This week the news that young adults preferred printed books
brought a cheer throughout the publishing blogosphere. There has been a lot of
talk about the rise and rise of ebooks so the reading survey made interesting
reading.
Secretly most writers prefer the printed page because they are
bibliophiles. This morning I did a funny online survey which asked how many
books I read a week and gave a small sample up to 3 (I scoffed, only 3?)
Along with the survey the other big discussion topic is Mike
Shatzkin’s interview about the future of publishing. He is a publishing
futurist guru and I have been following him for the last five years and so far
he has predicted right an astonishing amount of times. This time he has had to
write a disclaimer blog saying he is not predicting publishing is going down the drain. Take the time to read the initial interview which is short, sharp and to the point and then settle in for his blog disclaimer which amplifies hispredictions and puts things in context. The publishers job is getting harder
but they have some good aces up their sleeve...the ability to help build brand
is one of them.
The FutureBook 2013 conference happened last week and some
of Mike Shatzkin’s comments are echoed in the takeouts from the Bookseller’s roundup. This is an interesting list of short articles on what the presenters said.
Jill Corcoran has been getting high fives this week on her
blog post about the devaluing of writers by writers. In your race to find the
sweet spot in ebook pricing are you driving down the ability of all writers to
achieve a fair price.
DigitalBookWorld has followed this up with an article on the digital pricing middle.
Kody Keplinger has a blog on disability in Kids Lit. How do you portray someone with disabilities? Are they the noble sufferer or does
their disability limit their character growth? This week she shares her own
experiences of disability and the reality that is often glossed over in Kids
Lit. She is an award winning Kids Lit writer and a very good read. This should
be widely shared around.
Penny Sanseveri alerts writers to Amazon changing theirkeyword use policies.
Bob Mayer looks at a day in the life of an Indie Publisher... this shows you why his concierge writing service is doing so well.
In the Craft Section,
Janet Reid on do you know enough to send a query? (This is a
quick survey for you to do before you send the query to an agent...)
In the Marketing Section,
Ruth Harris has been doing a writers toolkit series and this
weeks installment is on promo and advertising ideas.
Website to check out,
LiveHacked has listed what they think are the top 100 blogs for writers. They cover all facets of the business. You will see some familiar
names among them as I am a regular visitor to quite a few of them.
To Finish,
Gift giving seems to be on peoples minds so several writers
have got lists of popular gifts for writers. From 12 fun holiday gifts to 10 concentration apps for writers or you could check out Chucks list of 25 gifts to give a writer. Neil Gaiman checked it out today and broke Chucks site after
tweeting about it. Of course he was apologetic...but I wonder if it was
deliberate as Chuck wanted someone to steal Neil’s writing gazebo with him in
it so Chuck could have a personal muse slave....hehehehehe.
