In Publishing News this week,
In a boost for writers living and working in New York State, the governor has just signed into law that freelancers must get paid. This is an important law for freelancers, who too often are the last to be paid or not at all. Writers and Illustrators are often asked to do work for free. Our creativity is our livelihood, and it is wearying to keep saying No, I haven’t any free books or I can’t give you free art. A good rule of thumb if you do something for free is to write an invoice for the client with the dollar value highlighted as a donation for ‘tax purposes.’ This quietly reinforces the point that your work and time has value. You can probably claim it on your tax as a donation, and they can too. Then if you need to you can have the luxury of saying – My accountant has capped my donation budget this year, Sorry. (Accountants like to have donation budgets… even if you don’t have an accountant.)
Publishing Perspectives reports that over the last five years audio book sales have been increasing year on year to now being up in the double digits of all book sales.
The UK Publishers Association is campaigning for people to come and work in publishing. They are using some interesting ideas to get people thinking about who controlls the narrative, or what publishing ideas get taken up. They want diversity, they want clarity of vision, however they aren’t talking about salaries.
Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard turns the spotlight on the little guys. How do the little countries market their books at their own bookfairs.
It’s the beginning of the holiday season of selling books and buying gifts for writers. Check out this list from Sandra Beckwith of great writer gifts and deals. (Don’t forget to check last week’s blog post for writer deals as well.)
If you are just getting into your marketing- Check out Penny Sansevieri’s great post on holiday marketing ideas.
Are you over workshopping your novel? Anne R Allen has a great blog on this topic. She has written a checklist of phrases that can flag when you have gone too far down the workshop rabbit hole.
Sacha Black delivered the keynote at 20 Books to 50K Vegas (The world’s biggest author convention,) early this month. It was an amazing talk that will be up on YouTube in a few months time. She writes about the conference and things she learned for the Alliance of Independent writers blog
Suzanne Lakin has a great post on writing universal themes in fiction and writing craft guru, James Scott Bell, has a must read post on making your sentences sing. This is a printout and stick on your wall post.
In The Craft Section,
How to do your own structural edit- Sarah Kuiken- Bookmark
How to catch 10 most common editing mistakes- Natalie Hanemann- Bookmark
Creating and resolving conflict in your novel- Clare Langley Hawthorne
Tips for writing a successful story climax- Becca Puglisi-Bookmark
Writing short book descriptions- Amy Bernstein- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
Social Media Marketing for Authors – Penny Sansevieri
F.A.R. Marketing – Angela Ackerman- Bookmark
How to create fun freebies – Colleen Story- Bookmark
10 strategies to boost your book- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark
Author blogs – Pros and Cons- Fussy Librarian
To Finish,
It is no secret that I am an admirer of Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I must reference her in the blog at least 3 times a month. Kristine’s long career in all facets of Traditional and Indie publishing has been invaluable over the last decade in understanding how publishing has changed, is changing, will change and the importance of owning your IP, and your relationship to readers. She has been a clear sighted guide to what is important and how to manage change in publishing. I will miss her. If you haven’t got one of her nonfiction books on the business of writing you are missing out. Get one for the holidays.
Maureen
@craicer
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Pic: Joyce Wan on Bluesky
