Bring Out The Whips

 

This week in publishing,

Publishing Perspectives reports on a great initiative by Poland to ensure artists get paid pensions and other benefits. Are we seeing the start of a movement to value artists with a Universal Basic Income? 

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard has an interesting report from Brazil on the resilience of their publishing industry. They report a growth of 29% and Mark reports that these numbers are being reflected in other countries where they have committed to digital publishing along with traditional models. 

 

Traditional publishing relies on paper and printers being able to access ink and paper. The Bookseller reports a worrying trend. Publishers are noticing a hike in printing prices of almost 40%. It is coming down the track fast so if it hasn’t got to your publisher, it will soon. This tightening is going to see book prices rise, which will impact all other strands of the industry.

 

Jane Friedman has an interesting post on what film agents look for when they want to option a book for the screen. She shares information gleaned from an international panel she attended at Bologna.

The Alliance of Independent Authors has just put together a comprehensive article on how to negotiate an option agreement.

 

Kris Rusch has another post in her year in review where she looks at new tools that have popped up to help authors publish. She talks about the overwhelm that authors can face with all the ways you can publish now. You don’t have to do everything! But being aware of what’s out there is probably a good place to start.

 

William Hahn has an interesting guest post on Anne R Allen's blog this week dealing with Writers Block. Writers Block brings out the worst to ourselves. – How we beat ourselves up over our inability to write words can just prolong the agony. He has some great advice- and examples for how to diagnose the problem then treat it.

 

Writer Unboxed has a similar message from Kelsey Allagood – four ways to silence your inner comments section. This is the insidious little voice that sabotages you right when you don’t need it. 

 

It’s January and that means it is time to drop into the 12x12 picture book challenge. If you have been wanting to challenge yourself and write in this medium – Take a look.

Draft 2 Digital has 5 tools to help you reach your writing goals.

In The Craft Section,

Editing tips- Kristen Lamb

Do’s and Dont’s of story beginnings- Story Empire

Two halves of the inciting incident- K M Weiland - Bookmark

4 tips for writing trauma disclosure- Lisa Hall-Wilson - Bookmark

Writing magic in a real world setting- Liz Keller Whitehurst- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

3 image types to boost social media- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Reach more readers through guest posting- Joanna Penn

Using back matter to sell books- Bookbub- Bookmark

Cover design mistakes – DIYMFA- Bookmark

How to get more publicity- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Cory Doctorow has been vocal leader and advocate of using the internet for the freedom of information. He was part of the team that came up with Creative Commons licenses and has written popular books exploring digital literacy along with his technological thrillers. This week he wrote a warning to everyone who uses creative commons pictures about a new type of super predator who is exploiting a loophole in the creative commons license. The warning is serious and accordingly, I have begun to remove some of my blog pictures. I have always tried to source creative commons pictures and link back to the original site. Until the situation is clearer, I will just have a generic text picture on my weekly blog. Boring, I know. I feel for Cory – whom I’ve met, and how incensed he must be that his most excellent gift to the internet community is used in this way.

Meanwhile, I received an email today to say that cloned pages are alive and well and targeting major publishers here in NZ. See my September 2021 blog post about these scummy scammers.

 

Just imagine a picture of an old-time circus wild animal trainer as the heading picture this week.

Bring Out The Whips. 

 

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 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.

 

 

2022- Wrestling the year into submission

 

 

Annnnnd we are back for another year of watching the publishing industry shuffle through the interesting times we have been cursed with.

 

In Publishing News…

Authors win a global piracy lawsuit and get awarded damages of over $7million… Everybody is hoping that the judgment serves notice to book pirates that their time is up. The pirates were tried in abstentia and are somewhere in Ukraine. However, I guess it will continue to be a case of pirate whack-a-mole.

 

The growth of library eBook lending far exceeded everyone’s expectations when Overdrive, the biggest library eBook partner, published their annual review. Half a billion library ebook downloads show that eBook lending is here to stay.

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard published two interesting articles recently. One on the upcoming Cairo International Bookfair where they are playing with hologram technology and books and another on the split nature of India’s publishing industry-  half of which is embracing digital and surviving, the other half … not so much.

 

The beginning of another year invites predictions of what we should expect from 2022.

Literary Agent, Laurie Mclean kicked off the new year with her predictions. Mergers, Unions and Work From Home will change the publishing marketplace. Streaming will change the reading space.

 

Written Word Media identified eight trends to watch in the coming year. As their business model helps writers advertise their books they focus on the big trends that will affect the writer bottom line- advertising will be going up. 

 

Over January Kristine Rusch continued writing her 2021 year in review. She has written six blogs on this topic as she looks back to how digital reading has been embraced in the pandemic years and how the publishing industry has been completely changed by it. In this week’s article she makes some bold predictions on how indie publishing will be changing the whole publishing industry going forward. It is well worth a read.

 

Penny Sansevieri examined global reading habits in 2021 and produced an interesting infographic that gives writers some markets to keep an eye on. She also has 22 awesome book marketing promotions and predictions for 2022.

 

Jane Friedman took a look at what were the big sellers in the children’s book industry and made some predictions for the upcoming year. She also has a great article on how to plan and host online author events.

 

If you want to start 2022 off with some writing craft books, StoryBundle has a great collection available for a limited time. It’s a pay what you want deal and there are some good books on offer. 

 

In The Craft Section,

How to ace the time skip in your story- DIYMFA

How to decide what story to write- Scott Myers

Best writing resources of 2021 from Now Novel- Bookmark

The role of causation and plot structure in literary fiction- Harrison Demchick

What are the 10 different types of stories- Joe Bunting- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to sell more books in 2022- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Book cover designers- Resource from The Creative Penn- Bookmark

Clever ideas to promote sequels and series-Bookbub

Choosing a book title in the e-age- Anne R Allen

5 social media trends to watch in 2022- Kris Maze

 

To Finish,

If you have been mulling over your goals for the year ahead and getting hopelessly confused or overwhelmed – Drop into the ALLI podcast to listen or read the transcript on how Orna Ross and Joanna Penn plan their upcoming years. Orna has a great phrase, Maker, Manager, Marketer. She splits her work and goals between all three. Or check out Elizabeth Craig’s great article on making mini plans and goals for the year.

This may help when you wrestle 2022 into a workable plan for yourself.

 

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 – RumpleTeaser