In Publishing News this week,
Last week when the news broke of the death of Dolly Parton I, like the rest of the world who knew her songwriting legacy, stopped to reflect on what an amazing human being she was. She didn’t build rockets with her money, or try to stick her name on every public building. She quietly donated 330 Million books to children around the world as part of a Birth to Five campaign to get children reading. What a precious gift to give them, an excellent start to school.
Putting my teacher hat on for a moment- Children who start school able to recognize the alphabet and are familiar with books and read them, even if it’s only the pictures, have a major head start on other children. They learn faster and retain more. I’ve seen it in the classroom first hand, and all the studies back it up. Give the children books! I can’t help thinking that if Bezos had put his Amazon capital into funding literacy- given that he started Amazon to sell books maybe there would be a more literate worldwide population. It would be a much better legacy than a rocket company still in the red.
In the Shake your Head in Astonishment file, Publishers Weekly reports on Google introducing chat bots to talk with you about your book after you finished reading it. Publishers are all in, it seems. Google are working with some big publishers to add this new feature. Did the publishers forget about that court case against Google for AI training?
Publishers Weekly reports on another survey from the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild about libraries and their impact on book sales. Apparently increased eBook lending is stopping libraries from buying print books. In a cost of living crisis libraries don’t have funding. What are they going to do? We know readers are still buying books. The survey does have some solutions.
Publishing Perspectives looks at a recent decision by Penguin Random House India not to publish one of most highly anticipated memoirs in years. Their conclusion is self censorship. When the book is freely available in the rest of the world- India, a democratic country, should have no problems publishing it. Not so apparently.
This blog is old enough to remember the early 2000’s when every week saw a publisher bought and sold in the big publishing consolidation decade. Audiobooks weren’t on the horizon. Now the buying scramble is about to start in audiobook land with the news from Publishing Perspectives that Bookbeat has acquired Nextory. This is probably the first domino. Mark Williams looks at the back story of the Bonnier/Bookbeat move.
For many years I used to link to Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s blog on the business of writing. Kris is a huge resource in the industry. She moved her blog onto Patreon and I followed her over there. She has been writing a great series of articles on the business of Series. Her latest article is on protecting series copyright. Check it out for a dose of reality on TV and film options.
Wide for the Win conference summit has a free first day for a great online conference in October. Check out their schedule.
If you are in NZ and want to attend the children’s writers and illustrators conference go here to register. (Warning closing soon.)
Agent Richard Curtis explores Writing for Hire. Ghost writing can be a lucrative side hustle but you have to understand the trade offs.
Last week in the Marketing section I had a link to an article by James Blatch on the changes to Facebook ads. The fantastic David Gaughran has a video showing you how to get around the changes with screenshots. I highly recommend his YouTube channel and newsletter.
This week I listened to the fantastic SPA Girls podcast with Thomas Donnelly twice and passed the link on to others. The topic was process and how to get into the creative flow state while banishing the review critic. It’s a super interview. Following in the same vein is an article by Ellen Buikema -Revision and How To Avoid It In The First Draft. Excellent reading. She has great tips for revising AFTER you finish the first draft.
In the Craft Section,
How To Develop Your Theme- Janice Hardy- Bookmark
What is a subplot and why you need one- C S Lakin- Bookmark
Having clear stakes – Lisa Poisso- Bookmark
Identifying writing weakness- K M Weiland Bookmark!
Strengthening an emotional scene- Susan Watts-Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
Four ways to use Lulu directly- IndieAuthor Magazine
Should you do deluxe editions of kids books- Darcy Pattison
How AI is revolutionizing Book Publicity- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark
Dealing with one star reviews- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark
Marketing tools – Indie Authortools- Bookmark
To Finish
Jenny Hansen writes some great craft articles. Her latest one Your Creative Brian Has Two Jobs- Stop Making It Do Both At Once is excellent. When you have so many brain tabs open your brain can just freeze. Creativity needs to be nurtured. If you have been struggling with creativity indecision read this and then check out the excellent interview I mentioned earlier from the SPA girls. Your brain will thank me.
Maureen
@craicer
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