Creativity With A Side Of Madness

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The Internet Archive is back in the news again with the appeals court handing down their verdict. The archive wanted to scan eBooks and make print copies of them. They didn’t see a problem with it because they were nonprofit. This week the appeals court upheld the decision against Internet Archive. Four years in the courts and now we have the definitive ruling on Fair Use (Don’t publish in another format- when you aren’t the publisher of record.)

 

Also in the courts, writers, students, and teachers protesting the book banning law passed in Florida. High profile Young Adult writers have joined this action claiming censorship is happening in schools. 

 

NaNoWriMo.org has found itself in hot water over their stance on AI. Many writers have been vitriolic about their stance that denying the use of AI tools is Classist and Abelist. The Verge looks at the arguments.

 

Mark Williams looks at Wiley’s windfall of $44mill and their claim of operating in the best interests of their authors by seeking AI deals. It’s all about the money.

 

Draft2Digital is dipping its toes in the AI ocean but before they make any big decisions they are asking their authors to fill out a survey on AI. Dan Holloway of the Alliance of Independent Authors has the lowdown on what they want to know. 

 

Publishers Weekly reports that the team behind the successful Black List, film screenplay market place, are looking at expanding to novels. If you think your novel would make a great film but you don’t know where to start- The Black List could be the solution.

 

Don’t Forget to check into Writer Beware every now and then to find out the latest scams. Lately there has been a proliferation of fake literary agencies.

 

A few years ago, I gave a speech on what may be coming down the track for authors. I mentioned blockchain. Hardly anyone understood it and many have confused it with bitcoin but blockchain is still around. In these days of trying to track down what AI is scraping your work, blockchain could be the answer. The founder of Raddish thinks so and has set up a company with over $80 million in the pot to prove it. 

 

Rob Hart wrote an interesting blog post on his successful writing career and what happened when his publisher dropped him because his book didn’t sell amazingly, just pretty good. This is an honest look at being a writer in the publishing industry. Those amazing deals aren’t always wonderful for the writer.

 

What do you do if you lose track changes? Kelley Segroi has a great article on Women On Writing’s nifty little blog with handy tips on managing your documents.

 

KimBoo York has an interesting article on Jane Friedman’s blog about Creative Intuition. She mentions that Creative Intuition is knowing the trope and subverting it. It’s a great article with helpful tips on developing this super power.

 

Donald Maass has a super post over at Writer Unboxed about character and character driven stories. This is a must read on what propels your character to action. 

 

 

In The Craft Section,

The missing link in 3 act structure- Lisa Poisso- Bookmark

Story Structure Midpoint- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Hook lines and stinkers- P J Parrish- Bookmark

Common POV violations- C S Lakin- Bookmark

Tips for writing physical comedy- Charles Yallowitz

 

In The Marketing Section,

Building a website- Bookbub- Bookmark

5 reasons for book endorsements- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

10 ways to market a book- Rachel Thompson

3 free marketing strategies- Draft2Digital

How to write an awesome personalized query letter- Tiffany Hawk- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

I try to keep up with my podcast listening but sometimes when life gets super busy I end up skipping episodes. I did this with Joanna Penn’s podcast a few weeks back and then I heard that the episode was getting a lot of attention so I hunted down the transcript (Thanks Joanna for always doing a transcript) to A Touch of Madness- Joanna Penn talking to film maker Larry Kasanoff. What a standout episode! This touches on creativity and taking chances and is so inspiring. If you need a creative pick me up or even if you don’t… take a chance and listen/read this. Our best work comes from being in touch with our creative madness.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Pic: Photo by laura adai on Unsplash

Talking Down to Readers

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

 

Last week I mentioned that Booktopia in Australia had found a buyer, this week Simon and Schuster (Australia) has been shopping and they have bought Affirm Press. They want to expand their markets in Australia and New Zealand apparently. 

 

The numbers are in and PenguinRandomHouse has made some money.  Publishers Weekly reports the good news. It might have something to do with all that restructuring they have been doing.

 

Apple Books has started laying off workers, GoodEReader reports. Apple haven’t really been focused on its book platform for a while. This may be a sign of the coming times.

 

Just when you thought all that crazy book censoring was happening in one very large western country the UK woke up to discover it’s happening in their school libraries too.

In contrast, there are schools wanting to embrace PRH’s Book Vending machines. PenguinRandomHouse has provided a book vending machine to showcase its Lit in Colour series. The machine is stocked with books written by diverse authors of colour. 

 

Every few years some bright spark in publishing looks at the huge secondhand book market and wonders… How can I get a piece of that? Bookshop.org is the latest to try with secondhand books worth credits in the Bookshop.org store. But is anyone really going to send their books off?

 

Written Word Media have a detailed look at the new KDP author verification requirements and breaks down what is important. A must read if you publish on this platform.

 

On Jane Friedman’s popular blog, Amy Bernstein writes- What you can learn from a serial submitter to literary magazines. When you have assimilated all the good advice then hop over to curiosityneverkilledthewriter.com and look at the 67 submission opportunities for September.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has another in depth article- this one on creating nonfiction courses to complement your nonfiction book.

 

I’ve just finished reading a story that had some masterful backstory slid into it. Then I came across this great article from Lisa Hall Wilson explaining just how to do this kind of deep point of view backstory layering.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to strengthen a lean manuscript- Lisa Fellinger- Bookmark

Story structure as a fractal- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Should you abandon your novel- James Scott Bell

Steadfast arcs- September Fawkes

10 editing tips- C S Lakin- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

4 Facebook features

The matter of titles-Barbara Linn Probst- Bookmark

Comp titles- PenguinRandomhouse blog

Making your website friendlier- Debbie Burke- Bookmark

Getting into the Goodreads author program-podcast- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Every few years around this time in the Northern Hemisphere news cycle the same click baity headline somehow gets recycled. Are Romance Novels Literature? The latest to ask this is Time- with its 50 best romances list. Mark Williams of the New Publishing Standard vents on this. 

A literature novel can have a romance in it. (Test: If you took out the romance would it still stand as a novel?) Romance as a genre should have the romance as the driving force in the story. The question “Is (fill in your own genre) literature?” sets up an argument of snobbery with ‘literature’ seen as more highbrow. 

Literature is a genre.

It is not a genre with huge sales compared to other genres. It has cemented itself into creative writing faculties across the world so that its authors can make a living.

You never see the headline – Are crime thrillers literature? It is always Romance that is picked on. Is it the covers? The perceived readership? The sales? The jealousy of the author paycheck, that makes this genre a target? Stop going for the tired old click bait headline. We should be encouraging and celebrating reading- regardless of genre. I wince every time a child tells me, apologetically that they read graphic novels as if it was some sort of shame.* 

There is no shame in reading. We need all the readers we can get.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

*I tell them my favourite graphic novels and then we have a discussion on illustration styles and pictures as shorthand for setting.

pic Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash