Annnnnd we are back for another year of watching the publishing industry shuffle through the interesting times we have been cursed with.
In Publishing News…
Authors win a global piracy lawsuit and get awarded damages of over $7million… Everybody is hoping that the judgment serves notice to book pirates that their time is up. The pirates were tried in abstentia and are somewhere in Ukraine. However, I guess it will continue to be a case of pirate whack-a-mole.
The growth of library eBook lending far exceeded everyone’s expectations when Overdrive, the biggest library eBook partner, published their annual review. Half a billion library ebook downloads show that eBook lending is here to stay.
Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard published two interesting articles recently. One on the upcoming Cairo International Bookfair where they are playing with hologram technology and books and another on the split nature of India’s publishing industry- half of which is embracing digital and surviving, the other half … not so much.
The beginning of another year invites predictions of what we should expect from 2022.
Literary Agent, Laurie Mclean kicked off the new year with her predictions. Mergers, Unions and Work From Home will change the publishing marketplace. Streaming will change the reading space.
Written Word Media identified eight trends to watch in the coming year. As their business model helps writers advertise their books they focus on the big trends that will affect the writer bottom line- advertising will be going up.
Over January Kristine Rusch continued writing her 2021 year in review. She has written six blogs on this topic as she looks back to how digital reading has been embraced in the pandemic years and how the publishing industry has been completely changed by it. In this week’s article she makes some bold predictions on how indie publishing will be changing the whole publishing industry going forward. It is well worth a read.
Penny Sansevieri examined global reading habits in 2021 and produced an interesting infographic that gives writers some markets to keep an eye on. She also has 22 awesome book marketing promotions and predictions for 2022.
Jane Friedman took a look at what were the big sellers in the children’s book industry and made some predictions for the upcoming year. She also has a great article on how to plan and host online author events.
If you want to start 2022 off with some writing craft books, StoryBundle has a great collection available for a limited time. It’s a pay what you want deal and there are some good books on offer.
In The Craft Section,
How to ace the time skip in your story- DIYMFA
How to decide what story to write- Scott Myers
Best writing resources of 2021 from Now Novel- Bookmark
The role of causation and plot structure in literary fiction- Harrison Demchick
What are the 10 different types of stories- Joe Bunting- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
How to sell more books in 2022- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark
Book cover designers- Resource from The Creative Penn- Bookmark
Clever ideas to promote sequels and series-Bookbub
Choosing a book title in the e-age- Anne R Allen
5 social media trends to watch in 2022- Kris Maze
To Finish,
If you have been mulling over your goals for the year ahead and getting hopelessly confused or overwhelmed – Drop into the ALLI podcast to listen or read the transcript on how Orna Ross and Joanna Penn plan their upcoming years. Orna has a great phrase, Maker, Manager, Marketer. She splits her work and goals between all three. Or check out Elizabeth Craig’s great article on making mini plans and goals for the year.
This may help when you wrestle 2022 into a workable plan for yourself.
Maureen
@craicer
Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you.
If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.
Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – RumpleTeaser
