Defending Literature Around The Globe.

In Publishing News this week,

 

Copyright received another blow in the United Kingdom this week, when the amended law supported by the Upper house was defeated again in the Lower house. That meant that the new bill will not have any transparency compliance from tech companies. Publishing Perspectives covers the implications and what publishing companies can hope for in the near future.

 

Canadian authors alerted the writing community to an AI scam that is happening on Amazon. Take a hot new title… change the cover a little bit with AI. Change the author name a little bit. Scrape the insides… and take advantage of the original books marketing push to make bucks. This kind of dupe gives authors a bad name and it’s not their fault! 

 

International tax and legal services firm, PWC has released a report on the impact of AI in the workforce. It’s surprisingly positive with employees who can use AI being valued more. Mark Williams looks at the report findings for the publishing community.

 

Meanwhile, Jane Friedman has written an article about What AI can’t steal from you which is your unique voice and perspective. 

 

Ingram Content Group has integrated AI tools into its marketing platform, Ingram iD. The tools will write blurbs and run campaigns across social media according to Publishers Weekly.

 

The Toronto Comics festival just wrapped up and the big talking points were how much the cross border attendance had taken a hit because of fear of gender challenges at the border. The festival has been a safe space for people from marginalized communities. Although comics are in good heart the people reading them may not be so confident.

 

The International Publishers Association’s World Expressions Forum (WEXFO) has just finished meeting in Lillehammer. The clarion call from the forum was the threat to Democracy from disinformation and censorship. They have released a report exhorting members to resist this. “World Expression Forum calls for resistance against authoritarian forces that undermine democracy and freedom of expression. Democracy is continuously under threat, and we (the undersigned) promise to strengthen our battle against disinformation, censorship and polarization–and improve literacy in our societies.”

Over in the middle east the Shajah Publishing Sustainability Fund has just helped 12 publishers to scale up their business and use new tools to make their publishing sustainable. They get so many business development goodies they must be the envy of publishers worldwide. Mark Williams dives into what is on offer for the lucky selected publishers. This is possible because of the countries commitment to literacy and education. 

 

Seth Harwood writes on Jane Friedman’s blog about the perils of Diminishing Returns in Revision. Do you know when it is time to let go. This is one of my biggest problems…if only I had another five minutes to put in that comma and take it out again four times before I’m finished… .

 

The fantastic Jami Gold is back with an excellent post on writing stand alones in a series. Yes, you can do it. It takes some creativity but we’re writer’s aren’t we? Jami has some great tips for thinking outside the series box.

  

In The Craft Section,

3 act analysis of Star Wars- Gabriele Pereira

Chekhov’s Gun- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

When the 2^nd draft feels like a step back- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Different character arcs for the same character-K M Weiland- Bookmark

Dual Protagonists- Terry Odell- Bookmark

 

In the Marketing Section,

Conquering limiting beliefs- Kimberly Grabas- Bookmark

10 Free Book Promo ideas- Sandra Beckwith

Monitoring your author brand- Dave Chesson – Bookmark

21 marketing tips- Writing Oasis

How to define a strong marketing brand- Jenny Hansen- Bookmark

 

To Finish

It’s halfway through the year and my thoughts turn to the current novel and if I will ever wrangle it into submission. It didn’t help that I wrote out of sequence. Jenny Hansen has an excellent article on the non linear writing process. Some writers work best when the manuscript looks like a mess. 

How often do you start a writing project knowing who the audience for it is? Liz Alterman has an article on The Dynamic duo’s website about pitching the concept to yourself before you write the book. I can’t help thinking that if we did more of this we wouldn’t have half-finished novels in the bottom drawer.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Who Really Wins?

 

In Publishing News this week…

 

The Judge has decided. There will be no sale of Simon and Schuster to Penguin Random House. As everybody was celebrating and Marcus Dohle CEO of PRH was airing his views about this at Sharjah, Mike Shatzkin reflected on how this would change the publishing world going forward. This is a food for thought post, a must read. While publishing may not be amalgamating into one giant publisher, has anyone thought about the power that Ingram is getting?

 

Publishers Weekly has an article about Ingram entering the ‘business to consumer’ space with all sorts of goodies that they are now going to provide for publishers.

 

Publishing Perspectives has a run down on the main talking points at the Sharjah Publishers Conference. It’s all about being more visible globally. This reflected a session I watched in the SelfPubCon conference from the Alliance of Independent Authors last weekend. Ingram is rolling out POD into the Middle East, this will open up access to translation markets. 

 

The Bookseller has an article on literary festivals having a hybrid element to them to allow for inclusivity. The pandemic has taught us to up our game with virtual events running alongside the in-person ones. This needs to be kept up for all those who cannot attend in-person events safely.

 

The New Publishing Standard has an article on Amazon’s new move to add 98 million music titles to Prime. If Spotify can have audiobooks, we can have music. The first shots in the new subscription wars.

 

In more backlash for AI art, the anime creators are up in arms over AI sampling. Apparently, the AI’s are really good at it. This is ringing alarm bells with creators. 

 

Building a new world is the title of Kris Rusch’s blog post this week and I was struck by her analysis of the long view of History and how events like the pandemic cause a reset in the wider world. There has been a lot of comment on falling book sales everywhere lately. Kris is more optimistic.

 

If you are like me and struggle with Goodreads… is it really worth your time, this article has me thinking it is worth taking another look. For instance – Did you know you can talk about your latest book while you are writing it and have people add it to their TBR stack. 

 

Litreactor has 10 NaNoWriMo tips for success from Editors and Agents.

 

Jane Friedman has a guest post from Michael Mohr on the secret sauce to being a good writer. It could be slightly controversial but the basic premise of needing to be a reader is absolutely key!

 

 

In The Craft Section,

Write Great First Sentences- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

How to write 500 words in 15 minutes- Colleen Story

3 tricks with flashbacks- Marissa Graff-Bookmark

Writing about a culture that isn’t yours- Sam Cameron

9 Positive character arcs in enneagram- K M Weiland- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

5 ways to promote long after launch – Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

How saleable are short stories- Sarah Dahl

How to make an audiobook – Kindlepreneur

How to promote globally- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

TikTok works for all genres- Sue Coletta- Bookmark and read comments!

 

To Finish,

Having a climate change researcher in the house over the last decade has given me a ring side seat to despair. As writers, we believe in the power of story to change hearts and minds.  Today I was told of a collection of writers across all genres who are dedicated to doing just this with climate change. Check out this fabulous organization if you write CliFi, Solarpunk, Dystopian, SciFi, Non-Fiction – anything to do with reimagining a better world and how to go about protecting this one. 

Let’s change the narrative for the future. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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