Another week of hot weather and crunching numbers... here in
my house.
I’m doing budgets for our National Conference and pulling my hair out
over funding requirements.
Over on the other side of the world Publishers and
Commentators are kicking through the snow and crunching numbers trying to make
sense of the latest Neilson figures to get a snapshot of the health of the
Publishing industry.
So far this week I’ve seen statements like Adult Fiction is
dead. Ebooks are dead. YA is being read by Adults. Children’s publishing is
growing. Where is fiction for Grown Ups?
Depending on where you live inside the publishing world...
You are in a time of great opportunity or
famine or change or growth or decline
or flux or... business as usual.
After the Digital Book World conference last week, where the
Neilson figures were discussed, people are still trying to figure out whether
they should be happy or sad.
Porter Anderson takes a close look at the figures for print and ebook and what sells... and a nice surprising figure came out... the growth
of Juvenile Non Fiction (print). Makes recent NZ publishing house closures look
premature.
Publishing Technology breaks down some Neilson figures and finds that ebook success and adult fiction success are intertwined.
Philip Jones of The Bookseller compares the UK and US figures and looks at the main conclusions, one of which is that the book
industry is not dependent on the e-reader being sold at Christmas, it is now an
everyday item... not a game changer.
Moving away from number crunching these great posts caught
my eye.
Rachelle Gardner on the Imposter Syndrome- yes every writer
suffers this.
Why writers don’t write sometimes... This post highlights
the writer’s life now.
Publishers Weekly has a breakdown on Self Publishing success in 2015 (I thinks this makes Self Publishers legit now.)
Porter Anderson takes a look at the annual author survey DBW
always releases at their conference. Last year was full of controversy...this
year was all about Author ROI (Return On Investment) Is it worth it? (great comments!)
Joanna Penn has another brilliant interview and learns a great tip for Email lists and newsletters.
Over on Copyblogger Johnny and Sean do a quick breakdown of a publishing funnel (Get their Book!)
The magnificent Kris Rusch has a brilliant post on business speaking to all those Authors with backlists... and her stellar partner Dean Wesley Smith has a great post about failure being an option. (Bookmark both!)
12 x 12 is open (1 month only) for all those people interested
in writing Picture Books. Such is the popularity that Julie's site broke after
the first day... Every year I say to myself I must have a go... alas I’m still
trying to take back 2014.
In the Craft Section,
In the Marketing Section,
Website Of The Week.
The One Hundred Best Websites for Writers has been announced.
Regular readers will see many sites that I often refer
to...Congratulations to Janice and Katherine and Rachelle and Dean and Joanna
and Elizabeth and Debi and Jami and James and Angela and Becca and Jane and
Joanna and Kristen and Casey and Michael and Joel and Chuck and....
To Finish,
Chuck has a new ramble about making Art in 2015 (definitely
comes with warnings...) It strikes a chord with me as I wrestle with conference
timetables and budgets. Every two years we get a chance to throw ourselves
wholesale into this creative art business, try to understand it, up skill in it
and get inspired at our National Conference. I’m doing my best to make it
worthwhile coming to.
maureen
Pic from Flickr/Creative Commons -Mervyn Chua
