In Publishing News this week
The news dominating the last two weeks in publishing is the fall out over the cancelled $2M book deal for Call Me I’ll Hide The Body. When the news broke, the publishing community went into a spin. First there was the bidding war among 14 editors- then there was the advance deal of $2Million! Then the agents walked away from a huge payday for them. The recriminations started. The author is maintaining innocence.
Publishers Weekly looks at what the industry can change going forward.
There has been some excellent commentary around the whole problem of publishers demanding transparency from authors while using AI in their own offices. Kathleen Scmidt wrote an excellent article on how publishers need to figure out some guidelines fast. She writes "Publishers must slow down and better assess projects they receive with hype surrounding them. It’s too easy to get blinded by dollar signs. They must also take a beat before being too reactive if a manuscript seems to have the hallmarks of AI-written material.”
There seems to be a feeding frenzy on people accused of using AI. Yes there are AI generated books but if you use any grammar program you are using AI. How much is too much? Kathleen and three other writers debated this issue recently.
Parker Peevyhouse has an interesting article How Will You Prove You Didn’t Use AI to Write Your Novel. This is the new normal as we try and navigate our way through this swamp. Parker advocates talking about your work as you are writing it. (I can already see writers curling up into balls over the thought of this.)
Diamond Comics are back in the news. Aside from the bankruptcy, the liquidation of assets in the warehouse that hadn’t been paid for and then the court cases about this. It has been a quiet few months. Now the small publishers in the middle of the mess have been told if they want their inventory back, they have to go to the warehouse in Mississippi, where it’s been sitting for a year, and get it or see it destroyed. Ouch.
Publishing Perspectives celebrated the news that 6 indigenous books from one publisher in New Zealand were selected by the International Board on Books for Young People, in their inaugural partnership with UNESCO, to highlight endangered languages.
We are all super proud of Huia here and Oratia who had two of their books selected. (Of course I’m not going to say anything about the fact that this acknowledgement is what we were trying to highlight to our Minister for Arts and Culture. CoughBolognaCough. And it will be interesting if he shows up at next week’s National Book Awards Ceremony and mentions it. CoughnotlikelyCough. *I’mnotbitter*)
Overdrive wants to be the world’s digital library. Publishing Perspectives reports that they have just bought a German Digital library to add to their portfolio of library services.
Mark Williams looks at China’s book festival linking to the APEC leader’s economic forum. They are highlighting an APEC cultural pavilion showcasing member countries literary works.
The Alliance of Independent Authors is highlighting a new scam- when your books are being sold under another authors name. They detail what you can do about it.
Agent Richard Curtis writes about Mortality and what happens when an agent gets the call that a writer has died. The agent is often dealing with family members who know nothing about the book industry. I recently wrote an article on this from the point of view of my family about to deal with a significant literary estate. Be Prepared is the motto.
Boo Walker writes about Finding Balance as a Creator, he starts by blaming Stephen Pressfield’s The War of Art. (I have this excellent book) If you have set up rigid routines for yourself can you cut some slack? Or have you gone too far.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch is looking at websites and how important they are for marketing. Are you missing important information?
Donald Maass writes about the emotional state. How many emotions do you have in a day? Does your character react from an emotional state?
Noah Charney writes about Surviving The Second Draft This is a great article about editing. I’ve recently watched a great author wrestle with her opening chapter in the second draft stage. In despair she threw it to her newsletter readers for help. And we pretty much followed Noah Charney’s recommendations. The opening chapter is now cracking.
In The Craft Section,
Why a sagging middle needs a strong mirror moment- Diana Stout- Bookmark!
What your character notices is important- Susan Watts- Bookmark
How to make your readers forget your story isn’t real-Janice Hardy -Bookmark
Your premise is not your plot- Peter Gelfan- Bookmark
The lie the character believes- K M Weiland- Bookmark
How to developmentally edit your book- Suzy Vadori- Bookmark!
The best plot twists surprise the author first- Rick Eve- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section
When should you write the next book?- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark
Deep dive into Draft2Digital- Dale Roberts- Bookmark
5 ways to publicise your book without spending a fortune- Stephanie Weaver -Bookmark
Why your book description feels flat and how to fix it- Morgan Lee Clasper- Bookmark
Expand your reach- Harshini Fernado- Bookmark
The invisible art of formatting- Susan Odev-Bookmark
To Finish
You know the dreaded words- “Tell me about your book.” You freeze and your mind goes blank. You wrote the blessed thing and now you can’t talk about it. Dan Blank has a great article Help Readers Know How to Talk About Your Writing where he does a deep dive into an author illustrators work and figures out what the core messages are. If you can figure out your emotional theme, then you have something to talk about.
Apologies for no blog last week. We lost the internet and that meant no blog research. It was a good wakeup call on how we have come to depend on this form of communication. You have extra links to make up for it.
Maureen
@craicer
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Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
