Taking A Moment To Breathe

 

This week in Publishing News.

Oh Scholastic, it hasn’t been a good month for your public relations. Today the publishing professionals that work at Scholastic Head Office walked out and started picketing over the un-living wages they were getting from a billion dollar company.

 

In the Wow-they-finally-did-it-stakes, Amazon’s publishing arm KDP announced they were beta testing eBook to audio narration using AI Voices. These will be sold through Audible. Cue jaw drops as they were adamant they weren’t getting into the AI voice game… but Google has already been in this space for a while so it was always on the cards. 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard has some pithy observations regarding Amazon’s quarterly report- one mention of books vs 33 mentions of AI.

 

Amazon is back in court – this time taking scammers the down. Yay. Staying on the scammy front Victoria Strauss has a Writer Beware post on impersonation scamming which is on the increase. She shows how it is done and breaks down how to spot the warning flags in her real scam examples. A week doesn’t go by now without coming across some impersonation scam or an author checking in with others to ask if the email they have just got is legit. 

Today I saw advice that recommended sending a screenshot to the agency in question and just checking if it is legit. – Good advice.

 

Written Word Media has been making news with its promo stack partners. They have been busy signing up other ebook reader sites to create big promotion stack opportunities for marketing for authors. Their latest press release has them adding another heavy hitter to the fold.

 

November is the month of NaNoWriMo. Good luck to all those who are attempting to write 50,000 words in a month. The idea behind it was to create a writing habit so even if you make a practice of just showing up every day, you are winning. Roz Morris has a good post on how to get through the month. 

There are various ways to win at NaNowriMo. You can record your word count for everything you write in November or do the ALT NaNoWriMo challenge.

 

 Jane Friedman has two guest writers on her blog with two very different approaches to writing and marketing. Check out How do you turn an essay into a book deal and an interesting post on How to earn six figures as a writer with one weird trick. 

Ruth Harris has an excellent post on radical revision- When the going gets tough get your radical creativity muse on. This is a print out and post it on the wall post.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a comprehensive guide post on producing audiobooks. This covers pretty much everything you need to know to get started.

 

Katie Weiland has a knock it out of the park post on despair in fiction. This is one of those craft posts that inspire authors to the next level of writing- A Must Read.

In The Craft Section,

Protagonists and points of view- Draft2Digital

Mastering character evolution-Laurie Schnebly Campbell- Bookmark

The enemy within- crafting powerful inner conflict- C S Lakin- Bookmark!

I broke Elmore Leonard’s Rules- P J Parrish

3 ways to structure a chapter- Anne Brown-Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Subgenres and comp books- Kris Maze

Ways book marketers use social media to promote pre-orders- Bookbub- Bookmark

5 unique book marketing ideas- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

How to create fun freebies for your newsletter- Colleen Story- Bookmark

Podcasting magic bullet- Alliance of Independent Authors podcast /transcript

Marketing resources- Foothills Writers group

 

To Finish,

Recently Joanna Penn spoke with Tracy Cooper-Posy on managing your author business long term. It was a fascinating long look at what is worthwhile to invest in and how to manage discouragement. This is one of those posts where you nod and start to make notes and think about stepping sideways of the hamster wheel. 

It’s hard to focus on your writing business when you feel that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. This overwhelm can be energy sapping and creativity stalling. 

Do what you can and give yourself time to breathe.

 

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 Khamkhor 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

Exploding Heads...

December is the craziest month of the year in New Zealand. 

It is the month when you juggle end of school year events at schools. Christmas celebrations with all the organisations you are involved with, as well as your children’s and your spouse’s. It is the start of the summer holidays. 

While you are rushing around trying to prepare for Christmas, you are also trying to juggle the holiday timetable, travel, destination etc etc.

Throw in a few unexpected events and life gets more than complicated. In December I find myself just concentrating on each day at a time because otherwise my head will explode.

This week around the publishing blogosphere there is a lot of head exploding about this article. Ebook readers to go the way of the dinosaurs. Of course writers publishing ebooks are worried...Do we need to be?

In the last week Victoria Strauss from Writer Beware (an excellent site) has dealt with sock puppetry of a different kind...where a small publisher has had writers extolling their virtues...unfortunately the writers in question didn’t know they were. The twitter feed exploded when Chuck Wendig found his name had been used. Victoria does a great job bringing scams to writer's attention and her latest find is on International Scams...watch out if you are contracting for or to services overseas.

James Scott Bell has written a great post on 10 ways to sabotage your writing. Hopefully you are doing none of these...I could be guilty of letting the Zombies in...

Zoe Winters drops in from her Social Media Blackout to say what she has learned and achieved. Do you remember life before Social Media? How was your writing then? (a safe sane existence?)

While I was away from Social Media a few weeks ago on my travels, Kassia Krozser from Booksquare was interviewed by 40K Books. I have seen snippets of this great interview all over the place and the whole thing makes VERY INTERESTING reading. Kassia is in demand as a speaker at big publishing industry conferences where she regularly explodes heads with her presentations. In this interview she has the heads up for publishers and what they should be doing now and also for authors. Flexibility is the ultimate key!

Porter Anderson in his new Ether for Authors round up talks about the rise of publishing industry conferences targeting Authors...join the dots... Authors increasing interest in Indie publishing...ergo they need tools and skills... and as Porter says Krozser’s interview works as a useful position paper, and it’s the kind of thing I hope more authors are taking the time to read these days. Craft work is grand, but when it comes to understanding the business in which that craft must be published, authors can no longer “stick to the writing blogs.” Knowing what publishers face in today’s market is the only way for an author to find a place for him- or herself.

So with this clarion call ringing in your ears The Alliance of Independent Authors has a free online conference for ... Independent Authors.

Check out their speakers...many of whom have been featured in this blog over the years.

I note that the cost of a publishing industry conference is nearly $2000 NZ so maybe a 3 day holiday away around the 12-14^th February where you can drop in to this makes good economic sense.

The FutureBook Conference held last month in the UK goes under the microscope in Nick Harkaways blog. How broken is the old publishing system when the accountants are running the asylum... (cue zombie music)

Passive Guy highlights the wonderful Indie author Hugh Howey (author of mega selling Wool) and his new contract whith S&S which breaks new contract ground. I know this has been a hot topic here in NZ among authors so take a look at this. (Is this the contract of the future...please please please...) 

In Craft,

A nice round up for this week.

From J R R  Tolkein. 6  writing tips.

From K M Weiland. Structuring scenes and also Why stupid characters make stupid books (must read)

From Gina Conroy. Cutting fat from your WIP

From Elisabeth S Craig. Writing in small chunks of time

From Kissmetrics. What Tarentino can teach you about reader engagement.

From MythicScribes 9 Amazing Blogs for Writers...and yes there are familiar names here for you.

In Marketing,

7 Things I learned about marketing books

Wise Ink has 12 lessons they have learned coaching Indie Authors in 2012

To finish,

Scholastic Editors have forecast their top 10 trends for 2013 (remember people that it usually takes a year to publish a book...)

Hold Your Head NOW

maureen

P.S. As always I urge you to read the comments on the links I put up each week.

Conversations I highlighted in last weeks round up are still going so if something from last week caught your eye, check in again... there is still plenty to talk about.

Pic from Grmisiti who has a whole lot of scary pictures from the Zombie Walk in Sao Paulo. This is not the scariest!

Counting The Cost

I am writing this as builders work on our character cottage. Unfortunately the character of our cottage is that of a Saturday night drunk, happy but lurching and having difficulty standing straight. This is fine for a person who will wake up sober the next day but not for a house. Pulling off outside walls to find crooked framing which explains the crooked walls, which means the windows don’t fit properly which means there is rot...these are the hidden costs. We were prepared for some hidden cost but now I am dreading the call of my name from the builders at the other end of the house.

In the blogosphere Writer Beware has a guest post on why small publishers fail with a few scenarios of real situations that have you wincing for all those who are involved. This post responds to comments that asking publishers hard questions about their business  seems mean and intrusive. Given what each scenario details...as an author you’d better know the costs up front.

Sometimes this writing life costs us too much and you feel like throwing in the towel....

Miss Snarks First Victim has a great post on where the quitting decision may be coming from.

L M Preston solicits good advice for beating the blues and Ava Jae of Writability talks about writing through resistance...which echoes Stephen Pressfield's great book, The War of Art, which I bought last week...I recommend this book if you are struggling with the whole ‘what am I doing this for’ scenario.

Agent Mary Kole talks about the decisions of choosing a book to represent for love...or for the potential money...

Fiction is our way of creating a tribe for ourselves- Victoria Mixon This beautiful phrase comes from a very thought provoking post on writing that is challenging and inspirational and shows the costs to yourself as you follow this path.

Lindsay Buroker always has some interesting things to say and this post is no exception. How to improve your sales at Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and iTunes. Check out Lindsay’s previous posts on advertising while you are visiting.

Alan Rinzler has been looking at Book Publicity and he has interviewed three publicists about their work and tips that you can learn from them.

Joel Friedlander has a great rundown on blog widgets and how to get the most out of them design wise.

Jami Gold has a great tip for MS Word and Beta readers...and how to get all their comments all together in one place...tricky and the payment is a saving of your sanity.

This week the Scholastic Media president was interviewed on where Scholastic is going with eBooks enhanced apps etc etc. The interesting numbers from January 2011-January 2012 saw a 474% uptake in children’s eBooks. Scholastic predicts that 30% of all their revenue will be digital by 2015. It is a very interesting article and those of us who write for children need to be flexible in our thinking of where our audience is going.

Jody Hedlund is also concerned about audience and asks whether you really know the demographic that you are writing for. She raises some interesting points in her post eBooks vs Paper...are you taking your audience with you?

Next week hopefully the building work will be nearly finished and we will be counting the cost...and probably reaching for a bottle of solace.

Taking A Punt

This morning in my inbox was a little heads up email from Publishers Weekly with the round up of children’s publishing news. 

A quick glance down and this takes my eye. Scholastic, Ruckus in joint venture. On the surface it’s another business merger with the biggest children’s publisher. Ho hum. But look a little deeper and think about what this is telling us now about children’s publishing.

Ruckus Media was started a year ago this week by the former head of Simon and Schuster’s Children’s Publishing division. He got together with a web developer to take a well known children’s audio book company Rabbit Ears into the digital age and create apps for the new iPad.  They promised a 12 week turn around time and to release an App a week. They were going to acquire new content and had signed up some impressive authors. Ruckus also promised that eventually they would go into partnership with a publishing house.

So a year to the day they are going with Scholastic.

While the big publishing houses have had a wait and see approach or are nervously dipping a toe in the water of digital publishing. Their top brass have been jumping to get into the market knowing that eventually the publishing houses would have to come to them for their expertise. These guys aren’t going to lose their shirts on this, they are businessmen. Print publishers are now seeing the huge market for new content in Games and Apps and want a piece of the pie.

Ruckus published new digital content first and now they are partnering with Scholastic to bring it into Print.

Writers, You don’t have to sell print rights first...(Do I hear the sound of pennies dropping?)

Children’s writers need to look at their manuscripts and see it as suitable for submission to Digital Media publishers as well as print...especially junior and mid grade writers. Illustrators too could begin submitting portfolios into these smart publishers.

After all if Scholastic can take a punt why can’t you?

Also in the news this week...

These three links have generated much comment around the blogosphere.

Bob Mayer explains his statement That Fear Is The Downfall Of the Publishing Industry

A publisher explains why they won’t carve off ebook rights from a contract.

On the popular Publishing Perspectives blog a literary agent puts up his argument against agent publishers.

If you are wondering about marketing your new book, Cory Doctorow tells it straight with his to the point article for Locus. Why should anybody care? This is a great article which has generated heaps of comments all over the blogosphere.

Also in the same issue of Locus there is a spotlight on Ultra Cool Children’s Writer Bruce Colville. He has an audio publishing company that puts full cast audio productions together....(wish I was living near him, I would love to be a voice actor for a book...)

 M J Rose is interviewed by Jungle Red (a mystery writers group blog) about starting the company Author Buzz and how successful it has been. There are some great marketing tips for authors in this article.

Jenny Hansen from Writers in the Storm, examines social media and how that impacts on your Author Brand. This is a useful post because she breaks down the use of hash tags on twitter...and the best people to follow. (you can follow me if you like..:)

40K has a great roundup of trends currently happening in publishing. They use up and down arrows with great effect.

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to Articles on

Internal and External Inspiration

25 tips for Queries, Synopsis and Treatments. (This is a great article but comes with a content warning hehehe Cover your ears....Chuck lets rip.)

In the Craft Corner,

The wonderful Casey McCormick has a guest blog from Martha Ramirez on how to deal with critique editing.

Superheronation tells you how to critique something that is just plain awful...

To finish,

 Cheryl Reif has a great little blog post about deadline tricks and how they can boost your productivity...

Explore all avenues....take a punt!

enjoy,

maureen

pic is a punter on the Avon River in Christchurch