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
