Hard Learned Lessons

In Publishing News This Week

 

If you have been anywhere on publishing social media this week you will have seen the news that Hachette employees are attempting to unionise. Publishers Weekly writes why they have taken this step.

 

Book manufacturing is in for a shake up according to a report from The Book Manufacturers Institute. The increasing uncertainty of getting books printed in China into the Northern Hemisphere market in time for release dates have publishers looking at alternatives. Is this the end of offset printing? 

 

Has anyone ever looked at small press sales and wondered if they are sitting on quiet goldmines? One HarperCollins exec did, left HC and set up a website dashboard to track sales. Publishers Weekly interviewed Jim Hanas and asked why? The answers are interesting if you are thinking of setting up a small press.

 

Publishing Perspectives dives into the Book Industry Study Groups Survey on AI in Publishing. The survey highlighted significant areas of concern – the list makes grim reading. Now that the publishing industry has been exposed as the Authors Guild pointed out, (covered in last weeks blog) will anything change?

 

Penguin Random House are pushing the boat out with books from three different imprints to take advantage of a new tv series. This is what authors dream of when they sign their rights away. The Publishing House has all these rights and never uses them. PRH is doing some significant world building and expecting a cash cow from Baldur’s Gate.

 

Michael Cairns has written an interesting essay on Publishing Perspectives about the changing power dynamic that AI is forcing on publishers. I was looking for a quote to explain the essay but there are so many I think you should read it instead. It should be required reading for publishers.

 

Reedsy have discovered an elaborate scam where the scammers went to the trouble to copy their website. Being Reedsy they show exactly what happened in a 10 minute video from their founder who attempted to contact the scammers. 

 

Literary Agent, Erin Niumata, has also been dealing with scammers impersonating her and other Lit Agents. Among other warning signs she reiterates that reputable agents will never charge reading fees. Always check the website emails. Always ring and talk to the company is my advice. Although if you check the Reedsy video- you could be talking with a scammer so don’t use the phone number from their website. Find another way.

 

Richard Curtis writes about the role Literary agents play in the emotional support of the writer on his latest Inside Agenting blog. He recounts a twenty five year old story (that has echoes to a story last month) with tragic consequences to the writer involved.

 

Rachel Thompson has an essay on the ten lessons her cat taught her about writing. They are really lessons about life as well as the craft of writing.

 

Katie Weiland is running her annual matchup with a writing buddy over on Helping Writers Become Authors. 

Don’t forget about Storybundle if you want exclusive writing craft books for a low price. (In last weeks blog.)

 

Have you thought about writing your story for a different audience? Yasmin Agoe thought writing monsters for Young Adults would be just like her writing for adults. How wrong she was. It taught her to write better, she says on Writing Unboxed.

 

 

In The Craft Section,

Why stories need both the hero and the heroine’s journey- Susan Watts- Bookmark

Writing Good Prose- The Alliance of independent authors – Updated.

Guide to keeping conflict on the page-Jeanne Kisacky- Bookmark

Write authentic emotion- Angela Ackermnan- Bookmark

Writing slice of life with the Kishotenketsu method- September Fawkes

 

In The Marketing Section,

Where should I sell my book?- Sandra Beckwith

Kindlepreneur adds a Kindle page count royalty calculator on their Tools page. Bookmark this for all the free tools!

Preparing to leave Social Media- Interesting essay from Claire Taylor

Kevin Tumlinson on building a direct sales shop - video

The 3 frameworks of successful bookmarketing-Author Gold- Bookmark

 

To Finish

Mark Lefebvre has written an essay in praise of Indie bookstores. As an ex-bookseller he knows the importance of repeat customers. How are you supporting your local bookstore? Do they know you? Are you only there to talk about your books. Do you support them in other ways? This is a thoughtful post to celebrate Indie Bookstore day… which should be every day.

 

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 Belinda Fewings on Unsplash

Avoiding the Sharks on Your Journey

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

There is a new scam going around and it is targeting authors and is particularly nasty. Anne R Allen has the details and even though it reads like a crime novel plot it is particularly horrible for people caught up in it. Before you think 'that would never happen to me', I invite you to think how you would react if you were confronted by law enforcement officers about all your identification being used to commit crimes. The horrible part is where the scammers are getting their information about you from. 

 

Back in the heady publishing days of the 1980’s when Harlequin was on the prowl buying up little publishing companies- Romance editors could see which way the wind was going and quickly set up publishing companies promising their innocent authors loads of goodies to come with them to the new digs- while they waited for Harlequin to buy them for big bucks. Authors got burned left, right, and center in all the wheeling and dealing of Romance imprints and publishing companies. I’m not saying that this new publishing house is anything like the bad old days but it triggered memories as I was looking at the news story from Publishers Weekly.

 

Ru Paul has a book club. Ru Paul has a bookstore. A big one. Taking a leaf out of the Amazon playbook Ru is catering to a specific audience and promising extra gravy to the authors and readers who sign up to be members.

Publishing Perspectives reports that the Access Copyright, a management site for Canadian Authors have been slapped with a huge court fine for demanding copyright fees on authors behalf. The court ruling seems to indicate that it is ok to copy anything you like from a Canadian author- which can’t be right or am I reading it wrong?

