Picking Winners

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The Guardian reported that there was no magic fairy that would help fund Literary Festivals in the UK. Here in NZ we are also facing this fact head on. There is no money. With austere government retrenching across the board the arts are seen as nice to have if we can afford it, but we can’t. The majority of our arts and science funding comes from profits made from government lotteries. The wish to win the big one is the poor man’s dream and the poor artists and scientists dream as well. Wouldn’t it be lovely if the jackpot could be arts funding for ten years or new research labs. The winner could have their name on the trust fund to administer it. Not bad for a $10 lucky dip ticket.

The UK Creators Rights Alliance is gathering steam. The alliance claims to represent more than 500,000 creatives who don’t want their work used by AI companies. There are some big organisations here, but will they see any traction? This could be a last rear-guard effort to man the barricades. 

 

Mark Williams lives and works in Africa. He explains what it is like to watch technology leaps in Africa that other countries had to live through. Remember dial up? Africa went straight to 5G. Is AI going to be the same?

 

Staying with AI- Don’t believe that it is reliable. Randy Ingermanson (Snowflake guy) recently tried using Chat GPT to do some writing for him and discovered that every quote was made up by the AI bot. What to do?

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that on one of the hottest days in the UK the Publishing Association’s sustainability pledge reached 200 company signatories. Publishing without waste, it just makes sense.

 

Story Empire has an interesting post on going to tertiary research institutions to get reliable information. – This is not just universities but also archives and museums. 

 

Dan Holloway of The Alliance of Independent Authors ( Alli) reports on Substack expanding its reach and making it easy for anyone to have a newsletter.

Alli are rejigging their podcasts, if you are a regular listener, and they have just published a super in-depth article on Marketing Strategies.

 

The Insecure Writers Support Group (fantastic group) have a great article on putting together short story collections.

Jeff Goins has an article on 10 steps to writing a book.

 

Katie Weiland has the next installment of her structure series. This is a great resource and well worth following along for some great craft teaching.

 

In The Craft Section,

The art of the outline- James Scott Bell - Bookmark

Story Structure as a fractal- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Use your theme to trim content- Suzi Vadori- Bookmark

7 tips for opening in media res- K M Weiland

5 mistakes writers make in fantasy stories- Lucy Hay

 

In The Marketing Section,

Amazon A+ content- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

What does your marketing data say- In depth teaching on data!

Amazon book description generator- Dave Chesson – Bookmark

15 Book promo ideas – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Audiobook marketing using virtual voices- Penny Sansevieri

 

To Finish

Last night I attended the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. It was great to celebrate with this very supportive community the fabulous books published in the last year. A striking feature was the emphasis of the winners in telling our indigenous stories. Out of seven major categories, five were won by books with indigenous main themes. The evening was enlivened by speeches entirely in Maori with many in the audience able to understand the main themes. For many years we read and copied stories that had an American or British style, to tell us who we are. This century I think we can say the national book awards finally reflect us - a pacific island nation with our own unique voice and heritage. It’s been a long time coming and its fabulous to see.

 

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.

 

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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

 

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 Streetwindy on Unsplash

Planning For Success

 

 

In Publishing News This Week,

 

Frankfurt. Are we back to normal? That seemed to be the question on everybody’s lips. There was a lot of chat amongst the publishers, sold-out sessions, and positivity everywhere.

Publishing Perspectives interviewed various publishers and agents about the hot new trends they were seeing.

 

Audiobooks got a lot of attention in Frankfurt with many saying that they were now a mainstream format. The ways for the public to acquire them seem to be all over the place though. You would think that Spotify with its streaming model would extend this into audiobooks – not so. Which audience model will win out was a hot topic discussed at Frankfurt.

 

Over the last month, the spotlight has been on AI generated art and its copyright ownership.  If you buy art for book covers or fan merch this seems to be a rising trend, to generate AI art. However, the AI’s are sampling artists' portfolios and styles and so the ownership is murky. After many photo stock dealers saying they wouldn’t deal with AI art, Shutterstock changed its mind and is trying have it both ways by attempting to pay the sampled artists if they can prove it. This has annoyed many in the industry.

 

It always pays to drop into Writer Beware occasionally to keep on top of ways that authors can be parted from their money. Recently Victoria had a long form piece on anthologies and how one anthology publisher collapsed and was exposed as probably running a Ponzi scheme. Anthologies can be great…but you must go in with your eyes wide open.

