Imposters, Frauds, and Dodgy Dealings

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The United Kingdom writers are not happy. This week the UK Publishers Association blasted the UK government over their response to their own governmental committee’s recommendations for dealing with copyright issues regarding AI and Large Language Models. Even the head of the governmental committee is using strong language about the government’s response.

Meanwhile, The UK Society of Authors held an extraordinary general meeting to put to the vote three issues, fossil fuels, AI, and Gaza. The results of the vote have caused an uproar in the wider author community. Many writers are publicly resigning their membership. Mark Williams offers his take on where it all went horribly wrong.

 

Over the pond in the United States, the dissenting authors from Pen America’s award ceremony (mentioned two weeks ago) have got together to hold their own show and a fundraiser.

 

Publisher’s Weekly reports that Simon and Schuster have been shopping and bought a large Dutch publishing company. Their private equity fund bosses have been promising expansion and with this purchase they have a subscription company, an audiobook company and a few other goodies.

 

Dan Holloway, news editor at The Alliance of Independent Authors, has been looking at the news that OpenAI is going to pay the creators of the content they have been using to train their AI. This is based around the financial arrangement they are making with publishers to use their content. But how will they do it? 

 

Kathy Steinemann is annoyed that she is being forced to lie when asked if she is using AI. Have you stopped and thought about how much you use AI in your writing? It might surprise you.

 

Anne R Allen received a dodgy complaint about her writing this week and discovered it was a bot. But why and how did the bot discover her writing? She writes about the reality of the trollbot inquisition.

 

This week, long time publishing commentator, Mike Shatzkin popped out of retirement to make some interesting observations after meeting with long time publishing professionals. The three stages of publishing, Gutenberg, Industrial and now Digital. Each one marking distinct times in human history.

 

Joanna Penn interviewed Chelle Honniker this week and it’s a great interview. Chelle talks about all sorts of tools to help automate your business. Chelle is also a programmer for Author Nation- the replacement conference for 20Books Vegas- she has a quick rundown on what’s on offer. Very exciting.

 

Podcast Review has a list of the best writing craft podcasts around. If you are a podcast listener, take a look at these. You will recognize familiar names from past weekly roundups. After sixteen years of weekly blogging about writing and publishing, I must have heard everybody.

 

Katie Weiland is looking at the Enneagram again but this time from the writers point of view. She has four numbers profiled this week and finishes next week. I can’t wait to see what she says about my number.

 

In The Craft Section,

Crafting fantasy characters- Prowriting Aid

Making scenes work- Karen Cioffi

3 signs you’re writing misplaced modifiers- Colleen Story- Bookmark

Stuck? Change your story- Janice Hardy

Ten tips for DIY editing- Debbie Burke- Bookmark

10 steps to writing a better novel- K M Weiland- Bookmark

 

In the Marketing Section,

What is a newsletter- Comprehensive

Embrace public speaking- Jim Acevedo

Why authors should be accessible- Katie McCoach- Bookmark

How to announce your book- Sandra Beckwith

How regular should your updates be- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

What to post beside writing content- Emily Enger- Bookmark

 

To Finish

Imposter syndrome hits us all. Sometimes it creeps up on us and does a number on your mental health. Sometimes you can recognize it as plain old envy. Either way it is important to understand it and do something about it before it cripples you. Rachel Toalson has a must read article on Writer Unboxed on how to overcome the feeling you are a fraud.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter If you want the best of my bookmarked links you can subscribe here to join our happy band.

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

 

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The Opinions of Writers

 

In Publishing News this week

 

This week has seen rumbles of discontent through the publishing communities. At issue is the freedom to express your opinions and or the truth without being labelled with racist slurs. Finding and keeping the middle ground in the rhetoric over the Gaza crisis is becoming increasingly problematic. This week Pen America cancelled its award ceremony as many finalists pulled out citing a lack of support from Pen America. This is the American branch of the organization which supports writers in prison and the freedom of ideas and speech. 

 

In Italy, the publisher’s association has come out swinging over perceived censorship when a prominent writer was refused a broadcast appearance on the way to the studio, for criticizing the government. Their statement “A country that is strong in its democracy should never fear the opinions of writers, whatever they may be.”

 

On the Bookfair front, Publishing Perspectives has a breakdown on the deals that were done at Bologna. The comics group can’t have been eating or sleeping with so many deals done in their genre.

 

Publisher’s Weekly reports that Entangled Press is flying high with a blockbuster on their hands but they insist nothing will change at their little Indie press.

 

London Bookfair has another change of director. This revolving door or ‘poisoned chalice’ as Mark Williams calls it, is not helping the industry in any way. He makes good points in his acerbic take down of London Book Fair’s governing body.

 

Meanwhile, Elle Griffin, writing at The Elysian has spurred discussion with her provocative article No One Buys Books. She read the book based on the big Department of Justice trial over Penguin Random House wanting to buy Simon and Schuster. She pulls out charts and statements made by publishing executives to illustrate her article and opinion that publishing is broken but no one has told the writers.

Taking the opposing point of view, Kathleen Schmidt with her article Please Stop Bashing Book Publishing. Here she shows who is buying books and why they aren’t being noticed in book sales lists.

 

After all this you might like to drop in to Kris Maze and read the excellent article 7 Super Mental Health Hacks for Writers To De-Stress.

 

Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur has another deep dive article full of information over the changes to Audible's categories. With Spotify grabbing increasing market share- The Amazon owned audio publishing company is tweaking the metadata.

 

Sandra Beckwith has a roundup of the interesting book promotion days in May. Check it out if you want inspiration for your Social Media posts.

 

Caroline Leavett has an interesting guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog on writing fact as fiction. This can get very tricky and could involve lawsuits. Caroline talks about the ways you can disguise the Fact in your Fiction so nobody ever knows it’s a true story.

 

 

In The Craft Section,

Writing character appearance- Michelle Miller

Motivating emotionally challenging characters-Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

How to use symbolic settings in your story- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Tropes to the left of me- Terry Odell

Adding a listening pass to your edit- Suzy Vadori-Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

7 Social Media Best Practices- Draft2digital

Book Marketing strategies- Dale Roberts- Bookmark

Analyzing your book marketing niche- Colleen Story

Chirp- free marketing tools-Bookbub- Bookmark

Facebook ads – Written Word Media- Bookmark

 

To Finish

It’s that time of the year when I look back over sixteen years of weekly blogging on the publishing and writing industry where change is constant. Ebooks to Kindle to Subscription publishing services to Print on Demand to Audio Books to Direct Sales to AI. In the next year the Publishers will be coping with the avalanche of AI generated novels and the disruptive impact on the industry. For the Writers it will be the insistence that they are human and human interaction with fans will be the most important strand in their writer business.

This human is about to look for a big drink and cake!

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 or cake for 16 years of blogging, I appreciate and value virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Julien Photo on Unsplash

Is It On A Bucket List?

In Publishing News this week,

 

There was a quick backlash on Social Media when a publisher announced that they would be using an AI to vet submitted manuscripts. They walked it back after only a few hours. Even though they are a Science Fiction publisher- this was a step too far for their writers. Just imagine, said one commentator, AI scraping trends and plots and writing its own book from submissions. Of course it will never happen….

 

The International Publishers Association are shocked at the dismissal of the case of attempted murder of a Norwegian publisher. 25 years ago, the publisher was shot 3 times. Many believed it was because they had published Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses book. It shook the publishing world at the time as an attack on free speech. If we don’t speak truth to power - who will?

 

Mark Williams had me chuckling so hard I nearly fell off my chair with this personal opinion about the London Book Fair. Sometimes you have to laugh because otherwise you would cry. Who knew there was a bookfair on in London that generated lots of sales?- Not the UK news media.

 

Bologna Children’s Book Fair is underway, and the early news is that everyone is having a good time- except for the transport strike. Publishing Perspectives is on the ground talking about the in person and virtual events.

 

Publishers Weekly looks at the dire news for mid-grade books. Everybody wants them… and no one can find a good one, apparently. What to do? The only country bucking the trend is The Netherlands and they’re translating from Korean. 

