In Publishing News this week…
The Judge has decided. There will be no sale of Simon and Schuster to Penguin Random House. As everybody was celebrating and Marcus Dohle CEO of PRH was airing his views about this at Sharjah, Mike Shatzkin reflected on how this would change the publishing world going forward. This is a food for thought post, a must read. While publishing may not be amalgamating into one giant publisher, has anyone thought about the power that Ingram is getting?
Publishers Weekly has an article about Ingram entering the ‘business to consumer’ space with all sorts of goodies that they are now going to provide for publishers.
Publishing Perspectives has a run down on the main talking points at the Sharjah Publishers Conference. It’s all about being more visible globally. This reflected a session I watched in the SelfPubCon conference from the Alliance of Independent Authors last weekend. Ingram is rolling out POD into the Middle East, this will open up access to translation markets.
The Bookseller has an article on literary festivals having a hybrid element to them to allow for inclusivity. The pandemic has taught us to up our game with virtual events running alongside the in-person ones. This needs to be kept up for all those who cannot attend in-person events safely.
The New Publishing Standard has an article on Amazon’s new move to add 98 million music titles to Prime. If Spotify can have audiobooks, we can have music. The first shots in the new subscription wars.
In more backlash for AI art, the anime creators are up in arms over AI sampling. Apparently, the AI’s are really good at it. This is ringing alarm bells with creators.
Building a new world is the title of Kris Rusch’s blog post this week and I was struck by her analysis of the long view of History and how events like the pandemic cause a reset in the wider world. There has been a lot of comment on falling book sales everywhere lately. Kris is more optimistic.
If you are like me and struggle with Goodreads… is it really worth your time, this article has me thinking it is worth taking another look. For instance – Did you know you can talk about your latest book while you are writing it and have people add it to their TBR stack.
Litreactor has 10 NaNoWriMo tips for success from Editors and Agents.
Jane Friedman has a guest post from Michael Mohr on the secret sauce to being a good writer. It could be slightly controversial but the basic premise of needing to be a reader is absolutely key!
In The Craft Section,
Write Great First Sentences- Ruth Harris- Bookmark
How to write 500 words in 15 minutes- Colleen Story
3 tricks with flashbacks- Marissa Graff-Bookmark
Writing about a culture that isn’t yours- Sam Cameron
9 Positive character arcs in enneagram- K M Weiland- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
5 ways to promote long after launch – Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark
How saleable are short stories- Sarah Dahl
How to make an audiobook – Kindlepreneur
How to promote globally- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark
TikTok works for all genres- Sue Coletta- Bookmark and read comments!
To Finish,
Having a climate change researcher in the house over the last decade has given me a ring side seat to despair. As writers, we believe in the power of story to change hearts and minds. Today I was told of a collection of writers across all genres who are dedicated to doing just this with climate change. Check out this fabulous organization if you write CliFi, Solarpunk, Dystopian, SciFi, Non-Fiction – anything to do with reimagining a better world and how to go about protecting this one.
Let’s change the narrative for the future.
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 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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.
Pic: Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash
