Shopping For Ideas

 

In Publishing News This Week,

 

In a surprise move this week Small Press Distribution closed its doors. This came as a shock to all its clients who just 24 hours earlier were being told of their great new partnership with Ingram. Publisher’s Weekly reports on the news and what clients can do now to save their books.

 

Also making surprise moves is the Indigo Books and Music chain in Canada. They have sold the publicly listed company back in house and are taking it off the stock exchange. Indigo has been losing money and got hit with a cyber-attack that crippled them for months. Publisher’s Weekly reports that they are going back to the basics of bookselling which means selling books, not merchandise.

 

Spotify is continuing to roll out its premium audiobook service to customers. This week Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand are being wooed to sign up.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that China’s publishing industry looks in good shape with kids’ books leading the way. Also, they have been experimenting with short form video to drive sales. I wonder where they learned that trick….

 

Italy has had a great culture card that they gifted to their 18 year olds to spend on books and theater experiences for a year. This propped up their publishing industry through Covid. Now Italy is tweaking the eligibility criteria and publishers are nervous. 

 

Fast Company magazine examines how Harper Collins has become more sustainable by tweaking their font and saving paper. 

 

Joanna Penn has been updating her Book Launch Blueprint  and she shares the chapter on Book Marketing. Meanwhile, Penny Sansevieri has some interesting thoughts on how to navigate book marketing when there is a tsunami of books being published.

 

Ruth Harris has a great post on listening to your subconscious. The muse has a thousand faces. But sometimes you have to get out of your own way to tap into that story telling gold.

 

Angela Ackerman is talking psychology this week. We are all hardwired for stories. Angela explains that writers need to tap into reader psychology and cognitive dissonance to write an unforgettable story.

 

Kristen Hacken South writes an interesting article on Writer Unboxed about emotional resonance. How much emotion is too much. How do you find the balance between flatline and melodrama. A great article.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to write a gripping inciting incident- Angie Andriot- Bookmark

Vonnegut’s rules for writers explained- James Scott Bell - Bookmark

How to choose story settings- K M Weiland - Bookmark

What are pinch points and where do they go- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

Set your intention first.- Sarah Hamer

 

In The Marketing Section,

Booktips to save money- Penny Sansevieri

Connection over promotion- Katie Sadler- Bookmark

Pros and cons of book giveaways- AJ Yee- Bookmark

Lead generation landing pages- Convertkit- Bookmark

How effective is social media?- Rachel Thompson

Easiest way to get Book Reviews- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

A couple of times a year Kris Rusch curates a writing craft book collection on Storybundle. You pay what you like to get access to some great ebooks. If you pay over a particular threshold you get the whole bundle with exclusives, extras, and support a worthwhile charity. The money goes directly to the authors, so this is a win/win/win. It is a limited time offer so check it out and score some bargains. I have filled up my Kindle with great craft books from these bundles over the years. Don’t forget, you can claim writing craft books on your tax.

 

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

Pic: Photo by Eduardo Soares on Unsplash

 

What Is Your Time Worth?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

In a boost for writers living and working in New York State, the governor has just signed into law that freelancers must get paid. This is an important law for freelancers, who too often are the last to be paid or not at all. Writers and Illustrators are often asked to do work for free. Our creativity is our livelihood, and it is wearying to keep saying No, I haven’t any free books or I can’t give you free art. A good rule of thumb if you do something for free is to write an invoice for the client with the dollar value highlighted as a donation for ‘tax purposes.’ This quietly reinforces the point that your work and time has value. You can probably claim it on your tax as a donation, and they can too. Then if you need to you can have the luxury of saying – My accountant has capped my donation budget this year, Sorry. (Accountants like to have donation budgets… even if you don’t have an accountant.) 

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that over the last five years audio book sales have been increasing year on year to now being up in the double digits of all book sales.

 

The UK Publishers Association is campaigning for people to come and work in publishing. They are using some interesting ideas to get people thinking about who controlls the narrative, or what publishing ideas get taken up. They want diversity, they want clarity of vision, however they aren’t talking about salaries. 

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard turns the spotlight on the little guys. How do the little countries market their books at their own bookfairs.

 

It’s the beginning of the holiday season of selling books and buying gifts for writers. Check out this list from Sandra Beckwith of great writer gifts and deals. (Don’t forget to check last week’s blog post for writer deals as well.) 

If you are just getting into your marketing- Check out Penny Sansevieri’s great post on holiday marketing ideas.

 

Are you over workshopping your novel? Anne R Allen has a great blog on this topic. She has written a checklist of phrases that can flag when you have gone too far down the workshop rabbit hole.

 

Sacha Black delivered the keynote at 20 Books to 50K Vegas (The world’s biggest author convention,) early this month. It was an amazing talk that will be up on YouTube in a few months time. She writes about the conference and things she learned for the Alliance of Independent writers blog

 

Suzanne Lakin has a great post on writing universal themes in fiction and writing craft guru, James Scott Bell, has a must read post on making your sentences sing. This is a printout and stick on your wall post. 

 

In The Craft Section,

How to do your own structural edit- Sarah Kuiken- Bookmark

How to catch 10 most common editing mistakes- Natalie Hanemann- Bookmark

Creating and resolving conflict in your novel- Clare Langley Hawthorne

Tips for writing a successful story climax- Becca Puglisi-Bookmark

Writing short book descriptions- Amy Bernstein- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Social Media Marketing for Authors – Penny Sansevieri

F.A.R. Marketing – Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

How to create fun freebies – Colleen Story- Bookmark

10 strategies to boost your book- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Author blogs – Pros and Cons- Fussy Librarian

 

To Finish,

It is no secret that I am an admirer of Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I must reference her in the blog at least 3 times a month. Kristine’s long career in all facets of Traditional and Indie publishing has been invaluable over the last decade in understanding how publishing has changed, is changing, will change and the importance of owning your IP, and your relationship to readers. She has been a clear sighted guide to what is important and how to manage change in publishing. I will miss her. If you haven’t got one of her nonfiction books on the business of writing you are missing out. Get one for the holidays.

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter to go out. If you want the best of my bookmarked links, 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: Joyce Wan on Bluesky

It Is All In The Mind

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

As I write this the American Book Awards is on. This award ceremony has been in the news over the last month with presenter problems and now Publishers Weekly report that media sponsorship is being pulled over the potential for authors to make hate speech comments. So, check your favourite book news website to find out if they were right.

 

Publishers Weekly also have a deep dive article on How TikTok Changed Romance Publishing. (You can put your genre of choice into that sentence.)

 

In AI news -The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association have published an open letter to the Copyright Office of America detailing their concerns over ascertaining copyright and the future of these works.

Meanwhile, Mark Williams adds his own acerbic take on the sky is falling rhetoric coming out of the publishing industry.

 

John Gilstrap writing over on the Killzone Authors blog has a great article on Traditional Publishing. It’s not dead, it’s evolving. It is all about mindset. Authors are small business owners. Now take that mindset into your interactions with agents and publishers.

 

The dream team of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have gathered together a list of Black Friday deals for Authors, or you can be overwhelmed with choice with Kindlepreneur’s huge list of deals.

 

Kris Rusch has been musing on out of print stories. She was wanting to use work in a teaching course but couldn’t find who owned the rights and whether there was a recent edition. This is one of those moments of wishing the internet had been around thirty years ago for research. 

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors have a super detailed article on keywords and Amazon category changes.

 

Suzette Mullen has an interesting article on mining your memoir and how sometimes you can fail badly in remembering and reflecting that others might have a completely different view of the memoir event. 

 

Roz Morris is back from a stint judging the Kindle Storyteller award- which is a big deal. Roz has written an article on what makes a great story – A must read.

  

In The Craft Section,

Unlocking cause and effect- Bang2Write

2 great posts from Becca Puglisi-Redeeming your villain and 9 tension builders for dialogue

- Bookmark Both

How to write one juicy description- April Davila- Bookmark

Identifying Flat Scenes- Janice Hardy

Writing Violence Archetypes  - Usvaldo De Leon on K M Weilands blog - Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

The best advertisement investments- Draft2Digital

Media Training for Authors – Paula Rizzo

How to make a personal brand- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

5 unique book marketing ideas- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Fantastic ways to sell books for the holidays- Bookbub- Bookmark

Book signing tips- Judith Briles

 

To Finish,

As we move from Print publishing to eBook to Audiobook to All Formats … what’s next? The big news over the last six months in the writing blogosphere is Selling Direct and the rise of the Shopify store. Joanna Penn interviews Russell Nohelty on the mindset you must cultivate to sell direct.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter to go out. If you want the best of my bookmarked links, 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 Ian Stauffer on Unsplash

It Used To Be So Simple Back Then

 

 

In Publishing News This Week,

Last week I mentioned Scholastic and its diversity boxes which they were making optional in the book fairs to the disgruntlement of their authors. Scholastic listened and backtracked. They published a contrite letter telling everyone that it was a mistake to segregate the books. Authors are calling it a win. It could be the 1500 author and illustrator signatures to the open letter (many from scholastic authors) in two days that tipped the balance. Scholastic promises to lead the fight “and redouble our efforts to combat the laws restricting children’s access to books.” 

 

Frankfurt Book Fair has wrapped up. After the rocky start the book fair got down to the business of rights selling and self-congratulation. ‘Having a presence here is indispensable to your business,’ says Jurgen Boos CEO of the Frankfurt Fair. Publishing Perspectives writes about the highs and the big talking points at Frankfurt.

 

Mark Williams notes that the report from the American Association of Literary agents which was released during the Frankfurt Bookfair makes for tough reading. The agents are working super hard in a challenging environment. Does the commission model stack up as a means to pay the bills? Is there a better way to be an agent? This is a long thoughtful article on some unsung hardworking publishing professionals.

 

Good E Reader reports that the latest Kindles are getting integrations with Goodreads that means you can have the app open in your kindle and have it update all your reading and reviews immediately. If you are behind on your reviews this could be helpful.

 

Writer Unboxed has an interesting article on why engaging in multiple creative activities can help your writing. While you are digesting that article read this article from Lisa Cooper Ellison on how to use the right brain waves to make the most of your writing time. This is a fascinating peak at the science of brain waves intersecting with creativity.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has an interesting article on that age old eBook question KDP Select or Going Wide. It’s all about what you want to achieve. They also have a comprehensive article on how to design a great book cover.

 

It is nearly time for NaNoWriMo. Over the last few weeks I have been posting articles on preparing for the month long push to write 50,000 words. However, sometimes doing NaNoWriMo can bring up some horrible creative writing memories or entrench habits that aren’t helpful. Anne R Allen has a great article on creativity wounds. You might have them and not know it. Doing NaNoWriMo could be the worst writing advice for you.

 

Kris Rusch has an interesting blog post on how author careers have diverged from what they thought they were signing up for. Since the 90’s publishing has changed dramatically and what was a career then is completely different to now. Even the big household names of the 90’s acknowledge they won’t see the sales numbers like they used to have. But have the publishers moved on?

 

Name an overused opening… David Griffin Brown has an article on how to avoid the cliché opening and figure out a better way to get into the story.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to write more in less time- Sarah Kuiken

What to do when your villain is the protagonist – Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Two excellent posts from Mythcreants- Five fake turning points storytellers keep using and How long can you let tension fall before the reader gets bored- Bookmark Both

Tightening Prose dialogue tags- Diana Peach

 

In The Marketing Section,

2 great posts from -Penny Sansevieri - Crafting an irresistible book pitch and 11 book promotion ideas- Bookmark

How to promote a book on social media- Andy Slinger

5 unique book marketing ideas - Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Everything to know about book proposals – Reedsy- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Recently Joanna Penn interviewed Patricia McLinn about keeping up with the changes in publishing. If you immediately felt tired or negative about that previous sentence, don’t feel bad. Everybody is struggling with changes in social media or direct sales or AI or whatever big thing is being talked about on whatever social media you are on. Joanna and Pat talked about overwhelm and taking back control by really looking at what you need to do and what you want to do. It’s a great interview. You can listen or read the transcript. One line stuck with me. … ‘through all of this tech and business stuff keep the writing…because without the writing what’s the point of all this.’

Let’s find the joy in the words we had, when we started writing.

 

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 Jamie Albright on Unsplash

Beginnings and Endings

 

In Publishing News this week,

Last week I linked to a news story about Spotify and how they are rolling out their audiobook streaming to the UK and Australia.- That’s news to us said the UK Society of Authors. How come no one has talked to us about contract terms and rights and who are you dealing with – publishers? Where are author agents in this deal? The Society of Authors has a strongly worded statement on this.

 

The news is filtering out that DK, a well known UK children’s publishing house is revamping its top brass and are about to add a new publishing arm…adult. My mind is trying to put the two strands side by side and failing. If you are familiar with DK books - high production non fiction books beloved by schools, libraries, obsessive kids and teachers, how will adult books fit in? The industry will be watching with interest to see how they will manage it.

