a good way, i.e. ironically.

Matt Haig makes 20 sensible points about writers and money. Quote unquote:

12. As a writer you have to wear two hats. There is the writer’s hat and then the business hat. But you must know when to take off one hat and put on the other, as wearing two hats at once looks stupid.

And here he is in the Daily Telegraph with 30 things that every writer should know. Quotes unquote:

Literary fiction is a genre that pretends it is not a genre.

and

Everyone is worried about the future of the book. But that is because people hate uncertainty. On the other hand, if you hate uncertainty you shouldn't be a writer in the first place.

Patrick Wensink says that having an Amazon “bestseller” doesn’t mean riches, just a measly $US12,000. I feel his pain.