The Chinese Year Of The Rabbit is supposed to herald a period of tranquillity and calm. After the changes in the publishing world over the last two years we could all do with a bit of calm but I don’t think we are going to get it as the shaking up of the publishing industry continues.
It hasn’t been a year since the launch of the ipad and the explosion in the sales of ebooks. Publishers are very cagey about telling authors what their ebook sales are but just for your information, In the month of November 2010, the ebook sales, reported by the Association of American Publishers, were 14.5% higher than for the month of October and growth in ebook sales over the year (Nov09-Nov10) was 165% . This is a conservative estimate.
The implications of readers moving to digital books have not been lost on Authors in the blogosphere. Getting an agent and getting a book deal is hard work, not for the faint hearted and with publishers insisting that authors must promote their books the Author is left looking hard at ebooks and self publishing. The books are cheaper to produce, there are no warehousing issues with POD and they are already promoting their work aren’t they?
The biggest hurdle to leap over is marketing. Who wants to spend all that precious writing time marketing? How can the reader find good books to read in the digital age, when a quick look on itunes shows more than 50,000 book apps available?( I’m probably missing a few zeros.)
Who will be the digital ebook reviewers we trust?
Who will help the new authors negotiate the quicksand of publishing in the now?
One person who has been doing a bit of thinking around this is Kristen Lamb. She has brainstormed a possible new publishing model that looks like a win/win from everyone’s perspective. Have a read and see what you think!
From the publishing marketing trenches to the how-do-I-just-get-on-the-ladder reality...Jody Hedlund posted an article on her blog last month about her agent receiving 10,000 queries in a year and accepting 0. Jody looks at what an author can do to change the numbers around.
If you are contemplating having a sales page on your website Victoria Mixon has got a great guest post for you from Joanna Penn. These two blogging diva’s have swopped over and are guesting on each others blog.
For those looking for a bit of help before the hard grind of submitting your manuscript, here are three sites worth a good look.
Over On Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on,
Extreme Book Design...blowtorches knives and spiders...
Is Speculative Fiction Poised To Break Into Literary Canon? (Guardian Article on the Man Booker.)
Rick Riorden’s experience with the effects of Ritalin on his family.
List of Most Commonly Used Cliches in YA (everyone’s checking their MS now)
6 Personality Types Who Will Fail As Writers. (laughing while you say ouch)
To finish,
Alice Pope has a great list of SCBWI Winter conference roundups on her blog. Over 1100 people attended the winter conference in New York...that’s almost as many who attend the summer conference.
Justus Stone has written a detailed post about writing software and how they have changed his life.
Zoe Winters has the last word...(One of these characters could be a NZ Politician...)
enjoy,
maureen
enjoy,
maureen
