Book Love

 

 

In Publishing news this week,

The Frankfurt Bookfair goes virtual following all the other book fairs around the world. They are opening up their virtual fair free to anyone who is interested. Publishing Perspectives details what virtual sessions are on offer.  

 

Meanwhile, Publishers Weekly reports that the book industry took a hit in sales over the last quarter. Was anybody surprised? The ongoing size of the contraction has some concerned. If you factor in the huge amounts of books being released this month and up to Christmas, there could be desperate times ahead for booksellers.

 

This week Amazon quietly announced a new service, Bookclubs. It seems kind of odd when they already have Goodreads. Nate Hoffelder reports, although their new idea sounds good it is missing some important features going forward, namely the club feature. It is still in Beta mode though.

 

This week Joanna Penn interview Erin Wright about publishing wide and the mindset you need to cultivate to do this successfully. It is a fascinating interview, well worth the listen/read.

 

This week Kris Rusch wrote about dealing with the effects of the wildfires along the west coast of the U.S. Do you have a Go Bag for your business? In the event of a sudden calamity could you access your passwords… your files… your finances… If you haven’t thought about it – time to make it a priority.  

 

Have you heard of Booktubers?  These are YouTube book reviewers that are influencers. Wired has an interesting interview with one. I checked out the site and lost an hour watching entertaining book reviews. 

 

Ruth Harris has an interesting article on imposter syndrome. We all suffer from it. Ruth mentions that sometimes it can be a good thing. 

 

Dave Chesson has an interesting guest article on changing up keywords in your metadata. If you regularly do this, it can make the book more relevant in the Amazon store.

 

In The Craft Section,

Antagonist motivations- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Structural Editing- Iris Marsh- Bookmark

How to write a synopsis if you hate writing synopses- Roz Morris- Bookmark

10 things you don’t want when naming characters- Katherine Grubb

How to put your reader into the scene- Sean Platt

Managing your cast of characters- Writer Unboxed

 

In The Marketing Section,

Building a long term career- Jane Friedman

2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri- Get creative with Bookbub and Promote with creative collaboration- Bookmark Both

Maintaining a reader mailing list – Alli Blog – Bookmark

The hidden potential of audiobooks- Tina Dietz

 

To Finish,

Being a book nerd, I can waste a lot of time on font sites. Their design fascinates me. Did you know that many of the fonts you read now were designed or based on fonts developed 400 years ago with the printing press?  The Ingram Spark blog looks at the best fonts for books and if you love jacketed books, Ingram are now offering this plus hardback books with embossed covers. FANCY! Meanwhile, check out the Alliance of Independent Authors blog on the guide to the perfect book cover.

 

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 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.

 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- Rulenumberone2

Publishing Complications

 

 

This week I have been thinking about AI and the implications for writers. It was sparked by the viral post from The Guardian that an AI wrote. If you haven’t read it now is the time to do so. The Paris Review recently published an op ed about creating fictional backstories for AI to make them more human.

 

The New Publishing Standard is a great resource for finding out what the global publishing community is doing.  Mark Williams does a fantastic job of keeping abreast of all the news. This is where I first heard about Big Bad Wolf- who sell remaindered books in the English language in huge 24-hour 10-day long book sales in Asia. They sell millions of print books and they are getting bigger. TNPS looks at the recent news about BBW going online. Traditional publishers have missed a trick here. Mark is also doing a great series for Alliance of Independent Authors- this week he looks at how geographically spread Amazon is… not as far as you might think.

 

The BBC took a look at the murky world of 1-star reviews. This hurts.

 

While you are thinking about global publishing Kristine Rusch talks about how the publishing industry still keeps to a 75-year-old publishing model and how this model is about to fail all the debut writers who have their books coming out in the publishing deluge this week. Add to this the overworked printers and you have a perfect firestorm for writers. Writing careers may be over before they start. This is a must-read piece for understanding how the publishing industry evolved and what needs to change.

 

A librarian recently sat down with a stiff drink to write what it is like to manage the buying budget for a library and have to deal with ebook lending restrictions and prices above the hardback copy. With libraries shut due to Covid 19 many patrons borrowed online, this hit the library budget. Do publishers really hate libraries that much?

 

This week Joanna Penn interviewed Emily Kimelman about creativity and ambition. This was a great interview. How do you structure a writing life around kids… when to get help… Is it wrong to be ambitious for yourself? Imposter syndrome… 

 

I have a nifty little gadget that lifts my laptop into a standing desk… but every now and then I think hmmm a treadmill desk… Check out the benefits for this writer.

 

With the recent attention in publishing on diverse voices one writer highlights, in The Guardian, the plight of disabled writers- They are diverse, own voices… where is their seat at the table?

In The Craft Section,

Worldbuilding – cultures- Mythic Scribes

When you have no story conflict – Jami Gold – Bookmark

Stir your echoes- James Scott Bell- Bookmark

Fiction to Nonfiction writing challenges

Have you forgotten to have fun?- Julie Glover- Bookmark

Creating believable characters – Yen Cabag- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Why authors should know their target audience- Kate Tilton

15 steps to self publish- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Lean book publishing- Sabrina Ricci

55 tweets to start posting now- Frances Caballo- Bookmark

Picture Book Resources- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

It is nice to peer through the gloom and see a shining light- a feel-good story. Angela Ackerman tells the story of the Emotion Thesaurus and how they (Angela and Becca Puglisi) accidentally started a small publishing empire doing everything the wrong way round. More power to them I say! 

 

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 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.

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons - Jonathan Pearson