Conquering The Mountain

A couple of news items caught my eye this week in publishing. 
First, a shot across the Audible bows from the big four publishers over Audibles new speech to text captions on its audiobooks. Audible is claiming it's an AI message service. The publishers are saying it is equivalent to ebook publishing. So how does Amazon, who owns Audible see this? They tried something similar in 2009 and backed down from the publisher's wrath back then... but ten years on and who is the biggest player in town?

Last weekend I hosted a day-long mini-conference on publishing and one of the sessions I programmed was collaboration. This is becoming more of a thing in the Indie world and anything that encourages groups of people to work together must be a good thing... Publish Drive has just launched a new service that helps collaborators. Abacus. It splits the money at source and so one person doesn’t get lumbered with all the tricky maths on royalty payments to a group. 

Mike Shatzkin took a look at the last ten years of the book publishing industry and notes the major turning points on the way. Ipads... Borders... and the growth of Amazon from 5th in book sales to over 50% of the book sales.

While the publishing eyes focussed on the West it is wise to keep an eye out on the East. This is where The New Publishing Standard is so valuable. Who knew there was such a book hungry market out there... not the regular publishers. The latest figures out say that Nigeria has eclipsed Japan to be the 6th largest online nation. Paper books have always been the standard in Nigeria, I wonder what will happen when they find out they can read on their phones. TNPS is launching a new newsletter just looking at the rise of African readers. While they are doing that they are also examining the subscription model. They only see good things ahead for subscription. It’s all about discovery.

Jane Friedman has a guest post from David Woghan on why self-publishers should consider their own imprint. I like to use the term Indie publishers. If you are contracting editors, cover designers, proofreaders, etc then you are acting like a traditional publisher. You are managing the production process. Traditional Publishers outsource much of their editing and design work so you can find the exact same people that traditional publishers use.  Maybe you should be thinking about imprints a lot earlier on. David talks a lot about Bowker rules. 
(If you are in NZ you can get free ISBN’s and you should.)

Anne R Allen has a great post this week on the 8 reasons why your manuscripts are getting rejected. It is not personal. You may be guilty of presenting a manuscript with a few of these errors. 

In The Craft Section,

Why editing matters- WriterUnboxed

Letting your antagonist drive the plot- Writers Digest- Bookmark

Layering characters for believable fiction- Victoria Mixon- Bookmark

On Core Story- Donna Macmeans- Bookmark

3 reasons to use timestamps in your novel

5 popular tropes writers struggle with – Mythcreants- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

3 secrets to effective landing pages- Nate Hoffelder- Bookmark

2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri 10 Bookcover rules- and Securing Amazon Reviews- Bookmark

Custom books cards- Bookbrush- Bookmark

Booklaunch for maximum sales- Bookbub- Bookmark

To Finish

Elizabeth Spann Craig always brings a note of sanity to the publishing process. It must be because she is a cozy mystery writer. This week she has a great post on author overwhelm. What can you do when your To-Do List looks and feels like a mountain. How do you tackle the writing life then? Break it down. A mountain is only climbed one step at a time. 

Maureen
@craicer

Hmm, I thought I would get the newsletter out this week… This weekend for sure! So if you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter Go on and 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 virtual coffee love. 

Or you can head over to Smashwords and pick up my books which are on sale at the moment. Just go to my books website. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons – Paxson Woelber

Exploring The Future

In The Publishing Blogosphere this week...

October is nearly over... that means writers around the world are preparing for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month.) October is usually prep month for this. It also is filled with things that go bump in the night. Publishing Perspectives takes a look at Serial Box a micro subscription storytelling service that is rolling out Holloween stories in a tag system from writers. Take a look at the future of binge reading.

Last year I received a fancy award that meant I had to deliver a 40 minute speech. The topic of my speech was on storytelling not being dependent on the container it comes in. I mentioned the development of blockchain technology that is set to be a publishing disruptor. This week Sony announced they were getting into blockchain technology as a way to control DRM. The upcoming year will be interesting as other tech companies won’t be left behind.

PublishDrive, Europes fast growing digital distributor are also interested in blockchain. They announced a few exciting developments at Digital Book World. They have improved ebook file generation, along with metadata scraping by AI for keyword generation and they have introduced subscription for authors in royalty payments. Get all your royalties managed for you with a subscription payment. I wonder how many authors will take them up on it...

How well do you know copyright? This week Kris Rusch looks at how Intellectual Property and who has the rights to it, is the name of the publishing game this century. Have you ever stopped to wonder why the publishers want world wide and now universal rights to your stories?

Nathan Hoffelder, besides keeping an eye on all sorts of publishing news also has a nifty page where he lists all the free courses around for authors. Take a look at his big list. There is something there for everyone. He also has an interesting guest post on how readers choose their books... Do you match up?

Jane Friedman has rounded up a best marketing advice list. There are some great gems on it. Have a look and see what you might have missed from my bookmarked links.

Joel Friedlander has got a great collection of ornaments together. What does this actually mean for authors? Ornaments are the little flourishes that you see in books... between scenes or chapters or below headings. They are part of font families. If you format books, ornaments can make a page look snazzy. So a handy collection of where to find these is a bookmark worthy opportunity.

In The Craft Section,

Finding the right sentence to start the story- NowNovel- Bookmark

The usefulness of lists for your writing- Wordstrumpet

Writing office hours- Live write breathe

MS word styles for formatting- Joel Friedlander- Bookmark

7 steps for Beta testing a story- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Should you write faster?- Ali Luke

The 7 deadly sins of Novelists according to Editors

The mirror moment- James Scott Bell/ Mark Tilbury- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

15 secrets to selling more books at events- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

How to use your facebook group to get email leads

How to get a good author photo- Bryn Donovan

Distribution – Should you go wide or narrow? Dave Chesson- Bookmark

Advance Reader Copy sharing- Bookworks- Bookmark

How to write a bestseller- Jeff Goins

To Finish,

Sometimes all you want to do is curl up with a great fantasy novel and forget the world for a while. Spare a thought for the fantasy writer who has to make the world. That’s where a handy map comes in. For some enthusiasts the map is everything. How to map a fantasy world might just help you to plan your escape.

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 book crammed full with marketing notes.
 

Pic Flicker Creative Commons- Captain Nemo

Are you ready for the bookfuture?

As I write this the Digital Book World conference is just wrapping up. DBW is a conference firmly focussed on innovation and change in the publishing world. Many old hands in the digital publishing space attend along with a hot new startups. Big news is always unveiled at DBW so ... 

Kobo announced a new 8 inch E-Reader tablet- Forma. Amazon demonstrated their new Amazon Dot tech, which can sync with any device and continue reading your book where ever you are.

New kids on the block Novel Effect have an app that provides background music and sound effects using voice recognition to storytimes. Reading with your kids has just dramatically changed. 

Blockchain is continuing to advance into publishing with a new tech startup Bookchain from Canada - a digital publishing platform using Blockchain technology. 

There is lots to think about in the future of publishing.

Along with things future a huge reader survey was published. It makes interesting reading about who is reading and what they are reading and what on... I was surprised to see that a lot of readers between 30 and 50 were reading on their phones.

Wattpad is about to Beta test paying authors. This is big news if you publish on Wattpad. You will get paid real dollars too instead of cryptocurrency. Readers can buy wattpad tokens which they can use to unlock next chapters or whole books... sounds like an interesting income stream for popular authors on the platform.

Publish Drive has looked at comparison pricing of books in Asia. This is useful data as not much is known about buying habits there. With India having the second largest English speaking population...we should all be keeping an eye on global markets.

The global big prize in literature – The Nobel was not awarded this year due to a sex scandal. Quartz magazine writes about the cost of this to the publishing community.

This week Joanna Penn Interviewed Dave Chesson. Two fab podcasters in the one session. Dave took a deep dive into keywords which is his special interest. This is a must read/listen podcast if you use Amazon Ads.

In The Craft Section,

Tips for writing rough drafts- Now Novel- Bookmark

32 fixes for microblocks and glitches in your writing- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

3 top picture book writing mistakes - Alice Kuipers 

20 things I learned after reading 150,000 opening scenes. Katie McCoach – Bookmark

Genre mashups- Write Practice

What should your editing priority be?- Alli Blog

Nailing your one sentence story concept - Suzanne Lakin- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

Hot tips for conferences- Rachelle Gardner

Captivate an event audience- Build Book Buzz - Bookmark

How to write a great About Me page- Autocrit

How to use infographics to connect with readers- Nate Hoffelder- Bookmark

Improve your Facebook reach- Frances Caballo- Bookmark

How Indie autors can learn design on a shoestring- Auden Johnson

What separates authors who make an income full time from writing- Not what you think. – Amy Collins- Bookmark

To Finish,

Spare a thought for the second hand bookseller.  Authors love/hate relationship - a source of cheap books for struggling writers and of 'no income' to authors of these books. 

Bookriot has a guest post from a second hand bookseller about the books that they are drowning in. I am often surprised by books that end up in second hand bookstores. (Maybe because I hardly ever only read a book once.) 

 Just a thought... If you read a book through Bookchain you can onsell it and the author will get a little slice of the pie too. Just a little glimpse into a happier book future for writers.

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 book crammed full with marketing notes. If you would like to shout me a coffee hit the button up top. Thanks everyone!

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Mr Muggles 

Looking For The Silver Lining

This week the Christmas music really ramped up in stores. Here in the Southern Hemisphere we have the triple threat of School Year End Madness, All Things Festive, and Summer which starts on December 1. We are in the middle of a heat wave and facing water restrictions six weeks earlier than normal. The grass is dying.

Indie Burnout is the topic of Kris Rusch’s latest blog. Are you setting yourself punishing schedules? Worrying about 60 day cliffs or writing 10K in a day. Kris is noticing more and more burn-out cases. She has some good advice for managing your career.

A must read/listen is Joanna Penn’s latest blog on estate planning for authors. Do your heirs know that they are responsible for your literary estate for 70 years after you die? Have you got everything organised? There are lots of tips in this podcast.

School Library closures are happening more and more in the UK. Cressida Cowell is sounding a warning that this trend is really hitting the already disadvantaged children who don’t own books. The National Literacy Trust’s latest report is particularly grim reading. 

Meanwhile UNESCO has released a report highlighting a real concern over boys reading ability. This week on Facebook I shared a post on why kids are turned off reading. If you assess their every page turn how do they learn to read for pleasure?

The Guardian published an article about a once respected publisher going to the wall leaving huge debts and then seemingly starting up another publishing company. Authors are crying foul...

Meanwhile Rosie Amber has a post looking at the dodgy nature of some independent presses. Are they asking for money... always a worrying sign. Know what you are getting into.

It is not all Doom and Gloom... Publish Drive a nifty little aggregator, based in Europe and distributing into China and the East has just made their service available to the US. This is great news for all those people who got stuck with Pronoun’s sudden demise.

Anne R Allen always has great advice. Here she looks at 10 tips that keep your author blog running sweetly.  Elizabeth S Craig has some great tips for productivity and To Do Lists.

How Indies can stop worrying and learn to love bookmarketing. This is an attitude change. A timely post from Belinda Griffin.

In The Craft Section,

Wounds matter- Kristen Lamb

Identity and theme in YA- Sara Letourneau- Bookmark

PB creation templates-Debbie Ohi- Bookmark

The reason you aren’t happy with your novel- Daniel Nathan

Editing your writing- NowNovel- Bookmark

Perfect podcasts for writers

In The Marketing Section,

Building a sales funnel with storytelling- Bookmark

Book Review sites and Twitter lists –Bookworks- Bookmark

Finding a Literary Agent- Jane Friedman

What to include on your author questionaire

How to write, promote and sell books- Joanna Penn

Ten action steps for author success- Bookmark

Author tips on Twitter lists- Bookworks 

To Finish,

It’s been an interesting time recently watching prominent people in the media fall on their swords... or get impaled by their actions over sexual harassment. You would like to think publishing is above all that.... sadly no.

To Finish on a happier note... I’ve been named as one of the five judges for the New Zealand Children’s Book Awards. This means that I will be doing what I love best over Christmas – READING!

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 book crammed full with marketing notes. If you like what I do, feel free to hit the coffee button. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons/ Caligula 1995

Global Fears and Solutions

This week seemed to be a global focus week.

Is there a books market outside of the UK and the USA and assorted countries that speak English?

Why Yes.

How do we know?

Because Amazon thinks so.

This week Amazon made moves into South East Asia... Alibaba,the East’s version of Amazon, is not amused.

Neither is India’s publishing and book trade. Suddenly they have less book shops than they did before.

Where Amazon goes so do Indie publishers. But how do you price for the market in the East? There are so many currencies?

This week Publish Drive talked about pricing books in South East Asia and what Indies need to bear in mind if they enter this part of the world.

Smashwords introduced Global Pricing. Now you can tweak each countries book price. They have made some changes to their dashboard too.

Jane Friedman takes a snapshot of the publishing industry at the moment. Is there a resurgence in Print books? Just how much of the eBook market does Amazon have?

The Guardian printed an interesting article by Y.A. author Meg Rosoff on the point of Fairy Tales. This is a rebuttal to Richard Dawkins and the government and the push to only make education fact based. This has seen a decline in the funding of the arts in tertiary education and beyond. Do we really need fairytales?

Sarah Moore has written an interesting post on nipping your creative fear in the bud. Just what do you have to be scared of?

OK 

Now how do you manage that fear?

Anne R Allen has been writing up a storm on her blog with two great posts recently.

Do podcasts sell books? There are some great publishing focused podcasts out there and I try to listen to one most days. It makes me feel productive when I’m taking a screen break. Also professional development also...  If you haven’t dipped in to one yet, you are missing out!*

The use of pop ups on authors sites is getting ridiculous. Anne asks is it time to kill the pop up?

Bang2Write have a beautiful Infographic on 12 unusual and achievable productivity hacks for authors. This is a print out and put on your wall post!

The Write Life takes a look at that deep fear of authors. What happens if I lose my work?

Here are some solutions you can implement straight away.

In The Craft Section,

10 tips for writing characters with anxiety- Hannah Heath

Mastering outer motivation- Michael Hauge- Bookmark

Why strong dialogue matters

What should the story climax include- Jami Gold – Bookmark

Systemic sabotage of aspiring novelists- Larry Brooks- Bookmark

Writing Romance fight scenes-Now Novel

7 questions to ask when you lose the desire to finish- Denise Jaden

6 rules to keep critique partnerships golden

Writing an outline- Tasha Seegmiller-Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

5 reasons to be a social media minimalist- Chris Syme- Bookmark

The relaxed release- Elisabeth S Craig

Ebook checklist before uploading- Digital Book World- Bookmark

3 unconventional ways to use social media to find readers- Dan Blank

Two great posts from Kevin Tumlinson on the Draft2Digital blog, 10 sneaky hacks and Making yourself a brand.

To Finish,

This week in an online writers group the discussion turn to Authors selling Merch. I had a sudden vision of an author selling table filled with knick knacks. Somewhere in amongst the jumble of author branded merch on the table was the lone book that inspired it all. (Rather like our big brand bookstore....) Then one author said take a look at this... and we all said OOOOH. A whole different level of Merch for authors...

Maureen

@craicer

* Kiwi author Nalini Singh was on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing podcast this week. One of our publishing rockstars!

I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces every month in a newsletter. When you subscribe you will also get my nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. The blog runs on coffee fumes. If you want to say thanks feel free to hit the coffee tab. My brain says Thanks!
 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons Guilhem Vellut