Publishing: Change is the only Constant

 In Publishing News This Week,

 

Just as I published last week’s blog, Amazon changed their eBook pricing tiers. Previously the 70% royalty model was capped at $9.99 but it has been increased to $12.99. Box sets, your hour has come!

 

The new lawsuit against Google is underway. At issue whether Google used books enrolled in Google Play and as part of search to train its AI, Gemini. Among the claims against Google is that they also used Google Scholar to download articles to make Gemini more responsive, weakening the market for research books and journals. This is a class action so expect more people to join in.

 

Publishers Weekly reports on the Careless People author taking Meta to court. At issue is whether the alleged gag order that stops the author from discussing her book, which highlighted abuse at the Meta offices, is justified or a violation of the first amendment rights. Publishers are watching this one as it will impact how much risk they might be up for. Macmillian, Sarah Wynn-Williams publisher, is doing a great job in supporting their author through this. The publicity over the case and book have helped sales as well. 

 

Everybody dreams of winning the big prize. Multi millions in your pocket to do whatever you like. Fund a non profit literary endeavor, perhaps? A new fund is set up to do just that in the US, but how should the money really be spent? One publisher has opinions about fairness across the sector and what would be the best use of $50 million dollars.

We can but dream in NZ with all our funding slashed here.

 

One of the benefits in managing your own backlist is that you can re-release books that your traditional publisher has given up on. It doesn’t matter when a book is published. Every reader is a new reader. Doubleday has decided that they want to republish out of print books that are hard to find, in order to bring a new audience to the book. 

 

Last week I wrote about the American Library Association’s conference. In the Alliance of Independent Authors ,news section Dan Holloway commented this week on the librarian’s plea to make metadata relevant. This is how they select books. Who knew metadata was so important to search?

 

Amy Chan spent $44.000 launching her book and only $3.00 was worth it. She wrote an article about it. Every author who read that article winced and so did the publicists. Kathleen Schmidt followed up with an article on meaningful exposure. These two articles show the expectations and reality divide in marketing books now. The marketing landscape has changed. What used to work does not anymore.

 

Dean Wesley Smith has been around the publishing world for decades and has a long view of the industry. Publishing is always changing, he says. Here he dives into the numbers and why authors and publishers must keep thinking of a wider discoverability model. 

 

Julie Artz has a great primer on manuscript formats for writers. If you don’t know the standard presentation Julie shows you with examples across Scrivener, Word, Google Docs, and more.

 

Joanna Penn has an interesting interview with Jamie Ferguson on creating bundles and anthologies. How do you choose writers to join in anthologies? How do you keep track of submissions? If you are interested in dipping your toe in to boxsets, make sure you read the transcript. 

 

Over on the Killzone blog Dale Ivan Smith is writing about Risk. Writers risk rejection with every submission but they submit anyway. They risk failure with every book launch, but they do it anyway. He has gathered different answers on what risk means to a creative. Are your characters risking anything?

 

 

In The Craft Section,

Point of View is a promise -Sarah Hamer- Bookmark

Why readers love flawed characters- Jenn Windrow

Why your story feels choppy- Tiffany Yates Martin

The Wow factor-James Scott Bell- Bookmark

Multiple POV’s and character empathy-K M Weiland - Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Ten tips for creating special editions- Indie Author Magazine- Bookmark

How to make your book irresistible- Video – Alliance of Independent Authors

How to optimize metadata- IngramSpark- Bookmark

10 ways authors can help each other with marketing- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Lessons learned running a bookshop- Alliance of Independent Authors

 

To Finish,

Do you have the courage to switch things up? It is easy to just do same old same old in your writing and marketing. You know the drill. You know how much energy you need. Switching things up is a venture into the unknown. What if it doesn’t work?

Joanna Penn has written another of her deep dive articles. 7 tips for sustainable creativity. Here she pulls great advice from interviews with her guests about staying creative. She is switching things up by moving her podcast days. Change can unlock another outlook on your writing. It sparks new ideas, new directions. You never know what interesting opportunities await around the change corner.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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

 

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

 

Protecting The Author Voice

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

Publishing Perspectives sat down with the director of the Frankfurt Book fair to talk about his twenty years at the helm, the future of the fair, and the challenges of this year’s fair. 