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard keeps an eye on what is happening outside our Western centric publishing view. He reports that the Oman Book Fair was well attended and the new trend on the rise is children’s books. With Big Bad Wolf selling remaindered English language books hand over fist in these markets, are publishers missing the sales boat on this?

 

Writer Michael Lucas comments on the Findaway saga using his knowledge of the tech world to explain how developers use Terms Of Service. While authors think that Findaway have walked back their horrible terms this might not be the case…think Bait and Switch.

Dave Chesson has been doing a deep dive into the data from a survey of authors on Direct Selling. Who is making money? Which store is popular? How many books you need? When should you jump into it? All these questions are answered with charts.

If you are trying to keep up with moves in AI and publishing here is a new way of combining the two into something that may be profitable (they have a lot of investment dollars) for someone. Tech Crunch reports on a new company that promises a bright new world- I’m not sure for whom.

 

Katie Weiland has a fantastic post on how to write deeply emotional fiction. If you have been struggling with nailing a scene or trying to convey tone or subtext read this great post. One to print out and stick on the wall. 

Tricia Jenn Loehr has a guest post on Jane Friedmans blog about emotional intimacy and how it’s not restricted to the characters in a romance novel. A great read and food for thought.

 

Gabriela Pereira from DIYMFA has a great post on writing prompts and how they build up the stamina and practice of writing. She offers some great insights here. 

 

In The Craft Section,

7 tips for compelling character motivation- C S Lakin- Bookmark

7 signs you have hidden self doubt- Colleen Story

The hierarchy of exposition- Donald Maass- Bookmark

Crafting an irresistible inciting incident- Polly Watt- Bookmark

Increasing the emotional impact of your story- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

8 things needed on a homepage- Corina Amos

Back cover copy formula- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

How to use crowdfunding for book publishing- Sandra Beckwith

How to promote to the right audience- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

20 bookmarketing ideas that take 10 minutes or less- Jenn Hansen-dePaula- Bookmark

 

To Finish

As you wend your way through this blog post looking at links and trying to figure out what is most worth your time to read (all of it but I’m biased) you finally get down to the bottom and hopefully get a last gem. I have been following Suzanne Lakin for years and she always has a deeply insightful way of looking at the craft. This week she looked at how writers become proficient and the 10,000 hours mantra that Malcolm Gladwell made famous. It’s about the journey not the destination.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

I’m late with my monthly newsletter (life got in the way) but it is coming I promise. 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 buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. It feeds my caffeine addiction. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Jared Rice 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.

 

The Scammers Wonderland

 

 

This week in publishing,

 

Scammers… Just when you think they couldn’t stoop lower – you find that they can.

Victoria Strauss from Writer Beware is wondering if the scammers have just made a monumental mistake. They are using the names of Big 5 publishing houses, along with editors and agents in some big publishing scams. Will big publishing finally wake up and do. something? Reputations are on the line.

 

Rumbling along in the background is the class action being taken against Amazon for price fixing. This week there was a splash of publicity when an Indie bookstore came out to join the class action. Sounds like the movie You’ve Got Mail- said one commentator. Except I don’t think there will be a happy romantic ending here.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports on a call from UK translators to use racial equality in literary translation. If the book is written in its first language by a particular gender /race writer then it should be translated by a matching translator, shouldn’t it?

 

The New Publishing Standard reports on Big Bad Wolf’s latest mega sale, online at the same time as in person… (How many English remaindered copies can one mega company sell? Millions.)

 

Kris Rusch continues her interesting series on Hollywood and the pitfalls for writers- She examines the story of The Luminaries and how the screenplay was a nightmare of rewrites for Eleanor Catton.

 

Anne R Allen has an interesting post on The Fashion Of Writing. What is in and what is out and how fashions in writing change. ‘For instance, once you could sprinkle adverbs willy nilly in dialogue tags,’ she said happily, channeling her inner 1920’s diva.

 

Joanna Penn has a great interview with a story dialogue coach this week. How do you stop your characters from sounding all the same? Check out her interview with Jeff Elkins. 

 

In The Craft Section

2 Great posts on motivation for writers.-How to find the motivation to write- Now Novel

And 5 creative ways to get writing – C S Lakin- Bookmark Both.

The roles of secondary characters- Writers in the Storm-Bookmark

Choose the right story setting- Becca Puglisi

How to avoid weasel words when you write- Kristen Hogrefe Parnell- Bookmark

5 guidelines for writing helpful critiques- Maggie Smith

 

In The Marketing Section,

2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri

Book Marketing plan for audio and How to sell books by strategically engaging readers- Bookmark

Email Newsletters and why they are not going away- Catherine Baab Muguira

5 steps to finding a books ideal audience- Angela Ackerman

How to prep for your Book Launch- Heather Weidner

Do Bookbub deals work for permafree? - Carlyn Robertson- Bookmark

Selling Direct - Joanna Penn -Bookmark

 

To Finish,

A few weeks ago, I posted a link to the books that had entered the public domain. These are books whose copyright has expired. (Generally, after 70 years.)

I came across a list of children’s books today in this category. They are all classics and always seem to be reprinted every few years. (cash cow) However, if you want to mash up Alice In Wonderland with some hot modern genre- now could be the time. 

 

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 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. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic. The Famous Tea Party- John Tenniel