Choosing Your Words

 

In Publishing News this week

 

It’s Banned Book week in the US and there are many different ways authors and publishers are drawing attention to the rise of challenged books in school sysyems. For the second year Penguin Random House are touring states with their Banned Book Wagon handing out banned books everywhere. Publishing Perspectives has a great article on what they are doing including the whopping number of books they are donating.

 

Following the bankruptcy of United Book Distributors a few months ago in the UK, the ripples are being felt throughout the UK book community reports Publishers Weekly. Verso publishers are running a Kickstarter campaign just to get their books from the distributor warehouse to another distributor. With 1 million pounds owed in book sales they are very pessimistic about receiving any money back.

 

Publishers Weekly also reports on the latest statistics on the publishing industry. Over the last 30 years, jobs in the industry have declined by 40%. Where have they gone asks Publishers Weekly. Amalgamations, bankruptcies, declining reading populations, digital publishing, rising printing costs… take your pick.

Bucking the trend is Poland who have reported rising demand for books. What are they doing right? 

 

The publishing industry in the US is crossing their fingers that TikTok lives past the US ban in some form or other… or rather Booktok. Super book girl Sam Missingham has put together a new platform connecting Booktok influencers with publishers. Dan Holloway has all the details. 

 

Recently Draft2Digital ran a survey asking authors how much they used AI tools and for what parts of their writing and editing. One of the survey questions asked whether authors would license their work to AI companies. I was surprised at the results.

 

Anne Handley has an interesting blog post on How To Write Like Robots Can’t, it’s all in the little details, like metaphor and word play. 

 

Chloe Gong was interviewed by Elle magazine on what it was like be an author online. Booktok influences had a hand in turning Chloe into a phenomenon but it’s not all Booktok. Chloe sees being online differently. Her books are great too- Shakespeare stories set in 1920’s China- addictive reading according to the teen in our house. 

 

Joanna Penn has a great interview with Mark Leslie Lefebvre on selling books at live events. He has some nifty tricks up his sleeve. Check out the podcast /transcript.

 

Kelley Way looks at the five most important clauses in a publishing contract. This is a must read for anyone who has or wants a publishing contract. Inside the very fine print after how much money you might get is some important information that often gets overlooked.

 

If you had to start your publishing career all over again, what would you do? Recently Craig Boyack published an article on what he has been doing starting a new genre and pen name. Everything completely different to what he wrote before. Interesting insights into what is useful now for starting up a new brand.

 

Russel Nohelty has an interesting article on How to Market Myself without Feeling Gross About It. This is a topic that every author struggles with. A great read.

 

Cynthia Swanson writes about how she went from debut New York Times bestseller to Publishing her 3^rd novel herself. There is a name for this, Orphaned Sequel Syndrome. When the career you thought you were going to have gets cut short and what you can do about it. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Layering your romance scenes- C S Lakin

5 pitfalls to avoid with protagonists- Savannah Cordova- Bookmark

Vulnerability not likeability is the key- Susan De Freitas- Bookmark

Why you lose motivation- Suzanne Lieurance

Story Structure the 3^rd act- K M Weiland- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

7 secrets to make your Manuscript stand out- Top Author

Social Media for authors-Evergreen authors- Bookmark

7 simple steps to build your brand- Draft2Digital

Creative reader magnets – Bang2Write- Bookmark

3 things you can do to get amazing blurbs- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Sometimes events get up your nose and you find yourself on a rant. But should you write about it? James Scott Bell has an interesting blog post on writing while you are angry. Does the writing calm you down or rev you up even more? James has some great tips for when you are just burning to say something and putting it in a novel feels like a good idea.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Johnson Wang on Unsplash

Slogging Forward

 

 

This week in Publishing News,

The Guardian published an article on the latest survey of children’s reading habits. Woe. Children are not reading as much as they used to. And the books they are reading are not challenging enough. They particularly bemoan secondary school students who are barely reading at all in the UK and Ireland. There has been some talk about the falling sales of YA but I don’t think we are in crisis. It’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere and they are gearing up for an election. They need lots of drama to fill the newspapers.

 

Meanwhile, the finalists for the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults were announced this morning. What a super line up! Congratulations everyone. I have judged these awards and I know how hard it must have been to come up with this shortlist. It is also great to see more books being entered, we’re only a few books short of the mark to have a long list, like the adult book awards. 

 

Publisher’s Weekly reports on the layoffs at Hachette. They have let go editors at Little Brown. When the publishing industry is under scrutiny to be more diverse in its people hiring, these particular layoffs don’t look good.

 

Audiobooks continue their upward trajectory in sales. They made over $2 Billion in sales last year. The survey from the audio publishers association reports that listener demographics are also on the rise with more children listening to audiobooks

The Textbook companies have got together to sue Google. At issue is the way that Google ads promote pirated textbooks to poor students. They are enabling scammers say the textbook publishers.

 

Dan Holloway of The Alliance of Independent Authors keeps an eye on publishing news and he recently reported on the willingness of media companies to do partnership deals with Open AI. If they’re not doing deals they are suing Open AI.

The Alliance also has some great podcasts on all things writing related. Check out Sacha Black and Michael La Ronn on marketing children’s and YA books and other interesting advice on their Q& A. They have transcripts of their podcasts.

 

Anne R Allen has an interesting blog post on changing up the author bookshop event. She got together with writer friends to have live theatre reenactments of scenes from their books. Think of the possibilities….

 

Two great writing craft articles caught my eye this week. James Scott Bell on writing and showing character emotion. A super post with great advice from the master.

Sarah Hamer writes a great post on the Story Triangle. She boils down structure to 3 essential must haves for a strong story. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Structuring an ensemble cast- September Fawkes - Bookmark

Tips for writing multi author series- D Wallace Peach- Bookmark

10 tips for writing steamy scenes- Gwynn Scheltema

Characters and writing race diversity- Gwen Plano

A Scrivener trick to use in Word- Debbie Burke- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

8 unique venues for children’s author visits- Chelsea Tornetto- Bookmark

Talking pre publicity- Sam Missingham- BOOKMARK-Print Out.

7 creative ways to sell more books- Fussy Librarian

6 savvy book promo ideas- Indie Author Central

Understanding Author Brand- Reedsy- Bookmark

 

To Finish

There is a great quote about writing from Elmore Leonard- ‘Try to leave out the parts people tend to skip.’

When you are faced with writing drudgery it can be tempting to skip over these bits, promising yourself you will fill them in later… and later doesn’t happen.

Two fantastic articles tackle this situation. Katie Weiland looks what might be triggering your resistance to writing and offers some great tips for getting through the drudgery.

Susan DeFreitas identifies the problem as your inner storyteller not knowing enough about your story/scene to write it. Both these articles have great tips to help you when the story writing becomes a slog.

 

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 davide ragusa on Unsplash

Call Yourself A Writer

 

In Publishing News this week,

This week the London Bookfair started in its new calendar slot as the first of the Western centric Bookfairs. The opening day was busy and Publishing Perspectives editor Porter Anderson reported that interest was high in the publishing business talks that are happening at the fair. Porter reports on the talking points from day one.

 

Publishers Weekly also has a profile on The London Book Fair. They report on the way publishers are dealing with AI and copyright and the problems of innovation.

The big moves by the European Union to regulate AI has everyone looking to see whether this will act as the sheriff in the Wild West world of Large Language Models. One of the interesting moves is to hasten each member countries establishment of compliance authorities. 

 

One of the big issues in the publishing world is sustainability. Not only do we need to keep the business afloat but we must be kinder to the planet while we do it. This year the CFO’s of publishing houses were invited as a group to LBF to talk about good sustainable practice.  Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article on this including links to white papers of research. 

 

Scholastic has shelled out a lot of money to buy an animation company outright. So what do you think they will do with it. Well, they have a lot of intellectual property and animation is pretty big in the kid centric visual world….

 

It looks like the way to get your new Kickstarter style platform really moving is to invite Brandon Sanderson to run a campaign on it. Brandon was only looking for $2,000,000 to create leather bound copies of one book. Along the way he has created another record and he’s up to $18 million and he still has the rest of the month to go.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a very comprehensive post on how to write to trends. First you do your research.

 

Sam Missingham has a great website with loads of advice and resources for authors. Recently she made an archive section where she has gathered a lot of free resources together. She also has a great newsletter full of tips. 

 

Jodie Hurst has a guest post on Anne Allen’s blog about writing in the age of AI. This brings up interesting questions that writers have been wrestling with how much AI is too much.  

Given most writer tools like Grammarly use AI we are probably interacting with it more than we think. 

 

Two great posts from writers at Killzone Authors caught my eye this week. Debbie Burke has tips on finding the right critique group who can help you grow as a writer.

James Scott Bell has the answer to when you can call yourself a writer.

 

Jami Gold has an excellent writing craft post on avoiding déjà vu in your series. How many times can you remind readers about what has gone before. Jami has some brilliant ways to make this work for you. A must read! 

 

In The Craft Section,

Building a writing practice- Rachel Toalson- Bookmark

Optimising word counts – Rachel Thompson

Timelines and plotting your novel-Cindy Sproles

Guide to backstory- K M Weiland- Bookmark!

3 techniques for powerful writing-Janeen Mathisen- Bookmark

Story Planner Success- Now Novel- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Don’t waste the dust jacket- Sharon Woodhouse

Marketing on a budget- Karen Cioffi- Bookmark

After your book wins an award-Book Award Pro

Who reads books – Sandra Beckwith - Bookmark

Best promo sites – Written Word Media- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Becca Puglisi has a great article on 8 steps from Amateur Writer to Pro. If you have ever wondered what makes the difference it is not sales, it is attitude. Becca outlines the attitudes you must have. This is a timely reminder for writers – how well are you doing with your writing practice and learning? It’s all part of the pro writer tricks of the trade. 

 

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.

 

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

 

 

Won’t Somebody Think Of The Children

 

In Publishing News this week,

Techcrunch reports on Amazon’s AI reviews. They are about to be rolled out on products very soon. Will they hurt the review as an art form? Reviews are social proof and book reviewers take their job seriously. Having AI synthesize reviews could stop reviewers bothering to write an in depth review. 

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard looks at the state of TV streaming and asks if publishers are seriously looking at their backlists. With the increasing share of TV revenue coming from digital subscription – backlist is king. So where are all those publishing deals? In the meantime the screenwriters are still out on strike.

 

Being a teacher by trade I am always interested in how the educational publishing world is doing. 

Publishers Weekly reports on the latest discussions of teaching reading. If you have been in the field for more than a decade you will be aware of different fads coming and going on reading instruction. 

 

A news report out of Brazil about a state abandoning its textbook industry had me concerned. A judge has reinstated it, thank goodness. This was a move to exert control over educational textbooks. There are always two sides to an educational textbook. It could be propaganda or it could be rigorously factual. When a person mandates a textbook change without consultation or notice right before the school year, it doesn’t bode well for truth. 

 

While Brazil is wrestling with truth in textbooks, Pen America reports that there has been a huge surge in educational intimidation bills. The old adage – In war, truth is the first casualty seems to fit here. The war is for hearts and minds… and the victims are often unaware that there is a problem. 

 

Goodereader reports on the wave of fake books compiled by AI and sold on Amazon – the most notorious being a book about the Maui fire two days after it happened. This kind of AI scamming behaviour by people putting these books up for sale is pretty low. It is no wonder that people feel mistrustful of any information.

 

Anne R Allen has a roundup of the latest writer scams to be aware of. Scammers prey on hopes and dreams. It could be for a publishing deal or agent or film contract. Once they hook you they suggest you pay for all sorts of extras. Money is supposed to flow to the writer- not the other way around. Always check the name and use the word scam in the google search. No one in the publishing industry will solicit you out of the blue for a publishing deal. Please make newbies aware of this fact.

 

Allison Williams has a writer beware post on editors behaving badly. You’ll never write in this town again. Writers who have been bitten by predatory editors don’t want to name and shame. Allison has useful tips for dealing with editors- This is a must read post.

 

Kris Rusch finishes up her niche marketing blog series with a look at how Barbie moved from a niche toy into an international brand with social media accounts and a billion dollar earning film. It’s a lesson in niche longevity.

 

The fabulous Sam Missingham of The Empowered Author is running a book marketing online conference later in the year. This week is the last week for early bird prices and discounts. 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a comprehensive post on Non Fiction book marketing and a great post on writing and publishing with a family member.

 

Have you ever created your own fantasy map? It is often something we get into as kids but I have found that writers have a particular affection for maps. Mirror World has a great post with lots of links on map creation.

 

Molly Templeton writes about the ritual of rearranging your books periodically. I like to think that I do this yearly but I’m kidding myself. When the bookshelf is so messy it looks like three toddlers have had a playfight I know its time to seriously attack my bookshelves. Unfortunately knowing that I will be have to look inside every second book stops me from doing the job more frequently. Sigh.

 

Did you know that those little quotes in front of chapters that some writers use in their books are called Malcolms? After the guy who started doing it. It wasn’t that long ago either.

 

In The Craft Section,

What are plot devices and why you should be cautious- K M Weiland – Bookmark

How to write 5000 words a day- Bamidale Onibalusi

You as the fictional character- Anne Janzer- Bookmark

Writing about pain- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

What show don’t tell actually means- Mythcreants

 

In The Marketing Section,

You’ve written your book now what- Carrie Weston

Imaginative September holidays for book promo- Sandra Beckwith – Bookmark

How to build an author platform that attracts readers- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Ideas for blogging on your author website- Judith Briles- Bookmark

How authors use pre-orders to promote new books- Bookbub- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Esquire interviewed Josh Cook, the author of a new book – The Art of Libromancy. Josh has written about bookstores being at the vanguard of the culture wars. He is an independent book seller and believes in the importance of book stores for people to test beliefs, moral standpoints, and get information. This makes their survival all the more important in an age of book banning and AI scraping fakes 

I would like to add that libraries, particularly school libraries, are equally important. Having a repository of widely curated books allows the reader to make up their own mind. We must teach curiosity and fact checking and to do that we need access to a wide range of opinions and facts. You fail when you restrict access to books, or news, or dissenting opinions. Even though you might not agree with how some people ‘blindly’ follow the latest theories, it’s the ‘blindly’ that is the problem. Blindly reinforces prejudice without allowing that there might be an opposing fact to refute it. A wide range of voices and books to sample from is necessary and good for society. 

Here Endeth The Lesson.

 

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 this 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 Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Taking Time to Recharge

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

 

The new Tutulia app is making little waves in the book community. The App uses a Machine learning AI to recommend your next read based on the information you feed it. The AI scrapes all the book sites and reviews and buzz to pull together a list of books that will suit you. As Ingram is a founder investor you can buy the book from inside the app and Ingram will print it and ship it to you. This is next Gen thinking.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that Bonnier owned Bookbeat is expanding Europe. They seem to be competing in the Audiobook sector with Storytel. They want to increase more competition in Audiobooks. Their pricing subscription reflects this with by the hour of listening instead of monthly fees.

 

Mark Williams has an optimistic view of the big book fairs happening in the Middle East. They are back to clocking up a million visitors and audio looks like it will be taking off there as well with audio subscription services chasing this big market. Publishers should be taking note of the expanding audio markets.

 

Kris finishes The How Writers fail series with a pithy article on quitting too soon. This is a thought provoking article on how writers can self-sabotage their writing. 

 

Sam Missingham has a great newsletter called The Empowered Author. She has her finger on the pulse of the UK publishing scene and is often amplifying authors across social media. Recently she updated her fabulous post on all the different ways Author Collectives operate and their value to the writers involved. ( So of course I would be all over it.)

 

Recently Dan Blank was commenting on generosity as a book marketing idea. He has some really interesting examples of how this has been playing out in the author community.

 

Terry Odell on The Killzone blog recently wrote about giving yourself permission to step back from your writing. Sometimes life gets in the way and writers can tie themselves into knots trying to get their word count in or their projects finished. This is a great little article.

If you need to take a longer creative rest- check out Orna Ross and Joanna Penn’s latest podcast transcript. Joanna has just walked the Santiago Camino Trail and talks about how she is structuring creative rests into her writing calendar.

 

If you are preparing for NaNoWriMo which starts in November, Don’t Forget to check out all the good offers/ deals available for participants. (pssst Scrivener is on sale)

 

James Scott Bell is a great writing craft teacher. I have a few of his books and they are constant dip-ins when you get stymied. He is guest posting over on Anne R Allens’s Blog with a great 10 commandments of writing post- This is print out gold!

 

In The Craft Section,

7 tips to add complexity to the story- K M Weiland- Bookmark

2 tips to amp up the conflict- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Handwriting vs Typing- Kay DiBianca

Prologues- Do we need them?- Janice Hardy – Bookmark

Fear Theasaurus- Not being believed- Angela Ackerman Becca Puglisi

 

In The Marketing Section,

Marketing beyond the bookstore

7 strategies to focus on book marketing- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Publishing resources Free downloads- Shala Raquel- Bookmark

The key elements of eye-catching book design- Jane Friedman- Bookmark

How to publish a Hardcover book on Amazon

 

To Finish,

It’s Frankfurt Bookfair time which means The Alliance of Independent Authors runs one of their free online conferences. SelfPubCon. Check out the link to see who the speakers are this year and sign up. The sessions are all prerecorded and usually 30 minutes long and chock full of information. It is free and there are often neat little deals and competitions on offer.

 

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 Markus Winkler on Unsplash

In The Brave New World of Next Week

In Publishing News this week, Sam Missingham, wrote an opinion piece for The Bookseller entitled ‘Now is the time for publishers to show their real value.’ This is a plea to publishers to look at what is happening under the pandemic and change their way of operating for the future. 

Here is one small quote from the article- This approach treats publishing like the long game it is and more importantly puts readers first. And it means all of our books and content, front list and backlist, have the same value. And we showcase our authors beyond their publication window.

This is a great rallying call for a better publishing standard.

Some of the ideas Sam talks about are happening in an experimental way. Today I saw news that Faber was partnering with Glassboxx to develop a direct to consumer portal. Check out what they are doing and think of the implications. Digital content has sustained the traditional publisher's bottom line through the print publishing slow/stop.

Joanna Penn mentioned other similar initiatives in the intro to her latest great interview on writing and selling short fiction. 

In happy news, The UK has also scrapped VAT on books… so that’s something nice to come out of the pandemic.

Publishing Perspectives has taken an in-depth look at China’s publishing world as they are the first to come out of a lockdown situation. Print sales down for obvious reasons. Printers and supply chains have almost ground to a halt, but digital sales are up.

Booktopia – Australia’s online bookseller has joined forces with Kobo to take advantage of a bigger global reach.

Staying in Australia – The Guardian recently published a sad look at what is happening in the Australian publishing community with the cancellation of many writer’s festivals and publishing job losses.

If you need some bracing advice for keeping your writing chin up and plowing forward Chuck has written his Writing Advice In The Age Of The Pandemic. This is a must-read for everyone who has looked at the last months writing goals and despaired. (a nice pickmeupoffthewritingfloor)

Elisabeth Spann Craig has written an interesting article on writing sprints. She joins video sprint writing groups. If you are missing a group sprint writing session check out the video options. 

In The Craft Section,

How to improve story with action beats- Jami Gold-Bookmark

Newbie writing mistakes- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

9 ways to originalise your story idea- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

10 step checklist to writing a better than average novel- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Writing prompts for socially isolated authors- Writers Digest

In The Marketing Section,

The importance of book landing pages- Convertkit

Book Promotion during a pandemic- The Book Designer- Bookmark

Selling books on your author website- Alli blog – Bookmark

8 Social Media scheduling apps- Frances Caballo

Create your own book video step by step guide- Bookmark

Book Merch for authors- Dan Parsons- Bookmark

To Finish,

Today I went down the font rabbit hole. I’m not sorry. I love looking at all the creative ways designers can imagine the alphabet. It all started with IngramSpark’s blog on the best fonts for books.

I also discovered naturalreaders.com. Another tool for editing your book. Choose a voice to read back your writing. I found hearing your work read back can highlight grammar mistakes. I played around with so many voices the kids rebelled. They just don’t understand, I have a cast of thousands in my head.

Maureen

@craicer

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Hanumann- viet globe

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.