Staying Connected

In Publishing News this week,

Following on from last week’s news on the rise of Artificial Intelligence Voices for Narration, Publishing Perspectives has an article on a new exhibitor to the Frankfurt Bookfair- Speechki. They aim to fill that gap of quick production of audiobooks. Meanwhile, Richard Charkin explains why he is looking forward to attending the fair in person along with 1500 other exhibitors. (If that raised a small chill, you are not alone. It’s going to be a while before we’re all comfortable again in crowds.)

If you are still curious about AI narration check out the Alliance Of Independent Author's interview with Bradley Metrock.

 

The New Publishing Standard has a short story on Bloomsbury and the acquisition of a video streaming service and their plans for it. Publishing- Are we looking at an all-media one-stop shop?

 

Jane Friedman has an in-depth article on supply chain woes where she details what is happening to the publishers and their print runs. It is a great backgrounder in how the consolidation of publishers and the demise of magazines has created this problem.

 

This week Kris Rusch muses on the omnichannel approach and what authors must remember as they get swallowed up in companies that operate this way. Don’t be a footnote in a Disney-style dispute.

 

This week Joanna Penn and Mark Leslie Lefebvre released The Relaxed Author. This is a book that aims to give you tips and plans to get your writing business wrangled so you can enjoy writing. They have a great podcast interview on how they came to write the book. As ever, Joanna provides a transcript to her podcasts.

 

It is nearly October and that means checking out all the neat ways to jazz up your social media posts with October themes for Book Marketing. Penny Sansevieri has a great collection of fun dates to play with.

 

Writer Unboxed has a great guest post from Deanna Cabinian who writes on the Time vs Productivity paradox for authors. What is it about squeezing time to write that makes you productive?

 

Ruth Harris has a great post on the four deadly writer sins. How many are you guilty of and can you recognise them when you see them? Clea Simon has an interesting post on what playing in rock bands taught her about writing.

 

In The Craft Section,

Choose your story plot points- K M Weiland - Bookmark

What are character arcs- Chelsea Hindle

12 writer woes and the books to cure them- Roni Loren

How to get emotion onto the page – Lisa Cron- Bookmark

How to snag the best freelance editor- Jodie Renner- Bookmark

4 secrets to making unlikeable characters work- Plot To Punctuation

 

In The Marketing Section,

2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri- Key strategies for book marketing online and Book Marketing strategies for older titles- Bookmark

5 secrets to writing book marketing copy- Casey Demchak and for extra credit listen to this fabulous SPA 

Girls podcast with Jacob McMillen on copywriting for book marketing. Bookmark.

Why your hard sell is a fail- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

It is nearly time for The Alliance of Independent Authors FREE online conference. The alliance is a great organisation that hosts 3 big online conferences every year in conjunction with the big Book Fairs. The last one of the year is dedicated to Craft. Jump over and look at the speakers. Something for everyone here.

 

Even though we may all be sick of Zoom – there are some great conferences out there with virtual components. This can at least keep us feeling like we are still connected to the wider writing community. 

 

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 – Damian Gadal

 

Listen Up!

 

 

This week in Publishing

 

The rise of the AI voice. DeepZen AI is partnering with Ingram to produce audiobooks using AI voices. Joanna Penn flagged this in her futurist segment in December last year. I don’t think she was expecting it to be a reality quite so soon. 

I recently got a chance to play with AI voices with my manuscript and it was uncanny. You can emotionally intensify words in a passage.

 DeepZen is offering all this and more in a cheap introductory package. It really could be a game-changer if you are looking for a cheap way to get into audio. 

Last week I linked to the news story of Audible+ subscription being rolled out to more countries. Don’t forget that Audiblegate is still ongoing. That’s where subscription participants are encouraged to treat Audible like a library and constantly return audiobooks so the writer doesn’t get paid. (The reader gets full credit back - up to a year later. The writer foots the bill for this.) With the drop in royalties from Audible and the cost of human narration, it could be a viable alternative. 

 

This week the excitement was palpable as authors logged into their KDP dashboards and discovered that Hardback was available. Is it really true? Yes, and early adopters say that you get a fancy coloured ribbon bookmark attached to it as well. Just a reminder, you need to check your dimensions and bleed for printing hardback and you need a new ISBN for the format. Go forth and have fun!

 

I’m starting to see plaintive moans from authors whose books are being held up in the great print delay of 2021. Supply chain issues, paper shortages, stuck boats in the Panama Canal, and overloaded ports in China have all conspired to delay print runs, especially for the pre-Christmas book rush. This has a knock-on effect on prices. Expect your Print book prices to go up. Ingram has already raised their print prices by 3-6%.

 

Joanna Penn has an interesting interview with Sarah Werner on producing audio drama. This is your full cast of characters audio play version of the audiobook. If you love listening to plays and want to turn your novel into an audio play, check out this interview. Just a note, all things narration have separate licenses- ISBN’s. A narrated audiobook is different from a cast of characters audiobook which is different from an AI narrated audiobook- although ISBN agencies might not have cottoned on to that last one yet, but it will come.

 

Written Word Media has a new ad programme for authors called Reader Reach- They will do the Facebook Ad marketing for you… for a price.

Meanwhile, Storygraph, an alternative to Goodreads is gaining traction.

 

Victoria Strauss has an update on the #Disneymustpay scandal. If you know anyone who has written for Disney or one of their many imprints, spread the word that the Task Force (a representative group from many writers organisations,) want to hear from them. Disney is NOT going out of their way to find the authors they owe royalties to.

 

This week Kris Rusch had a standout post entitled Comparison is The Thief of Joy. This post is one to mull over as you look at your creative life. I read it out loud to my family and we talked about what it meant to each of us. 

 

In The Craft Section,

2 great posts from Angela and Becca -Everything to do with Characters and Describing your characters appearance- Bookmark Both

What’s the plot point- David Farland

Crafting The Short Story- Insecure writer support group- Bookmark

What setup in a novel means- Janice Hardy

Story Planner success- Now Novel- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Is your website missing crucial elements? Bookmark

Making Ebook Bookstagrams- Bookbub

The social side of Social media for authors- Writers in the Storm

Ads promoting debut novels- Bookbub

Should you sell your books from your website? Sandra Beckwith - Bookmark

 

To Finish,

The news is out. Netflix has acquired the whole of Roald Dahl’s literary estate.

They have plans! Expect to see a bevy of Dahl movies, animations, musicals, and what about the books? Special tie-in’s, re-releases, animated digital versions…. The possibilities are endless. I hope Quentin Blake (as the iconic Dahl illustrator) gets a cut. Rumour suggests that the price was $500M. That estate is worth a lot of golden tickets to Netflix.

 

Don’t forget - every writer has a literary estate for the life of copyright. The Dahl heirs will be popping champaign for a long time on this, also the agents, the executors, the lawyers…

 

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.