In Publishing News this week…
A slow week on the publishing front unless your last name starts with T and ends in P.
Publishers Weekly reports on a lawsuit to stop Simon and Schuster from publishing a memoir from a criminal prosecutor who believes a criminal lawsuit has to happen against the former president. As PW reports anytime Trump throws lawyers at a book… it ends up a bestseller.
Techcrunch reports on the Shutterstock and Open AI deal. This is an ongoing story to keep one eye on. How the artist community picks their way through the minefield of AI assistance will inform how the writing community can do the same, notably around plagiarism. Interestingly, after Gizmodo outed CNET (see last weeks blog) the policy of using AI to write articles quickly changed. Gizmodo tries out the AI tool on Shutterstock with mixed results. Meanwhile a content writer for Buffer has conflicted feelings about using the AI tool for her job.
If you are battling against book pirates or other plagiarists, Knight in Shining Armor, Nate Hoffelder has a great post which you should bookmark on how to file a DMCA takedown notice. He’s done the hard work for you as this article is chock full of links and advice.
Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard has an interesting post on the uncounted book industry which is worth half a billion dollars last year from KDP alone. So exactly how many books are being published out there?
While Mark is looking at the big picture Draft2Digital has an interesting blog post on how to track all your own sales.
Joanna Penn is launching her latest book on Kickstarter. In this interesting post she talks about using Kickstarter like a book launch pad and how she approached her first time Kickstarter project. Her Kickstarter was for a modest amount that has already exceeded expectations.
Kathy Steinmann has a post on going down the KDP rabbit hole when your book is unexpectedly pulled from the site and what you can do about it.
Over the last few years the word on author websites is that at the very least you have to have a landing page that you own somewhere.
The Alliance of Independent Authors has a comprehensive post on how to get people coming back to your website again and again.
Nate Hoffelder writes in a guest post on Anne R Allen’s blog about the 10 website mistakes new authors make and how to fix them.
Penny Sansevieri has a great post on how to sell books from your website. Penny breaks down the various partners you can use and what is involved.
Colleen Story has a great post on permission and how you have to give it to yourself.
Kris Rusch has the last in her 2022 in review series and this week she muses about estate planning- something our wider family has been focused on since halfway through 2022. When a near relative has an extensive literary estate and their health is not good… you realise the importance of a literary executor and what life of copyright really means.
In The Craft Section
7 ways to decide what story idea should come next- K M Weiland
How to use ProWriting Aid- Sue Coletta
Build suspense with secrets- Christina Delay- Bookmark
Character sketch template – Shayla Raquel
6 lessons learned from 4 years of writers block- K M Weiland- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
No one wants to hear you breathe- Tips on narration – Gabbi Coatsworth
Tips to get people to your book signing- Michael Gallant- Bookmark
How to write a blog post people read- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark
Infographic on marketing to different generations- Barb Drozowich
What do literary agents want you to know- Amy Collins with Sandra Beckwith
To Finish
Last week I was preparing to go to the first author conference in a very very long time. I had a great day and met some great people. Among them was Nat Connors, a data scientist who runs Kindletrends- a deep dive weekly newsletter of analysis in any of your chosen categories. Everywhere I went people kept telling me I had to talk to Nat. He was an interesting chap and his service is praised by lots of writers- a great endorsement.
One of the guest speakers was another lover of data and analysis, Deb Potter. She has a great book on Amazon Ads for writers trying to figure out how to do them. Here she is being interviewed by the Spa Girls podcast. These were just two of the many awesome writers who came from around the country and overseas for a one day conference.
It is always beneficial to your writing soul to meet up with others in this crazy industry. You never know what you may learn.
Maureen
@craicer
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Thanks.
Pic: Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash
