After The End, What’s Next?

Comic: Death and the Writer. pic.twitter.com/aPDK8joGWm
— Debbie Ridpath Ohi (@inkyelbows) May 14, 2014

Sorry for the day delay in posting... There are some big articles in my round up this week, so grab a large drink and settle down for a brain expanding session.

‘Which leads me to, as my final point, the only real prediction I have made today. It’s one I made earlier: I think most existing publishers will disappear over the next decade or two.’

The quote is from Baldur Bjarnason who had a keynote address at Publishers Forum last week in London. As you can imagine the above comment coming towards the end of his address would be pretty novel given his audience. However as you read through his speech published on Publishing Perspectives, you find yourself nodding. For Authors, it is life as we know it. For Publishers it may be too late.

In the wider publishing world...News Corp buys Harlequin for not much over Harlequins annual revenue. How could it be so low? (another tick from Baldur’s speech)

Amazon and Hachette are having a fight... and low and behold Hachette’s books are delayed in shipping. We have seen it all before. Who gets hurt? The author.

After these three hit my brain I was on a mission to find some good news.

Alas,

Blogger Middle Grade Ninja who has a nice blog interviewing Agents (mostly for children’s books) revealed his disquiet over some agents practices which have been disturbing him and that he hoped were one off’s until they became too frequent to be ignored. (part two)

Scarlett Johansson is suing a French author claiming he stole her image when the novel is about a look-alike getting into a mess. Implications for authors who reference pop culture in their books could be alarming.

Dave Gaughran, on how to increase piracy... which explains why it is happening and what we can do about it.

Author Solutions which was supposed to be cleaned up after Penguin bought it...ummm This is a read and share...

Bridgid Kemmerer on why author expectations never live up to reality...

By now you may be feeling punch drunk. (time for a refill.)

Where is the good news!?

Agent Jonny Geller on his top 10 tips for being a literary agent. (yes, there are some good ones out there.)

The amazing interview with Jane Friedman on Money, Writing and Life by Joanna Penn. Take your time. Transcript under the podcast. This one just fills your heart with zing. (possibilities are endless.)

Hugh Howey once a month talks about how he is running his mythical publishing house NewHarperCollins. Prepare to have your mind blown. Here he looks at IP and worldbuilding. I watched Cassandra Clare do this with her YA author buddies in the last year.  She grabbed a few friends, went on a writing boot camp holiday where they all wrote short back stories featuring one character from her Mortal Instruments series. Then they released these stories, one a month, digitally. By the fourth month they were hitting best seller lists. (so it is being done...by authors!)

In the Craft section,

Building Catchy Titles,

Boost your creativity with an idea log.

Elisabeth S Craig on keeping things fresh in a series.

5 tips for running a writers circle

Ava Jae on Twitter chats. I tune into a couple every week #kidlitchat and #indiechat

Excellent article from Jami Gold on Character Internal Journey.

K M Weiland on The message in your story.

In the Marketing section,

53 Freelancing mistakes...

Self promo and marketing that works.

How to create a self paced email course...this is really interesting!

Crowdfunding a children’s board book.

Do you have an editor repelling email address?

Website of the week.

Gigaom. This tech/ publishing/ catch-all magazine website always has interesting articles and is run by very savvy people. Laura Hazard Owen looks at publishing startups and how they go head to head with Amazon and Apple. These startups change the face of publishing... until they get bought and incorporated. Check out what’s next on the block.

To Finish,

Last week I referenced a project that Mark Coker was involved with e-publishing kids stories with teachers and librarians.

This week I see that High School teachers are making up their own text books using iBooksAuthor to directly support their students.

Everyone has the potential to be a publisher... Baldur just pointed out current reality to the publishers.

maureen

Pic is from the cartoonist/illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi (AKA Inkyelbows) whose cartoons on the writing life are so funny.  Love seeing them pop up in my Twitter feed.  

Debating The Issues.

My daughter has been wandering the house singing ‘Happy Birthday New Zealand’ loudly as I try to collect my thoughts to put together this weeks roundup of opinion tips tricks and trends in publishing.

The collecting my thoughts bit has been haphazard over the last year with different things happening in this very busy... occasionally chaotic... household. My elder daughter back from Uni observed...Mum you don’t have a dedicated writing space anymore and put her finger on something that has been niggling me. So this week I got the chance to join a writing friend for four hours a day and just write...well write and plan a new children’s writing project that is as light as I can make it and a great challenge if I can pull it off. 

Writing with another person in the room is interesting... there is a mental whip hanging over you... the other person will see if I don’t keep at it. When we take a break for lunch we talk over something frustrating us in our project and bang the answer seems to be crystal clear coming from the other writing head, who is finishing a memoir project.

Another interesting side effect...is arriving ready to work. The twenty minute journey on a good day down the motorway...has me shedding, with each kilometer, household concerns. When they are all gone I can begin to think of my writing project and in pops something that I really need to take notice of.

Russell Blake puts it well with his great 3 D’s blog post onwriting.

Rebecca Smart wrote in her opinion piece for The Bookseller an interesting observation about publishing in Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Publishing must become flexible and agile to stay afloat. This post has been resonating through the blogosphere as it comes from a publisher. 

Porter Anderson looks at the continuing debate over Mike and Chucks opinion pieces, that I profiled last week and how the debate has widened and almost polarised people into two different nations.

Bob Mayer has looked at the debates around self publishing over the last few weeks and written his perspective about being agile as a publisher. How he is walking the talk and bridging the gap between both sides.

Last week I mentioned the #EtherIssue debate on giving percentages to all collaborators in a self publishing project. Porter Anderson published an excellent roundup of the Twitter debate and has set the topic for the new debate. (5am our time tho)

News making waves across the blogosphere Hugh Howey has re-signed with Random House (UK) to bring out his print books. ( They are more agile than US publishers…)

Yesterday Icelandic author Baldur Bjarnason wrote a great piece on ethics in publishing. This is a great observation on what many commentators are seeing as the great divide between the two different publishing communities. (Traditional and Self Publishing)

Elisabeth Spann Craig has written a great post on her self publishing mistakes that have her readers saying Bookmark this!

Dean Wesley Smith has written a great post on publishing schedules. Always something to learn from Dean!

Publishers Weekly has highlighted the 6 best blogs to read if you want to keep up on what is happening  in publishing.

In Craft,

Janice Hardy on strengthening your writing and studying the wake up scene.

Rachel Gardner on thinking of your muse as a puppy that needs training and Good first drafts.

Writers Workout looks at divorcing the draft.

Sci Fi writers – you need this tool, Stellarium.

Write To Done on starting a novel.

K M Weiland- when your protagonist is MIA.

10 Foundational writing practices.

In Marketing,

Joanna Penn on getting reviews and marketing

Melinda Szymanik on what should be included in info to reviewers

Bibliocrunch on using Dropbox to review epub files and what your epub file size should be for each outlet.

Four questions every proposal must answer to interest an editor.

To Finish,

Today is Waitangi Day, or the day we commemorate the signing of a ‘mutual respect’ treaty between two nations which began the ‘establishment’ of our country 174 years ago. Our biggest selling newspaper shot itself in the foot in my opinion by using a stupid fist raised logo to advertise there were no pictures of protests in today’s coverage of the annual commemoration ceremonies. Waitangi Day should be a day when we, as a nation, look at ourselves critically. 174 years ago Maori Chiefs sat down and debated among themselves for three days about whether they would sign a treaty. There were protests and arguments and very pointed questions aimed at the British about what was in it for them. Protest and debate shine a spotlight on what is not working well in a partnership. In the last forty years the watershed moments in our nation’s history (Land Marches, Nuclear Free ... ) were all aired at Waitangi. Denying that there is protest is not responsible or ethical journalism.

PS This post was supposed to be up last night…the computer ate my homework….

Maureen

Pic from Dylan Horrocks…His Logo Fix for the NZ Herald.