Showing posts with label scribd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scribd. Show all posts

Thursday, February 7, 2019

Whose attitude is right?



Around the publishing blogosphere...

This week was unsettling on Social Media. First there was the big Twitter pile on
Amelie was about to publish her debut novel. As authors do, she drew on her upbringing
and culture from her own country. She has a 3 book deal with a traditional publisher in the USA.
From what I could see as the Twitter rage grew… many commenting had not read advance copies so did not know the context but raged about it anyway. Many immediately took the author to task for seeming to use American historical events badly in her fantasy.
For writers from other countries watching this rage fest unfold on Twitter it was deeply unsettling. The rest of the world has stories to tell of slavery, human trafficking happening now or in the past. Other cultures experiences of this is just as valid to use as a basis for a fantasy book. Do we always have to use and be mindful of the same western viewpoints in an age where stories are shared globally with the click of a button?


While writers and commentators were getting steamed up over a fantasy book,
publishers and agents were getting spooked by the story broken in
all his credentials on a fantasy life. As the events in his fantasy life were exposed
it read like the famous novel The Talented Mr Ripley. The writer/editor had relationships
everywhere and there will be many people in publishing feeling they have been
the townspeople in The Emperor’s New Clothes.


Another big story this week was the subscription service
Scribd passing 1 million subscribers. Publishers have been flirting with subscription
services for a while. Amazon has what could be the world’s biggest with Kindle Unlimited
based mainly in the USA but that leaves Scribd with the rest of the world…


Another publisher with global ambitions has just opened publishing portals in another
21 countries over 6 continents.
If you are a writer in Lesotho or Nandi, writing in your own language…
Streetlib is for you. Among the new countries just enrolled in their publishing
portal are Fiji, Australia and New Zealand.    


Amazon is looking at the rest of the world and thinking hmm great kids books in
other languages- they need us. They are opening up their Amazon kids publishing
Meanwhile Google is contracting- with Google Plus set to disappear by April.

And so we come to Kris Rusch’s last blog post looking at the changes for publishing this year.
It has been an fascinating series. If you haven’t been reading her posts you are missing out
on learning about this industry. Last week’s post is a must read!


In The Craft Section,


5 ways to turn off your inner editor - Janice Hardy- Bookmark





In The Marketing Section,

3 principles of selling rights- Orna Ross- Bookmark

Discoverability and Going Wide- The Book Designer




Smart author advertising strategies - Penny Sansevieri - Bookmark


To Finish,

We are living through major changes in our climate and our perceptions
and understandings of our place in a global village.
The internet has opened up the democratisation of information across the world.
For the author having an online presence is essential. Careful curation
of your digital presence is important.
Remember that gossip is not restricted to your own village now,
it can spread throughout the world with a click of a button.


Maureen
@craicer

In my monthly newsletter, coming soon, I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee- hit the coffee button up top. Thanks.



Pic : Flickr Creative Commons Guilhem Vellut

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Chasing The Reader


This week in the publishing blogosphere
Scribd changed its subscription model. A little shiver fluttered through the online publishing community at the news. Were they going to fold? With the dominance of Amazon Unlimited and the demise of Oyster, Scribd is really the only alternative in subscription reading. Scribd still lives but the day of the all you can read buffet is ending.

This week Google entered into the reading market... with books that cannot be printed.
These books aren’t even for e-readers. They are short, just right for a commute and designed to be read on a phone.... and they are choose your own adventure type books. Taking the story and gaming it into your phone challenges conventional storytelling. With Google behind this experiment it will be interesting to see where it goes.

At the end of January, Berlin hosted a Future Publish conference. One of the keynote speakers, Chantal Restivo-Alessi, talked about the value of the story across all mediums, harnessing digital across all platforms and building deep engagement. Backlists are crucial and Authors and their brand should be marketed on a global scale. This is a really interesting article. (I can't help wondering what it would do for NZ if the individual imprints here marketed NZ Books globally instead of to two chain booksellers.)

Jane Friedman has an interview with Agent Laurie McLean specifically about one of her clients who operates in a hybrid fashion across the publishing and music industries with one feeding into the other. So Simon Curtis writes a Y.A. book and happens to create music and so references it in the story and brings out an album of music which promotes the book which promotes his music and.... Hybrid storytelling going in all directions now.

By now your brain has probably gone into Popcorn Kitten mode so you should read what James Scott Bell has to say about coping with the writers bane of too many ideas crowding in all at once. This is excellent advice which will keep you productive or at least allow you to sleep easier.

Writer Beware is continuing to warn authors about the many and varied scams that Author Solutions are perpetuating across all their various fronts for reputable publishing companies. The latest examination is the marketing on-sell. This is where they really make their money charging hundreds of dollars for simple services. The charges are truly eye-watering. Even if you know that you will never get caught on this - read it so you can inform others.

Jami Gold has been thinking about the times when an Author might work for free. This is hotly debated in the creative community where we see little enough money for our work. A few weeks back we had Phillip Pullman campaigning to pay authors at festivals. Jami has some good points to make about choosing carefully which projects we do for free.

I have been thinking about Dean Wesley Smith's article all day. He takes a look at the longevity of the writer in the digital age. It does make you think. If books don’t go out of print because digital backlists are still selling... authors really need to understand the long game and plan their careers for it. Dean is still finding readers for books that are 30 years old... and you can too.

In the Craft Section,


September Fawkes – 15 tactics for writing humour- Bookmark


Steven Pressfield -The difference between subject and theme- Bookmark


Anne R Allen – a guide to co writing -Bookmark

Darcy Pattison- find your novel opening


In the Marketing Section,


Anne R Allen- Using Google plus and why you should. (This post is getting a lot of comments 
around the blogosphere. You should read it!)


Jane Friedman on finding a Book Publicist



Website of the Week
Besides being an awesome blogger Lindsay Buroker manages a podcast called SFF Marketing. This podcast is a deep look at marketing issues and has great guests. Being a podcast it’s easy to listen to while doing other things. Today they interviewed Data Guy of Author Earnings. The latest Author Earnings report is ruffling a few feathers. Data Guy is being touted as a guest at Digital Book World’s upcoming conference so this podcast is a must listen if you are following what is happening in the Indie World. Then you can check out all the other goodies in past podcasts.


To Finish,
Angela Ackerman writes some great articles.  This one for Romance University on romancing the reader is a must read. After all readers are why we spend so much time crafting the characters. We want them to love our characters as much as we do.
Loving the reader means we have to show up for them. 
This week the annual SCBWI conference in New York was rocked by an amazing keynote from children's author Gary Schmidt. Besides reading the keynote... check out the great conference blog.

Maureen
@craicer




Thursday, July 2, 2015

Flagging Down Karma




This week the power of group/mob behaviour was in full view around the blogosphere.
And it wasn’t pretty!

E L James had a torrid time on an ‘Ask E L James’ Twitter chat that her PR people should never have enabled. Mob behaviour was in evidence when she was publically vilified at a live event. You can hate the stories... just don’t read them, but don’t attack the author. They are a human being. Porter reports on the fallout and how Chuck Wendig coped with it.
For the anonymous haters who hide behind computer screens and avatars to say hate speech- there will be KARMA.

This week Apple’s appeal against their sentence of collusion with the big publishers got thrown out. (See Karma...) Fortune magazine details just our cozy the deals Apple and the publishers made. It is not pretty reading.

Scribd, the ebook subscription company, has come up against the voracious romance reader and decided that limiting their subscription is the way to go. There are howls of protest from readers who are instantly penalised for reading too much and from writers who find their books have just disappeared. The Bookseller looks at the issue and what might be a solution.

Writers trying to get their head around the new Amazon subscription service pay per page read would do well to check out Susan Kaye Quinn’s comparison breakdown. Susan’s straight forward analysis clearly shows the writer just what a pay per page means as opposed to a borrow. Math wins and so do some writers.

Fake online reviews are still happening and some authors are being burned by negative review campaigns. Amazon is rolling out some new algorithms to clean this up. Porter talks about what can be done, should be done, is being done about sock puppetry.

In the Craft Section,

The writers skill- Stephen Pressfield

Truth and Fiction- Girl Cliques- Becca Puglisi (Bookmark)

In the Marketing Section,

Book marketing checklist –Tim Grahl (Comprehensive)

Book marketing plans – (Bookmark)

Book Market results- Nicholas Rossis (Fascinating! Bookmark)

Website of the Week
Grammar – You can’t ignore it. There are some great websites out there to help you write more better (spot the deliberate grammar mangling.) Check out the Grammarly blog for nifty tips and great articles.

To Finish,
Jane Friedman has an interview with Nathan Bransford on her blog. Nathan has been it all... an agent, a writer, a reviewer.... He is in a unique position to comment on today’s publishing industry.

maureen
@craicer


Pic: From Grammarly blog on writing retreats.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Engagement


Each week I look over my collected links to see what an over arching theme for the blog might be. Sometimes it’s a stretch to link up the content but this week everyday there was something about writers being connected with readers and the disconnect from publishers and distributors with writers.  This is nothing new. I have been observing this for the last five years. However it is interesting to look at this within the context of this week’s headlines around the publishing blogosphere...

Libraries are where the readers are.

Last year two ebook library subscription services models kicked off, Scribd and Oyster. For a flat monthly fee subscribers had unlimited access to ebooks across formats. The big publishers sat back and watched developments and are now jumping on board. Today Simon and Schuster added their 10,000 book backlist to the services, following HarperCollins earlier this month. This is a bid for reader’s affections. All You Can Read buffet for $8:99/month. The publisher gets a cut when a book is lent... Mike Shatzkin is predicting that the biggest publisher of them all, Random Penguin, will start their own global library. (Or will there be a nice buy out in the future...)

Smashwords has just partnered with OverDrive the biggest library database system in the US to make all their books available. This model is interesting. If the one copy of the ebook is checked out customers have the option to buy their copy through the library...a win/win for libraries. And what about the chance for celebrity curated lists of books just for librarians to recommend.

The Amazon vs Hachette fight doesn’t look like it is winding down... Mike Shatzkin looks at the power play and how publishing has been flipped over with the power now belonging to the retailer who has the customers.
If you are an author in the middle of all this what can you do? Take control where you can of your own reader engagement. (get in the libraries...sell from your website.. reader fan email databases...)

Hugh Howey brought out another Author Earnings report this week. The howls that once greeted these one day snapshots of where the money is going in the publishing world have become muted... Everybody is scratching their heads...how can this be... the same figures again... Is Hugh right? If you are traditionally published this could be a game changer for you.

Joe Konrath has practical advice for how you navigate this changing world...(a bookmark post!)

Bob Mayer also tells you to take responsibility for your own work. Complaining is not a business strategy!  Change your mindset!




In the Craft Section,

Chuck on Writers Block (Trigger warning for your ears)

Stealing from other writers (it is not a bad thing....)


Elisabeth S Craig on developing thematic ideas



In the Marketing Section,
How to create the perfect trailer. (useful for book trailers)

Slideshare book marketing from Joanna Penn


How to Make WOW blog images with Pic Monkey (from the amazing Jami Gold)





Dave Gaughran has discovered a new site, Noisetrade, which aims to build your fan base. They have just branched out into books from Indie Music.

Website of the Week: August Wainwright has collected the 50 best Indie resource sites around. Many of these are on my regular check list. (one stop shop)

To Finish,
How are the successful authors out there navigating on the publishing sea. Russell Blake a publishing phenomenon is interviewed on how he has gone from 0 to 500,000 sales in a couple of years. (you may hate him after reading but you can't ignore him…) MindBodyGreen checks out 10 things successful writers do differently.

Engage the reader... Make it easy for them to find and buy your next book... SIMPLE. (DUCKS…)
(There are lots of links in the Craft and Marketing sections to help you.)


maureen
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