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This week in Publishing

 

The rise of the AI voice. DeepZen AI is partnering with Ingram to produce audiobooks using AI voices. Joanna Penn flagged this in her futurist segment in December last year. I don’t think she was expecting it to be a reality quite so soon. 

I recently got a chance to play with AI voices with my manuscript and it was uncanny. You can emotionally intensify words in a passage.

 DeepZen is offering all this and more in a cheap introductory package. It really could be a game-changer if you are looking for a cheap way to get into audio. 

Last week I linked to the news story of Audible+ subscription being rolled out to more countries. Don’t forget that Audiblegate is still ongoing. That’s where subscription participants are encouraged to treat Audible like a library and constantly return audiobooks so the writer doesn’t get paid. (The reader gets full credit back - up to a year later. The writer foots the bill for this.) With the drop in royalties from Audible and the cost of human narration, it could be a viable alternative. 

 

This week the excitement was palpable as authors logged into their KDP dashboards and discovered that Hardback was available. Is it really true? Yes, and early adopters say that you get a fancy coloured ribbon bookmark attached to it as well. Just a reminder, you need to check your dimensions and bleed for printing hardback and you need a new ISBN for the format. Go forth and have fun!

 

I’m starting to see plaintive moans from authors whose books are being held up in the great print delay of 2021. Supply chain issues, paper shortages, stuck boats in the Panama Canal, and overloaded ports in China have all conspired to delay print runs, especially for the pre-Christmas book rush. This has a knock-on effect on prices. Expect your Print book prices to go up. Ingram has already raised their print prices by 3-6%.

 

Joanna Penn has an interesting interview with Sarah Werner on producing audio drama. This is your full cast of characters audio play version of the audiobook. If you love listening to plays and want to turn your novel into an audio play, check out this interview. Just a note, all things narration have separate licenses- ISBN’s. A narrated audiobook is different from a cast of characters audiobook which is different from an AI narrated audiobook- although ISBN agencies might not have cottoned on to that last one yet, but it will come.

 

Written Word Media has a new ad programme for authors called Reader Reach- They will do the Facebook Ad marketing for you… for a price.

Meanwhile, Storygraph, an alternative to Goodreads is gaining traction.

 

Victoria Strauss has an update on the #Disneymustpay scandal. If you know anyone who has written for Disney or one of their many imprints, spread the word that the Task Force (a representative group from many writers organisations,) want to hear from them. Disney is NOT going out of their way to find the authors they owe royalties to.

 

This week Kris Rusch had a standout post entitled Comparison is The Thief of Joy. This post is one to mull over as you look at your creative life. I read it out loud to my family and we talked about what it meant to each of us. 

 

In The Craft Section,

2 great posts from Angela and Becca -Everything to do with Characters and Describing your characters appearance- Bookmark Both

What’s the plot point- David Farland

Crafting The Short Story- Insecure writer support group- Bookmark

What setup in a novel means- Janice Hardy

Story Planner success- Now Novel- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Is your website missing crucial elements? Bookmark

Making Ebook Bookstagrams- Bookbub

The social side of Social media for authors- Writers in the Storm

Ads promoting debut novels- Bookbub

Should you sell your books from your website? Sandra Beckwith - Bookmark

 

To Finish,

The news is out. Netflix has acquired the whole of Roald Dahl’s literary estate.

They have plans! Expect to see a bevy of Dahl movies, animations, musicals, and what about the books? Special tie-in’s, re-releases, animated digital versions…. The possibilities are endless. I hope Quentin Blake (as the iconic Dahl illustrator) gets a cut. Rumour suggests that the price was $500M. That estate is worth a lot of golden tickets to Netflix.

 

Don’t forget - every writer has a literary estate for the life of copyright. The Dahl heirs will be popping champaign for a long time on this, also the agents, the executors, the lawyers…

 

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.

 

 

Bookshops and Booksales

 

This week Audible finally let creators know the changes they have decided on to address the concerns of Audiblegate. (Audible’s practice of promoting read and return audiobooks with no compensation to creators last year.) They are promising to create a new dashboard for authors to see which books have been returned and they are changing their terms of exclusivity. Publishing Perspectives asked Author groups what they thought. Not good enough was the answer. This is where the value of belonging to a strong writer’s union comes into play.

 

The Guardian recently published an article entitled Bookshops defy pandemic to record highest sales in eight years. After they published this they had to go and change the title to accurately reflect the article which was on Book Sales. Yes, bookshops were selling books but a lot of the print book sales were happening online. However, as the Society of Authors points out that’s cold comfort to a lot of writers who relied on appearances to pay the bills.

 

Publishing Perspectives interviewed the CEO of Wattpad on their merger with Korean digital publisher Naver. If you have been keeping an eye on Wattpad and how they have grown from a fanfic forum to a movie and television production powerhouse, their merger with Naver, who operates a similar model in Asia, is a good thing. The numbers are interesting. Together they will almost be as big as Netflix.

 

Big Five publishers are back in court for price fixing. Again. They are named as co- conspirators with Amazon. Publishing Perspectives looks at the case and whether it will hurt Amazon at all.

 

Kris Rusch writes this week about the rise of e-reading due to Covid-19 lockdowns and how Bertelsmann danced with the numbers trying to prove that there was a huge number of Indie publishers, so that they wouldn’t be slapped by regulators for controlling too much of the market by buying Simon and Schuster. As it is, they may have over 50% of the Trad publishers market.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has an interesting blog post on whether having your book in book shops is worth it for Indie Authors. With Trad Publishers used to getting books published in China for little cost they can use the sale or return option as a carrot for bookshops to stock their books. Indies using POD have higher costs per book which impacts on discounts to bookstores. This article breaks down the numbers and the cost benefit for Indies to use bookstores.

 

Anne R Allen has a great guest post from Joseph Perry, a literary attorney, on important clauses to take note of in a publishing contract. One thing to remember, Joseph says, is that the publishing contract is always written in favour of the publisher.

 

How often do you stare at your just completed hot mess of a manuscript and wonder how to tackle the revision aspect. Jean Grant has an interesting blog post where she breaks down the way she revises. Having a checklist of things to look out for is a good starting point.

 

In The Craft Section,

5 mistakes writers make with relationships- Bang2Write

Understanding third person omniscient POV- Tiffany Martin

Using Twin Relationships in Writing- Becca Puglisi

5 point plan on how to kill a character- WritersWrite- Bookmark

Good Storytelling- Internal and external stakes- Karen Woodward- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Heart centered Book Marketing- Beth Barany- Bookmark

Amazon Keywords 101- Penny Sansevieri

February Content ideas- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

How to get publicity for your book- Kaelyn Barron- Bookmark

What’s the deal with Amazon verified reviews- Sandra Beckwith

How to use Book Awards for publicity- Sandra Beckwith

 

To Finish,

Are you aware of time racing differently due to how engaged you are with a book? Have you struggled with narrative time? What about reader time? How does the reader experience the forward motion of your story? Writer Unboxed has a great article on Character Time and Reader Time and how you can make the most use of time in your manuscript.

 

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: The Tannery Bookshop- Christchurch