 

Today I was listening to an interesting conversation between Orna Ross and Joanna Penn on publishing values. It was wide ranging and referred to Orna’s recent article. This is a meaty topic. What do you wish to be known for and are you sure that’s what you are projecting to the readership?

 

Kris Rusch has an interesting article on Thinking Big. Do you note down your success? What about your positive reviews? Kris talks about exposure and when someone goes from chugging along to breakout.

 

Elizabeth Sims has an interesting post on short stories over on Jane Friedman's blog. 20 reasons why everyone should write a short story. I have been trying my hand at these this year and not managing to finish them. This article makes me look at short story writing in a different way. Let it go and have fun.

 

In The Craft Section,

Where do Ideas come from- Randy Ingermanson- Bookmark

4 writing pitfalls to avoid- Laurence McNaughton- Bookmark

Writing beginnings- Interview with Shane Millar- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

4 tips for writing effective backstory- Carolyn Arnold

The perils of not knowing what happens next- Janice Hardy

 

In The Marketing Section,

Update your Amazon book pages- Elizabeth S Craig- Bookmark

Book cover design ideas- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

3 ways to promote poetry- Raegen Pietrucha

Reaching readers for the long term- Becky Robinson- Interview with Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Instagram Book marketing ideas-Bookbub

 

To Finish,

This weekend is The Alliance of Independent Authors 24 hour conference, SelfPubCon. It’s free. Sessions are recorded and you get three days to go over them.

If you intend to attempt NaNoWriMo this November hopefully you will have everything organized. Check back over the last few blog posts for handy prep links. Don’t forget to check out your local library. Quite a few have embraced the NaNoWriMo experience and have spaces for writers to go and pound out their words.

Good Luck with your final days of preparation.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter of the best of the bookmarked links and other handy items Don’t forget to subscribe.

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 krakenimages on Unsplash

Reality Bites

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The fight by the big 5 publishers against the Internet Archive has passed the two year mark in the courts. The publishers are filing for a summary judgement- AKA Hurry up and decide on this will you. At stake… whether the Internet Archive is ‘masquerading as a not-for-profit library…digitising in-copyright print books on an industrial scale and distributes full-text digital bootlegs for free’ or not. 

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that Ingram Spark has set up their Lightning Sources Print On Demand installation at Publishing City Sharjah and they are open for business. They are sparing no expense because they expect to make pots of money from their 24-hour/a day printing business in the Middle East. 

 

Meanwhile, Mark Williams is looking at the moves in audio in Europe. He has some sharp observations to make about the constant buying and selling of audio producers and audiobook retailers. It’s a scrap for unlimited streaming.

 

In the You Have To Be Kidding files- Publisher Weekly reports on the new reality TV show coming to you soon- America’s Next Great Author. A big brother style show where 6 charismatic would-be authors live together and try to write a novel in a month… DRAMA.

Do they really want to film NaNoWriMo realistically?

 

Thomas Umstattd takes a critical look at Hybrid Publishers and where they can be a useful publishing partner. I agree with one of his main points, you should familiarise yourself with how publishing works before spending any money. It will save you money in the end- especially when the offer is too good to be true.

 

Writer Beware has an article on a copyright clause that raised my eyebrows past the hairline. This clause is beginning to show up more and more. Publisher content- or the right to make up extra content for your work. Read and take note!

 

Kris Rusch continues her How Writers Fail series – This week she is looking at words and how they can trip up a writer so badly they can’t finish their work.

 

Lithub recently had an article about the weird shame writers have when they publish a book. If this is you, you aren’t alone. Lithub talks to 5 writers who really struggled with this feeling on book publication day.

 

Anne R Allen recently wrote the 10 things a beginning writer should do before trying to publish a book. This should be required reading for every writer. Those of us who have been around the block a few times will be nodding emphatically to this list.

 

 

In The Craft Section,

How Theme and false theme affect your character- September Fawkes

Character talents beyond the superficial- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

Beginnings and endings – Scott Myers- Video- Bookmark

How to write a sequel- Now Novel

What is high concept- Robin Currie- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Author bio mistakes- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

6 tips for a successful marketing plan- Masterclass

What does your amazon book detail page look like- Barb Drozdowich- Bookmark

How to promote your book- Reedsy

Tofu for novelists- Randy Ingermanson- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

DIYMFA has an interesting post on writing goals that fit your enneagram number. At first, I was skeptical but the more I read the more I thought, hmm that fits with me. So if you are a student of personality types and trying to figure out how to effectively work with your writing goals, take a look. You could start a positive writing reality show for one.  

