Is It A Lemon?

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The unleashing of the AI monsters have many in publishing concerned. Two stories caught my eye and left me feeling faintly sick. It was predicted but seeing these things blatantly promoted is confronting. 

A publishing startup/ tech company has decided to disrupt publishing (why?) by using AI to help edit, polish, and sell books. Spines reckon they could publish 8000 books a year with this model. If you give them $5000 you will get their personal attention. 

If you have $5000 – pay for a decent editor and cover and do it yourself.

Following on from this was the wonderful idea of taking out of print classics and getting AI to write new forwards and repackage them for sale. Slate has an in depth article exposing one Get Rich Quick scheme to teach you how to do this. This is problematic if you don’t check where the AI is scraping its content from. You could be breaching all sorts of copyright with university presses or believing the outright lies that AI likes to spin. (N.B. AI is not a super intelligent version of an encyclopedia which has been vetted for veracity.) 

Get Rich Quick publishing schemes have been around forever and using AI is just the latest twist of lemon in the publishing cocktail. Often these schemes are a front for a scam or are morally dubious. 

If you care about producing quality work with your name on it, stay away from them.

 

In audio publishing news, Spotify announced a deal with Bloomsbury. It looks like Spotify are approaching traditional publishers and gobbling up direct deals. Amazon has quickly moved to offer more audio choice. Spotify want to be all things audible… can Amazon compete with this? Mark Williams takes a look at the seismic shift happening with Spotify.

 

The New York University’s Advanced Publishing Institute 5 day conference is open for registration. If you have a spare $5000 you can attend in January. Publishing Perspectives has a quick overview of one of the talks that will be given by Penguin Random House on Shifting Consumer Tastes in Social Media. They hope to give tangible advice on this and other thorny problems to the attendees. For that amount of money it will have to be gold plated!

 

Publishers Weekly is releasing some of the talks from Frankfurt. This interesting article caught my eye by Ed Nawotka on the explosion of AI startups dedicated to the publishing industry.

 

If you follow Taylor Swift you might have heard that she has a book coming out based around her Era’s tour. If you are in publishing you might be surprised that she has not partnered with any publisher. She has the money and the clout and the fan base to be successful without a publisher backing her. However, not all celebrity books do well. The Atlantic looks at how she might upend the model and will there be room for a traditional publishing partnership down the trail.

 

The biggest author publishing conference happened in Las Vegas this month. Written Word Media put together a takeaways article about the trends and issues that were discussed at Vegas. Collaboration is King. 

Derek Murphy ( Creativ Indie) shares his slide show presentation and talks about Authentic Creativity As A Response To Artificial Intelligence.

Back in the day when Twitter was young and had no inkling of what a new owner might do, the publishing world flocked to the social media site. Then things changed. Publishing industry folks left for other pastures and it became harder to get back the tribe you used to have. Bluesky has spent the last week adding almost a million users a day and the publishing industry people started to flock together. Rachel Thompson takes a look at whether Bluesky will work for writers. 

 

Darcy Pattison has put together an excellent article on how to take a rights released book from Traditional Publishing and give it a whole new lease of life. Those books that didn’t get their series finished or didn’t find their audience don’t have to be consigned to the dustbin.

If you are struggling with NaNoWriMo this month you are not alone. Elinor Florence writes on Jane Friedman’s blog about how she got through the train wreck of her own NaNoWriMo project.  

In The Craft Section,

Going deeper with characterization- Lisa Hall Wilson- Bookmark

Balancing your cast of characters- September Fawkes

Don’t tie your story up in a neat bow- P J Parrish- Bookmark

How to write great dialogue- C S Lakin- Bookmark

What is your characters wounding event- Sue Coletta

 

In the Marketing Section,

Is your target readership meaningful to agents and publishers- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

5 essential steps to maximise your books success-Written Word Media- Bookmark

Social Media engagement- a how to from Hootsuite- Comprehensive

What to do when book sales start slipping- Thomas Umstattd- Bookmark

Turbocharging book sales with preorders- Mark Coker

 

To Finish

It’s Black Friday this week and there are deals galore for writers out there. You can check out Dave Chesson’s huge list of deals. 

If you are thinking about  Christmas/ Holiday gifts check out Sandra Beckwith’s big list of goodies designed for writers.

Infostack have their big bundle of writer resources on sale again.

Yes, It’s that time of the year already. The Credit Card Crunch!

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Pic Photo by Tirza van Dijk on Unsplash

Who Are You?

In Publishing News this week,

 

Publishing Perspectives reports on the arrest of the International Publishing Association’s Prix Voltaire laureate Sihem Bensedrine. Sihem received the Priz Voltaire for her work on the Tunisian Truth and Dignity commission following Tunisia’s 2010 revolution. Now Tunisia is arresting her for it. Giving a voice to victims’ truth is always going to be unpopular for governments. How they deal with it tells you all you need to know about the people in power.

 

Last year the use of AI in the publishing community signaled plaintive cries that the sky was falling from publishers, authors and industry commentators.

This year the publishing community is looking to make money off AI in all sorts of forms.

The latest to take up the AI money spinner are the audiobook producers and the academic publishers. 

This week Audible announced a beta trial of AI powered search for audiobooks. This follows last weeks announcement from Scribd that they are Beta testing an AI search programme for their subscribers for ebooks and audiobooks.

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard looks at how academic publishers are quietly embracing money in return for letting AI companies have access to their books.

But will the money trickle down to the authors?

 

Various national copyright agencies are wrestling with the AI copyright problem. In the U.S. the copyright office has released the first part of a big report on AI. You may remember the writer’s strike last year which highlighted the dubious nature of AI copyright in producing scripts. The calls to tighten up laws around copyright are getting louder.

 

Amazon’s KDP are making some big changes. Dan Holloway reports on the rollout of Identity Verification requests for authors and publishers. It’s another way to limit the scammers. (Why did it take this long?)

 

Gizmodo reports on Colin Kaepernick’s new venture, Lumi. It is raising eyebrows and blood pressure levels in the comic book world. 

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has just published a comprehensive article on all things AI for authors which I recommend reading to get some more information of what you can and can’t do. It’s here to stay you may as well learn about it.

 

The beauty of having a physical book is that you own it, you can read it at any time, make notes in it, or get it signed by the author. With digital products you don’t get that physical ownership feeling. Eleven years ago, I covered the launch of Enthrill. Their great idea was eBook cards as a physical product you could buy and gift to someone. Enthrill got bought and sold, swallowed up and disappeared. This week a new company has got the great idea to produce physical audiobook cards which contain a QR code to get your audiobook.

 

Allison Williams writes on Jane Friedman’s blog about the platform authors need now and it isn’t Social Media. This is an interesting article about showing up and practicing the 3 P’s.

 

Donald Maass asks a provocative question. Have you ever been reading a novel and asked yourself “Why should I care?” and then realized that you don’t.

He writes about flaws that sometimes elicits this reaction and where writers have made us care and why.

 

Katie Weiland has another super post on structure. She takes a deep dive into the inciting incident and how it shapes the story.

 

In The Craft Section,

7 tips to make your antihero stand out- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

The most important thing to include in your story- Angela Ackerman

Your characters crucial inner conflict- C S Lakin- Bookmark

Backstory options for dual storylines- Jami Gold

4 questions to strengthen lean manuscripts- Lisa Fellinger- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

7 ways to promote your book on Goodreads- Rob Bignell

Securing Book Sales- Brian Feinblum- Bookmark

2 great posts from Roland Denzel- selling books with email and what you can learn from movie stars- Bookmark

Grabbing great blurbs- Carolyn Howard- Johnson

 

To Finish

Who do you write for? This question has no wrong answers, or does it? 

P J Parrish was asked this question on a panel which then highlighted different authors understanding of who their audience was and why they write.

It’s a great article on the power of your own voice and thoughts, and why this might be what your audience needs.

 

Maureen

@craicer

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Photo by Rock'n Roll Monkey on Unsplash

Tricky Questions. Big Consequences.

This week everyone in publishing has been talking about whether the Book Fairs are on or off or postponed or delayed or canceled altogether.

With restrictions on movement and fears about Covid19 and a potential pandemic, the Book Fair season is looking shaky.

Bologna, the biggest children’s book fair has been postponed until May 4^th-7^th. 

London is going ahead but organisers are noting there will be restrictions in place and a smaller fair. There are still going to be plenty of good discussion along with lots of hand sanitiser. LBF are warning about shaking hands. 

With the postponement of major book fairs, there is a knock-on effect happening. May looks like it will be very busy with make-up book fairs. Already publishers are delaying publication because they can’t get books printed in China in time as restrictions on movement slows down the industry.

Ingram Spark are tightening up the rules on what gets printed through them. In their sights are Indie Publishers with badly copied PDF’s, journals with blank pages and anything they think looks dodgy like workbooks. This could catch writers on the hop especially those who publish reading copies and workbooks to go with their books

Jami Gold has a quick rundown on the RWA where we are now report which was just released. Can something rise from the ashes? The bulk of Jami’s post is on how to cope with disappointment. Do you use it to spur yourself on or wallow with chocolate cake?

Kris Rusch has a great post on challenging your comfort zone. Have you been writing the same old thing, book after book? When did you last live on the edge creatively?

Ruth Harris has an excellent post on the five mental traps that the writer can get caught up in. Yes, your writing brain is out to sabotage you. How can you recognize the signs? 

Fae Rowen sat down and wrote a list of things she wanted to achieve in her writing in the next decade. They all have to do with craft. This is a great list to mull over and steal from.

In The Craft Section,

How To Rewrite Your Whole Darn Book- P J Parrish – Bookmark

Thoughts on how to be critical of stories- K M Weiland – Bookmark

5 mistakes to avoid if you want to finish your book- Colleen Story - Bookmark

What writers can learn from bodybuilders- Dave Terruso

In The Marketing Section,

Unique marketing ideas for March – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

5 tips for your author bio – DIYMFA

Professional Writing Resources- K M Weiland – Bookmark

How to put together a strategic editorial content calendar

How to start a writer YouTube channel- Michael La Ronn 

To Finish,

During the Christmas/Summer break I went to the movies. I was keen to see Knives Out for various reasons. The cast, and the premise. An old fashioned whodunnit mystery. It seemed so fresh again to be in an audience that were treated as intelligent. After I got used to Daniel Craig’s accent, I enjoyed being surprised by the twists and turns. Excellent storytelling. Is this genre making a come back? How are your sleuthing skills?

Pic: Angela Lansbury- Murder She Wrote- TV Series 1984-96 IMDB.com

Maureen

@craicer

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter?

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