In publishing news this week...
The news is filtering through about mega selling YA Author
Cassandra Clare being taken to court over plagiarism by another big selling YA
author Sherilyn Kenyon. This is an interesting case as it hinges on whether you can plagiarise an idea.
While authors digest that one- if you were thinking of translating
into German you need to understand that titles are copyright protected in
Germany. Joanna Penn talks to Rebecca Cantrell about this and other meaty
topics in the hybrid world of publishing.
A new Author Earnings survey is out. For the first time they
included print books. The numbers make interesting reading. Traditional
publishing still holds up Print... but the Indies are not far behind.
This week Nielson announced that they have decided to track ebooks. This is slightly after the fact as ebooks have been around for a few
years now. However the data may be useful in the future.
Publishing will be rubbing their hands at the news that an 8th Harry Potter book is about to be launched on July 31st in print and
ebook. This is the book of the script of the play which also opens in July.
With over 70,000 fully illustrated books of Harry Potter and the Philosophers
Stone (retailing in NZ at $70) sold in the last three months, I’m going to predict that
there will be a market for this book featuring a grown up Harry Potter. Add to
that a new expanded version of Fantastic Beasts and all things Potter will be
the publishing saviour of 2016.
Outside the phenomenon of Harry Potter, Children’s Books
receive very little review space in print media. A UK author has launched a campaign to try and redress this. This has been picked up by The Bookseller
magazine with an article about why these reviews are so important.
Jami Gold has an interesting article on the dilemma for the writer of a public life for a private individual.
Janice Hardy has an
interesting article by Marcy Kennedy on the single biggest mistake authors make... and its important... BACKUP. Marcy details the ways you can fix this!
Jane Friedman has a guest post by Ursula Wong on writer groups and co ops. This is a comprehensive how to article on what types of groups are
around, what they do and how they can be set up.
I have long been an advocate of
writer groups... of all kinds. They can be a great support individually and can
morph into small publishing companies.
After all that’s how Bloomsbury started and look who they first published... J K Rowling
In the Craft Section,
Kathryn Goldman-When and when not to use Trademarks- Bookmark!
K M Weiland - 5 reasons a book is re readable- Bookmark
Anne R Allen- How to hook the reader- Bookmark
Kristine Rusch on The Serious Writer Voice- Bookmark!
Jane Friedman on Creating Audiobooks
In the Marketing Section,
Writeitsideways has a nifty post on 4 steps to take forAuthor Branding.
Jane Friedman looks at whether paid book reviews are worth it- Bookmark
Writers in the Storm has a great post on helping your readers to write good reviews
Lindsay Buroker has a great post on Amazon adverts for authors- read the comments!
Miral Slatter has a great post on putting together a marketing plan for your book. Bookmark
Joel Friedlander has a post on the importance of keywords for Amazon
If you still need help with websites and ideas check out FirstSiteGuide. Lots of interesting articles.
To Finish,
If you are thinking about productivity apps- here is a full
on one- Flowstate... keep typing or lose all the words you have written. No time for
musing or looking at kitten pictures... I wonder if J K Rowling uses this.
Maureen
@craicer
