Weekly Writer's Round-Up
Yee-haw! Welcome to the Weekly Writer's Round-up, where I lasso up the week's latest news and rootin'-tootin' writers' articles on the Net!
This week's round-up is a day early, as I'll be participating in the week long Coffin Hop, starting tomorrow! If you like horror and being scared silly, hop on by tomorrow to meet a host of other horror writers, plus get the chance to win a host of terror-rific prizes!
Further signs of the digital revolution: over half of industry professionals predict that e-book sales will overtake print sales by 2020. (via TheBookseller)
Speaking of e-book sales, the Smashwords blog has an posted the results of an interesting survey on how readers discover e-books. How representative the results are of e-book readers remains to be seen, but the fact that 29% of those surveyed discover books by word of mouth tells me I should start bribing fellow bloggers into recommending my work! Any takers? 
(click to read original survey results)
In related news, the British Library is being criticised for providing a link on its website to Amazon. (via The Telegraph) After briefly removing the link, they have now defended their original decision and reinstated it on their website. (via TheBookseller) Does this show the institution's lack of support for local bookstores and libraries?
Still on the subject of e-books, Em Craven @ The E-book Revolution discusses why we shouldn't be concerned about e-book piracy.
And here comes something that could rival the Amazon Kindle Touch: Kobo has released its own touch-screen e-readership; better yet, it's doing so with the bookstore chain WH Smiths. I don't know about you, but I am liking the fetching colours on the device's back! (via FutureBook)
As V.R. Barkowski winds down her blog, she's posting some weekly truths about writing that may contradict conventional rules. Truth #1: as long as your writing is excellent, you don't *always* have to start a story with action. V.R. gives an excellent example of that in her post, and I for one will be missing her pearls of wisdom when she retires her blog.
For those of you considering self-publishing and designing your own book covers and related swag (bookmarks, posters, etc.), this article by Tirzah @ A Clever Whatever on stock photos and copyright should come in real useful.
And for those of you currently promoting a new release: a brilliant post by C. Hope Clark about how marketing is as much about you as it is about your book.
Writers, here's an awesome new resource I just discovered: FundsforWriters.com contains a comprehensive list of writing grants and competitions, as well as a host of useful articles for the cash-strapped writer.
Crime writers: the Crime Writers' Association has opened its 2012 CWA Debut Dagger competition! Open to any unpublished crime writer, doing well in the competition means having your work seen by leading agents and publishers! I know I'm signing up! Are you?
I know April is six months away, but if you're thinking about signing up for the A to Z Blogging Challenge for 2012, now is probably the time to start planning/scheming. There is now a dedicated A to Z Challenge website. Make sure to follow it, and join the awesomely named Friends of the Alphabet, to get the latest news and announcements.
Missing a good old-fashioned book fair full of book-browsing goodness? Well, M.A. Leslie has come up with the genius idea of running an Internet Book Fair Blogfest! The book fair is Tueday October 25th, and I'm signed up for it. So pop by to check out my ware, and hop along the blogfest to discover some new writers and books!
[image error]Next, let's deck the halls with boughs of holly…yes, I know it's just October, but no harm in getting into the Yuletide spirit early, is there? If you're feeling in the festive giving mood, why not sign up to join My Bookworm Santa? Organised by Michelle @ Book Briefs, it's basically an online Secret Santa, where you gift and receive books from your wish list! I'll be signing up, so look out for my wishlist come Friday!
Budd over at SciFi Media is running a Blood is Red Halloween Giveaway. He has two e-book prizes up for grabs. One of them is my novelette, The Doll! How flattering is that? All you have to do to enter the draw is to follow his blog and to comment on the giveaway post. Contest ends October 30th.
Finally, there's one more week to enter the Trick or Treat Spooktacular! I do appreciate everyone's support so far, so this is the final push to send The Doll's sales, and the prize pot value, up!
Also, don't forget I'm also running a Facebook contest: 'Like' my FB author page for the chance to win an e-book copy of The Doll, in time for a spooky Halloween read! Help me reach 200 fans by October 31st, and you get 3 chances of winning!
That's all, folks! Don't forget to pop by tomorrow for the kick-off of the Coffin Hop!
