Are we all sick of Amazon vs Hachette in the publishing
blogosphere? As the issue between them drags on... a lot of authors feel
compelled to voice their support for one side or the other and it is starting
to get very ugly. Huffington Post reports on the standoff... that one of them may have blinked.
Publishing pundit Mike Shatzkin finally came out and voiced his opinion this week. I was surprised at his tone usually
he is more measured in his response. Passive Guy highlighted the problems with Mike’s assessment and the comments are going thick and fast between the blogs.
If you are still interested in how this is all playing out, Barry Eisler has an opinion piece in The Guardian and Stephen Colbert weighs in on Comedy Central.
Earlier this week in London there was a Literary Festival
featuring Australian and New Zealand writers.
Publishing Perspectives covered it for the global audience
as a positive experience.
The New Zealand Listener covered it for Kiwi’s as more of an
underwhelming experience.
I wonder if they weren’t just giving in to the cultural
cringe factor. We have some great writers here who should be ‘world famous in
New Zealand,’ and promoted like All Blacks. Let’s celebrate them and not give
into cultural cringe.
The lovely Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware highlights a new scam targeting indie authors. Editors who highlight ‘errors’ and offer to
fix them.... After she wrote her blog post she was contacted by an editor....
On a lighter note... This week Tor.com (prominent Sci Fi
publishers) got together with a couple of great writers, Maureen Johnson and John Scalzi, to talk about Social Media advice for writers. Much hilarity
ensued. Be entertained. If you don’t know anything about these great
writers...go out and read their books! Just don’t take their social media
advice.
B.E.A (America’s biggest Book Expo) has just wrapped up. And
Author Hub seems to be the biggest winner at the Expo. This was a new
initiative where Authors were given an area to conduct business on their own
account. Bob Mayer talks about the ten things that he learned at BEA this year.
In the Craft Section,
15 secrets to writing from George R R Martin
The Killer Story Concept – K M Weiland
Lessons from James Scott Bell – Excellent post from Angela
Ackerman.
Catalyst and Catharsis – Donald Maass
In the Marketing Section,
Marketing Lessons from Mad Men
What to do when sales slow- Great post from Roz Morris
Walking away from the stress of the big release – Thoughtful
post
from Elisabeth S Craig.
The Myths that Printers are Distributors... One of Dean
Wesley Smith’s excellent posts.
Publishers Weekly is integrating reviews- good news for Indie Authors
To Finish,
Two publishing interns, who walked away from publishing, talk about why they feel the system is broken. This is a close up look at the lack
of diversity in publishing. If it is all white bread making the
decisions...then white bread is what you will get.
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