Are you ready for the bookfuture?

As I write this the Digital Book World conference is just wrapping up. DBW is a conference firmly focussed on innovation and change in the publishing world. Many old hands in the digital publishing space attend along with a hot new startups. Big news is always unveiled at DBW so ... 

Kobo announced a new 8 inch E-Reader tablet- Forma. Amazon demonstrated their new Amazon Dot tech, which can sync with any device and continue reading your book where ever you are.

New kids on the block Novel Effect have an app that provides background music and sound effects using voice recognition to storytimes. Reading with your kids has just dramatically changed. 

Blockchain is continuing to advance into publishing with a new tech startup Bookchain from Canada - a digital publishing platform using Blockchain technology. 

There is lots to think about in the future of publishing.

Along with things future a huge reader survey was published. It makes interesting reading about who is reading and what they are reading and what on... I was surprised to see that a lot of readers between 30 and 50 were reading on their phones.

Wattpad is about to Beta test paying authors. This is big news if you publish on Wattpad. You will get paid real dollars too instead of cryptocurrency. Readers can buy wattpad tokens which they can use to unlock next chapters or whole books... sounds like an interesting income stream for popular authors on the platform.

Publish Drive has looked at comparison pricing of books in Asia. This is useful data as not much is known about buying habits there. With India having the second largest English speaking population...we should all be keeping an eye on global markets.

The global big prize in literature – The Nobel was not awarded this year due to a sex scandal. Quartz magazine writes about the cost of this to the publishing community.

This week Joanna Penn Interviewed Dave Chesson. Two fab podcasters in the one session. Dave took a deep dive into keywords which is his special interest. This is a must read/listen podcast if you use Amazon Ads.

In The Craft Section,

Tips for writing rough drafts- Now Novel- Bookmark

32 fixes for microblocks and glitches in your writing- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

3 top picture book writing mistakes - Alice Kuipers 

20 things I learned after reading 150,000 opening scenes. Katie McCoach – Bookmark

Genre mashups- Write Practice

What should your editing priority be?- Alli Blog

Nailing your one sentence story concept - Suzanne Lakin- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Hot tips for conferences- Rachelle Gardner

Captivate an event audience- Build Book Buzz - Bookmark

How to write a great About Me page- Autocrit

How to use infographics to connect with readers- Nate Hoffelder- Bookmark

Improve your Facebook reach- Frances Caballo- Bookmark

How Indie autors can learn design on a shoestring- Auden Johnson

What separates authors who make an income full time from writing- Not what you think. – Amy Collins- Bookmark

To Finish,

Spare a thought for the second hand bookseller.  Authors love/hate relationship - a source of cheap books for struggling writers and of 'no income' to authors of these books. 

Bookriot has a guest post from a second hand bookseller about the books that they are drowning in. I am often surprised by books that end up in second hand bookstores. (Maybe because I hardly ever only read a book once.) 

 Just a thought... If you read a book through Bookchain you can onsell it and the author will get a little slice of the pie too. Just a little glimpse into a happier book future for writers.

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 would like to shout me a coffee hit the button up top. Thanks everyone!

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Mr Muggles 

Author = Expert

There were rumblings earlier in the week and then the emails from Amazon started coming out. The Zon bots were on the rampage and no one seemed safe. Reviewers lost reviews and accounts. Authors got pinged for too many sales- Amazon accusing them of sabotage – and then the hammer fell on Kindle Worlds.

Yesterday the notices went out to all the writers who wrote sanctioned fan fiction that gave the original creators some money as well as the fan fiction writers and Amazon. It’s been an interesting experiment and no one is quite sure why they’ve shut it down. Copyright of the stories remains in the authors hands but then the world and the characters are under the ownership of the originator. 

I foresee a scramble as writers try to figure out what the contract rights reversions will look like.

The many niggles of a less than satisfactory experience with the worlds biggest eBook publisher have triggered many authors to review their marketing strategy going forward.

Kindle Select authors (publish exclusively with Amazon with page reads also counting towards sales) are starting to pull out and go wide. That means establishing a presence on Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Publish Drive etc. Some are even thinking of going back to Traditional publishing. The author has more choices now. A great article from Eldonna Edwards puts it into perspective.

Middle Grade and Young Adult writing agents were recently asked what they saw as new trends and what they want to see more of...

Amy Collins was recently at a conference and watched some train wrecks in motion... Know your genre... know what is selling... research is the difference between an author and a writer.

Joan Stewart talks about Author experts. You might be an expert and not even know it. Check out her great article.

Jane Friedman recently wrote an article on the modern website - A smarter author platform for the digital age. This is an info rich article on what works and why - from one of the experts in the field.

Where do you get your ideas from...? I don’t know any author that hasn’t been asked this... Here is a possible answer tho - from old newspapers! Check out this article on a great treasure trove of ideas.

In The Craft Section,

Two great posts-Good character flaws and Novel in a month- Now Novel- Bookmark

Punching up your prose- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Questions to ask Beta Readers- Sara Letourneau

Give your hero a hard time- Writer Unboxed-Bookmark

Story development-Writepractice

Writing a compelling book series- K J Waters

In The Marketing Section,

Essential marketing tactics for children’s authors

Nates big list of analytic tools- Nate Hoffelder- Bookmark

How authors can engage on Goodreads

How to sell a series on Amazon- Alli Blog- Bookmark

Publicity mistakes that ruin a book –Reedsy- Bookmark

To Finish,

Jami Gold has an interesting post this week that really struck a chord with me. How do you know your writing is any good? This is particularly interesting as I am getting into the sharp end of book judging and these questions have been haunting my sleep.

I know that I have more expertise now judging my own projects than I did before...

Maureen

@craicer

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces in my monthly newsletter. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes.
 If you appreciate the blog, you can hit the coffee button up top. Thanks.

Pic: Flicker Creative Commons- Alan Cleaver

Being Authentic

April slunk in along with the Easter eggs so it took a while before anyone noticed it. 

Amazon announced it was closing down Kindle Scout. This was unexpected and as industry pundits have said it was always an experiment anyway.

What wasn’t an experiment was a Twitter thread detailing the two different conferences that authors experience when they go to RWA, the biggest writers conference around. If you are a Writer of Colour what you experience is vastly different. 

A few months ago I linked to a plea by a British Independent Bookseller to have an organisation that could have the same marketing clout as the big chains. The House of Lords said tell us more and so this week publishing executives spent a few days informing the Lords just what makes a level playing field. A literate population is essential.

Attendees at Bologna Children’s Book Fair were talking about literacy too and the rise of Audio Books for children. With the increasing popularity of in home smart speakers, the big children’s publishers are adapting books into interactive experiences that 'Alexa' or 'Siri' can use to entertain your child.

Recently Steena Holmes sent out a plea to authors about finding your authentic fans and sticking by them. This is an interesting post and one to really think about if you find yourself in a marketing daze.

Have you ever had to give a performance of your work to an audience? Yes, it can be nerve wracking. Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz has 10 tips for taking your page to the stage.

This week Amy Collins has an interesting post about One Big Don’t. It is an important read for authors who are Indie publishing. If this is you... take the time to read it... and do your research.

Also in the Don’t category was the Twitter thread where a male author decided to take issue with the #ownvoices movement saying he was quite capable of writing from a woman’s interior viewpoint. Unfortunately when excerpts of his work were posted in the comments they didn’t prove his point. Woman wrote descriptions of themselves as they thought a male writers would write... also including famous male writers turgid descriptions of women and then the New Yorker published an op-ed. This is why Point of View matters so much in writing.

In The Craft Section,

3 creative writing exercises from Roz Morris... then get a whole heap more from Reedsy

Writing romantic and fight scenes- they are the same... NowNovel- Bookmark

4 ways to simplify your writing process

Writing is rewriting- tips to help you-Bookmark

When is it time to say goodbye to your Work in Progress and give up on it.- Anne R Allen- Must 

read!

In The Marketing Section,

Book Marketing Mistakes- Reedsy- Bookmark

31 Book Marketing tips- Bookthority- Bookmark

How your author platform  affects sales- Rachel Thompson

How to embed social media posts- Frances Caballo- Bookmark

How to get also boughts- Written Word Media- Bookmark

Mining your old content

To Finish,

Nathan Bransford has been struggling with concentration. He decided to fix it once and for all and discovered some good tips.

Last week I linked to an infographic that helped you brainstorm a book idea. This week what are you going to call your new Indie Press?

So coming soon from Black Fuzzy Turtle Press- the compulsively readable thriller about a lovesick ghost’s dream to explore their eating disorder....  

somewhere in a multi-verse near you...

Maureen

@craicer

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces in a monthly newsletter. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. I promise to be early this month...
 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons / Mike Lawrence CreditDebitPro.com