In Publishing News this week,
The publishers are happy. It’s book gift buying season… but really, it’s because they won their court case against the Internet Archive. Publishing Perspectives writes that it all came about because of a missing certificate. (And if you work for Penguin Random House in the US they have just given everyone a pay rise.)
Scholastic is happy. They have sorted out a five nation Book Tour for Dav Pilkey. They anticipate bumper sales of his latest book, after all they printed 5 million copies.
Authors and publishers who deal with Spotify had a nice surprise this week with Spotify rolling out lots of data about audiobooks on the site. You can figure out audience demographics and lots more with their new Spotify for Authors platform.
While Spotify is gathering audiobook listeners, The UK Publishers Association thinks that there should be more money in the Audiobook sales pot. They suggest that the format sales along for the UK is closer to $1 Billion. Mark Williams looks at the numbers.
One of the popular gifts to teens from your government, if you live in Europe, is a Culture card which gives you quite a chunk of change to spend on cultural activities and books. French publishers are hanging on by their fingernails to their culture card in the face of government trying to claw back money from the scheme.
Spare a thought for the Mexican educational publishers… their industry has been hit with a 20% downturn in funding. Mark Williams looks at educational publishers and the problems of relying on fickle government handouts.
Do you wish you had a favourite book narrated by the author… it’s a shame they have shuffled off this mortal coil.* However, if you have a snippet of their recorded voice then you could be in business. GoodEReader explains how this will work. Hmm, I’m thinking of narration voice rights being a thing for literary estates.
Jane Friedman has a guest post from Nancy Wayson Dinan about the benefits of doing an MFA in writing. Nancy is a director of an MFA program. She looks at the MFA critically using Jane Friedmans quote ‘Art’s success on a commercial level versus on an artistic level.’ This is an interesting article on what the MFA teaches you and what it does not.
If you have been feeling that you need a break – check out Colleen Story’s article on managing the many baskets in your writing life to avoid writer overwhelm. This is a good post for those of us Down Under as we head into our Summer break.
Donald Maass has been teaching workshops and he stops for a moment to discuss emotional beats and human moments. An excellent teaching article.
In The Craft Section,
Character Secrets – Safeguarding- Angela Ackerman
Compelling tension and suspense in your story- Tiffany Yates Martin- Bookmark
How emotional shielding helps your characters- Becca Puglisi
How to mix dialogue and action- Janice Hardy-Bookmark
Inhabiting a name- Jeanne Kisacky- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
Promote your book with a roundup article- Sandra Beckwith
What you need to distribute into stores- Comprehensive- Joe Biel- Bookmark
What to do when the book launch is over- Alliance of Independent Authors - Bookmark
Starting and optimizing your website- Written Word Media
Universal Book Links with Bookfunnel- NEW – Bookmark
To Finish,
I’m sure Christmas is coming earlier every year. It doesn’t seem so long ago that it was Easter. The supermarkets have huge displays of Christmas food and conspicuous consumption is everywhere. So what to get for the writer in your life… or to drop hints about for yourself. Katie Weiland outlines her five gift rule for writers at Christmas. A package like this would make my Christmas.
Next week: I’m traveling to attend a family members Masters graduation, so there won’t be a blog post. When I get back it will be the bumper end of year roundup.
Maureen
@craicer
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Pic: Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
*From the Bard himself. If his voice was ever recorded, few would understand it.
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