Book Bans – The Non Gift for Writers

 

In Publishing News this week

 

In another blow for libraries in the United States, the supreme court has denied an appeal to re consider a book banning case in Texas. The decision affects three states and affects the freedom to access information. Publisher’s Weekly reports on the impacts that are likely to freedom of speech. 

 

The judgments being handed down on the United States courts have a bearing on publishing worldwide according to a symposium on Future Proofing Equality in Children’s Publishing held recently in the United Kingdom. Most of these book banning judgements center around children’s books. With diversity, equity, and inclusion hot topics in children’s publishing, the flow on effects from the US are impacting children’s books worldwide. Publishing Perspectives report on the symposium highlighted the increase in books being dropped before publication just in case they might violate some US ban.

 

The School Library Journal published an open letter from the owner of Lee And Low Publishing about the danger of soft censorship. Jason Low exhorts publishers to keep publishing inclusive titles. Soft censorship is a slippery slope to restriction of information. Everybody needs to get behind challenges to book banning including publishers. 

 

PEN International is an organization supported by author groups worldwide to shine a light on writers who have been imprisoned for speaking truth to power. They are fund raising for various legal campaigns for imprisoned writers. Many well known authors have supported by donating amazing collectables to the literary auction.

 

New Zealand is one of the few countries to have a Public Lending Right. This means that writers are compensated for having books in public libraries. Recently all the PLR countries got together to have an international body reports Publishing Perspectives. They are looking to exchange ideas and international cooperation.

 

Lit Hub is reporting on the possible Netflix Warner Brothers merger and why author societies are up in arms about it. Can you see any danger in a large corporation controlling all the entertainment media? Yes, Publishing books is in entertainment media.

 

Dan Holloway reports the European Union has not exempted books from the deforestation regulations. This is going to impact publishing supply chains as paper is crucial in publishing books.  James Daunt, CEO of the largest book chains in the world told the BBC that he would sell AI produced books if someone wanted to buy them. Watch for new dartboard pictures in publishing offices.

 

Mark Leslie Lefavbre is a well respected commentator on publishing. He has done pretty much every job in it. He has an essay on how the traditional slush pile has moved out of the publishing in-box and into the digital publishing sphere. He makes some great points and is a must read.

 

Agent Richard Curtis looks at collaborations and how they can be richly rewarding or a nightmare of unrealistic expectations. He talks about the best projects that lend themselves to collaborations.

 

Rachel Thompon has an outstanding post on relationship based book marketing. This is the post you need when you are figuring out how to show that you are not an AI. She offers lots of tips, and reasons to stop saying buy my book everywhere.

 

Jane Friedman has been highlighting memoir this week. She has two guest posts on the process of writing memoir. It’s Not About You. Your Memoir is Someone Elses Story by Allison Williams and Why Your Memoir Feel Like its Rambling and How To Fix It by Wendy Dale.

 

 

In the Craft Section

2 excellent posts from Janice Hardy- Freshen up tired tropes and How to edit without feeling overwhelmed- Bookmark

4 ways to protect yourself when writing trauma- Rachel Warmath- Bookmark

Anticipation – writing thesaurus- Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

Trying out dictation- Gabriele Pereira

 

In the Marketing Section

2026 literary calendar- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark!

Running successful events- Jillian Forsberg- Bookmark

12 proven book marketing campaigns- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

2 different approaches to direct selling- Sacha Black and Joanna Penn (podcast)

How does a good book get discovered – Brian Feinblum

 

To Finish

It’s December which means…  Lists of gifts for writers. Lit Hub has 50 interesting gifts for writers  If you are looking for a really good resource, The Dream Team of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have a Buy One Get One Free Thesaurus sale. If you haven’t checked out these amazing books… run to their store.

 

If you have any mid grade Sci Fi and Fantasy fans, there is a book giveaway happening over December. You can even get my book Star Light for free.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

My last post for the year is next week, and Newsletter subscribers will be getting the bumper Christmas edition. You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the free 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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Understanding The Rules

In Publishing News this week

 

In the continuing saga of Baker and Taylor distributors, the physical warehouse and staff have found a buyer. Riding to the rescue is Lakeside Book Company who have snapped up their warehouse, employees, and print on demand service. 

