This morning the word went out HarperCollins is the next big publisher to fight with Amazon.
So will 2015 have the flavour of 2014 with the
virtual book lockouts, impassioned pleas for support and authors being left the
worse for wear in the battle of the publishing behemoths? One of the sobering
takeouts for anyone watching is that it is not the publishers bank accounts
that get hammered. It is the authors and their careers. For authors to have a
book not visible online hurts
sales... which means their next book becomes a harder sell, (despite what the
publisher might say to the contrary.) This hurts their future earnings/career.
In the children’s publishing world Bologna is the rally cry.
The biggest children’s book rights fair in the world and the news is all gelato
and where the agents missing bathrooms are on Twitter. Despite Bathroomgate, everyone is
upbeat. The world wants middle grade. Yay. Even middle grade space! I have a
drawer full of manuscripts...
Another class action suit has been registered against Author Solutions, which is OWNED by Penguin Random House. And still there is a deafening
silence by publishing journalists to expose this company. Could it be that
every big publisher has their fingers in this pie...
For the last three years I have been noticing the claim that Book Apps are just around the corner... not the next corner, the one after
that. Here it gets stated again in several places this week. (Must be the
Bologna effect.) If only we had partnerships... author/ illustrator/ app
designer. Maybe the time has come.
The time has come to move on for self publishers says Porter
Anderson. In his usual thought provoking way Porter looks at all the arguments
around self publishing and how the mindset holds back the author.
Inspirational
as ever, Hugh Howey also checks in with his take on being a SP chump.
Elizabeth Spann Craig finds out her
traditionally published series is at an end. When you know it is time to move on... whole new publishing life coming right up. Take some time to read the
comments on these articles. There is lots of extra insight into how these
decisions get made.
A couple of years ago... I talked in my blog about an
interesting marketing concept; Downloadable e-books on those plastic gift cards
as a point of sale display, just right for the impulse purchase at the bookstore
counter. There were several companies
looking into producing nifty stands of these for publishers. Another company has joined in making this a marketing reality but with short run cards that will
appeal to authors.
In the Craft Section, (all of these are bookmark worthy)
In the Marketing Section, (Every one of these a book mark
post)
Sam Messingham has the article on using Twitter effectively.
Marketing 101- Creating a strategy –Jami Gold
Crowdfunded publishing- Jane Friedman
Author and book marketing starts with you –Joel Friedlander
Website of the Week
Not really a website more like a phenomenon!
The Creative Penn or Joanna Penn has made such an impact on
sharing her journey in real time as she negotiates new publishing landscapes
that it is hard to imagine the blogosphere without her. Her website is packed
full of information. She has a popular podcast and her books are best sellers.
Bibliocrunch caught up with her to ask the five important questions about her publishing journey. And if you check out her latest podcast interview she is talking with an audio marketing expert. It is, as usual, packed full of information and as
Joanna acknowledges this is a must for writers to look at with so many car
makers enabling in-car podcast radio as their latest feature.
Bet you didn’t
see that coming.
To Finish,
Getting books in libraries is a big thing for Authors. It
means visibility, more people reading your work and sales down the track. Now
authors are being encouraged to make their Indie e-books available to libraries.
Check out the nifty infographic.
Maureen
@craicer
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