Reading: It’s all in the mind

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

The Writer’s Strike is over (provisionally.)

Many Film and TV writers are hailing this as a landmark ruling for the way it is putting constraints on the use of AI in their industry. As the news filters out, everyone is eager to look at the terms and commenting on why the networks and producers only started to negotiate 10 days ago. 

 

The Atlantic published a search database you can use to see whether your books have been scraped to train an AI. Many writers have discovered their whole catalogue on there. SSF writers have been especially hard hit. But today I learned an academic family member had two of her textbooks scraped. The Authors Guild has got their lawyers onto it and have published a template take down notice as well as a What To Do Now statement.

 

Meanwhile, in other AI news the AI industry is looking for poets or anyone who has an MFA to teach their AI’s how to write lyrical language. 

 

There is a publishing world outside the western centric one. Nairobi is about to have their International Book Fair and they have added a rights market into their programme. Guests are coming from around the world. Publishing Perspectives looks at what is on offer.

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard takes a look at the new sales pot for Kindle Unlimited and compares it to the Print figures which have been sliding.

 

Staying with Amazon, the book business applauded when the Federal Trade Commission of the United States began an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. Take 17 state attorneys and 172 pages and stir in the words “uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power” and you get a lawsuit that will take years to unravel. At least it’s a start.

 

You have finished the book and now you have to edit it. Where do you start? Kobo has the answer. How to edit your first draft.

 

Kris Rusch is a power house and there is nothing in publishing that she has not done. The big chat around the Indie publishing community is owning your own store and selling there first before going out to the online distributors. This week she talks about merchandise and all things store related with the launch of her first series store. Take a look and have your mind blown.

 

When an Indie Press ceases to be, it makes the publishing world a little gloomier. Louise Walters writes about the hard decision to shut her press and her thoughts on why Indie Presses need more love from bookshops.

 

Are you struggling with Social Media? Ambre Leffler has an interesting post on managing your energy and your posts.

 

Have you been asked to Beta read or are you wondering about how to set up parameters for your Beta readers. Jae from Sapphicquill has a great checklist for authors to use.

If you just need a reason to read, check out Molly Templeton’s 21 thoughts about reading habits.

 

The Bookbub website is chock full of interesting articles on writing and marketing books . This week they have a comprehensive 140 tips for book marketing from AJ Lee

 

In The Craft Section,

3 ways to use Theme to deepen your story- Sharon Skinner

Changing the hero’s goal- Michael Hauge- Bookmark

Tropes as a jumping off point- Richard Thomas- Bookmark

Tips for writing a character that you hate- Sue Coletta

Transition sentences- Ruth Harris- Bookmark 

Using Description- Kathy Steinemann

 

In The Marketing Section,

2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri 7 creative ways to boost local book sales and

Holding book events in non-traditional venues- Bookmark

Identifying the 5 core ideas of your book- Judith Briles-Bookmark

3 design secrets for captivating book ads- Teresa Conner-Bookmark

How to glo up your Instagram- Lara Ferrari

 

To Finish,

Every year The Alliance of Independent Authors run 3 virtual 24 hour conferences. Each of these conferences are themed around a different skillset for authors and are filled with a wealth of information. The next conference is on Mindset. They have a great line up of speakers well known in the author community. (Spot the Kiwis.)

Sign up. It’s free. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Jaredd Craig on Unsplash

Trudging Forward

It’s April already?
How did that happen? 
I feel like I’m sludging through treacle at the moment. One foot in front of the other battling forward on the twisty road to getting another book out. If you battle imposter syndrome... read this timely post. 

I’m finally catching up with the fabulous content from the Alli 24 hour conference. Check out Adam Croft’s video on spreadsheets or just trawl around the conference blog and dip into great things.

Mark Williams from The New Publishing Standard has an interesting post this week on where China sits in the overall publishing world... This makes fascinating reading.

The Guardian published a plaintive piece about Aussie publishing professionals being paid poorly. It wouldn’t happen here... ( of course not... never crossed my mind... oh look a flying pig...)

Bookbaby has a post on 8 ways to reach readers through mobile marketing this week. Some cool resources in here including a free app builder.

Lit Reactor is singing the praises of Bookstagrammers and Writer Unboxed is examining which features you really need in Scrivener.  William Hahn has a great guest post on Anne R Allen's blog on sneaky world building in your manuscript.

Joanna Penn recently had a great podcast with Damon Suede about jazzing up your words. It’s an instant injection of word energy. 

In The Craft Section,

Pulling weeds from the writer garden- Laura Zimmerman

How to write a book in 8 steps- Leigh Shulman

Character vs Plot -Drive vs Focus- Jami Gold- Bookmark

What does your hero want- Michael Hauge- Bookmark

How do you show age?- Janice Hardy

5 ways to use theme to create character arc- K M Weiland- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Author brand protection- Bookworks

Use book excerpts to promote your book- Bookbaby

Content themes for blogging- Blogging wizard- Bookmark

10 ways to get reviews for your book- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Bookmarketing – The five foundations- Alli Conference video-Bookmark

To Finish,

Kris Rusch has an interesting post on outrage fatigue. Another day, another instance of clueless writers being scammed. This time it’s Indie Press dubious practice. Write for us (flat fee paid- lose your IP.) This is especially horrible when it’s your world creation you are giving up. If you are contemplating a ghostwriting deal be very clear on what and why you are doing it.

Maureen
@craicer

In my monthly newsletter, which is really late… I have a story to tell tho… I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. I appreciate virtual coffee love so if you like the blog hit the coffee button up top. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Goproo3

Crimes or Opportunities

Down Under it is Summer and everyone is hunting shade or staring at unusual weather phenomena. This week in the publishing blogosphere many authors in the Northern Hemisphere were getting hot and bothered for a different reason.

Author Sherilyn Kenyon was in the news for all the wrong reasons this week. Reading like a plot from a novel, poor Sherilyn was in court as the victim of poisoning... in a crime of passion. Many writers wouldn’t have used this plot device because of the cliche nature... but in real life...

What do you call it when someone scans your book, creates a PDF, and shares it around?
What if that someone was a library?  Do the same rules apply? The library says no. They are sharing information. The Authors Guild and the Society of Authors (UK) say... Cease and desist or we bring in the lawyers. Who is in the right? This is an interesting case given that author incomes have been falling lately.

Hot on the heels of this story comes a timely post on Jane Friedman’s site from author and intellectual property lawyer, Brad Frazer about the Public Domain. Every year on January 1st new works enter the public domain... If you are hazy on what it means... read this very interesting post. (I’m off to find my Kahlil Gibran... there are some merch opportunities...)

Longtime readers will know how interested I am in co-operative publishing. I keep saying that the model is a smart way of working. Sri Lankan data science author, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, has a fascinating post on this popular publishing model (think James Patterson) and the increasing dominance of Indies in this area lately.

Two fabulous podcasts caught my ear this week. No surprises one of them was Joanna Penn interviewing Paul Jarvis on how to effectively be a Company of One. This is a great interview on being in business by yourself. The other was the latest episode from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marking podcast. If you haven’t caught any of their shows you are missing out. The team interviews great guests about real marketing ideas every week. This week they chatted among themselves about all the different tools they use (and why) to conduct their various author empires.

Jami Gold has a great post on the aftermath of the move to KDP from Createspace. If you were waiting for the dust to settle to find out what the problems are this is the post for you!

Kris Ruch continues her excellent series on what to watch out for in 2019. This week she turns her laser eyes onto all the recent mergers in publishing. There were a few that slipped in over the Christmas break that will be quietly unsettling the industry in the next few months.

Mike Shatzkin has been down under recently... (he wandered through my home town this week.) While down under he popped into Lightning Spark – Ingram's print on demand printer arm, to see what they were doing. Eyes were opened. Mike is a publishing futurist commentator. He has a few things to say about where publishing and POD might head in 2019 especially for Aussie and Kiwi publishers.

Rachel Thompson has a list of ten excellent books for writers... there are a few I haven’t heard of which look very interesting- however one book she missed was The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. (The book that started their publishing empire...) They have updated it. This is a great writing craft resource book. Jami Gold got her hands on an ARC and she is wowed with all the new updates!

In The Craft Section,

All about subplots!- Elizabeth Spann Craig – Bookmark!

What does your hero want? Michael Hauge- Bookmark

How do I get the main character involved with the plot?- Mythcrants

What to do when there is no bad guy- Janice Hardy

Courting the modern muse with Tarot- Writers In the Storm

In The Marketing Section,

7 steps to build your brand from scratch- KevinTumlinson- Bookmark

10 great strategies to monetise an author event- Janice Hardy-Bookmark

How to get going with mailchimp and email marketing and Pinterest for writers- Frances Caballo

Are you losing money on KDP Delivery fees- Bookmark

To Finish

Katie Davis has a guest post over on Anne R Allen’s blog about that terrible writer syndrome... Procrastination. This afflicts many writers and there are many causes of this terrible disease. Katie outlines some of the reasons why you might be suffering this and what to do about it. (Summer holidays anyone?)

Maureen
@craicer

In my monthly newsletter, coming soon, I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee- hit the coffee button up top. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Benny 457

On A Pedestal

I wondered if I should make a comment about the revelations in the children’s literature community this week. At first I thought No but as the ripples have become king tides I thought that people might wonder why there is no reference to this weeks biggest story in publishing. Children’s writers are human. They are put on a pedestal as special guiders of behaviour, decorum and models of decency for 'they influence children'. You want to know that the books they write have no hidden fish hooks and are wholesome enough to give to young developing minds. (Teachers also get these labels.) Most children’s writers are women. (SCBWI figures put it at 9 out of 10) The males often have the added burden of having to write specifically for boys to encourage them to read. This makes them more likely to speak at conferences and festivals and libraries. Women writers are working just as hard to lift boys reading rates but they are often asked to change their name or ghost write or use initials to make their stories palatable to a male audience. They don’t get the same level of invites. (As for POC, they are often invisible.) So this week to have a major news story about the sexual abuse meted out to women in the children’s literature community felt like a body blow. Publishers Weekly tried to take a calm tone... but now the stories are being confirmed and corroborated and Agents are distancing themselves or dumping clients. A good reminder to writers that everything you do is in the public eye and if you fall off your pedestal you don’t just hit the ground... you bury yourself in a huge crater of snakes and molten lava is poured on top.

In other news.

Joel Friedlander of The Book Designer has been looking at the nuts and bolts of print publishing for a long time. He is seeing a shift in the way authors are now viewing print and he has some advice about when you should consider using offset printers instead of Print On Demand.

Has Instagram saved poetry?  Publishers Weekly seems to think so. I wonder if the Poets agree?  I bet if Byron was around now he’d be on Instagram...

Anne R Allen has a guest post on her blog this week from a creative writing teacher. I had to laugh when I read it... this fits exactly what friends who are writing teachers have to contend with. Read and weep with laughter.

Joanna Penn interviewed Becca Puglisi about the latest thesaurus – Emotional Wounds This is a great interview.  You should check out the book too.

In another writing craft interview Michael Hauge and Will Smith talk about the four must haves in storytelling. (Yes, that Will Smith)

In The Craft Section,

Master list of story development skills- Jami Gold- BOOKMARK!

How to introduce characters and Movement and action in dialogue-2 great posts from Now Novel-

Bookmark Both!

Banish interruptions in your writing time and Writing introspection- Writers Helping Writers  guest 

posts from Colleen Story and September Fawkes- Bookmark

How fan fiction helps your writing- Mythic Scribes

Trusting your process- Lauren Sapala –Interesting essay

In The Marketing Section,

8 ways to tell if your site has been hacked- Digital Reader- Bookmark

65 book marketing ideas- Mark Coker- Brand new FREE updated book from Smashwords founder. (Mark has been podcasting sections of this book this year.) Grab it!

Finding and researching agents step by step

Avoid Book Marketing traps –Penny Sansevieri Bookmark

Author Platform Cheat sheet- Bookmark

To Finish,

Valentines day was this week. Have you ever thought of writing a book with your life partner? Alli interviews husband and wife team Charlotte Zang and Alex Knudson about how they make it work.

This week Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi celebrated ten years of The Emotion Thesaurus... AKA The Bookshelf Muse. Ten years and six plus books later they are the must have authors on your writing desk. Angela and Becca have a special message to all their fans. Congratulations Team! (Raising a glass for your next 10!)

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes.  If you want to shout me a coffee, just hit the coffee button on the top right. Thanks.

Pic Flickr Creative Commons- Christopher Michel

Ramesseum in Egypt. The Ozymandias Colossus:

I met a traveller from an antique land, 

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, 

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, 

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, 

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; 

And on the pedestal, these words appear: 

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; 

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! 

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare 

The lone and level sands stretch far away.” - Shelley

Present and Future Plans

We are rapidly coming to the end of the year. Thoughts turn to finishing up projects before Christmas, the ideal Christmas presents and what projects to start 2018 with.

In the publishing blogosphere Patreon decided this week that increasing charges to people who were only paying a small sum to artists was the way to position themselves for the coming year. They could not have got it more wrong. Artists value their Patrons. Most creative’s have a lot of small donor patrons. These people often support many artists by sharing a couple of dollars a month around a lot of people. It all adds up. The backlash was swift. Patreon realised its blunder today. However the whole experience has left a sour taste in many peoples mouths.

Mark Coker of Smashwords has begun a podcast. He has launched with a few episodes that everyone is talking favorably about. If you listen to podcasts about the writing business you should check it out.

Rachel Thompson has a post about the end of year clean up of your Social Media. Just what does this kind of clean up entail? Rachel lists all the things you should be thinking about with the different social media accounts.

Publishers Weekly reported on the Global Kids Connect panelheld in New York last week. What is selling globally at the moment? Trends were discussed and predictions made...

Orna Ross examines the role of the entrepreneur and discovers that being an author ticks all the boxes. However there are some mindset adjustments for authors. Do you believe in yourself?

Kris Rusch has a great blog post on Sustainability. Are you prepared for it? Do you know what it looks like to sustain a career over the long haul? This is a must read post.

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Andy Bromley on selling print books through Ingram and why what they do is so interesting. (P.S. You can always find a discount code to use so it won’t cost you anything.)

The wonderful Tara Sparling has a great post on the 12 days of Christmas for writers except that hers deals with the 12 writing cliches. This is a read and must share with your writing buddies.

Christmas presents for authors... I go into my local stationery shop and spend ages in the journal and pens section... filing boxes are so pretty... Can I justify a new desk... Dream about an office... Build Book Buzz has a list of gifts for readers and writers... and check out thisgift guide from the Millions website... of course you need book wallpaper.

Some bright spark has compiled all of J K Rowling’s writing advice. It's good advice too

In The Craft Section,

Story Immersion – Improve your reader’s experience- Jefferson Smith- Bookmark

Q & A on Coming of Age stories- Michael Hauge- Bookmark

Mastering Showing vs Telling- Meg Latorre Snyder Bookmark

The power of writing groups- Writer Unboxed- Bookmark

Piller 2 for the writer – Mentoring- Art Holcomb- Bookmark

Adapting a novel into a screenplay- Alex Bloom- Bookmark

Digging Into Deep Revision- Beth Camp- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

640 killer Book Marketing ideas... Bookmark

How to find your ideal audience- Kimberley Grabas

Creative ways to boost reader engagement- Bookbub- Bookmark

How to sell more paperbacks in December- Selfpublishing Advice blog

36 best blogs on the business of writing- The Digital Reader

eBook distribution- Reedsy

10 major areas Authors must focus on- BookMarketing Buzz- Bookmark

To Finish,

Book Covers... They make or break your book. I always try to drop into Joel Friedlander’s Book Cover Monthly Design Awards

Lindsey Vontz from 99 designs has a look at the Top trends in Book Covers for 2018. Typography is the in thing... Lets go crazy with font...

And while we are playing with letters... Take a look at this Fantasy Pseudonym Name Generator...

You could plan a whole writing career for a pseudonym over the Christmas break....

Maureen

@craicer

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces every month. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. My last newsletter for the year is coming soon. It’s Christmas lucky dip time!

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Just Album

https://www.flickr.com/photos/justdigital/13984474798/in/photolist-niL69s-7MG5UL-

Catching Our Breath

November Halfway...

I told myself this year I would do it... and I started with good intentions... and I have over 10,000 words done... but it has been a struggle. Anne R Allen’s blog post on Why NaNoWriMo is liberating for some writers and dangerous for others was a welcome breath of sanity this week.

The Traditional Publishing Industry is also breathing a sigh of relief. They have had an increase in sales over the last quarter and there is still Christmas gift giving to come.

Nate Hoffelder mentioned on Twitter today that to combat scammers Google went to manually up loading books. This shut out new authors from selling their books through Google Play but there is a small light shining amongst the angst of Pronoun shutting down...

Joanna Penn has had an amazing run of great content on her podcast this month. But her latest podcast demands serious attention... She detailed the discussion topics at the Oregon Coast Business for Authorsworkshop. Indie publishing has stabilised but the next disruption is coming down the track...

Belinda Griffin has a guest post on Joanna’s Blog that takes an in depth look at Author Brand. If you have ever wondered exactly what it is and why authors need to understand it ... this is the post for you.

Agent Kristin Nelson wrote this week about the perils of the Hollywood buy in on your book... because Hollywood wants to own the novelisation rights... um

Kris Ruch has written a knockout post on letting other voices into your head to screw with your writing... namely fame and fans. This is a must read post for every writer but especially for those writing series.

The 7 Secrets of Power Persuasion Writing for writers. Are you using the right emotional hooks in your writing?

In The Craft Section,

A cheats guide to writing a synopsis

Make characters distinct- Michael Hauge – Bookmark

4 questions to jumpstart your novel

15 questions to send Beta readers- Bookmark

Story Structure in 5 minutes and How to complete a series- Write To Done

How to write characters unlike you- Now Novel

How to pick the right editor- Lisa Polisso- Bookmark

Giving your character inner conflict- M J Bush- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section

How to stage an author portrait

Gumroad for authors- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Ways authors can cross promote- Bookbub- Bookmark

Designing covers in 5 minutes- Nate Hoffelder

Authentic Personal Brands for Authors- Writelife

Content Marketing- Bookmark

SFF Marketing Podcast- Newsletters- A Serious Must Watch!

How to talk about your book – Paul Geiger- Bookmark

To Finish,

In my list of One-day-I-want-to-own-these-books... is a book on Writing Imaginative Fiction – Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer. I was excited to see the lecture notes of a workshop by Jeff on the Electric Literature site.  This is one of those Read, think about, read again posts... and the illustrations are just wonderful!

A nice pick me up in the middle of November.

Maureen

@craicer

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces every month. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. Feel free to hit the coffee tab. I’m living on it this month!

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Sage Solar

Global Fears and Solutions

This week seemed to be a global focus week.

Is there a books market outside of the UK and the USA and assorted countries that speak English?

Why Yes.

How do we know?

Because Amazon thinks so.

This week Amazon made moves into South East Asia... Alibaba,the East’s version of Amazon, is not amused.

Neither is India’s publishing and book trade. Suddenly they have less book shops than they did before.

Where Amazon goes so do Indie publishers. But how do you price for the market in the East? There are so many currencies?

This week Publish Drive talked about pricing books in South East Asia and what Indies need to bear in mind if they enter this part of the world.

Smashwords introduced Global Pricing. Now you can tweak each countries book price. They have made some changes to their dashboard too.

Jane Friedman takes a snapshot of the publishing industry at the moment. Is there a resurgence in Print books? Just how much of the eBook market does Amazon have?

The Guardian printed an interesting article by Y.A. author Meg Rosoff on the point of Fairy Tales. This is a rebuttal to Richard Dawkins and the government and the push to only make education fact based. This has seen a decline in the funding of the arts in tertiary education and beyond. Do we really need fairytales?

Sarah Moore has written an interesting post on nipping your creative fear in the bud. Just what do you have to be scared of?

OK 

Now how do you manage that fear?

Anne R Allen has been writing up a storm on her blog with two great posts recently.

Do podcasts sell books? There are some great publishing focused podcasts out there and I try to listen to one most days. It makes me feel productive when I’m taking a screen break. Also professional development also...  If you haven’t dipped in to one yet, you are missing out!*

The use of pop ups on authors sites is getting ridiculous. Anne asks is it time to kill the pop up?

Bang2Write have a beautiful Infographic on 12 unusual and achievable productivity hacks for authors. This is a print out and put on your wall post!

The Write Life takes a look at that deep fear of authors. What happens if I lose my work?

Here are some solutions you can implement straight away.

In The Craft Section,

10 tips for writing characters with anxiety- Hannah Heath

Mastering outer motivation- Michael Hauge- Bookmark

Why strong dialogue matters

What should the story climax include- Jami Gold – Bookmark

Systemic sabotage of aspiring novelists- Larry Brooks- Bookmark

Writing Romance fight scenes-Now Novel

7 questions to ask when you lose the desire to finish- Denise Jaden

6 rules to keep critique partnerships golden

Writing an outline- Tasha Seegmiller-Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

5 reasons to be a social media minimalist- Chris Syme- Bookmark

The relaxed release- Elisabeth S Craig

Ebook checklist before uploading- Digital Book World- Bookmark

3 unconventional ways to use social media to find readers- Dan Blank

Two great posts from Kevin Tumlinson on the Draft2Digital blog, 10 sneaky hacks and Making yourself a brand.

To Finish,

This week in an online writers group the discussion turn to Authors selling Merch. I had a sudden vision of an author selling table filled with knick knacks. Somewhere in amongst the jumble of author branded merch on the table was the lone book that inspired it all. (Rather like our big brand bookstore....) Then one author said take a look at this... and we all said OOOOH. A whole different level of Merch for authors...

Maureen

@craicer

* Kiwi author Nalini Singh was on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing podcast this week. One of our publishing rockstars!

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces every month in a newsletter. When you subscribe you will also get my nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. The blog runs on coffee fumes. If you want to say thanks feel free to hit the coffee tab. My brain says Thanks!
 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Guilhem Vellut