The Care and Feeding of Readers

 

 

In Publishing News this week…

 

The big news across all the social media outlets was the unsealing of the previously redacted comments in the Open AI Microsoft court case. The admission that executives knew they were using pirated work among other comments from executives make chilling reading. Publisher’s Weekly reports on the news story. (Insert your own comments about what weasels those execs are here.)

 

Amazon are limiting publication of titles. In an in-house press release on KDP they announced the move restricting author to two titles per format per week. This will be welcome news to authors battling against an AI scam book onslaught. However, those authors who publish wide in different formats might find they need to stagger their launch times.

 

Staying with KDP for a moment, Dale Evans did a deep dive into the new identity verification process that prove that you are a human to KDP. This is starting to feel very big brotherish and quite difficult. If you are a KDP author who hasn’t published in a while be aware that things have changed and you need to jump through a few more hoops, some of them flaming.

 

The bags will be packed ready for Frankfurt Book Fair beginning October 7^th Publishers Weekly has a packed roundup of all the trends and tech on offer this year.

 

A collection of organisations dedicated to promoting reading and the freedom to read in the United States are having a telethon. Their aim is to educate people about speaking up and using their voice and vote to protect the freedom to read at the grass roots level. They have enlisted a lot of authors in the virtual event. 

 

Meanwhile in Australia, parliamentarians, publishers, authors, and librarians came together to discuss how to raise reading rates in Australia. Publishing Perspectives asked Australia Reads CEO Anna Burkey how they were able to get so much buy in from their government. If only it was reflected here in NZ. (cough notbitteraboutBologna cough)

 

Publishers Weekly talked with authors about their brand new releases for Fall (or the lead up to Christmas as it is known down under) YA Dystopia is back with spinoffs and sequels to the big franchises from Fifteen years ago. Prepare for teenagers to battle to save the world in survival games. 

 

Agent Richard Curtis has an essay on the problems when your agent becomes a publisher. The blurring of the lines can bring big problems for authors.

 

Jenn Windrow has a great article Querying Is Not A Verdict On Your Book. Sometimes you query too soon. The book might not be ready. Jenn has four questions that you can ask yourself and your book before you get into the query trenches.

 

It is always great to read Rachel Thompson’s dose of reality for Book Marketing. 

Publishing and Visible are NOT the same. Here she helps the reader to refine who their 

Reader is and how to reach them. Essential reading for authors.

 

Harper Ross writes on Writer Unboxed about self doubt as she hit a milestone birthday. Do I Still Want To Write? May Be The Wrong Question. If you are looking at your current writing and wondering about whether you should continue, she has three key tests for you. This is great advice for writers who feel they are at a crossroads with their work.

 

In The Craft Section,

Flat character arc transformations- K M Weiland

Short Story Methods- Jo Lallo- Bookmark

Building fear into turning points- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

Turning points- September Fawkes

Tips for bookending your novel- C S Lakin- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section

Using Video for Book Promo- Sandra Beckwith – Bookmark!

Why nobody can find your book on Amazon- Dale Evans- Bookmark

Facebook Ads for authors Tutorial - David Gaughran- Bookmark

40 Social Media Posts for the camera shy author- Tesa Barbosa- Bookmark!

A new sales channel. GimmeBook made by authors- sales pages and delivery in one place. Check It Out

 

To Finish

Readers read more books than you will ever write. Publishing the book is only the start, finding readers is the endgame for authors.  How do you find the readers who will love what you write? Ines Johnson breaks down how she niches down to find the exact reader who will love what she writes. She shares her tips in a great essay, I Don’t Need Every Reader. 

 

Finding the right reader and nurturing them is the end game for the writer.

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 Jamie Street on Unsplash

 

 

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

 

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 Verstappen Photography on Unsplash