Comic: Death and the Writer. pic.twitter.com/aPDK8joGWm
— Debbie Ridpath Ohi (@inkyelbows) May 14, 2014
Sorry for the day delay in posting... There are some big articles in my round
up this week, so grab a large drink and settle down for a brain expanding
session.
‘Which leads me
to, as my final point, the only real prediction I have made today. It’s one I
made earlier: I think most existing publishers will disappear over the next
decade or two.’
The quote is
from Baldur Bjarnason who had a keynote address at Publishers Forum last week
in London. As you can
imagine the above comment coming towards the end of his address would be pretty
novel given his audience. However as you read through his speech published on Publishing Perspectives, you find yourself nodding. For Authors, it is life as
we know it. For Publishers it may be too late.
In
the wider publishing world...News Corp buys Harlequin for not much over Harlequins annual revenue. How could it be so low? (another tick from Baldur’s
speech)
Amazon and Hachette are having a fight... and low and behold Hachette’s books are
delayed in shipping. We have seen it all before. Who gets hurt? The author.
After
these three hit my brain I was on a mission to find some good news.
Alas,
Blogger
Middle Grade Ninja who has a nice blog interviewing Agents (mostly for
children’s books) revealed his disquiet over some agents practices which have been disturbing him and that he hoped were one off’s until they became too
frequent to be ignored. (part two)
Scarlett Johansson is suing a French author claiming he stole her image when the novel
is about a look-alike getting into a mess. Implications for authors who reference
pop culture in their books could be alarming.
Dave Gaughran, on how to increase piracy... which explains why it is happening and
what we can do about it.
Author Solutions which was supposed to be cleaned up after Penguin bought it...ummm This is a read and share...
Bridgid Kemmerer on why author expectations never live up to reality...
By
now you may be feeling punch drunk. (time for a refill.)
Where
is the good news!?
Agent
Jonny Geller on his top 10 tips for being a literary agent. (yes, there are
some good ones out there.)
The
amazing interview with Jane Friedman on Money, Writing and Life by Joanna Penn.
Take your time. Transcript under the podcast. This one just fills your heart
with zing. (possibilities are endless.)
Hugh
Howey once a month talks about how he is running his mythical publishing house NewHarperCollins. Prepare to have your mind blown. Here he looks at IP and worldbuilding. I watched Cassandra Clare do this with her YA author buddies in the
last year. She grabbed a few
friends, went on a writing boot camp holiday where they all wrote short back
stories featuring one character from her Mortal Instruments series. Then they
released these stories, one a month, digitally. By the fourth month they were
hitting best seller lists. (so it is being done...by authors!)
In
the Craft section,
Ava Jae on Twitter chats. I tune into a couple every week #kidlitchat and #indiechat
Excellent article from Jami Gold on Character Internal Journey.
In
the Marketing section,
How to create a self paced email course...this is really interesting!
Website
of the week.
Gigaom.
This tech/ publishing/ catch-all magazine website always has interesting
articles and is run by very savvy people. Laura Hazard Owen looks at publishing startups and how they go head to head with Amazon and Apple. These startups
change the face of publishing... until they get bought and incorporated. Check
out what’s next on the block.
To
Finish,
Last
week I referenced a project that Mark Coker was involved with e-publishing kids stories with teachers and librarians.
This
week I see that High School teachers are making up their own text books using iBooksAuthor to directly support their students.
Everyone
has the potential to be a publisher... Baldur just pointed out current reality
to the publishers.
maureen
Pic
is from the cartoonist/illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi (AKA Inkyelbows) whose cartoons on the
writing life are so funny. Love
seeing them pop up in my Twitter feed.
