Panning For Gold

 

In Publishing News this week,

Last week I updated my post as the news that Amazon was changing its AI policies started filtering out. So this week to expand on this is Mark Williams - exactly what does it say at the surface level on the website. 

For a more in depth discussion go to Joanna Penn’s podcast and listen to the first 15 minutes. Joanna breaks it down and looks at all the sub pages and why they are there for uploading an AI assisted book. (Stay to listen to the super interesting talk about audio drama) 

Remember Grammarly is an AI. Gmail uses AI. All those chat bots are AI. AI is a tool. Amazon wants to know how much the AI tool is being used. If it generates the whole story and has an AI generated cover then it might fall in the scam bucket. Especially if it rips off name author styles. At the beginning of the year there were howls of dismay over AI…now many big author societies are holding workshops on how to use it and Shutterstock and Adobe are adding it to their design services. It’s great that the biggest marketplace for books is doing something proactive about AI books.

 

Meanwhile, another group of authors are suing AI. In the end the courts will decide. So far they haven’t been ruling in the authors favour.

 

While the TV writers are on strike - TV is getting annoyed that it is taking so long to fix, so they are going ahead without the writers. This did not have good consequences for the host of the National Book Awards, who was dumped after her TV show evicted fans who wore strike buttons.

 

A few months ago the court ruling came out against the Internet Archive and its attempt to digitise back list copies of books. Libraries are in a bind when they cannot offer digital copies to patrons of books in print. What To Do. The New York Public Library may have the answer. An interesting twist that could be a win/win for everybody.

 

Where have all those YA books gone laments one YA author in Publishers Weekly. Have the teens stopped buying books or can’t they afford them? What happened to mass market books first? Is it only adults that can afford the glossy big hardbacks with the bevelled edges and spot colour illustrations being marketed today? Today I saw a new YA book series released with different glossy treatments for each country, along with bevelled pages, foil and spot illos. The writer has a good point!

 

How many social media platforms are you on? With the disintegration of Twitter by the owner there is a rush to find the next best thing. But where should you spend your time? Where are the writers hanging out now? Kris Rusch is struggling with whether Social Media is worth it anymore. 

 

Insecure Writers has a timely reminder on those little scams that can become big ones. Things like identity theft and book promotion scams. Colleen Story has a post on 4 reasons a writing business will fail.

 

Daniella Levy has a great post on How to Take Criticism and Turn it into Growth. If you have been critiqued lately and it has left some bruises- this is a good reminder. Sometimes the harshest critic can be yourself- so read this post.

 

The super amazing Katie Weiland has a knock it out of the park post on plotting that got me thinking. Where should you begin to plot your story? Sometimes it is not clear. Stories springboard in different ways. There is no gold star for starting at the beginning. Brilliant post.

 

In The Craft Section,

Use and abuse of lampshading- Jami Gold- Bookmark (and also read the companion piece.)

Mastering foreshadowing- Jerry Jenkins- Bookmark

How to write a grump readers will love- Sharon Peterson- Bookmark

10 tips on sexual tension- Lucy Hay- Bookmark

The role of failure and conflict in a character arc- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

 

 

In The Marketing Section,

Author marketing 3 best practices- Draft2Digital

Maximising your author website with blogging- J Alexander Greenwood- Bookmark

5 unique bookmarketing ideas- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

How to choose the best kindle ebook categories- updated – Dave Chesson- Bookmark

Email market glossary for authors- Sandra Beckwith

 

To Finish,

I often link to Joanna Penn’s podcast because it is informative and interesting. There are other great podcasts that I listen to and recommend. SPA Girls- Great weekly writing craft show. Sacha Black, ALLI podcasts etc. They are great for when you are doing mindless chores.  Recently the dream team Angela and Becca posted their must have writing craft books. If you are looking for that early NaNoWriMo gift for yourself check out the list.

 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you would like the best of my bookmarked links and extras you can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

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 Matt Seymour on Unsplash

(Arrowtown in NZ where you can still do this.)

Will The Real Author Stand Up?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

This week the courts were hearing counter arguments in ongoing court cases that the publishing world is keeping an eye on.

Arstechnica reported that Open AI is disputing author claims that they used derivative work to make Chat GPT.

Publishers Weekly reports that a Texas Judge has blocked the roll out of the new law that demands books have ratings on them – but no one knows what the ratings are. Disputes are ongoing.

Reuters reports that the US Appeals court has ruled that the mandatory book deposit policy of the copyright office is unconstitutional. This could save authors and publishers a lot of money.

 

In another corner of the publishing internet, Lincoln Michel took issue with the viral reporting of the 12 book sales fallacy which is going around the internet. If most books only sell 12 copies how does publishing survive. Lincoln has the numbers.

Meanwhile, Publishers Weekly takes a look at the costs of doing business as a big publisher and how the profit margins are getting squeezed at the moment. They have the numbers too.

 

That venerable institution, NYU has pulled together a superstar line up of speakers for their inaugural Advanced Publishing Institute programme in January. Oh to be a fly on the wall at this very expensive conference. This is aimed at the midlevel to senior executives in publishing. (With publishing salaries as they are, can they afford this conference in New York? Early bird sales are on now.)

 

In AI news, Kickstarter has drawn a line and announced their new AI policy. They want everyone to be transparent over how much AI is being used in each project on their site.

Reuters is trialling a new tool that will embed verifying data into all their photographs so that they can control the spread of fake images. The data will be linked into a blockchain. This technology has been talked about for a few years. In this era of AI and fakes, being authentic is the new information currency.

Publishing Perspectives reports on the Frankfurt Rights Meeting seminar on The Impact of AI on the Rights Business: An Outlook. The word mediocrity was used several times.

 

Update: Amazon is addressing the proliferation of AI Books by asking authors to make a statement at uploading whether they used AI in any way to write or generate covers. Maybe it will work. 

Anne R Allen has a great post on terrible advice that author should ignore. This advice pops up again and again. There is a reason to ignore it. It stops you growing as an author.

 

Vulture has an interesting article on the fanfic trend of romance fiction. Do you know how many books got their start as popular fanfictions? Now editors are starting to trawl the sites and pick up stories. Just change the setting and you could be the next hot author.

 

John Sundman has a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog about 23 years as a self publishing novelist and the lessons he has learned along the way. This is a great post to get you thinking about being an author now.

 

Caitlin Shetterly has an interesting take on the author photograph. She has been struggling with the problem of the getting a new author photograph and wondering whether she should be truthful and acknowledge her age. 

 

Phillip Kinsher has an interesting article on Bookbaby’s website about choosing round characters instead of flat ones. But how do you know your characters are round? He explores the differences.  

 

In The Craft Section,

Conflict – prolonging the agony- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

9 ways to reclaim your groove- Now Novel

Making multiple storylines work in your novel- Tiffany Yates Martin- Bookmark

How to get the most out of hiring an editor- Linnea Gradin

Tim Grahl on top 19 mistakes writers make and how to fix them-Bookmark/Watch

 

In The Marketing Section,

Why one star reviews aren’t bad- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

7 tips to boost your homepage- Camilla Monk- Bookmark

Successful book marketing- Emily Enger

How to publish a short story- Bookbaby

Book Launch tips- Kathy Steinemann- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Last week there was a lot of chat around Social Media on the acquisition of a short story by a respected SFF magazine, from a writer with a problematic back history. The resulting dumpster fire of opinion took over the publishing social media channels. The owner of the magazine was conspicuously absent in defence of the beleaguered editor. Kris Rusch explores the backstory of the people involved and how magazines are run. She speaks from wide and personal experience of the issues, the people, and as a former editor of the magazine. A Must Read. 

If you want to hide your past - choose a good pseudonym. That’s why they were invented. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

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 John Noonan on Unsplash