Is It A Lemon?

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The unleashing of the AI monsters have many in publishing concerned. Two stories caught my eye and left me feeling faintly sick. It was predicted but seeing these things blatantly promoted is confronting. 

A publishing startup/ tech company has decided to disrupt publishing (why?) by using AI to help edit, polish, and sell books. Spines reckon they could publish 8000 books a year with this model. If you give them $5000 you will get their personal attention. 

If you have $5000 – pay for a decent editor and cover and do it yourself.

Following on from this was the wonderful idea of taking out of print classics and getting AI to write new forwards and repackage them for sale. Slate has an in depth article exposing one Get Rich Quick scheme to teach you how to do this. This is problematic if you don’t check where the AI is scraping its content from. You could be breaching all sorts of copyright with university presses or believing the outright lies that AI likes to spin. (N.B. AI is not a super intelligent version of an encyclopedia which has been vetted for veracity.) 

Get Rich Quick publishing schemes have been around forever and using AI is just the latest twist of lemon in the publishing cocktail. Often these schemes are a front for a scam or are morally dubious. 

If you care about producing quality work with your name on it, stay away from them.

 

In audio publishing news, Spotify announced a deal with Bloomsbury. It looks like Spotify are approaching traditional publishers and gobbling up direct deals. Amazon has quickly moved to offer more audio choice. Spotify want to be all things audible… can Amazon compete with this? Mark Williams takes a look at the seismic shift happening with Spotify.

 

The New York University’s Advanced Publishing Institute 5 day conference is open for registration. If you have a spare $5000 you can attend in January. Publishing Perspectives has a quick overview of one of the talks that will be given by Penguin Random House on Shifting Consumer Tastes in Social Media. They hope to give tangible advice on this and other thorny problems to the attendees. For that amount of money it will have to be gold plated!

 

Publishers Weekly is releasing some of the talks from Frankfurt. This interesting article caught my eye by Ed Nawotka on the explosion of AI startups dedicated to the publishing industry.

 

If you follow Taylor Swift you might have heard that she has a book coming out based around her Era’s tour. If you are in publishing you might be surprised that she has not partnered with any publisher. She has the money and the clout and the fan base to be successful without a publisher backing her. However, not all celebrity books do well. The Atlantic looks at how she might upend the model and will there be room for a traditional publishing partnership down the trail.

 

The biggest author publishing conference happened in Las Vegas this month. Written Word Media put together a takeaways article about the trends and issues that were discussed at Vegas. Collaboration is King. 

Derek Murphy ( Creativ Indie) shares his slide show presentation and talks about Authentic Creativity As A Response To Artificial Intelligence.

Back in the day when Twitter was young and had no inkling of what a new owner might do, the publishing world flocked to the social media site. Then things changed. Publishing industry folks left for other pastures and it became harder to get back the tribe you used to have. Bluesky has spent the last week adding almost a million users a day and the publishing industry people started to flock together. Rachel Thompson takes a look at whether Bluesky will work for writers. 

 

Darcy Pattison has put together an excellent article on how to take a rights released book from Traditional Publishing and give it a whole new lease of life. Those books that didn’t get their series finished or didn’t find their audience don’t have to be consigned to the dustbin.

If you are struggling with NaNoWriMo this month you are not alone. Elinor Florence writes on Jane Friedman’s blog about how she got through the train wreck of her own NaNoWriMo project.  

In The Craft Section,

Going deeper with characterization- Lisa Hall Wilson- Bookmark

Balancing your cast of characters- September Fawkes

Don’t tie your story up in a neat bow- P J Parrish- Bookmark

How to write great dialogue- C S Lakin- Bookmark

What is your characters wounding event- Sue Coletta

 

In the Marketing Section,

Is your target readership meaningful to agents and publishers- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

5 essential steps to maximise your books success-Written Word Media- Bookmark

Social Media engagement- a how to from Hootsuite- Comprehensive

What to do when book sales start slipping- Thomas Umstattd- Bookmark

Turbocharging book sales with preorders- Mark Coker

 

To Finish

It’s Black Friday this week and there are deals galore for writers out there. You can check out Dave Chesson’s huge list of deals. 

If you are thinking about  Christmas/ Holiday gifts check out Sandra Beckwith’s big list of goodies designed for writers.

Infostack have their big bundle of writer resources on sale again.

Yes, It’s that time of the year already. The Credit Card Crunch!

 

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 Tirza van Dijk on Unsplash

Looking For A Hero

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The regular news has been dominated by the Election in the United States of America. The world is going to change. Publishers are already looking at how the election result will impact their business.

If you publish books in/for the LGBTQ+ community, you may have a harder time in the business according to James Folta writing for LitHub. Authors against Book Bans took the time to read the Project 2025 book outlining a conservative agenda for the USA  (all 900 pages) but very early on they were confronted with some disturbing statements that will wreak havoc on the publishing community.

 

Libraries are also looking at the challenges they will face as the result of the election. With conservative states promoting Book Banning some libraries are thinking of adopting Idaho’s model of banning children from libraries so they can’t be prosecuted if the child sees a book that would be problematic e.g. Anne Frank’s Diary or How To Be An Antiracist.

 

Elsewhere in the world of publishing, Sharjah International Bookfair and the Publishers Conference was making news. The Bookfair starts today with over 2500 publishers from 112 countries. This Bookfair is going from strength to strength. Mark Williams offers an interesting view on the importance of the Sharjah Bookfair and how quickly it is becoming a fixture in publishers diaries.

With a dedicated free trade area for anything book related it’s no wonder that big printers are seeing the benefits of setting up shop there. John Ingram of IngramSpark and Lightening Source was interviewed about the benefits to the Print on Demand community. 

 

Publishers are embracing AI after condemning it. Translators are eyeing Simon and Schuster sideways as they committed to using AI for translating into English books published in other languages. First up Dutch through the Dutch publishing house that S&S acquired this year.

 

It's November and usually writers would have been settling in for NaNoWriMo. But news has been scarce of late due to changes in the structure of the nonprofit organization. If you have decided to turn off the news and just hunker down to write you can still join in with NaNoWriMo – maybe aim for 40,000 words instead.

 

If you are looking for a news escape and want to dive into some craft reading, Kevin Anderson has curated the annual November Storybundle of writing craft books. The Storybundle offers great craft books for cheap, money going directly to authors and a charity. Wins all around. This year there is even a year’s subscription to The Indie Author magazine.

 

Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur has a swag of free tools for writers, he has just launched a little app that can keep an eye on all your reviews. Check out what Writerwatch can do for you.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has an excellent post on special editions. This goes into detail about crowdfunding the edition, print runs, how to get special detailing all sorts of nuts and bolts information. If you have a special project that you want as a limited edition this is the article you need to read. 

 

Katie Weiland has a great article on the most important characters in your novel. She identifies three that you must have for your structure to work. The protagonist, the antagonist, and the relationship character. This is a super post on writing craft.

 

James Scott Bell has been looking at old movies for inspiration and he talks about the literal mirror moments in films that do the same things in a well written book.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to avoid author intrusion in the first person- Becca Puglisi-Bookmark

7 tips for finding perfect character names- Becca Puglisi

6 powerful techniques to escape tedious descriptions- Sandy Vaile- Bookmark

3 questions to ask about the protagonists goal- Susan DeFreitas- Bookmark

How to approach editing- Stephen Geez

 

In The Marketing Section,

The best time of the year to sell books- Rachel Thompson

Maximise Goodreads giveaways- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Getting Beta Readers- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Catalog sales campaigns, pros and cons- Authors Red Door- Bookmark

6 ways to boost author website visits – Rob Bignell

 

 

To Finish,

It can be tempting to wallow in the doom and gloom of an unexpected outcome. Although most people agree that wallowing can really hit your mental health. (Chuck Wendig -Terribleminds.) Many writers take their pain and rage and use it to fuel their writing. Others look objectively at how to promote the change they want to see in the world. 

Donald Mass on Writer Unboxed has a post asking if Heroes Are Obsolete. He suggests using your fiction to create the heroes you want to see in the world. 

I am reminded of the student protests in Asia where the hunger games salute became synonymous with defiance against a military regime. The power of a fictional character transcended language and culture to be a symbol for others. 

Writers have the power to change attitudes. It might be time to get your Big Damn Hero pants on.

 

 

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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Reynolds Those who know... Know.

Making A Buck

 

In Publishing News this week.

After the wailing and gnashing of teeth against AI, the consensus within the trade publishing fraternity is how can we make it worthwhile for us. Jane Friedman has an interesting article on Publishers Licensing Material For AI- hopefully this will trickle down to the authors.

 

Meanwhile, the Copyright Clearance Center, (The US Copyright office) has announced a new subscription tier that can make available to AI companies content licensed for AI reuse. Publishing Perspectives have a rundown on the subscription model and the CCC’s commitment to being Pro AI and Pro Copyright. (It’s OK if your head hurts over that statement- mine does too.) 

 

To help everyone navigate the tricky world of AI rights – there are now market places for selling content rights to AI. Check out what the founder of Scribd is doing with his new startup. (There’s money in them thar AI hills.)

 

With the emphasis on writers being authentic or as Joanna Penn puts it ‘doubling down on being human’ Alison Williams has a post about the platform that authors need now – and it is not Social Media.

 

For those who have one eye on the elections happening in the near future Kathleen Schmidt has a thoughtful post on the publishing industries responsibilities to free speech and allowing a platform for divisive and dangerous rhetoric. 

We who look on from the other side of the world see the three world areas of conflict being, Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, and American vs American. All of them filling us with a deep disquiet.

 

Techcrunch reports on Spotify’s moves to have more connections between listeners and creators. They are allowing comments on podcasts and are looking to gradually roll out these and similar features across all their streaming programes. 

 

London Libraries or Librarians are promoting a new app to get Londoners to read more. It’s called ReadOn and has quiz questions, reading club, recommendations for your next book… everything to promote the beach read into a year long activity.

 

Bookfunnel has a great article from Katie Cross on creating landing pages with Bookfunnel for selling purposes.

 

Anne R Allen is taking a break from her great blog over summer as she has some deadlines to meet. However, she has links to some great blogs to drop in on so you can keep up to date. I was touched that she included Craicer in the list. Thankyou Anne.

 

Lithub has an interesting article on the millennial mid life crisis book. I wasn’t aware that millennials are even ready for a midlife crisis, I thought they had a few decades to go.

 

Joanna Penn has an interesting interview with Kimboo York on fan fiction and serialization. Check out the podcast /transcript.

 

With Katie Weiland bringing out an updated version of her story structure book she is posting a series of posts on that topic. Check out the intro to story structure article.

In The Craft Section,

How to use Goal Motivation and Conflict to test story ideas- Alex Cavanaugh- Bookmark

Mispronunciation- Kathy Steinemann

The secret to page turning scene endings-Lisa Poisso- Bookmark

Editing tricks of the trade- Terry Odell- Bookmark

The matter of titles- Barbara Linn Probst- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

August book promotion opportunities- Sandra Beckwith

Introverted writers can market effectively- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

The lazy authors guide to platform- David Gaughran

How to change Kindle keywords- Dave Chesson- Bookmark

How to make a cinematic booktrailer.- Reedsy.

 

To Finish,

With the news cycle making everyone anxious, escaping into a good book offers the reader time out from the insanity. James Scott Bell has a great post about old time pulp writers and how they could keep the reader glued to the page. Telling emotional stories, keeping everyone spell bound. Those are our superpowers. That is what separates us from the software programs.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Its nearly time for the monthly newsletter? 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 Alexander Mils 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

The Opinions of Writers

 

In Publishing News this week

 

This week has seen rumbles of discontent through the publishing communities. At issue is the freedom to express your opinions and or the truth without being labelled with racist slurs. Finding and keeping the middle ground in the rhetoric over the Gaza crisis is becoming increasingly problematic. This week Pen America cancelled its award ceremony as many finalists pulled out citing a lack of support from Pen America. This is the American branch of the organization which supports writers in prison and the freedom of ideas and speech. 

 

In Italy, the publisher’s association has come out swinging over perceived censorship when a prominent writer was refused a broadcast appearance on the way to the studio, for criticizing the government. Their statement “A country that is strong in its democracy should never fear the opinions of writers, whatever they may be.”

 

On the Bookfair front, Publishing Perspectives has a breakdown on the deals that were done at Bologna. The comics group can’t have been eating or sleeping with so many deals done in their genre.

 

Publisher’s Weekly reports that Entangled Press is flying high with a blockbuster on their hands but they insist nothing will change at their little Indie press.

 

London Bookfair has another change of director. This revolving door or ‘poisoned chalice’ as Mark Williams calls it, is not helping the industry in any way. He makes good points in his acerbic take down of London Book Fair’s governing body.

 

Meanwhile, Elle Griffin, writing at The Elysian has spurred discussion with her provocative article No One Buys Books. She read the book based on the big Department of Justice trial over Penguin Random House wanting to buy Simon and Schuster. She pulls out charts and statements made by publishing executives to illustrate her article and opinion that publishing is broken but no one has told the writers.

Taking the opposing point of view, Kathleen Schmidt with her article Please Stop Bashing Book Publishing. Here she shows who is buying books and why they aren’t being noticed in book sales lists.

 

After all this you might like to drop in to Kris Maze and read the excellent article 7 Super Mental Health Hacks for Writers To De-Stress.

 

Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur has another deep dive article full of information over the changes to Audible's categories. With Spotify grabbing increasing market share- The Amazon owned audio publishing company is tweaking the metadata.

 

Sandra Beckwith has a roundup of the interesting book promotion days in May. Check it out if you want inspiration for your Social Media posts.

 

Caroline Leavett has an interesting guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog on writing fact as fiction. This can get very tricky and could involve lawsuits. Caroline talks about the ways you can disguise the Fact in your Fiction so nobody ever knows it’s a true story.

 

 

In The Craft Section,

Writing character appearance- Michelle Miller

Motivating emotionally challenging characters-Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

How to use symbolic settings in your story- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Tropes to the left of me- Terry Odell

Adding a listening pass to your edit- Suzy Vadori-Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

7 Social Media Best Practices- Draft2digital

Book Marketing strategies- Dale Roberts- Bookmark

Analyzing your book marketing niche- Colleen Story

Chirp- free marketing tools-Bookbub- Bookmark

Facebook ads – Written Word Media- Bookmark

 

To Finish

It’s that time of the year when I look back over sixteen years of weekly blogging on the publishing and writing industry where change is constant. Ebooks to Kindle to Subscription publishing services to Print on Demand to Audio Books to Direct Sales to AI. In the next year the Publishers will be coping with the avalanche of AI generated novels and the disruptive impact on the industry. For the Writers it will be the insistence that they are human and human interaction with fans will be the most important strand in their writer business.

This human is about to look for a big drink and cake!

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 or cake for 16 years of blogging, I appreciate and value virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Julien Photo on Unsplash

Avoiding the Sharks on Your Journey

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

There is a new scam going around and it is targeting authors and is particularly nasty. Anne R Allen has the details and even though it reads like a crime novel plot it is particularly horrible for people caught up in it. Before you think 'that would never happen to me', I invite you to think how you would react if you were confronted by law enforcement officers about all your identification being used to commit crimes. The horrible part is where the scammers are getting their information about you from. 

 

Back in the heady publishing days of the 1980’s when Harlequin was on the prowl buying up little publishing companies- Romance editors could see which way the wind was going and quickly set up publishing companies promising their innocent authors loads of goodies to come with them to the new digs- while they waited for Harlequin to buy them for big bucks. Authors got burned left, right, and center in all the wheeling and dealing of Romance imprints and publishing companies. I’m not saying that this new publishing house is anything like the bad old days but it triggered memories as I was looking at the news story from Publishers Weekly.

 

Ru Paul has a book club. Ru Paul has a bookstore. A big one. Taking a leaf out of the Amazon playbook Ru is catering to a specific audience and promising extra gravy to the authors and readers who sign up to be members.

Publishing Perspectives reports that the Access Copyright, a management site for Canadian Authors have been slapped with a huge court fine for demanding copyright fees on authors behalf. The court ruling seems to indicate that it is ok to copy anything you like from a Canadian author- which can’t be right or am I reading it wrong?

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard keeps an eye on what is happening outside our Western centric publishing view. He reports that the Oman Book Fair was well attended and the new trend on the rise is children’s books. With Big Bad Wolf selling remaindered English language books hand over fist in these markets, are publishers missing the sales boat on this?

 

Writer Michael Lucas comments on the Findaway saga using his knowledge of the tech world to explain how developers use Terms Of Service. While authors think that Findaway have walked back their horrible terms this might not be the case…think Bait and Switch.

Dave Chesson has been doing a deep dive into the data from a survey of authors on Direct Selling. Who is making money? Which store is popular? How many books you need? When should you jump into it? All these questions are answered with charts.

If you are trying to keep up with moves in AI and publishing here is a new way of combining the two into something that may be profitable (they have a lot of investment dollars) for someone. Tech Crunch reports on a new company that promises a bright new world- I’m not sure for whom.

 

Katie Weiland has a fantastic post on how to write deeply emotional fiction. If you have been struggling with nailing a scene or trying to convey tone or subtext read this great post. One to print out and stick on the wall. 

Tricia Jenn Loehr has a guest post on Jane Friedmans blog about emotional intimacy and how it’s not restricted to the characters in a romance novel. A great read and food for thought.

 

Gabriela Pereira from DIYMFA has a great post on writing prompts and how they build up the stamina and practice of writing. She offers some great insights here. 

 

In The Craft Section,

7 tips for compelling character motivation- C S Lakin- Bookmark

7 signs you have hidden self doubt- Colleen Story

The hierarchy of exposition- Donald Maass- Bookmark

Crafting an irresistible inciting incident- Polly Watt- Bookmark

Increasing the emotional impact of your story- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

8 things needed on a homepage- Corina Amos

Back cover copy formula- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

How to use crowdfunding for book publishing- Sandra Beckwith

How to promote to the right audience- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

20 bookmarketing ideas that take 10 minutes or less- Jenn Hansen-dePaula- Bookmark

 

To Finish

As you wend your way through this blog post looking at links and trying to figure out what is most worth your time to read (all of it but I’m biased) you finally get down to the bottom and hopefully get a last gem. I have been following Suzanne Lakin for years and she always has a deeply insightful way of looking at the craft. This week she looked at how writers become proficient and the 10,000 hours mantra that Malcolm Gladwell made famous. It’s about the journey not the destination.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

I’m late with my monthly newsletter (life got in the way) but it is coming I promise. If you want the best of my bookmarked links and other assorted stuff 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. It feeds my caffeine addiction. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash