It Is All In The Mind

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

As I write this the American Book Awards is on. This award ceremony has been in the news over the last month with presenter problems and now Publishers Weekly report that media sponsorship is being pulled over the potential for authors to make hate speech comments. So, check your favourite book news website to find out if they were right.

 

Publishers Weekly also have a deep dive article on How TikTok Changed Romance Publishing. (You can put your genre of choice into that sentence.)

 

In AI news -The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association have published an open letter to the Copyright Office of America detailing their concerns over ascertaining copyright and the future of these works.

Meanwhile, Mark Williams adds his own acerbic take on the sky is falling rhetoric coming out of the publishing industry.

 

John Gilstrap writing over on the Killzone Authors blog has a great article on Traditional Publishing. It’s not dead, it’s evolving. It is all about mindset. Authors are small business owners. Now take that mindset into your interactions with agents and publishers.

 

The dream team of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have gathered together a list of Black Friday deals for Authors, or you can be overwhelmed with choice with Kindlepreneur’s huge list of deals.

 

Kris Rusch has been musing on out of print stories. She was wanting to use work in a teaching course but couldn’t find who owned the rights and whether there was a recent edition. This is one of those moments of wishing the internet had been around thirty years ago for research. 

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors have a super detailed article on keywords and Amazon category changes.

 

Suzette Mullen has an interesting article on mining your memoir and how sometimes you can fail badly in remembering and reflecting that others might have a completely different view of the memoir event. 

 

Roz Morris is back from a stint judging the Kindle Storyteller award- which is a big deal. Roz has written an article on what makes a great story – A must read.

  

In The Craft Section,

Unlocking cause and effect- Bang2Write

2 great posts from Becca Puglisi-Redeeming your villain and 9 tension builders for dialogue

- Bookmark Both

How to write one juicy description- April Davila- Bookmark

Identifying Flat Scenes- Janice Hardy

Writing Violence Archetypes  - Usvaldo De Leon on K M Weilands blog - Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

The best advertisement investments- Draft2Digital

Media Training for Authors – Paula Rizzo

How to make a personal brand- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

5 unique book marketing ideas- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Fantastic ways to sell books for the holidays- Bookbub- Bookmark

Book signing tips- Judith Briles

 

To Finish,

As we move from Print publishing to eBook to Audiobook to All Formats … what’s next? The big news over the last six months in the writing blogosphere is Selling Direct and the rise of the Shopify store. Joanna Penn interviews Russell Nohelty on the mindset you must cultivate to sell direct.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter to go out. If you want the best of my bookmarked links, 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 Ian Stauffer on Unsplash

Where Is The Money?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

A few weeks ago Spotify announced they were trialing audiobook access within the Spotify premium subscription with 15 hours a month free access in the UK and Australia. It must have worked as they announced this week, they are rolling it out to the United States.

 

Kobo is rolling out new devices for the Indian market. They are hoping to scoop up readers, but Mark Williams points out Kobo are falling into the same trap Amazon did with their initial Amazon India rollout. 

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that PRH India is committed to 100% recycled paper for its books. After a few years of the publishing community talking about being sustainable this is the first big publisher to walk the talk. Hopefully the rest of PRH will follow. After all if the biggest publisher does it… .

 

Penguin Random House has issued their first ever diversity report on the makeup of their non warehouse employees in the US. As you will have guessed the employees are mostly white, but they are changing and are happy that they employ above average diversity than other publishing houses. 

 

The Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone has unveiled a nice exclusive package of business deals for publishers wanting to do business in Publishing City, reports The New Publishing Standard. I never thought about publishers navigating their way around local laws etc until I saw this package. Sweet deal.

 

The Wall Street Journal has dropped its best seller lists. With best seller lists falling by the wayside or being dubious about how they count book sales are there any lists we can trust anymore? 

 

Many in the industry are waiting to see what the courts say about various lawsuits involving the provenance of Artificial Intelligence and creativity. Three artists were disappointed when the judge handed down the verdict that AI wasn’t infringing on their rights. 

 

Goodreads are asking their users to help combat review bombing. Finally, they do something about this. It couldn’t be because of the bad publicity they got when review bombing hit Elizabeth Gilberts new book before it had been released. This caused the author to pull the book with many critics crying shame on Goodreads. 

 

Darcy Pattison has a must read post on author income accounting. There are good tools out there to help you integrate all your sales and expenses. You don’t have to stick with the back of an envelope.

 

Kay DiBianca has an excellent post on project planning. This is a helpful list to think about all the tasks you need to do when you write and publish a book. Do you have a checklist?

 

Jan Sikes has an interesting post on going back and revising an old novel. Should you? In positive spin she learned it’s a great lesson for seeing how far you have come as a writer. 

 

How invested in your book is your reader? Are your stakes high enough? A great article from Suzanne Dunlap on keeping your readers turning the pages.

 

Anne R Allen has a great post on tone in writing. This goes hand in hand with voice. You can make the gruesome funny with the tone of your writing. It is all in the word choice. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Should you revise as you go – Jessica Strawser

What are antagonist proxies- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Breaking writer rules- September Fawkes

Story pacing- Florida writers- Bookmark

8 qualities of a great book editor- C S Lakin- Bookmark

Plotting with Michael Hauge’s 6 stages- Janice Hardy -Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Lead magnets for authors- Inkerscon- Bookmark

How to write a powerful about page- Sandra Beckwith

Make a good impression with cover design- Lexi Greene

Unexpected things your author platform can do for you- Colleen Story -Bookmark

Head shots- Terry Odell- Bookmark

Pinterest for book marketing- Joann Penn interview with Trona Freeman- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Writing is a business. It’s entertainment. It’s escapism. It’s knowledge. It is a business. Hopefully money is flowing to the writer. That is a helpful tip if you get a publishing deal. Are you paying for it? Reputable publishers/agents don’t charge you. 

With the recent surveys on author income and the sad reality that many writers can’t make a living The Alliance of Independent Authors has a comprehensive blog post on embracing a positive money mindset. Money is not a dirty word if you need it to pay the bills. Every writer would like to not worry about money. So, look at the article. Cultivate that mindset, and money might begin to flow into your author bank account.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter to go out. If you want the best of my bookmarked links, 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 micheile henderson on Unsplash