What’s been the talking point around the virtual publishing
water cooler this week.
If you are into children’s books then the Publisher’s Weekly article on the shifting sands of children’s book selling and the inroads being
made by digital into this category is for you. There are some interesting
numbers on what genres in children’s are selling well.
(Little Sips)
In the general category... The Mighty Zon is expanding.
Publishers Weekly reports they are hiring and expanding their already impressive imprint range. This has raised some disquiet around the water
cooler... how big can they get... and already close to half the books on the
Amazon bestseller lists come from AmaZon imprints.
(Gulps)
In a surprise move the Judge has finally ruled in the Julie And the Wolves e-book case (HarperCollins suing Open Road Media and Jean
Craighead George, Author,) that HarperCollins were within their rights to
publish the book as an ebook because the original contract for the book signed
in 1971 had this clause.
‘Specifically, paragraph 20 of the 1971 contract states that
HarperCollins “shall grant no license without the prior written consent of the
Author… including uses in storage and retrieval and information systems,
and/or whether through computer, computer-stored, mechanical or other
electronic means now known or hereafter invented…”
This is going to
affect authors and their backlists...
Open Road are appealing but it’s going to be difficult as
while this case has been disputed (from 2011) the author and the agent have
died.
(Maybe Something Stronger)
Mike Shatzkin published an article this morning that is
almost a How To Be A Publisher Now 101 course. It is a very interesting read
and echoes other things I have been reading around the blogosphere this week
that author/publishers are starting to take note of. Use those readers well…Engage, Engage, Engage.
(On to Coffee)
Dean Wesley Smith has another great post in his series on
publishing. Getting into Bookshops. Dean shows how it is done if you are
publishing on a shoestring. One of those bookmark it posts.
(Slurp It Up)
Jane Friedman has another interesting article from her Scratch magazine and it takes a further look at serialisation… writing and uploading on a new platform called Leanpub in chunks where you get feedback and money…
(Drink It Down)
Porter and Publishing Perspectives Ether issue (at 3am our
time this morning) was on the issues that were brought up in Joanna Penn’s
interview with KOBO guy Mark Lefebre on pricing of ebooks. Porter gathered up
the main points from the audio into an interesting article - Have Authors LowBalled Themselves? This was used as the springboard for the #Ether talk. Check
out the article, which links back to Joanna’s article that I linked to last
week.
(Look for Something Stronger)
Joanna Penn has
a great article this week on how she used promotion and collaborative team work
to achieve her goal. Which is to get on the USA bestseller list...this entitles her
to splash that title all over her books in future...and she has just done it!
(Pour The Wine)
In the Craft Section,
Ten Dialogue Tips - One of the better articles on dialogue I
have read. Bookmark it!
Novel Revision Strategy – retype the draft. (Interesting
idea here.)
Janice Hardy - On Five Ways To Jump Start A Story.
Defending Your Antagonist - first you have to like them....
Middle Grade Vs Young Adult – the differences between them.
Are you guilty of being didactic? Melinda Szymanik has some
thoughts about didacticism and how to spot it in your own writing. Great
writing!
Jami Gold has THE post on using keystroke Macros inrevision. (I didn’t know you could do this...whole new world just opened up.)
In the Marketing Section,
Susan Kaye Quinn on Four Ways To Discoverability and a
stellar post on Not Rushing To Publish.
Best Ways To Look at Crowd Sourcing projects. This is a
really interesting article.
Agent Janet Reid talks about idiot agents... Great article
on platforms and web presences.
Indie ReCon keeps on giving and this fabulous post by Angela
Ackerman is no exception. 6 SmartWays authors can collaborate. This week Angela was the special guest at a
weekly live Twitter chat #indiechat
and was her usual awesome self with a great discussion on marketing and promotion.
(Just type #indiechat in the search bar and scroll down to the start and work
up.)
To Finish,
We always like to know how the Pro’s do their writing stuff.
Here is a couple of nifty articles where writers describe their daily routines.
First get a coffee….
maureen
Pic from Flickr Creative Commons/elitatt
