Playing both sides of the AI coin.

In Publishing News this week,  

The money will be coming soon, said the judge in the Anthropic AI case. The news was reported earlier this week by Publishers Weekly. If you are a claimant however, don’t bank on the money for Christmas presents. Soon means under a year, probably, maybe, in lawyer speak. 

 

How fast can you get a book out? Publisher’s Weekly reports that Holt has really pushed the boat out with Mahmoud Khalil’s memoir on life in an ICE detention center. PW interviewed the team behind the fast turn around on how they did it.

 

Hands up who uses Libby? It’s a great service. So good, they are worried about how many AI bot books they are getting and are taking steps according to Techbuzz. 

 

I was chatting to a young publishing professional today about the rise of publishing opportunities in Sharjah. We are so focused on the troubled publishing world in the West, that we forget about the rest of the world. Sharjah has been making some big connections lately, says Mark Williams and we should be factoring them into our publishing calendars, from jobs, to printing, to mammoth book festivals and book sales. There are publishing opportunities and partnerships waiting.

 

Last week I talked about Amy Chan’s publicist nightmare of big spending for no return. Publicists have all been discussing her article and explaining how to use a publicist effectively. Leigh Stein has 3 lessons from Amy Chan’s experience and publicist Kathleen Schmidt breaks down what independent publicists do.

 

If I winced and said a few naughty words when I read the Publishing Perspectives article on Wiley partnering with the Genesis mission consortium to support the US governments AI goals. I can just bet that was mild compared to Wiley’s scientific authors who have been struggling with AI scraping their work without compensation. However, this move might mean they get some extra money from Wiley. *

Mark Williams has been looking at similar deal with Bloomsbury who are riding high on another generation of kids getting into Harry Potter while also making AI deals on the side. If the publishers are making AI deals, how can they demand authors shouldn’t use it as well? Mark also comments on China banning chat bot companions.

 

Mark Lefebvre has an article on scams and their scammy behaviour towards authors. He has screen shots of the types of scams sent to him in a typical day. Mark is a horror writer. If you hate the scammers as much as he does- he has probably dreamed up some fate scenarios for the scam perpetrators.

 

Has a Romantasy Bookstore opened near you? In my city two are opening this month on the same street and further down the street a very prominent independent bookstore is expanding to create a new Romantasy section. 

This phenomenon is happening everywhere says Publisher’s Weekly. It’s not just about the books but the community space. Is Romantasy going to save the publishing industry?

 

Search is changing rapidly because of AI. Many people are using ChatGPT as a search engine. This changes the nature of book publicity. Metadata is more important than ever as AI needs to find your book. Darcy Pattison has a great article on how to get AI search engines to find your kid’s book.

 

In The Craft Section,

Using real life in fiction- Richard Jordan - Bookmark

How to Write Authentic Fear – Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

The idea method – Gabriela Pereira- Bookmark

Story Bibles- Joe Lallo - Bookmark

The psychology of endings and how to do them well- K M Weiland - Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Turning your blurb into a sales pitch- Susan Odev- Bookmark

Why your backlist is your most valuable asset- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

The ultimate guide to the successful book giveaway- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Personalizing your author brand- podcast interview with Damon Courtney from Bookfunnel- Interesting chat with the Wish I’d Known, team.

The power of the many in anthology promo- Great ideas.- Patrice Gopo

 

To Finish

The head shot. It looks great and authors will use their head shot for years scared about showing an aging profile. AI magically comes to the rescue and produces the ultra-polished look. Dan Blank talks about the head shot and AI. With the rise of AI everywhere readers are looking for authentic connections with authors. What do you do if for professional reasons you can’t show your face? You still have to prove you are not an AI bot writing your books. 

Proving you are a human, the authors dilemma this decade.

 

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.

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*not holding my breath as Scientific publishing is an everyone pays the academic publisher model, including the authors.

 

Photo by pina messina on Unsplash

Publishing: Change is the only Constant

 In Publishing News This Week,

 

Just as I published last week’s blog, Amazon changed their eBook pricing tiers. Previously the 70% royalty model was capped at $9.99 but it has been increased to $12.99. Box sets, your hour has come!

 

The new lawsuit against Google is underway. At issue whether Google used books enrolled in Google Play and as part of search to train its AI, Gemini. Among the claims against Google is that they also used Google Scholar to download articles to make Gemini more responsive, weakening the market for research books and journals. This is a class action so expect more people to join in.

 

Publishers Weekly reports on the Careless People author taking Meta to court. At issue is whether the alleged gag order that stops the author from discussing her book, which highlighted abuse at the Meta offices, is justified or a violation of the first amendment rights. Publishers are watching this one as it will impact how much risk they might be up for. Macmillian, Sarah Wynn-Williams publisher, is doing a great job in supporting their author through this. The publicity over the case and book have helped sales as well. 

 

Everybody dreams of winning the big prize. Multi millions in your pocket to do whatever you like. Fund a non profit literary endeavor, perhaps? A new fund is set up to do just that in the US, but how should the money really be spent? One publisher has opinions about fairness across the sector and what would be the best use of $50 million dollars.

We can but dream in NZ with all our funding slashed here.

 

One of the benefits in managing your own backlist is that you can re-release books that your traditional publisher has given up on. It doesn’t matter when a book is published. Every reader is a new reader. Doubleday has decided that they want to republish out of print books that are hard to find, in order to bring a new audience to the book. 

 

Last week I wrote about the American Library Association’s conference. In the Alliance of Independent Authors ,news section Dan Holloway commented this week on the librarian’s plea to make metadata relevant. This is how they select books. Who knew metadata was so important to search?

 

Amy Chan spent $44.000 launching her book and only $3.00 was worth it. She wrote an article about it. Every author who read that article winced and so did the publicists. Kathleen Schmidt followed up with an article on meaningful exposure. These two articles show the expectations and reality divide in marketing books now. The marketing landscape has changed. What used to work does not anymore.

 

Dean Wesley Smith has been around the publishing world for decades and has a long view of the industry. Publishing is always changing, he says. Here he dives into the numbers and why authors and publishers must keep thinking of a wider discoverability model. 

 

Julie Artz has a great primer on manuscript formats for writers. If you don’t know the standard presentation Julie shows you with examples across Scrivener, Word, Google Docs, and more.

 

Joanna Penn has an interesting interview with Jamie Ferguson on creating bundles and anthologies. How do you choose writers to join in anthologies? How do you keep track of submissions? If you are interested in dipping your toe in to boxsets, make sure you read the transcript. 

 

Over on the Killzone blog Dale Ivan Smith is writing about Risk. Writers risk rejection with every submission but they submit anyway. They risk failure with every book launch, but they do it anyway. He has gathered different answers on what risk means to a creative. Are your characters risking anything?

 

 

In The Craft Section,

Point of View is a promise -Sarah Hamer- Bookmark

Why readers love flawed characters- Jenn Windrow

Why your story feels choppy- Tiffany Yates Martin

The Wow factor-James Scott Bell- Bookmark

Multiple POV’s and character empathy-K M Weiland - Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Ten tips for creating special editions- Indie Author Magazine- Bookmark

How to make your book irresistible- Video – Alliance of Independent Authors

How to optimize metadata- IngramSpark- Bookmark

10 ways authors can help each other with marketing- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Lessons learned running a bookshop- Alliance of Independent Authors

 

To Finish,

Do you have the courage to switch things up? It is easy to just do same old same old in your writing and marketing. You know the drill. You know how much energy you need. Switching things up is a venture into the unknown. What if it doesn’t work?

Joanna Penn has written another of her deep dive articles. 7 tips for sustainable creativity. Here she pulls great advice from interviews with her guests about staying creative. She is switching things up by moving her podcast days. Change can unlock another outlook on your writing. It sparks new ideas, new directions. You never know what interesting opportunities await around the change corner.

 

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 Ross Findon on Unsplash

 

Protecting The Author Voice

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

Publishing Perspectives sat down with the director of the Frankfurt Book fair to talk about his twenty years at the helm, the future of the fair, and the challenges of this year’s fair. 

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard looks at the recent move by Getty Images to partner with an AI company but with very strict licensing agreements, after their failed court cases. He points out that publishers could do the same thing. 

 

Recently, Publishers Weekly reported on American Library Associations 150^th anniversary. The Graphic Novel and Comics Roundtable have just celebrated 8 years. School librarians know the power of graphic novels to hold attention and introduce new ideas without the kids knowing they are reading. Now the Roundtable and Librarians are reaching out to publishers to make these books more durable. 

 

Rachel Toalson wrote a great essay, In Defense On Writing For Children as a response to the recent controversial comments by the American Ambassador for Children’s Literature. If his aim was to get people talking, he certainly succeeded. Every children’s author will recognize the themes she explores on why we write for children. If you have always thought it would be easy, I invite you to read the article.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a run down of all the types of scams that are targeting authors at the moment. Keep an eye on the scammers, who are getting more personalised in their targeting every day. Let newbies know that such scams prey on their hopes and dreams and to be extra wary.

 

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Daniel Sawyer on the author voice. I am so grateful that Joanna produces these transcripts.  Even though I often listen to the interview, reading the transcript lets you stop to think deeply on an idea and this episode is one of those thought provoking studies of craft. 

 

Alexandra Burt has a great essay on Why Artists Owe The Work And Not The World. You must understand rules before you break them. Often writers second guess themselves. Do you need permission to write the way the story wants to be told? 

 

Publishers Weekly reported on the recent Jamaican Book Festival where the Caribbean Collective was announced. This is an organization to represent the eight English speaking islands as a global regional voice, and to promote and support them at international book fairs. What a great idea! 

Mark Williams with his global view of publishing in small developing countries explored how this kind of representation could be a model for others. 

 

I firmly believe in the power of the collective, whether it is in small author groups for publishing support, all the way up to countries with a shared regional perspective like the Pacific Islands. Global publishing has been dominated by a western US/UK viewpoint. Regional voices are lost in translation even when it is in English. Collectives of countries to promote a different literary voice to the world is a powerful statement of literary maturity. Our own voices matter. Our individual author voices are distinct from the blandness of AI sameness. Our regional voices reflect our customs and concerns that mark us out as a distinct region rather than a satellite of a powerful colonizing nation. New Zealand has been quietly supporting a pacific publishing voice for years. We should be shouting our support. If we don’t we are at risk of losing our distinct viewpoint and voice to a tech company algorithm.

 

Donald Mass has another deep craft essay on the misleading adage of Show, Don’t Tell.

He talks about the two important cues to bring a story alive, the visual and the emotional. He refers to his craft book, which I have, and it is excellent. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Why emotional scenes still feel flat-Susan Watts- Bookmark

The beating heart of your Story Structure- Lynette Burrows- Bookmark

Writing memorable character voices- Catherine Forrest- Bookmark

Will your story keep your readers hooked- Colleen Story- Bookmark

Why we need heroic stories- K M Weiland- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Flat lays – low effort marketing- Ines Johnson – Bookmark!

Book launch mistakes on social media- Sandra Beckwith

Back to school children’s book marketing- Bookmark

2 very good articles on email newsletters. If you are wondering what to do, or who to choose, read both of these articles. It’s all in what type of communication voice you want to have to your readers. Medium, Substack or Beehiiv- Rachel Thompson and Should you use Substack or something else – Jane Friedman

 

To Finish,

Where do you get your ideas from? How many times have we heard that question as authors? The writers gift lists at the end of the year are full of pens and notebooks and waterproof shower whiteboards, ready to capture all the ideas floating by. You are left with pages of idea fragments but no story. Greer Macallister has the solution. 

You might even find a unique voice and spin on a story idea that has never been done before. Only you can tell 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.

 

Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash

Productive Creativity

 

 In Publishing News This Week

 

The power of unions to advocate for their members is a benefit that the publishing workforce is seeing. Penguin Random House has raised base salaries. Where they lead others, hopefully, will follow, reports Publishers Weekly.

 

This week international booksellers and publishers are loud in their dismay over the arrest of two booksellers in Hong Kong. Freedom to read is often taken for granted, but there are some places where it can be a risky business.

 

Earlier this year we were lamenting the demise of the mass market paperback. Simon and Schuster have pivoted their Pocketbook, (mass market) brand to be the acquiring home of bestselling indie authors.

 

Publishers Weekly profiled a reading social platform for kids. This is a social media platform only for readers, aimed at school children, curated by their schools, but with world wide reach. Sounds amazing. Is there a catch?

 

Publishing Perspective has been following the Bologna Children’s Bookfair outreach programme. They have been building cross media partnerships everywhere. Expect animation to be a bigger part of the fair, after their recent trip to the International Animation festival.

 

The UK Publishers Licensing Service has been working with the Copyright Licensing Agency to make a collective agreement for licensing content for AI. This means publishers can get money. Over 250 publishers have signed up apparently. If you are a UK author, you can sign up too.

 

Written Word Media have the results of their mid-year author survey. They break down the results across all the author tiers, and it makes interesting reading. What works, what doesn’t, and what everyone should be doing.

 

Writer Beware has an informative article on scam email addresses. There are quick ways you can check if the email is legit. The scammers are sneaky and Victoria outlines how to spot them just in their email address. Reversed letters caught me by surprise in this comprehensive article, which is a must read!

 

I read this essay by Jaime Buckley- The Real Reason You’re Afraid To Publish and felt seen. This is one of those essays that nail the nagging feeling you have that something is wrong, but you don’t know what. 

 

Ines Johnson writes great articles on the Indie writer life. This week she is tackling the back list. Should you Update Your Backlist For Amazon’s A11 Changes? Yes… the Zon is changing again, so rumour has it. 

 

There is a great essay on Jane Friedman’s blog – Your Creative Team Wants You To Stop Formatting And Just Write The Darn Book. The authors, Sandra Wendel and Paul Nylander are speaking every typesetters pain here. Staying with writing software- Julie Artz has a great primer on Scrivener. Authors who try Scrivener quickly become evangelists for the software. Take a look at Julies article if you want to know why people rave about it.

 

Where does your creative flow come from? Gabriela Pereira has a great article on the four pillars of creative flow. How is your balance of mind work cycle, skill based learning, practice, and community? Do you need to rebalance your creativity?

 

In The Craft Section,

2 Great posts from Janice Hardy 5 ways to make your character hate you and Describing character emotions in first person –- Bookmark- Both

Write strong plots for character driven stories- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Twisting the office romance conflict- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Sustainable writing routine- Brian Hicks- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Launching a book with confidence- Rachel Warmath- Bookmark

Manage your expectations- Sandra Beckwith

Broad vs Niche keywords- Kindlepreneur- Bookmark

Seven promotional steps- Alliance of Independent Authors- Bookmark

What’s working in podcast publicity- Jane Friedman – Bookmark

 

To Finish

All the horror writers I know are fantastic humans. Mark Leslie Lefebvre is one of those people. He is so supportive of the publishing industry and has done practically every job in it. He’s now working with Draft2Digital but he has a great blog on writing and creativity that always has a fresh perspective on writing. This week’s essay, The Trees and I,The Rooted, Yet Restless Writer just resonated on all levels. Take a moment to stop and read the essay and maybe make a date with your favourite nature view.

Creativity and a writing boost awaits.

 

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 Bree S on Unsplash

Finding The Sweet Spot

In Publishing News this week,

 

What happens when a TikTok influencer tries to find a book that impacted them as a child? Publisher’s Weekly talks to the publisher of a 40 year old vocab book having another outing in the sunshine of book sales.

 

What is the biggest event this summer in the northern Hemisphere… Could be FIFA world cup… or a Swift wedding. Publisher’s Weekly reports that publisher GP Putnam have created an anthology of YA love stories based on 13 Taylor Swift songs. Swoon all the way to the bank.

 

Publishers Weekly took a walk through last week’s Beijing’s International Book Fair and noted down some of the trends that are top of mind in one of the world’s biggest countries. It’s worth noting that the government has pivoted towards a reading oriented society. An interesting article.

 

With the demise of library distributors, publishers have been trying to figure out how to help libraries get their books. Penguin Random House is working with Ingram to mine their backlist and produce Print On Demand Hard Covers of 200 PRH authors. This is interesting because back before eBooks and POD, a publishing contract could revert back to the author if the copies were out of print. Now with eBooks and POD hardbacks this means the book is never ‘out of print.’ (Authors who have large print and hardback are very library friendly. Don’t forget every format needs its own ISBN.)

 

One of the side effects of war is the destruction of a nations culture and literature. Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article on a literary movement that is trying to save the Palestinian culture. 

 

Chelle Honniker has an interesting article on where AI and copyright now stands. With various law suits underway or finished, copyright on works using AI is still fluid. It has been established that AI cannot be an author. But what about using it as a tool? 

 

Meanwhile the Book Industry Study Group is surveying the book industry in North America to see how much they are using AI. The survey is anonymous so people should be honest. This is the second year they have run this survey. I will be surprised if the the numbers haven’t increased.

 

Earlier this month I highlighted an article from James Blatch on how AI was affecting search and what it means for authors. Edie Melson has an article on how GEO and AEO affect how our websites get found by AI search engines. If you are closing your eyes and covering your ears, relax. Edie’s article is very easy to understand. (It is an important topic so don’t leave it too long before coming to grips with the subject.)

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a great essay asking what type of author you are? This is an article on author values and the way you can structure your author business. Great Reading.

 

Tawny Lara has a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog on Finding your voice as a writer in the age of AI. Voice is the one thing that distinguishes you from every other writer out there and is the one thing that AI can’t really do as the algorithm smooths out writing until it is bland. Mine your own experience.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to write Found Family tropes- Rhea Dionne

Differences between anti-hero and anti-villain- Joe Yamulla- Bookmark

Tell don’t show- P J Parrish- Bookmark

Mastering microtension- CS Lakin

11 chapter endings to keep readers turning pages- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

AI prompts for Book Marketing – Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Generating Buzz for your Book- Bookbaby

Simple Sample Strategy- Bookfunnel- Bookmark

The Access Marketing Funnel- Video - Alliance of Independent Authors - Bookmark

 

To Finish

I was reading Lisa Cohen’s article on Existential Dread – The Kickstarter edition and nodding away at some of the fears she expressed. The thought of telling anyone I have a book out and they might like it or God forbid asking people to back a Kickstarter, sparks a queasy feeling. Lisa talks about the need to market if you want your books read and how she survived doing a Kickstarter project even though she was way out of her comfort zone.

Marketing a book is where the hard work really is. However, there are a few lifelines out there. Check out Cassie Mannes Murray on 40 alternatives to the book event that is not a reading or conversation.

You never know you might sell a book as well.

 

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 Ulysse Pointcheval on Unsplash

Trying New Things

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The biggest indie author conference in Europe wrapped up this week in London.

For a roundup of topics discussed and great little ideas check out the YouTube video of one of founders of the Self Publishing Show and its podcast talking about the show…at the show.

 

Publishing Perspectives highlights a new tool for publishers created by the Green Book Alliance, a group dedicated to advancing sustainability in the publishing industry. The new tool helps publishers to calculate their carbon footprint. This could be a marketing win if used the right way.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has an in-depth article about Draft2Digitals new fees and what it means for authors. If you have been on the fence this might help. (I’ve just paid my fee, as a wide author I appreciate their global reach.)

 

What do you do when you have a big backlist? You make a portion of it available for film and television people to find new projects. Simon and Schuster have just put over 6000 projects onto the Blacklist search engine for screenplays according to Publishers Weekly. Placing books on this list is only a recent development.

 

A new court case hit the news this week. This time it's academic publishers going after a sketchy outfit which ‘publishes’ access to literary and scientific journals. Of course you can draw a direct line to skull and crossbones flag. The publishers are on a roll as they have already won a court victory against other pirates.

 

Javier Celaya has an opinion piece in Publishing Perspectives about going back to school to learn about AI. He is adamant that publishing professionals need to understand at a structural level what AI can and cannot do. It should be a requirement at management level he says.

 

Jak Bazino went down the rabbit hole into a Nigerian run Book Club Scam. It starts off very slowly and what looks legit then starts to unravel. This is play by play story of how these scams operate.

Meanwhile, over on Killzone blog Debbie Burke has the ABC’s of avoiding scammers. Required reading.

 

Lucy V Hay has a great article on Angela and Becca’s writing blog about overwhelm. Sometimes this writing business can get you down and when that happens your headspace can get screwed up. She has some helpful advice for getting you out of your own head. Overwhelm can also hit your inbox so check out Lisa Normans essay on managing the inbox deluge.

 

Agent Richard Curtis has some hard advice for writers who are dreaming about writing full time. Be very careful about what you are giving up and what you expect the life to be like. This is a dose of straight talking about the writing life.

  

The Publishing Industry’s Habit of Selling and Packaging Youth, and Its Wider Impact.

If you blinked when you read that line, you need to read the essay from Faridah Àbíke Íyímídé. She writes from personal experience.

Ines Johnson has written a great marketing essay in praise of libraries. But what is even better she writes it to her book fans and tells them that she loves it if they take her book out of the library. This is marketing by acknowledging that times are tough and books are expensive. There is another way!

 

In The Craft Section,

When your characters begin to breathe- Sarah Hamer- Bookmark

How to write mythic fiction- K M Weiland

Write stronger characters for a plot driven story- September Fawkes -Bookmark

Rediscovering Creative Joy- Podcast Joanna Penn and Austin Kleon

Writing the opening scene- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

If you are uncomfortable with book marketing- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Building Local Reader Engagement- Written Word Media-Bookmark

How to check on KDP account health- Written Word Media- Bookmark

The scrapbook of publicity- Cassie Mannes Murray- Interesting essay

Learning about Book trailers- Linda Sienkiewicz

 

To Finish,

It was great to get out of the house this week and celebrate a local author at a book launch. It was a chance to catch up with my writing friends and find out what everyone is doing. 

Getting together with other writers can inspire collaborative projects that you wouldn’t do on your own. Dale Ivan Smith has a great article on Anthologies and contests. I’ve heard about fundraising anthologies and genre anthologies. Submissions to a poetry anthology are being asked for in my writing circle. I can’t write poetry for toffee but a project like this can be a low-risk way of stretching your writing or trying out a new genre. 

Dip your toe in.

 

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 Krists Luhaers on Unsplash