Eyes Wide Open.

  

In Publishing News This Week

 

The Bologna Book Fair is on. This is the annual international bookfair for children’s books. Publishers Weekly caught up with agents at the fair to talk about trends that they see coming in children’s books. Publishers Weekly also reported on disquiet over the prevalence of AI. There were a number of panels on the subject with great advice for illustrators and writers about showing development and transparency. The last paragraph was interesting. There is more pushback against AI from younger members of publishing teams.  

 

Also in Bookfair news, Frankfurt Bookfair is carving out permanent space for comics with the introduction of a Comics Business Centre for everything comic book related at the fair. Mark Williams reports that on what Frankfurt is planning. With webtoons and anime becoming big business Frankfurt is following the trend.

 

Bookfair season always worries newer authors who wonder whether they should be attending them. Mark Lefebvre has the answer. NO. However he also explains why and what book events you should be thinking about attending. It’s all about what you want and need for your own author journey. Great Advice from Mark.

 

Amazon announced they would be discontinuing support for a number of Kindle devices reports Dan Holloway of The Alliance of Independent Authors. This has caught readers out. Will they be able to access their books? Well ,there is the Kindle App. And everybody is reading on their phones now aren’t they? 

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware has an update on The Bartz Vs Anthropic class action court case. If you are following this you can get up to date with all the machinations, like the move to exclude publishers from the payout and whether the judge will let new people into the class action and just when will we see any money?

 

Penguin Random House is calling on US politicians to reject a proposed bill on banning books. Of course it is never called a book ban it’s protecting the children from knowledge they do not need to know. Riiiight. 

Meanwhile, authors who have had books banned are facing threats and harassment. PEN America has created a US Author Safety Programme and is raising money for resources, workshops and training for authors who need help. Some high profile authors are auctioning off character names in forthcoming books to support the cause.

 

Kirsten Bell has a cautionary tale on Jane Friedman’s blog, about paying for social media exposure and what not to do. This is a lesson on doing due diligence for everything. Jane adds her own advice as well, if you are really tempted by using an influencer to promote your book.

 

Darcy Pattison has an updated roundup of the best tech to create children’s books. She looks at all the software available and what is best to use. Very useful information.

 

Reedsy has been playing with new tech solutions for writing and organizing your manuscript. Check out Reedsy Studio. It’s free for the basic set up which looks pretty nifty.

 

Alexa Bigwarfe has a great post on avoiding procrastination because the weather is warmer and you should be outside. She has advice for how to trick your brain into writing when you really don’t want to.

 

The dream team, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have launched their latest Thesaurus, The Fear Thesaurus. At the moment, it is available only on their website store before they launch it on all the other stores. Their books are great reference tools used by writers around the world. If you haven’t seen one, check out their website. The Fear Thesaurus is their 11^th book. They also have a great article on How fear plays into the Character Arc.

 

In The Craft Section,

Want stronger writing? Write Less- Janice Hardy - Bookmark

How to create compelling hooks for chapters- Jenn Windrow- 

Bookmark

Microtension by degrees- C S Lakin- Bookmark

4 ways specificity drives your story forward- Kathryn Craft- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How Author Visibility Drives Book Marketing- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Stalled book marketing and what to do about it- Sandra 

Beckwith- Bookmark

Bookstagrammers – What you should know- Ann Marie Nieves

Finding the right book positioning- Penny Sansevieri

Your About page matters more than you think- Dan Blank- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Draft2Digitals new press release on charging fees dropped into inboxes causing all kinds of comments in the Indie Writing community today. Their reasoning is that they are swamped with AI titles and scammers so they figure charging for new accounts and annual fees if you earn less than $100 annually might get over this problem. The debate is raging online. 

While you are weighing up pros and cons of publishing aggregators, Dale Evans has written the comprehensive deep dive into all things Amazon and the pros and cons of publishing with them.

 

AI books and scam operators are changing the playing field. Go into publishing with eyes wide open and test your results. Be skeptical. Do your research. What works in one genre may not work in another. Find successful authors in your genre and watch what they are doing. 

Let’s be careful out there.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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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 Colin Lloyd on Unsplash

Help In Publishing Land.

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

Good News for libraries in the United States of America this week, the appeal against the defunding of the Institute of Museum and Library Services was withdrawn. Librarians may still have jobs. Libraries may stay open, life might get back to normal in schools and institutions across the country. However, while librarians and their supporters were celebrating a watchdog agency was noting that far right book banning groups are using AI to scan books for detailed take down notices to libraries and schools. It’s a case of constant vigilance!

 

Publishers Weekly published an Op Ed Politicians should not be choosing what our children read. Danny Caine points out that this is the same argument used by both sides but the government is about to do just that with a new law being introduced in the US House of Representatives this week for debate.

 

Reuters reported that the Judge in the Bartz vs Anthropic case has frowned upon the $300 million fee to lawyers administering the settlement. And to general cheering by everyone the lawyers have agreed to reduce the fee substantially. They still pocket a lot though. 

 

I was interested to see in the Around The Book World news roundup from Publishing Perspectives about a Japanese Manga publisher beginning to publish weekly episodes of their novels in nine languages. They also want to move into publishing their novels in English. At the recent London Book Fair there was handwringing from publishers about the rise of other countries publishing their books in English instead of going through English publishers. If we can AI translate into another language, so can they. In the end it will be the marketing of these books that will make the financial difference to the publisher bottom line.

 

Next week – all eyes will be on BookCon in New York. Will it be successful? Will America finally get a national book fair again? 2 days, 250 exhibitors. Publishers Weekly wants to predict smiles all round.

 

At the same time as BookCon, Bologna Children’s Book fair will be celebrating 63 years of existence with the guest of honour- Norway. (It could have been us except our NZ politicians dropped the ball and own goaled to the derision of the children’s book community in NZ, but we don’t hold a grudge. *CoughNovemberelectionCough*) The fair is chock full of events celebrating and discussing children’s literature and literacy and what to do about AI. 

 

Last week I mentioned Harlequin partnering with an AI studio to produce microdramas. LitHub published an essay from Maris Kreizman Dear Harlequin: Nobody Asked For Your Weird New AI Video ‘Microdramas’. Maris doesn’t hold back. She mentions all the things they should be doing. Ouch! 

Mark Williams takes a different view of the news. He points out that microdramas are an $11 Billion market in Asia. Romance is just the first genre to embrace it. Genre publishers will be looking and wondering if it is a goldmine for them. 

 

Ossandra White has a thoughtful essay on what might be stopping you from creating. She runs through the usual physical discomfits and then into mental mindsets.

 

Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone was a sentence that resonated with me in the Writer Unboxed essay from Allison Winn Scotch. Five Things I Didn’t Know About Publishing Five Years Ago. Tackling a scary project could be just what you need to grow as a writer.

 

Dan Blank has a great essay on how to talk about your writing. We’ve all been there. That moment when someone asks you Have you written anything I’ve read? Aside from the clueless question- how would I know what you read… you demur and fail to mention anything you have written. Dan has some tips to turn the conversation around.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to keep the flow with Dialogue tags- Ellen Buikema

Writing Book 2- Ines Johnson- Bookmark

Seven common story problems- Collen Story- Bookmark

Internal Conflict vs External conflict- K M Weiland- Bookmark!

What Noir can teach any writer- Ruth Knafo Setton- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section

Author Photos- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

How to read your story aloud to an audience- Lynette Burrows

Plan your Marketing Quarter- Ines Johnson-Bookmark!

Substack as a marketing tool- Podcast and transcript Orna Ross- Bookmark

Crafting marketing emails- Pine State Publicity

 

To Finish,

Mark Lefebvre wrote recently about a question from a newbie writer asking for anyplace that had non-judgmental instructional resources for new writers who are worried that they were going about publishing all wrong. 

This is a fast changing behemoth business and anyone trying to dip a toe in the water of publishing is bound to flail in the water while learning not to drown. 

Mark kindly points them in the right directions from his vast experience of doing practically every job in publishing. You Don’t Have To Figure This Out On Your Own. This is a pin on the wall post to use when you get a plaintive wail from a newbie writer. ‘But what do I do?’ Answer: You read this post from Mark LeFebvre and maybe check out Maureen Crisp’s Craicer blog. *SMILE*

 

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 Jude Mack on Unsplash