Buying Books

 

 

In Publishing News this week...

Another year, another big publisher on the sales block. This time it's Hachette. But there are differences. Their parent company is dividing the group into four and putting each group on the share market. Publishing by stock market dividends. I can’t see any problems with that model. Can you?

 

The director of The London Book Fair revealed he didn’t know much about the Global Book Business when he declared London was the first Bookfair of 2024. It isn’t and it’s not even the biggest. Mark Williams does a run down of the figures to educate the LBF director.

 

Publishing Perspectives are still filling their news pages with the International Publishing Association conference in Mexico. It’s getting bigger and with more star power- They have a top UN speaker and will be devoting a big chunk of programming to Climate Change issues.

 

Publishers Weekly sat down with some top Children’s editors and agents and asked what the themes of 2024 were. Hands up Romantasy. Manga is still looking good. Everybody is still waiting for the next Harry Potter (holy grail) book. Many have tried and failed. Perhaps HP is the last of the ‘once in a generation books.’

 

LitHub recently published an article by a New Zealand writer about what it’s like to have a successful story and then get told to Americanize it, when the publishers bought it because it was so edgy and cool. Who knew other cultures had their own versions of the English language? Can readers not understand different English words? SIGH.

 

Ricardo Fayet of Reedsy has an article explain the new changes to email which are rolling out this month. If you have a mailing list you will need to take note of the new requirements.

 

Kathy Steinemann has a great article on how to spot publishing scammers and fakes. Everybody should read this- even if you think you are very good at spotting them. Then head over to Writer Beware and take a look at the latest scams out there, like a cloned version of Macmillan Publishers.

 

Jane Friedman has a great guest article by Claire McKinney on why you need a press release and how to write one. This is a print out and stick on the wall post for marketing purposes.

 

The first rule of Write Club… Cathy Yardley has a super post on getting into the thick of writing, digging deep and channeling the things that speak to your passions then pouring them out on the page. And don’t forget about the last rule of Write Club…

 

Sue Coletta has a great post about how to write a dance scene. Like fight scenes they need some choreography and attention to surrounding detail. 

 

How do you know when you have too much dialogue?  And is it a bad thing? What about when the dialogue is authentic? Can’t you keep it? Anne R Allen has an excellent article on how to spot overuse, over authenticity and chatter going nowhere. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Scene Structure Basics - Lewis Jorstad- Bookmark

Vision board for writers- Sarah Rexford

All you need for characters- Writers helping writers- Bookmark

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

What is overwriting and tips to avoid it- Edie Melson

 

In The Marketing Section,

Writing the perfect synopsis- Randy Ingermanson- Bookmark

ISBN’s all you need to know.

Creative Indies resource page- Bookmark

March Promotion opportunities-Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

How to promote your book- Reedsy

3 creative ways to use your book2read account- Draft2Digital

To Finish,

As a teacher, I’m always interested in ways to get kids reading and unlocking the power of story. In Ohio a couple of schools have invested in Book Vending machines which are being used as rewards for good behaviour. The lucky kids get tokens to spend in the machine. Of course, you could see all the ways this could be problematic but still anything that gets kids holding books must be a good thing.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Pic Photo by Streetwindy on Unsplash

Little Gifts of Change.

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

Richard Charkin, commentator on the publishing industry, is walking the talk by having his press go to Print on Demand with Ingram Spark. With calls over the last three years or so for publishing companies to be more sustainable this is a move that will hopefully herald a lot of other publishing companies following suit. Along with POD, Richard is using the new kid on the block Shimmr to handle the book promotion. Shimmr uses AI to scan the book pull out the tropes and selling points and then crafts media ads to target ideal readers. Changes might be happening. 

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that Germany has taken the falling stats in reading skills among German youth to heart and they are going to embark on new strategies to help keep young people reading.

 

It’s time to wheel out the big lawyers. In litigation news, Democrat members of Congress (US) introduced a bill to stop the surge of book banning in schools. Their bill is for federal funding to fight the book bans.

 

Dan Holloway has an interesting news roundup for the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week he looks at all the news surrounding the various court cases being brought by authors against AI. There seems to be one law firm spearing the charge. Dan has some interesting things to say about whether these court cases are useful or not. 

 

Meanwhile, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) is sending strongly worded statements to the copyright office about the Tech companies use and abuse of Fair Use which is what the Tech companies are pinning their defense on. 

 

Jane Friedman has a very telling post on how publishing professionals can sometimes screw up a writer’s career. She has an interesting case study, that a lot of writers can probably empathise with. I have heard variations on this problem for years. Sometimes you just have to trust your gut.

 

Anne R Allen has a great post on query letters. If your manuscript hasn’t had any bites, it could be that you are screwing up your query letter. She has a run down on best practice.

 

Katie Weiland has compiled a lovely list of writer gifts that you can share around to your loved ones if you want something particular and they need ideas.

 

December is commonly referred to as NaNoEdMo or the time when writers who managed to write a novel in November take a step back and look at the editing of that novel. Michel Leah has a great article on what to do now. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Story Tropes to avoid or not to avoid- Jami Gold

The 10 most common editing mistakes- Natalie Hanemann- Bookmark

Brainstorming words of wisdom -Dale Ivan Smith- Bookmark

Why the protagonist must be a problem solver- September Fawkes- Bookmark

FBOBA The fragile beauty of being alive- Donald Maass- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Marketing Outside The Box- Terry Odell- Bookmark

20 ways to promote during holiday season- Thomas Umstattd- Bookmark

Publish as an audiobook with Scott Sigler- Thomas Umstattd-Bookmark

Parts of a book- Reedsy- Useful Info

It’s not about You- Kathy Steinemann- Bookmark

How to find time for book promo- Sandra Beckwith

 

To Finish,

As we head into December, many writers start thinking about their goals for the year. Have they been achieved? Are you thinking about next year? Are you setting goals?

Kay DiBianca has a great post on acknowledging your accomplishments and planning for the next year.

 

In personal news – I have ebooks on sale all over the place. If you are looking for kids books You can check out my maureencrispbooks website or hit this link for a group sale promo. 

 

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 shout me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Mark König on Unsplash

Will The Real Author Stand Up?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

This week the courts were hearing counter arguments in ongoing court cases that the publishing world is keeping an eye on.

Arstechnica reported that Open AI is disputing author claims that they used derivative work to make Chat GPT.

Publishers Weekly reports that a Texas Judge has blocked the roll out of the new law that demands books have ratings on them – but no one knows what the ratings are. Disputes are ongoing.

Reuters reports that the US Appeals court has ruled that the mandatory book deposit policy of the copyright office is unconstitutional. This could save authors and publishers a lot of money.

 

In another corner of the publishing internet, Lincoln Michel took issue with the viral reporting of the 12 book sales fallacy which is going around the internet. If most books only sell 12 copies how does publishing survive. Lincoln has the numbers.

Meanwhile, Publishers Weekly takes a look at the costs of doing business as a big publisher and how the profit margins are getting squeezed at the moment. They have the numbers too.

 

That venerable institution, NYU has pulled together a superstar line up of speakers for their inaugural Advanced Publishing Institute programme in January. Oh to be a fly on the wall at this very expensive conference. This is aimed at the midlevel to senior executives in publishing. (With publishing salaries as they are, can they afford this conference in New York? Early bird sales are on now.)

 

In AI news, Kickstarter has drawn a line and announced their new AI policy. They want everyone to be transparent over how much AI is being used in each project on their site.

Reuters is trialling a new tool that will embed verifying data into all their photographs so that they can control the spread of fake images. The data will be linked into a blockchain. This technology has been talked about for a few years. In this era of AI and fakes, being authentic is the new information currency.

Publishing Perspectives reports on the Frankfurt Rights Meeting seminar on The Impact of AI on the Rights Business: An Outlook. The word mediocrity was used several times.

 

Update: Amazon is addressing the proliferation of AI Books by asking authors to make a statement at uploading whether they used AI in any way to write or generate covers. Maybe it will work. 

Anne R Allen has a great post on terrible advice that author should ignore. This advice pops up again and again. There is a reason to ignore it. It stops you growing as an author.

 

Vulture has an interesting article on the fanfic trend of romance fiction. Do you know how many books got their start as popular fanfictions? Now editors are starting to trawl the sites and pick up stories. Just change the setting and you could be the next hot author.

 

John Sundman has a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog about 23 years as a self publishing novelist and the lessons he has learned along the way. This is a great post to get you thinking about being an author now.

 

Caitlin Shetterly has an interesting take on the author photograph. She has been struggling with the problem of the getting a new author photograph and wondering whether she should be truthful and acknowledge her age. 

 

Phillip Kinsher has an interesting article on Bookbaby’s website about choosing round characters instead of flat ones. But how do you know your characters are round? He explores the differences.  

 

In The Craft Section,

Conflict – prolonging the agony- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

9 ways to reclaim your groove- Now Novel

Making multiple storylines work in your novel- Tiffany Yates Martin- Bookmark

How to get the most out of hiring an editor- Linnea Gradin

Tim Grahl on top 19 mistakes writers make and how to fix them-Bookmark/Watch

 

In The Marketing Section,

Why one star reviews aren’t bad- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

7 tips to boost your homepage- Camilla Monk- Bookmark

Successful book marketing- Emily Enger

How to publish a short story- Bookbaby

Book Launch tips- Kathy Steinemann- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Last week there was a lot of chat around Social Media on the acquisition of a short story by a respected SFF magazine, from a writer with a problematic back history. The resulting dumpster fire of opinion took over the publishing social media channels. The owner of the magazine was conspicuously absent in defence of the beleaguered editor. Kris Rusch explores the backstory of the people involved and how magazines are run. She speaks from wide and personal experience of the issues, the people, and as a former editor of the magazine. A Must Read. 

If you want to hide your past - choose a good pseudonym. That’s why they were invented. 

 

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 shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

Pic: Photo by John Noonan on Unsplash