The Battle For Culture

In Publishing News this week,

 

The talk around the publishing blogosphere is the position Faber finds itself in with Sally Rooney’s books. Faber has halted her book sales in the UK over her support of a ‘terrorist’ group, to comply with UK law. 

 

Frankfurt is over for the year…except for all the side events leading up to next years event. Publishers Weekly has a wrap of the week in Frankfurt. 

One of the panel discussions at Frankfurt addressed the concern over whether AI in the Publishing will mean that jobs will disappear. This is front of mind in my house with a young publishing professional looking for a permanent publishing job. 

 

The AI in publishing hot topic continues with magazine articles like Wired’s recent OpEd. Kathleen Schmidt has another thoughtful essay on this with Big Publishers Are Using AI Why It Doesn’t Surprise Me.

If you want to stay up to date on the topic drop into Jane Friedman’s constantly updating article on AI in Publishing.

 

Audible recently announced new exciting features to bring readers into the story, which had me exclaiming ‘what’ at my screen. Publishing Perspectives writes about their planned immersive features. All I could think of was the poor authors. Many publishers ask for extra creative content as part of publicity, unpaid of course. This move by Audible looks like another level of content use.

 

Writer Beware has a check your contracts (rights grab) story involving the new owners of the five most well known genre fiction magazines. Even if you don’t write for these magazines or supply art work, this is an informative article on contracts and fair dealing and how new owners aren’t always better. A must read.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports on the 67^th Arab language Book Fair in Beirut which is on this week. The theme Culture is not a Luxury is reflected in the comments by the Arab Culture Club president who noted that the fair still happens throughout war and acts of terrorism. 

Holding on to culture is important, and writers, publishers, and booksellers are at the forefront of this. A recent Publishers Weekly article highlighted that Ukraine’s publishing landscape is on the brink of collapse because of drones targeting warehouses containing books and other cultural items. 

 

Craig Martelle has an interesting essay on boundaries and knowing your business. It’s Not Personal It’s Just Business.

 

Librarian Kathleen Reidy has an excellent article on finding comps. That’s shorthand for letting publishers know, (because they will ask) what other books your book can be compared with. (Answer: something that has sold well and is recent.) She has some great research sites in her article.

 

The Indie Author Magazine has an interview with best selling romantasy author Katie Cross on how she uses reader feedback to inform her writing.

 

Can Your Novel Become A Microdrama? Susan Watts explores why microdramas are all the rage and what companies might be useful to help you make your own.

 

Ines Johnson has a great essay on the intersection of what you want to write and what the market wants to buy. The Book You Are Supposed To Write Vs The Book You Can’t Stop Scribbling.

 

In The Craft Section,

How much revision is enough?- Kathleen McCleary- Bookmark

What I’ve relearned from fiction to playwriting- David Corbett

How to write subtext- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Flexibility for Pantsers and Plotters- Michelle Barker-Bookmark

Writing the ordinary world matters the most – September Fawkes- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section

Book Promo language can attract or repel- Sandra Beckwith

The best PR bait is not your book- Rebecca Forster

10 practical ways to save your book- Rachel Thompson – Bookmark

Author Email Lists -Dale Evans- Bookmark

The $694 I don’t regret spending- Mathew J Holmes – Bookmark

 

To Finish

 

October is known as the prep month to Novel November. If you want to write 50,000 words in November you need to be planning out how you are going to do it in October.

Novel November is being sponsored by ProWriting Aid now and they recently did a round up article on how many other types of writing challenges are out there.

 

At this time of the year, Storybundle has the big writing craft book bundle up for grabs. The Storybundle model works with a sliding scale of donation for some or all of the curated collection. The money goes to the authors and a charity and you get access to some exclusive craft books for not much money. Win. Win. Win.

 

Go forth and conquer that page.

 

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 GR Stocks on Unsplash

Challenging Your Mindset

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

Just as I was publishing my blog last week, I was contacted by a writer who was caught up in the Starfish Bay publishing nightmare. So Substack readers got an early heads up.

