In Publishing News this week
Publishers Weekly reports on the latest Trump court case. He is suing Penguin Random House and The New York Times for $15 Billion. Penguin Random House published a book by New York Times journalists called Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Fathers Fortune and Created The Illusion Of Success. I think the sub title spells out the problem. In other news- another U S late night talk show host has been taken off air. And DJT threatened an Australian reporter with an unfavourable outcome for Australia for asking if it was legal to make money off the office of president.
Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article on the upcoming Shanghai Children’s Book Fair. Shanghai is adding new programmes to the fair and they expect over 50,000 visitors including over 20,000 publishing industry professionals from 35 countries. To make it even easier the fair is free for publishing industry people and they are allowing free 240 hour transit visas for attendees.
Amazon is following the EU mandate to have books be accessible. Publishers Weekly reports that Amazon has begun asking for accessibility information as part of a books metadata. Meanwhile, Rachel Thompson has an article on KDP’s new rule changes. If you haven’t been on the Kindle platform lately there have been a few changes.
James Patterson has been offering authors money. If you are one of his lucky 12 – you will get $50,000 for a year to write your book. Lit Hub makes a case for being a recipient.
Kathleen Schmidt writes about Literary Criticism vs Book Consumerism and how one is not fueling the other. How are you finding books to read? Book consumerism is about fandom and emotional TikTok videos. Literary Criticism is rapidly being lost as Book reviews become harder to find in mainstream publications. Do you have a trusted source for reviews and recommendations?
A while ago I mentioned a podcast on AI that Joanna Penn and Thomas Umstattd had recorded that I thought authors should listen too. Joanna and Thomas recently recorded another podcast on The Authors Guide to AI. You can read the podcast transcript to see how authors can use the tools AI provides to help with the author business.
Darcy Pattison has launched her big book on publishing children’s books on Kickstarter. This has been a few years in the making and Darcy reached her goal in the first day. If you want to get early access to a book written for children’s authors and publishers check it out.
Lucy Hay has an excellent post on the fear of never getting published. First you need to identify your fear and then you need to figure out what getting published means for you.
Colleen Story has a great post on Jane Friedman’s blog about Book Marketing and procrastination. Why do you fear book marketing? Is there another way to reframe it?
I have a bookcase filled with P G Wodehouse, so I was interested to see this article about poetry book publishing where the author Laura LeHew advocates printing out your poems, sticking them on a wall, reading the poem out loud and finding the theme. This is exactly what Plum (PGW) would do. He looked at each typewritten page in isolation. The higher on the wall the page, the less it needed work. He only sent the finished manuscript off when all the pages were up near the ceiling.
Katie Weiland has another knockout post on how a character’s personality shapes their voice and goals. She has a very comprehensive article on personalities to explain her points.
In The Craft Section
How to polish your first five pages- Jenn Windrow- Bookmark
Mapping your career path- David Farland
Writing for children- Sue Coletta
The role of food in building character- Karmen Spiljak- Bookmark
How to show repressed emotions- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section
Building a quick website for a pen name- Alessandra Torre- Bookmark
Build a Book publicity media list- Sandra Beckwith
5 ways to become a better speaker- John Kramer
How authors can ask smarter questions- Brian Jud
Publishing in creative ways- Heather Webb- Bookmark
To Finish,
You all know the one. The book everybody seems to be talking about. The viral sensation. But how do you get a viral sensation? Harshini Fernando wrote an interesting article for Written Word Media on what makes a book go viral. It starts with a good story and accessibility.
Once it’s viral then obviously the movie deals and best seller lists follow along. Sometimes the book becomes viral long after it was published. Or when there is a big court case suing the publishers and the money is a bludgeon or a carrot. (See the Anthropic court case.)
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 Alexander Mils on Unsplash