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed 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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Donald Giannatti on Unsplash

 

 

Another Year – Another Publishing Model

 

 

In Publishing News this week… It is all about Vella. 

Amazon has developed a new publishing arm to publish serials- Amazon Vella.

But why, and how will it work? has been all the gossip in the last 48 hours since the news dropped.

Mark Williams takes a look at why Amazon might have jumped and jumped quickly as they seem to be making this up on the fly. 

Meanwhile, commentators are examining Amazon’s announcements and trying to pull together how it will work. Exclusive- America first. 50% revenue of ‘tokens’ to writers. Subscription model, sort of. Only new work allowed.

Time will tell whether it will take off. It could go the way of Worlds and Singles… but you never know. It could be the next big thing.

 

The subscription model of acquiring entertainment is becoming the norm. Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors and Joanna Penn have a monthly salon where they talk about big picture stuff in publishing. Recently they looked at Subscription models and how publishing might change because of it.

 

In Book Fair news – BookExpo is no more and in its place will be a digital fair called The U.S. Book Show. Publishing Perspectives has a look at what’s on offer. 

Just announced- London Book Fair will be digital this year. After last year’s debacle of will-it- go-ahead-or-won’t-it. They may have learned some lessons.

 

Kristine Rusch has Part 4 of her interesting Hollywood and The Writer series and this one is all about money- You would think that money would be the most important thing in the contract but Kris says No. There is more at stake than that. (N.B. Hollywood is a catch-all term for all film and TV work, regardless of country. They all operate in much the same way.) 

 

Randy Ingermanson (AKA – The Snowflake Guy) has an interesting article on action plans. He has developed templates for action plans for writing, for book projects, and other tricky tools for writers. 

 

In The Craft Section,

How to cut the cost of a professional editor- Jim Dempsey- Bookmark

How to build tension successfully- Angela Ackerman

The basic scene checklist- K M Allen- Bookmark

When you talk about your Work In Progress- Robert Brewer

3 ways to increase reader belief- Roz Morris- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Know what you want to say and how to say it – Sandra Beckwith

Marketing questions – Joanna Penn- Bookmark

A beginners guide to Author Branding and 11 Book Marketing myths- Penny Sansevieri- 

Bookmark

Creating an author newsletter- Kirsten Oliphant- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Today is the Blog Birthday! 13 years of weekly posts. 

It has morphed a bit from the beginning. I started the blog to learn about publishing and I must say I have had an education over the last 13 years. Publishing has changed significantly in that time. Publishing Houses have contracted. Gone Digital. Print On Demand. Kindle. Kobo. Subscription. Wattpad. Audio. Serial. 

There have been scandals, lawsuits, scammers, #publishingpaidme and dodgy deals done. But still, authors hang in there, sometimes by our fingernails. 

Around this time of the year, I start thinking about the next financial year- tax time etc. Writer Mag has a collection of products for writers to stay organized and The Plot Whisperer, Martha Aalderson, has a post on creating a universal story planner. 

 

Onto Year 14… I might finally get organized.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy 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 – Andreas Cappell

 

Writing Under The Spotlight

The UK Society of Authors have been asking questions, pointed questions, about where the profits are going in the big publishing houses and why the royalty rate is so low. Porter examines the arguments and chats to those in the middle about what they can do about it.

I have been thinking about serialised novels lately. Dickens made a killing with them and they have gained popularity amongst time poor people. The serial podcast along with the episodic audio book are transforming people’s commutes. The Guardian opinion piece looks at the rise and rise of this form of writing.

Jane Friedman is publishing a new book On The Business of Being A Writer. She gathered some writers together and sent them to the Association of Writers and Writing programmes – the biggest literary conference of the year. They reported back on a variety of interesting keynotes on tips and advice for the writing business.

The Alliance of Independent Authors have been shining a spotlight on various members and this week it was Elizabeth S Craig’s turn. I often refer to her great blog. If you have ever wondered who she is and why she is so successful check out this interview.

Successful publishing depends on writing the best book you can and getting the word out about it. Digital Pub has 7 strategies and 94 tools that writers can use to get the word out and Michelle from Random Writing Rants has the ten key ingredients for writing an effective blurb. These are both BOOKMARK posts.

Debbie Ridpath Ohi is a great illustrator. She is also a stellar human being who creates and shares many resources with the writing and illustrating community. She has been working on PB templates which are available Free from her website.

Do you consciously write to a reading level? Randy Ingermanson (the Snowflake Guy) recently blogged about the ideal reading level of novels. Did you know that bestsellers are written with a 10 year olds reading level? Randy shares other interesting facts about novel readability.

What actually matters to your reading audience? Are you missing the point completely when you write those indulgent scenes? Cathy Yardly of Writer Unboxed examines what are the most important things that readers look for in a novel.

In The Craft Section,

3 tips to hook your readers emotions- Writer Unboxed

Developing characters fatal flaw

Foreshadowing sentence examples- Now Novel – Bookmark

How to tell if your writing is good

How to create characters worth reading- Jami Gold - Bookmark

Garlic breath for writers AKA bad first pages- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

5 website mistakes- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

15 reasons your book is not selling- The Book Designer

Free tools that build Book Buzz- Bookbub- Bookmark

What to put in your author newsletter

How to create a Facebook group

How to create pre launch buzz- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

To Finish,

How do you know what kind of writer you are? Gretchen Rubin developed a test that divided people into four tendencies. Upholders, Questioners, Obligers and Rebels. Where your greatest tendency is, there you will find your biggest challenge as a writer.

The world lost a towering figure today. Stephen Hawking opened up new ways of seeing the cosmos and the future of technology and space. He defied the odds and a crippling disease and showed that nothing should get in the way of ideas. His mind and sense of humour were sharp right up to the last day. This quote was on the front of Cambridge’s Daily Paper. ‘ However difficult life may seem there is always something you can do and succeed at. Where there’s life, there’s hope.’ 

Stephen Hawking 1942-2018 RIP

Maureen

@craicer

My monthly newsletter is coming soon. 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 enjoy this blog share it to your writing friends or you can shout me a coffee by hitting the coffee button up top. Thanks

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http://cheezburger.com/9138272768/rip-stephen-hawking

The Craft Of Writing...

What do I have for you this week.

Looking over the links I have gathered for you, today’s blog is turning into the craft of writing post...with the bulk of this weeks links across the publishing blogsphere spotlighting craft issues.

It could be that writers are gearing up for NaNoWriMo...yes I know we are in September but you can’t prepare too early....

First tho some interesting articles that caught my eye.

Kristine Rusch writes about the scammers who are targeting authors...unfortunately some of them are reputable publishing houses. This is one of those writer-you-must-know-what-your-rights-are posts, especially when publishing houses try to change contracts after they are signed...and it is not an isolated incident.

The advent of Kindle Serials has got everyone talking. Back in the old days writers like Dickens published their work as a serial changing parts of the story to fit audience reaction. Check out Jane Friedman and Porter Anderson’s round up of the opinions now that Amazon are giving this model a spin...

Rachelle talks about learning to pitch your potential to agents and editors.

There are new agents on the block looking for kids lit stuff.

Harper Voyager is having a two week window to unagented submissions...

Jami Gold touches on a few head scratchers for authors...print vs ebook, long tail vs out of print, actual bookstores  vs backlist. How does this impact the author now?

K M Weiland has a thoughtful post on the excuses writers have for not writing and how to combat them....

Indelible Writers have a great post on marketing books...know your hook, line and sinker.

Joel Friedlander has a post on gatekeepers...There aren’t any now and also a  great post on the hub and outpost method of Social Media marketing.

Now on with the great caft list...something for everyone here.

13 ways to put urgency in your writing from Rachelle Gardner

Are you preaching in your PB and how to tell from Mary Kole

The seductive but deadly sin that wants to kill your story from Larry Brooks

How to get your readers to love your villians- from Writers in the Storm

When your characters cry –from Superheronation

Archetypes - Neville Longbottom, the perfect foil from Harry Potter for Writers

Revising to raise the stakes in your story from Aimee Salter based on Janice Hardy’s advice.

If you can’t afford an editor...advice from Nicola Morgan

A must bookmark now post on scene structure from Randy Ingermanson...(The snowflake guy) Truly if you only have time to check one of the craft links today check this one...

To finish,

Every now and then I put a link to Chuck Wendig...he has a striking way of getting his point across...Here is a link to Chuck’s personal rules of writing now...(warning its Chuck! You will laugh and you will wince!)

‘Write as much as you can, as fast as you can. Finish your shit. Hit your deadlines. Try very hard not to suck.’ –Chuck Wendig

pic from http://www.flickr.com/photos/donovan_beeson/6879567474