Contracts, Contracts, Contracts

Hey guess what? Today I'll be posting about contracts. I've got three interesting posts with advice for authors regarding their publishing contracts.

The first is a post from literary agent Rachelle Gardner's blog, titled "What's in a Publishing Contract". Its a good primer on what to expect in a publishing contract.

A self-described Stroppy Author, has a series (9 so far) of good posts titled "How to read a publishing contract." They are longer posts that go into detail about standard clauses in publishing contracts, and well worth the read.

Finally over at COPYLAW they have a great post titled "Is you publishing contract enhanced e-book and Ipad ready." A very important question to ask given the quick development of e-reading and e-readers.

Aren't contracts fun?!

Still on that Transmedia thing

Good thing I wasn't the only one thinking about Transmedia this week or I wouldn't have anything to post. As it happens the fine folks over at Publishing Perspectives were riding a similar wavelength and posted about How Transmedia Storytelling Becomes a Billion Dollar Business. It's an interesting story about the creation of Inanimate Alice, and it involves our very own Kate Pullinger.

They follow the story up with the question "Can Publishers Transform into Transmedia Storytellers?"

Publishing Perspectives is another one of those sites that people interested in finding out where publishing is, and where it is going, should pay attention to.

Thinking Transmedia

Met with a wonderful writer this morning and in addition to her project we started talking about transmedia. Not what I expected when I was going to the meeting but a lot of thought-provoking fun. So I started thinking about a couple of posts I'd read recently about transmedia and thought I'd share. Certainly transmedia isn't for every author, but if you envision your stories, or characters across a number of media platforms, thinking of it as a transmedia project from the outset is probably the best way to capitalize on what you are doing.

The first post is a very useful 5 Stage Development Process for Transmedia Projects, and links to another post on a transmedia business model.

Post number two tells us that Transmedia Requires a New Breed of Writers, Publishers.

While you are there check out the Digital Book World site. It's full of interesting material about how publishing in the 21st Century is developing.

Some marketing sites for authors

Just came across some websites that I think will be useful to authors looking to do a little self-promotion.

The first, called Social Media Examiner, has a ton of interesting advice on how to use social media for building your business (your *ahem* platform).

The second, called Tribal Author, promises to help you 'build a worldwide tribe of die-hard fans, evangelists and influencers..." I don't know if it can deliver all that but they seem to be thinking the right way.

Give us some feedback if you find the sites useful...or flaky.