Is There Another Way?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

It’s Summer in the Northern Hemisphere so everyone is on vacation. However, there are a few interesting things to think about.

In Brazil they have just wrapped up a Book Fair which had a publishers and booksellers side event to the main public event. Publishing Perspectives looks at the conversation topics. There was discussion on price fixing which is going through the Brazil senate. Is it a good thing? Also under discussion, the quality of digital productions- Does it matter? 

 

Publishers Weekly takes a look at San Diego Comic Con which is on now. This event usually sees a lot of interest across the publishing community with Franchise tie ins in games, movies, graphic novels. However, this year it is a more muted affair because of visas, and the uncertain nature of entering the United States. 

 

The NZ Booksellers conference just wrapped up with many notable people and publishers receiving awards for excellence. Congratulations to authors Rachel King and author booksellers Gareth and Louise Ward. 

 

Audio Book walking groups. Yes, they are a thing. Publishers Weekly looks at the rise of these groups. You don’t have to listen to the same audio book to join in. This could be the great new friend meet up activity. Walk with a friend while listening to your own book.

 

Russell Nohelty has an interesting article on chronic illness and the writer. When your brain says Write and your body says Nope. He looks at ways to get your body to trust again instead of the stress response of panic and shutdown. 

 

Rachel Thompson has a great article on the Why Alt text is a writers secret. Using Alt text has been promoted as a must for helping the disabled community deal with visuals in a way that fits them better. Rachel points out that the extra few seconds to do alt text is great for other reasons.

 

Agent Richard Curtis has an interesting blog post on some contract terms that are important and overlooked in a standard writing contract. On their own they look ok, in a writing contract they mean warning bells.

 

James Scott Bell often does a close edit page to show different story points. This time he is doing one that Chat GPT supplied. His comments are on point. Competant and Forgettable.

 

Seth Godin is known for pithy comments on a variety of subjects. Recently he looked at Productivity, AI and pushback. Are you working for AI?

 

Mary Kole has a great article for children and teen story writers about marketing. What do you do when you can’t market to your stories intended audience. Who is your real audience?

 

Katie Weiland looks at What makes a bad story. No, it’s not bad editing or plot holes, or even an AI written story. Have you taken a close look at your characters?

 

In The Craft Section,

2 great articles from Angela Ackerman The key to writing authentic characters and How to use hidden experiences- Bookmark Both.

Bring your setting to life- Sue Coletta

Why scene mapping is your secret weapon- Juneta Key- Bookmark

3 ways to add tension- Janice Hardy

 

In The Marketing Section,

Email-the best marketing channel?- Bookbub

New hope for old books- Sandra Beckworth

How to format a book- Bookbaby

2 great articles from Thomas Umstettd- How to create sales optimized book pages-and How to grow email lists with giveaways- Bookmark Both

 

To Finish,

Everywhere I look this week, I have seen something from Johnny B Truant. He is one of the originals from Smarter Artists from over a decade ago. After an extended break he is back with a new book on slow writing, no social media etc. Is this really Johnny I thought. He is embracing the Artisan Author way and he chats with Joanna Penn on why he has done an almost about turn. It has lots to do with the joy of writing and how you can kill this joy by being on a produce treadmill. He has a great video which inspired the book. The low stress, high quality, fan focused way to escape the publishing rat race.

Isn’t that what we all want to do?

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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The Writing Business- Shaking Hands with AI

 

 

In Publishing News this week

Publisher’s Weekly reports that Readerlink will stop distributing mass market paperbacks this year. With Readerlink responsible for distributing 30% of all the books into big chains in the United States that is a big revenue hit. Will the cheap mass market format disappear? 

 

Bologna Book Fair names their licensing awards shortlist for 2025 and for the first time licensing for video games makes an appearance. It’s all about the merch in the children’s world. And if you aren’t sure, this is Intellectual Property (IP) based on a creators idea. Smurfs are still a big thing. I wonder how many of their original creators are getting a dividend.

 

The UK government has wrapped up ten weeks of submissions on their copyright and AI proposed law. They finished with a big campaign on the covers of Newspapers asking if AI was fair. It wasn’t just UK associations making submissions. Many overseas publishing organisations also submitted on the bill. Publishing Perspectives writes about what is happening next. Many are calling for transparency and licensing deals. Will the law take this into account? 

 

While the UK is grappling with writing a new law, across the pond Meta is in court trying to justify their theft to train their AI. I’m not sure their arguments- everybody is doing it, and apologise later, are good ones to make to the judge.

 

Mark Williams has his own particular take on the use of AI. Consumers love it. Therefore, we need to embrace it. This could be problematic when your contract arrives, and you have to state whether you have ever used AI or not on the project. Publishers are looking at ways to indemnify themselves from accusations of plagiarism.

 

The way forward into the AI forest looks dark and winding and it might be years before we see the sunlight on the other side. Shining a torch is Debbie Burke of the Killzone authors who explains how the Author’s Guild Human Authored campaign of registrations and stickers work.

 

Jenny Hanson has a great article over at the Dynamic Duo’s blog on Book Structure for Disorganized Writers. Remember writing and plotting is unique to each writer. Jenny offers some handy tips to make sense of your process.

 

Russell Nohelty has the mega post/tutorial on Book Marketing. There is absolutely something for everyone in this post. Bookmark it! 365 simple ways to talk about your writing and keep readers engaged all year. 

 

Carol Michel has updated her very popular post on Jane Friedman’s blog about How to market a book without social media. Also on Jane’s blog is a great article by Lisa Cooper Ellison on Memoir Mistakes. When the backstory derails your narrative.

 

 

In The Craft Section,

9 ways to originalise your story idea- Becca Puglisi

Circling conflicts- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Alternatives for Speechless – Kathy Steinemann- Bookmark

The backstory balancing act- Marissa Graff

How to avoid flat characters in your story- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

3 ways to get amazon reviews- Bang 2 Write

Your voice, your narration- Cindy Gunderson - Interesting article!

5 handy tips for book marketing- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Article ideas for book publicity- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

The author media kit- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish

James Scott Bell always has wise words about writing craft but he has a good business brain for writing as well. It must be the lawyer training. He has an interesting take on the writing business and what is happening in traditional publishing. Remember that publishing is a business, and you should understand this with every contract you sign. One of the most important clauses now for a writer is the rights reversion clause. The old out of print clause doesn’t cut it now with eBooks, so put a time limit on it. 

It's all IP and that’s what the publishers are buying, as much of your intellectual property as they can get. It is a pot of gold if they can on-sell your merch rights to the video game developer before you get the rights back.

 

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 Lukas on Unsplash