Proclaiming Our Intentions

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

After nine years in operation and beginning the modern serial publishing format Radish has announced they are closing their doors at the end of the year. Commentators have been noting the quiet demise of serial format sites lately. Many have linked it to the initial great payouts for authors that became unsustainable for the company.

 

Does anyone read New Adult? After the great publicity about this format a few years ago there was a cooling off stage. Publishers are back looking at the cross over from the Young Adult category. They are even merging imprints. Publishers Weekly looks at Penguin’s new imprint for New Adult books.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports on a new move by French Independent Publishers. Their annual prize winners to be translated into English and published in a rights catalogue. Let’s make it easy for English language publishers to pick up the best stories. 

 

Dan Holloway from The Alliance of Independent Authors reports on a new service from Cloudflare which will allow publishers and news companies to charge for AI scraping of their content. It has the potential to be game changing financially for publishers.

 

As we roll into eighty years since World War 2 ended, a Dutch publisher is increasing the amount of holocaust stories that they publish. Publishers Weekly talks with the editors to find out why they think this is important now.

 

The Commonwealth of Nations, representing 2.7 Billion people, has appointed their first Poet Laureate, Selina Tusitala Marsh, a pasifika poet and scholar. The New Publishing Standard reports that this highlights the role of literature in diplomacy and cross cultural understanding. (Selina is based here in Aotearoa New Zealand and is fantastic.) Her appointment is for two years. 

 

Literature Hub reports on an open letter from writers to publishers about the use of AI in publishing. The writers are asking publishers to not publish any books written by AI. This feels like a last ditch effort to show the real concerns in the industry about the use of AI for creativity. Didn’t we want all the drudgery to be done by AI robots leaving us more time to create and have fun? 

 

Katie Weiland has a must read article Why Intentional Storytelling Matters in An Age of AI and Algorithm Driven Content. Katie looks at what we lose if we follow formulaic on demand content models. As writers we should be using our power of intentionality to make our writing stand out. 

 

Alissa Butterworth writes on Jane Friedman’s blog about Using a Workshop Experience Inventory When Workshops Go Wrong. This is a powerful exercise to help make writing workshop critiques useful and beneficial to the writer and not a bloodbath arena.

 

Kathleen Schimdt has a great article on media opportunities. What are good media opportunities? How do you get media coverage on your book.

The SPA Girls interviewed Erin Wright on going wide strategies in book publishing and marketing. This is a fantastic podcast interview about all the ways to get your book out there.

 

Rachel Toalson has an excellent article on finding the heart of your story. What makes a story unforgettable. The heart of the story is what keeps you and the reader emotionally invested in the story. She uses the letters of HEART to explain the important touchstones you should be aiming for.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to write an unforgettable first line-Jenn Windrow- Bookmark

Understanding story theme- Tammy Burke- Bookmark

3 reasons why writers procrastinate- Colleen Story

Write like you are an endurance athlete- Miffie Seideman

Owning your voice the ultimate power move- Sarah Hamer- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

August book promotion ideas- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

How to make a book trailer- Reedsy- Bookmark

Busting Bookbub myths-Bookbub

A guide to press releases- Written Word Media

Using multiple identities- Alli - Bookmark

 

To Finish

I have been struggling to come to terms with the news that hit the children’s literature community in New Zealand like an earthquake. New Zealand has withdrawn from the opportunity to be Guest of Honour at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2027.

 

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is the biggest gathering of children’s publishing people in the world. Some of our publishers have won awards at the fair for excellence. 

Behind the scenes many groups and individuals talked about this amazing opportunity for globally showcasing our Maori and Pacifica voices, to each other, and to government representatives. It is going to be epic we told everyone. As a pacific nation we have been leading the way in indigenous storytelling in translation, language programmes, comics, animation, and gaming. All things children love. We couldn’t wait to show off our fantastic writers and illustrators. Children’s books are about reading and empathy for others and cultural awareness and all good things. We can represent pacific voices and everything that makes us special to the rest of the world. It will be epic.

Our books are world class. Government support for us should be a no brainer. We only want $350,000 that’s $210,000 US dollars or 150,000 GB Pounds. It’s not much. They spent half that fixing the parliament playground. The All Blacks probably spend that on afternoon tea. Norway spent 40 times more than that and promoted literature programmes in their country. In 2012 when we were guest of honour at Frankfurt Book Fair the government spent $6 million dollars with $1 million directly going to writers and publishers for it. It was epic. 

But alas- our government didn’t agree with our vision. 

The lack of interest from the government to celebrate their children, their writers, their illustrators, their publishers, librarians, teachers, reading advisors, and the kids on the parliament playground means there is no money for us to show the world how epic our industry is. 

One of our best writers for children wrote a sad essay in response to this news today. His words were thoughtful and measured. Inside he is probably as angry as the rest of us who work in and love Aotearoa New Zealand children’s literature.

Our actions or lack of them show our true intentions. We tell children this all the time. We show it in our words and actions and in our children’s literature. 

We lift you up. We have your back. We support you. We celebrate you because you are epic. 

Our government had a chance to be known around the world for their support of indigenous children’s literature. Their proclaimed intentions to us about being supportive of the arts are not backed up by action. 

It is an epic fail.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Pic Private Eye satire on children’s publishing. (Which is closer to the truth than you realise.)

When The Writing Business Gets You Down

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

Just after I published last week’s blog, The Atlantic* published an article on the books that Meta used to train their AI as well as the shady practices they used. Substack readers of the blog got the breaking news. Use The Atlantic search engine if you want to check whether your books were scraped, then contact your local writer association. Here in NZ the Society of Authors is taking names to join a class action. 

Many authors guilds around the world are preparing court cases. Publishing Perspectives has the US and UK Authors societies responses. 

 

While authors are getting hot under the collar about AI theft, publishers have been quietly doing deals with AI companies to let them have access to their lists. Jane Friedman highlights just what is going on under writer’s noses.

 

Of course, AI as a tool offers so many advantages to the struggling publishers. Although I don’t think Taylor and Francis is exactly struggling, Publishers Weekly reports that they are using AI to translate their books into English. 

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard has an interesting article on film companies and how they are using a text to screen AI to generate films. Yes, AI is everywhere. Last week he said that publishing history is active resistance, passive acceptance, and eventual embrace. I think the publishers might be moving out of passive acceptance. So many seem to be saying one thing to authors and another to their staff. 

 

Do you remember Stories for Rebel Girls? The author, Francesca Cavallo has been looking at the dire statistics for boys reading and has a new collection coming out. Publishing Perspectives has an article looking at what Francesca will be doing at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair next week.

 

Diamond Comics Distributors has found a buyer, reports Publishers Weekly. Whether there will be enough left over to pay all the creditors could be touch and go. Many comics publishers who used Diamond have been scrambling to find other distributors in the interim.

 

Written Word Media were at the Future of Publishing/ Writer MBA conference, and they have an in depth article about what they learned there. They also have some great takeaways to get you thinking about your publishing business.

 

Alia Habib has an interesting article where she sat down with five book publicity people are asked questions about the best way of getting their attention with a book project. The package matters.

 

Phil Simon has a guest article on Jane Friedman’s blog about a new writing tool that can streamline your workflow. If you are looking for help in sorting out all your projects this might be useful. It has a free tier.

 

James Scott Bell has a great article on the melted butter of writing or in other words metaphors and similes. He has some great examples. Do you use metaphors in your writing?

 

In The Craft Section,

Relationship Conflicts- prolong the agony- Jerry Jenkins- Bookmark

How to use the thesaurus properly- September Fawkes

How to use show don’t tell- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Consider your characters age- Tiffany Yates Martin - Bookmark

If the relationship is the primary story- September Fawkes- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to thrive without viral marketing- Janee Butterfield- Bookmark

The best author promo ideas- Penny Sansevieri

From Readers to review- Written Word Media- Bookmark

How to market a book- Reedsy

Maximising Backlist Sales- SPA Girls- Bookmark!

 

To Finish,

Sometimes the writing and publishing world can leave you feeling like a used tissue. That is where having a writing buddy to share the highs and lows with is so important.

Every year Katie Weiland has a week where she helps writers find a writing buddy. Hop on over to her blog and scroll down to comments. You never know, you might find your life-long writing buddy who helps you to scale new heights, propels you to new projects and has your back like you have theirs. 

And if you already have a writing buddy- Make time to celebrate them. You don’t need an excuse. Reach out and say you value them, with cake. 

An AI won’t do that.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want 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 Substack version.

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

 

N.B.* The Atlantic has been having a sensational week- AI Theft and War Plans. All it takes is a courageous writer to speak truth to power. They give us hope that we can do the same.

 

Photo by Pixel Rich on Unsplash

The Freedom To Read

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

This week the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) issued a statement on The Ongoing Violation of Children’s Rights in Gaza. IBBY is an international organization dedicated to celebrating and promoting reading all over the world. Every two years they award children’s literature’s highest honour, The Hans Christian Anderson Medal (often referred to as The Little Nobel.) Publishing Perspectives highlights the statement as not casting blame or fault. An exercise in deft diplomacy, calling everyone to work together on behalf of the children.

 

Down here in the Pacific, we watch the political moves happening around the pond. This is also true of the Book Fairs that have been gaining more prominence down our way. 

The Beijing International Book Fair has just kicked off with 71 countries attending this year. Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard looks at who is attending and speaking. All eyes will be on the AI in publishing event happening at the fair.

 

Publishing Perspectives highlights the World Expression Forum which recently met in Norway and dedicated a portion of its programming to how the freedom to read is tied up with democracy. They caution that the publishing industry can’t be complacent.

 

Not complacent is the American branch of Oxford University Press, whose workers are picketing outside the office. 

 

GoodeReader highlights a new piece of tech aimed at the educational market. A foldable eReader tablet you can read and write on, from ReadTych. Is this what we have all been waiting for? 

 

Two fantastic podcasts caught my attention this week. The SPA girls interviewed Maggie Marr, a specialist contract lawyer and writer. This is a great insight into contract language, negotiations, and best practice. Everyone should listen to this. 

Joanna Penn interviewed Steve Pieper on click testing and selling direct. Steve looks at how click testing works and why you should do it. Check out the podcast or read the transcript.

 

Are you looking after your health? It’s the Winter season down here and I’ve been simmering chicken soup most of the day. While the house is smelling wonderful, I’m also reminding myself that I need to follow the advice for writers in caring for your health by Emily Young.

 

The Mary Sue published a list of the greatest Young Adult reads of all time. Any list is subjective, but they may have nailed it with this list. What do you think?

 

Choosing names for your characters is often fraught. Sometimes the right name is elusive, and you can’t quite get a handle on the character until you have the name sorted. Ginny Moyer likens it to naming a child. It means just as much.

 

In The Craft section,

10 tips on writing a fantasy novel- Lucy Hay- Bookmark

Finding your story's throughline- Mythcreants

Avoiding headhopping- Anne R Allen – Bookmark

Scene structure and transitions- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Redeeming your villain- Becca Puglisi

 

In The Marketing Section,

Why you should care about library distribution-Draft2Digital

Direct sales strategies- Bookbub- Bookmark

What’s in a title- Jane Corry – Bookmark

When is the best time to release a book- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

Learning to love Amazon’s freebies- Caroline Howard Johnson

 

To Finish,

How often have you closed a book and decided not to finish it. I used to force myself to read the rest of the book hoping it would get better but now I shake my head and put it down. Amy Bernstein has a great post on Jane Friedman’s blog on making sure your book doesn’t fall into the DNF book club. 

With so much news on the ways to stop people reading, you owe it to your reader to give them the best reading experience you can.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here to join our happy band and get the best of my bookmarked links and other extras.

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. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Reading Between The Lines

 

In Publishing News this week,

Last week publishing social media was full of comment from disgruntled authors discovering they had been let go from a prominent author agency. I didn’t link to it at the time as tempers and opposing viewpoints were swirling and I figured that everyone might calm down and things were not as bad as portrayed. Then the Authors Guild got involved to try to sort out the mess of over 20 authors with contracts in various states of negotiating being hung out to dry. So yes, things were bad. The fallout has probably permanently tarnished the reputation of the agency. There are no winners.

 

This week a hybrid virtual/in person book fair in New York was held over three days. It’s the only Book Fair that attempts to be a national book fair for the USA. After the demise of Book Expo America and virtual Digital Book World offerings, the flagship shows like London or Frankfurt aren’t happening for the U.S. Mark Williams looks at the problems of running a big book fair. Does the English language publishing world really need another bookfair?

 

Germany has just published a survey on reading in their country and the declining levels of literacy among children is alarming. They are embarking on a huge campaign to lift literacy. However, recently their teen reading levels have been huge. Is it the power of TikTok influencers?

 

James Daunt CEO of Barnes and Noble recently spoke on how his policies have changed the face of the bookselling company. The secret is in curation, and local curation at that. Also shelving non-fiction books by subject instead of alphabetically. Wow. Who knew that might work?

 

Jane Friedman has a guest post by Joni Cole on cover woes and what you can do when your publisher gets it so very wrong. Her publisher though she would be happy with an explicit cover on a book about… writing craft. 

 

Randy Peyser has an interesting post on what publishers want. This is not a specific post but does have some interesting ideas for what you should keep in mind when approaching them.

 

Ingram Spark has a useful article on choosing readable fonts for your book. If you are into designing print interiors check it out. Warning- once you go down the typeface rabbit hole you will discover a wonderful new world that can be quite addictive. 

 

Recently the Spa Girls writing podcast had an interview with Matt Bird – a writing craft teacher on the secrets of story. It’s a great interview with different ways to look at scenes and characters.

 

September Fawkes has a great article on things she wished she knew as a beginning writer. This is a must read. It doesn’t matter if you are beginning or not, there are gems to think about… print out…carve on your wall, in here.

 

In The Craft Section,

7 cool tricks for beating the maddening middle- Holly Lisle

Hero’s journey structure and examples- Lisa Taylor- Bookmark

3 steps to engaging your readers- Angela Ackerman

The difference between Character Archetypes and Tropes- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

How to create insanely complex characters- K M Weiland- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Marketing to Libraries- Goodstory company- Bookmark

12 ways to promote your book- Green Leaf

First impressions, Book Covers-Mibl Art-Bookmark

Relaunching with audiobooks- Bookboss Academy

Moving the needle- Huge Marketing post from SCBWI – BOOKMARK

 

To Finish

Lisa Cooper Ellison has a great column on Jane Friedmans blog, this week she writes about Beta Readers. Lisa looks at  how important they are and how you can help them out. If you prepare questions and manage their expectations it should be a positive experience for everybody. If you haven’t really made use of Beta readers before this is a handy article on how to get started with them.

 

Go Forth and Read.

 

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 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 Matias North on Unsplash

 

Reading gymnastics- or how many ways you can curl up with a book.

The Year That Was

The last post of 2021.

We made it. It was supposed to be better than 2020. There was a vaccine. Now a new variant is on the march. Make no hard and fast plans for 2022.

 

This week the posts that have caught my eye 

 

Joanna Penn’s great post on productivity and finding time to write. This is a post to reflect on as you make plans for 2022. Joanna is down under and soaking up the sun. *waves Hi*

 

Anne R Allen on taking all writing rules as guidelines. This is the post that reminds you not to stress about your work.- 

 

Kris Rusch – the 3^rd in her year in review posts. I was tempted to just put the link to her post in the middle of my page… and leave it at that. She says important things for you to think about for the writing publishing business going forward.- A must-read.

 

In the Craft Section,

A good article on dialogue- Writerswrite

 

In The Marketing Section, 

Bookbub posted their best articles from this year…

 

In the meantime here is my rundown of the year with interesting links for you.

 

Jogging through 2021 

 

In January Wattpad was sold to South Korean company Naver and a hedge fund bought Overdrive 

The Fabulous Spa Girls had tips on how to set goals for your writing year. 

Then we dropped into Michael Hyatt’s website to learn about SMARTER goals, to put them into place.

 

In February- Audiblegate…where Audible encouraged subscribers to return their listened to audiobooks for a credit which they clawed back from the author because it was a ‘returned book.’

David Farland warned about new contract terms in an interview with Joanna Penn. David mentioned in passing seeing contracts that asked for All formats existing now and to be invented. Deal Breaker Alert.

 

News: D2D is now offering Payment splitting for collaborators!

In March, Audio is big was the theme and about to get bigger. 

Dr. Suess had some books pulled from reprinting because of racist stereotyping. 

Tom Clancy’s estate discovers that they don’t own the rights to Jack Reacher due to a shocking contract signed early in Tom’s career. 

 

10 questions to help you set the stage- C S Lakin

How to market a book with smart planning- Penny Sansevieri

April- to be renamed Rest In Peace

Harper Collins bought Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

Beverly Cleary died aged 104 

Amazon Vella launched

#Disneymust pay launched- (who knew that buying companies also meant buying their assets and if it is royalties, also their obligations?)

 

Tips for dividing your story into chapters- 10 minute novelists

30 days of Social Media content Infographic- Barb Drozdowich

 

In May, The Book Designer, Joel Friedlander died (but his excellent templates live on.) 

Storytel partnered with Spotify- That’s the audio ears of Europe wrapped up and a warning that Spotify was on the audio hunt- price no object.

 Amazon responded and bought MGM- The Backlist of films is there to be exploited. (Just remember your backlist has value even if your publishers don’t exploit it. Get limited terms of use and get your rights back)

Joanna Penn interviewed Gail Carriger on the heroine’s journey and how it differs from the hero’s journey. This is a deep dive into craft and fascinating reading /listening.

June

Some second-hand book dealers felt sorry for writers and launched a scheme to get some of them paid when their books were on-sold. 

The Pandemic began the rise of the online bookstore, now everybody has one.

Japan jailed Book pirates.

What is an NFT? Joanna Penn took a deep dive to find out. 

Christie's auctioned an NFT from Tim Berners Lee of the original source code from his invention of the internet. It was for events like this that publishing contracts now contain legal clauses like ‘universal rights in all formats existing and to be invented.’ 

 

In July Amazon introduced A+ 

Overdrive bought Kanopy , a video streaming service for public and academic libraries.

And publishers paid eye-watering sums to grab books about the Trump presidency from the insiders.

 

Understanding the mirror moment- September Fawkes

 

A brilliant article on SEO for indie authors- Alliance of Independent Authors. 

 

August 

Subscription became the new go-to for academic publishers. 

Scammers discovered audiobooks. What you can do about it.

Authors behaved badly. – N.B. Remember nothing is ever off the record so if you don’t want it reported don’t say it.

 

Dave Chesson examined the A+ content blocks and has written a comprehensive article on how to get the best out of the new bells and whistles.

 

In September, the constant news item was the future of Bookfairs… will they ever be face to face again?

Scammers cloning author Facebook pages and destroying their social media.

Amazon offers Hardback format

AI voices start getting taken seriously. 

Netflix bought the Roald Dahl estate for $500M 

Supply chain woes start to bite. (A Local bookshop has just posted they got their September orders today, 3 days before Christmas)

 

Deanna Cabinian writes on the Time vs Productivity paradox for authors.

 

Should you sell your books from your website? Sandra Beckwith 

AudiO-ctober

Paul Simon released an audiobiography Like a documentary but audio-only. (Earlier in the year, I reported that Dolly Parton is working with James Patterson on a fiction book with a companion album.) 

Ireland is trialing a Guaranteed Basic Income for artists.

The American Department of Justice began suing Penguin Random House over acquiring Simon and Schuster citing their outsized influence on publishing and writers compensation if the deal goes ahead

Sacha Black on How to kill your side characters.

Joanna Penn’s primer on understanding Intellectual Property and the ways that authors need to use and exploit what they create to make money.

 

November

What is an NFT? The question was on everyone’s lips as they tried to make sense of it for writers. 

Kobo expanded its subscription service to Oz and NZ. 

Spotify bought Findaway (and life changed in the publishing audio sphere forever.)

Anne R Allen wrote a superb post on creativity wounds. The wounds you might not know you have. 

The literary calendar of 2022-  Sandra Beckwith

  

December

Where did the time go…  End-of-year reports show publishing is still making money but only in certain formats.

Viacom CBS partners with Wattpad and Webtoon.

Publishers paid out silly money to celebrities for books and watched those books tank badly.

 

And now I’m staggering gently to the couch for a lie-down and a cool drink. 

Have a safe and blessed Christmas season. I’m off until mid-January 

It’s summer…

 

Maureen

@craicer

  

The last newsletter for the year is going out soon with the best of, the best of my bookmarked links of the year and other goodies. 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  Christmas cheer hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate all virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

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