Productive Creativity

 

 In Publishing News This Week

 

The power of unions to advocate for their members is a benefit that the publishing workforce is seeing. Penguin Random House has raised base salaries. Where they lead others, hopefully, will follow, reports Publishers Weekly.

 

This week international booksellers and publishers are loud in their dismay over the arrest of two booksellers in Hong Kong. Freedom to read is often taken for granted, but there are some places where it can be a risky business.

 

Earlier this year we were lamenting the demise of the mass market paperback. Simon and Schuster have pivoted their Pocketbook, (mass market) brand to be the acquiring home of bestselling indie authors.

 

Publishers Weekly profiled a reading social platform for kids. This is a social media platform only for readers, aimed at school children, curated by their schools, but with world wide reach. Sounds amazing. Is there a catch?

 

Publishing Perspective has been following the Bologna Children’s Bookfair outreach programme. They have been building cross media partnerships everywhere. Expect animation to be a bigger part of the fair, after their recent trip to the International Animation festival.

 

The UK Publishers Licensing Service has been working with the Copyright Licensing Agency to make a collective agreement for licensing content for AI. This means publishers can get money. Over 250 publishers have signed up apparently. If you are a UK author, you can sign up too.

 

Written Word Media have the results of their mid-year author survey. They break down the results across all the author tiers, and it makes interesting reading. What works, what doesn’t, and what everyone should be doing.

 

Writer Beware has an informative article on scam email addresses. There are quick ways you can check if the email is legit. The scammers are sneaky and Victoria outlines how to spot them just in their email address. Reversed letters caught me by surprise in this comprehensive article, which is a must read!

 

I read this essay by Jaime Buckley- The Real Reason You’re Afraid To Publish and felt seen. This is one of those essays that nail the nagging feeling you have that something is wrong, but you don’t know what. 

 

Ines Johnson writes great articles on the Indie writer life. This week she is tackling the back list. Should you Update Your Backlist For Amazon’s A11 Changes? Yes… the Zon is changing again, so rumour has it. 

 

There is a great essay on Jane Friedman’s blog – Your Creative Team Wants You To Stop Formatting And Just Write The Darn Book. The authors, Sandra Wendel and Paul Nylander are speaking every typesetters pain here. Staying with writing software- Julie Artz has a great primer on Scrivener. Authors who try Scrivener quickly become evangelists for the software. Take a look at Julies article if you want to know why people rave about it.

 

Where does your creative flow come from? Gabriela Pereira has a great article on the four pillars of creative flow. How is your balance of mind work cycle, skill based learning, practice, and community? Do you need to rebalance your creativity?

 

In The Craft Section,

2 Great posts from Janice Hardy 5 ways to make your character hate you and Describing character emotions in first person –- Bookmark- Both

Write strong plots for character driven stories- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Twisting the office romance conflict- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Sustainable writing routine- Brian Hicks- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Launching a book with confidence- Rachel Warmath- Bookmark

Manage your expectations- Sandra Beckwith

Broad vs Niche keywords- Kindlepreneur- Bookmark

Seven promotional steps- Alliance of Independent Authors- Bookmark

What’s working in podcast publicity- Jane Friedman – Bookmark

 

To Finish

All the horror writers I know are fantastic humans. Mark Leslie Lefebvre is one of those people. He is so supportive of the publishing industry and has done practically every job in it. He’s now working with Draft2Digital but he has a great blog on writing and creativity that always has a fresh perspective on writing. This week’s essay, The Trees and I,The Rooted, Yet Restless Writer just resonated on all levels. Take a moment to stop and read the essay and maybe make a date with your favourite nature view.

Creativity and a writing boost awaits.

 

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 Bree S on Unsplash

Finding The Sweet Spot

In Publishing News this week,

 

What happens when a TikTok influencer tries to find a book that impacted them as a child? Publisher’s Weekly talks to the publisher of a 40 year old vocab book having another outing in the sunshine of book sales.

 

What is the biggest event this summer in the northern Hemisphere… Could be FIFA world cup… or a Swift wedding. Publisher’s Weekly reports that publisher GP Putnam have created an anthology of YA love stories based on 13 Taylor Swift songs. Swoon all the way to the bank.

 

Publishers Weekly took a walk through last week’s Beijing’s International Book Fair and noted down some of the trends that are top of mind in one of the world’s biggest countries. It’s worth noting that the government has pivoted towards a reading oriented society. An interesting article.

 

With the demise of library distributors, publishers have been trying to figure out how to help libraries get their books. Penguin Random House is working with Ingram to mine their backlist and produce Print On Demand Hard Covers of 200 PRH authors. This is interesting because back before eBooks and POD, a publishing contract could revert back to the author if the copies were out of print. Now with eBooks and POD hardbacks this means the book is never ‘out of print.’ (Authors who have large print and hardback are very library friendly. Don’t forget every format needs its own ISBN.)

 

One of the side effects of war is the destruction of a nations culture and literature. Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article on a literary movement that is trying to save the Palestinian culture. 

 

Chelle Honniker has an interesting article on where AI and copyright now stands. With various law suits underway or finished, copyright on works using AI is still fluid. It has been established that AI cannot be an author. But what about using it as a tool? 

 

Meanwhile the Book Industry Study Group is surveying the book industry in North America to see how much they are using AI. The survey is anonymous so people should be honest. This is the second year they have run this survey. I will be surprised if the the numbers haven’t increased.

 

Earlier this month I highlighted an article from James Blatch on how AI was affecting search and what it means for authors. Edie Melson has an article on how GEO and AEO affect how our websites get found by AI search engines. If you are closing your eyes and covering your ears, relax. Edie’s article is very easy to understand. (It is an important topic so don’t leave it too long before coming to grips with the subject.)

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a great essay asking what type of author you are? This is an article on author values and the way you can structure your author business. Great Reading.

 

Tawny Lara has a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog on Finding your voice as a writer in the age of AI. Voice is the one thing that distinguishes you from every other writer out there and is the one thing that AI can’t really do as the algorithm smooths out writing until it is bland. Mine your own experience.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to write Found Family tropes- Rhea Dionne

Differences between anti-hero and anti-villain- Joe Yamulla- Bookmark

Tell don’t show- P J Parrish- Bookmark

Mastering microtension- CS Lakin

11 chapter endings to keep readers turning pages- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

AI prompts for Book Marketing – Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Generating Buzz for your Book- Bookbaby

Simple Sample Strategy- Bookfunnel- Bookmark

The Access Marketing Funnel- Video - Alliance of Independent Authors - Bookmark

 

To Finish

I was reading Lisa Cohen’s article on Existential Dread – The Kickstarter edition and nodding away at some of the fears she expressed. The thought of telling anyone I have a book out and they might like it or God forbid asking people to back a Kickstarter, sparks a queasy feeling. Lisa talks about the need to market if you want your books read and how she survived doing a Kickstarter project even though she was way out of her comfort zone.

Marketing a book is where the hard work really is. However, there are a few lifelines out there. Check out Cassie Mannes Murray on 40 alternatives to the book event that is not a reading or conversation.

You never know you might sell a book as well.

 

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 Ulysse Pointcheval on Unsplash