Thursday, January 28, 2021

Bookshops and Booksales



 

This week Audible finally let creators know the changes they have decided on to address the concerns of Audiblegate. (Audible’s practice of promoting read and return audiobooks with no compensation to creators last year.) They are promising to create a new dashboard for authors to see which books have been returned and they are changing their terms of exclusivity. Publishing Perspectives asked Author groups what they thought. Not good enough was the answer. This is where the value of belonging to a strong writer’s union comes into play.

 

The Guardian recently published an article entitled Bookshops defy pandemic to record highest sales in eight years. After they published this they had to go and change the title to accurately reflect the article which was on Book Sales. Yes, bookshops were selling books but a lot of the print book sales were happening online. However, as the Society of Authors points out that’s cold comfort to a lot of writers who relied on appearances to pay the bills.

 

Publishing Perspectives interviewed the CEO of Wattpad on their merger with Korean digital publisher Naver. If you have been keeping an eye on Wattpad and how they have grown from a fanfic forum to a movie and television production powerhouse, their merger with Naver, who operates a similar model in Asia, is a good thing. The numbers are interesting. Together they will almost be as big as Netflix.

 

Big Five publishers are back in court for price fixing. Again. They are named as co- conspirators with Amazon. Publishing Perspectives looks at the case and whether it will hurt Amazon at all.

 

Kris Rusch writes this week about the rise of e-reading due to Covid-19 lockdowns and how Bertelsmann danced with the numbers trying to prove that there was a huge number of Indie publishers, so that they wouldn’t be slapped by regulators for controlling too much of the market by buying Simon and Schuster. As it is, they may have over 50% of the Trad publishers market.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has an interesting blog post on whether having your book in book shops is worth it for Indie Authors. With Trad Publishers used to getting books published in China for little cost they can use the sale or return option as a carrot for bookshops to stock their books. Indies using POD have higher costs per book which impacts on discounts to bookstores. This article breaks down the numbers and the cost benefit for Indies to use bookstores.

 

Anne R Allen has a great guest post from Joseph Perry, a literary attorney, on important clauses to take note of in a publishing contract. One thing to remember, Joseph says, is that the publishing contract is always written in favour of the publisher.

 

How often do you stare at your just completed hot mess of a manuscript and wonder how to tackle the revision aspect. Jean Grant has an interesting blog post where she breaks down the way she revises. Having a checklist of things to look out for is a good starting point.

 

In The Craft Section,

5 mistakes writers make with relationships- Bang2Write


Understanding third person omniscient POV- Tiffany Martin


Using Twin Relationships in Writing- Becca Puglisi


5 point plan on how to kill a character- WritersWrite- Bookmark


Good Storytelling- Internal and external stakes- Karen Woodward- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Heart centered Book Marketing- Beth Barany- Bookmark


Amazon Keywords 101- Penny Sansevieri


February Content ideas- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark


How to get publicity for your book- Kaelyn Barron- Bookmark


What’s the deal with Amazon verified reviews- Sandra Beckwith


How to use Book Awards for publicity- Sandra Beckwith

 

To Finish,

Are you aware of time racing differently due to how engaged you are with a book? Have you struggled with narrative time? What about reader time? How does the reader experience the forward motion of your story? Writer Unboxed has a great article on Character Time and Reader Time and how you can make the most use of time in your manuscript.

 

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: The Tannery Bookshop- Christchurch

 

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Magnetic Poetry





This week in publishing news…

Wattpad has been sold to Naver, a south Korean group who own other e-publishing ventures. It’s a deal that makes sense according to Techcrunch as they will probably keep it going in the same way.

 

How many of you know someone who has a digital subscription for entertainment? 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard has an interesting comment on Netflix’s goal of 500 million subscribers. If digital subscription is the new way to get entertainment where are the publishers?

 

Orna Ross of The Alliance of Independent Authors, and Joanna Penn get together once a month to talk about the publishing industry and new projects they are working on. The January meeting was all about planning for the year ahead. Check out the transcript or listen to the podcast. There are some great nuggets in there on goal setting and time chunking.

 

If you like setting yourself challenges, Austin Kleon talks about the 100 days and suck less challenge he has got going. You can also do mini-challenges It’s all about creating the habit of showing up.

 

Every few years Jane Friedman updates her infographic on all the different ways to publish. With the pandemic changing the publishing landscape, Jane has updated her infographic.

 

The Write Life has rounded up their top 100 websites for writers. Take a look. There is something for everyone in this collection. For podcast lovers check out Writing Excuses.

 

This year I have decided to read more poetry. I am in awe of poets as they seem to have a hot line into creating memorable lines. If I want to get better at writing I need to learn to read and write poems. Here’s a great little instruction list for writing poems.

 

In The Craft Section,

New Year New Writing goals- Michael Hyatt


Dreamzoning-7 steps to find new ideas- K M Weiland


Getting past the blank page- James Preston


Give your characters something to die for- Karen Woodward- Bookmark


7 ways to use deep POV- Lisa Hall Wilson- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

A beginner’s guide to Amazon pre-orders- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark


The shy authors guide to book promotion- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark


Alternatives to Goodreads- Emily Stochi- Bookmark


8 tips for better manuscript formatting- Now Novel

 

To Finish,

Today has been an historic day for the USA. Among their ‘firsts’ on inauguration day was the first ever US National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman.

Her poem is sensational and timely. A MUST WATCH

 

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: 

 

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