 

In digital reading hardware news- Kobo is bringing out a colour ink version. Commentators are already looking at the E-Ink hardware wars on the horizon.

 

Draft2Digital is partnering with Fable. As far as I can tell this is a first for both companies. Fable runs virtual book clubs- many for celebrities and TikTok influencers. If you want to have an author book club, check it out. Draft2Digital is a publishing distributor, mainly for eBooks but now also for print. This could be a very interesting collaboration.

 

Ninc have analyzed the book cover trends for 2024- Font is still king. Illustrated and Animated covers are still on brand, I was surprised at how many genres now use them.

 

Anne R Allen has an interesting post on Substack Newsletters vs Blogging for authors inspired by Jane Friedman’s article last month. I post my weekly blog on Substack for people who want to get it in their inbox. I don’t charge. My monthly roundup newsletter with extras and oddments is through Mailchimp. As a children’s writer I’m always struggling with the concept of author newsletters for this audience as the buyers aren’t the readers, generally. Maybe I should write a serial story newsletter.

 

The Passive Guy highlights a post from Dean Wesley Smith on how big your name is on the cover of your book. Do you hide away or boldly brand? Dean also has a series of marketing posts on at the moment.

 

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Rachel Herron on Facing Fears in Writing and Life. This is well worth the time to read and/or listen. Rachel also mentions having ADHD. Katie Weiland recently had a great guest post on navigating the writing process if you have the ADHD superpower. 

 

Sue Coletta has a great post on Story Bibles. Do you jot down important details so that you don’t forget them or is editing always a surprise with how many times the main characters eyes change. Sue looks at all the ways you can keep on top of the details.

 

In The Craft Section,

Strong plots need significant goals- September Fawkes

Style over plot and characters- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

Is page 98 as strong as page 1- Donald Maass- Bookmark

What to do when you lose your way- Matthew Norman

5 simple ways to create high stakes- C S Lakin-Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Book PR and super powers- Ann Marie Nieves- Bookmark

The reason for pre sales- Catharine Bramkamp- Bookmark

How to love book marketing- Patricia Crisafulli

19 ways to Promote on TikTok-KellySchknecht- Bookmark

How to market with another author- Ingram Spark Blog

 

To Finish

Bucket lists. Yes, they are still a thing. Have you got a bucket list? Many people have life lists or travel lists… but Karen Banes thinks writers should have writers bucket list. Goals that you want to achieve in your writing life. She lists 100 ideas to get you started. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for monthly newsletter with the best of my bookmarked links and other interesting extras. 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.

 

Pic Photo by Tobi on Unsplash

 

Writing Good Stuff

 

 

In Publishing News This Week,

 

This week Publishers Weekly reported on the state of publishing in 2023 now that the numbers are in. The sales figures were slightly up on last year but only because of a strong showing in religious books. The other numbers were down slightly. Life is good if you are a theological university publisher. 

 

Publishing Perspectives looks at the 2023 Canadian book buying trends showing a snapshot of key buying trends. Are book buyers buying from physical stores or online? Are they embracing digital or print only? Are Canadian buying habits reflected around the world?

 

Mark Williams reports that on the other side of the world, Thailand is about to have its first rights fair. Publishing is a global business and often people forget that Asia and the Middle East have over half the world’s population. The western centric book fairs don’t reflect this huge demographic and a lot of them want English language books. Are publishers missing a market here?

 

Victoria Strauss from Writer Beware has a list of the agents, editors and publishers who are being impersonated at the moment. This kind of scam is on the rise so if you get a nibble from someone check out if its legit before celebrating.

 

The writing business can be a lonely one. Where would we be without our writer friends. If you are new or trying to figure out how to find your literary community read this great guest article on Jane Friedman’s blog from Star Wuerdemann.

 

Joanna Penn interviewed Matthew Holmes this week on how to advertise on Meta. (Facebook) Matthew shares what is working now and tips on Going Direct. 

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors had a well-attended panel event at the London Book Fair on the future of publishing and it was filmed. Check out the video if you want a little slice of bookfair hustle along with some great commentary.

 

Writer Unboxed has their craft guru Ray Rhamey examining first pages and wondering if they would be an instant buy. 

 

Suzanne Lakin has a great writing craft blog. Her latest excellent post,  How can you get a character to self describe themselves without it sounding like a shopping list. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Why rough drafts should never be perfect- E S Foster

How to build powerful character relationships- Angela Ackerman

Best books for editors- Bookmark

Using beat sheets for memoir- Lisa Cooper Ellison -Bookmark

9 types of personalities writers can use for characters- Ken Miyamoto- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to promote a self published book- Derek Haines

Indie book marketing plan- PublishDrive

Tips for growing a worldwide audience- Mark Lefebvre- Bookmark

8 best book marketing strategies- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Visual Branding- James Scott Bell - Bookmark

 

To Finish

 

Give a writer a long weekend and they will invariably be thinking about their Work In Progress and how to carve some time to work on the craft of writing. The letters W.I.P. act just like the homonym to lash the back of the writer. Get some proper words down! (All that is missing is the H word.) James Scott Bell is a great writing craft teacher. In this article he takes a first page and edits it explaining what he is doing. This may be the Help you need to get stuck into your own craft learning.

 

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.

 

pic Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Speaking Truth to Fear

 

In Publishing News this week.

I wonder how an organisation becomes so frightened that it gives in to any perceived threat, even by one person. Publishers Weekly highlights the latest book banning nonsense. In Virginia a community book reading event of the Wishtree by Katherine Applegate, was derailed because one person worried about a tree having two reproductive systems.

You know you can thank the complainer for bringing it to your attention and invite them to NOT PARTICIPATE rather than giving in, ruining the community event, and making yourself a laughingstock internationally.

 

A new way of getting your book noticed in this busy world is to record the audiobook in a novel place. In this case 900 feet down a mine. The author thought it would be a good idea as he set the novel in the mine. I don’t think the audio production company and his publishers were that excited by his plan though.

 

Mark Williams reports on the latest numbers released by Amazon on their payout of Kindle Unlimited. There must be money in subscription after all everyone is getting into it. Mark compares numbers and looks for trends in Amazon’s financial reporting.

 

The London Book Fair wrapped up and a good time was had by all Porter Anderson gives a run down on all the news from the fair and looks forward to Bologna – the big Children’s Book Fair in April.

 

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Claire Taylor on The Enneagram and how it can help you sustain an author career. It is super interesting and well worth listening to or reading the transcript. These two authors give so much to the writing community. 

 

Wired recently had an article on training an AI on out of copyright material to prove it could be done. This might be gold for all the lawyers currently representing authors in court cases.

 

Elizabeth S Craig has a great post on setting yourself up on the path of least resistance to accomplish your goals.

 

Have you read any fan fiction lately? Before you shudder and express horror, consider the freedom in trying out ideas in someone else’s sandbox where you don’t have to do all the leg work to establish the world. Laura Samotin writes on Gizmodo that playing with fan fiction can be a shortcut to finding out what topes resonate with your reading audience. A great read. 

Anne R Allen has a great post on breaking the rules. Sometimes authors can be so scared of breaking the show don’t tell rule that their writing suffers from it. Anne talks about when the rules can go too far.

 

Samantha Cameron has an interesting post on writing underrepresented characters. Do you let fear get in the way of attempting to tell their stories? Samantha has some steps to overcome this so you can write great three dimensional characters.

 

In The Craft Section,

4 mistakes to avoid when writing dialogue- Rose Atkinson-CarterBookmark

Writing fiction based on real life figures- K D Alden

How to write a psychological thriller- Lucy Hay

Writing protagonists without a strong goal- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Beginning your story introducing your characters- K M Weiland-Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

The secret to a compelling bio- Lucy Hay- Bookmark

How I sell at live events- Ben Wolf- Bookmark

How to market a book that doesn’t exist yet- Rachel Thompson

How to go viral on TikTok- Hina Pandya

5 effective strategies to avoid engagement farming- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

 

To Finish

Heather Webb has an interesting article on Writer Unboxed about the big truths in fiction. Recently she was on a book tour, wearing her read banned books tee shirt and was asked in a panel discussion ‘if you were to write a banned book, what topic would you choose.’ It opened up some interesting ideas to think about. This is a thought provoking read. Does your writing reflect ‘the big truths?’

