Publishing News with Camels

Around the publishing blogosphere this week...

It’s been a busy old week in publishing. Authors outside the U.S woke up to find their books had vanished into a desert. They were not on the Amazon platform. Frantic calls from around the world perplexed the call centre. ‘We can see them fine here, stop worrying little author, it’s a glitch. It will sort itself.’ 
Authors talk to each other. (Odd, I know.) When the author community found out the problem wasn’t being fixed and wasn’t isolated geographically the screams were heard around the world. The heavy hitters in the Indie community called their Amazon Reps. Amazon is on it... so they say....

While Amazon was feeling the wrath of the authors...on the other side of the business, the booksellers were spitting like camels over changes to the Used and Rare book section. Suddenly booksellers were pulling their catalogues from ABE Books (rare and out of print booksellers owned by Amazon.) The issue was one of justice to the small bookshops in Africa. And Amazon caved.

Meanwhile, the publishing community is looking sideways at new conventions proposed by the EU and South Africa. Plan S has many worried about I.P. and how much it will count when changes are made to the ‘Fair Use’ guidelines. The accepted practice is restricted to Research, News, Teaching, Parody and only a limited amount at that. Publishers are already warning South Africa that their changes could contravene the Berne Convention.

While the publishers get set to fight for their IP rights there is another crisis looming. The shortage of paper is driving up the price of print. This could be another straw on the printed book camel. 

The Atlantic has an in-depth article on a rags to riches writer story that is a bit different. It was kick-started on Wattpad, written on a mobile phone at the supermarket, uploaded for free and then... 

Public Service Announcement: If you have published on Createspace you may want to check your accounts. Hackers have got in. 

Smashwords have been quietly working at things in the background while being a large distributor of Ebooks in the foreground. This week Founder and CEO Mark Coker unveiled the new Smashwords storefront. It has some nifty bells and whistles and Mark stresses that they will never game the recommendations. (Which makes a nice change from other store fronts.)

Last week I was a virtual fly on the wall at a huge conference in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Joanna Penn was attending the Independent Author conference. She shares her takeaways and lessons learned from this dynamic conference.  Even if you are traditionally published, have an agent... etc. etc... it pays to keep an eye on the indie author world. Often they are responding to changes much faster than traditional publishers. Forewarned is always a good thing.

In The Craft Section,

4 fool proof ways to be a prolific and successful writer- Writers in the Storm

Using tips from poetry to strengthen prose- Pamela Donison- guest post on Jami Gold's blog- Bookmark

10 books to read before writing your novel

How to write funny novels and why you shouldn’t.- Melodie Campbell

Writing a series from a standalone.- Alli Blog

Michael Hauge's Six stages of structure - Bookmark

Resources for NaNoWriMo

Overcoming emotional wounds showing your character is healing- Becca Puglisi

Character types- Go Into The story

The powerball of first page resources- Angela Ackerman

Plotting a novel when you haven’t figured out the details-Janice Hardy !!

70 plot twists and examples – Reedsy

In The Marketing Section,

5 tips for marketing books with a free excerpt- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

7 reasons Facebook ads don’t convert- Marie Page

How to get great book reviews- Alli Blog

New Book marketing- The bad girls guide to a book launch- Melodie Campbell-Bookmark

Meet the super fan that you want- Judith Briles- Bookmark

5 Author productivity tools- Dave Chesson- Bookmark

How to request a rights reversion- Writer Beware

To Finish,

The weird things people say to authors and what you can say in reply. This post strikes a chord with every writer I know. As we come up to the holiday season and the Christmas party round is about to begin. Store up some of these comebacks for the inevitable clueless questions from family and acquaintances.

I am guest posting over at Jami Gold's blog this week if you want to drop in and read an article on leveling up your writing. 

Maureen

@craicer

It’s time for my monthly newsletter, where I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. (This weekend, promise!) When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee hit the Kofi button up top. Congratulations for making it halfway through NANO!

Pic The Library Camel of the Gobi Desert./imgur pic  I couldn’t resist… you can check out Green Eggs and Ham in the Gobi. Theodore would be tickled pink over that!

We all need a Scottish Granny

Around the publishing blogosphere this week...

In the U.S. getting an ISBN number means either accepting a free one from Amazon... where they are listed as the publisher on record or buying one from Bowker which costs a lot of money but at least you or your publishing company is the publisher on record. You need a separate  ISBN for every format of the book so this can really add up depending on how many formats you have. Bowker’s website was hacked this week and they almost shut down their whole operation....

(NB. Here in NZ we can get free ISBN’s by going to the National Library of New Zealand website.)

In a recent article on Publishers Weekly some literary agents listed their MS wish lists for Young Adult. Themes wanted are teens dealing with the real world. If you keep an eye on the publishing houses bottom line you soon learn that a year without a breakout YA bestseller really hits the revenue of the big publishing houses. Everybody is chasing the next big thing because the readership is almost 50% older than teens and in paperback and voracious. Ka- Ching!

The teen’s themselves find the whole genre problematical. In a recent post on her blog teen reader Vicky found many of her generation agreeing with her when she wrote about how YA isolates teens. 

Meanwhile Scholastic scored a hit when the viral video of a Scottish granny reading kiwi book Wonky Donkey started a craze. The scottish granny is on tour, reports Publishers Weekly, and is being seen as having a magic touch.... Some savvy marketing person saw an opportunity. 

Staying with the children’s book theme... Augmented Reality has become a talking point. What more can you do with it and is it really reading? Check out the new iterations of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter.

Chris Syme has an interesting guest post on Joanna Penn’s blog about crisis management for authors. What do you do when your reviews go missing or you get pirated or doxxed. First, don’t panic. Read this excellent post.

Quartz has a fascinating article on the rise of the new Sci Fi genre’s. Over the last year I have seen more references to Utopia fiction and Solar Punk but missed the defined niche of Cli Fi. What determines a new niche/genre? And is Cli Fi really contemporary thriller or non fiction depending on where you live in the world right now?

Character names are always challenging. I don’t feel the story is started unless I have the right character name. Once I have the name I often have the voice sorted in my head. Reedsy has a nifty character naming generator for those moments when you are stumped for a character name.

In The Craft Section,

Character arcs- Reedsy- Bookmark

Plucking heart strings with word choice- Vivian Kirkfield- Bookmark

Will readers find your protagonist worthy- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

The value quotient of your core story-Writer Unboxed- Bookmark

How to write a fight scene- Standout Books

Why you need real facts in your fiction – WriteOnCon

6 questions to help Non Fiction writers find their niche- Erica Meltzer- Bookmark

Resources for NaNoWriMo

How to improve writng productivity

Five Steps to Improved Process

5 Surefire ways to win NaNoWriMo

30 tips for conquering the 30 day writing challenge

Don’t forget The Storybundle of craft books curated by Kevin Anderson and available all month.

In The Marketing Section,

Learn How to market your books-Sacha Black

How to tap into street teams and micro influencers-Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Taking care of business for writers- Writer Unboxed- Bookmark

3 keys to blogging sucess- Joel Friedlander

How to get the reviews you want ethically- EC Murray- Bookmark

To Finish

Spare a thought for the poor writer that must write a promo blurb for another writer. Sometimes it can be very hard to find something positive to say. Tara Sparling helps authors to break down a series of honest blurbs so that you can mine the promo gold in the paragraph. Warning do not have a beverage to hand as you will choke... with laughter.

If you are a Scottish Granny then I have some great books you might like to read….

Maureen

@craicer

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter where 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 like the blog and want to shout me a coffee hit the Kofi button up top. 

Pic Flickr Creative Commons- Bryan Ledgard