Planning For Success

 

 

In Publishing News This Week,

 

Frankfurt. Are we back to normal? That seemed to be the question on everybody’s lips. There was a lot of chat amongst the publishers, sold-out sessions, and positivity everywhere.

Publishing Perspectives interviewed various publishers and agents about the hot new trends they were seeing.

 

Audiobooks got a lot of attention in Frankfurt with many saying that they were now a mainstream format. The ways for the public to acquire them seem to be all over the place though. You would think that Spotify with its streaming model would extend this into audiobooks – not so. Which audience model will win out was a hot topic discussed at Frankfurt.

 

Over the last month, the spotlight has been on AI generated art and its copyright ownership.  If you buy art for book covers or fan merch this seems to be a rising trend, to generate AI art. However, the AI’s are sampling artists' portfolios and styles and so the ownership is murky. After many photo stock dealers saying they wouldn’t deal with AI art, Shutterstock changed its mind and is trying have it both ways by attempting to pay the sampled artists if they can prove it. This has annoyed many in the industry.

 

It always pays to drop into Writer Beware occasionally to keep on top of ways that authors can be parted from their money. Recently Victoria had a long form piece on anthologies and how one anthology publisher collapsed and was exposed as probably running a Ponzi scheme. Anthologies can be great…but you must go in with your eyes wide open.

 

Today I was listening to an interesting conversation between Orna Ross and Joanna Penn on publishing values. It was wide ranging and referred to Orna’s recent article. This is a meaty topic. What do you wish to be known for and are you sure that’s what you are projecting to the readership?

 

Kris Rusch has an interesting article on Thinking Big. Do you note down your success? What about your positive reviews? Kris talks about exposure and when someone goes from chugging along to breakout.

 

Elizabeth Sims has an interesting post on short stories over on Jane Friedman's blog. 20 reasons why everyone should write a short story. I have been trying my hand at these this year and not managing to finish them. This article makes me look at short story writing in a different way. Let it go and have fun.

 

In The Craft Section,

Where do Ideas come from- Randy Ingermanson- Bookmark

4 writing pitfalls to avoid- Laurence McNaughton- Bookmark

Writing beginnings- Interview with Shane Millar- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

4 tips for writing effective backstory- Carolyn Arnold

The perils of not knowing what happens next- Janice Hardy

 

In The Marketing Section,

Update your Amazon book pages- Elizabeth S Craig- Bookmark

Book cover design ideas- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

3 ways to promote poetry- Raegen Pietrucha

Reaching readers for the long term- Becky Robinson- Interview with Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Instagram Book marketing ideas-Bookbub

 

To Finish,

This weekend is The Alliance of Independent Authors 24 hour conference, SelfPubCon. It’s free. Sessions are recorded and you get three days to go over them.

If you intend to attempt NaNoWriMo this November hopefully you will have everything organized. Check back over the last few blog posts for handy prep links. Don’t forget to check out your local library. Quite a few have embraced the NaNoWriMo experience and have spaces for writers to go and pound out their words.

Good Luck with your final days of preparation.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter of the best of the bookmarked links and other handy items Don’t forget to subscribe.

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 krakenimages on Unsplash

The Rise Of The Machines

In Publishing News this week...

Frankfurt Bookfair opened this week with an almost return to normal programming.

The opening press conference had comments from the Fair director about the challenging times we live in and how important it is to keep the lights on in publishing houses. With the war in Ukraine stepping up, the price of heating is going through the roof in Europe. It is going to be a tough Winter. 

A reminder that SelfPubCon is on soon. A free 24 conference focused on writing and marketing from The Alliance of Independent Authors. 

 

Just what is going on around returns and unlimited subscriptions? It’s a constantly changing landscape. European companies like Storytel are experimenting with tiered access. Amazon is not… or are they. Mark Williams takes a look at what model will come out on top. (If you are a children’s writer thinking about audio this may help.) 

 

Recently Joanna Penn interviewed Derek Murphy about his experiments with AI-generated art. They talk about the wide-ranging nature of the AI’s and how they learn to produce the picture you want from your prompts. This has been contentious as the AI’s can reproduce pictures in particular artists' styles. This is causing disquiet among artists as reported in Business Insider. Will they be able to opt out? With Microsoft ready to roll out Dall-E to everyone this space is rapidly changing.

 

Kris Rusch explains the idea behind her 39 days 39 stories Christmas advent calendar. This is when you get to be wildly creative as a writer because you can and you bring your fans along for the ride. 

 

Writer Unboxed has another in their series of marketing posts from Anne Marie Nieves- Do You Twerk? This is an interesting post on how much social media is really authentic you or your online persona. As ever, I recommend reading the comments as well.

 

The Insecure Writers Support Group has been around for a while and aside from the great name they have a thriving community. Recently they launched another anthology and posted about ways to market the books.

 

Anne R Allen has a great post on tropes and archetypes vs clichés. If you constantly get these mixed up this is the post for you. Anne breaks down the main genre tropes.

 

In The Craft Section,

Transitions- building bridges between your plot islands- P J Parrish- Bookmark

Creating Names- Janice Hardy

How to write a chapter- Now Novel- Comprehensive

 2 posts from Angela Ackerman -Brainstorming the hero and

How to use GMC (Goal Motivation Conflict) to test a story idea - Bookmark Both

 

In The Marketing Section,

Why isn’t my title selling- quiz-Penny Sansevieri

5 reasons to be a speaking author- Sandra Beckwith

Back Cover Copy formula- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

Book signings that wow- Becca Puglisi

Cover design what works in 2022- Alliance of Independent Authors- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

It’s not long until November and the challenge of NaNoWriMo. Reedsy has put together a great prep document to get your creative teeth into. Don’t forget to check out the NaNoWriMo deals and the super Storybundle of craft resources. 

 

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 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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

 

Taking Time to Recharge

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

 

The new Tutulia app is making little waves in the book community. The App uses a Machine learning AI to recommend your next read based on the information you feed it. The AI scrapes all the book sites and reviews and buzz to pull together a list of books that will suit you. As Ingram is a founder investor you can buy the book from inside the app and Ingram will print it and ship it to you. This is next Gen thinking.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that Bonnier owned Bookbeat is expanding Europe. They seem to be competing in the Audiobook sector with Storytel. They want to increase more competition in Audiobooks. Their pricing subscription reflects this with by the hour of listening instead of monthly fees.

 

Mark Williams has an optimistic view of the big book fairs happening in the Middle East. They are back to clocking up a million visitors and audio looks like it will be taking off there as well with audio subscription services chasing this big market. Publishers should be taking note of the expanding audio markets.

 

Kris finishes The How Writers fail series with a pithy article on quitting too soon. This is a thought provoking article on how writers can self-sabotage their writing. 

 

Sam Missingham has a great newsletter called The Empowered Author. She has her finger on the pulse of the UK publishing scene and is often amplifying authors across social media. Recently she updated her fabulous post on all the different ways Author Collectives operate and their value to the writers involved. ( So of course I would be all over it.)

 

Recently Dan Blank was commenting on generosity as a book marketing idea. He has some really interesting examples of how this has been playing out in the author community.

 

Terry Odell on The Killzone blog recently wrote about giving yourself permission to step back from your writing. Sometimes life gets in the way and writers can tie themselves into knots trying to get their word count in or their projects finished. This is a great little article.

If you need to take a longer creative rest- check out Orna Ross and Joanna Penn’s latest podcast transcript. Joanna has just walked the Santiago Camino Trail and talks about how she is structuring creative rests into her writing calendar.

 

If you are preparing for NaNoWriMo which starts in November, Don’t Forget to check out all the good offers/ deals available for participants. (pssst Scrivener is on sale)

 

James Scott Bell is a great writing craft teacher. I have a few of his books and they are constant dip-ins when you get stymied. He is guest posting over on Anne R Allens’s Blog with a great 10 commandments of writing post- This is print out gold!

 

In The Craft Section,

7 tips to add complexity to the story- K M Weiland- Bookmark

2 tips to amp up the conflict- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Handwriting vs Typing- Kay DiBianca

Prologues- Do we need them?- Janice Hardy – Bookmark

Fear Theasaurus- Not being believed- Angela Ackerman Becca Puglisi

 

In The Marketing Section,

Marketing beyond the bookstore

7 strategies to focus on book marketing- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Publishing resources Free downloads- Shala Raquel- Bookmark

The key elements of eye-catching book design- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

How to publish a Hardcover book on Amazon

 

To Finish,

It’s Frankfurt Bookfair time which means The Alliance of Independent Authors runs one of their free online conferences. SelfPubCon. Check out the link to see who the speakers are this year and sign up. The sessions are all prerecorded and usually 30 minutes long and chock full of information. It is free and there are often neat little deals and competitions on offer.

 

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 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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Publishing Sustainably

 

 

In Publishing This Week,

The weather and its effects are starkly reminding people that they have to take the changing climate seriously. The time for talk is over says the Publishing 2030 Accelerator manifesto. There is a concerted effort for the publishing community to get on board and start doing things sustainably instead of just publishing books about climate change. Richard Charkin has a checklist of things that publishers can implement immediately to get the ball rolling.

This is a great chance to show the world that you are walking the walk by changing your publishing business practice to be more sustainable. 

 

This year Frankfurt Bookfair being held in October. They have put together free online masterclasses on Tiktok, AI, and Distribution this coming week before the fair begins.

 

This week Melanie Walsh shone a spotlight on the lack of access to book sales data for academics who are studying the industry. The more she investigated the more perturbed she was as she realized that book data was held tightly by a few companies but mostly by one. This lack of transparency into the book industry is concerning. Having access to the data would show reality. Are black authors really not selling? What is a break out book really selling? It is an interesting read. 

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard has an interesting article on the latest numbers of Internet penetration. The world is growing more digitally literate if most of the world has a mobile phone. Publishers haven’t kept pace with publishing in a global digital space yet.

 

Publishers Weekly has a feature article on writers over 50 who are debuting Young Adult books this year. It’s never too late to get that story written.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a comprehensive article on crowdfunding for authors. If you have been wondering where to start, or which platform is best check out the article.

 

Kristine Rusch has an interesting article on advertising. It now takes many more channels and effort to reach your target demographic. What to do? How good are you at making connections with your readers because that is the only sure fire way to get an audience. 

 

Joanna Penn interviewed Georgina Cross about writing for two traditional publishers and how she juggles the different demands of both of them. 

 

When your plot begins to take on a multiple points of view and you realise that your mystery is starting to look like a GRR Martin epic that has you lost, what can you do? 

Bang2Write has a great guest article from Antony Johnston about complex structures and how to make them workable.

 

In The Craft Section,

Excellent writing trick- Scott Myers

How to build tension- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

How to introduce your character- Dana Issacson

Writing a great opening chapter- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

A guide to story plotting- Now Novel

 

In The Marketing Section,

When your book marketing has stalled- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Creating an easy blog calendar

Market research checklist – Reedsy- Bookmark

5 pro tips for podcast guests

Strategic non–fiction publishing- Anna David

3 easy book marketing tips- Colleen Story

 

To Finish,

It’s October or NaNoPrepMo (National Novel Preparation Month) The month where you are supposed to get all your ducks in a row, i.e., story plotted, calendar scheduled, meals prepared, ready for NaNoWriMo. The dream team of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have a page on their website with all sorts of links to help out your writing prep.

Every year at this time, Kevin Anderson puts together a bundle of writing craft books on Storybundle. This is a great resource for new craft books from some industry big names and it benefits charity for not much money. Go take a look.

 

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 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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

 

Returning To The Good Old Days

 

Apologies for missing in action last week. After two years of being extremely careful, doing everything I can to stay well in the pandemic, I fell victim to the virus. It has not been a fast recovery.

 

This week in publishing...

The big news - Amazon finally listening to authors about the returns policy which had been pushed by Tiktok influencers (Return the book after you’ve read it for a refund.) With authors being stung for the file delivery costs and knowing that the books were being read in full, it has been a long time coming for redress, and still won’t be happening until the end of the year.

 

Cover designers are feeling unloved as AI image bots sample all their pictures to make up an AI generated image. This was the argument put forward by writers a few years ago. AI Bots were sampling out of copyright books to learn how to write. If they use your IP shouldn’t you get paid? Image sites are now banning AI images.

 

The Economist has an article on the changing physical nature of print books. Back in World War 2 there was a huge shortage of paper and ink so books were printed in small font on thinner paper. Now we are seeing this rationing come back.

 

Spotify has launched its audiobook service. Findaway is encouraging authors to sign up for an account to get access to Spotify. Many commentators are likening this to the advent of the Kindle and how it changed publishing.

 

Storytel has launched into France and is using this as a springboard to the French speaking world. Audio subscription is the future of publishing. Books are an entertainment medium and will be folded into subscription services one way or the other.

 

The Bookseller has a hard-hitting article from an editor who stepped away from publishing. After a year working on their mental health, they felt ready to shine a spotlight on the publishing culture that needs to change.

 

Katie Weiland has a wealth of interesting craft focussed posts on her site. Recently she posted an interesting deep dive into plotting and how to tell if your story is too complicated. This is a great post that offers much deep thinking on plot motivations.

 

In The Craft Section, 

Why Plots Fail- Tiffany Martin

What to do with a stalled first draft- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

Writer Brain hacks- Kelsey Allagood- Bookmark

How to form your bestseller in 10 days- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

Fun tricks to freshen up plot- Janice Hardy

 

In The Marketing Section,

Audiobook marketing for authors- The Alliance of Independent Authors- Bookmark

5 ways to use community marketing- Amanda Miller

2 Posts from Penny Sansevieri - How to sell your book to bookstores and 

October content marketing ideas for Social Media

How to make a boxset and other ways to repurpose your book -Written Word Media- BOOKMARK

 

To Finish,

Joanna Penn interviewed Barry Nugent recently on Transmedia projects and Graphic Novels. It is a wide-ranging interview but what struck me is the way a creative team was pulled together to work on one project which then morphed into a whole world of stories and creative projects set in the original story world. There are a few groups out there who are using this creative model to launch publishing companies. 

When you are lying sick in bed it can be tempting to just let your mind float into someone else’s story world and create an adventure without the grind of inventing the story world to start with.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter of the best bookmarked links. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed 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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Controlling The Books

In Publishing News this week…

 

As a teacher by trade, I have a special interest in encouraging children to read. Reading widens their horizons and can unlock the most amazing movies in your head. Reading can be a safe way of exploring a different world environment from your own, an escape, a comfort, and a learning opportunity. I have been watching the book banning in school libraries in the US with concern. My heart goes out to teachers trying to do the best for their students. This latest attack on teachers fills me with despair. Banning children’s books is a slippery slope to banning education for some children and then you become just like… ( Pick your repressive regime.) 

 

Brandon Sanderson went back on Kickstarter yesterday. He was only looking for $50,000 to fund figurines. Of course, he blew by that figure in the first hour or so. Brandon explains what he has learned about Kickstarter from earlier in the year and how he will be using it in the future. 

Kris Rusch also talks about Kickstarter and how you can structure it for your own author career. She has a free course for authors if you want to learn more about it.

 

Spotify announced that they are beginning audiobook trials and have some exciting things lined up. Audio streaming is going to be shaking up the audiobook world. I think we may be at the tipping point from nice to have new format to necessary to have new format. 

 

Big Bad Wolf has entered Africa. This is the first time they have moved to another continent. Mark Williams talks about their potential impact. They are only bringing 500,000 books for 12 days. (That’s books in the English language- ‘rescued’ from being pulped by publishers who won’t be paying a royalty to the author for ‘destroyed’ books.) So if there is such a demand for these books how come they don’t get sold in these regions in the first place?

 

Mark has been looking at the ongoing mess, now in its second month, that is the distribution arm of the UK’s biggest chain bookstore, Waterstones. Waterstones is trying to climb out of the pit by asking publishers for help. Their plea to publishers to send books to individual stores has not gone down well. That’s 300 stores x post and packing and inventory etc. Smaller publishers are going to the wall over this.

 

Meanwhile, one children’s publisher in the UK is looking further afield. Nosy Crow have been around for 12 years but is about to invade the US. Publishing Perspectives has the details on how they will be shaking up children’s publishing.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has been talking about author overwhelm. They have a great article where many authors were asked how they deal with this very real problem in the writing community.

 

Suzanne DeFreitas has a guest post over on Jane Friedman’s blog on Writerly Grit and how it leads to publishing success. Writerly Grit does not mean ploughing on alone, in fact it’s the opposite. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Is deep POV always the best choice- Jami Gold- Bookmark

Do you know the central conflict of your story?- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

400 story ideas from Scott Myers

10 important don’ts to think about- Lucy Hay

Understanding the 7 types of Archetypes- Now Novel Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to email a press release- Sandra Beckwith

Back cover copy tips from Judith Briles- Bookmark

5 self-publishing mistakes writers make- Bang2Write

15 clever book promo ideas- Servicescape- Bookmark

How to choose best colours for graphics and branding- Infographic- Frances Caballo- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

There has always been a fascination with finding out how other writers write. Are you a Plotter or a Pantser? Is one better than the other? Do you kill creativity with plotting carefully? Recently Ada Plamer wrote an interesting article on Tor.com on how the plotting pantsing divide has been greatly exaggerated. It’s not all in on one side or the other but something in the middle.

Once you figure out your process the books will be easier to write, won’t they?

 

Thanks for the kind words for last week's post -Number 700. Cake was eaten for breakfast as the news broke. R.I.P. Queenie. We will not see your like again.

 

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 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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Freddy Kearney on Unsplash

 

Looking Back

This week in publishing news…

Publishers Weekly had a long form article asking is the publishing industry broken? Every few years there is a variation on this theme that has everyone looking deeply into their coffee cups and pronouncing the end of print, or reading, or too much entertainment competition. This article looks at the plight of young publishing professionals and the less than sympathetic reactions of their bosses. Something has got to change. Will it be publishing culture? With an overwhelming monocultural workforce and the increasing consolidation of publishing houses, there is a real worry that the breadth of views and discourse is being lost. 

 

Meanwhile, Bertelsmann, the parent company of Penguin Random House, released their 6 month report for 2022. It was scanned extensively by the rest of the publishing world for the trends and directions which have affected the world’s biggest publisher. Backlist is king! Everything is OK.

Sort of. 

Supply challenges and currency exchange problems have hurt but audio is continuing strongly. Publishing Perspectives respectfully reports on Marcus Dohle’s rousing speeches to the imprint CEO’s. 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard brings his own more astringent view on the how the world’s biggest publisher is conducting business.

 

There are whispers of a new serialization app being developed that will bring together everyone’s backlist and be the solution that everyone has been waiting for, even if you didn’t know you were waiting for it. Publishing Perspectives has the scoop from the app developers involved.

 

The SPA girls podcast is appointment listening for me and this week the team were talking amongst themselves about how to find out what works for you. This is a great pep talk about not trying everything in writing, editing, and publishing.

Staying with the SPA girls – they recently interviewed Emilia Rose on how she is managing to be a 6 figure author through serialization. This is a fascinating dive into a different world of publishing where the young people are changing the game. 

 

Tom Bentley is guest posting on Jane Friedman’s blog about being persistent as a writer. Even if you are weary and feeling like you are creeping through treacle, just showing up for 100 words can add up to a book. 

 

Anne R Allen has a great article on short stories using advice from C S Lewis. This is an excellent article that got me thinking about the craft of the short form. 

 

In The Craft Section,

The conflict box- Jennie Crusie- Bookmark

5 similarities between your hero and villain- Sue Coletta

5 must-haves for a great ending- Gilbert Bassey- Bookmark

How to world build on the page- GoldenMay editing - Bookmark

One stop for writers resources- Angela Ackerman

 

In The Marketing Section,

Two great posts from Penny Sansevieri- 8 Essential recommendations for book launches and 7 reasons your book isn’t selling on Amazon- Bookmark

Twitter communities- Sandra Beckwith

5 reasons to use Amazon preorders- Dale Roberts_ Bookmark

Titles that sell have keywords and metadata- Darcy Pattison

 

To Finish,

Today is my 700^th post on the Craicer blog. I couldn’t have imagined my blog hitting this anniversary when I started posting weekly in 2008. Along the way I have published 10 books, run two national conferences, delivered speeches, judged the National Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, won The Betty Gilderdale Award for outstanding service to NZ children’s literature, been syndicated, learned and learned and learned about publishing and the international publishing world from my little corner down under. I am in constant awe of the many people who give their time freely to talk about this crazy addictive world of publishing. I don’t have much money but I have time and passion and interest in sharing what I’m learning every week. If you have been with me from the beginning I salute you. 

Let’s Eat CAKE.

 

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 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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Slashio Photography on Unsplash