Trying Not To Be Political

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

This week the Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in New Zealand happened. I always try to go because I’ve been a past judge. It’s a great time to catch up with colleagues, to meet and celebrate the winners and the new writers coming up. 

We try not to be political. It was hard though, to see the government minister trying to sound as if he was supportive of us when he stopped New Zealand’s chance to be guest of honor at Bologna. We were polite. It was a shame that he left for another engagement after the first award. We could have told him what we really thought.

 

Across the pond in Australia, Danielle Binks writes about why there is a crisis in children’s books – it’s to do with birth rates and short-sighted policies. It’s not political. (much) The problems she outlines can be repeated here or in your own country. Children’s writers and Librarians are seeing it up close already. 

 

Publishers Weekly has a warning that the budget cuts to libraries in the United States are now affecting publishers. This will have a knock-on effect… and we know where that will leave us.

 

Pen America is sounding a warning about school libraries and the increase in book banning lawsuits hitting schools. Pen warns about self censorship and intimidation tactics being used against schools.

 

Publishers Weekly reports the Anthropic AI case and their piracy of authors is heading to the courts with the Judge saying that the three author plaintiffs can represent all their colleagues. This is going to cost Billions!

 

Riding to the rescue of orphaned Unbound authors is publishing company Wilton Square. They will undertake to publish the books for authors who got their rights back. It’s a pity there is no redress for authors owed thousands from sales with no way of getting it. Bankruptcy law trumps contract law. The Unbound mess is a big lesson for authors and agents.

 

Kathleen Schmidt has a great article on publicity. How much publicity is enough? It depends. Some publicity completely hits the wrong audience.  

 

Rachel Thompson has an excellent publication week survival guide. What to do leading up to launch day and then after. This is a print out and stick on the wall post.

 

Kimberley Grabas has an interesting post on harnessing AI to use in author branding. This is when using AI as a tool can be very useful.

 

Kathleen McCleary has an excellent post on Writer Unboxed about the power of WHY. 

How often do you use this word to drill down to the emotion of the story. 

For instance: Why did the politician come to a celebration of children’s literature after he scuttled plans to promote it internationally? Did he think we were happy with his decision and that we wanted to see him speak platitudes? Ok I will be polite and just say, we’ve got some cracking good writers here as the 2025 shortlist shows.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to develop character wounds and misbeliefs- Selen Grace Silver- Bookmark

5 paths to plotting your novels- Janice Hardy

When structure is the enemy- Kelsey Allagood- Bookmark

How to start dictating- Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer- Bookmark

Plot devices- when to use them – Elizabeth Craig

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to write emails without feeling spammy- Phillip Duncan- Bookmark

Free marketing strategies-Steve Higgs

Driving traffic to your website-Linda Dunn- Bookmark

How to write a great blog post – Lisa Tener- Bookmark

Add audio to an eBook- Great podcast from Matty Dalrymple

 

To Finish

In some positive news, The International Kids Literature Quiz started by a fantastic kiwi is getting a new quiz master. The literature quiz has gone from just a local competition to a regional competition then a national competition and then international. It is in its 37^th year and kids from around the world are flying to Johannesburg this week for the international final. The brilliant mind behind it, Wayne Mills, is stepping down as quiz master. Our recently retired reading ambassador, Alan Dingley, is stepping up into the role. He is going to be brilliant. 

The literature quiz is all about kids reading. Let’s celebrate them and their book creators. We are all legends. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash