In Publishing News this week...
The fall out from the Hugo Award controversy has continued (see last week) and now members of the committee have been pushed out the airlock. Locus Magazine has the news release on who and why the award committee members have got the chop.
Gobbling up smaller publishers is still a menu item. Publishers Weekly reports Greenleaf partnering with Wonderwell. Partnering implies equal status … No. If you read between the lines they’ve dumped everyone, kept the name and boss to ‘run’ the imprint and terminated the authors.
Goodereader has an interesting article on Spotify paying tens of millions to audiobook publishers. Everybody is waiting for someone to announce they got paid from Spotify streaming their audiobooks. Any numbers? Is it worth it? Mark Williams has his usual acerbic take on whether Spotify is good for publishing- If it takes chunks out of Audible he is all for it. Meanwhile, Audible and Storytel are tightening belts.
Lithub comes out on the side of Lana Bastašić who had a blistering response to a German Literary Festival dropping her letting over comments about the war in Gaza. They reprint the letters in full. Ouch!
Simon and Schuster are celebrating 100 years in the business. In 1924 they started with a crossword puzzle book to take advantage of the puzzle craze sweeping the world. They are profiling the most influential books they have published in 100 years. (Their founder, Richard Simon also gave the world Carly Simon - So they can be vain this once.)
Debbie Burke reminds us there is always more to learn about publishing, right when you think you know it all. Elizabeth Craig has a great article on Keeping up with Writing and Business. You can’t have one without the other so figure out how to use your time. She has great tips.
Sue Coletta has a great article on Mindset- writing is like turning an elephant…
Ruth Harris has an interesting article on Sex. When should it be used? Is it overused? Should you just leave the door closed?
In The Craft Section,
How to write Fantasy Characters- Krystal Craiker- Bookmark
Picture Book Critique questions- Mindy Weiss
Characterize with clothing choices- Becca Puglisi
How to generate powerful story conflict- Angel Ackerman- Bookmark
How to show emotion in characters who hide their feelings- Eldred Bird- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
Improve your book rank by updating book descriptions- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark
5 key areas to check to boost sales- Top Author
7 simple steps to start building your brand- Chase Neely
Book marketing overwhelm- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark
Back cover copy formula – Sue Coletta - Bookmark
To Finish,
Recently Draft2Digital hosted a heavy hitters podcast looking at the publishing world of 2023 and forward into 2024. Mark Coker, Orna Ross, Jane Friedman, Joanna Penn and Dale Roberts all shared their thoughts about the big things to think about in publishing and the changes occurring. Joanna termed 2024 as Year Zero. It’s a great podcast to get you thinking about your writing and publishing career going forward.
Maureen
@craicer
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Pic Photo by Joppe Spaa on Unsplash