 

Publishers Weekly details the hit that print publishing as taken so far this year. The numbers are in and so far all genres are hurting. This feeds in to the dismal survey on author income which the Authors Guild recently released. Maybe everything will turn around before the end of the year?

 

If you are struggling with self doubt, you are not alone. Robin Maass writes about her publishing journey and self doubt beautifully on The Writing and Wellness blog. 

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a comprehensive article on how to get your book into bookstores. It’s full of tips and advice, a must read.

 

Kathleen McCleary has an interesting post on Writer Unboxed about getting naked. Now that I have your attention, she talks about how she can’t share her unpublished writing with anyone because of the naked writer feeling.

 

Kris Rusch has got her hands on the new agreement by the TV writers with the studios. She writes why it’s important to understand the AI clauses in the agreement and how they will impact writers. This is a heads up post. You are in charge of your own career and if down the track your work gets optioned for the screen- and you used AI in any capacity you may not have any rights. A Must Read.

 

The Dream Team over at One Stop for Writers, Angela and Becca have a comprehensive list of planning resources for NaNoPrepMo. (or anytime you need to plan/plot a story.) 

 

Katie Weiland has a great blog post on archetypes – she wrote the book (literally) on how to use them. In this week’s article she looks at how to use archetypes in a series. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Crafting beginnings- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Real crime as novel inspiration-Gary Braver – Bookmark

The secret to show don’t tell

Navigating inner conflict- C S Lakin- Bookmark

How to write a flashback- jerry Jenkins- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

6 ways to become a Go To Expert-Paula Rizzo

Better book descriptions- Draft2Digital

The business of writing- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Marketing Burnout- Kindlepreneur- Bookmark

12 insider tips for booking school visits- Bookfox-Bookmark

 

To Finish,

They say the first page sells the book and the last page sells the next book. No pressure to nail both those important pages…Um. 

James Scott Bell master of writing craft books has even dedicated a whole craft book to the last 50 pages. He writes about how important it is to tie up loose ends and payoff those twisty plot points. Something the writers of the TV series ‘Lost’ didn’t understand.

Even if you are the most Pantzer of writers it helps if you know how the story ends before you get to the last page.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links and some extras 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 Adam Winger on Unsplash

Preparing For The Future

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

It’s Banned Books week in the United States and Penguin Random House has pushed out the truck on this literally. They have a huge truck visiting neighbourhoods and giving out children’s books that have been banned from their publishing house.

 

It was big news when Spotify bought Findaway voices last September and we waited to see what they would do. A year on and Spotify unveil their audiobooks in premium memberships in a trial run with Australia and the United Kingdom. They have negotiated deals that Publishing Perspectives report will shake Audible’s hold on the audiobook market.

 

Publisher Weekly reports on the Authors Guild author income survey- Why do we write again? It’s not for the money.

 

Wattpad wants to offer its creators more money so they have launched a new tier called Originals. You can pay for the latest chapter in your serial story or wait until it’s all finished. It’s like Netflix for authors.

 

Mike Shatzkin writes this week about AI and publishing. Mike has largely retired form advising big publishing companies so it’s always interesting when he writes an article on current trends. Just when you think you know what a commentator would say- they surprise you. Mike thinks AI is a good thing for publishing.

 

Another who thinks the Publishing industry is short sighted on AI is Mark Williams. He has a long form essay on how Publishers are tackling issues around AI- is it a tool, a threat, a higher form of achievement or copyright theft?

 

Seth Godin uses Chat GPT to come up with good questions to ask Chat GPT. An interesting way of editing your work.

 

Copyright is at the heart of AI. Who owns AI copyright. The machine or the prompter? Is it fair use to train AI on whole books? If a machine can replicate someone’s style is it a breach of copyright? Whatever you think, you do need to have a working knowledge of copyright and how it impacts your publishing business.

Kris Rusch writes about making sure you have the right licenses and why you need to print them out.

 

People who have mastered dictation swear by the ease of writing. You get articles like this one- I wrote a novel in a day- Nick Thacker on Writers in the Storm. Nick goes into detail about what tools he uses. Meanwhile, over on Jane Friedman’s blog Sarah Sawyer talks about how dictation can free up your writing time.

 

It’s that age old writer struggle- How do you feel when you kill off a nice character? 

Robin Rivera writes that picking the reason you want to kill off the character is just as important as choosing the character you want to kill- She has four reasons you might want to do this.

 

In The Craft Section,

Crafting unforgettable character arcs- C S Lakin- Bookmark

Fake swearing and how to write it- StopGap

5 mistakes that reverse social justice messages- Mythcreants

Mastering character description without info dumps- Lisa Hall Wilson- Bookmark

Going to your unhappy place- Donald Maass- Bookmark

Writing Mystery – DabbleWriter- Comprehensive

 

In The Marketing Section,

Honesty in book marketing – Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Your books most powerful marketing tool- Greer Macallister

Playlists for your books- Heather Weidner

Non salesy social media content for authors- Dan Parsons- Bookmark

10 easy steps to get your website back to life- Karen Cioffi- Bookmark

October Social Media content- WolfSparrow- Bookmark

 

To Finish

October – or in the publishing world… getting ready for NaNoWriMo. 

There are a few good articles out there on NaNoPrepMo but if you go to the source- The NaNoWriMo official website,  you can get a huge checklist of ideas and resources to get your preparation for National Novel Writing Month underway.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links and some extras 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 Sylas Boesten on Unsplash

Reading: It’s all in the mind

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

The Writer’s Strike is over (provisionally.)

Many Film and TV writers are hailing this as a landmark ruling for the way it is putting constraints on the use of AI in their industry. As the news filters out, everyone is eager to look at the terms and commenting on why the networks and producers only started to negotiate 10 days ago. 

 

The Atlantic published a search database you can use to see whether your books have been scraped to train an AI. Many writers have discovered their whole catalogue on there. SSF writers have been especially hard hit. But today I learned an academic family member had two of her textbooks scraped. The Authors Guild has got their lawyers onto it and have published a template take down notice as well as a What To Do Now statement.

 

Meanwhile, in other AI news the AI industry is looking for poets or anyone who has an MFA to teach their AI’s how to write lyrical language. 

 

There is a publishing world outside the western centric one. Nairobi is about to have their International Book Fair and they have added a rights market into their programme. Guests are coming from around the world. Publishing Perspectives looks at what is on offer.

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard takes a look at the new sales pot for Kindle Unlimited and compares it to the Print figures which have been sliding.

 

Staying with Amazon, the book business applauded when the Federal Trade Commission of the United States began an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. Take 17 state attorneys and 172 pages and stir in the words “uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power” and you get a lawsuit that will take years to unravel. At least it’s a start.

 

You have finished the book and now you have to edit it. Where do you start? Kobo has the answer. How to edit your first draft.

 

Kris Rusch is a power house and there is nothing in publishing that she has not done. The big chat around the Indie publishing community is owning your own store and selling there first before going out to the online distributors. This week she talks about merchandise and all things store related with the launch of her first series store. Take a look and have your mind blown.

 

When an Indie Press ceases to be, it makes the publishing world a little gloomier. Louise Walters writes about the hard decision to shut her press and her thoughts on why Indie Presses need more love from bookshops.

 

Are you struggling with Social Media? Ambre Leffler has an interesting post on managing your energy and your posts.

 

Have you been asked to Beta read or are you wondering about how to set up parameters for your Beta readers. Jae from Sapphicquill has a great checklist for authors to use.

If you just need a reason to read, check out Molly Templeton’s 21 thoughts about reading habits.

 

The Bookbub website is chock full of interesting articles on writing and marketing books . This week they have a comprehensive 140 tips for book marketing from AJ Lee

 

In The Craft Section,

3 ways to use Theme to deepen your story- Sharon Skinner

Changing the hero’s goal- Michael Hauge- Bookmark

Tropes as a jumping off point- Richard Thomas- Bookmark

Tips for writing a character that you hate- Sue Coletta

Transition sentences- Ruth Harris- Bookmark 

Using Description- Kathy Steinemann

 

In The Marketing Section,

2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri 7 creative ways to boost local book sales and

Holding book events in non-traditional venues- Bookmark

Identifying the 5 core ideas of your book- Judith Briles-Bookmark

3 design secrets for captivating book ads- Teresa Conner-Bookmark

How to glo up your Instagram- Lara Ferrari

 

To Finish,

Every year The Alliance of Independent Authors run 3 virtual 24 hour conferences. Each of these conferences are themed around a different skillset for authors and are filled with a wealth of information. The next conference is on Mindset. They have a great line up of speakers well known in the author community. (Spot the Kiwis.)

Sign up. It’s free. 

 

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 Jaredd Craig on Unsplash