Publishing Formats or How Many Ways To Profit.

 

 

In Publishing News,

While various publishing houses are trying to open up their offices, Sourcebooks, one of the big independent publishers has rethought the way their staff will be working. Publishing Perspectives reports that Sourcebooks are asking their staff to decide if they want to come in or work from home in the future. (Allowing staff to live in 7 states if they want to.)

 

The Stats are in for the US publishers for the first half of the year. Sales are up. The lions share going to hardbacks…. This should make the publishers happy as there is a race to bring out the political analysis books over the final year of the Trump presidency with some eye-watering sums being thrown around for advance money. The publishers have to get it back somehow and hardbacks have the biggest profit margin.

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard keeps one eye on the global publishing market. He lives in Africa, so has a ringside seat to the biggest internet-connected nation in the world. Nigeria. They are about to have their international bookfair – a mix of in-person and digital events celebrating women. Nigeria publishers are looking to go digital.

 

Meanwhile, Overdrive, the world’s biggest digital library has just completed the acquisition of Kanopy, a video streaming service for public and academic libraries. Entertainment and knowledge all in one big digital package for libraries. 

 

Authors, with all the digital consolidation, keep an eye on your contract language. It might be time to revisit this excellent post by Dean Wesley Smith on The Magic Bakery. (AKA what rights are you selling.)

 

In our own corner of the world, the talk was all about New Zealand’s National Library playing recklessly with pirates.

Agent Kristin Nelson wrote this week about a topic that no one really talks about- When the author dream is no longer a dream. 

 

Bookfunnel is often cited as an indispensable tool for Indie publishers. It enables fast delivery of eBooks and storefront advantages for authors. They have added a few new features that make them even more spiffy. 

 

Kris Rusch this week takes a look at the ongoing black swan event that is the pandemic. She makes a forceful argument that business is will be an ongoing car crash due to the many people who refuse to be vaccinated. One point she brings up- kids younger than 12 will not be vaccinated. The sneaky virus is constantly mutating. Do you want to save kids?

 

Writing craft expert, Jerry Jenkins has an excellent article on the unreliable narrator. If you are tempted to have one of these, you have to find a way to make them consistently believable. 

 

In The Craft Section,

The key to character introductions- Scott Myers - Bookmark

Relationship thesaurus: Forced marriage- Becca Puglisi

How do you know your story is finished- Tiffany Yates Martin- Bookmark

How to write plays children will love- Christina Hamlett

Four ways to create inter-character conflict- Angie Hodapp- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

10 tips for working with an independent editor- Valerie Brooks- Bookmark

Unconventional book launch ideas- Ricardo Fayet

6 ways friends can help promote your book- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Bookbub ads- Bookbub

5 simple marketing strategies for your series- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

I’ve been having an up and down couple of weeks. Some of it is school holidays and some of it is an intractable computer problem. Judith Briles has an interesting article this week on being an author procrastinator. I’m trying not to tick the boxes.

On the other hand, Sue Coletta has an interesting take on multi-tasking. Apparently, it can be bad for our brains. So time to focus on …

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my 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.

 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Trish Hartmann- Venice bakery

 

Catching Our Breath

November Halfway...

I told myself this year I would do it... and I started with good intentions... and I have over 10,000 words done... but it has been a struggle. Anne R Allen’s blog post on Why NaNoWriMo is liberating for some writers and dangerous for others was a welcome breath of sanity this week.

The Traditional Publishing Industry is also breathing a sigh of relief. They have had an increase in sales over the last quarter and there is still Christmas gift giving to come.

Nate Hoffelder mentioned on Twitter today that to combat scammers Google went to manually up loading books. This shut out new authors from selling their books through Google Play but there is a small light shining amongst the angst of Pronoun shutting down...

Joanna Penn has had an amazing run of great content on her podcast this month. But her latest podcast demands serious attention... She detailed the discussion topics at the Oregon Coast Business for Authorsworkshop. Indie publishing has stabilised but the next disruption is coming down the track...

Belinda Griffin has a guest post on Joanna’s Blog that takes an in depth look at Author Brand. If you have ever wondered exactly what it is and why authors need to understand it ... this is the post for you.

Agent Kristin Nelson wrote this week about the perils of the Hollywood buy in on your book... because Hollywood wants to own the novelisation rights... um

Kris Ruch has written a knockout post on letting other voices into your head to screw with your writing... namely fame and fans. This is a must read post for every writer but especially for those writing series.

The 7 Secrets of Power Persuasion Writing for writers. Are you using the right emotional hooks in your writing?

In The Craft Section,

A cheats guide to writing a synopsis

Make characters distinct- Michael Hauge – Bookmark

4 questions to jumpstart your novel

15 questions to send Beta readers- Bookmark

Story Structure in 5 minutes and How to complete a series- Write To Done

How to write characters unlike you- Now Novel

How to pick the right editor- Lisa Polisso- Bookmark

Giving your character inner conflict- M J Bush- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section

How to stage an author portrait

Gumroad for authors- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Ways authors can cross promote- Bookbub- Bookmark

Designing covers in 5 minutes- Nate Hoffelder

Authentic Personal Brands for Authors- Writelife

Content Marketing- Bookmark

SFF Marketing Podcast- Newsletters- A Serious Must Watch!

How to talk about your book – Paul Geiger- Bookmark

To Finish,

In my list of One-day-I-want-to-own-these-books... is a book on Writing Imaginative Fiction – Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer. I was excited to see the lecture notes of a workshop by Jeff on the Electric Literature site.  This is one of those Read, think about, read again posts... and the illustrations are just wonderful!

A nice pick me up in the middle of November.

Maureen

@craicer

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces every month. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. Feel free to hit the coffee tab. I’m living on it this month!

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Sage Solar

Hand Wringing

Yikes. Just read a pub contract w/ indefinite term that withholds 20% reserve _annually_ & doesn't release it till book is OOP. Run away.

— Victoria Strauss (@victoriastrauss) March 3, 2016

This week was a turbulent one in the blogosphere.

There was angst about the U.S elections, Angst about Author Solutions, Angst about Mike Shatzkin’s blog.

General Angst everywhere.

Phillip Jones of the Bookseller, finally got Andrew Phillips of Penguin Random House to talk about Author Solutions. Andrew laid out one side of the story where PRH thought Author Solutions was a good idea. 'Unfortunately a few authors have disagreed.' 

‘A few,’ spluttered the leading commenter’s. With class actions happening, every major writer organisation’s complaints ignored and a long list of complaints from writers who have lost large sums of money there was an outpouring of disgust over the article. If you weren’t sure about Author Solutions and their imprints for big publishers this is required reading.

Staying on the subject of assisted publishing Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware tried to contact author Steve Alten. She was concerned about the look of his new publishing venture to help other authors, but had no success until Chuck Wendig wrote a blog about it.  What is the definition of a vanity press? Chuck laid it out and then there was the response from Steve. The tennis match of eyeballs on the responses from each side played out all over social media.

Mike Shatzkin, publishing futurist, published a blog this week where he talked about changing his mind on what is happening with Agency and print sales. Porter wrote a piece discussing this. It is all very murky. Has Amazon put one over the publishers by getting them to agree to Agency conditions where they set the prices? Have publishers’ tactic of inflating eBook prices until they were more expensive than buying a print copy helped print sales and booksellers or is it all an elaborate lie. Are adult Colouring In books skewing what is really happening in print sales?

If you wanted to try your hand at publishing a colouring in book Joanna Penn has a comprehensive interview with Meg Cowly on how to do it.

Novel Approach, a book review blog, discovered that Amazon has pulled all their reviews and they are legit. They can’t get them back and Amazon won’t talk to them.

We need some good news!

Susan Kaye Quinn breezed in with a great post on finding joy in our writing. This saved us from being overcome with despair.

In the Craft Section,

Why scripts are rejected- Becca Puglisi

Scrivener and the proficient writer- Joanna Penn

Take 30 minutes to fix your novel- Bookmark

Reader’s response to the heroes’ journey- Martina Boone- Bookmark

Hacking my writing process- Kameron Hurley

1 tweak to write original characters- K M Weiland-Bookmark

Character dialogue tips

In the Marketing Section,

7 must do tasks after you finish the manuscript

Marketing after you get the rights back. - Bookmark

Sins and virtues of email marketing- Copyblogger-Bookmark

How to make eBook design count- comprehensive by DBW- Bookmark

Building your author brand.

To Finish,

Nosy Crow Publishers wrote about how they select books to publish. They are a nimble bunch in London.

Top Agent Kristen Nelson wrote about her first year under the new request regime of asking for the first 10 pages up front. If the authors were sweating over the query letter- Kristen was finding that the first ten pages really showed if authors knew their craft. Angst in a good way over this blog.

Maureen
@craicer

Tweet from Victoria this afternoon... scary.

The Cost Of Writing

What are the odds that a reclusive writer who wrote one book that has topped best seller lists for nearly 60 years would suddenly decide that the time is right at age 88 with severe medical issues (deaf and nearly blind) to bring out the first book she ever wrote.  (insert dead fish smell here.) 

This has been the main topic of conversation this week in the publishing blogosphere.

Once the usual literary crowd finished celebrating that Harper Lee was releasing a sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird then saner heads started asking why and the story becomes increasingly unlikely. Is it a rights grab by a lawyer who took over Harper’s sister, Alice's, law firm after her death a few months ago. Is HarperCollins behaving ethically in this whole affair? Is the lawyer to be trusted or have they played a very long game? There are lots of questions around this. Where is Atticus Finch when his creator needs him?

Staying with things legal... Tess Gerritson talks about what is happening with her landmark legal battle with Warner Brothers who bought out New Line who had the option on her book Gravity 15 years ago... and it makes for some nervous reading for writers selling film options.

So the first two items this week are after the book has been written, Chuck Wendig looks at the emotional rollercoaster of writing the book with his handy guide.

Susan Kaye Quinn talks about the need to create... and how that jumbly mixed up feeling is telling you something important.

That something important could be the startling finding from last weeks author earnings report about that 30% of books being published without ISBN’s. Here in NZ we are in a relatively fortunate position of getting free ISBN’s. But in the rest of the world it is a different story. It is a real cost. Porter looks at the issues raised by the author earnings report and then discussion over ISBN’s and their value get a hammering in the comments.

If you have a toe in the academic publishing world these five predictions for 2015 are for you.

Seth Godin amplifies his call to publishers that if you aren’t selling direct to consumer you are....

In the Craft Section,

Kristen Nelson on what is uneven writing

21 fast hacks on fueling the suspense

K M Weiland on writing backstory

Susan Kaye Quinn on not rushing to publish

3 most effective types of inner torture for your characters

Writing exercises - changing the tail.

In the Marketing Section,

The big story this week is Bookbaby beginning Print On Demand. This is big news for those who don’t want all their stuff in the Amazon basket. Canny marketers have also discovered how you can play both sides...

Jody Hedlund on whether you really need social media

Jami Gold on branding 101

Self promotion for horrible people

Odd Stuff

Buzzfeeds collection of coffee mugs for book nerds

Jeff Sanders on why you need to track every little accomplishment.

To Finish

It is possible that Harper Lee stared at each of the 5 reasons why writers avoid writing in the face and took them on board or she didn’t know how to follow up the first book (first book syndrome) or, as everybody suspects, the phenomenal success frightened her to reclusiveness. But if this is a rights grab... it will be a landmark in publishing... as the day when some publishers lost all moral credibility.

Food for Thought

Sorry for the delay in posting this week. However there are some chewy big ideas for you to chow down on.

(The Main Menu)

The phenomenal success of the movie The Fault In Our Stars (adapted from #1 bestselling Y A novel) in its opening weekend seems to have spurred the critics to write new opinion pieces about Young Adult literature and the poor sad fools who read it and write it. The Slate article caused much rolling of eyes within the children’s writing community and a very funny rebuttal from YA author Kathleen Hale.

While this was being shared around...the notion that ‘worthy’ YA was written by men also got an airing and a well articulated smackdown. Read the articles (P.S.A. make sure you aren’t drinking in front of the keyboard.)

Three YA writers talk about how demeaning it is to have your book consistently compared to Twilight because A) They are female. B) They write YA and C) They write for girls.

Why don’t the Male writers get the abuse and the comparisons...Good points backed up with facts.

Publishers Weekly has a great article on How Reality Became The Hot New Thing In YA...and I may just have to check out Scotts latest book judging by the last comment in this article.

The Amazon/ Hachette discussion goes on and on. Is Amazon really the devil? A measured (lets look at this problem) opinion piece also from Publishers Weekly.

Jane Friedman has been looking at the future of magazines... Do they have a print future? What was the last magazine you bought and why? I confess that all the articles I’m interested in I read online. So Jane may have some very good advice for magazine publishers.

Every writer wants to get a contract...but recently one writer got a contract that had her lawyer gasping in disbelief. Please Read This! (sadly I have heard of this before...)

While on that subject Agent Kristin Nelson is also cautioning about contracts... with anyone!

Agent Janet Reid answers some very interesting questions from a reader on whether you need an 

agent...and No you don’t... Great advice tho.

Agents are always interesting to follow on Twitter. Every now and again Agents do a #tenqueries which is where they write a twitter comment for the next 10 Manuscripts they pick up out of the slush pile. These can be very insightful for what not to do. Just put #tenqueries in the search box.  Also check out Agent advice on The Worst Ways To Begin Your Novel.

Passive Guy looks at Amazon and PayPal buy buttons and the changes happening in payments, which outfit is best for you.

How the Indie Authors fared at BEA last week…A good overview of the impact and importance of Indie Authors at the biggest trade book fair.

(Choice of Desserts)

In the Craft Section,

5 reasons my cat should be the writer instead- Victoria Mixon.

How to use Word Document maps to navigate through your MS.

Writing bittersweet endings.

The importance of good sidekicks.

Stop worrying about plot originality.

3 cautions for adding research.

Writers Doubt- Advice from Seth Godin.

In the Marketing Section,

Do Authors need two Facebook pages.

A Book Crowd Funding Platform that pays readers and writers.

How to upload and sell books on Google Play.

10 Book Marketing mistakes.

If you are terrified of Book Marketing...

One page business plans. And Do you really need one – Joel Friedlander

Why is my book not selling.

The Bruno Mars guide to getting raving fans for your book.

Joanna Penn on Translation and Self publishing in Germany. Very comprehensive How To post. Also If you missed her amazing post on knowing your rights....here it is again!

5 mistakes you will make on your way to publishing success- excellent article!

(After Dinner Mint)

To Finish,

One Non Fiction writer had an idea that wouldn’t fit into the conventional publishing box. They carefully researched what they could do...with such a specialised book and then hit on an interesting idea...serialise it and aim it at different communities. This is a fascinating journey of a publishing success story.

maureen

Pic from Flickr/ Creative Commons/ Stephen Oung.