The week in writing - from self-publishing to streaks

by Bec Evans

Fifty shades of self-publishing

There were puns aplenty with the news that older women dominate the growth in self-publishing. Big cheer to Alison Baverstock, associate professor in publishing at Kingston University in England, for her research which found:

65% of self-publishers are women with 35% men
Nearly two-thirds of self-publishers are aged 41 to 60
A fabulous 27% are aged over 61
Half are in full-time employment
32% have a degree and 44% a higher degree.

Persistence is key for bloggers

People loved ‘Ten reasons to blog even if no one reads it‘ infographic from businessgrow.com. I blog because I enjoy doing it, and it helps to improve my writing - I suppose that ticks off reasons 2 and 3.

Add some joy to your note taking!

Smashing Magazine encouraged us all to get creative with its post on Sketchnotes.

Rethink and Defeat Negative Thoughts

Banish that negativity with wise and beautiful advice from Happify Daily.

Check out the snippet below encouraging us to journal or write down and let go of those bad thoughts.

In other news

We had double conference dates, going along to FutureBook to find out about all things futuristic in the world of books – and increasingly apps. There were so many amazing presentations and panels I can’t begin to summarise, so will share that eBooks are the top of the shopping list of consumers’ online purchases according to a recent Nielsen survey of 30,000 people in 60 countries.

I also did a presentation to the National Association for Writers in Education annual conference asking whether writing practice can be taught and whether technology can help.

Make a date for writing

We were very, very excited to unveil our new calendar function on Write-Track. For the last fortnight I’ve managed to write 6 days of 7. I’m determined to get a full streak next week!

Writing, tracking, goals and creativity: What’s it all about?

Over at Write-Track towers we’ve launched head long into trying to tell the world about our start-up. Part of this involves engaging with the scary world of pitching for funding and whilst that doesn’t come too easily to introverted types like us it’s been useful in ordering our thoughts and telling our story. With this… Read more

From writers’ block to biscuits

Our second week has settled into a routine as new users join and set goals, and current users track their writing. Apart from the occasional vortex, things are as they should be. It gave Bec a chance to leave her desk and go into the world and talk to real people. Here she runs through… Read more

Overcoming the vortex – a week of beta testing Write-Track

After years of dreaming and months of tweaking on Friday 12 September 2014 Write-Track was unveiled for beta testing. We emailed the patient writerly types on our launch list and kept our fingers tightly crossed. Here are a few snippets of how the first week went – it involved missing robots, some superstar goal-achieving writers… Read more