Out There Doing The Business

 

 

In Publishing News This Week,

 

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is on this week and the hot topic this year is AI and children’s books. Porter Anderson has a great overview of the various keynotes around this topic. He nails the constant chatter around AI as a chicken little syndrome. Remember when everyone thought publishing was doomed with Virtual Reality, enhanced eBooks and Kindle?

 

Penguin Random House is re-organising. This is a little shakeup which sees imprints spun off or repurposed and staff moving all over the place. Publishers Weekly has the details.

 

Bookshop.org picked up steam during the Covid lockdowns by providing a place where bookshops could link in their shops and sell books online. They started offering eBooks last week. Now they are offering print books and beginning to publish. It all feels like the early days of Amazon.

 

Meanwhile, Small Press Distributors a 50 year old distributor specializing in Indie Publishers has inked a deal with Ingram and will be offering their 400 clients Print On Demand, warehousing, and international printing. However, they need some money to transition all their warehouses to Ingram so they have a Go Fund Me campaign running.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors is running an author income survey. If you spent 50% of your time writing and publishing they want to hear from you. Apparently, the data so far is amazing. You only have a few days to participate. 

 

Mark Leslie Lefebvre has a great post on the Insights blog 10 tips for growing a global audience of readers. I’ve had this open on my computer for a few days as I mull over the excellent tips in here. 

 

Book Riot has collected what they think are the 25 iconic covers of all time. Do You Agree?

 

Ruth Harris has an interesting post on charisma and how too much could be psychopathic. Are you writing a psychopathic hero?

 

Victoria Strauss has a great article on Writer Unboxed about red flags in contracts. Do you know how to spot one? Where to look? The cluses that are most problematic. She shows examples of real contracts that she has seen. Ouch!

 

Grace Bialecki has an interesting post on the Acknowledgments page. How often do you look at it? It is actually full of great information… from editors who worked on the book and agents that repped it to writing awards and residences you might not have heard off. Grace shows how to put this information to good use. 

 

Kris Rusch has a super post on AI Audio and what she is finding out as she delves into whether AI Audio is worth pursuing. It is all about formats. Audio is expanding so much it will soon look like print.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that when you say you are a writer someone will always reply, I’ve always wanted to write a book. Angela Ackerman has a great post that you can share around – 13 Tips On How To Write A Book From Start to Finish.

 

In The Craft Section,

A great article on reader anticipation- Donald Maass

How to edit- StoryGrid- BOOKMARK

Tips on How to write a mystery-K M Weiland

The 5 turning points of the character arc- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

How to amp up your conflict- Angela Ackerman

 

In The Marketing Section,

A step by step guide to using Booktok

Bad book marketing advice- Shayla Raquel

2 Great posts from Penny Sansevieri-

The definitive guide to creating a reader magnet and 

How to get more Goodreads reviews- Bookmark both

Bookfunnels explained- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

The Guardian has an article on the rise of older female writers with recent hits by debut authors over 70. And the authors are not writing cozy stories. They are edgy and angry. There are some great quotes in this article. More power to them I say.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here.

This blog is fueled by coffee. If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate all virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic:  Brooke Lark on Unsplash

 

Mind How You Go

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

If you are a children’s writer, you may have been asked your opinion of PRH imprint Puffin ‘cleaning up’ the language in the new reprints of Roald Dahl’s work. Everybody seems to have an opinion. Here in NZ, a respected writer and festival organizer, gave her parental take on Roald Dahl and the modern child. It is a thoughtful essay on the problems of updating writing and why we are so sensitive about Dahl and not for instance, David Walliams. The Dahl Literary estate has just been sold for multi millions to Netflix, so maybe it’s all about the money.

 

Meanwhile that other staple for children’s publishing houses Manga and Comics, which showed great publishing sales in the last few years, are looking sadly at a downturn.

But that doesn’t seem to be impacting bookshops. The Bookseller writes that there are a record number of independent bookshops up for awards in the UK this year. I’m just fascinated by the picture of one of them from the article. A bookshop that is a bar. That’s a new one for me.

 

Publishers Weekly reports that the trial is still grinding on between the big publishers and The Internet Archive. It has just passed two years. The court have finally got to oral arguments. The Internet Archive wanted to scan all their books and make them available for $ and the publishers said – That is piracy. 

The courts will decide… maybe in the next year. It’s going to have big implications either way.

 

Reuters reports that there are AI books on Amazon. Who Knew? However, comments around this range from – gosh they are dull, to they will have to compete against other AI books, to let’s have a rule about disclosure. Everyone is waiting to see what Amazon will do about it. Then the other sellers will get into line. Kris Rusch has a super blog post on what is happening in the magazine slushpile with AI submissions. (The same is probably happening with publishers.)

 

Every Now and Then Mike Shatzkin drops what he is doing and writes a post about the Publishing Industry. He is a longtime pundit and looks at the big picture. This month he wrote about publishing being not as much fun as it used to be. Depending on your mindset it could be exciting or depressing.

 

Sue Coletta has a brilliant article on How to adopt a writing mindset. Sometimes we forget that the mindset we have when we tackle something creative can sabotage how we feel about the work. (And how we talk about it to others.) Is writing an escape or a chore?

Over at The Dream Team’s website Sue has a guest article on the unbreakable promise to the reader that a writer makes. It is excellent food for thought.

 

When I need to get into a story in a hurry- I use writing sprints. This stops the tyranny of the blank page. I have something to edit which then gets my brain thinking around the scene which then leads into better words. Becca Puglisi (half of the Dream Team) has a useful article on this.

 

In The Craft Section,

What’s the best choice for Point of View?- Jami Gold- Bookmark

Show don’t tell and breaking writing rules- September Fawkes

Two fantastic posts from C S Lakin-The intersection of premise and protagonist and Developing a scene outline- Bookmark Both

Backstory is essential to a story except when it’s not- Tiffany Yates Martin- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

5 Amazon ad tips to improve book sales- Written Word Media – Bookmark

Start locally with book marketing- Sandra Beckwith

3 essential editing tips for Beta readers- Beth Barany

Easy Mindset change for marketing books- Colleen Story- Bookmark

Book marketing mindset ideas  Joanna Penn's interview with Honoree Corder- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

While we are sorting out our New Year’s plans, getting into quarter goals, forming those To Do lists. Being busy and productive writers is our goal. But what about those Not To Do Lists?

Colleen Story has 7 important Not To Do things that writers should take note of.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for the bumper first newsletter of the year. If you want the best of my bookmarked links you can subscribe here. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate virtual coffee love.

Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Franciele da Silva on Unsplash

 

Title courtesy of Terry Pratchett (GNU)

Finding The Words

 In Publishing News,

Remember that court case? Simon and Schuster is still up for sale. Publishers Weekly looks at the corporates who might be tempted.

 

Mark Williams has been doing a bit of sleuthing and he has uncovered some big plans by Storytel for expansion into Africa. Audiobooks could be on the menu before print…or even bookshops.

 

Yesterday I had to admit to my teen that books get banned. She was disbelieving. How can anyone ban a book? It was hard to answer. I was left remembering a local author’s comment when his book was banned in the US. “It did wonders for my sales.” So here are the most banned picture books in the last 2 years. In other banned book news, Tanzania has banned Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

 

There is lots of chat around AI and its use or misuse. Writer Beware has an article on the Findaway Apple clause which is very interesting. There is some confusion about what happens to your book if you ask Findaway to tell Apple you don’t want your book to be part of its machine learning programme. (Narrators rights, see last weeks blog.) Some authors are waiting to see if their books will be pulled from Apple as emails indicate that this is a possibility. 

Chat around the author water cooler (Twitter) indicates that AI is a tool – You get into problems when you outsource your creativity to AI. Don’t fall into the trap of asking AI to generate a book everyone has seen before. Check out the list of overused tropes here. 

Here are a few articles that will get you up to speed on current thinking about AI and creative writing.

AI reveals the most human part of writing- A PHD researcher looks at the tools out there.

How AI can help or hurt your writing- Rachel Thompson has an interesting list of things that AI can help with written by AI. A great breakdown of AI as a tool.

Joanna Penn has a step by step article on how she has used AI when writing and publishing a short story. She has screen shots on all the different steps she used. This goes from ideas to editing to titles to art to using AI’s that we all use in editing. 

If you haven’t noticed, even your email uses AI to generate words or phrases for you so it’s here to stay.

