The Courage To Be Creative

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

A new press has launched reports The Guardian. Conduit books seek to only publish books by men as they are being “overlooked with the perception that the male voice is problematic.” The founder hopes the press will help to change the narrative that boys and men don’t read. Anything to get people reading, I say.

 

The fan run Science Fiction and Fantasy conference called WorldCon is under a massive cloud at the moment. At issue is the use of ChatGPT to vet authors and panelists. Cora Buhlert, who will be on a WorldCon panel virtually, explores the problems of using AI for programming in her article, Robot Hallucinations. She uses her own name and prompt as an example of the problem the organisers overlooked. It is a minefield. If you are planning a conference- do your own homework, don’t rely on AI.

 

The attack on the arts in the United States continues. Next on the block are the National Endowments for Arts and Humanities. These two organisations have stopped or rescinded funding for Literary grants and awards amongst other important funding for the literary sector. Publisher’s Weekly reports that they fought back in the first Trump presidency, but they may not be able to fight back this time.

 

The UK Publishers Association have been reminding people of the soft power they wield in the UK economy. Their study puts the figure in the billions of pounds reports Publishing Perspectives. It all hinges on literary tourism. 

 

Spotify is retiring its Findaway Voices by Spotify, arm in August. They have sold this part of the business to INaudio. Spotify will continue with Spotify for Authors its dedicated audiobook distribution business. Dan Holloway reports on the changes for authors.

 

Recently UNESCO released a document from a trio of European organisations entitled A Call For Transparency Regarding AI-Generated Books. Publishing Perspectives reports on the document and the 3 key points UNESCO is asking for. Developing critical thinking is top of the list.

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard looks at the old model of publishing regions and why it has taken so long for the publishing industry to realise that eBooks are global and you don’t need regional publishing distinctions.

 

Publisher’s Weekly reports that Young Adult trends in books being published this year are bouncing between light and dark. A recent survey shows that its either frothy romance or dark academia that are the stories of the moment. What is there for the teen in the middle?

 

Lit Hub has an article on The Rise of The Submission Industrial Complex, or how journals are increasingly asking for fees to submit work. Some journals are using this to weed out AI written stories. But others are seeing it as a cash cow.

 

David Woghan writes an interesting article on Jane Friedman’s blog about whether you really need Ingram Spark. Print On Demand has come a long way from its beginnings. At issue is print quality and availability. In my experience IngramSpark have been excellent down under. 

 

I love researching…it’s the writing I find hard. The urge to go down the rabbit hole is something I battle every day. Kate Woodworth has a great article on how going down the rabbit hole opened her up to a whole different narrative.

 

Kathleen Schmidt has a great article on book publicity. It’s not a contest. There are many factors that help your book make a splash, having money to spend on publicity is not the only way to get a book noticed.

 

In The Craft Section,

Voice revisited- Terry Odell- Bookmark

Thriller words of wisdom- Dale Ivan Smith- Bookmark

10 things I learned teaching children to write- Tari Jewett

How readers react to reactions- Donald Maass- Bookmark

Writer Better Action Scenes- K M Weiland - Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

8 strategies to boost reader engagement-David Lewis- Bookmark

Stock Photos for Book Covers-Jonathan Green- Bookmark

How to revive a dead email list- Emily Enger- Bookmark

How much does publicity cost- Kathleen Schmidt- Bookmark

Book promotion ideas- Bookbaby

 

To Finish

Joanna Penn interviewed Pia Leichter, a publicist and writer about her new book Welcome to the creative club: Make life your biggest art project. This is a wide ranging interview on being a creative director and taking those skills to apply them to writing and your own life. Changing your own narrative can happen with making small changes in your life. 

Diana Stout writes about persevering through failure. How the writer reacts to failure will show whether they will ultimately be successful. 

Creative Courage to keep writing is what we all strive for.

 

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.

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Listen Up

 

In Publishing News this week.

 

Spare a thought for the publishing community on the American Continent. With the new tariffs kicking in this week, the publishing community has been looking at their supply chains and wincing. They can’t print in China, the tariffs will hit them. They can print in America, but the bulk of their paper supply comes from Canada. If you want a Spanish language book- it comes from Mexico. Publishers Weekly takes a look at what else is going to hit hard for the publishing and writing community.

 

The London Book Fair is next week, and the International Publishing Associations president will be talking about sustainability and the importance of books for today’s issues. Publishing Perspectives has a great article on the president who knows first hand how books are important in a repressed society. “Our weapon is our knowledge.”

 

In the audiobook world- The Audies (awards for audiobooks) have just been awarded. If you check the list, they have awards in all sorts of fields. Many actors are featured as narrators. 

 

While the dream of a full cast of characters with famous actors might be beyond the purse strings of many authors, the AI voiced audiobook is getting more attention. Eleven Labs has launched an app that publishes audiobooks on their own site. It’s almost a one stop shop. Also making waves is their new deal with Spotify which offers 100% royalties to the author. 

Eleven Labs has a voice cloning service which might be useful to think about. Clone your voice and then publish your audio books. It could be a good option if you can’t pay for studio time to narrate yourself.

 

If you have ever wondered how to get a look inside preview on your website, this article from The New Publishing Standard will be of interest. Bowker has partnered with Indie Commerce – the commerce arm of the American Booksellers Association to make Book2look widely available.

 

Have you spent long hours in the university library trying to track down source material for your professor? Spare a thought for those institutions whose job it is to provide you the wide-ranging collection of sources. Academic libraries are being hit with huge subscription fees to access research from publishers. Publisher’s Weekly reports that the move is destabilizing the library and university press market.

This new move is punishing…right when we need access to knowledge. Sadly, the altruistic reasons for the internet - where you would be able to access the worlds knowledge wherever you are - is now paywalled behind data bases who are charging $25,000 for access.

 

Are writers uniquely vulnerable to getting scammed? Victoria Strauss gets asked this question a lot. She has been writing about writer scams for over twenty five years and there is always something new. We are not alone but we may be an easier target.

 

When you are eyeball deep in your manuscript it can be difficult to figure out where you should put breaks in the story. You don’t want to confuse the reader but ramping up tension is better if you leave the reader hanging. What to do? Reavis Wortham recently tackled this dilemma, with the article Give Me a Break on the Killzone blog.

 

Katie Weiland has a great craft article on your character’s three choices. They must have a fundamental choice, a primary choice, and a secondary choice. This is a print out and study article for learning about crafting characters.

 

In The Craft Section,

The top 20 developmental mistakes- Jenn Windrow- Bookmark

Deep POV checklist- Lisa Hall Wilson- Bookmark

Scars tell a story- Sue Coletta

Section breaks and how to use them- Kathy Steinemann

Best ways to pace your story- Lisa Poisso- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

What to do with one star reviews- Sandra Beckwith-Bookmark

Bookmarketing planning and strategy- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Social Media for authors- Evergreen Authors

How to write an Author Bio- Penny Sansevieri

Marketing for introverts- Laura Gallier

 

To Finish,

Bands have discovered that playing live and selling merch is almost the only way they can make a living in these streaming times. Writers are now seeing the benefits of selling extra physical products, but you need to be discerning. You don’t want your brand on a crappy product. Check out this comprehensive article from the Alliance of Independent Authors about Author Merchandise. It can be a nice sideline along with audiobooks and writer’s special edition formats. It’s your IP. If it wasn’t important there wouldn’t be a clause in the standard publishing contract about it. 

 

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 C D-X on Unsplash

Is It A Lemon?

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The unleashing of the AI monsters have many in publishing concerned. Two stories caught my eye and left me feeling faintly sick. It was predicted but seeing these things blatantly promoted is confronting. 

A publishing startup/ tech company has decided to disrupt publishing (why?) by using AI to help edit, polish, and sell books. Spines reckon they could publish 8000 books a year with this model. If you give them $5000 you will get their personal attention. 

If you have $5000 – pay for a decent editor and cover and do it yourself.

Following on from this was the wonderful idea of taking out of print classics and getting AI to write new forwards and repackage them for sale. Slate has an in depth article exposing one Get Rich Quick scheme to teach you how to do this. This is problematic if you don’t check where the AI is scraping its content from. You could be breaching all sorts of copyright with university presses or believing the outright lies that AI likes to spin. (N.B. AI is not a super intelligent version of an encyclopedia which has been vetted for veracity.) 

Get Rich Quick publishing schemes have been around forever and using AI is just the latest twist of lemon in the publishing cocktail. Often these schemes are a front for a scam or are morally dubious. 

If you care about producing quality work with your name on it, stay away from them.

 

In audio publishing news, Spotify announced a deal with Bloomsbury. It looks like Spotify are approaching traditional publishers and gobbling up direct deals. Amazon has quickly moved to offer more audio choice. Spotify want to be all things audible… can Amazon compete with this? Mark Williams takes a look at the seismic shift happening with Spotify.

 

The New York University’s Advanced Publishing Institute 5 day conference is open for registration. If you have a spare $5000 you can attend in January. Publishing Perspectives has a quick overview of one of the talks that will be given by Penguin Random House on Shifting Consumer Tastes in Social Media. They hope to give tangible advice on this and other thorny problems to the attendees. For that amount of money it will have to be gold plated!

 

Publishers Weekly is releasing some of the talks from Frankfurt. This interesting article caught my eye by Ed Nawotka on the explosion of AI startups dedicated to the publishing industry.

 

If you follow Taylor Swift you might have heard that she has a book coming out based around her Era’s tour. If you are in publishing you might be surprised that she has not partnered with any publisher. She has the money and the clout and the fan base to be successful without a publisher backing her. However, not all celebrity books do well. The Atlantic looks at how she might upend the model and will there be room for a traditional publishing partnership down the trail.

 

The biggest author publishing conference happened in Las Vegas this month. Written Word Media put together a takeaways article about the trends and issues that were discussed at Vegas. Collaboration is King. 

Derek Murphy ( Creativ Indie) shares his slide show presentation and talks about Authentic Creativity As A Response To Artificial Intelligence.

Back in the day when Twitter was young and had no inkling of what a new owner might do, the publishing world flocked to the social media site. Then things changed. Publishing industry folks left for other pastures and it became harder to get back the tribe you used to have. Bluesky has spent the last week adding almost a million users a day and the publishing industry people started to flock together. Rachel Thompson takes a look at whether Bluesky will work for writers. 

 

Darcy Pattison has put together an excellent article on how to take a rights released book from Traditional Publishing and give it a whole new lease of life. Those books that didn’t get their series finished or didn’t find their audience don’t have to be consigned to the dustbin.

If you are struggling with NaNoWriMo this month you are not alone. Elinor Florence writes on Jane Friedman’s blog about how she got through the train wreck of her own NaNoWriMo project.  

In The Craft Section,

Going deeper with characterization- Lisa Hall Wilson- Bookmark

Balancing your cast of characters- September Fawkes

Don’t tie your story up in a neat bow- P J Parrish- Bookmark

How to write great dialogue- C S Lakin- Bookmark

What is your characters wounding event- Sue Coletta

 

In the Marketing Section,

Is your target readership meaningful to agents and publishers- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

5 essential steps to maximise your books success-Written Word Media- Bookmark

Social Media engagement- a how to from Hootsuite- Comprehensive

What to do when book sales start slipping- Thomas Umstattd- Bookmark

Turbocharging book sales with preorders- Mark Coker

 

To Finish

It’s Black Friday this week and there are deals galore for writers out there. You can check out Dave Chesson’s huge list of deals. 

If you are thinking about  Christmas/ Holiday gifts check out Sandra Beckwith’s big list of goodies designed for writers.

Infostack have their big bundle of writer resources on sale again.

Yes, It’s that time of the year already. The Credit Card Crunch!

 

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 Tirza van Dijk on Unsplash

Making A Buck

 

In Publishing News this week.

After the wailing and gnashing of teeth against AI, the consensus within the trade publishing fraternity is how can we make it worthwhile for us. Jane Friedman has an interesting article on Publishers Licensing Material For AI- hopefully this will trickle down to the authors.

 

Meanwhile, the Copyright Clearance Center, (The US Copyright office) has announced a new subscription tier that can make available to AI companies content licensed for AI reuse. Publishing Perspectives have a rundown on the subscription model and the CCC’s commitment to being Pro AI and Pro Copyright. (It’s OK if your head hurts over that statement- mine does too.) 

 

To help everyone navigate the tricky world of AI rights – there are now market places for selling content rights to AI. Check out what the founder of Scribd is doing with his new startup. (There’s money in them thar AI hills.)

 

With the emphasis on writers being authentic or as Joanna Penn puts it ‘doubling down on being human’ Alison Williams has a post about the platform that authors need now – and it is not Social Media.

 

For those who have one eye on the elections happening in the near future Kathleen Schmidt has a thoughtful post on the publishing industries responsibilities to free speech and allowing a platform for divisive and dangerous rhetoric. 

We who look on from the other side of the world see the three world areas of conflict being, Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, and American vs American. All of them filling us with a deep disquiet.

 

Techcrunch reports on Spotify’s moves to have more connections between listeners and creators. They are allowing comments on podcasts and are looking to gradually roll out these and similar features across all their streaming programes. 

 

London Libraries or Librarians are promoting a new app to get Londoners to read more. It’s called ReadOn and has quiz questions, reading club, recommendations for your next book… everything to promote the beach read into a year long activity.

 

Bookfunnel has a great article from Katie Cross on creating landing pages with Bookfunnel for selling purposes.

 

Anne R Allen is taking a break from her great blog over summer as she has some deadlines to meet. However, she has links to some great blogs to drop in on so you can keep up to date. I was touched that she included Craicer in the list. Thankyou Anne.

 

Lithub has an interesting article on the millennial mid life crisis book. I wasn’t aware that millennials are even ready for a midlife crisis, I thought they had a few decades to go.

 

Joanna Penn has an interesting interview with Kimboo York on fan fiction and serialization. Check out the podcast /transcript.

 

With Katie Weiland bringing out an updated version of her story structure book she is posting a series of posts on that topic. Check out the intro to story structure article.

In The Craft Section,

How to use Goal Motivation and Conflict to test story ideas- Alex Cavanaugh- Bookmark

Mispronunciation- Kathy Steinemann

The secret to page turning scene endings-Lisa Poisso- Bookmark

Editing tricks of the trade- Terry Odell- Bookmark

The matter of titles- Barbara Linn Probst- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

August book promotion opportunities- Sandra Beckwith

Introverted writers can market effectively- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

The lazy authors guide to platform- David Gaughran

How to change Kindle keywords- Dave Chesson- Bookmark

How to make a cinematic booktrailer.- Reedsy.

 

To Finish,

With the news cycle making everyone anxious, escaping into a good book offers the reader time out from the insanity. James Scott Bell has a great post about old time pulp writers and how they could keep the reader glued to the page. Telling emotional stories, keeping everyone spell bound. Those are our superpowers. That is what separates us from the software programs.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Its nearly time for the 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 virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

Shopping For Ideas

 

In Publishing News This Week,

 

In a surprise move this week Small Press Distribution closed its doors. This came as a shock to all its clients who just 24 hours earlier were being told of their great new partnership with Ingram. Publisher’s Weekly reports on the news and what clients can do now to save their books.

 

Also making surprise moves is the Indigo Books and Music chain in Canada. They have sold the publicly listed company back in house and are taking it off the stock exchange. Indigo has been losing money and got hit with a cyber-attack that crippled them for months. Publisher’s Weekly reports that they are going back to the basics of bookselling which means selling books, not merchandise.

 

Spotify is continuing to roll out its premium audiobook service to customers. This week Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand are being wooed to sign up.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that China’s publishing industry looks in good shape with kids’ books leading the way. Also, they have been experimenting with short form video to drive sales. I wonder where they learned that trick….

 

Italy has had a great culture card that they gifted to their 18 year olds to spend on books and theater experiences for a year. This propped up their publishing industry through Covid. Now Italy is tweaking the eligibility criteria and publishers are nervous. 

 

Fast Company magazine examines how Harper Collins has become more sustainable by tweaking their font and saving paper. 

 

Joanna Penn has been updating her Book Launch Blueprint  and she shares the chapter on Book Marketing. Meanwhile, Penny Sansevieri has some interesting thoughts on how to navigate book marketing when there is a tsunami of books being published.

 

Ruth Harris has a great post on listening to your subconscious. The muse has a thousand faces. But sometimes you have to get out of your own way to tap into that story telling gold.

 

Angela Ackerman is talking psychology this week. We are all hardwired for stories. Angela explains that writers need to tap into reader psychology and cognitive dissonance to write an unforgettable story.

 

Kristen Hacken South writes an interesting article on Writer Unboxed about emotional resonance. How much emotion is too much. How do you find the balance between flatline and melodrama. A great article.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to write a gripping inciting incident- Angie Andriot- Bookmark

Vonnegut’s rules for writers explained- James Scott Bell - Bookmark

How to choose story settings- K M Weiland - Bookmark

What are pinch points and where do they go- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

Set your intention first.- Sarah Hamer

 

In The Marketing Section,

Booktips to save money- Penny Sansevieri

Connection over promotion- Katie Sadler- Bookmark

Pros and cons of book giveaways- AJ Yee- Bookmark

Lead generation landing pages- Convertkit- Bookmark

How effective is social media?- Rachel Thompson

Easiest way to get Book Reviews- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

A couple of times a year Kris Rusch curates a writing craft book collection on Storybundle. You pay what you like to get access to some great ebooks. If you pay over a particular threshold you get the whole bundle with exclusives, extras, and support a worthwhile charity. The money goes directly to the authors, so this is a win/win/win. It is a limited time offer so check it out and score some bargains. I have filled up my Kindle with great craft books from these bundles over the years. Don’t forget, you can claim writing craft books on your tax.

 

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 Eduardo Soares on Unsplash

 

Jumping Off With Your Eyes Open

 

In Publishing News this week.

Just after I posted my blog last week the news broke all over the publishing blogosphere that Findaway Terms Of Service had changed and they were doing an all in rights grab. I figured that instead of posting breaking news I would wait and see what happened and tell you this week. So, to recap for those in the back, Findaway was a nifty little startup that authors could put their audiobooks on without the punitive contracts and royalty grabbing that Amazon Audible locked authors into. Yay. 

They grew fast and everything was good and then Spotify bought them. Wow, said their authors, we’re playing with the big boys. Audible took a hit. Everything was fine, until Findaway’s TOS changed last week. The screams were deafening. 

Check out Author Beware for just what the terms are now and whether you should accept them.

Spotify/Findaway shouted, it’s all a mistake, all’s well, nothing to see here, as they quickly backpedaled most of the terms. 

Except, canny pundits said- Aha, we were waiting for this. They screwed musicians and now they are coming for us. Kris Rusch breaks this down and lays out the pros and cons.

What to do? 

First, Take a deep breath. Decide what you want your audiobook platform to be. Discoverability, a little money on the side, all in formats, human narrators, AI narrated shorts…

There are other discoverability platforms out there for Audiobooks- Many have ditched Spotify for Author Republic, who distribute to 50 other retailers including Spotify. (I hope they have looked at their terms of service well.) 

If you have a high traffic website of your own – Bookfunnel now delivers audiobooks. 

However, if you see the world in Entertainment- Subscription streaming is where movies and TV shows are. Spotify has all but captured the music business and are making big inroads into podcasts and now Audiobooks. If Netflix has your eyes, then Spotify has your ears. Can you afford to ditch them or do you play them like a lute- giving some of your content to Spotify and encouraging your fans to go to you direct.

If anything about the last week has taught authors, it’s that corporations who rely on creative content for money don’t care about the rights of the content providers. Read the TOS carefully and go in with your eyes open. 

 

In Other News...

TOR Books (Big SciFi publisher) has been caught using Ai images in cover art. They said they bought them legit but the artists whose work it is say that Ai’s ripped off their work. So even the legit Ai platforms are dodgy- who knew? 

 

London Bookfair has been announcing their programming. Publishing Perspectives details the special guests and what extra book events they have on offer.

 

Late January is when the Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators have their Winter conference. They have a great blog where they write up key moments and presentations from the speakers. Children’s Book Illustrator Debbie Ohi has a great post on picture books behind the scenes- excellent for new illustrators with tips of the trade.

 

The Week has a post on Romantasy - the hot new genre. Hmm I’m not sure it’s new, its been around for a while- think hot romance inside a fantasy novel.

 

Jane Friedman has a guest post  from Tiffany Yates Martin on why and how you can sabotage an important reveal in your story. It’s all about context.

 

Anne R Allen has a super post on action, dialogue, and business. Action is not violence it can be anything. But if you have too much action you can bore the reader as well. Use your action wisely.

 

In The Craft Section,

Perform your own developmental edit- WrittenWordMedia- Bookmark

3 kinds of Story Fuel, goal desire, and search- Barbara Linn Probst- Bookmark

Scene structure- September Fawkes

Tension suspense and conflict-Lynette Burrows- Bookmark

How To find Beta Readers- Now Novel

 

In The Marketing Section,

Amazon A+ Content Sandra Beckwith – Bookmark

Social Media and the author platform- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

What is a Book discovery platform - Alli Blog

How to go viral on TikTok- Hina Pandya

Booktok tips for writers- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Platform. Your platform. Their platform. Publishers platform. Distributors platform.

You can be forgiven for thinking it is all too much - let me hide.

The most basic understanding is how you are represented online. It could be a webpage, a website, an email contact, Amazon Author page. Whatever it is you need to be aware of it and be in control of it. Colleen Story has 5 reasons to update your author platform. It doesn’t have to be hard. Imagine you are an enthusiastic reader- how could you find out about your favourite books?

Just don’t have mind boggling Terms Of Service for your fans!

Maureen

@craicer 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. 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 shout me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. It feeds my caffeine addiction. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by vherliann on Unsplash