Happy New Year
2014 on Craicer was about to start with a round up of all
the predictions for the publishing world for the year... until I fell and badly
sprained my hand at a popular tourist spot in the North...so you got an extra
weeks break and I narrowly escaped one.
This week is Digital Book Week Expo in the US (#DBW14) It kicked off
with this one day conference on all things digital with children’s books. No
surprises that the day was immediately sold out. Look what was on offer.
Publishing Trends has the quick round up...but really if you
are involved at all in kids books you should take a look at what was discussed.
However the organisers have made some of the presentations available on slideshare...and for an extra insight you can scroll down the twitter feed.
In Publishing Predictions for 2014
Ebook pricing was a big discussion point along with new
publishing models... agent publishers, big publishers getting into concierge
services, which publisher will be next on the block, subscription and library
models.
Bob Mayer highlights audio as continuing to drive growth in
sales.
Porter Anderson takes a close look at pricing in his latest Ether post, following on from discussions generated by predictions 2014.
Mike Shatzkin, publishing futurist, rounds up his important points and shrinking retail space for books is one of his top concerns...there is an
obvious flow on effect everywhere and do we really need celebrity imprints?
Johnny Depp gets his own imprint...
Mark Coker of Smashwords predicts big things for subscription
models and the squeeze on libraries. He also puts in a plug for author
collectives and the way authors are beginning to collaborate on branding and
publish themselves collectively. (This has great potential in NZ as I keep
saying...)
For those of you who use the New Year to Redefine Your Writing Goals…
Have a look at these articles.
Jane Friedman on What you want from Writing
Elisabeth S Craig on Meeting your Writing Goals
Dean Wesley Smith on How to Keep your Writing going as a Business.
K M Weiland on Easy Writing Resolutions.
Dave Gaughran on Enjoying Marketing...otherwise you aren’t
doing it right.
On the flip side.
Hugh Howey raised the point that traditional publishers are
about to try to market themselves as hip and independent publishers... this
also became a talking point at #DBW14
Laura Kaye (Romance author) took issue with the Kensington
Publishers comments on self publishing. She examined the myth and the reality
points that they made...and then the comments opened up. What was really
interesting in this conversation was the willingness of self published authors
to talk about their incomes...and how they got them... which challenged all the
original points made in the article.
If you ever want to figure out where this
publishing business is going just follow the romance writers. They are a very
savvy bunch. (NB I heard over the grapevine that NorthTec may be including a
Self Publishing course...tutor; a 6 figure income erotica writer based in
Kaitaia...)
In an impassioned open letter to Indie Authors ... J M Gregoire asks everyone to lift their game! This letter has had many writers
agreeing with her comments...
Go Forth into 2014 Armed With Knowledge... To Do It Write!
Next week I will be back home into my regular groove...well
maybe when school gets back at the end of January.
maureen
Pic: Broken Christmas cracker...Flickr Creative Commons/Kurafire