 

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 Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash

Avoiding the Sharks on Your Journey

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

There is a new scam going around and it is targeting authors and is particularly nasty. Anne R Allen has the details and even though it reads like a crime novel plot it is particularly horrible for people caught up in it. Before you think 'that would never happen to me', I invite you to think how you would react if you were confronted by law enforcement officers about all your identification being used to commit crimes. The horrible part is where the scammers are getting their information about you from. 

 

Back in the heady publishing days of the 1980’s when Harlequin was on the prowl buying up little publishing companies- Romance editors could see which way the wind was going and quickly set up publishing companies promising their innocent authors loads of goodies to come with them to the new digs- while they waited for Harlequin to buy them for big bucks. Authors got burned left, right, and center in all the wheeling and dealing of Romance imprints and publishing companies. I’m not saying that this new publishing house is anything like the bad old days but it triggered memories as I was looking at the news story from Publishers Weekly.

 

Ru Paul has a book club. Ru Paul has a bookstore. A big one. Taking a leaf out of the Amazon playbook Ru is catering to a specific audience and promising extra gravy to the authors and readers who sign up to be members.

Publishing Perspectives reports that the Access Copyright, a management site for Canadian Authors have been slapped with a huge court fine for demanding copyright fees on authors behalf. The court ruling seems to indicate that it is ok to copy anything you like from a Canadian author- which can’t be right or am I reading it wrong?

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard keeps an eye on what is happening outside our Western centric publishing view. He reports that the Oman Book Fair was well attended and the new trend on the rise is children’s books. With Big Bad Wolf selling remaindered English language books hand over fist in these markets, are publishers missing the sales boat on this?

 

Writer Michael Lucas comments on the Findaway saga using his knowledge of the tech world to explain how developers use Terms Of Service. While authors think that Findaway have walked back their horrible terms this might not be the case…think Bait and Switch.

Dave Chesson has been doing a deep dive into the data from a survey of authors on Direct Selling. Who is making money? Which store is popular? How many books you need? When should you jump into it? All these questions are answered with charts.

If you are trying to keep up with moves in AI and publishing here is a new way of combining the two into something that may be profitable (they have a lot of investment dollars) for someone. Tech Crunch reports on a new company that promises a bright new world- I’m not sure for whom.

 

Katie Weiland has a fantastic post on how to write deeply emotional fiction. If you have been struggling with nailing a scene or trying to convey tone or subtext read this great post. One to print out and stick on the wall. 

Tricia Jenn Loehr has a guest post on Jane Friedmans blog about emotional intimacy and how it’s not restricted to the characters in a romance novel. A great read and food for thought.

 

Gabriela Pereira from DIYMFA has a great post on writing prompts and how they build up the stamina and practice of writing. She offers some great insights here. 

 

In The Craft Section,

7 tips for compelling character motivation- C S Lakin- Bookmark

7 signs you have hidden self doubt- Colleen Story

The hierarchy of exposition- Donald Maass- Bookmark

Crafting an irresistible inciting incident- Polly Watt- Bookmark

Increasing the emotional impact of your story- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

8 things needed on a homepage- Corina Amos

Back cover copy formula- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

How to use crowdfunding for book publishing- Sandra Beckwith

How to promote to the right audience- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

20 bookmarketing ideas that take 10 minutes or less- Jenn Hansen-dePaula- Bookmark

 

To Finish

As you wend your way through this blog post looking at links and trying to figure out what is most worth your time to read (all of it but I’m biased) you finally get down to the bottom and hopefully get a last gem. I have been following Suzanne Lakin for years and she always has a deeply insightful way of looking at the craft. This week she looked at how writers become proficient and the 10,000 hours mantra that Malcolm Gladwell made famous. It’s about the journey not the destination.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

I’m late with my monthly newsletter (life got in the way) but it is coming I promise. If you want the best of my bookmarked links and other assorted stuff 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. It feeds my caffeine addiction. Thanks.

 

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