Imposters, Frauds, and Dodgy Dealings

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The United Kingdom writers are not happy. This week the UK Publishers Association blasted the UK government over their response to their own governmental committee’s recommendations for dealing with copyright issues regarding AI and Large Language Models. Even the head of the governmental committee is using strong language about the government’s response.

Meanwhile, The UK Society of Authors held an extraordinary general meeting to put to the vote three issues, fossil fuels, AI, and Gaza. The results of the vote have caused an uproar in the wider author community. Many writers are publicly resigning their membership. Mark Williams offers his take on where it all went horribly wrong.

 

Over the pond in the United States, the dissenting authors from Pen America’s award ceremony (mentioned two weeks ago) have got together to hold their own show and a fundraiser.

 

Publisher’s Weekly reports that Simon and Schuster have been shopping and bought a large Dutch publishing company. Their private equity fund bosses have been promising expansion and with this purchase they have a subscription company, an audiobook company and a few other goodies.

 

Dan Holloway, news editor at The Alliance of Independent Authors, has been looking at the news that OpenAI is going to pay the creators of the content they have been using to train their AI. This is based around the financial arrangement they are making with publishers to use their content. But how will they do it? 

 

Kathy Steinemann is annoyed that she is being forced to lie when asked if she is using AI. Have you stopped and thought about how much you use AI in your writing? It might surprise you.

 

Anne R Allen received a dodgy complaint about her writing this week and discovered it was a bot. But why and how did the bot discover her writing? She writes about the reality of the trollbot inquisition.

 

This week, long time publishing commentator, Mike Shatzkin popped out of retirement to make some interesting observations after meeting with long time publishing professionals. The three stages of publishing, Gutenberg, Industrial and now Digital. Each one marking distinct times in human history.

 

Joanna Penn interviewed Chelle Honniker this week and it’s a great interview. Chelle talks about all sorts of tools to help automate your business. Chelle is also a programmer for Author Nation- the replacement conference for 20Books Vegas- she has a quick rundown on what’s on offer. Very exciting.

 

Podcast Review has a list of the best writing craft podcasts around. If you are a podcast listener, take a look at these. You will recognize familiar names from past weekly roundups. After sixteen years of weekly blogging about writing and publishing, I must have heard everybody.

 

Katie Weiland is looking at the Enneagram again but this time from the writers point of view. She has four numbers profiled this week and finishes next week. I can’t wait to see what she says about my number.

 

In The Craft Section,

Crafting fantasy characters- Prowriting Aid

Making scenes work- Karen Cioffi

3 signs you’re writing misplaced modifiers- Colleen Story- Bookmark

Stuck? Change your story- Janice Hardy

Ten tips for DIY editing- Debbie Burke- Bookmark

10 steps to writing a better novel- K M Weiland- Bookmark

 

In the Marketing Section,

What is a newsletter- Comprehensive

Embrace public speaking- Jim Acevedo

Why authors should be accessible- Katie McCoach- Bookmark

How to announce your book- Sandra Beckwith

How regular should your updates be- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

What to post beside writing content- Emily Enger- Bookmark

 

To Finish

Imposter syndrome hits us all. Sometimes it creeps up on us and does a number on your mental health. Sometimes you can recognize it as plain old envy. Either way it is important to understand it and do something about it before it cripples you. Rachel Toalson has a must read article on Writer Unboxed on how to overcome the feeling you are a fraud.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter If you want the best of my bookmarked links you can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

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Is It On A Bucket List?

In Publishing News this week,

 

There was a quick backlash on Social Media when a publisher announced that they would be using an AI to vet submitted manuscripts. They walked it back after only a few hours. Even though they are a Science Fiction publisher- this was a step too far for their writers. Just imagine, said one commentator, AI scraping trends and plots and writing its own book from submissions. Of course it will never happen….

 

The International Publishers Association are shocked at the dismissal of the case of attempted murder of a Norwegian publisher. 25 years ago, the publisher was shot 3 times. Many believed it was because they had published Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses book. It shook the publishing world at the time as an attack on free speech. If we don’t speak truth to power - who will?

 

Mark Williams had me chuckling so hard I nearly fell off my chair with this personal opinion about the London Book Fair. Sometimes you have to laugh because otherwise you would cry. Who knew there was a bookfair on in London that generated lots of sales?- Not the UK news media.

 

Bologna Children’s Book Fair is underway, and the early news is that everyone is having a good time- except for the transport strike. Publishing Perspectives is on the ground talking about the in person and virtual events.

 

Publishers Weekly looks at the dire news for mid-grade books. Everybody wants them… and no one can find a good one, apparently. What to do? The only country bucking the trend is The Netherlands and they’re translating from Korean. 

 

In digital reading hardware news- Kobo is bringing out a colour ink version. Commentators are already looking at the E-Ink hardware wars on the horizon.

 

Draft2Digital is partnering with Fable. As far as I can tell this is a first for both companies. Fable runs virtual book clubs- many for celebrities and TikTok influencers. If you want to have an author book club, check it out. Draft2Digital is a publishing distributor, mainly for eBooks but now also for print. This could be a very interesting collaboration.

 

Ninc have analyzed the book cover trends for 2024- Font is still king. Illustrated and Animated covers are still on brand, I was surprised at how many genres now use them.

 

Anne R Allen has an interesting post on Substack Newsletters vs Blogging for authors inspired by Jane Friedman’s article last month. I post my weekly blog on Substack for people who want to get it in their inbox. I don’t charge. My monthly roundup newsletter with extras and oddments is through Mailchimp. As a children’s writer I’m always struggling with the concept of author newsletters for this audience as the buyers aren’t the readers, generally. Maybe I should write a serial story newsletter.

 

The Passive Guy highlights a post from Dean Wesley Smith on how big your name is on the cover of your book. Do you hide away or boldly brand? Dean also has a series of marketing posts on at the moment.

 

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Rachel Herron on Facing Fears in Writing and Life. This is well worth the time to read and/or listen. Rachel also mentions having ADHD. Katie Weiland recently had a great guest post on navigating the writing process if you have the ADHD superpower. 

 

Sue Coletta has a great post on Story Bibles. Do you jot down important details so that you don’t forget them or is editing always a surprise with how many times the main characters eyes change. Sue looks at all the ways you can keep on top of the details.

 

In The Craft Section,

Strong plots need significant goals- September Fawkes

Style over plot and characters- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

Is page 98 as strong as page 1- Donald Maass- Bookmark

What to do when you lose your way- Matthew Norman

5 simple ways to create high stakes- C S Lakin-Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Book PR and super powers- Ann Marie Nieves- Bookmark

The reason for pre sales- Catharine Bramkamp- Bookmark

How to love book marketing- Patricia Crisafulli

19 ways to Promote on TikTok-KellySchknecht- Bookmark

How to market with another author- Ingram Spark Blog

 

To Finish

Bucket lists. Yes, they are still a thing. Have you got a bucket list? Many people have life lists or travel lists… but Karen Banes thinks writers should have writers bucket list. Goals that you want to achieve in your writing life. She lists 100 ideas to get you started. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for monthly newsletter with the best of my bookmarked links and other interesting extras. You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

 

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

 

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Tobi on Unsplash

 

Speaking Truth to Fear

 

In Publishing News this week.

I wonder how an organisation becomes so frightened that it gives in to any perceived threat, even by one person. Publishers Weekly highlights the latest book banning nonsense. In Virginia a community book reading event of the Wishtree by Katherine Applegate, was derailed because one person worried about a tree having two reproductive systems.

You know you can thank the complainer for bringing it to your attention and invite them to NOT PARTICIPATE rather than giving in, ruining the community event, and making yourself a laughingstock internationally.

 

A new way of getting your book noticed in this busy world is to record the audiobook in a novel place. In this case 900 feet down a mine. The author thought it would be a good idea as he set the novel in the mine. I don’t think the audio production company and his publishers were that excited by his plan though.

 

Mark Williams reports on the latest numbers released by Amazon on their payout of Kindle Unlimited. There must be money in subscription after all everyone is getting into it. Mark compares numbers and looks for trends in Amazon’s financial reporting.

 

The London Book Fair wrapped up and a good time was had by all Porter Anderson gives a run down on all the news from the fair and looks forward to Bologna – the big Children’s Book Fair in April.

 

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Claire Taylor on The Enneagram and how it can help you sustain an author career. It is super interesting and well worth listening to or reading the transcript. These two authors give so much to the writing community. 

 

Wired recently had an article on training an AI on out of copyright material to prove it could be done. This might be gold for all the lawyers currently representing authors in court cases.

 

Elizabeth S Craig has a great post on setting yourself up on the path of least resistance to accomplish your goals.

 

Have you read any fan fiction lately? Before you shudder and express horror, consider the freedom in trying out ideas in someone else’s sandbox where you don’t have to do all the leg work to establish the world. Laura Samotin writes on Gizmodo that playing with fan fiction can be a shortcut to finding out what topes resonate with your reading audience. A great read. 

Anne R Allen has a great post on breaking the rules. Sometimes authors can be so scared of breaking the show don’t tell rule that their writing suffers from it. Anne talks about when the rules can go too far.

 

Samantha Cameron has an interesting post on writing underrepresented characters. Do you let fear get in the way of attempting to tell their stories? Samantha has some steps to overcome this so you can write great three dimensional characters.

 

In The Craft Section,

4 mistakes to avoid when writing dialogue- Rose Atkinson-CarterBookmark

Writing fiction based on real life figures- K D Alden

How to write a psychological thriller- Lucy Hay

Writing protagonists without a strong goal- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Beginning your story introducing your characters- K M Weiland-Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

The secret to a compelling bio- Lucy Hay- Bookmark

How I sell at live events- Ben Wolf- Bookmark

How to market a book that doesn’t exist yet- Rachel Thompson

How to go viral on TikTok- Hina Pandya

5 effective strategies to avoid engagement farming- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

 

To Finish

Heather Webb has an interesting article on Writer Unboxed about the big truths in fiction. Recently she was on a book tour, wearing her read banned books tee shirt and was asked in a panel discussion ‘if you were to write a banned book, what topic would you choose.’ It opened up some interesting ideas to think about. This is a thought provoking read. Does your writing reflect ‘the big truths?’

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

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Avoiding the Sharks on Your Journey

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

There is a new scam going around and it is targeting authors and is particularly nasty. Anne R Allen has the details and even though it reads like a crime novel plot it is particularly horrible for people caught up in it. Before you think 'that would never happen to me', I invite you to think how you would react if you were confronted by law enforcement officers about all your identification being used to commit crimes. The horrible part is where the scammers are getting their information about you from. 

 

Back in the heady publishing days of the 1980’s when Harlequin was on the prowl buying up little publishing companies- Romance editors could see which way the wind was going and quickly set up publishing companies promising their innocent authors loads of goodies to come with them to the new digs- while they waited for Harlequin to buy them for big bucks. Authors got burned left, right, and center in all the wheeling and dealing of Romance imprints and publishing companies. I’m not saying that this new publishing house is anything like the bad old days but it triggered memories as I was looking at the news story from Publishers Weekly.

 

Ru Paul has a book club. Ru Paul has a bookstore. A big one. Taking a leaf out of the Amazon playbook Ru is catering to a specific audience and promising extra gravy to the authors and readers who sign up to be members.

Publishing Perspectives reports that the Access Copyright, a management site for Canadian Authors have been slapped with a huge court fine for demanding copyright fees on authors behalf. The court ruling seems to indicate that it is ok to copy anything you like from a Canadian author- which can’t be right or am I reading it wrong?

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard keeps an eye on what is happening outside our Western centric publishing view. He reports that the Oman Book Fair was well attended and the new trend on the rise is children’s books. With Big Bad Wolf selling remaindered English language books hand over fist in these markets, are publishers missing the sales boat on this?

 

Writer Michael Lucas comments on the Findaway saga using his knowledge of the tech world to explain how developers use Terms Of Service. While authors think that Findaway have walked back their horrible terms this might not be the case…think Bait and Switch.

Dave Chesson has been doing a deep dive into the data from a survey of authors on Direct Selling. Who is making money? Which store is popular? How many books you need? When should you jump into it? All these questions are answered with charts.

If you are trying to keep up with moves in AI and publishing here is a new way of combining the two into something that may be profitable (they have a lot of investment dollars) for someone. Tech Crunch reports on a new company that promises a bright new world- I’m not sure for whom.

 

Katie Weiland has a fantastic post on how to write deeply emotional fiction. If you have been struggling with nailing a scene or trying to convey tone or subtext read this great post. One to print out and stick on the wall. 

Tricia Jenn Loehr has a guest post on Jane Friedmans blog about emotional intimacy and how it’s not restricted to the characters in a romance novel. A great read and food for thought.

 

Gabriela Pereira from DIYMFA has a great post on writing prompts and how they build up the stamina and practice of writing. She offers some great insights here. 

 

In The Craft Section,

7 tips for compelling character motivation- C S Lakin- Bookmark

7 signs you have hidden self doubt- Colleen Story

The hierarchy of exposition- Donald Maass- Bookmark

Crafting an irresistible inciting incident- Polly Watt- Bookmark

Increasing the emotional impact of your story- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

8 things needed on a homepage- Corina Amos

Back cover copy formula- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

How to use crowdfunding for book publishing- Sandra Beckwith

How to promote to the right audience- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

20 bookmarketing ideas that take 10 minutes or less- Jenn Hansen-dePaula- Bookmark

 

To Finish

As you wend your way through this blog post looking at links and trying to figure out what is most worth your time to read (all of it but I’m biased) you finally get down to the bottom and hopefully get a last gem. I have been following Suzanne Lakin for years and she always has a deeply insightful way of looking at the craft. This week she looked at how writers become proficient and the 10,000 hours mantra that Malcolm Gladwell made famous. It’s about the journey not the destination.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

I’m late with my monthly newsletter (life got in the way) but it is coming I promise. If you want the best of my bookmarked links and other assorted stuff you can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. It feeds my caffeine addiction. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash

Jumping Off With Your Eyes Open

 

In Publishing News this week.

Just after I posted my blog last week the news broke all over the publishing blogosphere that Findaway Terms Of Service had changed and they were doing an all in rights grab. I figured that instead of posting breaking news I would wait and see what happened and tell you this week. So, to recap for those in the back, Findaway was a nifty little startup that authors could put their audiobooks on without the punitive contracts and royalty grabbing that Amazon Audible locked authors into. Yay. 

They grew fast and everything was good and then Spotify bought them. Wow, said their authors, we’re playing with the big boys. Audible took a hit. Everything was fine, until Findaway’s TOS changed last week. The screams were deafening. 

Check out Author Beware for just what the terms are now and whether you should accept them.

Spotify/Findaway shouted, it’s all a mistake, all’s well, nothing to see here, as they quickly backpedaled most of the terms. 

Except, canny pundits said- Aha, we were waiting for this. They screwed musicians and now they are coming for us. Kris Rusch breaks this down and lays out the pros and cons.

What to do? 

First, Take a deep breath. Decide what you want your audiobook platform to be. Discoverability, a little money on the side, all in formats, human narrators, AI narrated shorts…

There are other discoverability platforms out there for Audiobooks- Many have ditched Spotify for Author Republic, who distribute to 50 other retailers including Spotify. (I hope they have looked at their terms of service well.) 

If you have a high traffic website of your own – Bookfunnel now delivers audiobooks. 

However, if you see the world in Entertainment- Subscription streaming is where movies and TV shows are. Spotify has all but captured the music business and are making big inroads into podcasts and now Audiobooks. If Netflix has your eyes, then Spotify has your ears. Can you afford to ditch them or do you play them like a lute- giving some of your content to Spotify and encouraging your fans to go to you direct.

If anything about the last week has taught authors, it’s that corporations who rely on creative content for money don’t care about the rights of the content providers. Read the TOS carefully and go in with your eyes open. 

 

In Other News...

TOR Books (Big SciFi publisher) has been caught using Ai images in cover art. They said they bought them legit but the artists whose work it is say that Ai’s ripped off their work. So even the legit Ai platforms are dodgy- who knew? 

 

London Bookfair has been announcing their programming. Publishing Perspectives details the special guests and what extra book events they have on offer.

 

Late January is when the Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators have their Winter conference. They have a great blog where they write up key moments and presentations from the speakers. Children’s Book Illustrator Debbie Ohi has a great post on picture books behind the scenes- excellent for new illustrators with tips of the trade.

 

The Week has a post on Romantasy - the hot new genre. Hmm I’m not sure it’s new, its been around for a while- think hot romance inside a fantasy novel.

 

Jane Friedman has a guest post  from Tiffany Yates Martin on why and how you can sabotage an important reveal in your story. It’s all about context.

 

Anne R Allen has a super post on action, dialogue, and business. Action is not violence it can be anything. But if you have too much action you can bore the reader as well. Use your action wisely.

 

In The Craft Section,

Perform your own developmental edit- WrittenWordMedia- Bookmark

3 kinds of Story Fuel, goal desire, and search- Barbara Linn Probst- Bookmark

Scene structure- September Fawkes

Tension suspense and conflict-Lynette Burrows- Bookmark

How To find Beta Readers- Now Novel

 

In The Marketing Section,

Amazon A+ Content Sandra Beckwith – Bookmark

Social Media and the author platform- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

What is a Book discovery platform - Alli Blog

How to go viral on TikTok- Hina Pandya

Booktok tips for writers- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Platform. Your platform. Their platform. Publishers platform. Distributors platform.

You can be forgiven for thinking it is all too much - let me hide.

The most basic understanding is how you are represented online. It could be a webpage, a website, an email contact, Amazon Author page. Whatever it is you need to be aware of it and be in control of it. Colleen Story has 5 reasons to update your author platform. It doesn’t have to be hard. Imagine you are an enthusiastic reader- how could you find out about your favourite books?

Just don’t have mind boggling Terms Of Service for your fans!

Maureen

@craicer 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links  and other assorted stuff you can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. It feeds my caffeine addiction. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by vherliann on Unsplash

 

Buying Books

 

 

In Publishing News this week...

Another year, another big publisher on the sales block. This time it's Hachette. But there are differences. Their parent company is dividing the group into four and putting each group on the share market. Publishing by stock market dividends. I can’t see any problems with that model. Can you?

 

The director of The London Book Fair revealed he didn’t know much about the Global Book Business when he declared London was the first Bookfair of 2024. It isn’t and it’s not even the biggest. Mark Williams does a run down of the figures to educate the LBF director.

 

Publishing Perspectives are still filling their news pages with the International Publishing Association conference in Mexico. It’s getting bigger and with more star power- They have a top UN speaker and will be devoting a big chunk of programming to Climate Change issues.

 

Publishers Weekly sat down with some top Children’s editors and agents and asked what the themes of 2024 were. Hands up Romantasy. Manga is still looking good. Everybody is still waiting for the next Harry Potter (holy grail) book. Many have tried and failed. Perhaps HP is the last of the ‘once in a generation books.’

 

LitHub recently published an article by a New Zealand writer about what it’s like to have a successful story and then get told to Americanize it, when the publishers bought it because it was so edgy and cool. Who knew other cultures had their own versions of the English language? Can readers not understand different English words? SIGH.

 

Ricardo Fayet of Reedsy has an article explain the new changes to email which are rolling out this month. If you have a mailing list you will need to take note of the new requirements.

 

Kathy Steinemann has a great article on how to spot publishing scammers and fakes. Everybody should read this- even if you think you are very good at spotting them. Then head over to Writer Beware and take a look at the latest scams out there, like a cloned version of Macmillan Publishers.

 

Jane Friedman has a great guest article by Claire McKinney on why you need a press release and how to write one. This is a print out and stick on the wall post for marketing purposes.

 

The first rule of Write Club… Cathy Yardley has a super post on getting into the thick of writing, digging deep and channeling the things that speak to your passions then pouring them out on the page. And don’t forget about the last rule of Write Club…

 

Sue Coletta has a great post about how to write a dance scene. Like fight scenes they need some choreography and attention to surrounding detail. 

 

How do you know when you have too much dialogue?  And is it a bad thing? What about when the dialogue is authentic? Can’t you keep it? Anne R Allen has an excellent article on how to spot overuse, over authenticity and chatter going nowhere. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Scene Structure Basics - Lewis Jorstad- Bookmark

Vision board for writers- Sarah Rexford

All you need for characters- Writers helping writers- Bookmark

Increasing the emotional impact of your story- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

What is overwriting and tips to avoid it- Edie Melson

 

In The Marketing Section,

Writing the perfect synopsis- Randy Ingermanson- Bookmark

ISBN’s all you need to know.

Creative Indies resource page- Bookmark

March Promotion opportunities-Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

How to promote your book- Reedsy

3 creative ways to use your book2read account- Draft2Digital

To Finish,

As a teacher, I’m always interested in ways to get kids reading and unlocking the power of story. In Ohio a couple of schools have invested in Book Vending machines which are being used as rewards for good behaviour. The lucky kids get tokens to spend in the machine. Of course, you could see all the ways this could be problematic but still anything that gets kids holding books must be a good thing.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Streetwindy on Unsplash