Uniquely You

 

Apologies for no blog last week. It was family medical drama week.

In Publishing News this week,

 

In my blog two weeks ago, I wrote about the US government firing the Director of the Copyright office. As with all these government moves there are court cases pending to slow down the speed of these changes. The Copyright Director is suing to get her job back.

 

Across the pond in the UK, Elton John and other big names lambasted the news that the AI transparency act favours tech companies, calling the government decision criminal and irresponsible. Publishing Perspectives has a detailed look at what went wrong with the proposed law.

Giving tech companies an almost free rein to use copyrighted material seriously undermines what copyright stands for. At the moment the EU seems to be the only jurisdiction where artists copyright matters. Keep an eye on what your own government is doing around these laws for creative artists.

 

In an I-can’t-believe-it move, a Texas court has reversed a book banning law, stating that libraries must be the voice of the government. The librarians are warning that this smacks of propaganda for the state. 

 

The invisible first lady of America is bringing out a memoir. Eyebrows are raised as the narration of the memoir is a cloned AI voice, which will also be used in translations. Mark Williams looks at the rise of synthetic voices and the possibilities for publishers.

 

The UK Children’s Laureate has launched a campaign to get families to read in response to the dismal reading statistics that were announced recently. It is well known that if you read to children from birth they start school with a big advantage that only keeps continuing. Congratulations to our own newly appointed Reading Ambassador for New Zealand, Kate De Goldi.

 

Publishing Perspectives has an interesting essay from an Indian publisher on the rise of Print on Demand use by publishing companies and how it is changing the nature of the publishing business. These insights could be applied to other publishing territories as well.

 

Literacy is being challenged. What can publishers do about it? Richard Charkin writes in his monthly column about the clouded nature of publishing stats and how the underlying news means we must worker harder to engage readers. Key to this is amplifying the uniqueness of their authors.

 

Two great podcasts caught my eye this week… The SPA Girls celebrated 500 episodes with a great chat about the past and where they think the future of publishing will go.

Joanna Penn interviewed Comic and Game maker Dave Morris about creative control, world building and AI tools. Dave has some interesting insights on training AI on your own content. 

 

If you are looking for some great craft books check out Storybundle. Kris Rusch has curated an excellent collection of books  –  You pay not much – the authors get the money and so does a great charity. Win Win Win.

 

Writers and discipline. We chase it, revere it, get the apps, try the productivity short cuts. Harper Ross writes on Writer Unboxed about the discipline myth and what sustains us.

 

Lisa Norman has an excellent post on staying true to our unique voice. Over the years all the tools we have used to showcase our writing have changed but our unique voice hasn’t. 

 

September Fawkes has a great post on misaligned characters wants and plot goals. When the character is acting against what they profess they want sets the scene for a weak plot or theme. How can you fix it?

 

In the Craft Section,

Secondary Characters- all the fun and less work- Laurie Schenebly Campbell

Choose a powerful foundation for POV -Lynette Burrows- Bookmark

Plot twists- crafting the unexpected- Tammy Burke-Bookmark

The power of connotation in picture books-Chelsea Tornetto- Bookmark

Enneagram for character development- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Reading like a writer- Michelle Barker

 

In the Marketing Section,

10 little known Substack features- Rachel Thompson

10 things I wish writers knew about marketing- Dan Blank- Bookmark

How to maximise being a podcast guest-Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

What is book bundling and how does it work- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Video marketing tips for authors- PR by the book

Audiobook marketing- Reedsy- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

It is mid way through the year. Where has the time gone? How are the writing goals? 

If you are feeling down in the dumps, try a creativity date. Monica Cox has an interesting post on Angela and Becca’s website about the benefits of the artist date. You don’t need to date an artist you just need to make time for creativity, with no strings attached. Create for the sheer joy of creating. 

Isn’t that why we started writing in the first place?

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. You can subscribe here to get the best of my bookmarked links and other extras.

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.

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It Used To Be So Simple…

 

 

In Publishing News This Week,

 

In the continuing saga of the disestablishment of The Institute of Museum and Library Services, Publishers Weekly reports that there are only 12 people left doing the work of 75. Questions have been raised as to the ability of some of these people who seem to have been picked because of who they know and not what they know. And where is all the money going? 

 

In the Meta Lawsuit, many organisations aren’t waiting to be called but are submitting briefs to the court in support of the lawsuit, Publishing Perspectives reports. At issue is Meta claiming fair use. An argument that is supposed to be for the purposes of review in journals, not wholesale scraping.

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair has a chilling article on how Meta employees came to think that scraping a pirate site was a good idea. There was horrible little paragraph where they thought it was ok because the works themselves were valueless. Tell that to authors who have had their entire life’s work stolen.

 

Malaysia has been having a super book giveaway in an effort to promote reading. Mark Williams looks at the parent company of Big Bad Wolf and how they can lay their hands on all remaindered English language books to be able to do these big events.

 

Spotify is extending their reach in audio books and is opening up to French and Dutch language translations. They are throwing some money at it too. In their latest stats the audio listeners are primarily from the younger age bracket. Spotify is keen to promote human voices, but they are open to digital voices as well.

 

If you are still trying to make sense of tariffs in the book industry – do you pay them- do you not, The Alliance of Independent Authors has a good article to help you figure out what to do. Make sure you diversify where you get your books printed, so you can manage production costs.

 

Publisher’s Weekly reports on a panel discussion with creative industry people on how to manage AI technologies. This was interesting as there were music industry people who have been dealing with AI for longer than book people. Their advice- get involved in policing it.

 

Rachel Thompson has an article on PR scams that are targeting writers. It’s like playing whack-a-mole with scammers. All you can do is stay abreast of the ones doing the rounds and make sure newbies know about them.

 

Jane Friedman has a guest article from Anne Carley about how difficult it is to help publish other people in the self publishing space. This is because of the hoops you have to go through to establish who you are. When publishing companies are trying to weed out the scammers and pirates it can be hard to be a genuine helper for other people.

 

Joanna Penn has a super interview with Tara Cremin from Kobo. Tara gives an overview of all the great things Kobo offers and then gets into detail on subscriptions and marketing. If you already publish on Kobo are you taking advantage of all that they offer now?

 

Jennifer Dorsey writes about how to lay the groundwork for a successful nonfiction book launch. Have you mined who you know as well as what you know?

 

James Scott Bell has a post dedicated to the thesaurus and how useful it is. When was the last time you opened one specifically to find the right word.

 

Barbara Linn Probst has a great article on person and tense. Whoever tells the story is not the same as the protagonist unless you are very careful. Does the protagonist really know the inner life of all the other characters? This is a must read article.

 

In The Craft Section,

A peek inside the mind of a developmental editor- Jenn Windrow- Bookmark

Conflict is not tension- Sally Hamer

Understanding genre conventions- Gabriela Pereira- Bookmark

Cinematic technique for authors- C S Lakin

How to prepare eBooks in Word.- Diane Wolfe

 

In the Marketing Section,

How long does publicity take- Kathleen Schmidt

How to make time to market your book- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

How you should price your book- Matthew Holmes- Bookmark

Best Email services for authors- Dave Chesson

Getting more value from the backlist- Carlyn Robertson- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

It is the 17^th anniversary of the blog today. That’s 17 years of watching the publishing industry change in front of me. The eBook, the Kindle, Amazon, Print on Demand, the rise and fall of publishing houses, the amalgamations, the rise of niche indie brands, the rise and fall of booksellers, graphic novels, audio books, translations, the rise and fall of distributors, selling direct, authorpreneurs, and now AI. The publishing world looks very different from when I started learning about it 17 years ago. I continue to learn every day. For everyone who is still reading and learning along with me, sharing little notes, the occasional coffee, the meet in person times, Thank you for still being here. It has been a wild ride. 

 

Happy Easter.

 

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.

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.

 

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Can We Get Off The Roller Coaster?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

It’s been a tricky old week if you have been watching the tariff brinkmanship going on and wondering what this will do to the global economy. Closer to home writers and publishers are wondering what it will mean for the book industry. If you are in the USA and get your books printed in China, you may be lucky as so far books have been exempt from tariffs, unfortunately paper and ink imported into the USA from China is not. Kathleen Schmidt has a quick run down on what the American Booksellers Association is saying about tariffs.

 

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair has just wrapped up and interesting articles have come out of the presentations at the fair. Publisher’s Weekly reports on the panel discussion with audio publishers at the fair. There is an emphasis from audio publishers to snap up all audio rights so they can be in control when new formats arrive in this space. If you aren’t sure what I mean, think AI audio books, AI translated audiobooks etc.

Publisher’s Weekly also had an informative article on what everyone was buying at Bologna, the trends in children’s books, Romantasy might be over, and what everyone is doing about middle grade books. If you write in this space, it’s a must read.

 

In wider publishing news, last week I wrote that the staff of The Institute of Museum and Library Services – the body that oversees funding for libraries have been placed on administrative leave. This week the American Library Association has gone into bat for them with a court case suing The President, the DOGE executive, and the directors of the Institute. 

 

The American Publishers Association co-hosted a day long forum to look at the threat of AI on creative license. This is to tie in with the recently introduced bill – The TRAIN act, or Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks. Your creativity rights are in the constitution. (Looking from outside the USA, I wonder for how long…)

 

The Guardian has written an article looking at book banning and who are actually behind the majority of the book bans, and it is not individual concerned parents but interest groups. 

 

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware does a fantastic job of keeping up with the scam artists out there. In her latest article she turns the spotlight on a new scam that uses identity theft to impersonate editors and agents with pre-paid commissions and contracts that have been copied from Penguin Random House. This is a must read for all writers. You might feel that you know enough about what is happening to spot a scam, but many writers don’t. If they do a cursory search to see if the editor is legit, it looks like it… then the fish hooks start happening. At the very least you will be able to tell a newbie writer what to look for in this new scam.

 

Dan Holloway of The Alliance of Independent Authors talks about a new feature being rolled out by Amazon for the Kindle, ReCaps… where an AI will tell you what’s happened in the story so far, if you are following a series. I can’t see anything problematic here at all….

 

Cassie Manns Murray a book publicist has an interesting opinion piece about Publishers Weekly’s new move to charge a $25 submission fee for a potential review. It is not guaranteed. If they do this will others follow? This is a good piece on how hard it is juggle publicity around publishing dates.

 

A writer recently asked me if was programming another writers conference what topics would be on my must have list. Contracts, Understanding Intellectual Property, and Literary Estates. This century so far has seen huge changes to each of these three important facets of the writing and publishing life. This week Madeleine L’Engle’s literary executor, her granddaughter, has an interesting article covering these topics in a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog. Planning for the life of your work (even if you are not famous yet.)

 

In The Craft Section,

Humanity over AI- your difference – Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

The importance of flaws- Beem Weeks

What is play by play in writing- September Fawkes – Bookmark

Search Out The Unexpected- Kathleen McCleary-

3 Writing aspects you should never mess with- Julie Glover- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Parts of a book – a primer- Fictionary

Step by step to profitable ads- Bookbub- Bookmark

3 unconventional ways to market- Savannah Cordova- Bookmark

Why Quality Counts- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

How to grow your list with giveaways- Thomas Umstattd- Bookmark

 

To Finish

If you have been feeling battered by this week’s news and the constant churn of the news cycle which never has any good news. Chuck Wendig has a post on his blog that you can read that explains your feelings- What it feels like right now- It’s hard to hope.

 

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 Itai Aarons on Unsplash

Reading Success

 

London Book Fair is over and in comes Bologna Children’s Book Fair. I like to think it’s the most important because without creating readers the other book fairs wouldn’t exist. 

Publishers Weekly has a deep dive into what the big topics are at Bologna. The crisis in early literacy is worrying and have the covid years caused a reading slump or is it cyclical?

 

Graphic novels are now one of the biggest formats at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. There are many interesting moves in this area reports Publishers Weekly. One thing that caught my eye in this article was audio books scripts generated by graphic novels.

 

The awards for Children’s Publisher of the year at Bologna is always a great event. The world is divided into six continent-ish zones and so there are six winners. Publishing Perspectives has a run down of the winners. Congratulations to Mila’s Books from New Zealand which took out the Oceania prize.

 

In another attack on literacy in the United States-The staff of The Institute of Museum and Library Services – the body that oversees funding for libraries have been placed on administrative leave according to Publishers Weekly. Hopefully their jobs can be saved.

 

Also closing their doors is NaNoWriMo. After a turbulent year and falling memberships the organization has closed. NaNoWriMo was a great idea and many bestsellers got their start in the white hot frenzy of writing a novel in a month.

 

Ingram Spark’s new book to screen database, MediaScout is now live. Publisher’s Weekly reports they already have an impressive number of books in the catalogue.

 

Mark Williams looks at the latest fallout of Meta AI and the proposed tariffs that had a good portion of the world on edge. While Mark see’s the value in some AI tools on the basis of its coming anyway we may as well use it. Dan Holloway looks at the impact AI has had on translators and artists. 

 

Teri Case writing on Jane Friedman’s blog looks at how AI made her want to trademark her name and how she went about it. This came about because Jane Friedman’s name had been stolen and pasted on AI generated books last year. Amazon wouldn’t take the books down because Jane hadn’t trademarked her name. 

 

Kathleen Schmidt has a fascinating article on book publicity. She dives into when and how to connect to your audience and book publicists. This is a must read if you have a book ready to release into the world.

 

Sandra Beckwith has a list of useful apps and tools to help the writer.

 

Donald Maass writing on Writer Unboxed has an excellent craft article on the hidden reason why readers read. Donald has excellent advice on how to craft your plot to hit all the right cues. A must read!

 

In The Craft Section,

The wolf under the table- J Scott Coatsworth

How conflict enhances your story- Ellen Buikema- Bookmark

4 stages of knowing in character arcs- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Using writing prompts to unstick yourself- Savannah Cordova

Dialogue mechanics- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to get accepted by a distributor- Bokbaby- Bookmark

Marketing tips for a new genre- an example - Bookbub

Author swag and merch- IWSG- Bookmark

Amazon central changes – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

How to sell on Amazon – Dave Chesson – updated- Comprehensive!

 

To Finish

The world can be filled with negativity everywhere you look. It’s hard to stay upbeat when you feel bludgeoned by the daily news. In writing we can so often feel discouraged about our work. Harper Ross had a timely post on Writer Unboxed last week -The importance of defining success for yourself. This is a little reality check to recognize the wins in your creative life and celebrate them.

 

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 Blaz Photo on Unsplash

Publishing Pick and Mix

 

 

In Publishing News this week

 

London Book Fair is coming up and Porter Anderson gives a run down on the big topics that will be discussed at the fair. No prizes for guessing that AI will be front and centre as how to use it/cope with it/ignore it/embrace it are the hot topics in publishing this year.

 

Forbes magazine put their toe in the water with a prediction on how the publishing industry will cope with AI “which promises to transform how we create, distribute, and consume content.”

Piper Bayard see’s AI as a cause for concern. She looks at the big questions. How much AI is too much and Will AI be the end of authors?  

 

With the concerns about distinguishing your content from AI driven content, Dan Holloway of The Alliance of Independent Authors takes a look at a new initiative from The Authors Guild to champion a book registering site which makes it official that your book is human authored.

 

This week Simon and Schuster announced that they would no longer blurb books. This has caught some people by surprise with many thinking it is the back blurb that they are talking about, which seems daft. However, it’s the pull quotes from reviews by other authors that they are meaning. (I hope.) My bookseller family member said they had received books from PRH that had no blurbs on the back - only reviews. Which didn’t help when they had to catalogue the book.

 

Publishing Industry commentator Kathleen Schmidt weighs in on the blurb news in her article Let’s Talk About Blurbs Again – Is it past its use by date or does the blurb have a place in publishing?

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that the Big Five publishers and quite a few other interested groups have banded together to sue Idaho over their book banning efforts. 

 

We are two weeks into the new American administration and the big news was around tariffs. Who was getting them who was not? Would there be a reprieve? If so for how long? The publishing industry is caught up in this as well. After all where are the big printers based? Publishers Weekly took a look at what the publishing industry might have to do to survive.

 

Katie Weiland has an interesting article on Creative Burnout Recovery. I am always asking my teacher colleagues about what they are doing to fill the creative well. This is important for writers too.

Netgalley has upgraded their reader experience by creating a new reader browser with the ability to read in the website and protect files from unauthorised downloads.

 

In happy news, Mac Barnett became the new US National Ambassador for Young Peoples Literature. In the UK this position is the Children’s Laureate. Here in New Zealand, we are eagerly awaiting who will get the nod as our Reading Ambassador. These positions are about connecting and inspiring reading and young people. These truly are the most important jobs. For every reader we inspire, we create a person who thinks about their life and other lives, who finds solace or inspiration in imaginary worlds and ultimately remains a reader into adult hood. 

 

Donald Maass has another knock it out of the park article on craft. Nailing Purpose and Effect. Do you understand the primary purpose of the story? The intent. The intent of any given story is the effect that you want to have on readers. It is a must read.

 

In The Craft Section,

Creating a plot/subplot template-Laurie Campbell- Bookmark

Tag your dialogue- Margie Lawson

How to manipulate time in your writing- C S Lakin- Bookmark

Important parts of a book- Joe Yamulla

Most asked for topic articles- K M Weilands master list- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section

How cover art influences readers-Sierra Kay

Why reviews are a game changer- ReaderViews

Optimize your Amazon Central page – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Generating article ideas- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

From obscurity to bestseller-Leonard Tillerman- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

How wedded are you to a particular sales platform? If it all fell over tomorrow would your business survive? That is the wake up call authors who were primarily relying on BookTok got faced with recently. The Alliance of Independent Authors canvassed a few of their superstar members to find out how they would navigate a similar business problem. This is a great article about being in control of your business. 

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.

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 JACQUELINE BRANDWAYN on Unsplash

 

*Kiwi’s call a selection of lollies… a pick and mix.

Is Anyone Thinking Of The Children?

 

In Publishing News this week.

Long time readers of the blog will remember that I used to feature the writings of publishing commentator Mike Shatzkin in the first 12 years of the blog. Mike retired but occasionally would pop back to make a interesting observation on current changes in publishing. He had been around publishing in one way or another his entire life. His recent death has been marked by many across the industry. Publishing Perspectives has a great obituary of his life and times. R.I.P. Mike.

 

The UK Guardian has an article on yet another celebrity who has written a children’s book. Children’s Authors Frustrated By Rise Of Celebrity Penned Titles. Speaking as a children’s writer, yes, it is frustrating. What more do they need for validation? A children’s book. – it’s easy to write and you have a built-in marketing factor for the publishing company. Right. Publishers taking a punt on a celebrity is a no brainer. The bare minimum of editing and all the TV shows will book them so that’s the publicity sorted. Pity about the reading quality and the longevity, but there will be another celebrity author next year. 

 

If you look at the latest surveys like The Guardian last week, they report that children are reading less than ever. This has sent shivers down the spines of writers and publishers. After all, if we can’t get kids reading for pleasure when they grow up they won’t be reading adult books either. The last writer who had a huge impact on children’s reading was J K Rowling whose series positively impacted a generation. Since those heady days of 1997 when the first book was published quietly until 2000 when the juggernaut took off every publisher has dreamed of finding the next big children’s book. 

 

The Hollywood Reporter has an article on TV shows using AI to script children’s television that resulted in a hot mess of awfulness. However, the AI tools that are developing are finding favour with the creators.

 

The big children’s fairs of Bologna and Shanghai are collaborating, sharing ideas and resources in this weeks Shanghai Children’s Book Fair. Publishing Perspectives writes about their partnerships.

 

Elsewhere in the UK the GLL foundation which funds writers has created 20 children’s author bursaries for residencies in libraries across the UK. The programme aims to help writers develop their business as well. This is a fantastic initiative.

 

Publishers Weekly writes about initiatives to rebuild libraries in conflict zones. 

 

With the rise of Print on Demand publishing, Princeton University Press has opened up an office in China offering their backlist in English. A canny financial move that is paying off. 

Meanwhile, Hachette is bleeding employees who are disgusted with their new imprint Basic Liberty which is following a conservative publishing agenda. It looks like Hachette launched the whole enterprise in a hurry to take advantage of election outcomes. 

 

Two great writing craft articles caught my eye this week. Antagonist vs Villain- what’s the difference by Katie Weiland which is a must read. Sue Coletta writes an in depth article- Does your story have a full circle moment? Cue slot machine sounds as your brain makes connections. 

 

In the Craft Section,

4 things that make your writing boring- Suzy Vadori- Bookmark

Balancing your cast of characters- September Fawkes – Bookmark

Don’t make this conflict tension mistake- Janice Hardy - Bookmark

5 common reasons your hero is too powerful- Oren Ashkenazi

Four dialogue tips- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

 

In the Marketing Section,

How to create a newsletter

Ultimate guide to festival success-  J Alexander Greenwood-Bookmark

9 key reasons your book is not selling- Laurence O’Bryan

2 excellent posts from Sandra Beckwith- Finding Beta Readers and Boost your author brand- 31 tips- Bookmark

 

To Finish

Recently, social media sites have been churning with change. People are ditching their accounts and setting up new ones on different sites. The publishing world is no exception. In the beginning Twitter was the publishing industry water cooler meetup place for everybody. If you are trying to find the social media literary community Bluesky has had an influx of publishing industry people. It feels a lot like Twitter in the good old days.

 

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.

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 Allen Taylor on Unsplash