 

Kris Rusch has added another post to her series why writers fail. This one is about learning and taking risks. Sometimes the very thing stopping you from succeeding is the fear of taking the next step. 

If you are wondering what rules there are for writers to bend a little- Check out this article from senior editor, Robert Lee Brewer at Writers Digest.

 

It’s been a rotten old week down here in New Zealand. A cyclone ripped through the North Island and caused immense damage. Devastation and trauma are almost instant creativity killers. If you are struggling to find emotional calm or space to let creativity flow, you are not alone. Take time out or change your focus to learning or improving your writing craft. As Melinda Szymanik says in her excellent article, “Sometimes the good thing you wrote will get its moment at some point down the track. Or maybe it is a step you needed to take to get to the thing that will fit with the publisher's aims. Whatever you do, don't throw it out. And keep going.”

Barbara Linn Probst has a great article on Writer Unboxed – What Actually Makes You A Better Writer?

 

In The Craft Section,

Tips for how to slay your bloated wordcount- Suzy Vadori- Bookmark

41 Character prompts- Kindlepreneur

5 similarities between your hero and your villain-Sue Coletta- Bookmark

Do’s and Don’ts of writing a series- Kassandra Lamb

Kurt Vonnegut’s rules for writers- Terry Odell- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

5 important reasons for using YouTube for Marketing- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

How author platform connects to Author Brand- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

How to talk about your book- Karen DeBonis-Bookmark

Top 10 ways to market your book in a month- Rachel Thompson

6 tips for choosing the right book marketing service.- Penny Sansevieri

 

To Finish,

Wherever a disaster happens there are acts of heroism. There are many acts of kindness unnoticed, unsung, and often under the radar. The shine of the human spirit in the darkness can be the glimmer that leads another out of a very dark place. We have seen a lot of heroism in the last week both here in NZ and overseas. As writers we need to write and celebrate the little acts of heroism as well as the big ones. Donald Mass has a checklist of other ways to write a hero. 

My thoughts are with the families of the heroes. While their loved one is helping others, their family is backing them up by getting on with their own acts of bravery, coping in a natural disaster without them. Two of our first responders gave their lives. 

Sometimes there are no words.

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate virtual coffee love.

Thanks.

 

Pic: Pete Thomson/NZStuff

Surfing The Waves Of Change

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

Recently a publishing industry analyst in America predicted that 2023 would be a year of transition for the publishing industry. Change is scary for a conservative industry. Many big publishers will hang on to old ways of doing business for as long as possible while closing their eyes to the swells gathering momentum, ready to break over their heads. Mark Williams has a quick rundown on what publishers should be preparing for. 

 

Meanwhile in the UK, the BBC reports on Welsh publishers who can no longer absorb rising print and paper costs. Either they stop publishing or they raise prices. What will they do?

 

Over in Germany, RTL Deutschland, owned by Bertelsmann, is responding to the “rapidly changing media landscape” by closing 23 magazines with the loss of over 500 jobs.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports on China’s rapidly declining bookstore sales but there is an upsurge in digital book sales. Once again children’s books are saving the publishers.

 

Around the Indie publishing watercooler, the talk is the rights grab clause appearing in Findaway Audiobooks contract. (Schedule D) Apple is able to use your audiobook to teach its AI voice. ‘Not on,’ scream the writers. However, it’s not the writers who lose out, it’s the narrators. They own the rights to their voice. An article on the problems of voice over artists and AI spells out what is coming.

 

AI isn’t all bad, says David Meerman Scott. He has an interesting article about how he uses the tool to work with articles he has already written. Think of it as a super-fast word processing assistant that can repurpose your own content.

 

Kelley Way has collected the top articles on Intellectual Property from 2022 that appeared on the Writer Fun Zone. If you need a quick refresher on what is your IP and how to use it to your advantage- check out this comprehensive list. 

 

Victoria Strauss has a roundup of last year’s big writing scams, shonky contract clauses and vanity publishers who rip people off. Remember that money flows to the writer. If a publishing company asks for money to print your book…tread very carefully as you run in the other direction. 

 

The Guardian reports that the Women’s Prize Trust is expanding their writing prize to include a new Non Fiction prize.

 

Anne R Allen has a great post on Beta readers. What they are and how to manage them. First, figure out what you want them to focus on when they read your book.

 

Scott Myers has a great article on high concept vs strong concept in writing. Check it out to see which one is best.

 

In The Craft Section,

Are you writing a shiny idea or a robust story- Sandy Vaile- Bookmark

A books worth of character development questions and articles- Now Novel – Bookmark

How to write a rich setting- Donna Jo Stone

How to write physical pain- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

Tips for dealing with the passage of time- K M Weiland

 

In The Marketing Section,

24 quirky March promotions for your book- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

The lazy authors guide to platform building- David Gaughran

How to use comp titles- -Robin Currie-Bookmark

Why you should have a blog- Nina Amir

A step by step guide to using Booktok- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

To Finish,

Roz Morris has an interesting article on how easy reading is hard writing. In it she reflects on the writer process and how every writer has their own unique way of coming to grips with a story. Many writers take years to nail down a process that works for them.

Kris Rusch also writes about process in her latest blog post. When the world feels like its falling apart your process can get you through the tough times. When sales drop off, when marketing feels useless. When you slog through the story.

You write the book word by word. And that is all that is needed.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? 

You can subscribe here. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate virtual coffee love.

Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Matt Paul Catalano on Unsplash

Publishers Behaving Badly – Are they really clueless?

 

In Publishing News this week…

 I was contacted today by a writer notifying me of a new scam… on the surface I saw nothing wrong but the writer pointed out that the agent in question should have never used the words 'payment remittance advice' from a financial controller. 

Now you may think that is so under the radar as to be easily overlooked but the author in question went back to the agent. (Note: You should always do this. Ring them and talk in person.) The agent had clicked on a link and inadvertently installed malware on his computer which then gathered up all his email addresses and used them to contact authors… promising money which the authors clicked on spreading the malware. 

Authors are so poorly paid, of course we are going to click on anything that promises us royalties. 

However, this kind of scam targets the financial affairs of agents and publishers. How many of them have tight controls over who can access their financial accounts… and their authors financial accounts? How secure are they? The author who alerted me to this commented that with everyone having to use 2 factor identification all the time elsewhere it seems absurd that publishers and agents aren’t doing the same to limit peoples access to their own accounts. 

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware has updated the fake agent scam that hit last year… it seems there are many variations around and this year the scam trend continues. Over Summer I had a fascinating conversation with a bank analyst who told me the biggest banking scams were targeting lawyers who thought they were savvy. Always check up- by phone, not return email. 

Meanwhile Publishers Weekly reports that Adelaide Books who got into hot water when they grew too quickly and fell over when Covid hit is trying to make things right. But it is a cautionary tale which has the Authors Guild spluttering with rage on behalf of the 450 authors involved.

 

Publishing Perspectives has named the main stage speakers for London Book Fair. The usual CEO’s are speaking but the subjects reflect the hot topics in Traditional publishing; copyrights, licensing, sustainability of their business, supply chain woes, along with inclusivity and how to get more eyeballs. I wonder if they will come up with any solutions?

 

Sales numbers are a hot topic if you are a publishing CEO – The latest figures from Nielsen and the Association of American Publishers makes interesting reading or if you’re Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard only a pointer to what he has worked out is the true figure, which is many billions more than Nielsen and AAP think.

 

With the news this week that Harper Collins is going into mediation with its striking staff – a muted cheer went up among HC authors and agents. Today Harper Collins announced they are laying off 5% of their workforce- OUCH.

 

AI images and the threat to income dominates the artists water cooler talk. Two of the main image suppliers Getty and Shutterstock have formed opposing camps. Shutterstock is partnering with AI and Getty has released a formal statement taking AI to court.

 

In lighter news…

Kris Rusch has an interesting tale around the theme the problems in your writing are the problems in your life.

Ruth Harris asks if you are guilty of the Writing No No’s which may be ruining your book and Daphne Grey- Grant has an interesting article on how to prepare an annual writing plan.

 

In The Craft Section,

Units of story- StoryGrid- Bookmark

2 great articles from the Dream Team. How to choose the right 

kind of conflict and How does internal conflict fit into the character arc- Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

Transition sentences- Grammarly – Bookmark

Developing a scene outline for your novel C S Lakin- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Should you hire a book publicist- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

10 tips for author blog traffic- Anne R Allen

7 ways to build direct connections with readers- podcast with Penny Sansevieri

8 author website marketing mistakes- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Selling Books direct- Joanna Penn in conversation with Steve Pieper- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Elizabeth Spann Craig has a nifty blog with a great roundup of articles but this week she shone a spotlight onto her  7 favourite resources for writers. Do you use any of them? If you have something to add to the list – feel free to comment below.

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate virtual coffee love.

Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy on Unsplash

Data is The Answer

 

In Publishing News this week…

A slow week on the publishing front unless your last name starts with T and ends in P.

Publishers Weekly reports on a lawsuit to stop Simon and Schuster from publishing a memoir from a criminal prosecutor who believes a criminal lawsuit has to happen against the former president. As PW reports anytime Trump throws lawyers at a book… it ends up a bestseller.

 

Techcrunch reports on the Shutterstock and Open AI deal. This is an ongoing story to keep one eye on. How the artist community picks their way through the minefield of AI assistance will inform how the writing community can do the same, notably around plagiarism. Interestingly, after Gizmodo outed CNET (see last weeks blog) the policy of using AI to write articles quickly changed. Gizmodo tries out the AI tool on Shutterstock with mixed results. Meanwhile a content writer for Buffer has conflicted feelings about using the AI tool for her job.

 

If you are battling against book pirates or other plagiarists, Knight in Shining Armor, Nate Hoffelder has a great post which you should bookmark on how to file a DMCA takedown notice. He’s done the hard work for you as this article is chock full of links and advice. 

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard has an interesting post on the uncounted book industry which is worth half a billion dollars last year from KDP alone. So exactly how many books are being published out there?

While Mark is looking at the big picture Draft2Digital has an interesting blog post on how to track all your own sales.

 

Joanna Penn is launching her latest book on Kickstarter. In this interesting post she talks about using Kickstarter like a book launch pad and how she approached her first time Kickstarter project. Her Kickstarter was for a modest amount that has already exceeded expectations.

 

Kathy Steinmann has a post on going down the KDP rabbit hole when your book is unexpectedly pulled from the site and what you can do about it. 

 

Over the last few years the word on author websites is that at the very least you have to have a landing page that you own somewhere. 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a comprehensive post on how to get people coming back to your website again and again.

Nate Hoffelder writes in a guest post on Anne R Allen’s blog about the 10 website mistakes new authors make and how to fix them.

Penny Sansevieri has a great post on how to sell books from your website. Penny breaks down the various partners you can use and what is involved.

 

Colleen Story has a great post on permission and how you have to give it to yourself.

 

Kris Rusch has the last in her 2022 in review series and this week she muses about estate planning- something our wider family has been focused on since halfway through 2022. When a near relative has an extensive literary estate and their health is not good… you realise the importance of a literary executor and what life of copyright really means.

 

In The Craft Section

7 ways to decide what story idea should come next- K M Weiland

How to use ProWriting Aid- Sue Coletta

Build suspense with secrets- Christina Delay- Bookmark

Character sketch template – Shayla Raquel

6 lessons learned from 4 years of writers block- K M Weiland- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

No one wants to hear you breathe- Tips on narration – Gabbi Coatsworth

Tips to get people to your book signing- Michael Gallant- Bookmark

How to write a blog post people read- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Infographic on marketing to different generations- Barb Drozowich

What do literary agents want you to know- Amy Collins with Sandra Beckwith

 

To Finish

Last week I was preparing to go to the first author conference in a very very long time. I had a great day and met some great people. Among them was Nat Connors, a data scientist who runs Kindletrends- a deep dive weekly newsletter of analysis in any of your chosen categories. Everywhere I went people kept telling me I had to talk to Nat. He was an interesting chap and his service is praised by lots of writers- a great endorsement. 

One of the guest speakers was another lover of data and analysis, Deb Potter. She has a great book on Amazon Ads for writers trying to figure out how to do them. Here she is being interviewed by the Spa Girls podcast. These were just two of the many awesome writers who came from around the country and overseas for a one day conference. 

It is always beneficial to your writing soul to meet up with others in this crazy industry. You never know what you may learn.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate virtual coffee love.

Thanks.

 

Pic:  Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash