The Publishing Sea Change

 

In Publishing News this week,

We are nearly six months out from the London Book Fair and announcements about the expansion of the fair are happening. As well as hosting The Futurebook conference inside the fair, LBF are now partnering with the Children’s Media Conference. This brings a whole lot of film and TV people inside the London Book Fair for their conference. Children’s publishers who usually head to Bologna might want to make this fair a stop on the way.

 

This year publishers have been trying to play both sides of the AI coin. They are demanding that no AI be used while using AI themselves in their business. You can call it hypocritical or be kinder and decide that AI is changing the publishing world rapidly and last week’s decisions will be different to this weeks. 

Publishers Weekly recently published an article by Ed Nowatka, Publishing’s AI Reckoning, which I think everyone should read. Ed interviews several publishers on AI and how they are using it. One line stopped me in my tracks. A publisher stated that they have added into their contract that if the author cannot revise their AI generated text it then becomes the property of the publisher. 

Meanwhile, over at Pan Macmillan they announced a forthcoming book, The Everything Code, a "human originated, AI facilitated" book. This was announced as a Trade Publishing first. A commentator called it the beginning of the third big change in publishing, after Gutenberg and The Kindle.

 

Occasionally I highlight instances around the world where writers or booksellers have been detained over their writing or books that they sell. I was surprised to read in Publishers Weekly that some bookstores have penned an open letter over the excessive jail terms (50 years?) given to some of their number for protesting and running a printing press and book club in Texas.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors run a few free virtual conferences ever year. Their next one is on the theme of the Future of Self Publishing: What’s working now and what’s coming next, in October. As always, they have a great line up of speakers. Go and register. It's Free.

 

I try to listen or read Joanna Penns interviews every week. Her guests are excellent and often thought provoking in various ways. Recently she interviewed J Daniel Sawyer, a fiction writer and podcaster on his new book. Reclaiming Your Mind: An Autodidacts Bible. An autodidact is someone who teaches themselves things rather than taking a course. This is a great interview on thinking differently about research.

Another recent interview which piqued my interest was Anna McPhee on What Machines Can’t Replace: Why AI Makes Us More Human.

 

Mark Lefebvere has a new book for authors coming out A Book In Hand- Strategies for Optimizing Print Book Sales via Signings and Other In Person Events. He has a Kickstarter to help publicise it with some great  deals. Mark is well known in the Indie and Horror book world and he has done every job in publishing so he knows what he talks about.

 

Writing craft teacher James Scott Bell has an interesting post on novellas and how to use them to try out an idea. He also comments on Hachette new imprint which is all about novellas. If one of the big 5 are committing to the format there must be money in it.

When you are deep in the weeds of your novel it can be hard to remember important character details or backstory. That’s where a story bible comes in. Wendy van Camp has tips for creating a good story bible to save your sanity.

 

In The Craft Section,

Grammar errors you could be making- Rachel Thompson

Antihero vs Antagonist vs Villain- Lucy Hay- Bookmark

Character impact- K M Weilkand- Bookmark

The secret to raising Tension- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Writing lessons learned the hard way- Alison Hammer

 

In The Marketing Section,

7 killer fiction marketing tips- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

2 great posts from Dale Evans- Book Marketing resources and Building a website without coding- Bookmark both

Goodreads Book Marketing Strategy- Kris Maze

Is the author website dead- Cassie Mannes Murray- Interesting

 

To Finish,

Lisa Norman has an interesting article on Writers In The Storm : What Ten Years Did To My Publishing Process. Lisa talks about the changes in her own business. As she says, the publishing geology is the same, the equipment has changed. 

Publishing is changing. What used to be hard to do is easier now. However, writing the stories remains the same rewarding creative endeavor it always was. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Staying Hopeful Despite the Evidence.

 In Publishing News This Week…

 

Anthropic.

 

The settlement letters came out and there was an immediate outcry. So much that Writer Beware was documenting in real time as authors discovered publishers had claimed 100% of the payout share or were claiming for books whose rights had reverted. One sad author found a scam artist had laid claim to all of hers and she wasn’t the only one. These were not isolated instances. It almost looked as if it was deliberate. Widespread panic dominated social media. Claims need to be signed off by the end of this month so disputes have to be resolved fast with publishers. If you have an Anthropic claim check your correspondence carefully, even if it looks ok. Check in with Authors Guild on what you need to do. Drop in to Writer Beware for the latest updates including the new ‘helpful’ companies which will make this problem go away. (SCAM) 

 

Rolling up behind the Anthropic claim is the Open AI, Microsoft claim. Based on the previous lawsuits Authors Guild have asked the judge for a summary judgement, however much of the claims evidence has been redacted, reports Publishers Weekly.

 

On the other side of the fence, Chelle Honniker, who has a business teaching authors about AI has written an article explaining that authors signed up for AI Indexing. You are misguided about putting a line in your copyright notice about AI training. It is too late. 

Authors have missed a crucial understanding. The Anthropic case was about piracy, not training.

 

Kevin Kelly (of 1000 true fans fame) has written an interesting article, Arguments In Favour of AI Fair Use.  This is what the judge decided. Now how can we make it work in our favour. Kevin has always advocated a direct relationship with your readers as humans make connections with other humans. 

 

There is a backlash demanding that AI not be used in any image creative work. Illustrators who use digital illustration techniques are being branded as using AI- even when they haven’t. Glossy children’s book illustrations are being panned. Illustrators are now using more texture brushes to their work so they won’t be lumped in the AI slop basket. Recently I saw a claim that the digital texture brush tool makers are demanding in their sale contracts that they can’t be used in AI illustration. As news media reports another scary claim from the computer scientists who created AI, it is obvious that it is almost too late to put in safeguards. 

 

 Audible is pushing hard in the translated audio market with original audiobook titles they are translating into English. This used to take a long time and happened only if the books won print awards. Now Audible expect their Original to English translation market to grow to 25% of their English language audiobooks by the end of the year.

 

Publishing Perspectives reported on a white paper from Frankfurt Bookfair on AI narration. Who is narrating our future? The white paper had input from across the industry. However they noted that they were only able to write this paper if they assured the respondents that they would be anonymous, such is the sensitive nature of the subject in publishing. It is worth reading the article to get the facts and figures. 

 

Jami Gold has an interesting article on procrastination. She examines cognitive theory ideas for ways to help authors break out the blocks to productivity. There is great ad vice in here about mindset hacks.

 

Jane Friedman has an excerpt from M Stevenson’s book, It Depends: An Authors Practical Guide to Debut Year. The excerpt is on partnering with bookstores to run pre orders. This breaks down what you need to do with examples.

 

Rachel Thompson is known for her practical marketing advice and encouragement to authors around the web. Her latest article -8 Writing And Publishing Lessons I learned From Writing 8 Books is full of great advice. These 8 maxims about writing and marketing are timeless. This is a Print Out and Put on Your Wall post! 

 

In The Craft Section,

Serials – Start with a finished manuscript or write on the fly? - Simon Jones- Bookmark

Delivering backstory with setting- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

10 standout tips for writing- Randy Susan Meyers- Bookmark

The Villains Journey-Debbie Burke- Bookmark

What should you write next- James Scott Bell-Bookmark!

 

In The Marketing Section

Honesty in book marketing- Sandra Beckwith

Paid Newsletters -Smart income stream or expensive 

distraction- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Marketing without panic- Susan Odev- Bookmark

Maximising free book downloads- Bookbub- Bookmark

10 social media platforms for authors- Alliance of Independent Authors

 

To Finish

 

There are so many demands on your author business that often the way forward seems to be obscured. This week I was listening to Joanna Penn’s podcast interview with Tracy Cooper Posey on redesigning your author business for the environment that actually exists. It was a hopeful episode. Check out the transcript or listen when you can. No matter how small your actions are, they contribute to your author momentum forward. 

 

Go forth… even with small steps, you can reach your destination.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It is 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 any virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

 

Photo by Ryan Fleischer on Unsplash