This week in Publishing,
Last week as I was posting the blog the news broke about the US Department of Justice taking the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon and Schuster to court. LitHub has an interesting take on the news- The department is coming out on the side of the authors.
I was in my favourite bookstore yesterday and mentioned the merger. The bookseller commented that PRH produced or distributed half the books in their store. If they fell over so would bookstores. It was a sobering remark. When you are reliant on the success of your biggest supplier to stay in business….
Agent Jennifer Laughran explains how the book industry got into the supply chain problem. Her take – expect it to continue all next year as well.
The Authors Guild has joined forces with some other writer associations to support Starz taking MGM to court. The heart of the court case, collecting damages for copyright infringement. MGM is arguing you can only collect damages from the most recent three years not all the other years the copyright was infringed and you didn’t know about it. Passive Guy writes why it matters to the copyright holders.
The New Publishing Standard reports that next year is going to be busy on the conference front. Bologna and Shanghai Children’s Book Fairs are happening at the same time and they are going to be sharing ideas in an East meets West series of events. This is quite ambitious and will be an amazing statement if they can pull it off.
The Australian Books and Publishing newsletter is warning Australian writers to contact The New Zealand National Library to pull their titles from the' donation' the NZ National Library is giving to the dodgy Internet Archive. They have been roundly castigated over the deal internationally but they still want to go ahead. (I wrote about it a few weeks ago) If you know anyone this might apply to send them the link which has all the contact details.
Recently, The New Yorker wrote an article on Mark McGurl’s book, Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon. How has the Amazon store changed the way readers read a novel? It has some interesting points and points the finger at genre readers who are now microniched and sold content by writers who have also fallen into the commodity trap.
Plenty to think about in this article.
Last week Kris Rusch posted the 3rd in her ‘IP Is The New Frontlist series. This is an interesting article on how marketers are struggling with trying to promote movies that keep getting delayed by Covid problems. Eventually the audience gives up. Do writers have an advantage here?
Dan Blank, marketer and writer was brought up short by his young son recently. Who looks after you, he was asked. This led Dan on an exploration of collaborators and mentors and into an interesting interview on connecting with other writers.
Juliet Marillier, fantasy author, wrote a fantastic post on Writer Unboxed today on older woman writers writing older women. As we age are we ignoring writing for our own age group? Do book characters have to be in a narrow age band? What does this do to our own psyche? The comments are heart-warming.
In The Craft Section,
Pacing and momentum- April Bradley
Manuscript evaluations- Now Novel
3 tricks to immerse your reader in your story- Marissa Graff- Bookmark
Learn how to show the fun way- C S Lakin- Bookmark
The two halves of the inciting event – K M Weiland - Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
Twitter spaces for authors- Rachel Thompson
Make money with first in series free- and Cross-promotion with other authors- Bookbub
5 simple book marketing tips- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark
How to write a Book Release- Dave Chesson – Bookmark
To Finish,
Anne R Allen has written a superb post on creativity wounds. These are the wounds you might not know you have. They have been given to you when you were learning how to be creative. First reviews, ridicule from family or respected teachers, wounds from other writers who think that savage critiques are character forming. You get the idea. These wounds become your subconscious and can be quite destructive if not reined in.
The 20Books to 50K conference is on at the moment. It is the biggest author conference in the world. I watched an excellent presentation by Sarah Noffke on productivity, goal setting, etc. Just an all-around shot in the arm. While you are on the YouTube channel check out some of the other presentations that have been made available. The conference is on all week. There is something for everyone.
Maureen
@craicer
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Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Heather Cowper
Vimy Ridge Arras WW1 trenches.
We will remember them!
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