 

Publishing Perspectives highlights the news that Tennessee is demanding libraries comply with a directive on age appropriate books- or gender politics by another name. This has widespread condemnation with PEN America among many organisations crying political interference in library management and reading.

 

The suspension of books with AI covers from New Zealand’s prestigious national book awards was reported around the world. The online discussions ranged from it shouldn’t be about the cover to we must draw a line in the sand, and this will strengthen the argument for other book awards. One of the issues raised was the time a book is in production. If you change the rules unexpectedly instead of gradually everyone has time to prepare. 

This morning the Book Awards Trust released the new rules for the New Zealand Children and Young Adults Book Awards. There is a clear clause on AI.

“ 11. Works containing AI-authored text, in part or in whole, are not eligible for entry in any category of the awards. Use of AI for research and minor editorial or formatting support is permitted. Submitters should clarify any queries they have with the awards administrator before entering. If, after submission, a work is found to include ineligible AI-generated text, it will be disallowed. Entry fees will not be refunded and submitted materials will not be returned.

Note: Ahead of the 2027 awards, the awards organisers are consulting with the children’s book sector, including with illustrators and designers, to provide clarity around the use of AI for illustrations. Potential submitters who are currently working on books that will publish during the eligibility period for the 2027 awards (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027) should bear in mind the potential for restrictions on its use for illustrations.”

Their gradual introduction of rules for illustration and AI use gives everyone who already have books in production a grace period. 

 

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators recently held a webinar on the state of the industry. Gone are the months where children’s books propped up publishers. In this brave new world SCBWI believe it’s time to make everything fresh again.

 

Tanzania has a publishing problem, reports Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard. With all the English language books flooding into the country, reading in their native language is on the decline. What to do? 

 

Elle Magazine has an interesting article on the celebrity culture of using ghost writers. The quality of your ghost writer collaborator is now the hot thing. Can you get a Pulitzer Prize writer to ghost write your book?

 

Written Word Media has a comprehensive article on the latest AI scams for writers. Sigh.

Meanwhile, in another twist Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware reports that scammers are impersonating famous writers, calling you up to sell the dream.

Let’s be careful out there. Please pass this knowledge on to newbies. It doesn’t hurt to ring the company and ask if their email is genuine but do your own google search and website contact. I know of one local writer who did this and exposed a whole scam operation from a hacked financial account.

 

Chelle Honiker of Author Automations has an interesting article on using AI to streamline all her office jobs. 

Jenny Hansen also shows how you can use AI in 8 cool non writing ways to protect your work- which means not sharing it in the first place. (Yes you can turn off sharing in AI.)

AI is a tool, you can use it as such for proofreading but the accepted practice is don’t use it for creativity. AI does not have the human experience or voice.

 

Rachel Thompson has a brilliant post on repurposing content. Have you got an article or notes filed away that you can repurpose for social media, website articles or into different bite size notes? Rachel shows you how to do more with your work.

 

Kobo Writing Life has an interesting article on the three technical skills writers need to develop. This is a good advice. Are you learning your craft? Do you keep learning? Do you reread your writing craft books? This is also the last week for the Storybundle of writing craft books. Don’t miss out.

 

In The Craft Section,

Creating subtext in deep POV- Lisa Hall-Wilson- Bookmark

Edit your book as if it’s a screenplay- Lesley Krueger

Memoir examples- Reedsy

Ethical and moral dilemmas in crime fiction- Chris Berg and Paul James Smith- Bookmark

Is your character the true antagonist- September Fawkes- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

The importance of your author website- Kobo-Bookmark

The power of the free prequel- Harshini Fernando- Bookmark

Amazon Metadata mistakes- Bookbaby

The 100 rejections challenge-Libby James-Bookmark

Ebook Distribution Deep Dive – Reedsy - Interesting

 

To Finish

As we move into the last month of the year it's gift giving season with Black Friday deals, Cyber Monday deals and then Christmas. Sandra Beckwith is first off the rank with a collection of writer gifts that you might like people to buy for you. The best gift to give a writer is reviews, book sales, a coffee, and then maybe trawl the list for something they really need.

 

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 free 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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The Spirit of The Gift

 

In Publishing News this week

 

The closure of Baker and Taylor book distributors has ongoing ripple effects throughout the book publishing industry. As the biggest book distributor to libraries, publishers are scrambling to put together dedicated sites. Small publishers are left hanging and now the implications are being felt with other book distributors. Publishers Weekly reports on Lectorum Publishing’s closure. Lectorum, the largest independent distributor of Spanish language books explains that the hits kept coming and they couldn’t overcome them. 

 

Spotify is expanding its reach again. This time into the Nordic countries home of Storytel. Storytel have just posted a third quarter profit. Europe and the American continent have been the preferred audiences to chase. I wonder which one will get to Asia or Africa first. Spotify reports that more than half of its listeners are under 35. With the younger demographic of Africa’s population, the struggle for the worlds ears between these two companies is just getting started.

 

November had three big conferences for the publishing community, Sharjah, Shanghai, and Author Nation and all of them addressed the AI conundrum. Do we? Don’t we? and How much is too much?

 

One of the keynotes of Sharjah was an address by Keith Riegert about AI tools. Publishers Weekly reports on this with the title When It Comes To AI, Adapt or Die. This is stark look at the AI tech disruption in publishing. Keith Riegert says we should treat AI as “a very intelligent but inexperienced assistant.”

 

Adding his ten cents into the mix is Mark Williams explaining that book sellers did embrace AI tools back in 2023 then walked back from it. 

 

So where does that leave us at the end of 2025. Publishing Perspectives has an article on using AI for marketing, including the recording of a panel discussion at Frankfurt. Not using it is not an option, according to the panel discussion. 

 

In my opinion, if you pass lots of junior publishing jobs to AI, how will the juniors know when AI gets it wrong or how to do the job without AI? We could lose a lot of knowledge if we let a computer do the thinking. In the publishing office it should be what is the best use of my assistant’s time? Do they understand enough about my business to use AI to my best advantage? The value of AI is speed in marketing, analysis, and productivity tools. But it is a very poor replacement for creativity. It’s the doubling down on being human that distinguishes us from a machine.

 

Publishers Weekly has an article on what’s happening in children’s publishing in China.

They are not having a fantastic year. The stats are reflected throughout the world as everybody is struggling to find children’s audiences. Where are they all and who is the competition? When I was talking to children at a recent market, they all said they read graphic novels. Producing a graphic novel is time consuming and expensive. A conundrum for the children’s publishers.

 

Joanna Penn is back from Author Nation the world’s biggest indie author conference. They had over 80 presentations and every major vendor was in attendance. Joanna gives a run down on the big topics of conversation. 

 

Richard Curtis has an excellent post on the profit and loss statement. For many in the publishing world this is the most important piece of paper in the office. And one that is not talked about. Understanding this document is key to every publishing decision.

 

Rachel Thompson has an excellent article on subscribers and their importance in marketing. I was recently talking to a publisher about owning your audience and Rachel’s article explains how your free newsletter subscribers are just as valuable as your paid ones. 

 

Michelle Barker (writing on the dream teams blog) has an excellent article on the qualities of a successful writer. It is not about sales. 

 

Dave King has an interesting article on Writer Unboxed about Redshirts. This is shorthand in the writing community for the character that is only there to die. If you are thinking about killing off a character, are you using their death wisely? 

 

In the Craft Section,

Microtension- a must in fiction- C S Lakin- Bookmark

Character layer by layer reveals-Patricia CrisaFulli- Bookmark

Crafting memorable sidekicks- Elizabeth Spann Craig

Is your protagonist the main character- September Fawkes- Bookmark

3 things silent movies can teach you- Janice Hardy

 

In the Marketing Section

Bookmarketing requires patience- Sandra Beckwith

Free Bookfunnel marketing guides- Bookfunnel- Bookmark

22 ways to grow your email list- Bookbub- Bookmark!

Strategies to get into libraries- IngramSpark

Author branding – Kindlepreneur- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

It’s that time of year where everywhere you look there are Black Friday deals along with Cyber Monday deals. It’s a sign of cultural capitalistic dominance when a holiday only relevant in America spreads around the world as an exhortation to spend money as a way of celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. Why not flip this on its head and show your thanks to your fellow authors by reviewing their books or subscribing to their patreon or buying them a coffee. If you are hanging out for Black Friday deals for writers then the dream team Angela and Becca have great website discounts. Katie Weiland has a discount on all her courses and books. Women in publishing has collected a long list of other writerly Black Friday discounts. 

Go Forth and Give Thanks.

 

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 free Substack version.

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

 

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

Creator Imposter Syndrome

 

 

In Publishing News this week

 

As you read this the Shanghai Bologna Children’s Book fair gets underway in Shanghai. It is billed as the largest Asia Pacific region book fair dedicated to children’s books. Looking at the geographic representation… there are a lot of Asian countries quite a spread of European countries but none from the lower Pacific Rim. Is it geopolitical politics that is keeping them away?

 

African publishing is having a geopolitical publishing problem, reports Publishers Weekly. The problem is Wakanda. This mythical nation is being seen as the default African experience by international publishers There are 53 nations in Africa, apparently they all sound like Wakanda, and look like Wakanda. African publishers are trying to separate themselves and be true to their own voices.

 

Scotland libraries have highlighted a real crisis happening at home and across the world, the closure of libraries. They are calling for more financial and contextual support for libraries. What happened to the billionaires who funded libraries? Where are they now?

 

Mark Williams reports on Audible’s huge investment in Harry Potter, specifically a full dramatized audiobook production. A cast of hundreds, a fan base of millions, a match made in heaven or at least the accounting ledger. He sounds a warning to others who might think this is a good idea.

 

Publishing’s survival depends on data, says the Elsevier chairman Y S Chi. He was speaking at Sharjah Publishers Conference and knows what he is talking about. This is a fascinating article from Publishers Weekly. He gives publishing five years before it is irrelevant if they don’t take action now with their proprietary data. I wonder how many publishers still have their head in the sand on this. Data and what you can learn from it is one of the big discussions in the independent publishing community.

 

Amazon has a news release that they have Kindle Translate in Beta. They are just looking at Spanish and German translations at the moment. I wonder if they picked those two because of the huge book selling markets they have.

 

There are still 200,000 books unclaimed in the Anthropic settlement. Writer Beware is warning of scam law firms who want to help you get your payout. This is really annoying the actual lawyers who are overseeing this case and the payout. Not every law firm is your friend especially if you might be coming into money. 

 

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad imposter syndrome crisis writes Rachel Toalson for Writer Unboxed. (I don’t know a single good writer who doesn’t suffer from this.) Why is this such a problem in the writer community? Rachel suggests we get out of our own head.

 

Anthologies. It’s lovely to be asked to contribute to these. But there are some pitfalls out there for the unwary author. Matty Dalrymple and Mark Leslie Lefavbre have a chapter from their excellent short story writing craft book on Jane Friedman’s blog. Before you say yes to the anthology.

 

Joanna Penn recently had a great interview with Wendy Dale on Memoir and why structure matters more than you think. For anyone writing or editing a memoir, this is a must read.

 

In The Craft Section,

The art of intimacy in writing- Sarah Hamer- Bookmark

How to mine early memories for children’s stories- Marilyn June Janson

Secondary characters should have motivation- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

Stop labeling the process and trust the story- Yasmin Angoe

Is your writing good enough- Suzy Vadori- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section

How I use Bookbub ads to market full price books- Mathew Holmes -Bookmark

The Instagram Glow Up – Sandra Beckwith

The power of the prequel- Written Word Media- Bookmark

Book Promo ideas- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Wither Social Media -James Scott Bell- Interesting 

 

To Finish

 

Rachel Thompson’s posts on book marketing are always must reads for me. Her latest post Why Creators Fear Bad Reviews and How That Fear Makes Us Better is one of her stand out articles that all writers should read. She explores the psychology behind creator fear and how we can harness it to turn it into creative fuel. 

Creative fuel comes from many sources. The Storybundle collection of writing craft books is only available for another three weeks so go check it out. You will kick yourself if you miss out.

 

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 free Substack version.

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

 

 

Photo by Llanydd Lloyd on Unsplash

 

Caution: Look Carefully At The Message.

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

Frankfurt Bookfair wrapped up and everyone is slowly trickling back to their offices in publishing land. Publishers Weekly has a rundown of the gossip, the political brickbats, the changes coming to the fair to make it more public facing, much to some publishers’ dismay. I think there will be a lot of water cooler conversations about the fair, especially the stats of more than 50% of European readers not reading more than one book a year, and the American ambassador feeling attacked because the German minister said AI was digital colonization. 

 

While AI might have been the subject of fiery speeches at Frankfurt there was a survey done that asked how many publishers were using AI. Some were but many aren’t for various reasons, reports Publishing Perspectives. It sounds like many publishers are dipping the tip of their little toe in the water, seeing which way the rest of the publishing world is going, and still making up their mind.

 

Nielsen released a report at Frankfurt showing which territories were having a growth moment. More than half but some were going backward rather than staying the same. Nielsen reported than NZ was locked in price discounting which stifled growth. (I wonder where those cheap books are?) 

 

Publishers Weekly reported who the top trade publishers are in 2025. Thompson Reuters took over pole position. It is interesting how Amazon, possibly the worlds biggest bookstore, isn’t on the list.

 

Barnes and Noble have got a new library distribution eco system sorted out. This is to try to fill the gap left by the collapse of Barker and Taylor. They are the latest in a stream of book distributors and publishers hoping to help libraries part with their meager funding. 

 

Meanwhile, in a glimpse into the future, Thomas Umsteddt reports that Walmart are making buy links directly into Chat GPT. Watch for this to be quickly adopted by Amazon. Thomas also talks about the changes to the Amazon algorithm now rewarding readers from outside the ecosystem coming to buy your books. Amazon ads are slowing down.

 

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware has a post on the Army of Bots taking over the publishing scams. She has examples and screenshots of what to look for. As ever, if you see a newbie talking about the great offer they got – gently point out that publishers don’t randomly email you out of the blue to offer publishing contracts.

 

Chad Allen writes on Jane Friedman’s blog about Why Your Book Isn’t Enough and Why that’s Good News. This is an interesting article on platform. Could you engage more with your audience?

 

Insecure Writer Support Group have an interesting post on Fair Use. What is it and when can you use it? This is a good reminder that lawsuits follow when you take someone’s work without getting permission.

 

The Creative Law Centre has a good post on Author Estate planning. Protecting Your Legacy Beyond The Page.

 

Hank Quense has an interesting post of Elizabeth Spann Craig’s blog warning beginning writers not to use AI. This is sound advice. How can you know if AI is writing anything good? How will you learn to tell the difference? September Fawkes is also cautioning writers about over reliance on Beat Sheets. Yes they teach structure but sometimes they get in the way of the story. This is an excellent article from a great writing teacher.

 

James Scott Bell is starting a new project and he looks at the process of getting ready and when the big grind points will hit. If you are thinking about having a go at Novel November (NovNov) this is a good primer.

 

Katie Weiland has an excellent article on the midpoint which had me thinking about my own characters and where their mirror moment is. A good excuse to dive back in and see if I have really nailed that essential bit of the story down.

 

In The Craft Section,

Strengthening your prose through direct language- Elizabeth Spann Craig

Working with relationship driven scenes- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Clean 1 draft fiction Dean Wesley Smith- Bookmark

Coach your characters- Jackie Alcalde Marr- Bookmark

You keep using that word- On profanity- Tiffany Yates Martin

 

In The Marketing Section,

On Amazon verified reviews- Sandra Beckwith

Branding by standing out- Podcast with Joanna Penn and Steve Brock- Bookmark

Free reads- new service from Bookbub

Creative book launches- Bookbub – Bookmark

How Netgalley makes your book stand out- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

This week I dropped into the Alliance of Independent Authors free conference on New Trends in publishing. These mini online conferences are excellent. My hand cramped writing notes. It is so good for those of us in opposite time zones to be able to access replays. Sadly, the two day grace period to watch the replays disappeared very fast. If you are hunting down information online about writing conferences check out YouTube. The 20books to 50k conference sessions are still up. Author Nation who have taken over the big 20 books conferences have a video podcast now. Draft2 Digital has an excellent series on Print or you can go down the Brandon Sanderson’s Writing University rabbit hole. 

If you want to grab writing craft books don’t forget to check out Storybundle’s collection, a win win win for the book authors, writers, and a charity. All this is great prep for Novel November (NovNov) coming soon. 

 

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 free Substack version.

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

Thanks.

 

Photo by meisam saeb on Unsplash

How To Find A New Book

 

 

In Publishing News this week

 

Publishers Weekly had a story about Bookshop.org beginning to sell eBooks in the UK. If you haven’t heard of Bookshop.org they are an independent online book seller that sells into the US and UK. They donate their profits to your local independent bookseller. Their catalogue is from Ingram. With eBooks being added to the stores that’s another win for independent booksellers. In NZ we have BookHub, an online book site linking to independent booksellers throughout the country. It’s a great tool to quickly research and buy books from your local bookseller.  

 

Porter Anderson reports that the judge has approved the settlement of the Anthropic case but as anyone in publishing knows what about the fact that AI companies all scraped their information from pirate book sites. Porter talks to some of the plaintiffs about that big problem that wasn’t addressed in the settlement.

PEN America reports on the latest round of book censorship taking place across the US.

Banned Books week is next week and sadly there is an increase in book censorship in American schools. It’s got to the point where they are just reporting on new books that are being banned, not all books that have come under censorship. 

With a child studying the publishing industry here in NZ, I am interested in what publishing courses around the world are teaching. Publishing Perspectives has a run down on what New Yorks Advanced Publishing Institutes week long conference will be covering. Their hot topics are very familiar to anyone in the indie publishing world. Newsletters, YouTube, AI, Audio, and Direct Selling. 

 

There has been a lot of comments in Social Media about an article published by The Walrus – Publishing has a Gambling Problem. Some commenters agree that the system could be broken, others defend it. At issue is how publishers’ actions can screw up a writers career. Nowadays the success of their first book dictates whether they have a career at all. Kathleen Schmidt has an interesting take on this from the publicist’s point of view. And riffing on a theme, An independent bookshop book buyer also weighed in how difficult it was from the bookshop side to even choose books from a catalogue. Suffice to say that if you see a book being featured in a window it has already gone through many battles to get there.

 

In a potential new book alert- The Dream Team of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have a new thesaurus in the works – The Coping Mechanism Thesaurus. They like to test out ideas with writers so have a great article on what coping mechanisms are and how you can use them in your character development.

 

It is nearly time for the Frankfurt book fair and happening at the same time is The Alliance of Independent Authors 24 hour online conference. The conference is free and available for everyone. This year’s theme is New Trends. They have their usual fantastic lineup of speakers. Sign up and get all the talks for two days before they go behind a paywall. 

 

Dave Chesson has pulled together a list of the best book marketing books in his opinion. Rachel Thompson has a great article on 5 Misconceptions Writers Have About Book Marketing and Sales.

 

Liz Michalski has an interesting article on Writer Unboxed – How First Drafts Are Like Cauliflower. She has a list of hints that can make the process of revision so much better.

I’m currently working through one of her hints in my own work. It’s tough but it is worthwhile.

 

Katie Weiland has a quick post on single vs multiple narrators in your novel. What are the pros and cons of each style of writing? I’m wrestling with a multiple POV book, and it is tricky. Huge learning but hard work. 

 

In The Craft Section,

How to find your characters voice- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

Craft a Raptor Hero-Sue Coletta- Bookmark

Picturing your characters- James Scott Bell

Can setup and backstory work in chapter one- Donald Maass- Bookmark

Writing friends becoming co-authors- Julie Glover

In The Marketing Section

How to get reader reviews- Sandra Beckwith

5 mistakes authors make running eBook promos-Written Word Media- Bookmark

How authors can ask smarter questions- Brian Jud- Bookmark

Global Translation tips- Kelly McDaniel

15 rules for advertising books- David Gaughran- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

It’s the last quarter of the year and that’s a panic time for authors. The Christmas book sales rush – will my book sell? The end of year, I still haven’t finished my manuscript, worry. Advertising budgets go up. Aaargh Money!  Not Enough Time -Aaargh! That treadmill of productivity starts to run faster. 

How do we counter this? 

Meet someone to talk about books. 

Electric Lit has an article on what they think is the next big past time, Book Readings. Have a session at a bar and read each other’s books… or just your favourite book. Hang out at a bookstore event- or start a weekly reading drop in. Book readings where you can ‘meet cute’ or just meet someone new and buy a book as well. It might be just what you need.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter of 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 free Substack version.

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

 

Pic  Photo by Steven Wright on Unsplash