Who Really Wins?

 

In Publishing News this week…

 

The Judge has decided. There will be no sale of Simon and Schuster to Penguin Random House. As everybody was celebrating and Marcus Dohle CEO of PRH was airing his views about this at Sharjah, Mike Shatzkin reflected on how this would change the publishing world going forward. This is a food for thought post, a must read. While publishing may not be amalgamating into one giant publisher, has anyone thought about the power that Ingram is getting?

 

Publishers Weekly has an article about Ingram entering the ‘business to consumer’ space with all sorts of goodies that they are now going to provide for publishers.

 

Publishing Perspectives has a run down on the main talking points at the Sharjah Publishers Conference. It’s all about being more visible globally. This reflected a session I watched in the SelfPubCon conference from the Alliance of Independent Authors last weekend. Ingram is rolling out POD into the Middle East, this will open up access to translation markets. 

 

The Bookseller has an article on literary festivals having a hybrid element to them to allow for inclusivity. The pandemic has taught us to up our game with virtual events running alongside the in-person ones. This needs to be kept up for all those who cannot attend in-person events safely.

 

The New Publishing Standard has an article on Amazon’s new move to add 98 million music titles to Prime. If Spotify can have audiobooks, we can have music. The first shots in the new subscription wars.

 

In more backlash for AI art, the anime creators are up in arms over AI sampling. Apparently, the AI’s are really good at it. This is ringing alarm bells with creators. 

 

Building a new world is the title of Kris Rusch’s blog post this week and I was struck by her analysis of the long view of History and how events like the pandemic cause a reset in the wider world. There has been a lot of comment on falling book sales everywhere lately. Kris is more optimistic.

 

If you are like me and struggle with Goodreads… is it really worth your time, this article has me thinking it is worth taking another look. For instance – Did you know you can talk about your latest book while you are writing it and have people add it to their TBR stack. 

 

Litreactor has 10 NaNoWriMo tips for success from Editors and Agents.

 

Jane Friedman has a guest post from Michael Mohr on the secret sauce to being a good writer. It could be slightly controversial but the basic premise of needing to be a reader is absolutely key!

 

 

In The Craft Section,

Write Great First Sentences- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

How to write 500 words in 15 minutes- Colleen Story

3 tricks with flashbacks- Marissa Graff-Bookmark

Writing about a culture that isn’t yours- Sam Cameron

9 Positive character arcs in enneagram- K M Weiland- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

5 ways to promote long after launch – Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

How saleable are short stories- Sarah Dahl

How to make an audiobook – Kindlepreneur

How to promote globally- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

TikTok works for all genres- Sue Coletta- Bookmark and read comments!

 

To Finish,

Having a climate change researcher in the house over the last decade has given me a ring side seat to despair. As writers, we believe in the power of story to change hearts and minds.  Today I was told of a collection of writers across all genres who are dedicated to doing just this with climate change. Check out this fabulous organization if you write CliFi, Solarpunk, Dystopian, SciFi, Non-Fiction – anything to do with reimagining a better world and how to go about protecting this one. 

Let’s change the narrative for the future. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Planning For Success

 

 

In Publishing News This Week,

 

Frankfurt. Are we back to normal? That seemed to be the question on everybody’s lips. There was a lot of chat amongst the publishers, sold-out sessions, and positivity everywhere.

Publishing Perspectives interviewed various publishers and agents about the hot new trends they were seeing.

 

Audiobooks got a lot of attention in Frankfurt with many saying that they were now a mainstream format. The ways for the public to acquire them seem to be all over the place though. You would think that Spotify with its streaming model would extend this into audiobooks – not so. Which audience model will win out was a hot topic discussed at Frankfurt.

 

Over the last month, the spotlight has been on AI generated art and its copyright ownership.  If you buy art for book covers or fan merch this seems to be a rising trend, to generate AI art. However, the AI’s are sampling artists' portfolios and styles and so the ownership is murky. After many photo stock dealers saying they wouldn’t deal with AI art, Shutterstock changed its mind and is trying have it both ways by attempting to pay the sampled artists if they can prove it. This has annoyed many in the industry.

 

It always pays to drop into Writer Beware occasionally to keep on top of ways that authors can be parted from their money. Recently Victoria had a long form piece on anthologies and how one anthology publisher collapsed and was exposed as probably running a Ponzi scheme. Anthologies can be great…but you must go in with your eyes wide open.

 

Today I was listening to an interesting conversation between Orna Ross and Joanna Penn on publishing values. It was wide ranging and referred to Orna’s recent article. This is a meaty topic. What do you wish to be known for and are you sure that’s what you are projecting to the readership?

 

Kris Rusch has an interesting article on Thinking Big. Do you note down your success? What about your positive reviews? Kris talks about exposure and when someone goes from chugging along to breakout.

 

Elizabeth Sims has an interesting post on short stories over on Jane Friedman's blog. 20 reasons why everyone should write a short story. I have been trying my hand at these this year and not managing to finish them. This article makes me look at short story writing in a different way. Let it go and have fun.

 

In The Craft Section,

Where do Ideas come from- Randy Ingermanson- Bookmark

4 writing pitfalls to avoid- Laurence McNaughton- Bookmark

Writing beginnings- Interview with Shane Millar- Joanna Penn- Bookmark

4 tips for writing effective backstory- Carolyn Arnold

The perils of not knowing what happens next- Janice Hardy

 

In The Marketing Section,

Update your Amazon book pages- Elizabeth S Craig- Bookmark

Book cover design ideas- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

3 ways to promote poetry- Raegen Pietrucha

Reaching readers for the long term- Becky Robinson- Interview with Joanna Penn- Bookmark

Instagram Book marketing ideas-Bookbub

 

To Finish,

This weekend is The Alliance of Independent Authors 24 hour conference, SelfPubCon. It’s free. Sessions are recorded and you get three days to go over them.

If you intend to attempt NaNoWriMo this November hopefully you will have everything organized. Check back over the last few blog posts for handy prep links. Don’t forget to check out your local library. Quite a few have embraced the NaNoWriMo experience and have spaces for writers to go and pound out their words.

Good Luck with your final days of preparation.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter of the best of the bookmarked links and other handy items Don’t forget to subscribe.

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 krakenimages on Unsplash