Publishing - Always Learning.

In publishing this week,

There has been a mixed reaction to a publishing company releasing books written under male pseudonyms with their correct gender name. The publishing company is promoting a special collection of books, however, others are asking, is this what the authors would have wanted? Just because we can – should we?

 

The rapid growth of Amazon (40% over lockdown) has caused more disquiet in the publishing industry. Publishers Weekly reports that American publishing leaders have now written to the American government to get them to curb the tech giant’s growth before it destroys the publishing industry.

 

Publishing Perspectives recently highlighted Ukraine’s publishing industry woes as publishing in that country has taken a big hit. The New Publishing Standard looks at the global publishing industry. How well, or not, is publishing doing in other markets? This week TNPS published an article on the book trade in Europe. What can we learn from other markets? Will they be saved by the undead also? (YA vampires saved the book industry once…  Midnight Sun rockets past a million copies sold in its first week.) Meanwhile, everyone keeps one eye on the American market.

 

A piece of news that made me gasp today was a hint at the possible disruption of the audiobook industry. There has been speculation about what this company could do to the audiobook landscape.  TNPS saw the job advert and put a few things together. Enter Spotify…

 

I am always fascinated by where science and Artificial Intelligence is going. This week I listened to Joanna Penn and Mark Lefebvre have a conversation with voice doubles. It was uncanny… and the possibilities for its use slightly scary. On the other hand, imagine pressing a button at the end of writing your manuscript and having the whole thing read back in your own voice- edit on the page… and then upload as an audiobook.

The Alliance of Independent Authors has been looking at copyright. With rapidly improving AI, copyright is not keeping up. If an AI can write a book in the style of another author who owns the copyright? 

 

Barb Drozdowich has an interesting article on Anne R Allen’s blog about the psychology of selling and the superfan in book marketing. Limiting choice makes a big difference in selling your books. Angela Ackerman also looked at marketing this week with an examination of FAR marketing. Focus, Authenticity, and relationships.  They are both excellent articles.

 

Reedsy has updated their book editor and it is pretty spiffy. Check out their free writing program.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to stay on point in your plot.- Jennie Nash

9 ways to originalise your story idea- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

Story description- Lynnette Bonner

Transitions- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

How to create a blockbuster- Story Grid- Michael Finberg

Character development-shadow- Antonio del Drago- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

4 secrets to book marketing- Frances Caballo

2 articles from Penny Sansevieri - Pitching to be a guest blogger and 

How to connect with influencers on Twitter

How to repurpose audio and video content for social media- Social Media Examiner- Bookmark

Guide to social media image sizes- Social Media Today- Infographic

Must-Do steps for Amazon ebook campaigns- Judith Briles- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Recently I congratulated Joanna Penn and the SPA Girls for achieving significant milestones in their podcasts. It takes a special commitment to keep showing up every week to share thoughts and ideas with an audience. Often the audience has no idea what hurdles you have overcome to be present in that time and space. Kristine Rusch is also celebrating a milestone with her publishing business posts. She talks about the time when she thought there was nothing more to say and then the world changed. It’s a great post from a great voice in publishing. She has done it all and has wide-ranging knowledge of the publishing industry. Learn From The Masters, people. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

P.S. This is blog post 599

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter with loads of bookmarked links and 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  virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Alan Levine

Getting Creative

 

This week in publishing news…

Publishing Perspectives reports on Penguin Random House India’s moves into the European market. Take one branch of a worldwide company… add a big distributor … Stir… and bake a new revenue stream.

 

This week I attended a virtual awards ceremony for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. It was an odd experience as groups of us gathered around the country to watch a semi-live streaming event and cheer on our colleagues and winners. There was a tremendous outpouring of love for our finalists online throughout the week. It was bittersweet to not be there in person. Kate Reed Perry wrote a recent article on how virtual book events need to change to bring in some magic. Let’s get creative with our events.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors (Alli) has pulled together a big post on Lockdown lessons for authors. With countries tentatively making a break from lockdown authors share what they learned and how they would do things differently. 

 

How much does the rest of the world know about the Asia Pacific publishing region? Mark Williams from TNPS has a roundup for Alli- Did you know that 50% of the people online in the world are in this region? What devices do they read on? Who caters to them? How do you reach 886 million online readers?

 

Have you been looking at your writing software and wondering whether you are missing something crucial? Author Media has a round-up of the writing software authors are using in 2020. Tech Crunch reports a new kid on the block aimed at creatives. Circle brings all your community engagement, courses, extra creator content into one space. Put together by the team behind Teachable.

 

How often have you seen a movie based on a book and wondered what happened?  There was a Twitter storm when the first pictures of BBC America’s The Watch, based on Terry Pratchett’s beloved books, were released this week. Not what the fans wanted at all.  Kris Rusch continues her look at licensing Intellectual Property and how they are working with a games company to take her books and characters into the gaming space. How much control should an author have over the product? Is it like films?

 

Rachel Thompson has an interesting article about self-publishing now and how authors have to understand all the ramifications of choosing this way of publishing. 

 

In The Craft Section,

How to write, and what not to write about the family, in your memoir- Sharon Harrigan- Bookmark

2 great posts from Angela and Becca- 6 tricks to layer on the stakes and Conflict thesaurus- Losing one’s temper- Bookmark Both

Begin at the beginning – or maybe not – Barbara Linn Probst

The trials and tribulations of DIY audiobooks- I popped this into craft because it has audio craft tips.- Andrene Low

 

In The Marketing Section,

Social media might not mean what you think it means-Sadie Hartmann- Bookmark

Book Cover redesigns- Alexander von Ness

A deep look at reader guides- P H Solomon- Bookmark

7 Book Marketing mistakes authors make- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

4 top book formatting mistakes to avoid- The Book Designer

 

To Finish,

We were doing so well… and then, as a friend said, Covid bit us on the butt again.  New Zealand goes back into lockdown. So to all those writers stuck back at home with the kids and the spouse and the pets and the mayhem… Here is the hacks guide to writing while the kids are at home.

 

Stay Safe. Be Kind. (Let’s rock those masks…)

 

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- Curran Kelleher Venice Mask

 

Sunshine In The Gloom

This week there were two podcasting milestones. Joanna Penn reached 500 episodes of her podcast (11 years) and The SPA Girls reached 250 episodes of theirs, (5 years) These podcasts are super informative about publishing craft and marketing. They are must listens every week. If you haven’t checked them out at least once you are seriously missing out. They both have an extensive backlist of episodes… they have pretty much answered every question in publishing. Congratulations Joanna and Trudi, Cheryl, Wendy, and Shar.

 

Jane Friedman looked at the publishing stats from the U.S. Is there some silver linings in the gloom? Yes, print and ebook sales are up. We’ll take every ray of sunshine we can…

 

What is courage? Writers moaning about how hard it is to publish now, pushed Kristine Rusch’s buttons this week. If you are moaning instead of doing- This is a nice wakeup call to check your privilege credentials.

 

WorldCon is over. The first virtual event of its kind had some teething troubles. There was a huge commitment behind the scenes to getting it up and running. Hats off to the NZ Sci-Fi community for slogging through. However, the virtual community was left wondering where the NZ content was…. It was there but not prominent… or as this article says how NZ’s best sci-fi and fantasy writers got shafted on the world stage.

 

The New Publishing Standard published an interesting news story on its blog today. They were taking a look at why video can be streamed in subscription packages almost globally but books can’t. With Africa pretty much online through mobile phones, the ability to get subscription books is pretty low. What are publishers doing wrong? (I write this as Disney announces the new Mulan movie release streaming on their channel.)

 

This week many authors winced when the news that a reference to a dye recipe in an historical novel was uplifted from a google search that was a fake recipe. John Boyne’s new historical novel has now had loads of extra publicity but is it the right publicity?

 

Scott Myers has a great post on Deep work vs Shallow work. How often do you sit down to write and have about five tabs open on your browser at the same time? Clear the decks first.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to create tension in writing- Now Novel- Bookmark

Dumb little writing tricks that work- Scott Myers

2 great posts from Mythcreants- How do I describe fat characters respectfully and Introducing otherworldly elements.

When you have extra POV characters- K M Weiland- Bookmark

A quick reminder on Transitions-Elizabeth Spann Craig- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

What should go on your Copyright page- Bookbaby

Book proposals – what should they have- Jody Hedlund

Two interesting posts on Book Titles- Good story titles from Ride The Pen and Picking a bestselling title from Barbara Delinsky- Bookmark

Email newsletter for authors- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

3 reasons authors need a content strategy- Abbie Mood

 

To Finish,

Next week is the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. I was privileged to be a judge two years ago. It is a big night in the small world of New Zealand Children’s publishing. However, this year it will be a virtual ceremony. This decision was made some time ago before we came out of lockdown. We still need to celebrate so I’ve been part of a team organizing a local bookstore live streaming party. The next best thing to joining with your tribe and celebrating altogether in a big venue. Angela Ackerman pulled out of the archives a post on the 6 smart ways authors can collaborate for marketing. This type of advice is gold in 2020 when there are so many virtual book events in the present COVID-19 publishing world. Go and gather your author friends… let’s get innovative in our celebrations.

 

Kia Kaha Beirut- Stay Strong-

 

Hiroshima- 75 Years- When will we ever learn…

 

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- Mark Lee

 

The Future Of Book Marketing

This week in publishing…

Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors came out in droves to condemn Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the Science Fiction convention. Their main problem was that the restrictive nature of the Saudi society would be against the spirit of the genre.  Meanwhile, CoNZealand is happening online with overseas authors skyping into New Zealand instead of the usual extravaganza that is this year's World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention. 

Staying with science fiction for a moment. The Verge is reporting that AI Podcast editor Descript is releasing its voice double from Beta. I know that Joanna Penn has been playing around with this. Think about narrating your books with your favourite actor’s voice or your own without having to sit in a booth for 10 hours… If you are interested in more about creativity and AI check out Joanna Penn’s recent podcast.

The New Publishing Standard reports that Big Bad Wolf, the huge Asian bookseller of remaindered English language books, is also going online. They have partnered with an online marketplace and will be selling their physical books in their usual 10-day 24-hour sale marathon. Check out how many books they intend to move- eyewatering!!! This could also be a sign of things to come.

Mike Shatzkin has been taking a look at how the publishing industry is coping with the pandemic. What is happening to the supply chain? Are they changing their practices…? thinking about changing how they operate…? still have their head in the sand?

Maybe they should be reading Penny Sansevieri’s article on the best book marketing ideas during a pandemic. 

Kris Rusch is still diving deep into the implications of Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter. Have you thought about all the different types of licensing in a contract? Brandon is exploiting one tiny one. With one week to go Brandon is closing in on $6 million. Kris talks about what you need to think about in your own Kickstarter campaigns.

Ruth Harris has another great article looking at the problem of how to write what you know when you can’t write what you know. Sound convoluted? It’s all about what you can change. This is another excellent article on the craft of writing.

In The Craft Section,

Plot development questions- Now Novel- Bookmark

Developing a coherent story- Jael Bakari- Bookmark

Authentic dialogue- CS Lakin

How to finish writing your book- Kevin Tumlinson- Bookmark

How to outline a novel- Roz Morris - Bookmark

Line editing tips- Jocelyn Pruemer- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

176 resources and tool to market and launch your book- Digital Publishing – Bookmark

Apps for Bookstagram- Bookriot

How to market a book with 5 simple website upgrades- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Spoilers won’t spoil your book promotion- Writer Unboxed

5 ways to use video to promote books- Cristian Stanciu- Bookmark

August Unique content ideas – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

To Finish,

The psychology of making a sale. How do you get people to buy what you have to sell? 

I was interested to see this marketing article try to link book marketing to the 5 principles of human behavior. How do you buy books? This week a bookseller I know called me out on deliberately not looking at the books when I was talking to her. ‘I know why you are doing that,’ she said. I had to confess that she was right. I was trying not to buy any more books. I bought new books last week and I haven’t even cracked the spine on them. 

Selling to a bibliophile is just putting the new shiny book object in front of them in a trail of book crumbs to the cash register.

#hopelessaddiction

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.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Bex Walton Topping & Company Booksellers

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.

 Nate Hoffelder talks about the drama and the Sunday Times bestseller list and the shock of how few sales you need to make the list.

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

6 things that get you stuck in writers' block- Sean Platt- Bookmark

Monitoring your progress as a writer- Rafal Reyzer

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

Is your book in the limp-a-long merry-go-round?- Judith Briles

Publishing Timelines – C S Lakin- Bookmark

How not to waste your valuable time guest blogging- Nate Hoffelder

Where to get free illustrations- 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.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Andy Maguire

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,

Character building – how much planning should you do? - Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Beginning Screenwriters Start Here- Scott Myers

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

Writing emotion- Iris Marsh

The emotional rollercoaster all writers experience- Martha Alderson- Bookmark

Building a bold narrators voice- Now Novel- Bookmark

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

Why you need a template for your newsletter- Nate Hoffelder

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 10^th 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

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,

2 great posts from Scott Myers- Where to start when developing a story and Inside and Outside the story universe.- Bookmark

Writing smooth transitions – Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Adding a time delay to heighten conflict – Angela Ackerman

The biggest writing craft issue writers face- Anne R Allen – 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.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Dimitry Baranovskii