Feeling Besieged?

 

 

Just after I published last week’s roundup I read the article from Publishers Weekly about the US Presidents comments on copyright. (Substack subscriber readers got the news early.) 

Last month the UK voted down a transparency law that would have required tech companies to compensate owners of copyrights that they had scraped in order to teach their AI’s. This was a blow to authors everywhere who see their work effectively stolen with impunity. 

The President of the United States commented this week at an AI summit that copyright was an obstacle to rapid development of AI. The comments seemed to completely undermine the new directives from the White House on AI and caused many choking fits across publishing. Publishers Weekly looks at the new playing field impacting authors and publishers.

Publishing Perspectives reports on the White House’s Action plan entitled Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan that slid out just ahead of the president’s comments. 

 

Across the pond, European Publishers and writers are having their own crisis of faith in their elected representatives over AI. Groups representing 17 million creative copyright holders are accusing the EU ignoring their rights in favour of Big Tech in the matter of the new EU AI Act. Coming at the same time as the US  statements it feels like copyright holders are getting a bashing from all sides.

 

With Writers and Publishers feeling the creative ground shifting under their feet, it didn’t help to see reports that broadcast television was also under fire from the White House. Kathleen Schmidt sounds a warning to publishers that appeasement never works. 

 

Publishers Weekly has the American sales stats from May and it makes sobering reading. Every genre has taken a hit in sales. Is it a sign of the end times or just a blip going into the northern hemisphere summer?

 

Dr Herman Kleiger has a guest post on Rachel Thompson’s excellent blog about why authors and artists get targeted in phishing scams. The Creative Artists Survival Guide to avoiding scammers.

 

Mark Williams has an interesting opinion on the passivity of publishers exploiting works in the public domain. With the entertainment world jumping on the 250^th anniversary of Jane Austen- why aren’t publishers being proactive about bringing other Public Domain works into the sun?

 

It is always worth dropping into Writer Beware to keep an eye on dubious dealings in publishing. Writer Beware is provided by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Their members have been wrestling with new contract terms being rolled out for submitters to famous Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines. Victoria explores the contract language and the fall out. If you are or hope to be signing a contract soon this is a must read of new terms and rights grabs to watch out for. If you have never seen a writer’s contract, this is essential reading.

 

In a great guest article on Jane Friedman’s blog, Orlando Ortega-Medina looks at the differences between Author Promotion and Book Promotion and why you need both. He explains that authors often confuse the two. He offers practical tips and advice to implement immediately.

 

Catherine Misener has a great article on dictation. The productivity hack hiding in plain sight. I have tried dictation a couple of times and it is great for getting words down but the cleanup is so time consuming that it doesn’t necessarily speed up anything. However, I was recently listing to a podcast where a writer said she dropped her transcript into ChatGPT and told it to punctuate the sentences. It was a game changer for her. I must get out the voice recorder again…

 

Katie Weiland has an interesting article on intentional reading for writers. If you are what you eat as the old adage goes. Do you write what you creatively consume? Is this a strength or a weakness. 

 

An AI does not have emotional intelligence. Lynette Burrows has a fantastic post on Emotional Awareness. It is your most powerful writing tool. This is a must read.

 

In The Craft Section,

A category romance primer- Juliette Hyland

Fictionalising your family-Linda Ulleseit Bookmark

Villainous words of wisdom- Dale Ivan Smith-Bookmark

The gravity of a single word- Evan Swenson

Mining for theme- Susan Fletcher- Bookmark

 

In the Marketing Section

Finding your audiobook audience- Bookfunnel podcast

What is a soft book launch- Sandra Beckwith – Bookmark

Troubleshooting Bookbub campaigns- Bookbub

The pay to play dilemma- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Where to find royalty free photo’s- Rachel Thompsom- Bookmark 

 

To Finish

If you are feeling besieged with the negative news in publishing this week, take heart there is good news out there. Recently the SelfPublishing Show had their annual conference in London. This is the largest Indie author event in Europe and over 1000 people were there. Business services for writers or publishers see these big conferences as a must attend. Written Word Media has a recap article on SPS and what the big takeaways were. They followed this up with launching a brand-new podcast on YouTube and an episode dedicated to the SPS conference. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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

 

Photo by Artur Tumasjan on Unsplash

Preparing For The Future

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

It’s Banned Books week in the United States and Penguin Random House has pushed out the truck on this literally. They have a huge truck visiting neighbourhoods and giving out children’s books that have been banned from their publishing house.

 

It was big news when Spotify bought Findaway voices last September and we waited to see what they would do. A year on and Spotify unveil their audiobooks in premium memberships in a trial run with Australia and the United Kingdom. They have negotiated deals that Publishing Perspectives report will shake Audible’s hold on the audiobook market.

 

Publisher Weekly reports on the Authors Guild author income survey- Why do we write again? It’s not for the money.

 

Wattpad wants to offer its creators more money so they have launched a new tier called Originals. You can pay for the latest chapter in your serial story or wait until it’s all finished. It’s like Netflix for authors.

 

Mike Shatzkin writes this week about AI and publishing. Mike has largely retired form advising big publishing companies so it’s always interesting when he writes an article on current trends. Just when you think you know what a commentator would say- they surprise you. Mike thinks AI is a good thing for publishing.

 

Another who thinks the Publishing industry is short sighted on AI is Mark Williams. He has a long form essay on how Publishers are tackling issues around AI- is it a tool, a threat, a higher form of achievement or copyright theft?

 

Seth Godin uses Chat GPT to come up with good questions to ask Chat GPT. An interesting way of editing your work.

 

Copyright is at the heart of AI. Who owns AI copyright. The machine or the prompter? Is it fair use to train AI on whole books? If a machine can replicate someone’s style is it a breach of copyright? Whatever you think, you do need to have a working knowledge of copyright and how it impacts your publishing business.

Kris Rusch writes about making sure you have the right licenses and why you need to print them out.

 

People who have mastered dictation swear by the ease of writing. You get articles like this one- I wrote a novel in a day- Nick Thacker on Writers in the Storm. Nick goes into detail about what tools he uses. Meanwhile, over on Jane Friedman’s blog Sarah Sawyer talks about how dictation can free up your writing time.

 

It’s that age old writer struggle- How do you feel when you kill off a nice character? 

Robin Rivera writes that picking the reason you want to kill off the character is just as important as choosing the character you want to kill- She has four reasons you might want to do this.

 

In The Craft Section,

Crafting unforgettable character arcs- C S Lakin- Bookmark

Fake swearing and how to write it- StopGap

5 mistakes that reverse social justice messages- Mythcreants

Mastering character description without info dumps- Lisa Hall Wilson- Bookmark

Going to your unhappy place- Donald Maass- Bookmark

Writing Mystery – DabbleWriter- Comprehensive

 

In The Marketing Section,

Honesty in book marketing – Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Your books most powerful marketing tool- Greer Macallister

Playlists for your books- Heather Weidner

Non salesy social media content for authors- Dan Parsons- Bookmark

10 easy steps to get your website back to life- Karen Cioffi- Bookmark

October Social Media content- WolfSparrow- Bookmark

 

To Finish

October – or in the publishing world… getting ready for NaNoWriMo. 

There are a few good articles out there on NaNoPrepMo but if you go to the source- The NaNoWriMo official website,  you can get a huge checklist of ideas and resources to get your preparation for National Novel Writing Month underway.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links and some 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 shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Sylas Boesten on Unsplash

Collaboration or Not.

In publishing news this week,

The cockygate case has been resolved… by the withdrawal of the lawsuit. Some of the parties are said to be happy with the outcome. 

Walmart and Kobo are set to rattle the ebook cage a little. A joint venture between the biggest chain store in America and Kobo e-readers could change the look of the ebook industry in the very very near future.

This week Publishing Perspectives had an article about the new publishing city one-stop-shop marketplace, palace in Sharjah that I found very interesting. If you have an eye to the Arabian market they are looking for good partnerships. However the main interview subject was with a rep from Austin Macauley, a firm that has been suspected of dubious practices. David Gaughran took them to task about giving this firm legitimacy.

Publishers Weekly had an interesting article this week. What editors wished authors knew and what authors wished editors knew. Some interesting takeaways here.

Maisie Williams has started a nifty app for creative people to come together and work with each other. Techcrunch has the in-depth interview.

Kris Rusch has taken a look at what happens when business over-capitalize and fail. What’s this got to do with writing? You are a small business. Are you being sucked into the Amazon easy money stream?

Ruth Harris has written a nifty article on what to do with your old manuscripts. No, don’t use them for fire starters… get in there and mine them.

Have you tried dictating? I keep thinking I will and then floundering and giving up. Joanna Penn interviews Christopher Downing on practical tips for dictating your manuscript. These tips make a lot of sense.

September Fawkes has an interesting article on genius. What does it mean to be gifted? How does that apply to writing you ask? Read and find out.

In The Craft Section,

18 ways to writer funnier- Writers Digest

How to dump info without dumping- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Punctuation without tears- The Creative Penn- Bookmark

How many POV characters does a book need?- Marcy Kennedy

7 ways to write thematically pertinent antagonists- K M Weiland-Bookmark

Complications, reversals and roadblocks-Go Into The Story

MS Word styles and formatting- Joel Friedlander- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Book signing event tool kits- BuildBookBuzz

Two great posts from Penny Sansevieri 6 reasons to revise and re-release your book- and

5 ways to sell more books for the holidays start now- Bookmark

Ebook pricing- Written Word Media- Bookmark

How to reach the right readers- Diana Urban- Bookmark

18 Book marketing tips- Frances Caballo

How to update your book without losing your reviews- Kat Tilton 

To Finish,

Reedsy has a great info graphic article on the hero’s journey- just right for all you teachers of creative writing out there. 

Decoist has an article on closet office nooks. I write on the kitchen table because I can’t find my desk under the piles of ‘temporary’ stuff placement that my family think is fine. My dream is an office just for me… in the meantime maybe I can find space in a closet… 

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes.  I’m heading into NZ Book Awards Week… hopefully with an all clear from the Doc. If you want to shout me a coffee to get through it, feel free to hit the Kofi button. Thank you to my caffeine sponsors!

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Dwyane Madden