 

Children’s authors around the world have been caught out by the closure of Starfish Bay Publishing. An Australian news team interviewed some authors caught up in the mess, which is looking very like a scam or pyramid scheme according to one writer who contacted me about it. When the publisher asks you for money, you weren’t expecting to pay, or the contract changes abruptly take a good hard look at the operation. When a publisher fails it is usually the result of money mismanagement. (If you can’t get sound on the link turn on captions)

 

Meanwhile, Frankfurt Book Fair kicked off and everyone was keen to find out what the next hot genres that agents are seeing and editors are buying. Remember Traditional Publishing works on about an eighteen month lead time unless you are a celebrity or are writing a politically explosive book.

 

Spotify announced moves to expand into 180 countries with audiobooks this year. If you thought audiobooks were peaking in sales you haven’t seen anything yet. One writer I follow said that over covid lockdown  her audiobooks sales tanked because no one was commuting. It’s back to normal now and only getting bigger.

 

If you are wondering how to market your audiobooks, check out this great article from narrator Christa Lewis over on The Indie Author Magazine

 

Publishing Perspectives has examined the latest global publishing list and listed the biggest publishing owners on the planet. It’s been another year of consolidation. Are we happy that the bulk of the worlds ideas and thoughts are controlled by so few?

 

Questions are being asked about how and why at the recent Association of American Literary Agents People In Publishing conference, there were panels with agents who have financial stakes in Pangram. And the concerns about the use of this AI detection software used in publishing were not addressed. Andrea Bartz has a pulled together a list of big concerns about Pangrams ability to detect AI use at all. It’s only author careers that are on the line.

 

Jason Chatfield from New York Cartoons wrote an article that had a lot of comment from other cartoonists. The way AI generated artwork is also stealing their signatures, to put on the AI generated slop. Cartoonists are feeling under threat, and many don’t want to post their work online anymore.

 

The Dynamic Duo of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are celebrating eleven years of their great website One Stop For Writers. Where has the time gone? They have a great discount happening over on their website. While you are visiting, trawl around for great resources on all things writing craft related.

 

Becca Syme is the writer go to for all things psychological on how and why writers do the weird things that writers do. She is starting a new article series on why writers have problems selling our work or even just talking about it.

 

Every now and then you see an author having a terrible time because their Amazon KDP account was terminated wrongfully. Dale Evans has the, what to do if that happens to you, article. And the Jeff at amazon email still works. 

 

Donald Maass over at Writer Unboxed has a deep writing craft article on that mountain all writers trip over … the middle. Great reading for ways to tackle the beast.

 

Katie Weiland is continuing her excellent series on character arcs. This week she looks at Negative Character Arcs. These are the trials a character must go through to change. Katie has studied and written about character arcs for years. She even wrote a great book on the subject.

 

In The Craft Section,

Why does my story feel broken- Jaime Buckley- Bookmark

The mirror is not your friend- Sarah Hamer- Bookmark

3 questions to ask when the scene feels off- Kelsey Allagood- Bookmark

10 things to consider when naming characters- Amanda Patterson

When you return to a manuscript after a break- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Personal Brand advice- Jessica Sorentino- Bookmark

Fixing your lead magnet book- Mykyta Chernenko- Bookmark

Does your book blend genres- Hannah Jacobson

Accidentally going viral- Jason  Zackowski

What actually sells books- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

From time to time I come across odd little things in the writing blogosphere that make me stop and think deep thoughts. (I know, who knew?) Today I discovered my nine books. These are books that have made an impact on your life. Of course I could do a different set on a different day or theme them into comfort reads or challenging reads.

This collection comes from books that changed my world view when I was growing up and continue to challenge me with their masterful execution of story and character.

 What would be your nine life changing books?

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 free Substack version.

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

  

Photo by Hester Qiang on Unsplash