Reading: It’s all in the mind

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

The Writer’s Strike is over (provisionally.)

Many Film and TV writers are hailing this as a landmark ruling for the way it is putting constraints on the use of AI in their industry. As the news filters out, everyone is eager to look at the terms and commenting on why the networks and producers only started to negotiate 10 days ago. 

 

The Atlantic published a search database you can use to see whether your books have been scraped to train an AI. Many writers have discovered their whole catalogue on there. SSF writers have been especially hard hit. But today I learned an academic family member had two of her textbooks scraped. The Authors Guild has got their lawyers onto it and have published a template take down notice as well as a What To Do Now statement.

 

Meanwhile, in other AI news the AI industry is looking for poets or anyone who has an MFA to teach their AI’s how to write lyrical language. 

 

There is a publishing world outside the western centric one. Nairobi is about to have their International Book Fair and they have added a rights market into their programme. Guests are coming from around the world. Publishing Perspectives looks at what is on offer.

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard takes a look at the new sales pot for Kindle Unlimited and compares it to the Print figures which have been sliding.

 

Staying with Amazon, the book business applauded when the Federal Trade Commission of the United States began an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. Take 17 state attorneys and 172 pages and stir in the words “uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power” and you get a lawsuit that will take years to unravel. At least it’s a start.

 

You have finished the book and now you have to edit it. Where do you start? Kobo has the answer. How to edit your first draft.

 

Kris Rusch is a power house and there is nothing in publishing that she has not done. The big chat around the Indie publishing community is owning your own store and selling there first before going out to the online distributors. This week she talks about merchandise and all things store related with the launch of her first series store. Take a look and have your mind blown.

 

When an Indie Press ceases to be, it makes the publishing world a little gloomier. Louise Walters writes about the hard decision to shut her press and her thoughts on why Indie Presses need more love from bookshops.

 

Are you struggling with Social Media? Ambre Leffler has an interesting post on managing your energy and your posts.

 

Have you been asked to Beta read or are you wondering about how to set up parameters for your Beta readers. Jae from Sapphicquill has a great checklist for authors to use.

If you just need a reason to read, check out Molly Templeton’s 21 thoughts about reading habits.

 

The Bookbub website is chock full of interesting articles on writing and marketing books . This week they have a comprehensive 140 tips for book marketing from AJ Lee

 

In The Craft Section,

3 ways to use Theme to deepen your story- Sharon Skinner

Changing the hero’s goal- Michael Hauge- Bookmark

Tropes as a jumping off point- Richard Thomas- Bookmark

Tips for writing a character that you hate- Sue Coletta

Transition sentences- Ruth Harris- Bookmark 

Using Description- Kathy Steinemann

 

In The Marketing Section,

2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri 7 creative ways to boost local book sales and

Holding book events in non-traditional venues- Bookmark

Identifying the 5 core ideas of your book- Judith Briles-Bookmark

3 design secrets for captivating book ads- Teresa Conner-Bookmark

How to glo up your Instagram- Lara Ferrari

 

To Finish,

Every year The Alliance of Independent Authors run 3 virtual 24 hour conferences. Each of these conferences are themed around a different skillset for authors and are filled with a wealth of information. The next conference is on Mindset. They have a great line up of speakers well known in the author community. (Spot the Kiwis.)

Sign up. It’s free. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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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 Jaredd Craig on Unsplash

Being Human

 

In Publishing News Today

Artificial Intelligence and the misuse of it take centre stage. Another week another lawsuit. This time it’s the big guns taking on AI. Authors Guild has a class suit with John Grisham and G.R.R. Martin among the plaintiffs. They allege that their work was used to train AI. They know this because suddenly there appears to be extra books in their popular series which they didn’t write. I wonder how AI would finish the Game of Thrones series? Apparently you can now find out as it’s on the internet somewhere. Of course going and looking just plays into the scammy nature of the person who decided to use AI to write these books and make a quick buck.

Stephen Fry is crying foul over AI Narration. He was alerted to an historical documentary that he supposedly narrated. Except he didn’t. He suspects AI was trained on his audio narration of the Harry Potter books and then unleashed. AI can de-age actors and now they can mimic voices that even the original owner has problems believing it’s not him in an alternate universe. We are teetering on the edge of Deep Fake becoming ubiquitous unless we get some rules up pronto. Which is why we have all the lawsuits.

 

Over at The New Publishing Standard, Mark Williams is looking at upcoming book fairs and reminding the western publishing powerhouses that they may think they have the biggest book fairs but things are about change. Sharjah is positioning itself to be all things book in the foreseeable future. This is an interesting take. Can publishing equal the revenue that oil and gas bring in to Sharjah?

 

Publishing Perspectives has a run down on the latest news from Frankfurt as they gear up for the big Frankfurt Buchmesse starting on October 14. A record number of booths has been booked.

 

Publishers Weekly has data on the book challenges so far this year and yes they are increasing and they are all aimed at books by and about people of colour and LBTGQ identifying. Where will it end… historians could tell you. 

 

The Guardian has a great article written by Kathleen Rundell on Diana Wynne Jones. Diana was like a beautiful fountain in the desert of books when I was growing up. She had big ideas and her books were and are amazing.  Every author will relate to the story of the Charmed Life manuscript.

 

Kris Rusch has an interesting post on platform this week. With the meltdown of the writers original water cooler many wordsmiths are fleeing to pastures new. Then you risk losing all that work of building up your readership /business on a new platform which will be disrupted in time. So is there a win /win situation for writers?

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a comprehensive post on slow release strategies for authors… You don’t have to release a book a month for a writing career. The SPA girls podcast recently had a great episode on reverse engineering a bestseller. Can you do it? 

 

Rachel Toalson has a great post on Writer Unboxed about writing sprints. She used ten minute sprints to write a book. Even if your life is chaotic you can find ten minutes. Read Rachel’s post for how chaotic life can get. She has great tips for finding moments of time to write.

Mythcreants has a good post on the value of critique and why it is important for writers. If you don’t critique you don’t learn.

 

James Scott Bell has a great post on the Killzone blog about bleeding on the page. There are so many adages out there for writers. Some of them are untrue. However emotion from the writer is never wasted in a story.

 

 

In The Craft Section,

Writing and Time management- Story Empire

Acting vs reacting in your writing career- Colleen Story

Is your protagonist too comfortable- Australian Writers Center

What are antagonist proxies- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Why a manuscript critique is a critical step- C S Lakin- Bookmark

 

 

In The Marketing Section,

5 unique book marketing ideas- Rachel Thompson

Book signings that wow- Rochelle Melander

Strategies to secure reviews on Amazon- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Author Success tips – Judith Briles- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Jim Denney writing on Anne R Allen’s blog sums up the ideas in this weeks blog post. Yes AI is here, it’s out of the box it’s only going to get more powerful. Yes the AI tools are useful for shortcuts and editing and marketing and prompts but in the end AI is not human. Only a human can write emotion and connect with reader on a deeper plane. The future for writers in an AI world is to be more human and mine the human condition. 

After all, an AI can’t bleed. 

 

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 Volha Milovich on Unsplash