Jumping Off With Your Eyes Open

 

In Publishing News this week.

Just after I posted my blog last week the news broke all over the publishing blogosphere that Findaway Terms Of Service had changed and they were doing an all in rights grab. I figured that instead of posting breaking news I would wait and see what happened and tell you this week. So, to recap for those in the back, Findaway was a nifty little startup that authors could put their audiobooks on without the punitive contracts and royalty grabbing that Amazon Audible locked authors into. Yay. 

They grew fast and everything was good and then Spotify bought them. Wow, said their authors, we’re playing with the big boys. Audible took a hit. Everything was fine, until Findaway’s TOS changed last week. The screams were deafening. 

Check out Author Beware for just what the terms are now and whether you should accept them.

Spotify/Findaway shouted, it’s all a mistake, all’s well, nothing to see here, as they quickly backpedaled most of the terms. 

Except, canny pundits said- Aha, we were waiting for this. They screwed musicians and now they are coming for us. Kris Rusch breaks this down and lays out the pros and cons.

What to do? 

First, Take a deep breath. Decide what you want your audiobook platform to be. Discoverability, a little money on the side, all in formats, human narrators, AI narrated shorts…

There are other discoverability platforms out there for Audiobooks- Many have ditched Spotify for Author Republic, who distribute to 50 other retailers including Spotify. (I hope they have looked at their terms of service well.) 

If you have a high traffic website of your own – Bookfunnel now delivers audiobooks. 

However, if you see the world in Entertainment- Subscription streaming is where movies and TV shows are. Spotify has all but captured the music business and are making big inroads into podcasts and now Audiobooks. If Netflix has your eyes, then Spotify has your ears. Can you afford to ditch them or do you play them like a lute- giving some of your content to Spotify and encouraging your fans to go to you direct.

If anything about the last week has taught authors, it’s that corporations who rely on creative content for money don’t care about the rights of the content providers. Read the TOS carefully and go in with your eyes open. 

 

In Other News...

TOR Books (Big SciFi publisher) has been caught using Ai images in cover art. They said they bought them legit but the artists whose work it is say that Ai’s ripped off their work. So even the legit Ai platforms are dodgy- who knew? 

 

London Bookfair has been announcing their programming. Publishing Perspectives details the special guests and what extra book events they have on offer.

 

Late January is when the Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators have their Winter conference. They have a great blog where they write up key moments and presentations from the speakers. Children’s Book Illustrator Debbie Ohi has a great post on picture books behind the scenes- excellent for new illustrators with tips of the trade.

 

The Week has a post on Romantasy - the hot new genre. Hmm I’m not sure it’s new, its been around for a while- think hot romance inside a fantasy novel.

 

Jane Friedman has a guest post  from Tiffany Yates Martin on why and how you can sabotage an important reveal in your story. It’s all about context.

 

Anne R Allen has a super post on action, dialogue, and business. Action is not violence it can be anything. But if you have too much action you can bore the reader as well. Use your action wisely.

 

In The Craft Section,

Perform your own developmental edit- WrittenWordMedia- Bookmark

3 kinds of Story Fuel, goal desire, and search- Barbara Linn Probst- Bookmark

Scene structure- September Fawkes

Tension suspense and conflict-Lynette Burrows- Bookmark

How To find Beta Readers- Now Novel

 

In The Marketing Section,

Amazon A+ Content Sandra Beckwith – Bookmark

Social Media and the author platform- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

What is a Book discovery platform - Alli Blog

How to go viral on TikTok- Hina Pandya

Booktok tips for writers- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Platform. Your platform. Their platform. Publishers platform. Distributors platform.

You can be forgiven for thinking it is all too much - let me hide.

The most basic understanding is how you are represented online. It could be a webpage, a website, an email contact, Amazon Author page. Whatever it is you need to be aware of it and be in control of it. Colleen Story has 5 reasons to update your author platform. It doesn’t have to be hard. Imagine you are an enthusiastic reader- how could you find out about your favourite books?

Just don’t have mind boggling Terms Of Service for your fans!

Maureen

@craicer 

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If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. It feeds my caffeine addiction. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by vherliann on Unsplash

 

The Battle For Your Ears

 

This week in publishing,

The news that Spotify has bought Findaway broke like a thunderclap around the publishing world. Spotify aims to be a one stop shop for everything audio and Findaway is the biggest competitor to Audible in English language audiobooks. They are keeping the Findaway team on and will throw some serious money and muscle into the audiobook world. The reaction is mixed. Some herald it as a fantastic opportunity to go wide with Spotify bringing its subscription dominant model to audiobooks. Others note with caution the negative impact Spotify has had on musicians' take-home pay. 

 

Meanwhile, Storytel was acquiring a big audiobook publisher of its own. Their acquisition of audiobooks.com marks their first foray into the English language market. They have plans to expand in other little-served English language markets. The New Publishing Standard has an interesting analysis.

Audiobook subscription is here to stay. Authors will have to decide on what company has their best interests at heart.

 

The Futurebook conference is about to kick off in London. This is run by The Bookseller and a quick look at the programme shows what they think will be the big moves in publishing and the book trade in the next few years. 

 

Miral Satter has an interesting article on the importance of audio metadata. Increasingly people are asking their smart devices to find content and entertainment. Audiobooks are obviously chock full of audio metadata. You want to be found by search engines, don’t you?

 

Kris Rusch casts her laser eye over the proposed merger of Simon and Schuster with Penguin Random House. The DOJ has halted the sale while they wrangle about causing a monopoly Kris points out it might be too late.

 

The Guardian reports that UK store John Lewis who is known for their iconic Christmas Ads is being sued by a writer who thinks they have ripped off her book. It all hinges on copyright and proving who had the idea first.

Written Word Media published their survey findings on the state of Indie publishing in 2021. 

Becca Puglisi has a guest post on Anne R Allen’s blog on finding conflict. You don’t have to look far just allow your characters to speak. If you peel back a few layers your characters have enough conflict to punch up your story stakes.

 

Recently, Sarah Penner wrote an interesting article on Writer Unboxed about the cliffhanger. Readers love to be teased she says and the art of the cliffhanger is the best way to keep them reading. So how do you write an effective cliffhanger?

 

In The Craft Section,

The First Chapter Checklist- K M Weiland

Plotlines points and sequences- Scott Myers- Bookmark

How to write fight scenes- Write to Done

How to show emotion in non viewpoint characters- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

How to deal with writer's block- Dave Chesson- Bookmark

 

 

In The Marketing Section,

The literary calendar of 2022-  Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

 2 great posts from Bookbub- Boost reader engagement and 

Promoting multi-author book series- Bookmark

Marketing Book ARC’s- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Amazon keywords and Atticus – Dave Chesson- podcast 

transcript with Joanna Penn- Bookmark

 

To Finish

Christmas decorations are everywhere. This means the agony of Christmas shopping. With the supply chain problems the earlier you nail down those presents the better. The Alliance of Independent Authors has a gift buying guide for writers. 

Don’t forget to check out the Storybundle of NaNoWriMo craft and marketing books. It is available until the end of November which isn’t that far away.

The Dream Team of Angela and Becca have put together a list of Black Friday deals for writers. Check it out. 

 

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.

 

 

For Sale; Creativity

With the screenwriters on strike from their agents, there has been a shuffle in Hollywood surrounding how projects get writers attached. Some interesting developments... Word of mouth, writers lifting up other writers, and some innovative websites that have sprung up have resulted in studios suddenly seeing more and varied kinds of projects. Will it last? Should the agencies be worried?

Ruth Harris writing on Anne R Allen’s blog recently had an interesting blog post on creativity. How do you go from a mediocre idea to a brilliant one? There is new research out that says all you need is a little frustration.

Many authors use Patreon to reward their fans. The idea is a good one... A monthly ongoing payment to support the writers' work. However, Kris Rusch looked at the small print and saw a rights grab in the first sentence. So... what do we do when we love the service but it has a fish hook? This is a great post on understanding copyright and what is your own bottom line.

I was interested to read that Findaway, the new kid on the Audio block disrupting Audible, is introducing hardware. They have developed the Wonderbook. A Playaway audio player designed for the school and library market. Back in my teaching days, we had Listening Post which the children loved. Earphones on, storybook in hand, and read along with the narrator. One of my plays was produced in this format. I was thrilled because I knew kids loved listening to stories. This old technology (cutting edge when I was a child) has largely disappeared but now every child seems to own headphones and we have a boom in audiobooks....

Yesterday I listened to a mammoth post by Joanna Penn on Exclusivity versus Wide- the conundrum that faces the Indie author. Joanna broke down the arguments for each side by format, Ebook, Print, and Audio. Joanna posts a transcript of her podcasts... if you want to quickly scan for the main points but if you have the time to listen, it's well worth it.
Staying with Joanna, She recently interviewed Ruth Ware on self-editing and contracts. This is also a must listen/read for a quick primer on best practice.

While you are contemplating selling your own books... spare a thought for your website. Career Author has an interesting article on viewing your author website as a hub and the spokes going out always bring your reader back...


One of the things that struck me recently is how many people seem to think it is OK to wander into a bookshop, look at a book and then search it up and buy the book online, sometimes while standing in the store. When you know how the margins are squeezed for bookshop owners, the showrooming model that Amazon has adopted for their brick and mortar stores is not a great customer model for the Indie bookstore owner. If you want to get your books into stores you also need to support them. A bunch of children’s bookstore owners hilariously turned this on its head this week to make a point.

How productive are you when it comes to writing? Could you do it better? All authors will be nodding because it’s always a guilt trip for us. Joanna Penn has an excerpt from her recent book on productivity which has some great tips.

In The Craft Section,

3 act arc for showing shame in fiction- Writers in the storm

What will you sacrifice to be better- Beth Cadman

The circle theory of story- Go Into The Story- Bookmark

Tricks and tips for catching errors Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Writing prompts- a waste of time? Savannah Cordova

How to end the story, questions- Writepractice- Bookmark

World building is for every story- Jami Gold

In The Marketing Section,

5 ways to stand out as an author on social media- Eevi Jones- Bookmark

A tool to format book descriptions- Kindlepreneur- Bookmark

Twitter for authors – Bookbub

Author engagement-build brand and fans- Bookworks

Cheatsheet on how to write a logline- Bang2write- Bookmark

To Finish,

The act of writing is the act of creation. Sharing your creation is the tricky bit. If you are tempted to  Indie publish you need to understand how to be an Entrepreneur. Some might say that writing and entrepreneurship are opposites. But they both need a passion for the project. Jami Gold has an excellent post on looking at entrepreneurship from a writers point of view.

I have some Advance Reader Copies of my middle-grade novel, How To Lose A Rockstar to give away on my Facebook page. Drop in and take a look.


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 mini book crammed full with marketing notes. 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 – Studio Sarah Lou