Feeling Besieged?

 

 

Just after I published last week’s roundup I read the article from Publishers Weekly about the US Presidents comments on copyright. (Substack subscriber readers got the news early.) 

Last month the UK voted down a transparency law that would have required tech companies to compensate owners of copyrights that they had scraped in order to teach their AI’s. This was a blow to authors everywhere who see their work effectively stolen with impunity. 

The President of the United States commented this week at an AI summit that copyright was an obstacle to rapid development of AI. The comments seemed to completely undermine the new directives from the White House on AI and caused many choking fits across publishing. Publishers Weekly looks at the new playing field impacting authors and publishers.

Publishing Perspectives reports on the White House’s Action plan entitled Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan that slid out just ahead of the president’s comments. 

 

Across the pond, European Publishers and writers are having their own crisis of faith in their elected representatives over AI. Groups representing 17 million creative copyright holders are accusing the EU ignoring their rights in favour of Big Tech in the matter of the new EU AI Act. Coming at the same time as the US  statements it feels like copyright holders are getting a bashing from all sides.

 

With Writers and Publishers feeling the creative ground shifting under their feet, it didn’t help to see reports that broadcast television was also under fire from the White House. Kathleen Schmidt sounds a warning to publishers that appeasement never works. 

 

Publishers Weekly has the American sales stats from May and it makes sobering reading. Every genre has taken a hit in sales. Is it a sign of the end times or just a blip going into the northern hemisphere summer?

 

Dr Herman Kleiger has a guest post on Rachel Thompson’s excellent blog about why authors and artists get targeted in phishing scams. The Creative Artists Survival Guide to avoiding scammers.

 

Mark Williams has an interesting opinion on the passivity of publishers exploiting works in the public domain. With the entertainment world jumping on the 250^th anniversary of Jane Austen- why aren’t publishers being proactive about bringing other Public Domain works into the sun?

 

It is always worth dropping into Writer Beware to keep an eye on dubious dealings in publishing. Writer Beware is provided by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Their members have been wrestling with new contract terms being rolled out for submitters to famous Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines. Victoria explores the contract language and the fall out. If you are or hope to be signing a contract soon this is a must read of new terms and rights grabs to watch out for. If you have never seen a writer’s contract, this is essential reading.

 

In a great guest article on Jane Friedman’s blog, Orlando Ortega-Medina looks at the differences between Author Promotion and Book Promotion and why you need both. He explains that authors often confuse the two. He offers practical tips and advice to implement immediately.

 

Catherine Misener has a great article on dictation. The productivity hack hiding in plain sight. I have tried dictation a couple of times and it is great for getting words down but the cleanup is so time consuming that it doesn’t necessarily speed up anything. However, I was recently listing to a podcast where a writer said she dropped her transcript into ChatGPT and told it to punctuate the sentences. It was a game changer for her. I must get out the voice recorder again…

 

Katie Weiland has an interesting article on intentional reading for writers. If you are what you eat as the old adage goes. Do you write what you creatively consume? Is this a strength or a weakness. 

 

An AI does not have emotional intelligence. Lynette Burrows has a fantastic post on Emotional Awareness. It is your most powerful writing tool. This is a must read.

 

In The Craft Section,

A category romance primer- Juliette Hyland

Fictionalising your family-Linda Ulleseit Bookmark

Villainous words of wisdom- Dale Ivan Smith-Bookmark

The gravity of a single word- Evan Swenson

Mining for theme- Susan Fletcher- Bookmark

 

In the Marketing Section

Finding your audiobook audience- Bookfunnel podcast

What is a soft book launch- Sandra Beckwith – Bookmark

Troubleshooting Bookbub campaigns- Bookbub

The pay to play dilemma- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Where to find royalty free photo’s- Rachel Thompsom- Bookmark 

 

To Finish

If you are feeling besieged with the negative news in publishing this week, take heart there is good news out there. Recently the SelfPublishing Show had their annual conference in London. This is the largest Indie author event in Europe and over 1000 people were there. Business services for writers or publishers see these big conferences as a must attend. Written Word Media has a recap article on SPS and what the big takeaways were. They followed this up with launching a brand-new podcast on YouTube and an episode dedicated to the SPS conference. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Is There Another Way?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

It’s Summer in the Northern Hemisphere so everyone is on vacation. However, there are a few interesting things to think about.

In Brazil they have just wrapped up a Book Fair which had a publishers and booksellers side event to the main public event. Publishing Perspectives looks at the conversation topics. There was discussion on price fixing which is going through the Brazil senate. Is it a good thing? Also under discussion, the quality of digital productions- Does it matter? 

 

Publishers Weekly takes a look at San Diego Comic Con which is on now. This event usually sees a lot of interest across the publishing community with Franchise tie ins in games, movies, graphic novels. However, this year it is a more muted affair because of visas, and the uncertain nature of entering the United States. 

 

The NZ Booksellers conference just wrapped up with many notable people and publishers receiving awards for excellence. Congratulations to authors Rachel King and author booksellers Gareth and Louise Ward. 

 

Audio Book walking groups. Yes, they are a thing. Publishers Weekly looks at the rise of these groups. You don’t have to listen to the same audio book to join in. This could be the great new friend meet up activity. Walk with a friend while listening to your own book.

 

Russell Nohelty has an interesting article on chronic illness and the writer. When your brain says Write and your body says Nope. He looks at ways to get your body to trust again instead of the stress response of panic and shutdown. 

 

Rachel Thompson has a great article on the Why Alt text is a writers secret. Using Alt text has been promoted as a must for helping the disabled community deal with visuals in a way that fits them better. Rachel points out that the extra few seconds to do alt text is great for other reasons.

 

Agent Richard Curtis has an interesting blog post on some contract terms that are important and overlooked in a standard writing contract. On their own they look ok, in a writing contract they mean warning bells.

 

James Scott Bell often does a close edit page to show different story points. This time he is doing one that Chat GPT supplied. His comments are on point. Competant and Forgettable.

 

Seth Godin is known for pithy comments on a variety of subjects. Recently he looked at Productivity, AI and pushback. Are you working for AI?

 

Mary Kole has a great article for children and teen story writers about marketing. What do you do when you can’t market to your stories intended audience. Who is your real audience?

 

Katie Weiland looks at What makes a bad story. No, it’s not bad editing or plot holes, or even an AI written story. Have you taken a close look at your characters?

 

In The Craft Section,

2 great articles from Angela Ackerman The key to writing authentic characters and How to use hidden experiences- Bookmark Both.

Bring your setting to life- Sue Coletta

Why scene mapping is your secret weapon- Juneta Key- Bookmark

3 ways to add tension- Janice Hardy

 

In The Marketing Section,

Email-the best marketing channel?- Bookbub

New hope for old books- Sandra Beckworth

How to format a book- Bookbaby

2 great articles from Thomas Umstettd- How to create sales optimized book pages-and How to grow email lists with giveaways- Bookmark Both

 

To Finish,

Everywhere I look this week, I have seen something from Johnny B Truant. He is one of the originals from Smarter Artists from over a decade ago. After an extended break he is back with a new book on slow writing, no social media etc. Is this really Johnny I thought. He is embracing the Artisan Author way and he chats with Joanna Penn on why he has done an almost about turn. It has lots to do with the joy of writing and how you can kill this joy by being on a produce treadmill. He has a great video which inspired the book. The low stress, high quality, fan focused way to escape the publishing rat race.

Isn’t that what we all want to do?

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s 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 Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

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Can You Trust The Source?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

I’m a day late this week in publishing the blog. As I was putting it together, I heard that Stephen Colbert’s show is being axed. Many in the media are dismayed with the defunding of public journalism PBS and NPR this week. The Colbert show axing coming on the heels of an out of court legal settlement by the parent company CBS with Trump has alarm bells ringing. Kathleen Schmidt looks at these recent news events and how book publicity will be impacted.

 

Publishers Weekly is still shining a light on the Diamond Bankruptcy and the fall out for over 100 publishers. Distribution is being picked up by Simon and Schuster at present but with no settlement happening soon Graphic Novel publishers caught up in this mess face a very uncertain future.

 

Meanwhile over in Europe, Manga is the hot new acquisition. Publishing Perspectives reports that Harper Collins is buying up French and German Manga with its acquisition of Crunchyroll. Manga is responsible for over 50% of sales in the young adult market in these countries.

 

Translators are annoyed with the launch of Globescribe, an AI translation company reports The Guardian. At issue is the warning that AI cannot translate nuance which a human translator can do. 

 

TechCrunch reports that Google has made their NotebookLM app more of a destination with by adding a public facing collection of notebooks. I had heard of writers using NotebookLM to have a place to put all their research, but on investigation I discovered it does so much more. After watching the video- I understand why authors are uploading their manuscripts and using all the features for research and marketing ideas.

 

Lisa Norman has an interesting article on Generative Engine Optimisation. How are readers finding your books. With the rise of AI assistants how will they find you’re your book? Kathleen Schmidt also has an insightful article on how Google and AI is changing search. The search world is rapidly changing. Reading these two articles will help you understand how to work with the new search changes and get your book seen.

 

Joanna Penn has an interesting interview with Ines Johnson on crafting stories and marketing. Ines has a screen writing background and she talks about planning, episodic writing and marketing incrementally. 

 

Chad Grayson has an article on establishing a regular writing routine. My regular routine of non-fiction article reading and writing is a Thursday. This has helped me produce this weekly blog consistently for over 17 years. Chad has some good tips to help with the routine.

 

Katie Weiland has a big article on the Writing Glossary. This is a collection of articles she has written on different topics such as flat arcs or story structure. This is a bookmark reference guide!

 

In The Craft Section

Making the most of Writing resources- Gabriela Pereira- Bookmark

Four levels of book editing- Bookbaby

Taking criticism- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

Avoiding Purple Prose- Becca Puglisi

Writing across cultures-Dave King- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to get more book reviews- Joanna Penn interviewing Joe Walters Podcast – Bookmark

Why every author needs a brand- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Smart ideas for promoting- Penny Sansevieri

Ten Shortcuts- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

The best author swag- Elizabeth Cole- Bookmark

 

To Finish

R J Reddon has an interesting post on Writers in the Storm about all those little extra details that you find out in the course of writing your story. Do you ever do anything with them? I never thought about it until I read their article Don’t Delete That. Combining these ideas and NotebookLM (which is included free in your Google account.) and my brain was riffing on all things spacy. Is the world ready for all the weird stuff in my brain? With AI technology taking off like a rocket, the explosion of content across all our media channels is only just beginning. The trick will be to find out who you can trust to deliver quality information.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s 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 Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Fabian Gieske on Unsplash

Proclaiming Our Intentions

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

After nine years in operation and beginning the modern serial publishing format Radish has announced they are closing their doors at the end of the year. Commentators have been noting the quiet demise of serial format sites lately. Many have linked it to the initial great payouts for authors that became unsustainable for the company.

 

Does anyone read New Adult? After the great publicity about this format a few years ago there was a cooling off stage. Publishers are back looking at the cross over from the Young Adult category. They are even merging imprints. Publishers Weekly looks at Penguin’s new imprint for New Adult books.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports on a new move by French Independent Publishers. Their annual prize winners to be translated into English and published in a rights catalogue. Let’s make it easy for English language publishers to pick up the best stories. 

 

Dan Holloway from The Alliance of Independent Authors reports on a new service from Cloudflare which will allow publishers and news companies to charge for AI scraping of their content. It has the potential to be game changing financially for publishers.

 

As we roll into eighty years since World War 2 ended, a Dutch publisher is increasing the amount of holocaust stories that they publish. Publishers Weekly talks with the editors to find out why they think this is important now.

 

The Commonwealth of Nations, representing 2.7 Billion people, has appointed their first Poet Laureate, Selina Tusitala Marsh, a pasifika poet and scholar. The New Publishing Standard reports that this highlights the role of literature in diplomacy and cross cultural understanding. (Selina is based here in Aotearoa New Zealand and is fantastic.) Her appointment is for two years. 

 

Literature Hub reports on an open letter from writers to publishers about the use of AI in publishing. The writers are asking publishers to not publish any books written by AI. This feels like a last ditch effort to show the real concerns in the industry about the use of AI for creativity. Didn’t we want all the drudgery to be done by AI robots leaving us more time to create and have fun? 

 

Katie Weiland has a must read article Why Intentional Storytelling Matters in An Age of AI and Algorithm Driven Content. Katie looks at what we lose if we follow formulaic on demand content models. As writers we should be using our power of intentionality to make our writing stand out. 

 

Alissa Butterworth writes on Jane Friedman’s blog about Using a Workshop Experience Inventory When Workshops Go Wrong. This is a powerful exercise to help make writing workshop critiques useful and beneficial to the writer and not a bloodbath arena.

 

Kathleen Schimdt has a great article on media opportunities. What are good media opportunities? How do you get media coverage on your book.

The SPA Girls interviewed Erin Wright on going wide strategies in book publishing and marketing. This is a fantastic podcast interview about all the ways to get your book out there.

 

Rachel Toalson has an excellent article on finding the heart of your story. What makes a story unforgettable. The heart of the story is what keeps you and the reader emotionally invested in the story. She uses the letters of HEART to explain the important touchstones you should be aiming for.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to write an unforgettable first line-Jenn Windrow- Bookmark

Understanding story theme- Tammy Burke- Bookmark

3 reasons why writers procrastinate- Colleen Story

Write like you are an endurance athlete- Miffie Seideman

Owning your voice the ultimate power move- Sarah Hamer- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

August book promotion ideas- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

How to make a book trailer- Reedsy- Bookmark

Busting Bookbub myths-Bookbub

A guide to press releases- Written Word Media

Using multiple identities- Alli - Bookmark

 

To Finish

I have been struggling to come to terms with the news that hit the children’s literature community in New Zealand like an earthquake. New Zealand has withdrawn from the opportunity to be Guest of Honour at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2027.

 

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is the biggest gathering of children’s publishing people in the world. Some of our publishers have won awards at the fair for excellence. 

Behind the scenes many groups and individuals talked about this amazing opportunity for globally showcasing our Maori and Pacifica voices, to each other, and to government representatives. It is going to be epic we told everyone. As a pacific nation we have been leading the way in indigenous storytelling in translation, language programmes, comics, animation, and gaming. All things children love. We couldn’t wait to show off our fantastic writers and illustrators. Children’s books are about reading and empathy for others and cultural awareness and all good things. We can represent pacific voices and everything that makes us special to the rest of the world. It will be epic.

Our books are world class. Government support for us should be a no brainer. We only want $350,000 that’s $210,000 US dollars or 150,000 GB Pounds. It’s not much. They spent half that fixing the parliament playground. The All Blacks probably spend that on afternoon tea. Norway spent 40 times more than that and promoted literature programmes in their country. In 2012 when we were guest of honour at Frankfurt Book Fair the government spent $6 million dollars with $1 million directly going to writers and publishers for it. It was epic. 

But alas- our government didn’t agree with our vision. 

The lack of interest from the government to celebrate their children, their writers, their illustrators, their publishers, librarians, teachers, reading advisors, and the kids on the parliament playground means there is no money for us to show the world how epic our industry is. 

One of our best writers for children wrote a sad essay in response to this news today. His words were thoughtful and measured. Inside he is probably as angry as the rest of us who work in and love Aotearoa New Zealand children’s literature.

Our actions or lack of them show our true intentions. We tell children this all the time. We show it in our words and actions and in our children’s literature. 

We lift you up. We have your back. We support you. We celebrate you because you are epic. 

Our government had a chance to be known around the world for their support of indigenous children’s literature. Their proclaimed intentions to us about being supportive of the arts are not backed up by action. 

It is an epic fail.

 

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 Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Private Eye satire on children’s publishing. (Which is closer to the truth than you realise.)

Who Owns Your Rights?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The EU accessibility act came into force this week. This is aimed at publishers who are selling into the European Union. All books need to be accessible. This doesn’t mean that they have to be widely available although that might help. They have to be accessible to the disabled community. Dan Holloway has a quick rundown on what that means for authors and publishers.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports on the recent court decision over book banning in favour of the parents and how this might impact the freedom to read going forward in the United States of America.

 

Publishers Weekly reports on the American Library Association conference and what the main topics of conversation were. AI and its biases. There was a lot of chat about the impact of new tech trends on libraries and on hand were child sized robots that helped children with finding and checking out books. (It is almost the age of the Jetsons- where is my flying car?)

 

This week Mark Williams looked at two news items that expose the current publishing models shortcomings. First was the news that the Bond franchise had been bought by Amazon who are bringing out modern James Bond books to tie in with their new game. So where does that leave the original publisher? Following right on the heels of this is the Romantasy juggernaut Sarah J Maass who has licensed her brand into a global marketplace and left her traditional publishers out of the mix. 

When I am asked what is the most important subject to learn in publishing, I always answer intellectual property and contracts. These two articles highlight the importance of intellectual property and who owns it. For decades publishers have been asking for sweeping contract rights and then not doing anything with them. Savvy agents and authors keeping these rights back have discovered other entertainment companies value these licenses. Will Publishers double down on rights demands? Remember authors, you can put time limits on rights in the contract and always put a rights reversal time clause in. 

 

Victoria Strauss has a great article for Writer Unboxed on bankruptcies and why the bankruptcy clause in your contract might not protect you. This is a timely article after recent publisher bankruptcies.

 

Richard Charkin muses on globalization and the publishing trade. Printers are now global, as are Newspapers. I wonder when rights by country will fall by the wayside. 

 

John Green has a nifty little video which breaks down What the #1 New York Times Bestseller List Actually Means. Sometimes it doesn’t take much for a book to make the list.

 

Gabriela Pereira has a great article on How to deal with Failure and Rejection. You need a writer angst jar. This is a great tool to get you over the hump.

 

Joanna Penn has an interesting interview with Betsy Lerner this week. Betsy has decades of experience in the publishing world doing pretty much every job in it. She talks about finding your voice across the medium and loving book marketing.

 

Writer Unboxed has a new contributor (Gen Z ) Kit Aldridge who has an article on AI – The Big Bad Wolf or Quiet Assistant for Writers. All the comments are interesting, especially from the big names in the community. The article is generally not in favour.

If you are on the fence about this technology. You are not alone. However, the changes are so rapid that you may find that some knowledge is better than none at all. Joanna Penn’s recent Interview with Thomas Umstattd on Book Discoverability in the age of AI shows another side of this technology.  

 

It’s July and you may be looking at your goals for the year and wondering what happened. Robin Blakely has a great article on redirecting yourself and your goals.

If it is all too much check out the Frustrated Writers Colouring In Book

 

In the Craft Section,

Building believable alternate histories- Daniel Ottalini

When your draft is a mess- Stuart Wakefield- Bookmark

The playbook for antagonists- Becca Puglisi

The secret to writing witty characters- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Ending apostrophe abuse- Debbie Burke- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

TikTok marketing demographics for authors- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Writing an author bio (with AI)- Kindlepreneur

How to publish a children’s book- Reedsy and Karen Inglis- Bookmark

Creative hooks drive more ad clicks- Bookbub- Bookmark

Joanna Penn interviewed Simon Patrick about Eleven labs and Producing AI narrated audiobooks. This is an interesting insight into how Eleven labs works, and how authors can use them. 

 

To Finish,

Do you remember the Readers Digest books? Condensed versions of four novels bound in hardback and available mail order on a monthly subscription. Loads of homes had them. Folio Editions borrowed a similar concept but went the opposite way into high end productions. Publishers Weekly looks at how they have reinvented themselves starting with Public Domain books and are now into licensing Folio editions of in print books. It is all about Intellectual Property and what you do with it.

 

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.

 

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