In Publishing News this week,
The Internet Archive is back in the news again with the appeals court handing down their verdict. The archive wanted to scan eBooks and make print copies of them. They didn’t see a problem with it because they were nonprofit. This week the appeals court upheld the decision against Internet Archive. Four years in the courts and now we have the definitive ruling on Fair Use (Don’t publish in another format- when you aren’t the publisher of record.)
Also in the courts, writers, students, and teachers protesting the book banning law passed in Florida. High profile Young Adult writers have joined this action claiming censorship is happening in schools.
NaNoWriMo.org has found itself in hot water over their stance on AI. Many writers have been vitriolic about their stance that denying the use of AI tools is Classist and Abelist. The Verge looks at the arguments.
Mark Williams looks at Wiley’s windfall of $44mill and their claim of operating in the best interests of their authors by seeking AI deals. It’s all about the money.
Draft2Digital is dipping its toes in the AI ocean but before they make any big decisions they are asking their authors to fill out a survey on AI. Dan Holloway of the Alliance of Independent Authors has the lowdown on what they want to know.
Publishers Weekly reports that the team behind the successful Black List, film screenplay market place, are looking at expanding to novels. If you think your novel would make a great film but you don’t know where to start- The Black List could be the solution.
Don’t Forget to check into Writer Beware every now and then to find out the latest scams. Lately there has been a proliferation of fake literary agencies.
A few years ago, I gave a speech on what may be coming down the track for authors. I mentioned blockchain. Hardly anyone understood it and many have confused it with bitcoin but blockchain is still around. In these days of trying to track down what AI is scraping your work, blockchain could be the answer. The founder of Raddish thinks so and has set up a company with over $80 million in the pot to prove it.
Rob Hart wrote an interesting blog post on his successful writing career and what happened when his publisher dropped him because his book didn’t sell amazingly, just pretty good. This is an honest look at being a writer in the publishing industry. Those amazing deals aren’t always wonderful for the writer.
What do you do if you lose track changes? Kelley Segroi has a great article on Women On Writing’s nifty little blog with handy tips on managing your documents.
KimBoo York has an interesting article on Jane Friedman’s blog about Creative Intuition. She mentions that Creative Intuition is knowing the trope and subverting it. It’s a great article with helpful tips on developing this super power.
Donald Maass has a super post over at Writer Unboxed about character and character driven stories. This is a must read on what propels your character to action.
In The Craft Section,
The missing link in 3 act structure- Lisa Poisso- Bookmark
Story Structure Midpoint- K M Weiland – Bookmark
Hook lines and stinkers- P J Parrish- Bookmark
Common POV violations- C S Lakin- Bookmark
Tips for writing physical comedy- Charles Yallowitz
In The Marketing Section,
Building a website- Bookbub- Bookmark
5 reasons for book endorsements- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark
10 ways to market a book- Rachel Thompson
3 free marketing strategies- Draft2Digital
How to write an awesome personalized query letter- Tiffany Hawk- Bookmark
To Finish,
I try to keep up with my podcast listening but sometimes when life gets super busy I end up skipping episodes. I did this with Joanna Penn’s podcast a few weeks back and then I heard that the episode was getting a lot of attention so I hunted down the transcript (Thanks Joanna for always doing a transcript) to A Touch of Madness- Joanna Penn talking to film maker Larry Kasanoff. What a standout episode! This touches on creativity and taking chances and is so inspiring. If you need a creative pick me up or even if you don’t… take a chance and listen/read this. Our best work comes from being in touch with our creative madness.
Maureen
@craicer
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Pic: Photo by laura adai on Unsplash
