Reinventing Ourselves

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

Publisher’s Weekly writes about the reinstatement of BookCon for American publishers.  Back in pre covid days America had Book Expo which died. While other countries managed to keep their big Book Fairs alive, The United States of America struggled. Enter Book Con 2026 rising from the ashes and focusing on the young trend setters and readers of today. 

 

Publisher’s Weekly also reports on the mixed results to lawsuits trying to halt or reestablish the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This is of huge importance to libraries who rely on funding from this organization in the USA. 

 

Mark Williams looks at the partnership between Mattel (the toy brand) and Open AI. As a teacher and publishing commentator he is drawing some big links with childrens toys and the familiarity the next generation have with AI already. If you are a children’s publisher or writer keeping an eye on this is a must.

 

There is another audiobook award out there. Based in the United Kingdom it’s The Speakies. Dan Holloway looks at how to enter.

 

Staying in the UK, Publishing Perspectives writes about the upcoming UK Publishers Licensing Services conference and what the main topics are. The PLS collects and distributes money from copyright licenses. The 3 day conference is free.

 

Meanwhile, over in Europe there are meetings and summer schools happening for publishers about the new EU rules of accessibility in publishing. Can your books be read by the disabled community. How will you implement changes to your publishing program if you sell in the EU?

 

Recently I listened to Joanna Penn and Thomas Umstattd talking about book discoverability in the age of AI. This was so interesting I listened to it again and sent the link to a few people. Check out the transcript or download the podcast. Food for thought.

 

David Beer of 3 Quarks Daily has an interesting article entitled Will the fear of being confused for an AI mean that we will now write differently? This is an interesting article on deep learning and being human.

 

If you haven’t checked out the Indie author magazine you really should. Chelle Honiker is the programming director of the Author Nation conference and has been the driving force behind the indie author magazine for a few years now. They have great articles on all sorts of topics. Recently Chelle compiled a group of articles on mastering your writing time.

 

If you have been wondering how to get all your virtual events, merchandise sales, book talks, launches etc under one roof check out Benventi they may just have the solution. It’s always interesting to see how new teams approach working with author pain points.

 

Sara Hildeth has an interesting article on Literary Elitism and Literary Egalitarianism.

Why do people push the notion that to read Literary works they must be among the elite thinkers? Each side has entrenched views on the subject. Do we need to review the definitions again?

 

Kathleen Schmidt writes an interesting article on publishing imprints and the marketing budgets. The Vicious Cycle of Book Publishing. This is of interest if you are wondering why your book is not gaining traction. It could be that there just isn’t any money in the budget. For instance, this month is when publishers work out their Christmas promotion budget.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to prepare your manuscript for a developmental edit- Jenn Windrow- Bookmark

Character building – Dave King

Scene segmentation- C S Lakin- Bookmark

How long should a denouement be- September Fawkes- Bookmark

360 conference highlights-Debbie Burke- Super interesting!

 

In the Marketing Section,

7 ways to repurpose your book content- Sandra Beckwith - Bookmark

Disrupting book marketing venue by venue- Lynette Burrows- Bookmark!

How to get free book advertising- Brian Jud

Why I dropped the WordPress website for Payhip- Kris Maze- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Every now and then I wonder if anyone reads the blog. I have been writing it for over seventeen years. Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged and think blogging or compiling my weekly roundup of publishing news, writing, and book marketing tips is old hat and no one is really interested. Then I remember the little comments and emails and my newsletter subscribers who take the time to flick me comments and encouragement and I put my head down and get back to work. This week Rachel Thompson had a fantastic article on why blogging is still relevant. Of course I haven’t followed all her fabulous tips. I should have been blogging about children’s books seeing as how I write them. Ah well. Maybe that’s something I could be thinking about starting. 

In the meantime, thanks for getting all the way to the bottom of another weekly blog.

 

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 Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

Call Yourself A Writer

 

In Publishing News this week,

This week the London Bookfair started in its new calendar slot as the first of the Western centric Bookfairs. The opening day was busy and Publishing Perspectives editor Porter Anderson reported that interest was high in the publishing business talks that are happening at the fair. Porter reports on the talking points from day one.

 

Publishers Weekly also has a profile on The London Book Fair. They report on the way publishers are dealing with AI and copyright and the problems of innovation.

The big moves by the European Union to regulate AI has everyone looking to see whether this will act as the sheriff in the Wild West world of Large Language Models. One of the interesting moves is to hasten each member countries establishment of compliance authorities. 

 

One of the big issues in the publishing world is sustainability. Not only do we need to keep the business afloat but we must be kinder to the planet while we do it. This year the CFO’s of publishing houses were invited as a group to LBF to talk about good sustainable practice.  Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article on this including links to white papers of research. 

 

Scholastic has shelled out a lot of money to buy an animation company outright. So what do you think they will do with it. Well, they have a lot of intellectual property and animation is pretty big in the kid centric visual world….

 

It looks like the way to get your new Kickstarter style platform really moving is to invite Brandon Sanderson to run a campaign on it. Brandon was only looking for $2,000,000 to create leather bound copies of one book. Along the way he has created another record and he’s up to $18 million and he still has the rest of the month to go.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a very comprehensive post on how to write to trends. First you do your research.

 

Sam Missingham has a great website with loads of advice and resources for authors. Recently she made an archive section where she has gathered a lot of free resources together. She also has a great newsletter full of tips. 

 

Jodie Hurst has a guest post on Anne Allen’s blog about writing in the age of AI. This brings up interesting questions that writers have been wrestling with how much AI is too much.  

Given most writer tools like Grammarly use AI we are probably interacting with it more than we think. 

 

Two great posts from writers at Killzone Authors caught my eye this week. Debbie Burke has tips on finding the right critique group who can help you grow as a writer.

James Scott Bell has the answer to when you can call yourself a writer.

 

Jami Gold has an excellent writing craft post on avoiding déjà vu in your series. How many times can you remind readers about what has gone before. Jami has some brilliant ways to make this work for you. A must read! 

 

In The Craft Section,

Building a writing practice- Rachel Toalson- Bookmark

Optimising word counts – Rachel Thompson

Timelines and plotting your novel-Cindy Sproles

Guide to backstory- K M Weiland- Bookmark!

3 techniques for powerful writing-Janeen Mathisen- Bookmark

Story Planner Success- Now Novel- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Don’t waste the dust jacket- Sharon Woodhouse

Marketing on a budget- Karen Cioffi- Bookmark

After your book wins an award-Book Award Pro

Who reads books – Sandra Beckwith - Bookmark

Best promo sites – Written Word Media- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Becca Puglisi has a great article on 8 steps from Amateur Writer to Pro. If you have ever wondered what makes the difference it is not sales, it is attitude. Becca outlines the attitudes you must have. This is a timely reminder for writers – how well are you doing with your writing practice and learning? It’s all part of the pro writer tricks of the trade. 

 

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 Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash