Are you ready for the bookfuture?

As I write this the Digital Book World conference is just wrapping up. DBW is a conference firmly focussed on innovation and change in the publishing world. Many old hands in the digital publishing space attend along with a hot new startups. Big news is always unveiled at DBW so ... 

Kobo announced a new 8 inch E-Reader tablet- Forma. Amazon demonstrated their new Amazon Dot tech, which can sync with any device and continue reading your book where ever you are.

New kids on the block Novel Effect have an app that provides background music and sound effects using voice recognition to storytimes. Reading with your kids has just dramatically changed. 

Blockchain is continuing to advance into publishing with a new tech startup Bookchain from Canada - a digital publishing platform using Blockchain technology. 

There is lots to think about in the future of publishing.

Along with things future a huge reader survey was published. It makes interesting reading about who is reading and what they are reading and what on... I was surprised to see that a lot of readers between 30 and 50 were reading on their phones.

Wattpad is about to Beta test paying authors. This is big news if you publish on Wattpad. You will get paid real dollars too instead of cryptocurrency. Readers can buy wattpad tokens which they can use to unlock next chapters or whole books... sounds like an interesting income stream for popular authors on the platform.

Publish Drive has looked at comparison pricing of books in Asia. This is useful data as not much is known about buying habits there. With India having the second largest English speaking population...we should all be keeping an eye on global markets.

The global big prize in literature – The Nobel was not awarded this year due to a sex scandal. Quartz magazine writes about the cost of this to the publishing community.

This week Joanna Penn Interviewed Dave Chesson. Two fab podcasters in the one session. Dave took a deep dive into keywords which is his special interest. This is a must read/listen podcast if you use Amazon Ads.

In The Craft Section,

Tips for writing rough drafts- Now Novel- Bookmark

32 fixes for microblocks and glitches in your writing- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

3 top picture book writing mistakes - Alice Kuipers 

20 things I learned after reading 150,000 opening scenes. Katie McCoach – Bookmark

Genre mashups- Write Practice

What should your editing priority be?- Alli Blog

Nailing your one sentence story concept - Suzanne Lakin- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Hot tips for conferences- Rachelle Gardner

Captivate an event audience- Build Book Buzz - Bookmark

How to write a great About Me page- Autocrit

How to use infographics to connect with readers- Nate Hoffelder- Bookmark

Improve your Facebook reach- Frances Caballo- Bookmark

How Indie autors can learn design on a shoestring- Auden Johnson

What separates authors who make an income full time from writing- Not what you think. – Amy Collins- Bookmark

To Finish,

Spare a thought for the second hand bookseller.  Authors love/hate relationship - a source of cheap books for struggling writers and of 'no income' to authors of these books. 

Bookriot has a guest post from a second hand bookseller about the books that they are drowning in. I am often surprised by books that end up in second hand bookstores. (Maybe because I hardly ever only read a book once.) 

 Just a thought... If you read a book through Bookchain you can onsell it and the author will get a little slice of the pie too. Just a little glimpse into a happier book future for writers.

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you would like to shout me a coffee hit the button up top. Thanks everyone!

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Mr Muggles 

Are you ready to leave a legacy?

How important is your copyright to you? Is it more important to your heirs? 

This week, Australian professor Rebecca Giblin wrote an interesting article on copyright. It needs to change. The accepted practice of rights reverting back 70 years after an author dies is outdated. Singer Bryan Adams testified to this last week in Canada. He wants a small but significant word change in contracts.

Kris Rusch talks Intellectual Property and the problems faced by heirs if there is no will. This is a timely reminder that we are all mortal and the creations we make have a life after we die. Are your heirs trained and ready?

Anne R Allen takes a look at publishing fiction sucessfully now. She has 9 great tips to follow. Every one of these tips is gold and comes from experience. 

Anne also links to The New Publishing Standard (1 year old this week and read in 180 countries,) which has a focus on the global publishing industry worth $143 billion of which the US market is only $29 billion. If you are managing your own author business you have to think global.

Chuck Wendig has an interesting idea about writing careers. They are basically weird RPG’s. Writers are always looking to level up and what about the monsters they battle on the way? 

Join Wattpad and you might just have the worlds biggest Literary Agent batting for you. Forbes highlights the power of Wattpad and its business model for writers. They are now brokering film and TV deals for their writers, cutting out agents.

Janice Hardy has a great post on character careers. The type of career your main character has directly informs the plot. She offers 5 things to think about when choosing fictional careers.

Have you ever read an historical novel and wondered if the author got something wildly wrong in the research? Accuracy vs Authenticity 5 tips for writing immersive historical fiction.

In The Craft Section,

Which rules and guidelines are just plain bad

12 common archetypes- Reedsy- Bookmark

How to describe settings- Bryn Donovan

Write more in 15 minutes- Elizabeth Spann Craig

Don’t over explain to readers- Zoe McCarthy

Writing a story better than its flaws- K M Weiland - Bookmark

Even villains need affection- Writescape- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Offline Marketing Strategies

Getting the most out of events- Damon Suade - Bookmark

Book Description Generator- Kindlepreneur= Bookmark

How early should you start marketing your book

4 ways to collect email leads from Facebook groups- Nate McCallister- Bookmark

3 steps for better book marketing ideas- Ingram Spark

7 presentation tips for speaking in an online world- Gigi Rosenberg- Bookmark

What does our branding promise readers- Jami Gold - Bookmark

To Finish,

Freewrite recently came up with their top 50 writing blogs. I endorse many on this list and some of the names will be very familiar to you. If you are looking for new blogs to follow take a look.

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. Thanks. I appreciate the virtual coffee love!

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Pia Waugh

Surviving Career Custard Pies

In the publishing blogosphere this week....

K-boards is a well known chat forum for authors who publish on Amazon. This week the news that K -boards was sold from the deceased estate of its founder to a tech company caused hardly a ripple in the smooth working of the forum until participants noticed changes in the terms of service that were unusual and upsetting. It could get very messy. The Passive Guy brought his lawyer eye to figure out what was what.

Apple has quietly changed its bookstore. No more iBooks... Apple books are here to stay. Apple have some nifty new revamps to the bookstore.

The rising cost of Amazon ads has caught authors on the hop. The suggested price to start bidding has risen by 25%. The Alliance of Independent Authors great blog highlights and examines this situation. This has been a big topic of conversation around the indie publishing blogosphere.

It’s Book Launch week for me. Do you know any quirky confident beginning readers? I have a great book series launching now based in a traveling circus... add in some codes... and you get custard pies thrown... Um No. Ricardo Fayet of Reedsy has a list of unconventional book launch ideas...

Agent Janet Reid has an interesting answer to a reader question on what happens when you have fired your agent but they still have an interest in the books that they submitted on your behalf. How long do they have their claws in me?

Kris Rusch comments of the hits an authors career takes when a publisher makes a stupid decision... The latest stupid decision - Tor stopping libraries from accessing their new releases. 

Chuck Wendig has an interesting post on his blog today about writing careers being a series of cliff mitigation exercises. This is a super read. It is thought provoking especially when joined with Kris Rusch’s blog. 

I flicked this link on Book Covers to my fabulous Cover Designer Adele Jackson. This is a fascinating roundup of the cover designers on Instagram. If Typography and pretty colours are your thing - take a look!

3 writing techniques adapted from the visual arts- This is a great post by Tess Callahan on Writers Digest. 

In The Craft Section,

Mythcreants have two great posts that you should Bookmark- 5 Reasons not to write a persecution flip story and How do I avoid endorsing my protagonists actions

How to write exceptional endings- September Fawkes- Bookmark

How to find and capture your novel ideas- Joanna Penn

How to deal with rejection as a writer- Meg Latorre

What’s at stake- Michael Hauge- Bookmark

Sweeter than tea- Writing tips

In The Marketing Section,

Biggest Bookbub ad mistakes- Bookbub- Bookmark!!

Misconceptions about literary agents- Writers Digest

The Ins and Outs of Contests- Writers on the move

Embed video in your Amazon book listing. - The Digital Reader

Using excerpts from your book on Social Media- Bookbuzzr

Creating an Author Persona for live events- Joanna Penn

How to set up and run an author exhibition stand- Alli -Bookmark

David Gaughran has a fascinating guest post from Nicholas Erik. This is a MUST READ if you are advertising on FB or Amazon.

To Finish,

Anne R Allen has put together a handy list of books to help writers when they feel discouraged, blocked or feeling like they are not a real writer. This is EVERYONE. We all feel like this at times. Her list has been extensively added to in the comments so make sure you read them.

Maureen

@craicer

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you want to say thanks for all the blog posts you can hit the coffee button and help fuel my week. It’s Circus Quest book launch time! I’m up to my eyes in custard pies…If you know a quirky confident beginning reader then check out my Circus Quest series. 

Pic; Atlas Obscura- The Perils 1947 Custard Pies

Are the barricades being breached yet?

In Publishing News this week...

The UK publishing scene is feeling a little nervous. The Waterstones chain of Bookshops has bought the Foyles chain of independent bookshops from the Foyle family. It could be a good thing... or ... time will tell. (Already commentators are saying the goodwill of all parties may last only as long as the Waterstones CEO stays in his job.)

The EU parliament has voted to progress a controversial Internet copyright law. Free Speech may now not be so free. Publishers are cautiously optimistic. Internet watchdogs are not.

This of course has no bearing on Brexit at the moment. However Tara Sparling has raised some interesting questions about what happens to authors and publishers who publish into the UK after Brexit? Royalties... Contracts... Agents... Markets... At the moment she notes there is a big silence from the publishing community and there shouldn’t be. How will Brexit affect anyone publishing into the UK?

In wider news Audible has tweaked their offerings and are now giving two audio books away each month as well as selections from Bestsellers... Do they finally see some competition on the horizon?

I keep one eye on the academic publishing sector which has been very resistant to change in the digital publishing space. The Guardian’s top journalist George Monbiot shines the spotlight on the rip off that is the academic journal. I have heard rumblings about this for a few years now but things are about to change. (I hear the cheering from the students and the screams from the publishers...)

Kris Rusch has another interesting post on negotiations. She examines the perils of the Hollywood verbal contract. As she explains Johnny Depp’s lawsuits are going to be setting precidents in contract law that are long overdue. Hollywood is not above the law despite what they might tell you. This is a must read about contract negotiation.

Joanna Penn has reached her 7th anniversay milestone of freedom from the day job and she takes stock of all that she has learned. It’s a nice roundup and offer pointers for other creative authorpreneurs.

Jane Friedman has updated her evergreen post on 10 ways to build traffic to your website... How many are you doing?

In The Craft Section,

Start me up- Janice Hardy

Writing emotions effectively- Litreactor

11 things every writer should know about copyrights- Helen Sedwick Bookmark

Applying tv lessons to chapter hooks- Jami Gold - Bookmark

7 strategies for creating clever coincidences- Writers Digest

4 ways to limit character options- K M Weiland

4 tips for stronger writing- Kathy Stinemann- Bookmark

6 types of turning points for climaxes- Mythcreants- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Should authors be on Instagram- Frances Caballo

12 effortless marketing tips- Bookbuzzr- Bookmark

Big Book Marketing blunders- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Marketing uncovered- David Gaughran- Bookmark

How to keep your book marketing alive for years- Anjali MitterDuva

Going wide with Kobo- ALLI Blog

What self publishers can learn from 2018 bestsellers – Ingram Spark Blog

Print On Demand books- a nice little comparison from Reedsy- Bookmark

To Finish,

Have you ever fallen out of love with your book?

Sarah Letourneau has written a great post When the fire goes out, what to do when this happens. Sometimes that book you were dying to write just remains dead no matter what you try to do to resusitate it. Sarah has some helpful strategies. Chuck Wendig has also been musing on this topic and as usual he has talked about trusting the process in his own special style.

Maureen

@craicer

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you want to say thanks for all the blog posts you can hit the coffee button and help fuel my week. 

It’s nearly Circus Quest book launch time and there is soo much to do. If you know a quirky confident beginning reader then check out my Circus Quest series. Custard Pies at your own risk….
 

Pic; Flickr Creative Commons Ken Bosma

Opportunity Knocks

In Publishing News...

Anybody want to buy a bookstore? How about a chain of bookstores? The continuing saga of the struggling Barnes and Noble bookselling chain has many in the publishing industry worried. 

How open are you to opportunities? Will you say yes to everything? Or do you lock yourself away in your writing garret? Wendy Jones talks about the power of saying yes to everything and what that has done for her writing career.

Nick Stephenson has an article on whether authors should still blog. Blogging goes in and out of favour all the time. If you are a fiction writer it can be problematical thinking up what to blog about. Nick has some great ideas on this.  Check out the top 50 writing craft blogs .

Tara Sparling asks an interesting question this week.Is your book good looking enough for  the internet? Is viewing books in thumbnail sizes changing the way cover designers approach the book cover?

Jane Friedman has an interesting guest post from Betsy Fasbinder about public speaking for authors. For many writers this is a side of the business that is the least liked. Betsy has some great tips.

Staying with the business side of writing, Joe Solari has an interesting article on managing cash flow in your writer business.

How to legally use quotations in your book. This question comes up again and again. Helen Sedwick gives you the legal lowdown.

I came across this article- Microtargeting with Facebook ads- and had to think carefully about the Brave New World we are living in. On one hand, as authors, wouldn’t it be great to have our dream reader profiled and targeted so that they always saw our books. On the other hand...  

In The Craft Section,

Advice that saved my novel- Therese Walshe

Protagonist vs Nemesis Key to conflict- Go into the story-Bookmark

Should you outline backwards- K M Weiland- Bookmark

The characters controlling belief- Mary Atkinson

6 steps to consider before writing a novel- Rebecca Monterusso

2 fantastic posts from Jami Gold Showing vs telling in context and

Creating Layered characters- Bookmark Both

In The Marketing Section,

Everything to know about ISBN’s 

(In NZ you can get free ISBN’s from National Library)

Self publishing 101- Nick Stephenson

Amazon Author Central – book discovery- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

What’s new in Pinterest for writers- Frances Caballo

Grow your email list through Pinterest

Updating your author bio- Alli blog- Bookmark

How to create Merchandise for books 

3 Book Promotion myths- Build Book Buzz

The easy opt in gift- Writetodone- Bookmark

To Finish,

Being a writer is so much more than just being the typer of words. It is to be a marketer, a cheer leader, a critic, a business owner, an editor, a muse wrangler...

Greer Macallister has put togther 25 truths about writing over on Writer Unboxed. You will smile and agree with most of them.

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. Thanks everyone who hit the coffee button this week. I appreciate the virtual coffee love.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Rebecca Siegel

Taking Care Of Business

This week in publishing...

The publishing world is watching carefully to see how the Walmart Kobo ebook store will change things. Kobo, a Canadian company, is making a strategic move against Amazon in the US by partnering with the largest bricks and mortar chain. Forbes business magazine asked the CEO of Scribd what he thought of the move. His answer surprised them.

It has happened... CreateSpace is now officially closing. Moving all your titles over is now mandatory unless you publish in Chinese. For some reason Kindle Print does not support this which is a blow for translators.

Beijing Book Fair is on the hunt for children’s books. Publishing Perspectives takes a look at the biggest Asian bookfair and why they want educational materials. 

The Guardian recently shone a spotlight on the evolution of writers festivals and the way authors are treated at them. Take your average insecure introvert writer and stand them up in front of a festival crowd and say Entertain Us... Hmmm. Are they asking too much from writers? How about appearing nude? Yes, this is happening...

TechCrunch reports that Amazon is ramping up a book subscription model for children’s books, Prime members only. Can this work? Other subscription models have fallen by the wayside. Will children’s books be any different?

I saw a reference late last week to a courtcase in Australia between an agent and a writer with the nub of the dispute- What is in a verbal contract? Kris Rusch takes a look and has some recommendations to authors. This is a must read! .

Anne R Allen has an interesting article about Ian Fleming. The Bond author was completely involved in the production of his books. This is a fascinating insight into what made these novels successful. 

I’m in the middle of writing a series... well two actually. I was interested to see Chuck Wendig recently posted an article on his blog about how hard it is to write a series. I found my self nodding along and stifling laughter. (Warning it is Chuck.)

In The Craft Section,

How to use the thesaurus properly- Useful guide fro authors-September Fawkes

How to make plot captivating- 7 strategies- Now Novel- Bookmark

Reedsy have two great posts 20 + writing strategies and a video on First Person Point of View- Bookmark

The three act structure, formulaic or foundational- Bookbaby – Bookmark

How important is talent- Lizzie Shane

In The Marketing Section,

How to write a publishable first novel- Anne R Allen

How to market poetry- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

How to target readers with Bookbub ads- Bookmark

Distribution- Should you go wide or narrow? - Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

5 ways authors can save money- Chris Kridler

How to win at the game of Book marketing – Charli Mills- Bookmark

To Finish,

Roz Morris stepped back and looked at her desk and then her office and mused about the importance of having the right things around you to write. This is a kind of a love letter to the writers desk. Stop and take a moment to look at your writers desk. Is it inspirational?

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. Thanks everyone who hit the coffee button this week. I appreciate the virtual coffee love.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Seattle Municipal Archives- Mayor John Dore 1936

Angst, Perfection and Envy- The Writer Triple Threat.

Is the sky falling? 

This week there seems to be all the angsty opinion pieces about the death of reading because of Social Media or ..... (fill in latest fad.) Publishing Perspectives has an open letter from the Authors Guild about Big Tech Content being a threat to writers.

The Guardian has an opinion piece asking if YA films are dead... 

I can’t help thinking that this is Back to School angst in the Northern Hemsiphere.

Nate Hoffelder looks at the weeks biggest news in publishing... Walmart and Kobo’s new ebook venture. Everybody waiting to see how it goes. What is interesting is about five years ago I was following tech companies that had Ebook gift cards on shelf displays...it didn’t get much traction.  Kobo and Walmart seem to be bringing that technology back. Will it work this time?

Derek Murphy has a stellar guest post on Anne R Allen’s blog on 10 mistakes I made as an Indie. It’s a must read. Derek wraps up common problems offers solutions and resources. It is a long post chock full of great advice. 

Joanna Penn has a great little video on writer priorities. She is examining her writer business and making changes. Do you need to to be asking yourself hard questions about writer goals? 

Is perfection an art or author sabotage? Judith Briles examined this question on The Book Designer blog this week. I so needed to read this. Sometimes I need someone to say... Let it go out into the world... 

Katie Weiland is always a must go to website for her great posts on writing craft as well as her in depth articles on character. She has some great writng craft books too. I was interested in this weeks post on Writer Envy. Everybody needs to read this post. It’s a good explanation on why we suffer it and what we can do about it.

I always like to lead into the Writing Craft and Marketing Link section with something craft related. Now Novel has a huge post on 30 character flaws. This is a good run down on how to deepen your characters.

In The Craft Section,

How to shut out writers block so you can fast draft- Lisa Hall Wilson

Two great posts from Janice Hardy - How to slash your word count while editing- and What to do in act two - Bookmark

Writing blockbuster plots-mastering scene-Martha Alderson

Balancing multiple viewpoints- Fictorians- Bookmark

How to come up with a character name- Reedsy

Using dysfunctional behaviour for character wounds- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

And Angela also has this cool list of great tools- check out weavesilk... addictive!

In The Marketing Section,

How to get blurbs- Tim Grahl

Change a book title without losing reviews- Alli blog- Bookmark

Platform building and related terrors- David Gaughran- Bookmark

Optimizing book review process- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

When 60 is the new 50 – pages to submit to agents- Agent Janet Reid

How to build a following with uniqueness- Travis Jonker-Dan Blank- Bookmark

To Finish,

Dave Chesson has an interesting podcast and suite of Author products. Here he has collected all the book title genenerator tools in one handy list. It doesn’t matter what genre you write there is a title generator for you.

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty short book crammed full with marketing notes. 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Barbara Ann Spengler- Arizona Winter Sky