Ten-Minute Blog Break - 17th February

It must be Tuesday again, and time for another Blog Break. This week's column takes on such diverse topics as procrastination, business planning, pug racing and (of course) cake.


Who knew that there was a recipe for procrastination? I thought I was just (not) doing it as I went along, but thank you Sarah Broadley for setting me straight. In an amusing post, Sarah presents her recipe for Procrastinating Picture Book Soup and allows the rest of us to procrastinate by reading it!

If you've got your business head on today, you'll enjoy Katherine Lynas's post about 5 Useful Business Books for Illustrators. I was pleased to see that she picks Show Your Work by Austin Kleon, which I also blogged about last year.

For self-published writers, one of the big challenges is the dizzying number of different channels to market. Some people restrict themselves to one or two, but Julie Day has taken a different tack, publishing to as many as possible. Read Julie's blogpost to discover her rationale for this approach.

K.M. Lockwood is judging a book by its cover this week, with a post exploring the relationship between book covers, content and marketing. She also takes the opportunity to showcase the cover for Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve's new opus Pugs of the Frozen North, which looks quite bonkers (in a good way).

Finally, Dave Cousins's attempt to escape our winter weather by going to Germany on a school tour may not have resulted in much of a temperature rise, but it does seem to have resulted in some very happy kids. Dave's post has some great photos that really capture his enthusiasm in front of an audience, and a picture of a German cake! What more could you ask for?

Nick.

---

A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine. Issue 7 out now!

On his blog, Nick discusses the controversial genesis of his latest Stew Magazine story and considers The Rewards of Risk.