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard looks at the recent move by Getty Images to partner with an AI company but with very strict licensing agreements, after their failed court cases. He points out that publishers could do the same thing. 

 

Recently, Publishers Weekly reported on American Library Associations 150^th anniversary. The Graphic Novel and Comics Roundtable have just celebrated 8 years. School librarians know the power of graphic novels to hold attention and introduce new ideas without the kids knowing they are reading. Now the Roundtable and Librarians are reaching out to publishers to make these books more durable. 

 

Rachel Toalson wrote a great essay, In Defense On Writing For Children as a response to the recent controversial comments by the American Ambassador for Children’s Literature. If his aim was to get people talking, he certainly succeeded. Every children’s author will recognize the themes she explores on why we write for children. If you have always thought it would be easy, I invite you to read the article.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a run down of all the types of scams that are targeting authors at the moment. Keep an eye on the scammers, who are getting more personalised in their targeting every day. Let newbies know that such scams prey on their hopes and dreams and to be extra wary.

 

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Daniel Sawyer on the author voice. I am so grateful that Joanna produces these transcripts.  Even though I often listen to the interview, reading the transcript lets you stop to think deeply on an idea and this episode is one of those thought provoking studies of craft. 

 

Alexandra Burt has a great essay on Why Artists Owe The Work And Not The World. You must understand rules before you break them. Often writers second guess themselves. Do you need permission to write the way the story wants to be told? 

 

Publishers Weekly reported on the recent Jamaican Book Festival where the Caribbean Collective was announced. This is an organization to represent the eight English speaking islands as a global regional voice, and to promote and support them at international book fairs. What a great idea! 

Mark Williams with his global view of publishing in small developing countries explored how this kind of representation could be a model for others. 

 

I firmly believe in the power of the collective, whether it is in small author groups for publishing support, all the way up to countries with a shared regional perspective like the Pacific Islands. Global publishing has been dominated by a western US/UK viewpoint. Regional voices are lost in translation even when it is in English. Collectives of countries to promote a different literary voice to the world is a powerful statement of literary maturity. Our own voices matter. Our individual author voices are distinct from the blandness of AI sameness. Our regional voices reflect our customs and concerns that mark us out as a distinct region rather than a satellite of a powerful colonizing nation. New Zealand has been quietly supporting a pacific publishing voice for years. We should be shouting our support. If we don’t we are at risk of losing our distinct viewpoint and voice to a tech company algorithm.

 

Donald Mass has another deep craft essay on the misleading adage of Show, Don’t Tell.

He talks about the two important cues to bring a story alive, the visual and the emotional. He refers to his craft book, which I have, and it is excellent. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Why emotional scenes still feel flat-Susan Watts- Bookmark

The beating heart of your Story Structure- Lynette Burrows- Bookmark

Writing memorable character voices- Catherine Forrest- Bookmark

Will your story keep your readers hooked- Colleen Story- Bookmark

Why we need heroic stories- K M Weiland- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Flat lays – low effort marketing- Ines Johnson – Bookmark!

Book launch mistakes on social media- Sandra Beckwith

Back to school children’s book marketing- Bookmark

2 very good articles on email newsletters. If you are wondering what to do, or who to choose, read both of these articles. It’s all in what type of communication voice you want to have to your readers. Medium, Substack or Beehiiv- Rachel Thompson and Should you use Substack or something else – Jane Friedman

 

To Finish,

Where do you get your ideas from? How many times have we heard that question as authors? The writers gift lists at the end of the year are full of pens and notebooks and waterproof shower whiteboards, ready to capture all the ideas floating by. You are left with pages of idea fragments but no story. Greer Macallister has the solution. 

You might even find a unique voice and spin on a story idea that has never been done before. Only you can tell it.

 

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 free Substack version.

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

 

Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash