The Diverse Future Of Publishing

It’s been a busy week in publishing.

The wait is over and everyone now knows who won The Man Booker. The type of book is a little eyebrow raising. The author writes in 166 different voices to tell the story. Literary writing is becoming very experimental.

While everyone was waiting for the award to be announced, that perennial favourite in publishing, diversity, was back in water cooler discussions. Has the publishing industry got any better since the last time we all said we needed more diverse voices in publishing?

Chris Jackson has an essay on Lit Hub about the need for social diversity in publishing. Are we just getting the same old stories being selected by the Ivy League grads?

Diversity in children’s publishing is also a hot topic. At the recent trade fair in the Pacific Northwest booksellers were told that the majority of American kids are not white and children’s publishing is moving to reflect that.

Also in children’s publishing Macmillan has created a new imprint and handpicked a team to lead it. It’s all about interactivity... the hot new thing in non fiction children’s books...

While Macmillan gears up to change the children’s book scene... Hyperion has launched a new digital hub for children centered around Rick Riorden. Are they copying anyone?

Createspace closed its doors on its online bookstore this week. Did you know they had a bookstore? Me neither.

Remember last week... Yes it was so long ago, when I introduced my blog saying the big talking points at Frankfurt were the rise of audio books and free speech. GQ magazine explains the history and rise ofAudible and why audio books are an addiction.

Besides the rise in audio being discussed at Frankfurt there was also a future look at a new looming disrupter to the publishing industry.Blockchains. Try and get your head around this possibility. Every item created will have its own identifier which will enable the purchaser to pay the creator instantaneously.

If you haven’t checked out the Indie fringe conference... The videos are up. Immerse yourself in a treasure trove of content all about Author Business.

Kris Rusch has a great post on author subsidiary rights. Do you know what these are and how you can earn money from them?

In The Craft Section,

How to write good endings- Roz Morris- Bookmark

Plot planners – Martha Alderson

How Google Docs can improve your writing

Occupation Thesaurus- Angela Ackerman

5 tips for telling resistance stories- Mythcreants- Bookmark

Brainstorming  a great novel hook- Janice Hardy-Bookmark

How to write a webseries

Tips to train your writing brain DIYMFA

In The Marketing Section,

How to crush social media as an introvert- Bookmark- Frances Caballo

Tips to get noticed on Social Media

How to improve your About Me page- Bookmark

Selling direct from your site and other goodies from the SFF Marketing podcast team. You should 

watch it.

Writing to match genre categories- Debbie Young -Alli Blog

To Finish,

Two CEO’s were talking at Frankfurt about their industry. One was optimistic that Young People would continue to read lots of print books and that publishing was doing well. The other talked about the huge amount of customers who used to come to them but no longer do... Mike Shatzkin reflects on their speeches and what the messages might actually be.

N.B These CEO’s head up two of the biggest publishing houses in the world.

Looks like murky waters ahead...

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. Feel free to hit the coffee button. I live on the fumes of that most excellent drink.
 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Stad Amsterdam – Denna Jones

Diverse Publishing

This week I have been thinking about Diversity and the representation of diversity in publishing. Some of this was sparked by the campaign of an 11 year old girl who was searching for books that showed people of her race as the main characters in books.

I was talking with my writing buddy recently over my characters and I made the comment that none of my main characters were the same colour as me. I always saw them as mixed race though I never made a point of describing them as such. As my writing buddy hears and critiques my writing first... the fact that the characters were mixed race was news to her. This sparked a conversation about whether to info dump character information. (NO)

Info dumping statistics this week was Lee and Low, children’s publishers, with their report on Diversity in Publishing. We all know that publishing is White Skin dominant... It is also female gender dominant...

Porter Anderson takes a look at other statistics to pop out of the report.

Here in very multi cultural NZ, the loss of many of our NZ publishing offices to Australia has always concerned writers here. It widens the ditch that our distinctive Maori/Pasifica stories have to hurdle over to get published.

Today I was watching #Pit2Pub on Twitter. It was interesting to see the number of pitches that used diversity hash tags. A new kid on the Twitter pitch block is Pitch Match. – this is a 3 hour pitch fest broker party happening on the 11^th.

A brief Twitter storm happened with the reporting that Amazon was opening bricks and mortar bookstores across the U.S. This was quickly shut down on Twitter but it still raises questions...

Bob Mayer has been rallying the writing troops this week with two great posts on ambushing writing fear and what is becoming his annual exhortation to writers to face up to the harsh truths of this writing business. Go in with your eyes open...

This has been echoed by Agent Jennifer Laughran when she answered a question about sham agents and how you can tell who they are. (Especially important for people doing Twitter pitches)

You’ve dodged the sham agent and got your diverse story polished, what can you do next on your publishing journey?

You need an Author Business plan. This one is a comprehensive lists of things to think about on your way to establishing your author business.

Joel has put together a workflow checklist for book designing and publishing your project.

When it comes to selling this discussion on Ingram’s acquisition of Aer.io, a turn key bookstore that can be dropped into an author website, by Bookworks has some interesting opinions.

In the Craft Section,

The problem with revealing information- Janice Hardy

Using Twitter for research

Using a scene template- C S Lakin Bookmark

Mastering the art of the cliffhanger chapter ending- Bookmark

Seven stages of the writer process- Orna Ross- Bookmark

What’s killing your creativity

Who is the better hero - Han or Luke?

Drafting in layers- Elizabeth S Craig- Bookmark

In the Marketing Section,

Metadata-why it matters to Authors

How to develop and perfect your author marketing- Rachel Thompson Bookmark

24 tips for using photos in your POD book- The Book Designer

Rethinking book cover design – Dave Bricker

Book Marketing ideas -Bookbub- Bookmark

5 reasons Canva is your blogging design heaven

To Finish,

The last memory I have of the late, great Dame Katerina Mataira (Ngati Porou) was the speech where she didn’t mince any words to the publishing establishment. ‘Where are our Maori books? ‘The market is too small’ they said. So I have to do it myself.’ She went on to write, publish and sell in all genres across the board at over 70 years of age. “You have a niche product. No one will publish you. Get out there and do it yourself.”

The Pic is the cast of the new Harry Potter play. Yes, that is the Golden Trio. J K Rowling has said she never mentioned skin colour in the books for Hermione. Score for Diversity!

Maureen

@craicer

This Diverse Business

This week the NZ children and Young Adult Book Awards finalists were announced and in a new move The Children’s Choice finalists, voted on by NZ kids, were added. The kids choice and the official judges marched in step for about half the time and then diverged so altogether there is a much wider sampling of books. This is great because it shows the depth and the breadth of the amazing writers and illustrators in our country. They are still looking for sponsors. So if you know of anyone....

Publishers Weekly have taken a close look at the figures from AAP and sales were ... up. Leading the charge, Kids books at a wopping 20%. Yes they could be said to be saving the publishers bacon.

This year there have been several campaigns about publishing diverse books. Leading Agent Sarah Davis talks about what books are crossing her desk and how the publishers are now calling for diverse books.

Porter Anderson follows along on this theme with a look at gender in publishing. What’s fairness got to do with it. There seems to be a lot of women in publishing until you get to the board room.

Still in business... How European VAT is affecting selfpublishers.

Kristen Nelson talks about whether subscription services are good for authors ... and the rise of the author space in offices. (Fantasy... the New York office loft with some writing buddies.)

Which brings me to... Author collaboration. How to go about it. Triskele books has a tool kit you need to Bookmark! I’ve said it for years, Authors need to look at this model to make an impact!

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are going from strength to strength. Here they announce their new venture to go with all those cool writing thesauri ... Software. They are such cool and savvy writers!

Kris Rusch has a new project- Women in Sci Fi especially the forgotten women. I fell in love with Sci Fi when I was a teen and discovered Andre Norton. And it blew my mind to find out she was a woman. Kris looks at her legacy and the history of how these writers became forgotten. This is an amazing post!

In the Craft Section,

Breaking the 10,000 words a day barrier.- Lyndsay Buroker

7 mistakes to avoid when writing about the military.-2 Navy guys (Military mistakes always causes the book to be thrown out in my family.)

Metaphor writing exercises

How story structure relates to our lives.

Theme and Intent- getting these right. –Bob Mayer

Fun literary devices- Janice Hardy

Twice the writing in half the time

6 tricks for building a strong writing habit.-Ali Luke

In the Marketing Section,

Are you using pinned tweets- (this opened up a whole new world for me.)

Molly Greene has two great posts- collaboration with authors on boxed sets and

How to make an author video. (Bookmark both)

Is your website up to snuff.

The Creative Penn interviews Mark Dawson- On writing fast. This is a great interview.

My book is being pirated what do I do- (Bookmark)

How to find the right critique group-Jane Friedman (Bookmark)

Website of the Week

Chuck Wendig has made the occasional appearance on my blog for a few years now. He is a best selling children’s and adult Sci Fi writer. He is NSFW and some of his metaphors will stay with you all day. He is entertaining but also tells important truths on writing. Here are his most frequently asked writing questions and his very truthful answers-Be Warned.

To Finish,

Planning conferences is hard work. I’m happy to say we have finally reached the important programme day a week after we wanted to. It’s tricky juggling the right speakers who will inspire, challenge, teach, and up-skill writers and illustrators across all stages of the profession. I think our team have done a fantastic job. I wish I could split myself into three because I want to attend everything.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic: The Grand Dame of Sci Fi- Andre Norton 1912-2005