Knocking Over Those Productive Writing Goals

In Publishing News This Week

 

The Commonwealth short story prize was awarded last week and already the knives are out as people study the story and conclude that AI must have been seriously used to write it. The author isn’t commenting but The Guardian has plenty to say after prestigious magazine Granta published the winning story.

 

James Pattison rides to the rescue of children’s literature with a new institute dedicated to early adolescent reading skills, reports Publishers Weekly. James has pledged $10 million dollars to the cause. He has a philanthropy history of growing readers through programs targeting reading, libraries, and bookshops. All power to him! 

 

Once upon a time, when a printer had made a serious snafu on a print book, the copies would be pulled and the print run replaced. Not so at Minotaur. They recently had a special print run for independent bookshops of the hotly anticipated thriller The Last Mandarin. Then something went wrong. Publishers Weekly reports that the bookshops have been told that 6 pages are missing and to direct customers to a QR code to read the missing pages. You can imagine the reaction.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that the Anthropic settlement has gone through its final fairness hearing. At the hearing, objectors were allowed 2 whole minutes to explain why they objected to the settlement and the objectors have good points. It is US centric, it leaves out other countries, and there is no compensation for authors whose publishers never filed copyright. How is that fair? In my recent article on Literary Estates I commented on the amount of money that publishers have missed out on by not filing copyright.

 

After a period of consolidation, Storytel are back out acquiring audio book sites. Publishing Perspectives reports on their latest acquisition, the Dutch publishing company Overamstel. And they are paying cash…so they have some serious money to spend in Europe.

 

Are you looking for royalty software? Publishing Perspectives reports on a new venture that will do everything for the publisher regarding rights, royalties, workflows and liaising with authors. Crealo is a one stop shop. They aren’t saying it’s AI but….

 

Mark Williams likes to point out where AI might be of benefit to the publishing community. He reports on the new  president of the Korean Publishing Association and their conceptual shift of seeing AI as a reader. It’s an interesting article which examines how we might go forward in licensing content.

 

Tanya Anne Crosby, the CEO of Oliver Heber Books, recently wrote an article on what she is seeing with the changes over at Amazon. She writes about being hopeful that the changes are going to benefit the reader. She has great advice for how you can jazz up your marketing on Amazon and get those eyeballs.

 

If you are writing romance and need some high-level workshop learning check out the Writing Romance Mastery Summit says Alexa Bigwharfe. She breaks down what is on offer, 25 sessions over 5 days. It’s free but only if you show up. So those outside the US set your alarms. 

 

For some reason Anne R Allens inbox is the place to be for a scamming email. Anne has seen it all, often every day. her article Writers- Don’t Let Yourself be Groomed By Book Publicity Scammers is a must read for what to look out for.

 

Katie Weiland has a thoughtful post on How The Marketplace Is Shaping The Stories We Tell. She examines the role of the storyteller and offers some great advice for balancing the commercial with the creative.

 

Jenn Windrow has written a fantastic article on voice. Your Voice Is The Point – Stop Toning It Down. Writers often second guess themselves and edit out the very thing that makes their writing unique. Embrace your authenticity.

 

In The Craft Section,

Showing or telling- Tiffany Yates Martin-Bookmark

A great weird editing habit to get into-Alison Hammer-Bookmark

Round vs flat characters-Rapid Reads Press

The art of withholding information-Michelle Barker - Bookmark

Defeating the next book willies- James Scott Bell

 

In The Marketing Section

Mating signals on your bookshelf- Mark Lefebvre

Trade Book Reviews- Sandra Beckwith

Author Case Study – Kindlepreneur- Bookmark

How to turn your readers into your marketers- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

What happens after your KDP account gets terminated- Useful information!

 

To Finish.

 

Don’t look now but it’s nearly the middle of the year. Aaargh. If you have been thinking you have plenty of time left, you may need to revisit your publishing calendar, reprioritize your goals, or have an existential crisis. Dan Blank has a great essay on mid-year creative goals using clarity cards. He has a made the clarity card visual process available as a free PDF to help you. 

Liz Talley also looks at the mid-year blues. She shows how you can use business goals to help you get organized for the next half of the year.

