This week in Publishing News…
Europe has been hit with another round of business closures as the country shuts down again in an effort to control the spread of the coronavirus. In France, the publishers are pleading with the government not to close the bookstores because it will affect the cultural life of the population.
The Guardian reports that in the UK – online library lending was up. Apparently, everyone was turning to fiction to cope with isolation.
One bookstore has seen the need to give shoppers the bookstore experience while they send them to their online store. You can take a tour of the bookstore to get your virtual fix of bookstore love… It makes me want to visit this bookstore in person… what a great shop!
Staying with visibility in the marketplace Vietnamese publisher Ehomebooks has introduced a new global children’s book prize for an unpublished manuscript. They want to share the love with illustrators and authors who are trying to break into the industry.
For some publishers who thought the sky was falling six months ago… their balance sheets are not reflecting this. Bloomsbury (saved by Harry Potter in the ’90s) has seen a huge boost to their ebooks sales. Who knew there was money in them thar digital books? But interestingly the profits have spilled over to print as well.
Audiobooks continue to look like the next stealth battleground amongst publishers. Podcast sites (and their ability to host audiobook content) are being moved on by the likes of Spotify but this week another player entered the podcast market. IHeartMedia is bringing its considerable heft to publishers with a seismic shakeup according to The New Publishing Standard.
Kristine Rusch has part 3 in her series on discoverability in this new weird world we are finding ourselves in. She has a great article about thinking outside your writerly box and writing what you want to write because the publishing landscape will never go back to the way it was before. If you have been stuck in a niche now could be the time to break out.
Over at Jane Freidman’s blog, Susan DeFreitas writes about what publication means. It is a great post on the wisdom of writing for yourself and the discovery that when you started on the publishing journey the core reason to do this hard, challenging, fascinating, drudgery… is the yearning to be seen.
Reedsy has an interesting post on Freytag’s Pyramid 5 Act Structure of the story… another way of tackling the first draft.
In The Craft Section,
How to improve a story with action beats- Jami Gold- Bookmark
Developing an idea- Roz Morris- Bookmark
How to raise the stakes in your story- NY Book editors
Multiple points of view- Reedsy- Bookmark
Five writing mistakes- Krystal Craiker
5 ways to make your character hate you – Janice Hardy- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
How to find your books target audience- Miblart
5 most common mistakes in book cover design- Written Word Media- Bookmark
Favourite author marketing tools- Judith Briles- Bookmark
Maximising your author central page and
November Unique content ideas – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark
To Finish,
I came across this interesting post by K M Weiland today- On how your age affects your writing. As I was reading I was reflecting on the issues that I was interested in way back twenty-plus years ago when I started taking my writing seriously (said to myself), and what I am interested in now. Yes, your age and life stage does affect how you think about writing, and also the topics you tend to gnaw on as you write. Always keep learning about this frustrating, challenging, creative, business.
Maureen
@craicer
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