The Future Of Book Marketing

This week in publishing…

Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors came out in droves to condemn Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the Science Fiction convention. Their main problem was that the restrictive nature of the Saudi society would be against the spirit of the genre.  Meanwhile, CoNZealand is happening online with overseas authors skyping into New Zealand instead of the usual extravaganza that is this year's World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention. 

Staying with science fiction for a moment. The Verge is reporting that AI Podcast editor Descript is releasing its voice double from Beta. I know that Joanna Penn has been playing around with this. Think about narrating your books with your favourite actor’s voice or your own without having to sit in a booth for 10 hours… If you are interested in more about creativity and AI check out Joanna Penn’s recent podcast.

The New Publishing Standard reports that Big Bad Wolf, the huge Asian bookseller of remaindered English language books, is also going online. They have partnered with an online marketplace and will be selling their physical books in their usual 10-day 24-hour sale marathon. Check out how many books they intend to move- eyewatering!!! This could also be a sign of things to come.

Mike Shatzkin has been taking a look at how the publishing industry is coping with the pandemic. What is happening to the supply chain? Are they changing their practices…? thinking about changing how they operate…? still have their head in the sand?

Maybe they should be reading Penny Sansevieri’s article on the best book marketing ideas during a pandemic. 

Kris Rusch is still diving deep into the implications of Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter. Have you thought about all the different types of licensing in a contract? Brandon is exploiting one tiny one. With one week to go Brandon is closing in on $6 million. Kris talks about what you need to think about in your own Kickstarter campaigns.

Ruth Harris has another great article looking at the problem of how to write what you know when you can’t write what you know. Sound convoluted? It’s all about what you can change. This is another excellent article on the craft of writing.

In The Craft Section,

Plot development questions- Now Novel- Bookmark

Developing a coherent story- Jael Bakari- Bookmark

Authentic dialogue- CS Lakin

How to finish writing your book- Kevin Tumlinson- Bookmark

How to outline a novel- Roz Morris - Bookmark

Line editing tips- Jocelyn Pruemer- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

176 resources and tool to market and launch your book- Digital Publishing – Bookmark

Apps for Bookstagram- Bookriot

How to market a book with 5 simple website upgrades- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Spoilers won’t spoil your book promotion- Writer Unboxed

5 ways to use video to promote books- Cristian Stanciu- Bookmark

August Unique content ideas – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

To Finish,

The psychology of making a sale. How do you get people to buy what you have to sell? 

I was interested to see this marketing article try to link book marketing to the 5 principles of human behavior. How do you buy books? This week a bookseller I know called me out on deliberately not looking at the books when I was talking to her. ‘I know why you are doing that,’ she said. I had to confess that she was right. I was trying not to buy any more books. I bought new books last week and I haven’t even cracked the spine on them. 

Selling to a bibliophile is just putting the new shiny book object in front of them in a trail of book crumbs to the cash register.

#hopelessaddiction

Maureen

@craicer

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter to go out. If you want the best of the months bookmarked links and other assorted stuff go on and 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: Flickr Creative Commons- Bex Walton Topping & Company Booksellers

Publishing By The Numbers

This week in publishing there was a fluttering in the inboxes as Indie Publishing superstar and author educator guru, Mark Dawson, was accused of gaming the bestseller lists.

The Guardian reported the story and many authors on Twitter were quick to cry foul.

However, there are always two sides to the story. As Mark said today on Facebook- If I was gaming the system, I wouldn’t have announced it on one of the most listened to indie author podcasts. 

It was a marketing risk as he was wondering how he could get the book into the top ten when it came in at number thirteen. It was this discussion on the podcast that Mark had bought 400 copies of his Traditionally Published Hardback release of a seven-year-old thriller, so he could make them available to overseas fans who wanted a signed copy that started the whole drama.

 Nate Hoffelder talks about the drama and the Sunday Times bestseller list and the shock of how few sales you need to make the list.

Nielsen’s pulled the book from the list this week citing ‘they misunderstood the intentions of this sales transaction.’

What does it mean for authors? Mark will probably break it down on the self-publishing podcast as he is very open and transparent with his publishing business. As an Indie author who cleared over $1 million from his book sales last year- spending 3,600 pounds on 400 books has got him two Guardian feature articles – name recognition- appearances on bestseller lists. Discussions on social media… it could be a publicist’s win and money well spent.

Anyone can bulk buy a book in launch week for a variety of reasons. An epic book launch party can get you on the NZ bestseller lists. Mark went to his local children’s bookshop to order the books, so they got some love. 

Will this change the rules of making the bestseller lists? 

Are the rules different for publishers and authors who publish? Lit Hub has a breakdown on the myths of both types of publishing models. 

David Gaughran has an interesting article out about the elusive A9 algorithm. There have been many people who have been trying to convince authors to part with money to learn the secret of the Amazon search engine… David, fierce defender of the battling author, tells you the truth about the scam.

Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article about reading patterns in the pandemic. People are still wanting to get physical books. Is it the book smell they crave?

Publish Drive has been flirting with the subscription model of author services for a while now but now they are going all in. David Kudler talks about the advantages for the author with this model.

San Diego Comic-Con has been turned into a virtual event. The Comic-Con is one of the biggest events in the Entertainment world and is huge for Graphic Novels. With the Con circuit going virtual Graphic Novelists have to come up with other ways to get noticed.

While we are on graphic novels this comic appeared in my Twitter feed. This is a must-read for the way it educates about a psychological effect that unconsciously colours your whole world view. Powerful storytelling! It is nominated for the 2020 Eisner Award.

Kris Rusch writes a part two about Brandon Sanderson’s $5 million Kickstarter. If you didn’t read last week's post -check it out so you know the background. Brandon still has two weeks to go. Have you ever thought about a literary crowdsourcing community?

The latest Writers Thesaurus is out- The Occupation Thesaurus. Jami Gold has a great article on the story impact of your protagonist’s occupation. Are you using all the useful nuggets that you can? Congratulations Angela and Becca on another great addition to the Writers Thesaurus library.

In The Craft Section,

Two great articles from K M Weiland- How to put suspense in your story and a great primer on story structure. – Bookmark

6 things that get you stuck in writers' block- Sean Platt- Bookmark

Monitoring your progress as a writer- Rafal Reyzer

Writing influence characters- September Fawkes – Bookmark

Dinkus- 6 ways to use them.- (hands up if you know what a Dinkus is.)- Now Novel- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

How to make an online bookstore- Darcy Pattison- Bookmark

Is your book in the limp-a-long merry-go-round?- Judith Briles

Publishing Timelines – C S Lakin- Bookmark

How not to waste your valuable time guest blogging- Nate Hoffelder

Where to get free illustrations- Bookmark

To Finish

Have you ever thought about co-writing a book? How hard can it be? You get together with a writing buddy, plan out a story, book a beach house, and write like crazy. Recipe for success- Yes? Greta Boris writes a great article on how to co-write a novel and remain friends. It’s not easy but it can be fun if you put all the planning details in a document you both agree on first. 

Maureen

@craicer

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter to go out. If you want the best of the months bookmarked links and other assorted stuff go on and 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: Flickr Creative Commons- Andy Maguire

Underneath The Covers

Recently the #PublishingPaidMe hashtag trend on Twitter exposed the historical underpaying of black authors in the publishing world. One of the ideas it highlighted was the lack of diversity in publisher lists with publishers limiting themselves to one representative of each ethnicity and claiming they were diverse. Publishers Weekly looks at other negative trends that were exposed with the hashtag trend call out.

How good are you at spotting publishing scams? Unfortunately, even people who have been bitten once are being bitten again. Even when you think that the publisher is looking legit, check, check, and check again. And don’t take an agent's word for it. They have been bitten as well.

Kobo Plus is like Kindle select but without the demand for exclusivity. However, it was limited to just a few countries. But in great news this week Kobo Plus is expanding… YAY.

How do you keep your backups safe? Do you even have backups? Jami Gold looks at all the different ways you can save yourself giant headaches.

Netgalley has been offering their review service for quite a while. Recently they decided to expand their service to audiobooks. With the rise and rise of audiobook sales, this is a welcome move for publishers.

Can authors use A I to help them write a better story? Writers Digest has an interesting article looking at using a tool called Marlowe that analyses your manuscript and points out the flaws and plot holes to fix up. Take a look at Marlowe – you can try it out for free.

As a teacher, I was very keen to encourage my younger colleagues to have some sort of creative life outside of teaching. You need to put creativity into the well because teaching drains so much from you. For me, it was escaping into writing. But as writers, are we draining the creative well and not putting anything back in? This article looks at the importance of having hobbies away from writing.

Bob Mayer and Jennifer Crusie are both big names in their respective genres. Together they have written 3 great thriller romances. They collaborated on a website where they discuss different aspects of the writing craft from their own points of view. Check out their conversation on developing character arcs. Excellent stuff. (Also, their writing is superb!!!)

In The Craft Section,

Character building – how much planning should you do? - Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Beginning Screenwriters Start Here- Scott Myers

How to start a novel - 8 steps to the perfect opening scene- Reedsy- Bookmark

Writing emotion- Iris Marsh

The emotional rollercoaster all writers experience- Martha Alderson- Bookmark

Building a bold narrators voice- Now Novel- Bookmark

In the Marketing Section,

Two great articles from Rachel Thompson - How to improve your email newsletters right now and How to build an engaged following- Bookmark

Using video marketing- Frances Caballo

Why you need a template for your newsletter- Nate Hoffelder

Amazon Editorial Reviews -Are you using them- Dave Chesson- Bookmark

5 Simple website upgrades- Penny Sansevieri - Bookmark

To Finish,

Brandon Sanderson has been running a Kickstarter for a leather-bound hardback edition of one of his best-selling books to celebrate the 10^th anniversary. He modestly asked for $250K because that was what he figured he would need. So far, he’s passed $5 million. Kris Rusch takes a look at Kickstarter for authors and how building a community and stakeholder engagement is a winning formula for writers wanting to try this form of income building.

It’s all part of building up multiple income streams for authors.

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: Flickr Creative Commons- Steven Johnson

Keeping On Going…

In the publishing world this week…

While everyone in publishing is looking at their bottom line and wondering if they will still be in business at Christmas… Ingram is expanding its Print On Demand centers around the world. Is this a bold move of confidence in the future or the canny move of a print distributor? Their rivals fall by the wayside and now they might have a monopoly… 

Publishing Perspectives has an article on how audiobooks for children have been credited with great results for children’s literacy over lockdown. (All teachers would agree with this.) So children’s writers are you thinking about audio?

The Guardian reports that the genre saving the publishing world's bacon in lockdown is Crime, with record numbers of books being consumed.

Subscription, or the all you can eat model of entertainment consumption, is proving a hit around the lockdown-ed world. Movies are now being first released on subscription services along with music and books. Subscription content companies are expanding across the world. Next up the Arab world gets a subscription model and Storytel makes its move into the Arab language market.

The Authors Guild have grabbed their heavy hitters, Grisham, Child, Stine et al to front a lawsuit with Penguin Random and Amazon against the KISS Library for piracy. 

I can’t help thinking the lawyers will always win and the Whac-A-Mole game of book piracy will never end.

Kris Rusch, being stuck in the U S, has been striving to keep upbeat. This week she looks at the hit the creative industries will be taking as creative companies hit the wall. Musicians whose income relies on touring will be hit hard. Writers struggling with self-doubt about their career choice need to take heart. 

Jami Gold has a great post on organization. How do you organize your thoughts and your creativity and do you do the same for your career? Are you a throw it all at the wall and hope some of it sticks type or is everything planned out carefully? Jami has some great tips.

In The Craft Section,

2 great posts from Scott Myers- Where to start when developing a story and Inside and Outside the story universe.- Bookmark

Writing smooth transitions – Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Adding a time delay to heighten conflict – Angela Ackerman

The biggest writing craft issue writers face- Anne R Allen – Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Create a virtual book launch- Carol Cronin – Bookmark

3 basic rules of social media and 5 tips – Frances Caballo- Bookmark

Why quality counts – Sandra Beckwith

8 common book marketing mistakes- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

How to set up a sponsored product ad- Dave Chesson- Bookmark

Do you kill your widows and orphans? - Joel Friedlander – (If you don’t know what this means you need to read this article.)

To Finish,

About a decade ago a fabulous writer told me that my best work would happen when my children had left home. ‘You will be in a different mental headspace.’ I agonized over this idea. Today I read an interesting article from K M Weiland about the three stages of writing or how your age affects your writing and gained a new perspective on this. 

Take the wins where you can and keep on going. 

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: Flickr Creative Commons- Dimitry Baranovskii

Learning To Get Better…

It’s July… when did that happen?

Earlier in the year, there was some hope that the pandemic would be done and dusted by the Northern hemisphere summer and that things might be back to normal.

Ah well, it looks like this might be the new normal for a while.

The Frankfurt Bookfair has finally decided that it will have to be online this year and now they are asking everyone what they would like to have in a virtual book fair. If you have a bright idea for a seminar or webinar with a worldwide audience check out their call for proposals.

I was reading Publishers Weekly and came across this headline- Upcoming YA novel pulled by Author. Naturally, I clicked over to see who had pulled their novel and why and I found an interesting letter from Publishers Weekly saying why they weren’t going to tell us who it was and why. This is very responsible of them. Sadly, I wish they had thought of the implications sooner. 

While I was looking at the news on Publisher Weekly, I was interested to see this publishing company expanding its list. I wondered how their first book would go as there had to be buy in from all the rights holders to the hit music. Take a hit song… now pair it up with a great illustrator and launch it as a picture book for children. (Kiwi’s, imagine Welcome Home as a PB… sigh)

Has the world got you down? Are you struggling with your self-worth as a writer? Yes, it’s Imposter Syndrome time again but with a Covid spin. Elizabeth Hartl has a guest post over at Writers Helping Writers on how to beat this lurgy.

And for another bracing talk check out Ruth Harris and her latest post on 5 ways Authors stand between themselves and success. These are both great posts to shake you up and get you ready for the next 6 months.

This week Kris Rusch was musing about the writers who have come to her for advice about missing money. In this publishing environment, everyone is chasing down money to keep the lights on and the wolf from the door. Sometimes this means that money promised to the author doesn’t make it into the bank account. Check out what Kris has to say about how to track down missing payments.

Kris and Dean are also making their workshops half price for writers who are stuck inside. Check out all the great courses they have. 

Jami Gold has a great post on how to learn and improve writing skills. If you do a deep dive into self-editing then you can figure out what you need to learn. Read this outstanding post first to get some pointers on what to look for. You might want to check out Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s collection of writer tools as well.

In The Craft Section,

Identifying your characters fatal flaw- Becca Puglisi - Bookmark

Free Picture book templates from Inkygirl- Debbie RidpathOhi- Bookmark

10 ways to reach the end-Elspeth Futcher

Self-edit your novel- Kris Spisak- Bookmark

100’s of screenwriter interviews – Scott Myers

We Are Unsafe- Donald Maass- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

9 Tips on Writing Query letters- Robert Lee Brewer

Books to Film- Options vs Shopping agreements- Matt Knight- Bookmark

2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri-Timing your book launch and Promoting before the book is published- Bookmark

20 tips to rock social media- Frances Caballo

5 powerful principles on human behavior- Book marketing Bestsellers- Bookmark

To Finish,

In a little fishing village in Portugal lives a wild Irish Rover who lives online as a guru for writers. David Gaughran has been updating his great Writer Help books over the last 6 months or so. He has just made one of his best book marketing craft books FREE. Let’s get Digital was one of the first books I ever read on ebooks. David revised it three times always updating it. Now he has virtually rewritten it and made it available for Free. (and available from all the major ebook stores.) This is not just the primer on how to create an ebook but the whole encyclopedia- Let’s Get Digital 4^th Edition is a Must Get.

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.

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