Ear Wars

 

In the publishing blogosphere...

This week Mark Williams from The New Publishing Standard shone a light on a new move from Amazon. Audible launched an unlimited audiobook subscription in Spain. This looks like a big test of audio subscription and the beginning of subscription wars in audiobooks.

Amazon is also making moves on the podcasting front – adding podcasts to Amazon music.

 

Cory Doctorow is an astute observer of the tech space and an award-winning writer of cyberpunk and surveillance novels. Over the years he has been a high profile anti DRM campaigner. He is holding a kick-starter to get enough money to independently produce the third audiobook in the Little Brother series away from the Amazon system. Kickstarter profiled why he is taking on a corporate monopoly. 

 

Jane Friedman is an astute observer of the publishing ecosystem. This week she published two in-depth articles looking at the publishing printers supply chain and Amazon’s increasing power in the bookselling market across the world.

If you were wondering when your printed book might show up or why Random Penguin is acquiring other publishers, check out these articles.

 

Publish Drive – EBook distributors to the rest of the world, have looked at what the best selling genres were in August across the world. Do we all read the same books in times of crisis?

 

The New Statesman has taken a close look at Goodreads and wonders whether the time is ready for some disruption here. Does Goodreads even do what it says it should on the box?

 

If you need a shiny landing page, without a website attached, check out Carrd. They offer a neat website page that you can customise for free. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Discipline vs Enthusiasm- K M Weiland

Struggling through the first draft- Heather Webb

The power of facial expressions- Almost an author

Tips for the historical writer- Sue Coletta- Bookmark

Setting elements- Now Novel – Bookmark

How to write a kissing scene- Ride the pen - Bookmark

Ten editing tricks to make your writing better- Gabino Iglesias

 

In The Marketing Section,

Email marketing – Miblart- Bookmark

Selling kindle books internationally – Dave Chesson- Bookmark

The power of author collaborations- Sandra Beckwith

No excuse for not knowing where your books sits- Nathan Bransford

Going against the flow -reflowable book layouts- The Book Designer

30 scary author website mistakes- Pauline Wiles

 

To Finish,

With the fight for our ears going on in the publishing world I thought I might share the podcasts I listen to fairly regularly on the publishing business and other tricks and tips to do with writing and marketing. These podcasts are published weekly. 

The Creative Penn. (The BEST!)

The Self Publishing show. (NB: Mark Dawson’s self publishing 101 course is now open.)

6Figure author. (Jam Packed Tips!)

The SPA girls.  (Brilliant Kiwi Indie Romance Writers)

The Sell More Books Show. (News and Tips)

I also drop into Alliance of Independent Authors and Stirling and Stone every now and then and visit great writing podcasts like - Sacha Black and Mur Lafferty.

There is a writing podcast for everyone....

Grab your headphones!

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter with the best of my bookmarked links. 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- Jeremy Segrott

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