It’s 2020… another year in the always fascinating world of publishing and writing beckons. So what happened over the Christmas break while everyone was supposed to be drinking eggnog and contemplating the end of one decade and the beginning of the next?
This time, just as the offices are shutting, is beloved by governments and organisations who want to get something controversial or sneaky out in the open, secure in the knowledge that when people find out it will be a done deal. Enter the Romance Writers Association of America with an edict censuring one its most prominent members just before Christmas. Unfortunately for them members were still active on Twitter on Christmas Eve. There was nowhere to hide as the biggest romance association publicly crumbled. The last month has been a public relations nightmare of epic proportions. For a comprehensive rundown on events as they unfolded read Jezebel and then read Jami Gold for her ideas on how to fix the mess. (Today RWA has appointed a new executive director so hopefully they will be looking at the other suggestions as well.)
Of course being the beginning of a new year the predictions are out for what might be coming down the track for authors and publishers.
Written Word Media have ten publishing trends for authors which makes interesting reading.
Joanna Penn and Orna Ross got together to look out into the next decade and see what is coming down the train track towards us. Forewarned means being prepared to surf the change instead of drowning in it.
Kris Rusch writes a careful post of what happens in an election year to sales of books. Like it or not, American news has a ripple effect on entertainment sales. (That’s us, BTW)
Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware looked back over 2019 and the scams and shonky deals that proliferated. She warns that the old scam artists are up to their tricks again… so do yourself a favour and glance over the list of what to be aware of going into 2020.
What happens when the publisher and the fans don’t want you to stop writing a character? Lee Child has been trying to get rid of Reacher for a while… and this time he may have made it stick by handing it all over to his brother….
Last year Audible got taken to court by the big publishers over publishing captions for their audio books which was seen as ebook publishing by another way… So what happened in court… They settled.
Meanwhile the ongoing stoush between libraries and Macmillan is continuing. Macmillan stopped new releases to libraries as they claimed it hurt their sales. (Libraries have to pay very top dollar for the books.) Libraries responded. Who is hurting the most?
Meanwhile in your New Year planning you should be looking at business plans says Jane Friedman. Janice Hardy cautions about making the same old self-publishing mistakes.
The 100 best writing websites have been rounded up again...
In The Craft Section,
Tips for writing multi POV distinct voices- Kathleen Barber
How to write a killer villain-Christina Kaye- Bookmark
Authentic dialogue – Chris Fox
Two different types of lie that your characters believe- KM Weiland - Bookmark
The lies you tell yourself when you should be writing- Leigh Shulman – Bookmark
In the Marketing Section,
How much copy should you write on your homepage- Infographic- Barb Drozdowich- Bookmark
Content Marketing - David Gaughran – Bookmark
Sales techniques to help you sell more books- Joel Friedlander
Build a street team- Angela Ackerman
How to choose an agent among competing offers- Barbara Poelle
To Finish,
Anne R Allen takes a look at Bookbub and discovers it can be just like Goodreads only much nicer! Remember the days of writing a review and recommending books?
Get your 2020 off to a great start and write a review for someone’s book. Good karma awaits.
Maureen
@craicer
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