The Places You Will Go

 

 

This week in Publishing News

 

It’s Queen’s Birthday Honours at the moment in the UK.

Arise Sir Quentin Blake (I can just imagine the fabulous illustrator's whimsy portrait of the event.) 

Arise Sir Ian Rankin- (Can I borrow that sword for my next murder mystery?) 

Across the pond the number one bestselling book is Oh, The Places You Will Go by Dr Suess. It must be graduation time. This illustrates the power of the Suess backlist for keeping publishers afloat.

 

Amazon is pulling out of China. They are shutting up shop for Kindle eReaders immediately and will close their e-bookstore and app down next year. Could be tricky times ahead if you sell into China.

 

This week the New Statesman business magazine published an article looking at the rise of independent bookshops and compared them with Amazon’s increasing prices for books.

Are they really losing out against bookshops? 

 

Publishing Perspectives reports on the latest numbers from Italy. Heading into Summer, visits to bookstores are up which means print sales are up. Everything is looking good but what is really behind the numbers… comics?

 

Publishers Weekly has an interesting report on the Readmagine conference, an annual publishing futures conference in Europe. The first sessions looked at current global trends in reading. There are lots of intriguing ideas to unpick here on reading, its communities, and opportunities to mix it up with other forms of communication and streaming, and its only day one! 

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard has an interesting opinion piece on how Kobo’s move to add the Arabic language, which I reported on last week, is a potential game changer for the predominantly English language based eBook industry.

 

Kris Rusch attended the 2022 Licensing Expo and shares her initial thoughts. If you can remember way back before Covid, Kris was fascinated by the opportunities licensing had for content creators (writers). She is still optimistic but cautionary.

 

Joanna Penn interviewed Tammi Lebrecque (NewsletterNinja) this week on The Creative Penn podcast. This is a power house interview that should be mandatory listening/reading for authors. Yes, I know it’s scary but you can adapt ideas for your genre.

 

Julie Issac has a written a great guest article on Sandra Beckwith’s Bookbuzz blog, When ‘good enough’ is not good enough. This is a thought provoking post on what not to do when you are thinking of adding value to your readers.

 

In the Craft Section,

9 ways to approach relationship dynamics in fiction- K M Weiland - Bookmark

The art and importance of ambiguous writing- Becca Puglisi

How to sharpen your first sentences- Carolyn Dennis- Willingham

5 solutions when you are stuck- Bang2Write- Bookmark

Your microcosm is our world- Donald Maass- Bookmark

4 tricks to transform scenes- Zena Dell Lowe

 

In the Marketing Section,

6 strategic benefits to publishing an ebook- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

7 ways to build an author platform- Reedsy

9 things learned from tracking 150k books on Amazon- Ingram- A deep dive into detail.

Prize ideas for book promo- Bookbub

6 ways an author bio sells books – Ruth Harris- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

The writer’s imagination - where would we be without it? Sometimes it lets us down, cue writer's block. Sometimes it keeps us up all night. Di Anne Mills has an interesting article on how we can enhance our imaginations, so our readers get a better experience from our writing.

 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It's nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links, come and join us by subscribing. 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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Photo by Rumman Amin on Unsplash

 

 

Seize The Typewriter

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

Amazon has made some changes to what they refer to as low content. These are journals and workbooks, which are now being filed under stationery items. If you create workbooks for your books or seminars you may want to check out the new rules. First up you will need your own ISBN for them.

 

Publishers Weekly reported on a panel discussion at the US Book show on what a healthy publishing industry looks like. There was a general consensus that publishing is feeling the miasma of the last few years. Just in time supply chains have been hit with delays… Writers have been hit hard… Publishing has to compete with other forms of entertainment. Who knew? The CEO’s discussing these woes almost want a back to the future style intervention. 

 

Meanwhile over in Canada, Kobo has been quietly adding Arabic to their list of publishing languages. CEO, Michael Tamblyn addressed the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair announcing the move and talking about the advantages of having a global perspective on publishing and cultural understanding. 

 

Amazon has started a monthly Book Club. I guess it was inevitable with the rise of book club influencers that Amazon would begin to carve out a space. Amazon’s editorial director, Sarah Gelman, is running Sarah Selects. However, in a nice twist, Amazon is opening up Book Clubs to everyone. You too can host a book club.  

 

The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting article on the rise of Literary Agents producing content for streaming services, film, and TV. Meanwhile, magazine publishers are building in-house production arms to take advantage of properties they already own.

 

Recently Joanna Penn interviewed Derek Sivers on selling direct, independence, and being open to technological change. Derek has some interesting ideas on publishing, describing it as ‘Networking for Introverts.’ 

 

Sandra Beckwith has a great article on how to position yourself to get local publicity for your book. You may think any publicity is good publicity but Anne R Allen has a great article on when this is the wrong idea. How bad marketing can destroy your author brand, lose friends, and influence nobody

 

Kris Rusch continues her How Writers Fail series. This week she looks at expectations. Are you putting unrealistic expectations on yourself? Are you unconsciously loading the dice against your own writing succeeding?

 

Stephanie Morrill wrote an interesting article on The Go Teen Writer website- 7 ideas to help you get through a hard writing season. These hard writing seasons strike everybody, even multi-published award winners. Sometimes there seems to be no outside reason for a writing slump. Stephanie has some ideas to help. 

Elizabeth S Craig looks at how maintaining a regular writing habit in times of stress can trick you into feeling more in control of the situation.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to write realistic sex scenes- Ari Meghlen

3 important things to learn from editing- Colleen Story

Avoid repetitive scenes- K M Weiland- Bookmark

The importance of character psychological development- Becca Puglisi

3 ways to ramp up fiction pacing and tension- C S Lakin-Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

9 tips for marketing your first book- Penny Sansevieri

Promote your book with your own values- Sonya Huber- Bookmark

The ins  and outs of blurb requests- Liz Alterman

Market your audiobook- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

7 easy ways to refresh your website- Pauline Wiles- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

A few months ago the news was all Brandon Sanderson. If you have been under a writing rock and haven’t caught up on the phenomenon check out previous blog posts. James Scott Bell has an interesting post on how Brandon connected with his readers and puts it down to knowing yourself and what kind of writer you want to be. He has 3 tips to help you figure this out for yourself. His maxim - Carpe Typem!

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter chock full of 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 or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic:

Photo by Daria Kraplak on Unsplash