In Publishing News this week.
Another week another lawsuit. This time it’s the textbook authors who are heading into court over the wholesale copying of their books to feed the AI machine. Meanwhile, second hand book sellers are getting unusual requests for large orders of old books and lo and behold they are ending up in scanning facilities. AI tells me it’s because books written before 2022 haven’t been written with AI so aren’t contaminated with false information. But that was an AI précis. So it could be wrong.
Harper Collins is the latest publisher to launch a manga imprint. Publishers Weekly reports they made the announcement in the week of the American Manga Awards.
They will be developing stories specifically for girls as well as boys.
I had a moment of staring into the future and swearing when I read this news article from Publishers Weekly. Source Books has a new imprint to bring out middle grade books with shorter word counts but new formats so that they look like regular length middle grade fiction books. It’s because of attention spans, they say. Putting on my teacher hat for a moment. Children need to be encouraged to read longer form stories. It helps with attention span, learning new words and concepts, brain connectivity, mental creativity… I could go on and on. Yes, reading is under threat, but watering down the experience is not the answer.
Mark Williams reports on Indie Bookstore Day plans in Singapore. This will be their first year and they want to celebrate the community building nature of the Indie Bookstore. They have plans to collectively publicise their events and then make it into a treasure hunt. A great initiative.
Dan Holloway reports on the collapse of the Self Publishing Partnership company which helped authors to distribute their books through Gardners. Obviously, authors are left in the dark and wondering where their money is. I agree with Dan that transparency is always the first casualty in a company collapse.
Publishing Perspectives has an interview with Jenny Kuehne the rights manager of the new Frankfurt Rights platform for the Frankfurt Book Fair. This is a platform set up to support rights trading year round with a new initiative called Instant Permissions.
Finding your people is the key to book marketing says Emilie Noelle Provost. When selling books is the make or break for writers to get a second book deal it can be an uphill struggle. Instead of a scatter gun approach, a narrow focus might work wonders.
I was reading this article by Sarah Sally Hamer on writers and creativity and nodding away. How many of us start a project and have our brain supply unwanted advice as we get to grips with the story. Writing : A Room of Mischievous Interns
Have you backed up your manuscript lately? Derek Haines writes about the fool proof method of saving your manuscript in different formats and in different places. If you rely on one format what if it gets corrupted?
Tracey Cooper Posey has an excellent article on dusting off those short stories and doing something with them. She talks about rights, and collections, and translations. Just because you published the story doesn’t mean its life is over.
In the Craft Section,
The Quest-Laurie Schnebly Campbell
Sharpening your dialogue- K M Weiland _ Bookmark
Common writing mistakes- Angela Ackerman
Fast drafting- Podcast Interview with Jessica Brody of Save the Cat Writes a Novel.- Bookmark
Choosing Your Opening Scene- September Fawkes- Bookmark
In the Marketing Section,
Changes to Facebook ads - James Blatch- Bookmark
Using local publicity- Sandra Beckwith
Newsletter tips- Ines Johnson - Bookmark
2 great posts from Indie Author Magazine -The secrets of custom printing and Solid pre-launch
strategies - Bookmark
To Finish
What does your writing eco system look like? Are you trapped in a one book dream? Laura Mitchell has an excellent article on writing careers that are not straight lines. These writing eco systems can open up other side projects that make you even more creative than plowing your way through book after book. You never know where your writing eco system could take you.
Maureen
@craicer
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