 

Go forth with renewed purpose and crush those productive blocks!

 

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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Are We Thinking Of The Children Yet?

  This Week In Publishing News

 

In a sector desperate for some good news, there was a ray of sunshine.  The Authors Guild successfully showed a federal judge in America that the canceling of grants for libraries was a direct violation of the constitution. As a result, the judge has issued a permanent injunction against National Endowment of Humanities and Department of Government Efficiency reports Publishers Weekly.

 

Hachette is partnering with Studiocanal to launch a Book to Screen venture. Mark Williams takes a look at the advantages. This is where publishing companies realise all the IP they have and think we can make films of our books and become huge multimedia companies. 

 

An author with experience in the film and TV world has decided that what that sector needs is a platform to tell them what books to adapt into film or TV. It’s a monthly subscription. But how is she going to choose what to include? Publishers Weekly asked her some pointed questions.

 

I always keep one eye on academic publishing, so I was interested and dismayed at the new report launched at the 9^th World Congress on Research Integrity. The report documented instances of research manipulation from institutions and governments showing a real attack on scientific integrity that is measurable. Lack of trust erodes confidence which has a flow on effect, leading to situations like increasing measles cases. Promote Scientific Truth, people.

 

Children’s Non fiction is the preferred target of Book Banners says a new PEN America report. Publishing Perspectives takes a look at the political and cultural attack underway in United States Schools.

 

Mac Barnett, children’s literature ambassador in the US caused a literary riot with his essay on the amount of bad writing in children’s literature, reported Publishers Weekly. 

Nobody is denying what he said. It’s the made up statistics he used to illustrate it and their implication to the wider world. It could have been reverse psychology… at least we are talking about children’s books.

 

Recently Vicky Weber wrote an interesting essay – Middle Grade Is Dead And I Think That’s Good News. Provocative title. It is a great essay which explains a lot about how we writers in the middle grade trenches are feeling. Vicky writes there is hope! 

 

The fabulous Claire Taylor is an expert in the Enneagram, a personality test which helps understand your way of working. She has done a lot of work on how it applies to writers. Recently she did an excellent series of webinars on how writers can identify and use their Enneagram strengths in their writing. When she got to my number I thought she was right inside my head. (Highly recommend checking this out)

 

Randy Susan Myers asks What Kind Of Writer Are You? This is the horrible question that tongue ties you at parties. Uhhh. Do you have an answer? Great essay.

 

Diana Stout has been looking at the science of habits and she has some advice for creating a writing habit.

 

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s new Fear Thesaurus is available everywhere now. Check out their links for extra goodies.

 

Alexa Bigwharfe has a great article on Marketing in 2026. AI Is Now A Discovery Engine. Marketing is changing because of AI search. She offers advice that will help you get found by the new search engines.

 

Gabriela Pereira has an interesting article on DIYMFA on the FLOW framework. This framework is helpful to get the most out of your creative life. If you need to reset or sharpen skills, this is the article for you. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Heroines Journey - Susan Watts– Bookmark

Verb your enthusiasm- Podcast Sarah Kaufman and Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Micro tension in writing – CS Lakin- Excellent

Nailing omniscient POV- Heather Garbo- Bookmark

Subtext- September Fawkes- Excellent.

 

In The Marketing Section,

Book launch timelines- Sandra Beckwith

Do you want extra fries?- Mark Lefebvre- Bookmark!

Query Letters- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

Please disappoint your fans- Becca Syme- Bookmark

25 ways to find middle grade readers- J J Johnson

 

To Finish

Writing is a very personal activity. *Paul Gallico wrote in 1946 “It is only when you open your veins and bleed onto the page a little that you establish contact with your reader.” 

Rachel Toalson wrote a great essay -How Much Of Myself Should I put In A Book on Writer Unboxed this week. Sometimes that bleeding is too much. Rachel has some ideas on how to control how much of yourself you are giving to the world.

 

(*Paul Gallico wrote The Snow Goose which regularly held me enthralled on Radio Storytime when I was a child. Here is Sir Laurence Olivier performing the story. Get Tissues.)

 

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 Charlein Gracia on Unsplash

The Writer Roller Coaster

In Publishing News This Week

 

Oh Meta, we know what you have done and now the courts know it too. 

The next AI scraping court case gets underway. Rumours are swirling that Mark Zuckerberg knew that they were using stolen files to train their AI. This court case is wider in scope than the Anthropic case. Publishing Perspectives has an overview of this case. There are now over 100 court cases pending on AI training irregularities.

 

This week children’s publisher Chronicle opens their submission box for un-agented submissions. One week only. You only have a few days, so check it out fast if you have something good. 

Publishing Perspectives reports that The Children’s Booker Award is open for submissions. This is the first time that the Children’s Booker prize will be awarded. And it has the same amount of prize money. We are finally legit, said every children’s writer. 

 

Staying with children’s writing, Recent news has highlighted the downturn in reading for pleasure amongst children. This could be because of screens, or it could be the undermining of reading by spending too much time on literacy achievements in school. Speaking as a teacher- My favourite times were reading to classes. When I speak with young teachers now, they say they are under so much pressure that they have stopped reading to their class. Mark Williams weighs in with his latest essay, Harper Collins and the Reading Crisis. 

 

Children’s writers have to maintain a squeaky clean persona so it was with real dismay that we learned down under of a children’s writer who has pled guilty to child exploitation. The violated trust is sending shock waves through the community. In the midst of all this are the books that have been enjoyed by countless children. How do you explain to children that their favourite author has been so nasty?  It’s enough to turn them off reading.

 

Publishers Weekly has an essay on How Chic Lit lost its footing. This looks at how ‘Chic Lit’ inspired films and has morphed into contemporary women’s fiction. 

Every time I see the patronising term ‘Chic Lit’ I remember a pithy comment from a writer friend that all those male gaze thrillers were just ‘Dick Lit.’ But of course, they would never be marketed as such would they?

 

Rise -The International Bookselling Conference was recently held in Verona and under discussion was the role Booksellers are playing in an increasingly dangerous world of attacks on free speech. Some of these booksellers were putting their lives on the line to stay open and create safe places for readers and writers.

 

Kathleen Schmidt has an interesting essay, Is Substack The New Book Tour. Kathleen is a book publicist, and she comments on the new trends that she sees in Book Promotion. Lately Substack has been talked about because of Lena Dunham’s memoir being featured quite heavily on book review pages.

 

After the roller coaster of emotions from this publishing news roundup you can be forgiven for feeling a little fragile. Katie Weiland has written about The Emotional Toll On Writers In The Modern Landscape. She has five ways to cope with the oversaturation of being constantly available.

 

Liz Adams has a fun essay on Anne R Allen’s blog about Writing Page Turners. It all has to do with secrets and who knows what secret each character is keeping. 

Sssh Don’t Tell Anyone but this is a really good advice! 

 

 

In The Craft Section,

Restarting old projects- Joe Lallo

Seeing your work clearly when editing- Susan Odev- Bookmark

Fear, phobias, and your characters- Angela Ackerman

Transitions- how often are you asking your readers to jump- Seth Harwood- Bookmark

Crafting deep scenes- Donald Maass- Bookmark

 

In the Marketing Section,

Author fairs – The hidden benefits- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Fiction Lead magnet ideas- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Nicholas Erik on Facebook ads- Video. (Sign up for his excellent newsletter.) Bookmark

How Indie authors can build anthologies- Wendy Van Camp

Publishing in German- Joanna Penn interview with Skye Mackinnon- Excellent

 

To Finish

This is the last week that you can get the Storybundle of writing books. Kris Rusch asked the contributors in January if they had updated their popular books on craft and marketing in light of recent developments in publishing. The whole collection are updated exclusives to this Storybundle collection. I bought my first writing Storybundle about seven years ago and I remember devouring some of these books on a road trip. The beauty of Storybundle is that you get the digital files immediately and you can read them on any device- They are yours to keep. The authors get paid immediately and a percentage of your donation goes to charity. You can choose just to get 3 books for a modest charge or donate more money to get the whole lot. Check it out and share it among your writer friends. You don’t want to miss out.

 

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 Jonny Gios on Unsplash