Yikes. Just read a pub contract w/ indefinite term that withholds 20% reserve _annually_ & doesn't release it till book is OOP. Run away.— Victoria Strauss (@victoriastrauss) March 3, 2016
This week was a turbulent one in the blogosphere.
There was angst about the U.S elections, Angst about Author
Solutions, Angst about Mike Shatzkin’s blog.
General Angst everywhere.
Phillip Jones of the Bookseller, finally got Andrew Phillips of Penguin Random House to talk about Author Solutions. Andrew laid out one
side of the story where PRH thought Author Solutions was a good idea. 'Unfortunately
a few authors have disagreed.'
‘A few,’ spluttered the leading commenter’s. With class actions
happening, every major writer organisation’s complaints ignored and a long list
of complaints from writers who have lost large sums of money there was an
outpouring of disgust over the article. If you weren’t sure about Author
Solutions and their imprints for big publishers this is required reading.
Staying on the subject of assisted publishing Victoria
Strauss of Writer Beware tried to contact author Steve Alten. She was concerned
about the look of his new publishing venture to help other authors, but had no
success until Chuck Wendig wrote a blog about it. What is the definition of a vanity press? Chuck laid it out and then there was the response from Steve. The tennis match of eyeballs on the
responses from each side played out all over social media.
Mike Shatzkin, publishing futurist, published a blog this week where he talked about changing his mind on what is happening with Agency and print sales. Porter wrote a piece discussing this. It is all very murky.
Has Amazon put one over the publishers by getting them to agree to Agency
conditions where they set the prices? Have publishers’ tactic of inflating eBook
prices until they were more expensive than buying a print copy helped print
sales and booksellers or is it all an elaborate lie. Are adult Colouring In books skewing what is really happening in print sales?
If you wanted to try your hand at publishing a colouring in
book Joanna Penn has a comprehensive interview with Meg Cowly on how to do it.
Novel Approach, a book review blog, discovered that Amazon
has pulled all their reviews and they are legit. They can’t get them back and Amazon won’t talk to them.
We need some good news!
Susan Kaye Quinn breezed in with a great post on finding joy in our writing. This saved us from being overcome with despair.
In the Craft Section,
Why scripts are rejected- Becca Puglisi
Scrivener and the proficient writer- Joanna Penn
Take 30 minutes to fix your novel- Bookmark
Reader’s response to the heroes’ journey- Martina Boone- Bookmark
Hacking my writing process- Kameron Hurley
1 tweak to write original characters- K M Weiland-Bookmark
In the Marketing Section,
Marketing after you get the rights back. - Bookmark
Sins and virtues of email marketing- Copyblogger-Bookmark
How to make eBook design count- comprehensive by DBW- Bookmark
To Finish,
Nosy Crow Publishers wrote about how they select books to
publish. They are a nimble bunch in London.
Top Agent Kristen Nelson wrote about her first year under the new request regime of asking for the first 10 pages up front. If the
authors were sweating over the query letter- Kristen was finding that the first
ten pages really showed if authors knew their craft. Angst in a good way over
this blog.
Maureen
@craicer
Tweet from Victoria this afternoon... scary.
@craicer
Tweet from Victoria this afternoon... scary.
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