2020, Ready or Not

It’s 2020… another year in the always fascinating world of publishing and writing beckons. So what happened over the Christmas break while everyone was supposed to be drinking eggnog and contemplating the end of one decade and the beginning of the next?

This time, just as the offices are shutting, is beloved by governments and organisations who want to get something controversial or sneaky out in the open, secure in the knowledge that when people find out it will be a done deal. Enter the Romance Writers Association of America with an edict censuring one its most prominent members just before Christmas. Unfortunately for them members were still active on Twitter on Christmas Eve. There was nowhere to hide as the biggest romance association publicly crumbled. The last month has been a public relations nightmare of epic proportions. For a comprehensive rundown on events as they unfolded read Jezebel and then read Jami Gold for her ideas on how to fix the mess. (Today RWA has appointed a new executive director so hopefully they will be looking at the other suggestions as well.)

Of course being the beginning of a new year the predictions are out for what might be coming down the track for authors and publishers.

Written Word Media have ten publishing trends for authors which makes interesting reading.

Joanna Penn and Orna Ross got together to look out into the next decade and see what is coming down the train track towards us. Forewarned means being prepared to surf the change instead of drowning in it.

Kris Rusch writes a careful post of what happens in an election year to sales of books. Like it or not, American news has a ripple effect on entertainment sales. (That’s us, BTW)

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware looked back over 2019 and the scams and shonky deals that proliferated. She warns that the old scam artists are up to their tricks again… so do yourself a favour and glance over the list of what to be aware of going into 2020.

What happens when the publisher and the fans don’t want you to stop writing a character? Lee Child has been trying to get rid of Reacher for a while… and this time he may have made it stick by handing it all over to his brother….

Last year Audible got taken to court by the big publishers over publishing captions for their audio books which was seen as ebook publishing by another way… So what happened in court… They settled.

Meanwhile the ongoing stoush between libraries and Macmillan is continuing. Macmillan stopped new releases to libraries as they claimed it hurt their sales. (Libraries have to pay very top dollar for the books.) Libraries responded. Who is hurting the most? 

Meanwhile in your New Year planning you should be looking at business plans says Jane Friedman. Janice Hardy cautions about making the same old self-publishing mistakes.

The 100 best writing websites have been rounded up again...

In The Craft Section,

Tips for writing multi POV distinct voices- Kathleen Barber

How to write a killer villain-Christina Kaye- Bookmark

Authentic dialogue – Chris Fox

Two different types of lie that your characters believe- KM Weiland - Bookmark

The lies you tell yourself when you should be writing- Leigh Shulman – Bookmark

In the Marketing Section,

How much copy should you write on your homepage- Infographic- Barb Drozdowich- Bookmark

Content Marketing - David Gaughran – Bookmark

Sales techniques to help you sell more books- Joel Friedlander

Build a street team- Angela Ackerman

How to choose an agent among competing offers- Barbara Poelle

To Finish,

Anne R Allen takes a look at Bookbub and discovers it can be just like Goodreads only much nicer! Remember the days of writing a review and recommending books?

Get your 2020 off to a great start and write a review for someone’s book. Good karma awaits.

Maureen

@craicer

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Reality Bites

January is full of predictions and goal setting for the coming year. Writers enjoy marking off their new wall planners with book goals and organising their writing desks. Then reality sinks in as they note the first deadline is coming up fast. Productivity tool posts start filling up the internet. Writers In The Storm have a good blog post for the writer’s greatest challenge- Time Management. You may need to select from one of these useful collections of tools and tricks.

Time Management Apps.

No Cost tools for writers- Publication Coach

Five Writing Apps from DIYMFA

Every year The Write Life blog collects their 100 best websites for writers. Regular readers of my blog will see familiar names in the list. However their are some nifty new names in the different categories. (They also have a great post on writing residencies – in case you were thinking if it is worth it.)

Victoria Strauss has collected a list of Writer Beware posts from 2015. Writers should be regularly dropping into this site and getting familiar with the scams and dodgy contract language that is directed at them. Writer Beware has direct support from many writer associations.

Susan Spann is doing guest posts on what to watch out for in Contract Clauses- This month is the Out Of Print Clause.

Passive Guy takes a look at Kameron Hurley’s post on Non Compete and Rights Grab Clauses (PG is a lawyer so he has an eye for this.)

Today Kris Rusch warned about Anthology Contracts by new independent publishers. They have the best intentions and their contracts are the worst! Kris has seen some absolute nightmares in the last few weeks. Last week she wrote a great post - Whining is not a business model! Writers you must carefully look at your contracts. This is your work, your future earnings... you need to read the small print and walk away if it is not fair.

In the Craft Section,

The joy of nuances and shades of feelings- Celtic Frog-Bookmark.

Building Empathy- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark.

Sara Letourneau – Character evolution- Bookmark.

Self Editing for Dummies- Bookmark.

Five steps to writing faster.

In the Marketing Section,

Authors often struggle with Book Marketing. It is out of the comfort zone of the introverted garret dweller who talks to imaginary people. 

This week there were helpful posts on author blogs from Joanna Penn - Author blog mistakes, Molly Greene – What authors can blog about, Veronica Sicoe – building relationships with readers and Angela Ackerman- Social Media - why I don’t follow the rules.

Penny Sansevieri has a good post on Amazon reviews.

Lindsay Buroker has one on tips for getting a Bookbub advert.

Rachel Thompson- 4 ways to improve your sales.

Silas Payton has a guest post on Joe Konrath’s blog on collaborative marketing.

To Finish,

Digital Book World has an interesting post today from Jason Illian on the real future of digital publishing. Jason looks at a few company results which journalists didn’t cover and then started asking questions. This is a must read! In the comments SCBWI blogger Lee Wind referred to Enthrill (a company I have been watching for a few years.) They are about to ramp up their eBook gift cards after a long time developing and testing. I have a feeling that 2016 will be an interesting year in the digital book world.

Maureen Crisp

@craicer

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons/ DLG Images www.directline.com