Autumn... and the summer weather goes on
and on...and so do the list of provinces now officially drought stricken. As I
write this half the North Island has been declared officially in drought. The
flow on effects of a drought are not obvious now but will come back to haunt us
later in the year, with a shortage of food as crops dependent on water won’t be
sown. There is an extreme fire
risk.
In the publishing blogosphere, this week, a
similar disquiet is being felt with the news of class actions and shonkey
contracts from reputable publishing houses.
For those authors in the lucky position to
have a self published book picked up by a trad 6...5...4... publishing house.
It is not all a bed of roses as this cautionary tale illustrates...Amazon
contacted the readers who had bought the Indie published book and said they
were withdrawing it and if the customer wanted a refund they could get it and a
new copy of the book. But who is paying for this? The Author...who didn’t know
anything about it. OUCH.
A New York Law firm is gathering data to bring a class action against Author Solutions and its owner Pearson for
scamming authors... People check the contracts before you sign them!
Today the association on Science Fiction and Fantasy writers alerted everyone to the major problems with Random’s Hydra eBook imprint contract. John Scalzi, head of this association, publically stated
that anyone publishing with Hydra will not be eligible for membership. He spells out all the problems in the contract. This is required reading! The
hooks are large...and YOU NEED TO KNOW.
Kris Rusch looks at the Death Of Publishing...and
after the last three posts you might well think it...however Kris is upbeat and
there is HOPE....
Bob Mayer takes it another step with his
Survival For Writers and Rachelle Gardner details what Agents are working on now in the Brave New World and why they are still relevant.
Joel Friedlander has a great article on the progression of writer, author, publisher, marketer....
Susan Kaye Quin takes a look at hiring your writing business team.
If you have a Kindle you may want to take notice of this backup technique just in case Amazon pulls another swifty.
In Craft,
In Marketing,
How to use Mail Chimp. (that’s for your
email newsletters)
To Finish,
Hugh Howey has a thoughtful post on the reality of publishing now. You would think Hugh has reached the top of the
mountain but as he says it is only just beginning...his thoughts while shelving
books in a bookstore...Yes, this is his day job.
maureen
pic from Koshyk Flickr Creative Commons....Imagine opening that pea pod.
