This morning
in my inbox was a little heads up email from Publishers Weekly with the round
up of children’s publishing news.
A quick glance down and this takes my eye. Scholastic, Ruckus in joint venture. On the surface it’s another business
merger with the biggest children’s publisher. Ho hum. But look a little deeper
and think about what this is telling us now about children’s publishing.
Ruckus Media
was started a year ago this week by the former head of Simon and Schuster’s
Children’s Publishing division. He got together with a web developer to take a
well known children’s audio book company Rabbit Ears into the digital age and
create apps for the new iPad. They
promised a 12 week turn around time and to release an App a week. They were
going to acquire new content and had signed up some impressive authors. Ruckus
also promised that eventually they would go into partnership with a publishing house.
So a year to
the day they are going with Scholastic.
While the
big publishing houses have had a wait and see approach or are nervously dipping
a toe in the water of digital publishing. Their top brass have been jumping to
get into the market knowing that eventually the publishing houses would have to
come to them for their expertise. These guys aren’t going to lose their shirts
on this, they are businessmen. Print publishers are now seeing the huge market
for new content in Games and Apps and want a piece of the pie.
Ruckus
published new digital content first and now they are partnering with Scholastic
to bring it into Print.
Writers, You
don’t have to sell print rights first...(Do I hear the sound of pennies
dropping?)
Children’s
writers need to look at their manuscripts and see it as suitable for submission
to Digital Media publishers as well as print...especially junior and mid grade
writers. Illustrators too could begin submitting portfolios into these smart
publishers.
After all if
Scholastic can take a punt why can’t you?
Also in the
news this week...
These three
links have generated much comment around the blogosphere.
Bob Mayer
explains his statement That Fear Is The Downfall Of the Publishing Industry
On the
popular Publishing Perspectives blog a literary agent puts up his argument against agent publishers.
If you are
wondering about marketing your new book, Cory Doctorow tells it straight with his to the point article for Locus. Why should anybody care? This is a great
article which has generated heaps of comments all over the blogosphere.
Also in the
same issue of Locus there is a spotlight on Ultra Cool Children’s Writer Bruce Colville. He has an audio publishing company that puts full cast audio productions together....(wish I was living near him, I would love to be a voice
actor for a book...)
M J Rose is interviewed by Jungle Red (a
mystery writers group blog) about starting the company Author Buzz and how successful it has been. There are some great marketing tips for authors in this article.
Jenny Hansen from Writers in the Storm, examines social media and how that impacts on your Author Brand. This is a useful post because she breaks down the use of hash
tags on twitter...and the best people to follow. (you can follow me if you like..:)
40K has a great roundup of trends currently happening in publishing. They use up and down
arrows with great effect.
Over on
Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to Articles on
Internal and
External Inspiration
25 tips for
Queries, Synopsis and Treatments. (This is a great article but comes with a
content warning hehehe Cover your ears....Chuck lets rip.)
In the Craft
Corner,
The
wonderful Casey McCormick has a guest blog from Martha Ramirez on how to deal with critique editing.
To finish,
Explore all
avenues....take a punt!
enjoy,
maureen
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