Thursday, July 23, 2020

Publishing By The Numbers


This week in publishing there was a fluttering in the inboxes as Indie Publishing superstar and author educator guru, Mark Dawson, was accused of gaming the bestseller lists.
The Guardian reported the story and many authors on Twitter were quick to cry foul.
However, there are always two sides to the story. As Mark said today on Facebook- If I was gaming the system, I wouldn’t have announced it on one of the most listened to indie author podcasts. 
It was a marketing risk as he was wondering how he could get the book into the top ten when it came in at number thirteen. It was this discussion on the podcast that Mark had bought 400 copies of his Traditionally Published Hardback release of a seven-year-old thriller, so he could make them available to overseas fans who wanted a signed copy that started the whole drama.
Nielsen’s pulled the book from the list this week citing ‘they misunderstood the intentions of this sales transaction.’
What does it mean for authors? Mark will probably break it down on the self-publishing podcast as he is very open and transparent with his publishing business. As an Indie author who cleared over $1 million from his book sales last year- spending 3,600 pounds on 400 books has got him two Guardian feature articles – name recognition- appearances on bestseller lists. Discussions on social media… it could be a publicist’s win and money well spent.
Anyone can bulk buy a book in launch week for a variety of reasons. An epic book launch party can get you on the NZ bestseller lists. Mark went to his local children’s bookshop to order the books, so they got some love. 
Will this change the rules of making the bestseller lists? 

Are the rules different for publishers and authors who publish? Lit Hub has a breakdown on the myths of both types of publishing models. 

David Gaughran has an interesting article out about the elusive A9 algorithm. There have been many people who have been trying to convince authors to part with money to learn the secret of the Amazon search engine… David, fierce defender of the battling author, tells you the truth about the scam.

Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article about reading patterns in the pandemic. People are still wanting to get physical books. Is it the book smell they crave?

Publish Drive has been flirting with the subscription model of author services for a while now but now they are going all in. David Kudler talks about the advantages for the author with this model.

San Diego Comic-Con has been turned into a virtual event. The Comic-Con is one of the biggest events in the Entertainment world and is huge for Graphic Novels. With the Con circuit going virtual Graphic Novelists have to come up with other ways to get noticed.
While we are on graphic novels this comic appeared in my Twitter feed. This is a must-read for the way it educates about a psychological effect that unconsciously colours your whole world view. Powerful storytelling! It is nominated for the 2020 Eisner Award.

Kris Rusch writes a part two about Brandon Sanderson’s $5 million Kickstarter. If you didn’t read last week's post -check it out so you know the background. Brandon still has two weeks to go. Have you ever thought about a literary crowdsourcing community?

The latest Writers Thesaurus is out- The Occupation Thesaurus. Jami Gold has a great article on the story impact of your protagonist’s occupation. Are you using all the useful nuggets that you can? Congratulations Angela and Becca on another great addition to the Writers Thesaurus library.

In The Craft Section,

Two great articles from K M Weiland- How to put suspense in your story and a great primer on story structure. – Bookmark



Writing influence characters- September Fawkes – Bookmark

Dinkus- 6 ways to use them.- (hands up if you know what a Dinkus is.)- Now Novel- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

How to make an online bookstore- Darcy Pattison- Bookmark


Publishing Timelines – C S Lakin- Bookmark



To Finish

Have you ever thought about co-writing a book? How hard can it be? You get together with a writing buddy, plan out a story, book a beach house, and write like crazy. Recipe for success- Yes? Greta Boris writes a great article on how to co-write a novel and remain friends. It’s not easy but it can be fun if you put all the planning details in a document you both agree on first. 

Maureen
@craicer

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter to go out. If you want the best of the months bookmarked links and other assorted stuff go on and 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.


Thursday, July 16, 2020

Underneath The Covers





Recently the #PublishingPaidMe hashtag trend on Twitter exposed the historical underpaying of black authors in the publishing world. One of the ideas it highlighted was the lack of diversity in publisher lists with publishers limiting themselves to one representative of each ethnicity and claiming they were diverse. Publishers Weekly looks at other negative trends that were exposed with the hashtag trend call out.

How good are you at spotting publishing scams? Unfortunately, even people who have been bitten once are being bitten again. Even when you think that the publisher is looking legit, check, check, and check again. And don’t take an agent's word for it. They have been bitten as well.

Kobo Plus is like Kindle select but without the demand for exclusivity. However, it was limited to just a few countries. But in great news this week Kobo Plus is expanding… YAY.

How do you keep your backups safe? Do you even have backups? Jami Gold looks at all the different ways you can save yourself giant headaches.

Netgalley has been offering their review service for quite a while. Recently they decided to expand their service to audiobooks. With the rise and rise of audiobook sales, this is a welcome move for publishers.

Can authors use A I to help them write a better story? Writers Digest has an interesting article looking at using a tool called Marlowe that analyses your manuscript and points out the flaws and plot holes to fix up. Take a look at Marlowe – you can try it out for free.

As a teacher, I was very keen to encourage my younger colleagues to have some sort of creative life outside of teaching. You need to put creativity into the well because teaching drains so much from you. For me, it was escaping into writing. But as writers, are we draining the creative well and not putting anything back in? This article looks at the importance of having hobbies away from writing.

Bob Mayer and Jennifer Crusie are both big names in their respective genres. Together they have written 3 great thriller romances. They collaborated on a website where they discuss different aspects of the writing craft from their own points of view. Check out their conversation on developing character arcs. Excellent stuff. (Also, their writing is superb!!!)

In The Craft Section,



How to start a novel - 8 steps to the perfect opening scene- Reedsy- Bookmark

Writing emotion- Iris Marsh



In the Marketing Section,

Two great articles from Rachel Thompson - How to improve your email newsletters right now and How to build an engaged following- Bookmark

Using video marketing- Frances Caballo


Amazon Editorial Reviews -Are you using them- Dave Chesson- Bookmark

5 Simple website upgrades- Penny Sansevieri - Bookmark

To Finish,

Brandon Sanderson has been running a Kickstarter for a leather-bound hardback edition of one of his best-selling books to celebrate the 10th anniversary. He modestly asked for $250K because that was what he figured he would need. So far, he’s passed $5 million. Kris Rusch takes a look at Kickstarter for authors and how building a community and stakeholder engagement is a winning formula for writers wanting to try this form of income building.
It’s all part of building up multiple income streams for authors.

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: Flickr Creative Commons- Steven Johnson

Thursday, July 9, 2020

Keeping On Going…


In the publishing world this week…
While everyone in publishing is looking at their bottom line and wondering if they will still be in business at Christmas… Ingram is expanding its Print On Demand centers around the world. Is this a bold move of confidence in the future or the canny move of a print distributor? Their rivals fall by the wayside and now they might have a monopoly… 

Publishing Perspectives has an article on how audiobooks for children have been credited with great results for children’s literacy over lockdown. (All teachers would agree with this.) So children’s writers are you thinking about audio?

The Guardian reports that the genre saving the publishing world's bacon in lockdown is Crime, with record numbers of books being consumed.

Subscription, or the all you can eat model of entertainment consumption, is proving a hit around the lockdown-ed world. Movies are now being first released on subscription services along with music and books. Subscription content companies are expanding across the world. Next up the Arab world gets a subscription model and Storytel makes its move into the Arab language market.

The Authors Guild have grabbed their heavy hitters, Grisham, Child, Stine et al to front a lawsuit with Penguin Random and Amazon against the KISS Library for piracy. 
I can’t help thinking the lawyers will always win and the Whac-A-Mole game of book piracy will never end.

Kris Rusch, being stuck in the U S, has been striving to keep upbeat. This week she looks at the hit the creative industries will be taking as creative companies hit the wall. Musicians whose income relies on touring will be hit hard. Writers struggling with self-doubt about their career choice need to take heart. 

Jami Gold has a great post on organization. How do you organize your thoughts and your creativity and do you do the same for your career? Are you a throw it all at the wall and hope some of it sticks type or is everything planned out carefully? Jami has some great tips.

In The Craft Section,


Writing smooth transitions – Janice Hardy- Bookmark



In The Marketing Section,

Create a virtual book launch- Carol Cronin – Bookmark

3 basic rules of social media and 5 tips – Frances Caballo- Bookmark

Why quality counts – Sandra Beckwith

8 common book marketing mistakes- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

How to set up a sponsored product ad- Dave Chesson- Bookmark

Do you kill your widows and orphans? - Joel Friedlander – (If you don’t know what this means you need to read this article.)

To Finish,

About a decade ago a fabulous writer told me that my best work would happen when my children had left home. ‘You will be in a different mental headspace.’ I agonized over this idea. Today I read an interesting article from K M Weiland about the three stages of writing or how your age affects your writing and gained a new perspective on this. 
Take the wins where you can and keep on going. 

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.


Thursday, July 2, 2020

Learning To Get Better…




It’s July… when did that happen?
Earlier in the year, there was some hope that the pandemic would be done and dusted by the Northern hemisphere summer and that things might be back to normal.
Ah well, it looks like this might be the new normal for a while.

The Frankfurt Bookfair has finally decided that it will have to be online this year and now they are asking everyone what they would like to have in a virtual book fair. If you have a bright idea for a seminar or webinar with a worldwide audience check out their call for proposals.

I was reading Publishers Weekly and came across this headline- Upcoming YA novel pulled by Author. Naturally, I clicked over to see who had pulled their novel and why and I found an interesting letter from Publishers Weekly saying why they weren’t going to tell us who it was and why. This is very responsible of them. Sadly, I wish they had thought of the implications sooner. 

While I was looking at the news on Publisher Weekly, I was interested to see this publishing company expanding its list. I wondered how their first book would go as there had to be buy in from all the rights holders to the hit music. Take a hit song… now pair it up with a great illustrator and launch it as a picture book for children. (Kiwi’s, imagine Welcome Home as a PB… sigh)

Has the world got you down? Are you struggling with your self-worth as a writer? Yes, it’s Imposter Syndrome time again but with a Covid spin. Elizabeth Hartl has a guest post over at Writers Helping Writers on how to beat this lurgy.
And for another bracing talk check out Ruth Harris and her latest post on 5 ways Authors stand between themselves and success. These are both great posts to shake you up and get you ready for the next 6 months.

This week Kris Rusch was musing about the writers who have come to her for advice about missing money. In this publishing environment, everyone is chasing down money to keep the lights on and the wolf from the door. Sometimes this means that money promised to the author doesn’t make it into the bank account. Check out what Kris has to say about how to track down missing payments.
Kris and Dean are also making their workshops half price for writers who are stuck inside. Check out all the great courses they have. 

Jami Gold has a great post on how to learn and improve writing skills. If you do a deep dive into self-editing then you can figure out what you need to learn. Read this outstanding post first to get some pointers on what to look for. You might want to check out Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s collection of writer tools as well.

In The Craft Section,


Identifying your characters fatal flaw- Becca Puglisi - Bookmark

Free Picture book templates from Inkygirl- Debbie RidpathOhi- Bookmark

10 ways to reach the end-Elspeth Futcher

Self-edit your novel- Kris Spisak- Bookmark


We Are Unsafe- Donald Maass- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,



2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri-Timing your book launch and Promoting before the book is published- Bookmark


5 powerful principles on human behavior- Book marketing Bestsellers- Bookmark

To Finish,

In a little fishing village in Portugal lives a wild Irish Rover who lives online as a guru for writers. David Gaughran has been updating his great Writer Help books over the last 6 months or so. He has just made one of his best book marketing craft books FREE. Let’s get Digital was one of the first books I ever read on ebooks. David revised it three times always updating it. Now he has virtually rewritten it and made it available for Free. (and available from all the major ebook stores.) This is not just the primer on how to create an ebook but the whole encyclopedia- Let’s Get Digital 4th Edition is a Must Get.

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: 

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Surviving 2020


Sometimes I feel like every month lasts a year. It seems so long ago that we were brightly predicting what might happen in publishing in 2020. Boy, were we wrong…

In publishing news this week....

This week Bertrams, the second largest book distributors in the United Kingdom went into receivership. The Bookseller shared the news and its possible impact on the book industry for the UK going forward. Monopoly anyone?

Subscription services are getting a lot of love in this Covid 19 era. One monthly fee – Unlimited Entertainment but how can we find out how our books are doing in there? Bookbeat is a subscription service in the Nordic countries and they are offering publishers all sorts of data- like where do readers stop reading? What trends are the best-selling? Could be a watershed moment says TNPS

Publishers Weekly have been taking a look at the way publishers have been tackling their business throughout the pandemic. As was predicted some are ditching their New York offices, others are getting creative to get the word out about their books. It’s going to be an interesting next six months for the publishing industry.

The Alliance of Independent Authors has been looking at the facts and figures of self -publishing and the impact this has had on the overall book market. The last decade has completely changed the publishing landscape… and we are not finished yet with 2020. 

When you see all your writing friends succeed it can be pretty hard to feel positive about your writing life. Meg Dowell has written a great post on the 10 survival tips you need to cope with your friend’s success.

Anne R Allen has a bracing post on how to cope with a bad review. I am a member of a high powered writing group on Facebook and not a day goes by when someone isn’t celebrating a bad review. Yes, you read that right. Read Anne’s post to understand why.

Jami Gold has written a great post on choppy writing and how to fix it. I’ve been staring at my manuscript lately and wondering if the writing is bad because I’m going backward and forwards with dictating or whether it’s my unconscious mind picking up on the state of the world. ( or it could just be bad…) This is a must-read to get some craft perspective.

In The Craft Section,


Getting past Hard To Write Scenes- Janice Hardy- Bookmark



In The Marketing Section,



13 ways to increase your email open rate – David Gaughran- Bookmark

Amazon discounted my book – why this is a good thing (Brilliant ideas here)

July unique content ideas from Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

To Finish,

As I was looking over my selection of articles for you I was thinking about the theme of Survival. Who could predict 10 years ago which publishers, bookselling chains, or distributors would still be around in 2020? When the dust settles on the other side of Covid 19 how will the publishing landscape have changed? Is it survival of the fittest or the most nimble? How can writers be creative in the midst of unrelenting negative news? Kristine Rusch has a timely look at survival and forgiveness for writers. This is a great post to mull over and apply to your own writing life. 

Maureen
@craicer

I round up the best of my bookmarked links and other assorted tips in a monthly newsletter.
Go on and subscribe and 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.


Thursday, June 18, 2020

Sometimes you just need coffee


(to stop you reaching for the bottle…)

This week the Cilip Carnegie and Cilip Kate Greenaway medals were announced. These awards are for the best children’s book and best illustration published in The United Kingdom. There were two things that stood out for me when I read about the winners.
The Cilip Carnegie went to a dyslexia-friendly independent publisher- Barrington Stoke for Lark by Anthony McGowan. This is a win for all those publishers who take publishing risks to make books accessible to children who struggle with reading. The other winner caught me by surprise- I am so used to seeing Shaun Tan’s brilliant work that I thought he had probably won it before. Not only is he a first-time winner of the illustration prize but he is the first winner in the history of the prize to be a person of colour. (Fill in your oath of surprise here.)

The Black Writers Guild sent an open letter to UK publishers, this week, making specific requests to tackle inequalities and representation in the publishing business. It was signed by over 100 Black authors. The publishers have responded with many saying that they will do better… 

Meanwhile across the pond – The Department of Justice is suing Senator Bolton over his forthcoming book in an attempt to halt publication. You can’t buy this kind of publicity and Simon and Schuster know this…They are promoting three books with all their free publicity, including a tell-all from the president’s niece and a biography of the president’s wife.

Mark Coker of Smashwords writes an annual crystal ball prediction at the beginning of each year. Today he released a crystal ball prediction for life in publishing after Covid 19.

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware has updated her post on 6 things to watch out for in contract clauses. It is a very good guide for how to spot red flags. I watched a twitter exchange today between two big Science Fiction Authors about contract negotiations and saw one advise the other to get limited terms. This means when the rights revert back to the author. Savvy authors are now putting this into their contracts- although it’s a fight. Many writers are asking for Limited Terms for Rights Reversal for a period of way under 10 years. 

Jami Gold is taking some time to reassess how much time she puts into her blog. As much as she loves to write one of the best writing process blogs around she also needs to watch her health. This is a timely reminder to readers of her popular blog. Are you doing too much and neglecting your health? Cutting back is better in the long run than falling over completely. 

Derek Murphy of Creative Indie has written some interesting workaround posts over the years. Here he takes a look at the review policy of Amazon in particular the ARC’s review policy. How can you work around their rules to get reviews?
Along with interesting posts, Derek also makes available great tools to help writers. Here is a free novel outlining template for Scrivener. (Derek is also the guy behind Free DIY Bookcovers and the 3d book cover generator)

Mark Tilbury has a great post on the mirror moment in your writing. If you aren’t sure what it means check out the post. He gives a shout out to James Scott Bell’s Book – Write Your Novel From The Middle- which is superb.


In The Craft Section,
 2 Great Posts from Angela Ackerman – How To Avoid A Half Baked Idea and How to describe a location you’ve never visited -Bookmark Both!

A-Z of Character Archetypes- Wordhunter- Bookmark

Determine your raison detre as a writer- Katherine Grubb

Weaving The Backstory- Anne Hawkinson


In the Marketing Section,
2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri -How to market a book with a virtual event  and The ultimate guide for authors on SEO- Bookmark Both!

Go Local first for book publicity- Joan Stewart- Bookmark


Blurbing and being Blurbed – Barbara Linn Probst

To Finish,
From time to time I mention author book collectives and how the power of a group can supercharge your writing success. I have mentioned Triskele books before but recently Roz Morris interviewed the founders for an in-depth look at what makes their collective work.
Last week I had fun doing dictation into my word document although I noticed that I was mostly writing dialogue. Bang2Write has a great post on writing 1000 words before 9 am. Not quite sure how they say you can do it without coffee tho.

Maureen
@craicer

My monthly newsletter will be coming soon. I round up the best of my bookmarked links and other assorted tips.
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.


Thursday, June 11, 2020

All Aboard


This week in the publishing trenches… 


Marches are still ongoing to highlight BLM. This week there was a frank interview with two Young Adult writers about Police Brutality, Y A Literature, and the Nuances of Black Storytelling. It is a sobering and candid interview about all the expectations the writers carry and how their work is made invisible in the publishing world. Along with this interview, I saw another which highlighted that publishing, dominated by a particular world view, perpetuates the stereotypes because that’s what they think the public understands. A writer who was writing a factual account of her experiences in prison found that because her story didn’t fit the stereotypical story she had difficulty getting published. 

 

Can the reading public cope with stories selected from outside a narrow band of white university-educated middle-class gatekeepers? A data analysis that came out this week on the New York Times Bestsellers list which answered this question. The figures are confronting.

 

The inequality in publishing was again highlighted this week with the hashtag #PublishingPaidMe.

Here writers were asked to lay out their publishing deals. This was brave of many and the numbers confirmed what many writers suspected.

 

With all the focus this week on publishing deals, Jane Friedman pulled together a list of questions that writers should be asking their editors or agents about deals. As you run your eye over it think about the deal in a business way. If you substitute the term “book” for a “super new gadget” wouldn’t the answers to these questions be the bare minimum in a business deal? How many writers even have these conversations?

 

With writers in the firing line, behind the firing line, or fueling the fires, a couple of articles tried to make sense of the turmoil.

Barb Drozdowich had an interesting article – Who are your readers? Do you piss them off?

Kris Rusch wrote an extra article today on Speaking out. Do you stand up for what you believe or play it safe in public?

 

Anne R Allen has been annoyed once too often this week on scammy online marketing solicitations. This fueled a blog post rant on why content marketers can really miss their mark with bloggers. I completely agree with her. I don’t get as many solicitations in a week as she does, but I do get them. In 12 years of writing this weekly blog, I can think of only about five times that I got a solicitation that I actually used, and three of those were from Reedsy when they were just starting out and proved that they read my blog. 

 

After all the battering to a writer’s mental health this week, it was interesting to read an article about caring for your back. This is timely as I write this curled up on the couch, my back not as supported as it could be. You don’t want to get writer’s back!

 

Gabriella Pereira of DIYMFA is in the middle of a virtual conference with a long list of writing interviews over two weeks. There is something for everyone in her guest lineup.


In The Craft section,

4 ways to make the most of your supporting characters- Shaun Leonard


A deep dive in points of view- Amanda Bennet- Bookmark


10 ways to keep writing when you would rather be doing other things- Meg Dowell


Script analysis – Knives Out- Scott Myers


Making a good first impression with our characters- Jami Gold- Bookmark


Writer Igniter- Writer prompt app for brainstorming- DIYMFA- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to pitch radio and become a talk show guest- Sandra Beckwith


Take your career to the next level- Mark Dawson and Joanna Penn – Bookmark


How to promote your books right now- Rachel Thompson


How to use your book cover for marketing – miblart- Bookmark


6 tips for marketing on your author central page- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish- on a positive note

Every now and then you come across an offer that looks too good to be true. Nick Stephenson sent an email out this week with a link to the latest infostack bundle for writers.  He is part of it but he took the time to investigate everything on offer… and over $4000 of products were in the bundle which is only $49 this week. So head on over and 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 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: Titanic 

 

Related Posts with Thumbnails