Uniquely You

 

 

In Publishing News This Week

Who is making money in the book industry? Lagadére seems to be leading the pack. They are up 48% in sales in the first half of 2024. They attribute their good fortune to sales of audio and front list and back list… or did the total reorganization of Hachette have something to do with it.

 

If China is the elephant in the room for all things sales wise… then the elephant likes cats. They feature in all the children’s bestsellers in China. If you have a cat main character ….

 

Publishers Weekly has an interesting article on Children’s Booksellers engaging audiences in different ways. It brings in the readers… which drag in the payers and everyone has a good time.

 

In the UK, Newcastle wants to be a centre of writing and publishing. They have an historic building and buy in from publishers, they just need lots of cash from the new government. It has to be cheaper to run a publishing business out of Newcastle than London, one of the most expensive cities in the world, right?

 

Colleen Story has an interesting article on 5 steps to building a strong foundation to your writing career. Have you considered that emotional, physical and mental health is just as important in your writing career as having a website.

 

Rachel Thompson has a must read post on phishing scams targeting writers  and how to tell if its legit and thriller author Cat Connor takes issue with digital marketers trying the same thing and what she does to discourage it.

 

If you are hunting around for interesting writing competitions take a look at this list compiled for the month of August.

 

Joanna Penn has an excellent interview with Roz Morris about writing emotion. How do you know when you have nailed it for the reader. Check out the transcript/ podcast.

 

How much does your environment influence your writing? Sue Coletta has a great post on how it has affected other authors. Does changing your environment result in a totally different book?

 

Joy York writes on Story Empire about how to go about seeking feedback on your writing.

 

Katie Weiland continues her story structure series with a great article on the art of The Hook.

 

In The Craft section,

Adding subtext to dialogue- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

Does your scene need more tension- Angela Ackerman

5 effective outlining techniques- Rachel Thompson-Bookmark

Learning to love synopsis- Diana Giovinazzo

Infusing mood into your fiction- C S Lakin- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Gaining more reviews- Fussy Librarian

Multiple ways to sell the story- Brian Feinblum

Social Media sells- Jennifer Windrow- Bookmark

Creative book marketing strategies- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Book Promo timing- Sandra Beckwith-Bookmark

Reader Magnets and other questions - Alli Podcast

 

To Finish

Today I was checking that a review on Amazon that I had written was up and at the top of the review pages was Amazon’s AI roundup of the reviews and what they were all commonly saying. Woah, I thought, AI gets everywhere. Dan Blank recently had an interesting article on how AI was sliding into our everyday lives making shortcuts and time saving. What we really should be doing, he said was celebrating our unique creative voice.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

I’m running late on the monthly newsletter. This weekend I will get to it.  If you want the best of my bookmarked links you can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Evan Fitzer on Unsplash

Belief In Your Voice

  

In Publishing News this week,

 

There were accolades and ‘I remember’s’ all over Social Media when Alice Munro died this week. Alice was a ground breaking short story writer awarded the 2013 Nobel prize in Literature for her work and was often cited as one of the finest writers in the last 50 years.

 

In audiobook news, Bonnier books joined Spotify’s audiobook premium offer. Publishing Perspectives reports that Spotify has over 200 million premium subscribers and they are listening to backlist audio books. With Harper Collins move into AI voiced audiobooks for their backlist (in the blog a few weeks ago) the publishers have found another pot of gold to exploit.

 

Meanwhile, The Bookseller reports on a hybrid first- mixing real narrator, digital voices and AI into an audiobook.

 

The EU has signed their AI Act into law and it will be in effect from June. It is more comprehensive than the United States law or the UK. The fines are whopping. Keep an eye out for expert commentary for how the law will affect publishing going forward.

 

Dan Holloway reports that Open AI, the tech firm behind ChatGPT, have disbanded their risk team. This seems particularly short sighted as a risk team might have alerted them that Scarlet Johannsson was about to launch a lawsuit against them for copying her voice.

 

Spare a thought for the Spanish language publishers. Their children’s books are in hot demand, but they can’t get them picked up in their own countries. If the book comes from America, it is a different story. Publishers are resorting to opening American offices so they can get American ISBN’s. Publishing Perspectives reports on the conundrum.

 

Anne R Allen has a great post on genre, comps and categories or where does your book belong on the shelf. This is an excellent rundown on why subcategories are important in marketing your book.

 

Dave Chesson has a must read article on the importance of making sure you have licenses for the fonts you use. Just because it’s on word doesn’t make it free to use in your print book or eBook.

 

Lisa Gardner has an interesting post on the 10 things she has learned as a crime fiction writer for 30 years. 

 

Sandra Beckwith has 9 writing tools and resources she can’t do without. Mug warmers anyone?

 

How are your endings? Katie Weiland has a great post on troubleshooting your endings to make them the best they can be.

 

Angela Ackerman is guest posting on Jami Gold’s site with a great article on the inner character arc. How do we get resolve the inner conflict and give the character layers?

 

In the Craft Section,

Character failure responses- Angela Ackerman

Writing for your readers-Linda Clare

The first million words are practice- Draft2Digital

How to avoid reader déjà vu- Jami Gold Bookmark

The three rules of point of view- Gabriela Pereira- Bookmark

Novel writing words of wisdom- Dale Smith- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Powering through the unfun parts of the job- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

Types of videos authors can make- Rob Bignell

Book marketing strategies on a budget- Dale Roberts- Bookmark

Human centered book marketing- Joanna Penn talks to Dan Blank-Bookmark

Converting Word docs to ePub- Jane Friedman

 

To Finish,

How do you know when you have a big enough story to tell? This is a question that can send the writer into a spin. Some compensate by throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the story. Others can’t write the story because it doesn’t feel compelling. Jane Friedman has an excerpt from Robin Finn’s book on self belief and the limits we place on ourselves when we are writing.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

pic Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash

What Is The Real Story?

 

In Publishing News this week

 

The Independent Book Publishers Association is rebranding their main book awards and adding some new ones, reports Publishers Weekly. They are including many marginalized and diverse communities in their new categories.

 

Publishers Weekly is promoting a book to publishers about Disinformation and how to recognize it. With national elections coming up in nearly half the world- publishing the truth has never been more important.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that the Sharjah Booksellers conference has grown to 76 countries participating. They are just wrapping up their successful gathering of booksellers and distributors.

 

Last week, I mentioned the viral post on book publishing that had people polarized over the future of the book industry. The week has seen a few more Op Ed’s. Here is a reasonably balanced one from Lincoln Michel published in Slate.

 

America’s National Public Radio has discovered that authors are using AI- they have an article on authors who are feeding AI their own work. But does this help you create anything new?

Meanwhile, there is still divided opinion whether Harper Collins partnering with Eleven Labs is a good thing. Harper Collins stress it is only looking at AI audio for their backlist. And now that they have started, watch everyone else do the same.

 

This week Ruth Harris looks at that problem when literary agents go bad. Do your due diligence and check out this great article. Over at Writer Beware, there is a great article on how a book really becomes a movie. Hint: It’s a hard slog.

 

Joanna Penn interviews Dan Blank on human centered marketing. This is a great podcast/transcript of getting comfortable about talking about what you write, whether it is to one person or Social Media.

 

Ingram Spark has an interesting article on creating Book Merch. They list all the places you can get it along with design ideas. Do you have a great setting for your books? Design the town’s business logos. Put it on a coaster. 

 

Ayesha Ali has a great post on Jane Friedman’s blog about opening scenes. She has 4 must have goals to really nail the scene. This is a print out and mull over post. 

Donald Mass has been thinking about imagination. How does the writer convey their imagination to the reader- does it ever happen? He has some words of wisdom for getting the reader and writer imagination working together.

 

In The Craft Section,

2 excellent posts from Becca Puglisi-7 growth milestones for character arc and The central conflict of your story- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

12 Jungian archetypes to shape character- Now Novel

5 effective outlining techniques- Rachel Thompson

Yes or No questions in dialogue- Sue Coletta-Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to record your own audiobook- Draft2Digital

Author website start points- R Shannon

FAQ on Book marketing with Book Machine PR- Bookmark

24 ways to promote your book or brand- Marika Flatt- Bookmark

Promoting your book with another author- Ingram Spark

 

To Finish

‘Won’t someone think of the children,’ has become a pop culture phrase culled from The Simpsons television series to lampoon a moralistic and narrow outlook. I confess to wincing and thinking these thoughts when I saw a news article about a horror movie being developed with those two out of copywrite characters, Mickey Mouse (Steamboat Willie) version and Winnie the Pooh (A A Milne version). What’s next … Conan the Barbarian meets Little House on the Prairie? (2028)

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Michael Carruth on Unsplash

Taking Time to Recharge

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

 

The new Tutulia app is making little waves in the book community. The App uses a Machine learning AI to recommend your next read based on the information you feed it. The AI scrapes all the book sites and reviews and buzz to pull together a list of books that will suit you. As Ingram is a founder investor you can buy the book from inside the app and Ingram will print it and ship it to you. This is next Gen thinking.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that Bonnier owned Bookbeat is expanding Europe. They seem to be competing in the Audiobook sector with Storytel. They want to increase more competition in Audiobooks. Their pricing subscription reflects this with by the hour of listening instead of monthly fees.

 

Mark Williams has an optimistic view of the big book fairs happening in the Middle East. They are back to clocking up a million visitors and audio looks like it will be taking off there as well with audio subscription services chasing this big market. Publishers should be taking note of the expanding audio markets.

 

Kris finishes The How Writers fail series with a pithy article on quitting too soon. This is a thought provoking article on how writers can self-sabotage their writing. 

 

Sam Missingham has a great newsletter called The Empowered Author. She has her finger on the pulse of the UK publishing scene and is often amplifying authors across social media. Recently she updated her fabulous post on all the different ways Author Collectives operate and their value to the writers involved. ( So of course I would be all over it.)

 

Recently Dan Blank was commenting on generosity as a book marketing idea. He has some really interesting examples of how this has been playing out in the author community.

 

Terry Odell on The Killzone blog recently wrote about giving yourself permission to step back from your writing. Sometimes life gets in the way and writers can tie themselves into knots trying to get their word count in or their projects finished. This is a great little article.

If you need to take a longer creative rest- check out Orna Ross and Joanna Penn’s latest podcast transcript. Joanna has just walked the Santiago Camino Trail and talks about how she is structuring creative rests into her writing calendar.

 

If you are preparing for NaNoWriMo which starts in November, Don’t Forget to check out all the good offers/ deals available for participants. (pssst Scrivener is on sale)

 

James Scott Bell is a great writing craft teacher. I have a few of his books and they are constant dip-ins when you get stymied. He is guest posting over on Anne R Allens’s Blog with a great 10 commandments of writing post- This is print out gold!

 

In The Craft Section,

7 tips to add complexity to the story- K M Weiland- Bookmark

2 tips to amp up the conflict- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Handwriting vs Typing- Kay DiBianca

Prologues- Do we need them?- Janice Hardy – Bookmark

Fear Theasaurus- Not being believed- Angela Ackerman Becca Puglisi

 

In The Marketing Section,

Marketing beyond the bookstore

7 strategies to focus on book marketing- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Publishing resources Free downloads- Shala Raquel- Bookmark

The key elements of eye-catching book design- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

How to publish a Hardcover book on Amazon

 

To Finish,

It’s Frankfurt Bookfair time which means The Alliance of Independent Authors runs one of their free online conferences. SelfPubCon. Check out the link to see who the speakers are this year and sign up. The sessions are all prerecorded and usually 30 minutes long and chock full of information. It is free and there are often neat little deals and competitions on offer.

 

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 Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Reaching for a life ring.

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The paper crisis in publishing is beginning to bite with Italian publishers reporting that costs for paper are beginning to make publishing some books uneconomic. Production costs have risen almost 90% compared to last year. Publishing Perspectives reports on the types of books most affected. Italian publishers are concerned for educational materials which they are guaranteed to supply, the costs of which are swallowing all their publishing budget.

 

Meanwhile, in Spain, they are tackling Book Piracy using sports technology. With an estimated 3 pirated copies for every book published something has to be done. Artificial Intelligence may just be the referee we all need on our side.

 

Penguin Random House in an altruistic move last year made books available to Libraries with easier terms than usual because everyone was in lockdown and we all needed to read more. Usually, publishers allow Libraries to buy books at very marked up prices to make up for the sales they potentially lose to library patrons. PRH announced that they are keeping their easier terms going this year. 

It can’t have anything to do with more States taking publishers to court to make them provide ebooks to libraries.

 

Another Social Media company is offering creators a revenue pool to earn from. Snapchat is introducing ads and top Snapchat creators will be able to share in the ad revenue from their stories. Streaming income for creators falls into either revenue sharing or getting a fixed price from a fixed sum of money-e.g. Kindle Unlimited monthly pool of money. The downside of this model is the more creators the less money you can earn. 

 

Kris Rusch has been mulling over exclusivity and what it means to creators. Do the tradeoffs make it worthwhile. What about when the contracts change? An interesting beginning to a new series from Kris on the business of writing.

 

If you get the chance to watch the Beatles documentary by Peter Jackson, it is a fascinating insight into the creative process of the four members of the band. Dan Blank pulls out 23 lessons on creativity from the documentary. 

 

Reedsy has a comprehensive list of all the novel writing software out there that you might like to try out.

 

Victoria Thompson has published over fifty novels and she breaks down the two most asked questions that authors get. Points if you guess what they are. (Children’s authors may have a different set of questions… How old are you being one of the most asked by children.)

 

Barbara Probst puts on her reader's hat and analyses 5 recent books to see if they follow the ‘rules’ that writers are supposed to follow.ie hook and compelling stakes in the first few pages. She found that they didn’t follow that at all but explored character development instead. An interesting article.

 

In The Craft Section,

5 tips for writing memoir-Rachel Thompson

How to turn your short story into a novel- Roz Morris

3 tips for describing characters- Bang 2 Write

How writers can mine emotions with music-  C S Lakin- Bookmark

Author voice vs Narrator voice -September Fawkes- Bookmark

Tips for creating a bestselling title- Margie Lawson - Bookmark 

 

In The Marketing Section,

6 benefits of good website design- Barb Drozdowich

Booktok for book marketing-Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Clever ideas for promoting sequels- Bookbub- Bookmark

How to market an eBook- Reedsy (comprehensive)

Not all book marketing services are created equal- Penny Sansevieri

 

To Finish,

I recently read a Writer Unboxed article on the importance of writing truth for yourself. John J Kelley- Writing Truth in the era of falsehood. This article particularly resonated with me as our city is partially gridlocked by a large protest around our parliament. The protestors are demanding freedom but are denying the rights of others around them while they protest. They want the freedom to not be vaccinated, to not wear masks and to go back to life the way it was. Their rhetoric is filled with conspiracy and hate and is quite worrying. How did so many people lose sight of the science and truth of the pandemic? While they chant for individual freedom- the rest of us are taking our responsibilities seriously towards others more vulnerable than ourselves. We are getting vaccinated and wearing masks and living a careful life in a pandemic. Sometimes the negativity can drown us. Writing a truth can be a life ring in uncertain times.

 

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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

In The Writing Trenches

This week in Publishing,

Last week as I was posting the blog the news broke about the US Department of Justice taking the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon and Schuster to court. LitHub has an interesting take on the news- The department is coming out on the side of the authors.

I was in my favourite bookstore yesterday and mentioned the merger. The bookseller commented that PRH produced or distributed half the books in their store. If they fell over so would bookstores. It was a sobering remark. When you are reliant on the success of your biggest supplier to stay in business….

 

Agent Jennifer Laughran explains how the book industry got into the supply chain problem. Her take – expect it to continue all next year as well.

 

The Authors Guild has joined forces with some other writer associations to support Starz taking MGM to court. The heart of the court case, collecting damages for copyright infringement. MGM is arguing you can only collect damages from the most recent three years not all the other years the copyright was infringed and you didn’t know about it. Passive Guy writes why it matters to the copyright holders.

 

The New Publishing Standard reports that next year is going to be busy on the conference front. Bologna and Shanghai Children’s Book Fairs are happening at the same time and they are going to be sharing ideas in an East meets West series of events. This is quite ambitious and will be an amazing statement if they can pull it off.

 

The Australian Books and Publishing newsletter is warning Australian writers to contact The New Zealand National Library to pull their titles from the' donation' the NZ National Library is giving to the dodgy Internet Archive. They have been roundly castigated over the deal internationally but they still want to go ahead. (I wrote about it a few weeks ago) If you know anyone this might apply to send them the link which has all the contact details.

 

Recently, The New Yorker wrote an article on Mark McGurl’s book, Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon. How has the Amazon store changed the way readers read a novel? It has some interesting points and points the finger at genre readers who are now microniched and sold content by writers who have also fallen into the commodity trap. 

Plenty to think about in this article.

 

Last week Kris Rusch posted the 3^rd in her ‘IP Is The New Frontlist series. This is an interesting article on how marketers are struggling with trying to promote movies that keep getting delayed by Covid problems. Eventually the audience gives up. Do writers have an advantage here?

 

Dan Blank, marketer and writer was brought up short by his young son recently. Who looks after you, he was asked. This led Dan on an exploration of collaborators and mentors and into an interesting interview on connecting with other writers.

 

Juliet Marillier, fantasy author, wrote a fantastic post on Writer Unboxed today on older woman writers writing older women. As we age are we ignoring writing for our own age group? Do book characters have to be in a narrow age band? What does this do to our own psyche? The comments are heart-warming.  

 

In The Craft Section,

Pacing and momentum- April Bradley

Manuscript evaluations- Now Novel

3 tricks to immerse your reader in your story- Marissa Graff- Bookmark

Learn how to show the fun way- C S Lakin- Bookmark

The two halves of the inciting event – K M Weiland - Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Twitter spaces for authors- Rachel Thompson

Make money with first in series free- and Cross-promotion with other authors- Bookbub

5 simple book marketing tips- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

How to write a Book Release- Dave Chesson – Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Anne R Allen has written a superb post on creativity wounds. These are the wounds you might not know you have. They have been given to you when you were learning how to be creative. First reviews, ridicule from family or respected teachers, wounds from other writers who think that savage critiques are character forming. You get the idea. These wounds become your subconscious and can be quite destructive if not reined in.

The 20Books to 50K conference is on at the moment. It is the biggest author conference in the world. I watched an excellent presentation by Sarah Noffke on productivity, goal setting, etc. Just an all-around shot in the arm. While you are on the YouTube channel check out some of the other presentations that have been made available. The conference is on all week. There is something for everyone.

 

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: Flickr Creative Commons – Heather Cowper http://www.heatheronhertravels.com

Vimy Ridge Arras WW1 trenches. 

We will remember them!

Writing Trends

What are the current trends in writing? Everybody wants to know.

Writers do know some trends. Their incomes are all over the place or dropping.

The current political situation is seeing dystopian themed books being dusted off. The South by South West film and television festival is currently full of Handmaids from The Handmaids Tale, a book by Margaret Atwood. This book freaked people out when it was first published and seems set to continue if all the articles about the festival handmaids is anything to go by.

The London Book Fair is on* and chat on the floor suggests that Brexit will hit UK publishing scene hard. Also I see on Twitter that it’s not just the Brits who are un-nerved. Several EU countries are facing Brexit calls of their own in upcoming elections.

We are in unsettled times.

The Bookseller talks about the difference between a bestseller and a profitable book. I was surprised to learn that they are not the same thing.

If you have tried to make sense of your publishers royalty statements lately, read Mike Shatzkin’s recent blog on Profit and Loss formulas and how publishers are getting them wrong. Could be some ammo in there for negotiations.

Sacha Black wonders if now is the time to go wide given the current trends of income uncertainty.

The latest Author Earnings report is out, and interesting reading it is too. Here in NZ we recently had our own version of Writer Income surveyed... which was pretty dismal reading. Data Guy has some comments on the NZ situation in English language publishing.

Mike Sahno wrote a guest post on Anne R Allen’s blog about the 5 pieces of bad advice regularly given to literary writers.

Auburn Seal of Bibliocrunch has some rock solid advice if you are spinning around with writing speed trends. Should you write faster or write slower? If you are feeling overwhelmed with everything you should do... set some solid goals.

Dan Blank has some sage advice for figuring out where you should be placing your book, marketing wise... way before you publish it. This is a must read.

Subscription curation is all the rage in children’s publishing according to Publishers Weekly. Publishers are directly helping parents choose wisely along with publishing classroom versions of popular books to get around censorship.

Elizabeth Craig was recently asked why didn’t she sell her books on Etsy. And this sparked a whole new way of looking at writing.

In The Craft Section,

Understanding story flow- and 3 steps to raise our story stakes- Jami Gold- Bookmark both

How to brief Beta readers for the best results- Belinda Pollard- Bookmark

Creating an Irresistible Series- Sandra Haven

Developing Themes – The midpoint- Sara Letourneau- Bookmark

Using Scrivener – Writer Unboxed

What makes a good story- Now Novel

Creating playlists for your writing

How to take charge of your novel’s symbolism- Christine Frazier

In The Marketing Section,

5 tools every Indie author should use- Frances Caballo- Bookmark!!

How an author got 10,000 pre orders

6 Basic tech skills authors should learn- Carla King- Bookmark!!

How to hitch a ride on someone else’s holiday to sell books- The Book Designer

Why I’m turning Trad pub deals down- Elizabeth S Craig

How to set clear goals and objectives for your book launch- Book Marketing Tools- Bookmark

How to best optimise your blog posts SEO- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Why you should track your book sales and how to- Fix my Story- Bookmark

To Finish,

Reedsy is a great resource for writers. They often have great infographics... (I’m such a sucker...) However Ricardo has recently been putting together a huge list of writing competitions. Have a look.

And for all those people who want a publisher to look at their work... Catherine Ryan Howard’s 50 easy ways to get a publishing deal will resonate with everyone.

* Don’t forget to check out Alli’s LBF Indie Fringe 24 hour conference. You might just get a jump on some writing trends.

Maureen

@craicer

Every month I round up the best of my bookmarked links and put them together with some other goodies. You can join the trendy people and subscribe to my monthly newsletter.Thanks to the lovely people who shouted me a coffee. It is much appreciated.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Quotes Everlasting