Plot Twists

 

In Publishing News this week,

News broke this week that Amazon was shutting the doors on Book Depository. The warehouses are based in the UK and had free delivery to anywhere in the world. This was a boon if you were looking for a hard to find book and postage was prohibitive. Now there are lots of job cuts. While everyone was wailing about the news, Mark Williams started drawing some comparisons to what else Amazon is doing to its book business. This is a big flag to book consumers!

 

Also closing their doors is Overdrive’s eBook library app Overdrive. They are putting all their energy and promotion into the Libby App for libraries. 

 

Publishing Perspectives have an article on the upcoming London Book Fair which will have Sustainability as a major new programming initiative. They have speakers and panels devoted to this and how publishing can clean up their carbon footprint throughout the duration of the fair. Comments on this range from "it’s about time," to "print on demand would take care of the carbon wastage of stripping and returns." Will the publishers be asking the hard questions about their sustainability practices?

 

Publishing Pirates got taken down in India- They were pirating … print copies. 

 

In AI News. (It’s too big to ignore the impact it will have on publishing so better to have some knowledge of the issues.)

A writer got Chat GPT to write a novel and detailed how he did it. It’s for sale. 115 pages 0 input from a human.

Chat GPT has been blocked in Italy with Open AI (its parent) being taken to court over Data Protection (GDPR) violations which will be a test case for the EU. This may be the slow down that the Tech founders were looking for. There is nothing like a lengthy court battle to slow things down. 

Meanwhile, an Australian mayor is also taking Open AI to court over the falsehoods claimed by ChatGPT that he was a criminal. Many users have noted that the first paragraph is alright but subsequent paragraphs are so much fantasy that you can’t rely on it at all to state the facts.

John Fox has 26 ways an author can use ChatGPT- (Be very aware of what you are doing.)

Kris Rusch has a MUST READ article on copyright and Chat GPT and MidJourney- Can you afford a court case?

 

Matt Holmes has a great guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog on the 4 pillars of marketing. This is a print out and read primer on what to do to make it easier on yourself and how to tackle book marketing. 

 

Anne R Allen has a great article on how much description you should be putting in your novel or memoir. Some genres need it more than others.

 

In The Craft Section,

Story verbing- Storyempire- Bookmark

How to write exotic settings- Sarah Hamer

A framework for moving past your first draft- Amy Bernstein -Bookmark!

How to listen to your protagonist- Sarah Bradley- Bookmark

Saggy Middle ? Use conflict- Sacha Black

Got 15 minutes- how to fill it with writing 500 words- Colleen Story – Bookmark!

 

In The Marketing Section,

5 tips to balance bookmarketing with writing- Colleen Story

F.A.R. Marketing – Angela Ackerman

2 interesting articles from Bookbub- How to use Bookbub ads tutorial and Insights About Bookbub 

subscribers- Bookmark Both

What to expect when pitching a book for film rights- Penny Sansevieri

ALLI Podcast Best use of your time with limited money- Bookmark 

 

To Finish,

A good plot twist keeps you on the edge of your seat. I have stayed up all night to finish books… complained to author friends that their twist at 2 AM meant I didn’t sleep. This is the drug that keeps a reader chained to your book. They have to know what happens next!

Setting up the twist takes careful thought and almost invisible clues. James Scott Bell has a great post on micro scenes and Laurel Osterkamp has an interesting collection of tips for creating plot twists that create suspense.

 

As I was compiling this week’s blogpost news I kept thinking I was reading plot twists for the book ‘publishing as we know it now.’ I think the ending will be a zinger!

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed with marketing notes as a thank you. 

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 Bansah Photography on Unsplash

Giving Gifts

 

In Publishing News

Penguin Random House CEO Marcus Dohle is stepping down after ten years at the helm of the biggest publisher on the planet. Publishing Perspectives looks at the impact Marcus has had on the Traditional Book Publishing Industry. Meanwhile, Mark Williams gives a less glowing report on Marcus Dohle’s tenure. Ouch! The fallout from that court case is still ongoing.

 

The USA Today Bestseller list is on hiatus. The news broke leaving writers in consternation. The USA Today list was a fair stab at the real numbers of the bestselling books as opposed to the *curated* numbers from The New York Times. The editor of the list was let go as a cost-cutting measure. This could be an early warning of Christmas layoffs in the publishing business.

 

Publisher’s Weekly reports that Amazon is tightening its offerings by cutting magazine and newspaper subscriptions. Also on the block is Textbook print rentals. What will be next?

 

It is looking like an AI wild west out there. The big news has been GPT3’s chatbot which has shifted the game of AI text generation. This morning I saw an article written about a particular indigenous cultural practice in our country written by the GPT3 AI that was lyrical, informed, and accurate. That an AI wrote it was mind-blowing. So where do we go from here? If you are a publisher it could be useful says Nieman labs. If you are an Artist or using AI Art, strap in for Chuck Wendig’s take on it. Techcrunch reports that OpenAI is experimenting with watermarks for AI art. After this morning’s article, I think text might need this too.

 

Kris Rusch continues to look at the publishing year in review. This week, the relevance of Traditional Publishing.

 

Richard Charkin has written an opinion column in Publishing Perspectives about the three gifts he would like to see under Publishing’s tree. I’ve got to agree with all of them! What About You?

 

Judith Briles has an interesting series of 3-minute focus YouTube videos on writing and marketing. Check out this one on organizing writing files.

 

In The Craft Section,

Foreshadowing- Jami Gold – Bookmark

How to write a thriller- Reedsy- Bookmark

Where to start developing a story- Scott Myers

Dealing with multiple drafts during revisions- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Mining Abandoned Projects – James Scott Bell

 

In The Marketing Section,

Video Camera shy tips- Amy Rodgers Nazarov- Bookmark

Creating single author box sets- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Updating Amazon Book and Author pages- Elizabeth S Craig - Bookmark

Holiday promotion tips- Bookbaby

How to create a newsletter- Sendinblue

 

To Finish,

The Dream Team Angela and Becca have a great Christmas gift for writers – A free webinar on secrets to engaging readers. 

This is the last blog for the year. 

It has been a challenging year on the home front and I am ready for some downtime over Christmas and New Year. The blog will be back mid-January.

In the meantime, you can read past blog posts for great craft and marketing tips.

Leave reviews for other authors (Feel free to share the top image around.) 

Check out the First Book (Ebook) in the Circus Quest series for FREE or get any of my children's Ebooks for HALF PRICE. 

 

Wishing you all a peaceful holiday break.

Maureen

@craicer

 

There is a bumper newsletter with goodies coming to all subscribers soon so don’t forget to subscribe.

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee or eggnog for Christmas, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate all the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Writing Challenges

 

 

It’s been a challenging week on the home front so apologies for no roundup last week. 

 

In Publishing News this week,

Tiktok is selling books- Yes, this is old news I can hear you say… but No, TikTok has partnered with Bookshop.org to create a Bookselling platform right in the app. It was only a matter of time.

Another company spreading its wings is Written Word Media- home of the Book Marketing email lists. They have partnered with Yonder, a serialized fiction app. They see it as curated a list of previously published fiction that is serialized. Didn’t Dicken’s do this? This could be an interesting way to mine your backlist.

 

And is Amazon price fixing again? Publishers Weekly reports that a new lawsuit is on the books involving Amazon and the big 5 and the pricing of ebooks. 

Maybe they saw something of interest in the recent lawsuit judgment against PRH and Simon And Schuster which you can read here.

 

This week a theme emerged. Every time I opened my laptop there was another post on writing and mental health. So dip into these.

5 strategies to prevent perfectionism with writer self-care by Lisa Towles

Small changes that can make big differences in your writing life by Beth Barany

9 things writers need to know about Trauma and Mental Health by Lisa Hall Wilson

 

As the country gets hit with lightning strikes and wild weather, this post popped up as a timely reminder of what writers can do to prepare for the worst mother nature can throw at us. There are some good tips in here to keep you from losing all your work. If you are congratulating yourself on storing everything in the cloud – just hope your server isn’t hit by lightning.

 

Indie thought leaders Orna Ross, Joanna Penn, Jane Friedman, and Becca Syme recently shared their thoughts on publishing trends and how to predict and profit from them. 

 

James Scott Bell, one of the best writing teachers around has an interesting article over on  The Killzone Blog about the writer quadruple threat. Do you qualify? If you are weak in any of the main areas it might be time to upskill yourself.

 

In The Craft Section

How to describe a location you have never visited?- Angela Ackerman

Surprising your reader in every scene.- September Fawkes- Bookmark

On Story Death and Life- Writer Unboxed

Clarity in the writing- Patrick McNulty - Bookmark

Emotion amplifiers- Angela Ackerman

Killing your darlings- Ruthanne Reid- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Using the right Font- Jessica Bell - Bookmark

Best practice for marketing on Kindle- The Fussy Librarian- Bookmark

You don’t need a platform if you can find an audience- Catherine Baab-Muguira- Bookmark

Why you should care about Library distribution.- Draft2Digital

5 steps to author success - Joanna Penn interviewing Rachel McLean  Bookmark

 

To Finish,

As we near the end of the year, and what a year it has been, thoughts turn to writer gifts.

If you need to hand your family some gift inspiration, get them to check out these two sites. Sandra Beckwith has pulled together 30 great gifts for writers, and Shayla Raquel adds to this with some wonderful extra ideas. 

Of course, one of the best things you can give your writer is time… so don’t forget to mention mini writing retreats – where the family goes away or you go away, or time banking where the usual chores are looked after by someone else so the writer can get more time in front of the keyboard.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed with marketing notes as a thank you. 

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 Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Taking Time to Recharge

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

 

The new Tutulia app is making little waves in the book community. The App uses a Machine learning AI to recommend your next read based on the information you feed it. The AI scrapes all the book sites and reviews and buzz to pull together a list of books that will suit you. As Ingram is a founder investor you can buy the book from inside the app and Ingram will print it and ship it to you. This is next Gen thinking.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that Bonnier owned Bookbeat is expanding Europe. They seem to be competing in the Audiobook sector with Storytel. They want to increase more competition in Audiobooks. Their pricing subscription reflects this with by the hour of listening instead of monthly fees.

 

Mark Williams has an optimistic view of the big book fairs happening in the Middle East. They are back to clocking up a million visitors and audio looks like it will be taking off there as well with audio subscription services chasing this big market. Publishers should be taking note of the expanding audio markets.

 

Kris finishes The How Writers fail series with a pithy article on quitting too soon. This is a thought provoking article on how writers can self-sabotage their writing. 

 

Sam Missingham has a great newsletter called The Empowered Author. She has her finger on the pulse of the UK publishing scene and is often amplifying authors across social media. Recently she updated her fabulous post on all the different ways Author Collectives operate and their value to the writers involved. ( So of course I would be all over it.)

 

Recently Dan Blank was commenting on generosity as a book marketing idea. He has some really interesting examples of how this has been playing out in the author community.

 

Terry Odell on The Killzone blog recently wrote about giving yourself permission to step back from your writing. Sometimes life gets in the way and writers can tie themselves into knots trying to get their word count in or their projects finished. This is a great little article.

If you need to take a longer creative rest- check out Orna Ross and Joanna Penn’s latest podcast transcript. Joanna has just walked the Santiago Camino Trail and talks about how she is structuring creative rests into her writing calendar.

 

If you are preparing for NaNoWriMo which starts in November, Don’t Forget to check out all the good offers/ deals available for participants. (pssst Scrivener is on sale)

 

James Scott Bell is a great writing craft teacher. I have a few of his books and they are constant dip-ins when you get stymied. He is guest posting over on Anne R Allens’s Blog with a great 10 commandments of writing post- This is print out gold!

 

In The Craft Section,

7 tips to add complexity to the story- K M Weiland- Bookmark

2 tips to amp up the conflict- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Handwriting vs Typing- Kay DiBianca

Prologues- Do we need them?- Janice Hardy – Bookmark

Fear Theasaurus- Not being believed- Angela Ackerman Becca Puglisi

 

In The Marketing Section,

Marketing beyond the bookstore

7 strategies to focus on book marketing- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Publishing resources Free downloads- Shala Raquel- Bookmark

The key elements of eye-catching book design- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

How to publish a Hardcover book on Amazon

 

To Finish,

It’s Frankfurt Bookfair time which means The Alliance of Independent Authors runs one of their free online conferences. SelfPubCon. Check out the link to see who the speakers are this year and sign up. The sessions are all prerecorded and usually 30 minutes long and chock full of information. It is free and there are often neat little deals and competitions on offer.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed with marketing notes as a thank you. 

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 Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Returning To The Good Old Days

 

Apologies for missing in action last week. After two years of being extremely careful, doing everything I can to stay well in the pandemic, I fell victim to the virus. It has not been a fast recovery.

 

This week in publishing...

The big news - Amazon finally listening to authors about the returns policy which had been pushed by Tiktok influencers (Return the book after you’ve read it for a refund.) With authors being stung for the file delivery costs and knowing that the books were being read in full, it has been a long time coming for redress, and still won’t be happening until the end of the year.

 

Cover designers are feeling unloved as AI image bots sample all their pictures to make up an AI generated image. This was the argument put forward by writers a few years ago. AI Bots were sampling out of copyright books to learn how to write. If they use your IP shouldn’t you get paid? Image sites are now banning AI images.

 

The Economist has an article on the changing physical nature of print books. Back in World War 2 there was a huge shortage of paper and ink so books were printed in small font on thinner paper. Now we are seeing this rationing come back.

 

Spotify has launched its audiobook service. Findaway is encouraging authors to sign up for an account to get access to Spotify. Many commentators are likening this to the advent of the Kindle and how it changed publishing.

 

Storytel has launched into France and is using this as a springboard to the French speaking world. Audio subscription is the future of publishing. Books are an entertainment medium and will be folded into subscription services one way or the other.

 

The Bookseller has a hard-hitting article from an editor who stepped away from publishing. After a year working on their mental health, they felt ready to shine a spotlight on the publishing culture that needs to change.

 

Katie Weiland has a wealth of interesting craft focussed posts on her site. Recently she posted an interesting deep dive into plotting and how to tell if your story is too complicated. This is a great post that offers much deep thinking on plot motivations.

 

In The Craft Section, 

Why Plots Fail- Tiffany Martin

What to do with a stalled first draft- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

Writer Brain hacks- Kelsey Allagood- Bookmark

How to form your bestseller in 10 days- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

Fun tricks to freshen up plot- Janice Hardy

 

In The Marketing Section,

Audiobook marketing for authors- The Alliance of Independent Authors- Bookmark

5 ways to use community marketing- Amanda Miller

2 Posts from Penny Sansevieri - How to sell your book to bookstores and 

October content marketing ideas for Social Media

How to make a boxset and other ways to repurpose your book -Written Word Media- BOOKMARK

 

To Finish,

Joanna Penn interviewed Barry Nugent recently on Transmedia projects and Graphic Novels. It is a wide-ranging interview but what struck me is the way a creative team was pulled together to work on one project which then morphed into a whole world of stories and creative projects set in the original story world. There are a few groups out there who are using this creative model to launch publishing companies. 

When you are lying sick in bed it can be tempting to just let your mind float into someone else’s story world and create an adventure without the grind of inventing the story world to start with.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter of the best bookmarked links. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed with marketing notes as a thank you. 

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 Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Seize The Typewriter

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

Amazon has made some changes to what they refer to as low content. These are journals and workbooks, which are now being filed under stationery items. If you create workbooks for your books or seminars you may want to check out the new rules. First up you will need your own ISBN for them.

 

Publishers Weekly reported on a panel discussion at the US Book show on what a healthy publishing industry looks like. There was a general consensus that publishing is feeling the miasma of the last few years. Just in time supply chains have been hit with delays… Writers have been hit hard… Publishing has to compete with other forms of entertainment. Who knew? The CEO’s discussing these woes almost want a back to the future style intervention. 

 

Meanwhile over in Canada, Kobo has been quietly adding Arabic to their list of publishing languages. CEO, Michael Tamblyn addressed the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair announcing the move and talking about the advantages of having a global perspective on publishing and cultural understanding. 

 

Amazon has started a monthly Book Club. I guess it was inevitable with the rise of book club influencers that Amazon would begin to carve out a space. Amazon’s editorial director, Sarah Gelman, is running Sarah Selects. However, in a nice twist, Amazon is opening up Book Clubs to everyone. You too can host a book club.  

 

The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting article on the rise of Literary Agents producing content for streaming services, film, and TV. Meanwhile, magazine publishers are building in-house production arms to take advantage of properties they already own.

 

Recently Joanna Penn interviewed Derek Sivers on selling direct, independence, and being open to technological change. Derek has some interesting ideas on publishing, describing it as ‘Networking for Introverts.’ 

 

Sandra Beckwith has a great article on how to position yourself to get local publicity for your book. You may think any publicity is good publicity but Anne R Allen has a great article on when this is the wrong idea. How bad marketing can destroy your author brand, lose friends, and influence nobody

 

Kris Rusch continues her How Writers Fail series. This week she looks at expectations. Are you putting unrealistic expectations on yourself? Are you unconsciously loading the dice against your own writing succeeding?

 

Stephanie Morrill wrote an interesting article on The Go Teen Writer website- 7 ideas to help you get through a hard writing season. These hard writing seasons strike everybody, even multi-published award winners. Sometimes there seems to be no outside reason for a writing slump. Stephanie has some ideas to help. 

Elizabeth S Craig looks at how maintaining a regular writing habit in times of stress can trick you into feeling more in control of the situation.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to write realistic sex scenes- Ari Meghlen

3 important things to learn from editing- Colleen Story

Avoid repetitive scenes- K M Weiland- Bookmark

The importance of character psychological development- Becca Puglisi

3 ways to ramp up fiction pacing and tension- C S Lakin-Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

9 tips for marketing your first book- Penny Sansevieri

Promote your book with your own values- Sonya Huber- Bookmark

The ins  and outs of blurb requests- Liz Alterman

Market your audiobook- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

7 easy ways to refresh your website- Pauline Wiles- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

A few months ago the news was all Brandon Sanderson. If you have been under a writing rock and haven’t caught up on the phenomenon check out previous blog posts. James Scott Bell has an interesting post on how Brandon connected with his readers and puts it down to knowing yourself and what kind of writer you want to be. He has 3 tips to help you figure this out for yourself. His maxim - Carpe Typem!

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter chock full of bookmarked links. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

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 Daria Kraplak on Unsplash

 

The Sharks and The Scammers

 

 

This week in publishing,

Scammers and their scammy ways have been filling my social media this week.

 

Long Time readers of this blog will know scammers are out there. They prey on the dreams of authors and change their names and methods frequently. The hardest conversation, the one we don’t want to have, is the one where we know we are going to be pouring cold water on the dreams of Newbie writers. None of us like to do that and so many of us just stay quiet and hope they won’t be burnt too much. But these conversations are necessary. Newbies don’t know the ropes like we do. At the very least tell them to google the offers with the search term scam or complaints. 

 

A Tale of Woe was shared with me this week as a warning to authors out there. This is an Author Beware situation involving scammers targeting authors on Facebook.

Authors like to run giveaways for their fans. They use their Facebook author pages. Everything is fine until a book scammer targets them. Very quickly the author’s page is cloned. A fake page is created using copy/paste from the author's page so that it looks genuine. The scammer starts targeting page followers and giveaway entrants with friend requests. From there it’s a quick hop to asking for credit card details for book sales or sending them to fake book sites. Meanwhile, the author has no idea this is happening until the complaints come in. Facebook yanks their author page and they lose all their social media accounts. A devastating blow. What can you do? 

The author in this situation shared with me their plan to save their business. Read it carefully and check your privacy settings on Facebook. These scammers are targeting authors specifically. 

“If an author or artist discovers they've been cloned they need to act swiftly. The first 24-48 hours are one of the only opportunities to contain the problem. One emergency containment method is to temporarily make an author/artist's business Facebook page only viewable to their country. Seek guidance on methods to identify the imposters and request action from Facebook and Google to delete them from the system. Once some sort of normality is resumed then gradually different countries can be added back to the page viewing list.

Note - if the country where the imposters are based is identified it would be advisable to not add that country back to the viewing list for as long as possible. 

Google can remove 'phishing' sites within 12 hours, but Facebook offer no guarantees as to whether they can remove a profile or not. If an imposter is using a private VPN to access the internet, then they may never be found.”

Anne R Allen has a great post on how to stay safe from scammers.

 

Brenda Pollard revived an old post on how to figure out if you have received a genuine publishing offer. 

 

There are rumours on KBoards- Is Vella over before it got started? There have been grumblings about Vella from authors lately. Where are the readers for serial content on Amazon? Occasionally news does break on Kboards – Take with a grain of salt.

 

Staying with Amazon- Two publishers have filed class actions against Audible for irregularity in payments. Audiblegate is now before the courts. It promises to be an interesting court case. Here is hoping that Audible sorts out this mess that is hurting authors' pockets.

 

Kris Rusch has another great post in her series Jumping The Digital Divide – When should you get behind the hot new thing in publishing. Kris gives her reasons for a carefully considered approach. 

 

Publishers Weekly takes an in-depth look at the power of BookTok recommendations.

 

Substack- the darling of the subscription newsletter community claims the prize of Salman Rushdie to their platform. Should we take them seriously now?

 

Audiobooks wars are about to hit India with two big players eying up the 3^rd biggest market for audiobooks. The New Publishing Standard takes a look at the Indian Audiobook market.

 

Suzanne Lakin has a great post on nailing the purpose of your scene. It is a must-read.

 

In The Craft Section,

10 ways to write better plots- Now Novel- Bookmark

3 ways to strengthen a scene-James Scott Bell- Bookmark

3 rules for raising story stakes- Laurence MacNaughton- Bookmark

Revising your plot- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

Pacing and character changes- Linda Clare

 

In The Marketing Section,

QR Code generator for authors- Dave Chesson- Bookmark

Book promotion language can attract or repel readers- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Interactive storytelling -Alliance of Independent Authors transcript of conference session

A checklist for in person events- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

30 Book Marketing ideas – Nathan Bransford

 

To Finish,

Sometimes all you want to do is run away from the world and write. Headphones might block the world out but sometimes you need a little bit more. Kate from Wordsnstuff blog has made a list of writing music. She has a mix of classical white noise and film tracks. If writing to music is your thing check it out. 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full of marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.