Thursday, November 19, 2020

Profit and Loss


 

In publishing news this week

A case of a big company crushing the writer… Disney asserts that when they purchased the rights to a contract they did not purchase the obligations and they want a non-disclosure agreement before they even talk about it. The Science Fiction Writers Association is rightly concerned (angry/vitriolic.) Disney can profit off Alan Dean Foster's work and not pay him? How many other writers are in this position? This discussion is taking over the writer internet today with many writers calling Disney out on it.


Draft To Digital has introduced a welcome change to their services. They are now offering payment splitting. If you have collaborated with other authors on a book or a boxset they can split the royalties now. 


The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is moving its dates in 2021 following London Book Fair’s announcement last week. Bologna will now be in June and will be bigger than ever with a new parallel programme running alongside.


Are you guilty of using violent imagery when you don’t need to? Michael Gallant has an article on the Bookbaby blog about the prevalence of violent imagery in words and when to use it appropriately.


How can you tell if you are growing as a writer? K M Weiland has a great article on how you can tell if you are spinning your wheels or reaching for new heights.


Kristine Rusch has written another interesting blog on what she sees is the Train Wreck of Trade Publishing at the moment. She is responding to Mike Shatzkin’s October blog post The end of the General Trade Publishing Concept. Mike comments on where trade publishers are getting their money now and how they see the titles they acquire. Kris points out that when a publishing guru like Mike finally sees the handwriting on the wall it’s almost too late for the industry to learn and change.


September Fawkes is always an interesting read. Here she unpicks Arrogance vs Confidence and Humility vs Self Depreciation


In The Craft Section,

How to continue writing when you get stuck- Novelize - Bookmark


7 plot structures for pantsers- John Peragine- Bookmark


How to start your synopsis- Becca Puglisi


The charm of the large word in the right place - Mathina Calliope- Bookmark


Creating a Storyworld- SlapHappy Larry



In The Marketing Section,

How to set up a sponsored product ad- Dave Chesson


Starting from Zero- Joanna Penn interviewing David Gaughran- Bookmark


Using video marketing and why it’s important- Frances Caballo


Marketing a new book - Bookbub- BOOKMARK


4 easy SEO tips for writers- Ivelisse Rodriguez


How to make free 3d mockups of your book- Bookmark



To Finish,

As the publishing world changes and the pandemic hits all the events you might have gone to… authors and booksellers are having to get creative with their marketing. Lisa Tener interviews some of the team behind A Mighty Blaze-  a social media community for authors and readers on how to virtually market the book.

It has to make a profit for someone...


Maureen

@craicer


Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

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

 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Jonathan Harford



Thursday, November 12, 2020

Book Marketing


 

 

This week in Publishing…

In welcome news this week Amazon has introduced series pages and now you can run ads to them. General jubilation in the author community. 

 

Meanwhile, The London Bookfair dates for next year have been announced. Instead of a Spring fair, it’s in Summer…giving everyone that much more time to be vaccinated and be ready to spring back into the publishing calendar that we used to know. (Prediction – I don’t think we’ll see life as we used to know again.)  

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard reports of Storytel’s Interim report. Storytel is based in Sweden and is digital subscription model. With moves into India and acquisitions all over Europe, the  audiobook subscription market is getting bigger and bigger- But will it overtake print books? We could be watching the tipping point. 

 

Big Bad Wolf is set to unleash 20 million English Language books in a four day flash sale in Malaysia. (If you ever wondered where your ‘pulped’ books go on your royalty statement.)

 

A simple hack for when you want to make your literary criticism essay go viral… Attack the author.  The Nation looks at the ethics of this.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors have a great article up on Leveling up your author business. This is a must read. All authors are keen to learn. If we are learning we are growing our business.

 

Joanna Penn has an interesting interview this week on Networking for Authors. How often do you poke your head outside of the bubble and just chat with other authors. Lot’s of lovely things happen when authors get together. Check out the interview and pick up some tips.

 

Jami Gold has a great guest article on her site this week. What sort of marketing plan suits us? If you want to learn anything about marketing books talk to a Romance writer. Siera London shares lots of tips to be thinking about.

 

in the Craft Section,

5 components of the perfect scene- C S Lakin- Bookmark


Why you should side write your protagonists origin scene- Marissa Graff- Bookmark


6 questions to ask when editing scenes- Go Teen Writer


Use a character’s career to support your theme-Becca Puglisi



Emotional truth and storytelling- Robin Farmer - Bookmark


4 story weaknesses that lead to sagging middles- Tiffany Martin- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Maximising books sales with Facebook and Bookbub- Melissa Storm- Bookmark


3 tips for better author blogs- Sandra Beckwith


The fabulous David Gaughran latest book marketing video- MUST WATCH


5 basic rules of Social Media- Frances Caballo- Bookmark


How to announce a book launch to your mailing list- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark


How to launch a book during a pandemic- Samuel Moore Sobel

 

To Finish,

Every now and then I drop into the Killzone blog because I am in awe of this collective of writers. They have a great roster of writers talking about all sorts of things. They were the first author collective to do swag and this is where I found writing craft guru James Scott Bell. This week James was writing about the terrible task faced by writers everywhere. How to weed out books. I confess I fail utterly at this. Do you have a non-negotiable criteria list for keeping books?

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

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

 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Paul. I can’t decide if this is great or terrible book store marketing…

 

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