This week around the publishing blogosphere the news was all
Simon and Schuster. While Hachette and Amazon are still embroiled in their
contract war, Simon and Schuster quietly went about negotiating new contract
terms with Amazon. And everyone wants to know just what those contract terms
are.... Hugh Howey has a pretty good idea... it is probably very close to what
the Indie authors are getting.
Hugh has been busy this week. His latest quarterly report
Author Earnings is out. And it is the first one that looks at the impact of
Kindle Unlimited on author income. Porter Anderson has a very detailed look at what Hugh found out. Subscription models look here to stay and authors need to
keep a weather eye on their impact.
Australian Author Patty Jansen has been looking at her Indie income with a fine toothcomb. A very interesting analysis.
Articles about the Frankfurt Book Fair are still coming out.
Reedsy has one looking at a panel discussion on when publishers get it right...
with sales and content. Great read!
In our neck of the woods Walker seems to be going through a
tough time. A long time popular editor has been let go and some Picture Book contracts
have been cancelled. This is devastating news to the authors concerned as the
illustrations were nearly finished. Picture Books can be anywhere from 18
months to four years in production and to pull them at such a late stage in the
process sends alarm bells. Time to pore over those contracts... with a lawyer.
The huge success of the Percy Jackson series has the New Yorker looking hard at the quality of the books children choose to read. They
draw on Neil Gaiman’s famous address which was in the
“Just–so-long-as-they-are–reading” camp and contrast it with Tim Parks essay on
reading habits where he suggests there is little evidence of reading upwards
from Pulp to Proust. Having a Percy Jackson fan in my house I was treated to a
diatribe this week about the important characters in the Greek demigod world. I
don’t have a problem with that at all. Where else is the average Kiwi kid going
to find out about thirty centuries old myth and legends?
In the news this week Disney has turned its sights on the South Pacific and their newest ‘Princess’ movie is in the works. Moana... ably
supported by the demigod Maui. (Please Disney, don’t make it a white bread
yawn!) Taika Waititi has written the original screenplay.
In the Craft Section,
Janice Hardy on finding the right rhythm and voice to nail your beginning.
Now Novel on Unreliable vs Omniscient narrators
How to get around using Trademark in novels from a Trademark
lawyer. This is a Must Read post!
K M Weiland on the difference between Story Concept and Story Premise.
In the Marketing Section,
Elisabeth S Craig looks at making your content work hard
Julie Muesil has a list of podcasts that are required viewing/listening. In the list are two people whom I have referred to before,
Joanna Penn and Sean Platt. This week Joanna interviewed Sean so it’s a two for
one deal in excellence!
K M Wieland has a guest post on Book Cover design.
Matt Wallace has a comprehensive post on selling books from your own website.
To Finish,
NaNoWriMo is almost upon us... so Janice Hardy revisits her prep list for this event.
Every year Scrivener writing software do a free trial for
the month… Go here to find out about it.
The Book Designer has a wonderful bundle discount on book interior designs. Well worth a visit and to grab an absolute bargain!
Huge Congratulations to Jack Lasenby who is receiving a Prime Ministers Award for literature tonight. Jack is one of New Zealand's finest writers for children. I am lucky to be attending this event… where we celebrate NZ demigods of literature.
Unleash your Demigod!
Maureen
Pic from The Disney press release
2 comments:
If Taika is writing it, it will be worth going to see.
My thoughts exactly!
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