2022- Wrestling the year into submission

 

 

Annnnnd we are back for another year of watching the publishing industry shuffle through the interesting times we have been cursed with.

 

In Publishing News…

Authors win a global piracy lawsuit and get awarded damages of over $7million… Everybody is hoping that the judgment serves notice to book pirates that their time is up. The pirates were tried in abstentia and are somewhere in Ukraine. However, I guess it will continue to be a case of pirate whack-a-mole.

 

The growth of library eBook lending far exceeded everyone’s expectations when Overdrive, the biggest library eBook partner, published their annual review. Half a billion library ebook downloads show that eBook lending is here to stay.

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard published two interesting articles recently. One on the upcoming Cairo International Bookfair where they are playing with hologram technology and books and another on the split nature of India’s publishing industry-  half of which is embracing digital and surviving, the other half … not so much.

 

The beginning of another year invites predictions of what we should expect from 2022.

Literary Agent, Laurie Mclean kicked off the new year with her predictions. Mergers, Unions and Work From Home will change the publishing marketplace. Streaming will change the reading space.

 

Written Word Media identified eight trends to watch in the coming year. As their business model helps writers advertise their books they focus on the big trends that will affect the writer bottom line- advertising will be going up. 

 

Over January Kristine Rusch continued writing her 2021 year in review. She has written six blogs on this topic as she looks back to how digital reading has been embraced in the pandemic years and how the publishing industry has been completely changed by it. In this week’s article she makes some bold predictions on how indie publishing will be changing the whole publishing industry going forward. It is well worth a read.

 

Penny Sansevieri examined global reading habits in 2021 and produced an interesting infographic that gives writers some markets to keep an eye on. She also has 22 awesome book marketing promotions and predictions for 2022.

 

Jane Friedman took a look at what were the big sellers in the children’s book industry and made some predictions for the upcoming year. She also has a great article on how to plan and host online author events.

 

If you want to start 2022 off with some writing craft books, StoryBundle has a great collection available for a limited time. It’s a pay what you want deal and there are some good books on offer. 

 

In The Craft Section,

How to ace the time skip in your story- DIYMFA

How to decide what story to write- Scott Myers

Best writing resources of 2021 from Now Novel- Bookmark

The role of causation and plot structure in literary fiction- Harrison Demchick

What are the 10 different types of stories- Joe Bunting- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to sell more books in 2022- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Book cover designers- Resource from The Creative Penn- Bookmark

Clever ideas to promote sequels and series-Bookbub

Choosing a book title in the e-age- Anne R Allen

5 social media trends to watch in 2022- Kris Maze

 

To Finish,

If you have been mulling over your goals for the year ahead and getting hopelessly confused or overwhelmed – Drop into the ALLI podcast to listen or read the transcript on how Orna Ross and Joanna Penn plan their upcoming years. Orna has a great phrase, Maker, Manager, Marketer. She splits her work and goals between all three. Or check out Elizabeth Craig’s great article on making mini plans and goals for the year.

This may help when you wrestle 2022 into a workable plan for yourself.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

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

 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – RumpleTeaser

 

To Market To Market

 

 

In Publishing News this week…

Some changes over at Amazon caught writers by surprise this week. Amazon introduced A+ which is a spiffy new makeover for your Amazon detail pages. They have a new section on the book page from the publisher- Where you can add video, banners, images, bells  and whistles. Take a look and then dive into amping up your book pages.

 

Mark Williams over at The New Publishing Standard published two items this week that caught my eye. Indian publisher Byju has just shelled out $500M to buy children’s books subscription platform, Epic. Epic provides books to North American schools for free in return for data insights for publishers. Byju is promising $1Billion expansion for the programme. 

So, get kids invested in subscription reading platforms and you get lifetime customers. Lots of implications here for children’s publishers.

The other news item that caught my eye from Mark was Storytel’s new audiobook app for the Tamil language. 

“For the literacy-challenged emerging markets the USP Tellander has latched on to which western publishers appear oblivious to, is the game-changing reach audiobooks bring to internet-savvy people around the world who have never learned to read but come from rich oral-storytelling traditions.”

With 5 billion people online – many from an educationally poor background, providing audiobooks in their own languages would be a huge marketing advantage to any savvy publisher. 

 

Ruth Harris has turned her laser eye onto how Amazon and Bookbub can help you get noticed for free. Have you ever really checked out your author page on Amazon? What about on Bookbub? Dive into this article and start making notes.

 

Jessica Conoley has a guest post over on Jane Friedman’s blog on the most important choice you will make in your writing career. How you talk to yourself. This information is so important I have two items in this week’s roundup on the topic.

Jennifer Alsever has a roundup of the 7 hot serialization platforms for indie authors. 

The Killzone blog has lots of great content, along with a great publishing model. John Gilstrap recently published an interesting article on writing to be heard. How knowing his writing will be recorded as an audiobook is changing the way he is writing.

 

In The Craft Section,

Knowing who your invisible narrator is- Milo Todd- Bookmark

How to build your own MFA experience- Tasha Seegmiller

Building POV and stakes in short stories- Rachell Shaw- Bookmark

Archetypes- The Crone- K M Weiland

Dialogue as a source of conflict- Mia Botha- Bookmark

Serialisation storytelling- John Peregine

 

In The Marketing Section,

The ultimate guide to comparison authors and genres- Alliance of Independent Authors- Bookmark

Bookbub deals on permafree books- Bookbub

Tools and resources – The Creative Penn- Bookmark

5 simple ways to optimize reviews-Blue Ink Review

In-depth article on marketing to Kindle Unlimited subscribers – Written Word Media- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

How often do you psyche yourself out of doing something? Is it fear of success or fear of rejection? Or do you tell yourself you just aren’t good enough?

The self-rejection voices in our heads can be insidious and loud. Royaline Sing has some ways to combat their mantras and get you back on the write path.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s the end of the month so time for my monthly newsletter full of the best of the bookmarked tips and other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

 

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

 

Pic: